Elizabeth Taylor

Elizabeth Taylor: The Lady, The Lover, The Legend

 

At 1.28 a.m. on Wednesday, 23 March 2011, just three weeks after celebrating her 79th birthday, the biggest star Hollywood has ever known died. The tributes and eulogies to Elizabeth Taylor were legion. A weeping Elton John said, 'We have just lost a Hollywood giant. More importantly, we have lost an incredible human being.' 

In Elizabeth Taylor: The Lady, The Lover, The Legend, 1932-2011, acclaimed biographer David Bret has written the revealing, incisive and definitive life story of the most controversial cinematic icon since Mae West. While never yielding in his admiration and respect, Bret has stripped away the veneer to portray the star as she really was: sometimes arrogant, attention-seeking, avaricious, reckless, monstrous towards her peers, generous, even foolish at times but, above all, through the tumultuous relationships and the personal mayhem, a survivor.

Elizabeth Taylor was the very last of the Hollywood greats. As David Bret writes, 'Most of her contemporaries - Garbo, Streisand and Dietrich excepted - were compelled to walk in the shadow of her sun. Of today's stars, not one may be deemed worthy of stepping even within a mile of that shadow.

Gaby Deslys et Harry Pilcer (édition française)

 

Les scandales du music-hall: Gaby Deslys et Harry Pilcer 1900-1920

C’était l'âge d'or du music-hall, et a présenté au monde une palette passionnante d'artistes dont la vie était tellement scandaleuse qu'ils étaient incapables de traverser la Manche ou l'Atlantique sans élever les foudres des censeurs et des groupes moraux. Les sourcils ont été soulevés même sur le sol national, à une époque où l'on croyait que la France avait été libérée à la suite de La Belle Époque. Ce qui les rend d’une importance primordiale, même ceux dont on ne se souvient que pour une poignée de chansons et d’anecdotes, c’est leur influence sur un grand nombre de stars d’aujourd’hui et dans le passé récent. Gaby Deslys (1881-1920) était une femme versatile qui a acquis une renommée mondiale grâce au casting, et qui a conservé son statut légendaire en développant un truc pour se trouver au mauvais endroit au bon moment, briser les cœurs et se passer de fortune en chemin. Elle a même aidé à déposer une monarchie. Harry Pilcer était un New-Yorkais d'origine hongroise qui, après un apprentissage de rent-boy, est devenu le danseur le plus célèbre des États-Unis avant Fred Astaire. Son partenariat avec Gaby leur a valu d'être présenté comme le plus grand numéro de variété au monde et leur a permis d'emballer des théâtres des deux côtés de l'Atlantique. Lorsqu'il s'est ensuite associé au légendaire Mistinguett, elle a écrit Mon homme en son honneur, après l'avoir décrit comme le grand amour de sa vie. Alternativement touchante et choquante, sale mais ravissante, voici leur histoire, publié pour coïncider avec le centenaire de la mort de Gaby Deslys.

Gaby Deslys and Harry Pilcer (English)

 

Sex Scandals of the French Music-Hall: Gaby Deslys & Harry Pilcer 1900-1920

It was known as the golden age of the music-hall—and introduced to the world an exciting range of artistes whose lives were so blatantly scandalous that they were incapable of crossing the Channel or the Atlantic without raising the hackles of the censors and moral groups. Some even raised eyebrows on home soil, in an age when France was believed to have been liberated in the wake of La Belle Époque. What makes these artistes of paramount importance, even the ones remembered only for a handful of songs and anecdotes, is their influence on so many of the stars of today and the recent past. Gaby Deslys (1881-1920) was the original “Tart with a Heart”, a fickle but talented young woman who achieved world fame via the casting-couch, and who maintained her legendary status by developing a unique talent for being in the wrong place at the right time, breaking hearts and dispensing with fortunes along the way, and even toppling a monarchy. Harry Pilcer was a New Yorker of Hungarian extraction who, after an apprenticeship as a rent-boy, went on to become the most famous dancer to emerge from the United States, pre-Fred Astaire. His partnership with Gaby Deslys saw them billed as the world’s greatest variety act, and enabled them to pack theatres on both sides of the Atlantic. When he later teamed up with the legendary Mistinguett, she wrote her signature tune, “Mon homme” (My Man) in his honour, having described him as the great love of her life. Alternatively touching and shocking, dirty but delightful, this is their story, publicised to coincide with the centenary of Gaby's death.