'Tell mama, tell mama all...'

Those five words were uttered by Elizabeth Taylor in George Stevens', 'A Place in the Sun.' It was a passionate scene; an anguished Montgomery Clift and Taylor on a balcony with the camera angled and hovering over Clift's shoulder peering in at Taylor as she spoke those lines...almost choking me on my popcorn as I sat in a theater watching retro classics. Elizabeth Taylor absolutely radiated beauty in that film. She was the stuff of manly dreams, and of mine too. Long before that, I fell in love with Elizabeth Taylor. It was 'Lassie come Home,' and 'National Velvet' on the black and white tele that did me in. Movie mags said she had violet eyes. How on earth does anyone get procreated with violet eyes? And there was something ethereal about her voice. She never lost that tone; if you saw her in movies made in the 40's and heard her voice late in the 80's, you know what I mean...there was a lilt that stayed profoundly the same. Creation or victim of the tinsel town industry, Elizabeth Taylor's personal life made for sensational media tabloid headlines. Petite, cursed with health issues, she became Hollywood's royal; and she collected jewels (and husbands) as if she were collecting marbles for a throw down. A dear friend to Roddy Mcdowall, Mongomery Clift and Rock Hudson, Taylor became the first actor/celebrity to publicly speak up and raise millions for Aids. In 1994, she won the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian award from the Academy of Motion picture Arts and Sciences. Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor...1932-2011.