DEBBIE REYNOLDS on ELIZABETH TAYLOR — Diva on Diva

the ad ever you ever run into Elizabeth Taylor no because it's been too many years you know we never we were close friends then when it all happened so long ago though it's such a snore who cares is a Sorna it's a snore I think she's doing great I think she looks great and everybody's for a survivor it makes us always look at someone that it gets over all of their adversities and and makes it happen for themselves life goes on yeah but you know she took husbands like Hitler going through Poland she's doing great I'm proud of her too I just think it's nice for women to survive all the crises that they have and men too but that seems like women who tell me later what you really think you and I can talk Debbie and Eddie tough to talk about Eddie Fisher oh no I don't think it's tough I think it's redundant it's been done but it's been a while since we've talked about I mean I grew up watching what was going on with you feeling for you feeling that your heart was probably broken when he left you for Liz when I wrote my book I felt that naturally that was a part of my life so I had to write about that and tell my side of it but I don't tell it in a bad way I tell the truth which is what everybody says they tell and he said he told the truth naturally he probably did it was his version so I just wanted to clear up what I felt about that situation it's a long time gone I admire how Elizabeth has gone on and made her life better now and she's really worked hard to come where she has she's had a love of her life Richard Burton and and she's lost a love I feel that I'm more fortunate to have found like my recent husband for years married now I'm very happily married and I wish the same for her and then there are the items with a somewhat personal connection this is Elizabeth from Cleopatra you can see all the workmanship all the detail in fact I spoke to her asked if she had any of her things she said oh gee I never collected any of that stuff but I shouldn't have what Elizabeth Taylor did collect change Debbie Reynolds life which brings us to Eddie Fisher no we didn't forget and neither would anyone around during that time they were back in 1955 two of the best known best loved people in show business the screen star and the pop idol the storybook perfect couple I think it's a lot of fun we share so many things same interests and everything and a lot of same friends so it was a worldwide scandal when Eddie left Debbie for Liz Taylor after four years of marriage and two children she got the husband at one time and now you've got the headdress Elizabeth Taylor we have a lot in common you'll think about it and then of course to the people under 40 in our audience have no memory that if you think there were big tabloid stories there was no bigger tabloid story none yeah Eddie Fisher Debbie Reynolds Elizabeth Taylor right and you was a victim in red yeah and you were a victim how they're being seriously did you come through that the woman scorned I tell you what I think it is always because we were young it's just that it's hard when you first marry the first time first love and you have your children you have your home and no matter what arguments or something Eddie was kind of would be Moody you know and not talk for a few days that always confused me too because my family always more outgoing and that if he had an argument at an argument you didn't go in your room and stay for five days six days you know and that bothered me I really wasn't used to having relationships because now I'm married Eddie I was a virgin that's the way it was in those days you'd you didn't have another style of life otherwise it was evil I was a Nazarene and that was well and so when that breakup happened Eddie says well we were miserable for years well we weren't even married for years so I don't know maybe he was were you totally shocked I was surprised about it because I really felt Elizabeth and I were friends and I thought that Eddie she needed him Mike Todd died and she needed him and I actually sent him over there to be with her I took the children her children they stayed with me and Eddie should be with her because it was a horrible horrible thing you know we all loved my time this is a great guy coming through that it was hard when he finally said you know I'm I'm in love with a little something going I said well I just think you should go but I don't think we should break up the family why don't we talk in a year your careers going like gangbusters at this point the marriage isn't going so great well I have not once my career was it was going very well yes but when Eddie left then all that ridiculous publicity and all the studio jumped on that bandwagon sort of and worked me even hard I know you've told this story a hundred times I'm gonna ask about it but just do a brief recap my Todd was a producer people out there might not know my Todd but he was a very fine producer entrepreneur guy and you know great guy and we ran around together and he was Eddie's best friend he was his best friend and then he started dating Elizabeth even though she was married to Michael Wilding because that was a breakup time then for them and she just fell madly in love with my Todd who was really a charismatic guy oh the women loved him when he met Elizabeth though he just flipped for Elizabeth and she with him an untimely death happened and Elizabeth had just had her baby a little girl he was killed in there he was killed in that plane crushed going to I think it was the Friars roast in New York for somebody and I heard the news about my explained crash and no survivors so I quickly awakened Eddie and I said you have to go right away so we both went to Elizabeth's house and the doctors had just