A legend is now gone. How often do you see an obituary for other than a world leader on the front page of the New York Times, a full page on the obituary page, plus two other articles on her life?
I did not know Elizabeth Taylor but I once saw her and am still reeling from the impact of her presence. It was 1951, and my father had taken me on my first trip to California. One night we were having dinner at Chasen’s, a Hollywood landmark of the celeb world, when this girl came in with her escort. It was Liz Taylor and her first husband, Nickie Hilton, who were escorted to the table next to ours. As she sat down, she looked around the room. I saw those incredible eyes full blast. They were not violet, they were PURPLE, and I felt as if I had been hit in the chest. “My God,” I gasped, turning to my father, “that’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen!”
My older brother literally had an encounter, so to speak, with her in the early sixties. He was on a business trip to New York and was staying at the Drake Hotel where he and I often stayed when in the Big Apple. Hank, my brother, had just picked up a copy of the Wall Street Journal outside the hotel and came into the lobby and then into the elevator, engrossed in the paper, not watching where he was going. Suddenly he felt a pneumatic thump on his chest and looked up to see he had frontally assaulted Elizabeth Taylor. He gasped, stuttered and apologized profusely, feeling like an idiot---but a very happy one. She got off the elevator before him and even smiled. For obvious reasons, he never forgot that incident and often joked about how he had “bumped into” Elizabeth Taylor.
The only other beautiful woman who ever had that effect on me I saw in 1952. I was living in New York. King George VI (the king of the acclaimed “The King’s Speech”) had just died, and the British actors then appearing on Broadway, includimg Laurence Olivier and Brian Aherne, organized a memorial service at The Little Church Around the Corner, an Episcopal landmark on lower Fifth Avenue. My mother had an older cousin living in New York who invited me to join her at this memorial service. Olivier gave the tribute to the late king, and it was a memorable service and tribute. The literati and glitterati of New York were abundant in that church.
After the service ended , the church emptied from the front pews to the back. I was waiting my turn in an aisle seat when this girl came by and happened to turn her head in my direction. I felt the same kind of thump in my chest as I saw those gorgeous brown eyes. It was Audrey Hepburn, then nineteen and appearing, prior to her Hollywood fame, in a Broadway production as a sea nymph in Collette’s “Ondine”. She was a close second to Elizabeth Taylor. Sadly, she’s also gone.
Sixty years later, the memories of those two beautiful women are still ever present.
In addition to their beauty, both gave much to the world, and they were equally beautiful in spirit. They are missed.
You're forgetting the third beautiful woman who had that same effect on you.
ReplyDeletethe third one was a thunder bolt!
ReplyDelete