Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes

Testing...

Do you have your frickin' machine on?

Yeah.

Well, let-let's ease into it a little. Uh...

Okey-dokey.

Let me think now. Wait a minute.

- Would you like another drink? Yeah. You?

Scotch and soda, for my friend.

Jack Daniel's .

Got a half bottle?

Excuse me. What's the matter?

Uh... I'm just fascinated

by the phenomenon of Elizabeth Taylor.

Mm-hmm.

What do you think your public image is?

My public image? Yeah.

Oh.

I would think it was, uh, an untrustworthy lady,

completely superficial.

Not too pretty.

Not too pretty?

I mean, inside.

Not too pretty a picture.

Maybe, because of my personal life,

I suggest something illicit.

But I am not illicit.

And I am not immoral.

I have made mistakes.

And I have paid for them.

But still, it doesn't make up.

I know that I will never be able to pay the bill.

But that is not something you can put in the story.

I'd like to ask a little bit

about your, you know, career.

Do you feel that you sort of created your career,

or that it just happened to you?

What do you mean by "created my career"?

I don't know what kind of a career you mean.

Your movies.

Uh... Well, I really...

My career has been kind of odd.

Um, you know, I've been in films since I was ten.

I really had the most idyllic childhood.

I remember going to a public school

in California right after we'd moved there.

And everybody's kid is a producer's daughter

or a director's son.

It's such a small community.

And we'd gone to the studio, to have a look around.

- We're rolling. - How are the cameras?

All ready.

- Bob, how are your lights? - All set.

I was very impressed. It's so huge,

all the studio stages.

And at that time, you know,

they were doing maybe 30 films at once.

So it was teeming with life.

Alright, cut it. Print it, Jane.

People dressed up in Greek clothes.

People dressed up in cowboy clothes.

People dressed up as apes.

And movie stars.

Of course everybody, even the extras,

- looked like movie stars. Yeah.

And then I decided I'd like to be an actress.

And you were...

you were not pushed by your parents at all?

Oh, the absolute opposite.

No, if anything, they didn't want me to be an actress.

My father particularly.

My mother was more understanding

because she'd been an actress herself.

But I was the one that pushed.

Poor Lassie.

Poor Lassie.

Poor girl.

I was a producer at MGM,

starting a film called Lassie Come Home,

and in it was a charming little girl part.

Francis Taylor, who ran

the little art gallery in the Beverly Hills Hotel,

began talking to me about his beautiful daughter,

which is the sort of thing producers hear often.

So I wasn't paying a lot of attention.

And she walked in...

It was truly like an eclipse of the sun.

It blotted out everybody that was in the office.

I took her by the hand. I walked her over to wardrobe.

We never even tested her in the part.

We just took the chance.

I knew my Lassie'd come home.

Elizabeth and I have been friends

since we were in Lassie Come Home.

That's a very long time.

So we've, uh,

shared a lot of life together, happily.

What was your first impression,

the first time you ever saw Elizabeth on the set of Lassie?

- Truthfully? Of course.

I was absolutely floored by her.

She has the most exquisite face.

Please, Joe.

What do you want?

I hope you won't worry too much about Lassie.

Her eyes were so astounding

that the cameraman asked

if her mother would please have the mascara removed.

And she said, "I'm not wearing any."

I mean, those top lashes.

She was the most beautiful thing I ever saw in my life.

The idea of being in films

was like the most magical extension of make-believe.

- Country's going to pot. - Nonsense.

- What's that? - I said, "Nonsense."

I didn't know that it was a career.

Didn't occur to me that I was working for money.

It just seemed like

a more concrete extension of make-believe.

Isn't he beautiful?

He's new. I've never seen him before.

How did you get the part of Velvet Brown?

I was under contract to MGM at the time,

and I desperately wanted the part

because it was me. It was my whole life,

my relationship and love for horses.

And the producer saw me,

and he said, "Well, I'm very sorry, Elizabeth.

You're just too small.

You know, no one would believe it."

But, I mean, I was swinging from doors to make myself grow.

I did 40 jumps every morning.

I ate steak for breakfast, lunch, dinner.

I literally stretched myself,

and I grew three inches in three months.

And Pandro Berman, the producer, he said,

"With that kind of tenacity, honey, you've got the part."

Velvet, you're too young to understand some things.

Have you ever really felt keen about anything?

- Oh, yes. - Horses.

Steady now.

Elizabeth is about the best-looking

15-year-old girl known to the public at large.

I christen thee the MGM Mayer Ship.

She will soon be appearing in Cynthia

and Life with Father.

Elizabeth is under contract

with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in Hollywood

and receives her education at the MGM Studio school.

Did you like school? I hated it.

I mean, it was really so grim.

It was a studio school?

Which used to be Irving Thalberg's bungalow

that they converted into a school.

I don't know. There was something so false

about trying to pack in your education.

All it took was three hours a day,

but you could be on the set eight hours.

- Well, how's my big girl? - Hello, Dad.

And during that eight hours,

you had to cram in 10 minutes here, 15 minutes.

Yeah. And in between times,

you would have to go out and act.

So your memory was split between being the character,

and then being hauled back into school,

and trying to snap your brain back into place

and become a student.

The real business of the day

is the acting.

You bet yours.

I admire you.

But I'm afraid you're a little too noble for me.

Something funny happened to me.

I was, like, a child actress,

and then all of a sudden, I was playing,

at the age of 16 but looking 24,

I was playing in a film Robert Taylor's wife.

The awful thing is

I received my own real-life kiss

one week before I received my first film kiss.

I must say the film kiss was better than my real-life kiss.

But it was sort of like

I was thrown into the adult world

where I had to behave like a sophisticated woman.

And in my own world, I was a terrified little girl.

Have you ever seen a dream walking?

Well, I have. A dream with peaches-and-cream complexion,

flowing raven locks, and big blue eyes

that literally talk.

She's five-foot-five and 110 pounds

of glorious 16-year-old cover girl beauty.

You'll see her soon in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's

gay Technicolor musical comedy, A Date with Judy.

You're the prettiest girl in Santa Barbara.

That's obvious.

Why, thank you very much.

And you know it.

That's also obvious.

I mean, you know, from a very, very early age,

you represented one of the most potent

sex symbols in the world.