gotten there and they just told her and she was screaming and it was just awful and so I said to Eddie you should stay because I'll take the children and take them home because now the press is swarming all over her house and there's a rental house and it was it was right on the street it wasn't protected so I left with the nurse and the three children I'd might've been two nurses at that time and I took him home to my house which wasn't far away and Michael Wilding flew in that day and he stayed with me too I had everything my house and my husband was with Elizabeth and stayed with Elizabeth but he was great comfort to her and I was happy for that and then he as she had to go to New York and then he said he had to go for work but he really went to be with Elizabeth which I found out and realized that that there was something going on seriously and of course that's very hard and I was 24 I think you know and I had two children so that was a very difficult time and anyone in any public life knows that when they're all over here you know the press can be without a heart you know they just want that story and they don't really care how they get it and I was very good because I would go out and hand write you know statements and things trying to keep everybody happy but they really jumped on the bandwagon all the press were very cruel and it was hard and that went on because I wasn't going to give a divorce because I'm Nazarene and I really didn't believe in divorce I believed if you wanted to go go but I wasn't going to do his sin and I was raised very strict Nazarene and I just thought would be a sin to give a divorce to get a divorce it's just not the thing to do and I thought it would be a fling and that he would probably go off for a couple of years and come back it ended with Elizabeth in two years but he didn't come back to me but I didn't want him by then back because life goes out and you do change yourself and you don't really forgive being it hurt that much so that whole thing ended he went off with Elizabeth and in a sheet that he they were very happy together until she met Richard Burton and they were doing Cleopatra I only know this story because I met them much later I met Richard and Elizabeth after they were together and she had sent mr. Fisher packing were you an Elizabeth Taylor friends before all this Eddy debacle why don't we to put it and we would a school together on the lot at Metro they had a little schoolhouse and I kept mrs. MacDonald I think it was and she and I were the only students Elizabeth and I and then when I married Eddie and because Elizabeth was with my Todd we became closer than and when she married my guy was her matron of honor down and a couple go I washed her hair her hair and get her all dressed for her wedding little did I know what the future was going to be and I really liked Elizabeth you know and I liked being with the four of us had a lot of fun together at that time so what came about is comes about in life and not long in the past but that's sort of how all that started but I like Blizzard she's she's changed a lot and she works very hard now for aides and she's she has a different attitude after all she has survived death six to seven times so God wanted her to stay perhaps just to do this wonderful work you were with Taylor I know you actually [Music] attended school with MGM and we know ever since you were 17 so I mean I go to my husband like that and we know will that happen that's been understood and she's you know she she and I have gotten together about all that now and of course she regrets that particular decision because times she needed comfort Lee and I trial is about this great girl and I see her all the time I go over and we visit because she's great girl when I came here to San Francisco I don't know what year but you know I wasn't the first date it's been a bit in San Francisco and it's the first time she's doing a job I'm very proud [Applause] when he ran off with what was I suppose one of the world's best known actresses at the Simon Lizabeth yes Elizabeth well we would school together at the MGM lot we were good friends and she was the most beautiful woman in the world I certainly wasn't and the most sexual woman in the world I certainly was I think you said it I think you said about all this you could see why Eddie Fisher wanted her but why would Elizabeth Taylor want Eddie Fisher what do you think about that promise she wonders to now but of course she found that out you know right afterwards well I told Eddie I said you know what's going to happen is that in a year and a half she's gonna realize that you're really just nothing and it's just gonna throw you out so that's what happened she did Cleopatra she met Richard Burton and he was out cruising either when that story broke must have been unbearable I think in one's day you said it's bad enough when a man walks out on you but to have millions of people watching the fact that public took it as an absolute affront to them that was unbelievable this was very much being played out in the public gaze wasn't it well isn't everything in show business everything's out the public eye Carrie I was talking to me when they she said mother is sort of like Brad and Angelina Jolie Nia and Jennifer Aniston today you and Eddie and Elizabeth it was sort of a similar story but I you know I always make a joke of it I said well Elizabeth went down the Nile Debbi so it nice to hear from you and have you here today because you know you and Elizabeth had a most interesting relationship it was it was a quite a pass that you had so what was your reaction to the news today well we've had a great friendship all through the years and if it can survive a marriage breaking up and you know all this kind of