I have had the opportunity to work with Hollywood’s elite for more than twenty years. From Michael Jackson to Elizabeth Taylor to Will Smith, I have had unique encounters and working relationships with many people in the entertainment industry. In that time I have collected a story or two, and from time to time I’ll share one with you.
Elizabeth
Taylor
I don’t remember the exact year I first met Elizabeth Taylor, but my nearest guess would be 1990, before her wedding to Larry Fortensky. I had been working up at Neverland Valley Ranch for Michael Jackson, and I got a call from Elizabeth’s office about doing some work for her. She had seen and heard my music and video systems at Neverland, and wanted me to come up with some ideas for her estate in Bel Air.
At our first meeting I was escorted down to a private patio where she and Larry were waiting. She was sweet, poised, self assured and every bit a star. Larry, despite was has been said and written about him, was a genuinely nice guy who was tossed into a world he was very unfamiliar with. (On a side note, Larry and I became friends, and after his separation from Elizabeth I did considerable work in both his home and RV. He loaned me his RV for a week, and his German Shepard bit my rear end, but those are stories for another time).
We went on do build an amazing outdoor music system at her Bel Aire home. The system incorporated something I call sound layering (my phrase, give me credit if you steal it), where I have music playing from rock and outdoor speakers, then another system in the same area plays soft cricket sound, layered with another system playing birds chirping in the trees from birdhouse speakers. It’s an awesome effect of sounds coming from all directions. She was very pleased with the sound, so it eventually led to me designing music and video systems inside house.
Elizabeth was one of my favorite clients. She was kind, yet wickedly funny, and a great story teller.
I built a home theater in her bedroom, and went to great lengths to make it as simple as possible to operate. Despite my efforts her office would periodically call and say she wanted to meet with me. When Elizabeth Taylor summons you, you respond. I would jump in my truck and drive to Bel Air and be escorted up to her bedroom. Her bedroom, it should be clarified, was a huge room, nearly an apartment on it’s own, and she spent much of her time up there watching TV, making phone calls, etc. (Sorry, another side note. She used the other two upstairs bedrooms as her closets, with endless dresses and gowns on racks, and enough shoes to sink a ship).
I would knock and go into her bedroom, and her dog Sugar would start barking like crazy. I ALWAYS called her Elizabeth, never Liz, and waited for the show. She would greet me sometimes with a smile, sometimes feigned agony, sometimes mock anger, and explain that her remote had failed. (She was after all, an actress.) To say she would “explain” that her remote had failed doesn’t really do the conversation justice. She might grit her teeth and snarl how much she hated the remote, or threaten great bodily harm against me if she couldn’t watch TV. Don’t underestimate how hard I strive for my systems to work perfectly day in and day out, but I secretly enjoyed these private performances by a true Hollywood legend.
I would check the remote, change the batteries or reset the system, and have it running often in less than a minute. Suddenly her mood would change to overacted relief and joy, and she would laugh her well known laugh. Then (I swear this is true), quite often she would ask if I wanted to see something she had recently received. Of course I would say yes, and out would come the jewelry. Let me say that again: Out would come the JEWELRY. Now I am not a connoisseur of jewels, but this stuff was like a glimpse into the vault at Tiffanys. Of course her collection is world renowned, but to be able to have her hand certain pieces to me to look at and hold was pretty amazing.
She and I had a common friendship with Michael Jackson, which I suppose instilled a certain trust from her to me. There was one time when she was showing me (again, not making this up) a pair of earrings shaped like gold monkeys with diamonds, emeralds, and who knows what else. In the middle of all of this Deb calls me on my cell. I explained that Elizabeth is showing me her monkey earrings, at which point Elizabeth grabs the phone and starts describing them to my wife. “I’m afraid they are one of a kind Debbie, ” she said in a thick Elizabeth accent. “Sad for you, glad for Brad!” She laughed and handed the phone back to me.
After the 911 attack, my daughter Amanda made and sold American Flag Pins for $5 each to raise money for the Red Cross. I showed one to Elizabeth, and she ordered $1000 worth on the spot. A few days later (after several long nights of assembling the pins) I delivered them and Elizabeth gave them away to her friends.
I continued to work for her for several more years, and she never failed to make me laugh as she told stories and memories of her brilliant career. She was and always will be a truly class act.
Your comments are always welcome.
Brad
