Thursday, March 24, 2011

Elizabeth Taylor: Sic transit gloria mundi


Elizabeth Taylor had a lot of claims on our attention here at FirstNerve, not least for pioneering the celebrity fragrance market. More poignantly for us, her departure breaks the last great link to the era of Smell-O-Vision. Taylor had only a ten-second long, uncredited, aromatic cameo in The Scent of Mystery, but her stewardship of Mike Todd, Sr.’s estate ensured that the film and Hans Laube’s Smell-O-Vision technology would have their glorious moment in the cinematic sun.

In the West Seattle Herald, Steve Shay hands on an Elizabeth Taylor story from his news photographer father Art, who took this wonderful photo of her at the after-party to the movie’s Chicago premiere in 1960.

Personally, our favorite movie of hers was Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. But for a full appreciation of Taylor as a woman and actress, read the feisty and insightful Camille Paglia.

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