Thursday, March 24, 2011

Elizabeth Taylor: Sixties Silver Screen Siren

Remembering LIZ TAYLOR with a song. She had passed on at 79 years young. I was thinking of the movie Giant (1956) and the theme song by Dimitri Tiomkin that I remember so well and could sing as a youth. Fans gathered like bees at the Capitol Cinema when this honey of a film came. Tickets were sold out days ahead.
Nearly everyone who saw the blockbuster loved and learnt the Tiomkin hit which boomed out on the giant speakers at the theatre. It was also popular with Radio Singapore requesters and caused a stir. But this was the 50s lah, not 60s.




By chance, while watching television this evening, Elton John appeared on the little screen and dedicated, Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me to the beautiful and sensual star of the silver screen. But my choice remains. So Liz Taylor, one of the giants of the 60s screen, this song's for you:

Just like a sleeping giant/Sprawling in the sun /In one great hand the Rio Grande/In the other Galveston/Where oil wells laugh at angels/Buzzards wheel above/This then is Texas/Lone Star State of Texas/This is the giant/Land I love..."/Just like the silver dollar/Falling from above/This then is Texas/Lone Star of Texas /This is the giant/Land I love.../Austin to Houston/The Alamo, El Paso/Crystal City, Waco/Giant, giant, giant...

(Music/Lyrics: Dimitri Tiomkin/Paul Francis Webster/1956)

Images: By courtesy of (1) Flickr and Raffles Hotel, Singapore. (2) Google/'Giant' with James Dean.

Elizabeth Taylor was in Singapore in 1957 with husband, then Mike Todd (of Todd AO lenses fame), and had a gown designed for her by Doris Geddes. She was here again in the 90s when Michael Jackson had a concert at the National Stadium. There are many websites about Liz Taylor.

4 comments:

Unk Dicko said...

Larry King was interviewed "live" today on CBS news about Liz Taylor who had appeared on his show 3 years ago.
He said," If today, any of the very top screen actress or actors of modern time were to pass away, NOT ONE will have the same intensity or impact as the passing of the "greatest actress among the past era".
I cannot but agree with Larry King.
Elizabeth Taylor was truly a legend all by herself.
No one came close.
We will say RIP...but she lives on in the films we all so love.

ANDY: Pop Music Not Pills. © said...

Thanks unk Dicko for your contribution. You are right. We all fell in love with Liz Taylor in the 60s.

Like James Dean, Rock Hudson, Paul Newman, Richard Burton and all the other great stars who acted with her, she will live on in 'the films we all so love.'

Roger said...

Everybody man's fantasy then. RIP.

ANDY: Pop Music Not Pills. © said...

Mark Antony: "When (Cleopatra) says do this it is performed."

"O what fools these mortals be."

Thanks Roger.