The Richard Burton Diaries (253 page)

103
George Sisler (1893–1973), baseball player, elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939.

104
Desert Hospital, North Indian Canyon Drive, Palm Springs.

105
Absalom, third son of David, King of Israel, who rebelled against his father and was killed in battle.

106
Burton is referring here to his impending film.
Raid on Rommel
(1971), shot in Mexico.

107
Emmys: the awards of the (America) Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

108
Patty Duke (1946—) received an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress for her role in
My Sweet Charlie. Wuthering Heights
had screened on NBC on 9 May 1958.

109
Albert Speer (1905–81), architect, Nazi Germany's Minister of Armaments and War Production (1942–5), who had served 20 years’ imprisonment for war crimes after being sentenced at the Nuremberg trials.

110
None of these projects appear to have borne fruit.

111
Airport
(1969), directed by George Seaton (1911–79).
M*A*S*H
(1970), directed by Robert Altman (1925–2006).
Marooned
(1969) directed by John Sturges (1911–92).

112
Catch 22
(1970), directed by Mike Nichols, based on the 1961 novel by Joseph Heller (1923–99). The article ‘Some are More Yossarian than Others’ appeared in
Time
for 15 June 1970. The relevant paragraph states: ‘Richard Burton remembers meeting Nichols and [Elaine] May [1932—, director, screenwriter, actor, who worked with Nichols] backstage when he was starring in Camelot. “Elaine was too formidable ... one of the most intelligent, beautiful and witty women I had ever met. I hoped I would never see her again.” Mike was less formidable, more agreeable. The mustard-colored eyes glinted, but the face had an unlined, almost feminine softness. The voice was as warm and resonant as a cello. Burton, who knows role playing when he sees it, was at first unconvinced by the proffered friendship and admiration. But eventually he enrolled Nichols in the Richard Burton fan club; it was an attachment that would one day pay off handsomely for Nichols.’ Later in the article there is another passage: ‘Richard Burton likes to retell the story of Walter Matthau, “a frenetic soul, and he finally blew his stack at Nichols’ Odd Couple direction. ‘You're emasculating me,’ Walter cried. ‘Give me back my balls!’ From out front, Mike called back: ‘Props.’” ‘Mike was Burton's kind of boy. As the Liz–Dick scandal deepened during the filming of Cleopatra, Burton recalls, “Ninety percent of our friends avoided our eyes. Mike flew to Rome from New York to be with us.” Nichols stayed by Elizabeth's side when Burton went off to make another film. Favors like that one remembers. In 1966, the Welshman and his lady were signed for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and Elizabeth insisted on Nichols as director. Virginia Woolf could have been a mini-Cleopatra, but its below-the-belt punches intrigued critics and audiences.’

113
Morgan accepted the article as it stood, terming it ‘magic’.

114
Cyril Connolly (1903–74), literary critic and essayist.

115
This may refer to Emlyn Williams's unhappy experiences when taking over from John Gielgud in the part of the Headmaster in the play
Forty Years On
by Alan Bennett (1934—) at the Apollo. The play had run for nine months when Williams replaced Gielgud in September 1969, but it closed abruptly thereafter. Williams then spent some time in hospital undergoing an operation on his varicose veins.

116
King George VI (1895–1952) suffered from a stammer. Kenneth Kent (1892–1963), actor. Radie Harris (1904–2001), Hollywood journalist. Herbert Marshall (1890–1966), actor.

117
Esmé Percy (1887–1957), actor.

118
Wilfrid Hyde-White (1903–91), who had married the actor Ethel Drew in 1957.

119
In a first round game in Group 1, the hosts Mexico beat Belgium 1–0 with a penalty scored in the 14th minute.

120
The Rains of Ranchipur
(1955), directed by Jean Negulesco (1900–93).

121
Both the actor Sybil Thorndike (1882–1976), and the choreographer and dancer Sir Frederick Ashton (1904–88) were admitted to the Order of the Companions of Honour in 1970.

