Photoplay (Jul-Dec 1963)

home. I’m glad to hear she has a nice place. Central Park? I’ve heard, yes, I know, the very best school. “How is Rex? I was honored to be in "Cleopatra’ with him ... I think he is happy with Rachel. I know her well. Good girl. Lot of talent.” We asked if he’d set October as the wedding date, as he’d been quoted. “I don’t know if October. I will wait forever. So will she, she wants marriage more than anything.” He thought he’d like to be married in church! “I would like it, yes, feel more in bond, united.” That was quite a statement; it would make quite a scoop. Yet the very next day, a couple of confusing things happened: David Lewin of “The London Daily Mail” met Sybil in Manhattan and told her of Richard’s reported plan to marry Liz as soon as they were both free. Sybil said, “It seems that I am the person least concerned . . . Richard hasn’t told me, and he hasn’t telephoned me from London. Divorced? I don’t know. It is too early yet to say ... I know nothing of cash settlements or decisions ... I know and understand him so well. I react to his moods. You see, it is not only that I loved Rich. I like him, too. And liking is more important in marriage than love.” And most confusing of all, Burton himself denied the whole thing, saying he was misquoted, saying it was “Just a joke.” He did admit telling a “Sketch” reporter that he and Liz were going to get married. “But,” he added, “yesterday I added, ‘But not to each other.’ ” Liz was not available for comment. This “joke” of Burton’s was the ultimate in humiliation. In humiliation to Liz, and in utter disrespect to the sacred state of matrimony. It is the woman’s prerogative to make the announcement of a wedding, if there is to be one. Although Burton has cast aside most rules of accepted conduct, it just is not cricket for a man who is living in open adultery to go a step further and announce the legitimatizing of his union, and then make a complete mockery of the whole institution of marriage by retracting it as simply a “joke.” “This time he’s gone too far,” said a friend who, until now, has stood by him through all his escapades. “He was probably drunk. The whole thing reminds me of that announcement Glenn Ford made about Linda Christian,” snorted another. “Utterly without taste,” declared a third. Burton is doing things to Liz, treating her in a way that no other man has ever dared. And still Liz puts up with him, even with this last greatest insult, because he is more of a man than she has ever known. Walter Wanger, the producer of “Cleopatra,” recently observed about Burton: “He is the epitome of the European male, sophisticated, self-assured and forceful in his opinions. He does not hesitate to put women in their place.” Liz, naturally, is the woman for placeputting now. Before this she was a love goddess-movie queen who gave with the orders, the demands, the ultimatums — she is now more like Shirley Temple in the process of making her first movie . . . with Burton as the director. Shouting out some orders of his own. He reportedly informs Liz — and in no uncertain terms — that he is the center of their relationship, not she. He reportedly makes it clear that while, at the moment, she may be first among women — she is only a woman. And women are subordinate to men. As she must be to him. And he also reportedly lets her know, often, without mincing words, that he is not going to cater to her. More than that, he again reportedly keeps her guessing about his future love life, talking often about his past conquests and intimating that a true romantic never stops shopping around — and so why should he be expected to. “In short,” says someone who should know, “Richard’s strategy is to keep Liz nervous and guessing, and to give her no time to plot any strategy of her own. And thus does he alternate between that weird mixture of indifference and ecstasy. Ecstasy because he is truly in love with the woman. Indifference because he knows that this is the only way to keep that love in tow — on his terms.” It is interesting to note here that at the beginning of their relationship Liz obviously thought that Burton would, like the others before him, capitulate to her wishes and what might be termed Taylor-made Standards of Romantic Conduct. In Rome, for instance, hadn’t Burton — by nature supposedly rather tight with the buck, the pound, the lira — bought her a brooch, a fifty-carat emerald set with diamonds and sapphires, that set him back exactly $129,000 . . . 46,000 pounds . . . 80million lire? (That “set-back,” as reported by someone who was there, is why Burton exploded, “My God, that’s a fortune!” To which Liz said, quietly, “I like it.” To which Burton, after a very perceptible pause, whispered, “All right, we’ll take it.”) And, again in Rome, when a pretty blonde young thing from New York with whom Burton was reportedly having a “romance” at the time was constantly showing up on the “Cleopatra” set — at Burton’s invitation — (as if to keep both Liz and Sybil hopping), hadn’t Liz managed to see to it that she was first, if we are to believe the well-documented story, “exiled” from the set, and then “exiled” from Rome and Richard’s life? Yes, at the beginning then, it looked indeed as if the pattern was to be the same — Liz gayly humming her siren’s song, her lover dancing to the tune. Except that, as any musicologist will tell you, along with the Italians there are no other people on earth who know as much about music as the Welsh. And Richard Burton is a Welshman. It didn’t take him long to realize that something was definitely off-key here . . . something was offensive to his ears . . . offensive to his sensibilities. Why, he was dancing to a Sonata for a Jerk! The Sonata obviously needed vast revisions. So he took over. Suddenly. He began to call the tune. And, her feet reaching down nervously from her long-occupied pedestal, touched earth finally — and things did change. Absolute master of the situation now, Burton began to do all the things that were previously verboten to other men. Instead of dropping his wife for Liz immediately, for instance — as Eddie Fisher had dropped Debbie Reynolds back in those dark days of late-1958— Burton actually continued seeing Sybil and, to boot, showing public affection for her and, to double boot, stat HANDLED ENTIRELY BY MAIL BORROW $| 000 REPAY $51.24 MONTHLY ■ '-■sX BORROW $100 TO $1000 ON YOUR SIGNATURE ONLY • 24 MONTHS TO REPAY Enjoy life, end money worries! Confi dential B0RR0W-BY-MAIL plan pro vides cash for any purpose. Small pay ments, fit your pocketbook. Private entirely by mail. No endorsers, no per sonal interviews. Fast service. State supervised. Details sent in plain enve lope. No obligation. Inquire now. Amount ol Loon 24 Monthly Payments $100 $ 5.93 $300 $17.49 $500 $27.69 $800 $41.93 $1000 $51.24 I BUDGET FINANCE CO., Dept. MB-123 f J 317 So. 20th, Omaha 2, Nebr. I { Name J | Address „ | j City | Age I -Occupation. 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