Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Growing Up Watching Elizabeth Taylor

HER LIFE @ THE DAILY MAIL
WHEN I WAS A VERY LITTLE GIRL, I remember the first time I saw Hollywood's Queen Elizabeth. I thought her the most beautiful woman in the world, far more gorgeous than Marilyn Monroe. Like so many other girls of my time, I grew up watching her and learning vicariously what life was and wasn't about. My childish perception hoped, fantasized that anyone as beautiful as she would have an exceptionally happy, wealthy and comfortable life---like in so many of the Cinderella fairy tales I read endlessly. Wasn't that the way life was supposed to be?

Her prince charmings would come with great fanfare of glamor and expectation. Then they would go.I projected my fantasies of life and romance on hers. My childish, small-town mind couldn't comprehend why anyone so beautiful wouldn't, couldn't live happily ever after with just one prince, let alone eight!, as her off-screen love stories had one after another unhappy endings. She was in love with love.

I began to wonder if beauty and fame were all they were cracked up to be, and learned from watching this gorgeous movie star there are no guarantees in life--- against broken homelife, divorce, alcohol abuse, weight gain, aging and loneliness. Yet Queen Elizabeth reigned in Hollywood for decades as a true movie star/goddess who taught us both on screen and off that life is not always what it seems.

May Hollywood's Queen Elizabeth rest in peace.

6 comments:

Keith Koffler said...

Feel like an era has come to a close. Some how so much bigger than others of that time in Hollywood passing.

Webutante said...

A begone era for sure, Keith.

Tregonsee said...

We have Madonna and Lady Gaga. Does anything else need to be said about our alleged culture?

Webutante said...

No nothing...we're on edge of abyss!

gcotharn said...

1961, Oscar in hand, fresh tracheotomy scar plainly on display for all to see, truly wonderful dress, sizzling sensuality ... perfect, perfect, perfect Hollywood ... all of it. Iconic. http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/3202928/Hulton-Archive

Webutante said...

Great photo, Greg. I recall Taylor almost died of pneumonia in London ub tge early 60s when doctors inserted that tube to keep her alive.