TV Radio Mirror (Jan - Jun 1963)

is Liz Taylor who has my child"), and it is unfortunately true that the Heisigs have been subjected to the "jibes and proddings of neighbors;" and on this point Frau Heisig is most vocal and most bitter. "I cannot show my face any more in my hometown," she complains, "without being addressed by all kinds of people who make nasty remarks. We do not dare visit a Wirthaus ... a ... a pub. I do not care, but my husband gets upset. Everybody whispers, 'There goes the woman who sold her child' — which isn't true at all. These people believe that I get a monthly check from Liz Taylor and that reporters pay me large sums for interviews. All this is not true! If I received money every month, you can be sure that I would have moved out of this shack and out of this town long ago. "The women who work in the newspaper stands mark all the articles on us that appear in magazines and papers with red pencil, and then they sell three times as many as usual. "And then there's the mail, a few good, a lot bad, from people I don't know, often with no signatures. Especially the unpleasant letters are mostly anonymous. In those letters they scold me for having 'sold' my baby and refer to Liz as 'a cheap bitch.' One woman asked me to collect money from my friends and relatives and buy the baby back. Even if I wanted to do that, I wouldn't be able to get five marks ($1.25), because everybody is angry with me." Yet w.e also learned that Wilhelmine Heisig does not want her child back. On this she was both decisive and emphatic throughout our interview. "I do not at all want to get the baby back," she said, "and I frankly do not know how this rumor started. I signed a letter with Mr. Haas, Liz Taylor's attorney in Munich, that I would not claim the child later. I also told the attorney that, if Liz should have difficulties with the adoption, she could count on my help. I've declared all along that I renounce all rights to the child, and I can only confirm this again very definitely." Why did Frau Heisig agree to give up her baby in the first place? Mainly because Maria was born with a malformed hip, "a beautiful baby except for this crippling deformity." Several operations — delicate, expensive operations — would be necessary to correct the child's condition, but the Heisigs— hardly able to feed their other children — had no money to pay for surgery for Maria. An advertisement in the Suddeutsche Zeitung decided them; it read — "Am looking for a little girl to be adopted by a wealthy foreign couple." They would give up the baby they loved so that the child might be provided with the best medical treatment, might be able to walk like other children, might live a normal life. "I believe the child would make me reproaches later if I would take her back now," says Frau Heisig, "since I could never give her what Liz can as far as medical care is concerned." Is Frau Heisig worried about the scandalous publicity that keeps flooding the paper about Liz? "Liz is certainly a wonderful mother. From what I see in the magazines and newspapers, she takes good care of her children. She may be egotistical towards men, but at home she is as good a mother as I am. When she can't be at home, a nurse takes care of the little ones. I don't want anybody to put any blame on Liz Taylor. "Mrs. Koenigsbauer, Maria Schell's secretary (it was Maria who put the 'child wanted' ad in the papers on behalf of her friend Liz), told me that Liz loves the child very much and she will keep her under any circumstances. The adoption was not a whim of hers." No if's, but's or maybe's — a flat statement by Maria's blood-mother that Liz is a good mother and that she isn't trying to regain her child. So the question remains: Why is Liz going to appear on TV? Perhaps here, inadvertently, Frau Heisig supplies the answer. In replying to a question about the possible moral effect on Maria of being raised in an atmosphere of tension and scandal, Mrs. Heisig said, "I do not believe that my child will suffer moral damages, unless the newspapers pick on her all the time. When the child starts to think, it may be harmful to her." Liz's fear This same fear — and the desire to protect Maria and her other children, Liza Todd Fisher (her daughter by Mike Todd, whom Eddie adopted), and Chris and Michael (her sons by Michael Wilding) — must have contributed to Liz's decision to do something drastic and dramatic to save her reputation. Not that scandalous publicity or resentment against the way she carries on in her private life has ever really hurt Liz's career. On the very day that newspapers headlined Burtons Bust, Liz Wins Dick, for instance, the price of 20th Century-Fox stock rose eightyseven and a half cents a share on the New York Stock Exchange. (The stock has doubled since last June when, after Liz's and Burton's torrid carryings-on during the making of "Cleopatra," investors were convinced that with all that front-page publicity for its stars the picture itself had to be a financial success.) In fact, New York Post columnist Max Lerner, in writing about Liz, observes that hers is a "success story that can cover a multitude of sins" and goes on to point out that "she has shown two things. Item one: that a rich, beautiful and willful woman who is also a good actress can not only get the man she sets her heart on, but can even benefit from the public fanfare about it. Item two: that you can break all the Hollywood rules, and the world will beat a path to your box-office." In short, to quote someone who knows Liz well, "Public hostility has yet to take a dime from her" ; or, in the words of her long-time friend Roddy MacDowall, "The last person who was hurt by publicity was Judas Iscariot!" (Please turn the page) STOUT 9 SIZES 38 TO 60 THIS FREE CATALOG HAS A NEW FASHION SECTION JUST FOR YOU! The famous NBH catalog has a brand new section in the 1963 fall and winter issue . . . lovely slimline styles proportioned by experts, just for you. Dresses, suits, coats and sportswear — all designed to make you look slimmer, lovelier. All the new, fashionably young styles and all at tremendous savings ... all at National Bellas Hess' famous low-low prices. Choose from the colorful pages of sweaters, lingerie, hosiery and shoes, too. All merchandise is absolutely guaranteed. Your money back if you are not pleased. Write today. 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