The Richard Burton Diaries (259 page)

408
Burton had been invited to write an article for the
Daily Mail
's Christmas number. It was published as ‘A Story of Christmas, in the Twenties’ on 23 December 1971.

409
Heading in red type.

410
Heading in red type.

1972

1
All headings in this diary are in red with the exception of the last, the entire day's entry being handwritten in black pen. Richard and Elizabeth had travelled to Arizona early in 1972 to visit Elizabeth's mother.

2
Sam Warmbrodt, Sara's father, a German engineer who migrated to the USA.

3
Mary Frances Voldeng.

4
A GS-2 was a steam train operated by the Southern Pacific Company, although it was retired in the 1950s so Burton may be mistaken here.

5
John Ford (1895–1973), director.

6
Newman was actually ten months older than Burton.

7
Susannah York, playing the part of Stella.

8
The film ends with Taylor's character (Zee) seducing Stella.

9
Hotel Negresco, Promenade des Anglais, Nice.

10
Arthur Hornblow Jr (1893–1976), former film producer, and his wife Leonora.

11
May's was a chain of department stores. Edie Goetz and Frank Sinatra were lovers. The film was
Assault on a Queen
(1966), starring Sinatra and Virna Lisi. The new cultural centre may be the Skirball Museum, established in 1972, now the Skirball Cultural Center.

12
Diamonds are Forever
(1971), directed by Guy Hamilton (1922—).

13
Burton means the original novel by Ian Fleming, published in 1956.

14
Sean Connery (1930
—
), playing James Bond in the film.

15
This may refer to
The Canterbury Tales
(1972), written and directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922–75).

16
A line uttered by the character Zee (played by Taylor) in
X, Y and Zee
, itself a reference to the line spoken by the character Rhett Butler (played by Clark Gable, 1901–60) in
Gone With The Wind
(1939).

17
The Diaries of Sir Alexander Cadogan, O.M., 1938–1945
(1972), ed. by David Dilks (1938—). Barry Commoner (1917),
The Closing Circle
(1971). The ‘something foxes’ was probably Ladislas Faragó (1906–80),
The Game of the Foxes: The Untold Story of German Espionage in the United States and Great Britain during World War II
(1971).

18
Barbara Tuchman (1912–89),
Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911–45
(1971). ‘Creaseys’ are novels by John Creasey (1908–73), the crime and science fiction writer. By ‘Helen Macguiness’ Burton means Helen MacInnes (1907–85), the thriller writer.

19
A reference to the 1888 poem ‘Invictus’ by W. E. Henley (1849–1903), which includes the lines ‘I am the master of my fate: / I am the captain of my soul’.

20
Kotch
(1971), directed by Jack Lemmon (1925–2001).

21
The French Connection
(1971), directed by William Friedkin (1935—).

22
This refers to the
Motion Picture Herald
's annual ratings.

23
Gordon F. Newman,
Sir, you bastard
(1971).

24
Scotland had beaten France 20–9 on 15 January. Gerald Davies (1945—), Gareth Edwards (1947—), Welsh rugby internationals and British Lions.

25
The first ‘Golden Age’ of Welsh rugby began in 1900 and lasted until 1911. In that time Wales won the International Championship (played initially between the four home countries, joined by France in 1910) outright on six occasions, shared the title once, and also defeated New Zealand (1905) and Australia (1908).

26
Gareth Edwards had attended Millfield school. ‘Sevens’ is a rugby tournament where there are seven players on each team, rather than the usual 15, and the matches are shorter (usually seven minutes each way rather than 40) with more emphasis on running rugby. John Dawes (1940—), Welsh rugby international and British Lion who played for London Welsh Rugby Football Club.

27
Welsh rugby internationals Bleddyn Williams (1923–2009), Cliff Jones (1914–90), Cliff Morgan, Haydn Tanner (1917–2009), Wilfred Wooler (1912–97), Edward Verdun Watkins (1916–95), who played at ‘lock’ forward in the second row, David Watkins (1942—), who played in the position of ‘fly-half’, also known as ‘stand off’ or ‘outside half’.