scandal like that why then you know we really were friends girlfriends well I was coerced as ii would hear about elizabeth passing but i just talked to her two weeks ago and might have been three but you know she was not doing well and she was really in a lot of pain so it was a blessing in disguise shall we say that she could go on to a better place and be out of misery yes so tell me what do you think it was that made Elizabeth such an icon because people are very very responsive to her today well she's very you know she was beautiful first of all she's you know she was the most glamorous and sexual star of our generation and really no one could equal Elizabeth beauty and women liked her and the men adored her I know because my husband left I love that you take it so lightly now you know because I remember when that happened boy that was quite the scandal and nothing to to rival it these days yeah well I don't know Brad Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie know sort of the generation of today for that same sort of a scandal but well it was very hard at the time but you know Elizabeth and I over the years have gotten all past that and she did a really nice shall we say creation with her life you know she went on to work very hard for AIDS and and becomes our charitable and get off the path of men hunting well you know I was around when that whole brouhaha happened in those days I remember the whole thing between you and your through everything I have it's true and and Eddie Fisher who passed away recently for those of you out there who don't know the story Debbie was married to Eddie Fisher Elizabeth the lost her husband Mike Todd at the time she was a grieving widow she moved in with Eddie and Eddie left Debbie for Elizabeth that's basically what happened right Debbie yes well I would say that Eddie moved in with Elizabeth and that's took precedence over her loneliness you know and he was Mike Todd's best friend so actually Elizabeth just thought she was replacing Eddie with Mike Todd but of course he could never be my god so it didn't last when she met Richard Burton she tossed him out she did you know the question keeps coming up in my mind who was the husband that she loved the most do you think it was Mike Todd or was it Richard Burton I would say it would really be a fist fight because equal I think finally that Burton would win because of his brilliance and intellectual and he could quote poetry and he was just so colorful words Mike Todd was more of an entrepreneur you know a producer so finally Burton's mind would have won out over it besides his maleness there's always the the rumors that they she fought with both of them in these kind of like Virginia Woolf type of fight oh yeah oh my stars oh it's really something she was in my house one night and having dinner with Mike Todd and he hauled off and slugged her and knocked around the chair and I almost fainted I never saw that in my whole life and so I ordered him out of the house did you I certainly did and so she said Debbie were just playing I said well that hurt me I don't know but you I think you both need to go somewhere that's somewhere else and slug it out see that's that's interesting because in if that happened today it would be really more scandalous that's interest yeah because we look back the whole affair with with Eddie Fisher etc was a scandal but the hitting of the of a woman was sort of under wraps in those days that's interesting cuz that would have been a big deal now the back she got him back she clubbed her them back I mean she did get it back I don't think they ever got away with it you know I've seen that happen a few times I was in the South of France with them once and she got upset with Mike and just slapped him with crook but it's not really it's a slug you know yeah she's so dead and then they run upstairs and jump in bed or just in the pool and do it there too I mean you know they had a good time more now on the life and legacy of Elizabeth Taylor actress Debbie Reynolds called KCAL earlier today to share her memories and discuss the stormy relationship the two had after husband Eddie Fisher left her for Taylor here's an extended portion of that call well I felt very sad but I also knew Elizabeth was very very ill and she was in a lot of pain so in a way you know it was a blessing because now she can be peaceful and not so miserable Elizabeth and I were estranged for probably four or five years but then after I remarried and Eddie Romero she remarried she threw him out happy when she threw him out I thought I felt better about it and so life goes on and you know she went on to Richard Burton and they had a wonderful time together a wonderful wild timed life together and a great love together so life goes on no she was just body you know what I mean she was rowdy and having the sense of outspoken and she she had a mouth you know that she could keep up with a longshoreman and you know she was fun to be with then the men loved it and she was really fun too fun girl and she enjoyed her life it's just that Elizabeth came at a time when movies were really very popular and the public attended the movies you know movies were there was no television so of course movies were the hot spot you know the hot thing to go to and she said though that getting old is really really tough and she said well I'm I'm battling it through but it's really hard and so we just chatted about how hard it was to get through it you know when you're miserable and you know she couldn't walk and she had 24-hour care all the way around the clock and it was very difficult for her because she was so active in all her life and then to wind up in in this position she had a wonderful life she gave a lot she was a great star she was a