122
Spartacus
(1960), directed by Stanley Kubrick (1928–99).
Ice Palace
(1960), directed by Vincent Sherman (1906–2006).

123
Cover-bound,’ referring to book.

124
Reputedly the cable read ‘By the Lord Harry, Larry’.

125
Sir Donald Wolfit (1902–68), actor and theatre manager, who had appeared alongside Burton in
Becket
.

126
About 23 miles west of Palm Springs.

127
The part of the medical officer in
Raid on Rommel
was to be played by Clinton Greyn (1936—).

128
Charlotte Brontë, (1816–55)
Jane Eyre
(1847).

129
Bermuda Dunes Hotel, Adams Street, Bermuda Dunes, Palm Springs.

130
A reference to William Wordsworth's preface to the 1802 edition of the
Lyrical Ballads
, in which he defined poetry as ‘the spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling; it takes its origin in emotion recollected in tranquillity’.

131
Arthur Rimbaud (1854–91), French poet.

132
Jordan Christopher, Kate's stepfather.

133
Burton and Taylor had appeared on
The David Frost Show
on 19 March 1970.

134
The opening line of Kate's speech in
The Taming of the Shrew
, Act V, scene i: ‘Fie, fie! Unknit that threat'ning unkind brow’.

135
1955.

136
Despite playing the part of the American actor Edwin Booth, Burton hums the eighteenth-century Welsh love song ‘Bugeilio'r Gwenith Gwyn’ to his ailing wife Mary.

137
Zero Mostel (1915–77), actor.

138
Man of La Mancha
(1972), directed by Arthur Hiller (1923—), starring Peter O'Toole and Sophia Loren.

139
Enid Starkie (1897–1970), fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, and an expert on Rimbaud. ‘J'en ai trop pris’ is perhaps better rendered as ‘I have had enough’.

140
George Peppard (1928–94), who starred in
Tobruk
(1967), directed by Arthur Hiller.

141
In fact the Conservative Party won 330 seats against 287 for the Labour Party. With the support of the Ulster Unionists, Edward Heath (1916–2005) was able to form a government based on a parliamentary majority of 30.

142
This could refer to the film
Batman
(1966), directed by Leslie Martinson (1915—), or to the television series of the same name, featuring some of the same cast as the film, which ran from 1966 to 1968. Possibly Burton is referring to the National Auditorium in Mexico City, which was the venue for gymnastics events at the 1968 Olympic Games, or to the Arena Mexico, the venue for the boxing tournament at the Olympics, which remained a major boxing venue for many years.

143
Cornel Wilde (1912–89). Burton may be mistaken here. The 1962 film
Marco Polo
starred Rory Calhoun (1922–99) in the lead role. Marco Polo (1254–1324), explorer, traveller, merchant.

144
Vasco De Gama (
c.
1460–1524), Portuguese explorer.

145
Sébastien Japrisot (1931–2003), novelist.

146
Possibly Arthur Lubin (1898–1995), film director. Dustin Hoffman. Albert Finney (1936—), actor. Chaim Topol (1935—), actor.

147
Burton means the character of Dulcinea del Toboso.

148
Sam O'Steen (1923—), who had edited
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, The Graduate
(1967) and
Catch 22
(1970), amongst other films, and who went on to direct, mainly films for television.

149
Tony Jacklin (1944—), golfer, who had won the British Open in 1969, won his second (and final) ‘major’ at the US Open at Hazeltine in 1970.

150
Joe Morgenstern (1932—), film critic for
Newsweek
(1965–83).

151
Burton probably means ‘household names’.

152
Cecil Smith (1917–2009), by this time television critic for the
LA Times
, but previously drama critic.

153
Brook Williams did play the part of Sergeant Joe Reilly. Christopher Cary (1930–2000) played the part of the ‘C.O.’ or conscientious objector, Corporal Peter Merrihew. He also played alongside Burton in
Camelot
on Broadway in 1960.

154
Carol Reed (1906–76), who produced and directed
Odd Man Out
in 1947. Jimmy Granger being the actor Stewart Granger (1913–93), whose real first name was James, and who would play alongside Burton in
The Wild Geese
. James Mason played the leading role of Johnny McQueen.

155
Des O'Connor (1932—) hosted seven American versions of his show in the summer of 1970.

156
John Colicos (1928–2000) played Sergeant Major Al MacKenzie.

157
A reference to Joxer Daly, a character in Sean O'Casey's (1880–1964) play
Juno and the Paycock
(1924), although the line (the final line in the play) ‘th’ whole worl's in a terrible state o’ chassis’ is spoken by Captain Boyle.