28
All Welsh rugby internationals. David or ‘Dai’ Morris (1941—), played mostly as a ‘blind-side’ wing forward, Mervyn Davies (1946–2012), played at ‘Number Eight’, John Taylor (1945—), played as an ‘open-side’ wing forward. Barry John (1945—), played at ‘fly-half’, outside Gareth Edwards at scrum-half. John ‘J. P. R.’ Williams, (1949—), played at full back. John Bevan (1950—), played on the left wing, Gerald Davies mostly on the right wing.

29
Roy Bergiers (1950—) and Arthur Lewis (1941—) played in the centre.

30
Cliff Jones (1914–90), former Welsh rugby international, chairman of the Welsh Rugby Union's coaching committee and a selector, later President of the WRU. In this context ‘punny ball’ would appear to mean ‘have a great time’.

31
A. L. Rowse (1903–97),
The Early Churchills
(1968) and
The Later Churchills
(1958); Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008),
The First Circle
(1968); Ivor Brown (1891–1974),
Chosen Words
(1961).

32
Stéphane Mallarmé (1842–98), French poet. Possibly Burton is referring here to Anthony Hartley (1925–2000) (ed.),
The Penguin Book of French Verse
, 3:
The Nineteenth Century
(1957).

33
Auberon Waugh (1939–2001), novelist, poet, critic.

34
Presumably Isaac Deutscher (1907–67),
Red China, Russia and the West: A Contemporary Chronicle, 1953–1966
(ed. Fred Halliday, 1970).

35
A reference to the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956.

36
Joseph and Patricia Losey.

37
The ‘old man’ being Tito.

38
'Kremlin’ meaning the government of the USSR.

39
George Tabori (1914–2007), playwright and novelist, screenwriter for
Secret Ceremony
, also involved with
The Man From Nowhere
project and with
Boom!

40
Dai John Philips, secretary of Aberavon Rugby Football Club.

41
Anatole De Grunwald (1910–67), writer and producer, who worked with Burton on
The Last Days of Dolwyn
and
Now Barabbas
and with Burton and Taylor on
The V.I.P.s
.

42
Burton played Captain Montserrat in
Montserrat
, written by Lillian Hellman (1905–84), which played at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, in April 1952.

43
Greta Garbo (1905–90), actor.

44
David Morgan Williams, also known as ‘Dai Mogs’.

45
Olivia de Havilland had won the Best Actress Oscar for her performances in
To Each His Own
(1946) and
The Heiress
(1948).

46
De Havilland's first husband was Marcus Goodrich (1897–1991), novelist.

47
This may be a reference to Rex Harrison's troubled relationship with Twentieth Century-Fox, eventually terminated ‘by mutual agreement’.

48
Charleville Boulevard, Beverly Hills. Jean Simmons, with whom Burton had an affair.

49
The Duna Hotel, now the Budapest Marriott.

50
Davenie Johanna or ‘Joey’ Heatherton (1944—), actor and singer, who played the part of Anne in
Bluebeard
.

51
Vicky Tiel was costume designer for
Bluebeard
.

52
Giovanni Antonio Canal (1697–1768), artist, known as Canaletto. Alexander Korda's brothers were Zoltan (1895–1961) and Vincent (1896–1979). His ‘new wife’ was Alexandra Boycun (1928–66), whom he married in 1953.

53
Alexandra Korda married David Metcalfe, whose father had been aide-de-camp to the Duke of Windsor. They were divorced in 1964. Her death in 1966 was due to an accidental overdose, not suicide.

54
Pörkölt: Hungarian meat stew.

55
A reference to the
Nocturne
series of paintings (many of the River Thames) by J. M. Whistler (1834–1903).

56
Raquel Welch (1940—), who played Magdalena in
Bluebeard
.

57
Marilyn Monroe (1926–62), actor.

58
The Goon Show
, British radio comedy programme (1951–60), one of whose stars was Peter Sellers.

59
Norman Parkinson (1913–90), portrait photographer.

60
Princess Anne (1950—), daughter of Queen Elizabeth II.

61
Ezra Pound (1885–1972), poet.

62
'Smokin’ Joe Frazier (1944–2011) had won the World Heavyweight Boxing Championship in 1968 and retained it until 1973. The book was probably Phil Pepe,
Come out Smokin’. Joe Frazier: The Champ Nobody Knew
(1972). John Dickson Carr's (1905–77)
Hag's Nook
(1933) features the detective Gideon Fell.

