Elizabeth Taylor: The Life Of A Hollywood Legend

Elizabeth Taylor THE LIFE OF A HOLLYWOOD LEGEND KATY SPRINKEL 2 Elizabeth Taylor A Star Is Born From her earliest days, it seemed Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor would take after her mother. Sarah Warmbrodt left her native Arkansas City, Kansas¸ for Los Angeles in 1922 with her sights set on being a star. She quickly changed her name to Sara Southern and embarked on a career as a stage actress. Success catapulted her to New York, where she found something else entirely: a husband. Francis Taylor, also a native of Arkansas City, was working in New York at an art gallery owned by his uncle. He and Sarah had dated briefly back home, but nothing had come of it. It was when they reunited in New York, purely by chance, that their romance took hold. The two soon married. Francis accepted the task of opening a new gallery in London, and Sara gave up acting for good. On February 27, 1932, Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor entered the world. Sara recalled her daughter’s debut in an article she wrote for Ladies’ Home Journal in 1954: “As the precious bundle was placed in my arms, my heart stood still. There, inside the cashmere bundle, was the funniest looking baby I had ever seen! Her hair was long and black. Her ears were covered with long black fuzz…and her tiny face was so tightly closed it looked as if it would never unfold.” It was an unlikely beginning for the woman who would be universally regarded for her beauty. • The Life of a Hollywood Legend 3 The Little Princess Young Elizabeth was the apple of her mother’s eye. So much so that many observers noted how little attention was given to Howard, Elizabeth’s older brother. Whatever the reason, Elizabeth was indeed her mother’s little princess. And formal training to make Elizabeth into a proper lady began immediately. She was enrolled in dance classes as early as age two. By age four, she was performing onstage for the likes of the royal family, including the Duchess of York and her daughters, Princesses Elizabeth (now Queen Elizabeth II) and Margaret. “It was a marvelous feeling,” Elizabeth wrote in her 1965 autobiography, Elizabeth Taylor: An Informal Memoir, “the isolation, the hugeness, the feeling of space and no end to space, the lights, the music—and then the applause bringing you back into focus, the noise rattling against your face.” But as thrilling as it may have been for young Elizabeth, it was Sara who was intoxicated by her daughter’s star quality. Elizabeth’s beauty was infectious. People would stop them on the street and marvel at the child’s brilliant violet eyes. You simply must get her into the movies, they gushed. She’s the spitting image of Vivien Leigh! The notion took root in Sara’s mind, but it wasn’t until the Taylors returned to the United States that the idea began to flourish. • 4 Elizabeth Taylor The Life of a Hollywood Legend 5 6 Elizabeth Taylor A World at War As the decade came to a close, tensions in Europe were mounting and the entire world seemed on the brink of war. Closer to home, the children had become the objects of ridicule at their schools, castigated for their American accents. Sara had also been slighted by the British gentry and was growing weary of the Engli