158
Leonid Brezhnev (1906–82), General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1964–82). Spiro Agnew (1918–96), Vice-President of the USA (1969–73). By ‘Fred’ Kennedy presumably Burton means Edward ‘Ted’ Kennedy. By ‘Humphreys’ presumably he means Hubert Humphrey. Mao Tse Tung (now usually written as ‘Zedong’) (1893–1976), Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (1943–76). By Cho en Lai Burton means Zhou Enlai (1898–1976), Premier of the People's Republic of China (1949–76). Uncle Tom Cobley is a character from the song ‘Widdecombe Fair’ and is often used to suggest ‘many others’.

159
Rodomontade: a vainglorious boasting.

160
Enoch Powell (1912–98), a Conservative MP and former minister who expressed strong opposition to immigration from Commonwealth countries into Britain, and who later moved to join the Ulster Unionists.

161
Co-operative store.

162
Burton is referring here to the industrial disputes of 1921 and 1926.

163
Short quotations encapsulating the doctrine of Maoism were fashionable in leftist circles in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

164
Sidney Webb, 1st Baron Passfield (1859–1947), Fabian socialist and Labour Party politician, who coined the phrase ‘the inevitability of gradualness’ in 1923.

165
The more it changes the more it stays the same.

166
A reference to the idealism of the founding of the American Republic.

167
A reference to the Jesuit maxim, ‘Give me a child for the first seven years, and you may do what you like with him afterwards.’

168
Turnout at the 1970 general election was 72%, as against 75.8% in 1966. It was to rise to 78.8% at the February 1974 general election. Labour support is generally thought to be more vulnerable than that of the Conservatives to a low turnout, and it was widely predicted by opinion pollsters during the campaign that there would be greater abstention amongst Labour supporters. In fact, as David Butler and Michael Pinto-Duchinsky note in their study
The British General Election of 1970
(1971) (p.184): ‘The actual voting figures ... give no support to the idea that Labour abstention was the key factor in the results’, and suggest that there was a differential turnout of only 1% in the Conservatives’ favour.

169
Frank Beard (1939—),
Pro
(1970).

170
Arnold Palmer (1929—); Gary Player (1935—); Jack Nicklaus (1940—); Billy Casper (1931—), all golfers.

171
Peter Ustinov played the part of the doctor in
Hammersmith Is Out
. Elizabeth Taylor played the part of Jimmie Jean Jackson, and Burton that of Hammersmith.

172
Leslie Caron (1931—), actor and dancer.
Daddy Long Legs
(1955), film directed by Jean Negulesco.

173
A reference to Ecclesiastes 9: 10: ‘Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.’

174
King Richard speaking in
Richard II
, Act V, scene v.

175
General Confession from Morning Prayer in the
Book of Common Prayer
(1662): ‘We have left undone those things which we ought to have done’.

176
San Felipe, Baja California, Mexico.

177
John D. Macdonald (1916–86), who wrote a 21-vol. series featuring the character Travis Magee.

178
Erle Stanley Gardner (1889–1970), who published under many pseudonyms and created the character Perry Mason.

179
By ‘fave’ Burton means fava beans, also known as broad beans.

180
Alex Lucas would produce
Hammersmith Is Out
.

181
Mexicali, state capital of Baja California, and on the border between Mexico and the USA.

182
Karl-Otto Alberty (1933—) played the part of Captain Heinz Schröder. He would also play alongside Burton in
Bluebeard
.

183
Ruben's Campground Hotel, San Felipe.

184
Lewis Chester, Godfrey Hodgson and Bruce Page,
An American Melodrama: The Presidential Campaign of 1968
(1969).

185
Buckingham Palace.

186
William F. Buckley (1925–2008), political columnist and writer.

187
Hotel Lucerna, Boulevard Benito Juarez, Mexicali.

188
Clinton Greyn (1936—), Welsh actor. Danielle De Metz (1938—) played the part of Vivi in
Raid on Rommel
.

189
Eugene McCarthy (1916–2005), US Senator (1959–71) and sometime candidate for the Democratic nomination for the presidency.

190
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004), at this time Governor of California, former film actor, and future President of the United States (1981–9).