great beauty one of our great glamorous Queens she will go down in history and hold her very high place like Marilyn Monroe or like Hedy Lamarr or like Ava Gardner one of our great beauties biggest Hollywood scandal of the 50s when her husband Eddie Fisher left her Elizabeth Taylor he did he did Debbie that didn't last but Debbie and Liz's relationship survived right up until her death she's here to share her story as well as some incredible Hollywood history you soon will be able to own yourselves please welcome Debbie Reynolds iam she had everything and and I know we're gonna get to it we have to talk about Elizabeth because she just passed away recently yeah you want to do it's okay with me okay well the younger generation may not know the whole story they shouldn't so why don't you tell them what happened well I don't know what do you want to know well let's say you were married to Eddie Fisher oh it's recently passed also yes and Elizabeth Taylor was married to Mike Todd the great impresario seria would he call him and and then Mike Todd died in a plane crash and Debbie's husband Elizabeth I mean Eddie Fisher took up with Elizabeth and dumped poor Debbie and married Elizabeth well go so now take it from there these things happen you know best friends should stick together [Applause] well Elizabeth and I went to school together at MGM Studios I was 17 she was 17 and then through the years I met Eddie Fisher and married Eddie and we were young and fell in love and he was really cute he was very cute he was a cook time and anyway she saw Elizabeth he saw Elizabeth Eddie after he married me and he thought she was really cute well you can't you can't make a man leave a woman unless he wants to go that is that song leave him alone he's a family man you ever hear that song well that's the other side of this that was up to it's up to her it's up to Eddie where he wanted to go what's up to everyman where he wants to be yeah you spoke to her two weeks before she passed Elizabeth Taylor well she's been very sick you know fro we're all happy that she's in a better place now because she was so ill and I mean really really sick for six years more and so it was far better that she'd go to a better place and not have any more pain cuz you know if you love somebody if you care for somebody you want them to be well and not be unhappy she loved life in Elizabeth love life and I know because she took part of mine [Laughter] interesting stuff to this no no is there I just you know you have to forget it you have to forgive it and it doesn't mean you forget it but you're Daniel the two of you were where's the Queen Elizabeth and then you years after this happened forgave her on this boat correct well I was I was going on a boat with my second husband I decided I'd marry again somebody over and somebody very rich good idea he stole 20 million so doesn't always work out on this ship and it was the Princess Elizabeth Queen Alyssa queenless and I see all this luggage go by Lou tofu tofu tofu dog I said who's the Bhutan luggage and they said that's Elizabeth's I said the Queen is on the plan on the ship and they said no it's Elizabeth Taylor and ice so I was starting to dive off we hadn't seen each other yeah it's always a sort of a I didn't know really what to say to her I really didn't know what to say to her at that time I mean even though it came to me because these things do come to you when it's over it's over and so that night I said this is dumb I said to my husband who was really a lovely lovely man even though he lost the money well he didn't really steal it he just took it I'm so dumb I give it to them drop by anybody Lizabeth sent me a note and I sent her a note and it so happened we're on the same floor and she had all her birds with her chicken or chicken cetera she she had all kinds of pets did she say she was sorry in the in the letter of course she was she shouldn't say that in the letter we said that much later you know it's just silly let's get this over with because we have people hiding nine bushes taking pictures you know the paparazzi just the cuckoo there go nuts as she was done with Eddie by then anyway right she was on too much everything that we're done is right yeah yeah she was truly when you guys said let's get over this and be friends again you realize that you know do you miss that friendship well I always miss a real true friendship and when you're young girls in school and you kind of grow up together you know why should it be broken up by a man that doesn't really matter in the end you know what you don't know that in the beginning so it's kind of a contest isn't it life is not a bowl of cherries I think ever you're tied by now about talking about that marriage but I am but I bet I do have to ask you something do you ask me about Elizabeth and Eddie and how they got together and I'm not a thing but but you've all read about us didn't you tell me that he disappeared right after you got married and that you had to track him down in New York we was playing cards with his poker buddies no he wasn't playing cards he was Elizabeth oh no this is I'm talking about earlier no I was talking about right after you got married you thought you're gonna go to on a honeymoon and he was off playing cards with Al Jolson you don't remember that story okay doesn't matter

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Views: 756,575

Rating: 4.7223468 out of 5

Keywords: Debbie Reynolds, Elizabeth Taylor, diva, divas, diva on diva, feud, Eddie Fisher, singer, actress, Mike Todd, divorce, scandal, interview, talks about, diss, shade, marriage, tabloid, Debbie Reynolds interview, Liz Taylor, Debbie Liz

Id: qml4UULjHr8

Length: 27min 2sec (1622 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 05 2018