And God Created Burton by Tom Rubython

Author:Tom Rubython [Rubython, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780956565648
Publisher: The Myrtle Press
Published: 2012-01-30T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 36

The Contest

The end of Rich and Syb

1963

When the filming of Cleopatra wrapped on 24th July 1962, there began an extremely painful eight months during which Richard Burton had to decide between his wife, Sybil, and his mistress, Elizabeth Taylor. Taylor had dealt with her husband and Eddie Fisher had gone back to New York, never to be seen again.

The end of Sybil and Richard took rather longer to come to a conclusion – over half a year longer. Eventually, Sybil made the decision for him and also left for New York, never to see or speak to her husband again. But in between July 1962 and April 1963, there was much drama, much pain and much heartache – not to mention much soul-searching – for everyone involved.

When filming ended in Egypt, Burton flew back to Rome, where he was met at the airport by Elizabeth Taylor, who had been anxiously awaiting his return. She had been banned from the Egypt set by Walter Wanger, and it reflected how fed up 20th Century-Fox had become with the behaviour of its two stars. That immediately manifested itself as Burton looked around for the welcoming team from Fox, which he become accustomed to in the past 12 months, but which was now nowhere to be seen. Jack Brodsky was back in New York and Nathan Weiss, who had replaced him in Rome, was thoroughly fed up with both of his stars’ behaviour, as he said: “She was at the airport to meet him, but, you know what, I no longer cared because they are no longer any of our business.”

Weiss’ attitude was a measure of the trouble that the Burton-Taylor affair had caused Fox and how the studio longed to be rid of both of them. They may both have been following their hearts but, in truth, they had exceeded the limits of all normally accepted behaviour. They had left a trail of destruction in their wake and a lot of people with a sour taste in their mouths, which only the passage of time would wash away. In their own way, both Burton and Taylor were good people but, together, their behaviour in that period had not reflected it at all.

Burton’s family was also nowhere to be seen. They had removed themselves from Rome two months earlier and were at Squires Mount in Hampstead, London, reconciling themselves to a life without Burton.

After he had organised the pack-up of his house, Burton left with Taylor for Portofino. But Taylor also left with a bitter taste in her mouth. In her jewel box, she had a set of jewels that Eddie Fisher had bought her from Gianni Bulgari’s shop in Rome for her birthday, at a cost of US$90,000 – or so she thought. The jewels – earrings, ring and a brooch in a matching combination of yellow and white diamonds – had been presented to her by Fisher at her 30th birthday party on 27th February 1962. But Taylor had no idea that Fisher hadn’t paid for them but merely put them on his account at Bulgari.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.