Written Circa 1974 - Part I
I am a Staraholic!
There - I've said it & I'm glad! At school I was weaned on "Dick & Jane" Books and now I'm hooked on "Dick & Liz" Books!
I was an A-1 Browser at the local Drug Store. In those days I could flip through a ream of glossy Fan Mags in record time; catching up with the Stars, Starlets, Has Beens & the Soon to be Has Beens.
In my computerized little mind I could tally their Romances, Engagements, Marriages, Children & Children by a previous marriage!
I would watch their Rise to Stardom through their Glamourous Premieres, Tempers raging on the Movie Set, The Commissary Chit-Chat, The Making & Breaking of Movie Contracts, and even get closer to them with a Pictorial Tour of the interiors & exteriors of their dazzling untouchable homes on Movie Row.
Then I advanced to Collecting & Trading Ice Cream Cup Lids with the Faces of Hollywood's finest. But first you had to lick the lid to see who you got. This cold & creamy haze was a magic veil that put extra excitement in every purchase and made the Stars seem even more special & the Trading almost fanatical.
I knew I was on the hard stuff when from 3,000 miles away; I wrote directly to the Movie Studio in Studio City, California for an Autographed Photo.
Not only did it take great courage for a shy girl like me; but the anticipation afterwards, and its eventual arrival in a brown envelope was sheer ecstasy.
After the first; the rest were easy & in a matter of a year I had close to a hundred. Oh yes; there was Sonja Henie, Deanna Durbin, Van Johnson, Vera Ellen, Joe E. Brown, Kathryn Grayson, Sabu and the teenage Shirley Temple.
In the years that followed, occasional surges of maturity have led me to periodically throw out memorabilia - throwing caution to the wind; and in the process stripping myself of many childhood pastime pleasures.
Today, I find myself with only the Autographed Photo of the Child Star of "National Velvet"!
Elizabeth Taylor was a friend to me in my youth & is a friend now; as I find myself living "Brenda Vaccarously"; thinking back to the 2 weeks I spent this summer in swinging London.
As my husband was busily Checking in at the desk of a pleasant little hotel in the Paddington area; I cased the Joint!
On one wall I couldn't miss seeing an 8x10 Black & White Glossy Photo in an 11x15 Frame of the most beautiful woman in the world! A violet-eyed vision in voluptuous Chiffon; with a cleavage beckoning all passersby.
That Face was framed by dark curly ringlets cascading down her bare shoulders. Underneath all that chiffon, in bold manuscript - she had written:
"To the Cordova House Hotel, Thanks."
Elizabeth Taylor Burton
Check out PART II also Posted 3/23/11:
"ELIZABETH TAYLOR SLEPT HERE" Part II
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V.Corso
OS Weekend Fiction Club
Thoth
Blinddream
Procopius
Rob St. Amant
Salon.com
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