Goodbye Elizabeth

When I was barely 9 years old I read the headline “Most Beautiful Woman in the World is Dead” and it went on to say Marilyn Monroe had died. So I asked my father “Now who’s the most beautiful woman in the world?” His answer was “Elizabeth Taylor”. That was 1962.

Throughout my childhood, teen years and young adulthood I saw Elizabeth Taylor on the newsstands almost weekly. Before tabloids there were the movie magazines like “Photoplay”, “Screenland”, “Movieland” and “Screen Play” whose stories were usually quite wholesome family fare. I wasn’t old enough to have seen “National Velvet” or “Lassie” but I certainly saw stories about them in the magazines. Then in 1964 there was the big explosion of Liz’s romance with her Cleopatra costar Richard Burton. They were so incredibly in love there was no concealing it and since Liz had already been declared a homewrecker for running off with her best friend’s husband this news was all over the papers, even regular papers. I hadn’t known much about the Eddie Fisher story at this point but I don’t think anyone over 10 didn’t know about Richard Burton! For 10 years we read about this famous couple and their glamorous lifestyle. Who can forget the famous Hope Diamond? How romantic to be given the biggest diamond in the world! We brought magazines to school and talked about them like we knew them personally.

I always thought Elizabeth Taylor was the most glamorous woman in Hollywood. She was stunningly beautiful and even when she started having horrible weight problems and “bad hair days” her eyes were just so incredible you hardly noticed the rest of her. No one, before or since, has had such perfect eyes. And her face, a perfect oval and all her features in perfect proportion. When she finally started giving really in depth interviews I discovered what a remarkably intelligent and witty woman she was. There was more to her than a pretty face.

But forget her beauty and her marriages and her career. Elizabeth Taylor was an incredible force when she began her philanthropic career, working endlessly for her cause, Aids Awareness. I think this cause was really the making of her as a human being and only imagine if she had used her power earlier in her life, what she couldn’t have accomplished. I have always believed that she was mercilessly exploited in her youth which explains her crazy marriages.

Elizabeth was a flawed human being making plenty of mistakes, but you have to give her credit. She lived with pizzaz, with flare and absolutely she lived it to the fullest and with true courage.

Goodbye to the last Hollywood Glamour Queen. You will not be replaced.