63
Saturday was 12 February.

64
Mike Todd Jr married again later in 1972 to Susan McCarthy.

65
Ann-Margret had received an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Mike Nichols's 1971 film
Carnal Knowledge
.

66
A reference to the 1935 film
Maria Marten, or The Murder in the Red Barn
, directed by Milton Rosmer (1881–1971).

67
Mike Todd's first wife, Bertha Freeman, died in 1946, when Mike Todd Jr, was seventeen.

68
Bertie Wooster is a character in the stories of P. G. Wodehouse. Burton means 1954.

69
A reference to Macbeth's line, Act III, scene iv, ‘But now I am cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in to saucy doubts and fears.’

70
A reference to a line from Duke Orsino's speech in
Twelfth Night,
Act I, scence i.

71
Rod Steiger (1925–2002), who had appeared like Burton in
The Longest Day
and with whom Burton would act in
Breakthrough
.

72
Steiger had won Best Actor for his performance in
In the Heat of the Night
(1967), directed by Norman Jewison (1926—).

73
Steiger had played Napoleon in
Waterloo
(1970), a role that Burton had considered.

74
A reference to the film
Bequest to the Nation
(1973, US title
The Nelson Affair
), directed by James Cellan Jones (1931—), and starring Peter Finch as Nelson and Glenda Jackson (1936—) as Lady Hamilton.

75
Terence Rattigan (1911–77) had written the play
Bequest to the Nation
in 1970.

76
Alcoholics Anonymous. Burton is referring to the colour of the typewriter ribbon.

77
Alun Lewis's poems ‘All Day it has Rained’ and ‘For Gweno’ appeared in the 1942 volume
Raiders’ Dawn and other poems
.

78
'Spooner’ is a reference to the Reverend W. A. Spooner (1844–1930) and his tendency to metathesis, the transposition of letters or sounds in a word, commonly known as ‘Spoonerisms’. Mr Bindle is a cockney character in novels by Herbert Jenkins (1876–1923).

79
There is an x typed over the second d in shouldders.

80
Presumably Imre Kertesz (1929—), who would win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2002. Albert Einstein (1879–1955), physicist.

81
The Abwehr was a German military intelligence unit.

82
According to Farago,
The Game of the Foxes
, p. 137, Arthur ‘Johnny’ Owens was freed in 1945 and went on to live in Ireland.

83
Friday was 18 February.

84
Wolf Mankowitz (1924–98).

85
Dick Makewater is Richard's nickname for Richard McWhorter. Lionel Couch (1913–89) was art director on
Anne of the Thousand Days
, for which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Art Direction.

86
Mankowitz was an authority on antique porcelain, and had published
The Portland Vase and the Wedgwood Copies
(1953) and co-edited (with R. G. Haggar),
The Concise Encyclopaedia of English Pottery and Porcelain
(1957).

87
Mankowitz had owned a shop selling porcelain in the Piccadilly Arcade in London.

88
Mankowitz's
XII Poems
had been published in London by the Workshop Press in 1971, and the printing had been carried out in Dublin.

89
Saturday was 19 February.

90
Arthur Koestler (1905–83), author of the novel
Darkness at Noon
(1940), five volumes of autobiography published between 1937 and 1954 and
The Case of the Midwife Toad
(1971), a study of biologist Paul Kammerer.

91
Elizabeth was of course about to turn 40.

92
Koestler, who was born in Budapest, had been a member of the Communist Party (in Germany) from 1931 to 1938.

93
Burton is referring here to Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia.

94
Darkness at Noon
has as its subject the Stalinist ‘show-trials’ of the 1930s.

95
Elizabeth's 40th birthday celebrations.

96
Clec-clecs
is a Welsh term for a chat or a gossip.

97
Will Cross-eyes being Richard's brother Will, whose eyesight had been affected by a bullet wound he had suffered during the Second World War.

98
Michael Caine would marry Shakira Baksh (1947—) in January 1973. Layton is Howard and Mara Taylor's son. Christopher Wilding and Aileen Getty (1957—), who later married.

99
By ‘Professor Warner’ Burton means Francis Warner. Marilu Tolo played Brigitte in
Bluebeard
and had also appeared in
Candy
. Billy Williams (1929—), cinematographer, who would also work with Elizabeth Taylor on
Night Watch
.