SYNOPSIS
By Taylor Pero
The real life
Lana Turner was a puzzle, made up of many pieces. Her public image was in near
direct contradiction of the living, breathing person, known only to a very few
who managed to stay with her over long periods of time. Her loyal and faithful
number one maid, Carmen Cruz was one; but, as a servant did not partake of Lana
Turner’s public life or social circle.
Taylor Pero
was the one man who managed to remain with Lana Turner for a period of ten
years; longer than any other relationship with a man in her entire life. He
worked with her, traveled with her, partied with her, and he loved her. Lana,
in her fashion, loved him in return and to the best of her ability. It was
during their ten years of daily living, working, travel, and moving among the
Hollywood elite that Taylor came to know the ‘real’ Lana Turner, with all her
strengths and weaknesses.
What the
screenplay intends to present is the true-life story of Hollywood’s Cinderella,
born into poverty and taken magically to the pinnacle of Movie stardom.
It begins
when the murder and loss of her father at age nine condemned the girl who
became Lana Turner to a lifetime of searching for his replacement, to no avail.
Although her
incredible natural beauty of both face and form would result in her near
mythical discovery at a Hollywood Malt Shop, she would, throughout her entire
life remain on a romantic pilgrimage, trying to recapture the exuberance of her
dashing, handsome father. Her search took her through a reported two hundred
fifty love affairs with men the likes of Tyrone Power, Frank Sinatra, and
Howard Hughes, to name but three. She had seven husbands; each to be named and
revealed in Lana’s own words as she recounted them to her secretary turned
personal manager, Taylor Pero.
The one name
she could not erase from her brain using the “Giant Eraser” she claimed to have
in her head when discarding someone was Johnny Stompanato. Unknown to her at
first, he was a small time gangster and Hollywood ladies man/gigolo with
connections to LA’s major mobster, Mickey Cohen. The mob’s plan was to use
Stompanato’s dark, Italian looks and endowment to penetrate Hollywood by
becoming a producer. Lana Turner would become the unknowing sheep.
Stompanato
misrepresented himself in name, age, and occupation when courting Lana Turner
with flowers and trinkets paid for by the mob.
Lana, ever
flirtatious and curious about men who adored her to her standards finally
succumbed to the pleadings of a mysterious Mr. John Steele (Stompanato) and
agreed to meet with him. The meeting turned into romance and Lana’s childlike
indulgence of innocent dreams turned to what she thought was love.
The events
leading up to Hollywood’s most sensational, headline-grabbing murder will be
intricately woven into the screenplay by the author. It did not happen in one
moment of passion or fear. It happened over time, and through a set of
circumstances like pieces of a puzzle known only to the author as told to him
repeatedly by Lana Turner over the course of their ten years together.
That Cheryl
Crane committed the actual act is true. But, what might have motivated her to
do it is another story involving her loving but manipulative mother which has
never before been told. Not even within the pages of the original book,
“Always, Lana” because it was written while the subject was still alive. Now
that she is gone, another set of circumstances can be revealed.
The
screenplay for “Always, Lana” will chronicle Lana Turner’s life, from
obscurity, poverty, and tragedy to what the World took to be a one-in-a-million
lightening strike of pure luck.
Being
discovered is one thing; however, having the intelligence and resolution to
remain at the top of your profession for forty years is another altogether.
The
screenplay for “Always, Lana” will reveal the woman, the actress, the childlike
Goddess, the commanding presence, the gentle friend, the generous woman, the
lonely idol, the vulnerable female, and the hard-nosed businesswoman. It will
end with her death by throat cancer at age 72.
It will all
be told within the span of the decade that Lana Turner and Taylor Pero were one
of the most consternation-causing couples in Hollywood. Were they or weren’t
they? Well, now they’re about to find out.
ALWAYS, LANA
By
Taylor Pero
Based on the book “Always, Lana” by Taylor Pero
(Bantam Books, 1982)
It
is the night of April 13, 1975 and New York’s Town Hall is jammed to capacity
with a standing-room-only crowd who have fought their way in to see a
once-in-a-lifetime event. Outside, the Marquee reads “Town Hall presents a
tribute to LANA TURNER in person and on screen”. Set to begin at 8:15pm, the
crowd is growing restless and tension is building. It is already 9pm and the
house lights are still on. The mob is turning surly; the stomping of feet is
heard along with rhythmic clapping of hands in unison and derisive whistles.
Dozens of photographers are seated on the floor, at the lip of the stage,
checking their watches and groaning about deadlines. Backstage, famed PR expert
and producer of the event, John Springer, is wringing his hands in anguish.
“Call the Hotel again” he instructs the stage manager, “see if they’ve left
yet.”
Across town, in a luxurious suite of
The Plaza Hotel, the living room telephone cuts through the tomb-like silence
like an air raid siren.
“Don’t answer that!” a woman’s voice
calls out from behind a bedroom door. Ignoring her command, a tall, handsome,
dark haired man of thirty-five, dressed in tuxedo, strides across the vast room
and picks up the phone. He listens for a moment and then replies, “Every time
you call, it upsets her even more. I’m doing the best I can. She’s a nervous
wreck and can’t get her wig on.” He listens again and hangs up the telephone,
walking to the bedroom door. Without knocking, he enters and confronts the
nervous, manic woman seated before her custom-made, three sided makeup mirror.
Her makeup is on, but she’s still dressed in a flimsy halter top dressing gown.
She looks up at him wordlessly, looking like a vulnerable child, about to burst
into tears.
“They’re going to have to start the
film clips with you, Lana” the man states, “They can’t keep them waiting any
longer.”
“Great!” she replies, “Let them
start without me! I don’t want to sit through that crap anyway.”
She brightens now, having been given a
momentary reprieve. Only minutes before, when he was carefully applying her
false eyelashes, she had asked, “Do you think anybody will show up?” She did
not know of the dozens who had been turned away from The Town Hall because of
the sold out house.
“Freshen my drink, will you, dear?” she
asks. Wordlessly, he takes the round cocktail glass she always travels with
from her makeup table to the living room where her portable, traveling bar is
all set up. He fixes her a vodka and Cranberry Juice, carefully floating the
vodka on top so that she’ll get the jolt she needs, but not the amount she
desires.
His ruse doesn’t work. After sipping it,
she hands it back to him and says “Don’t ever try that on me again. You know
how I like ‘em. Take this away and do it right this time.” Her voice is firm,
but feminine, not harsh nor overbearing. He soon returns with a new drink,
which she sips, then smiles at him, and sets it down on her makeup table again.
“I hate this damned wig”, she states. “I
wish I’d never had it made.” She is holding the offending blonde coif as if it
were piece of road-kill.
“Don’t wear it, then” the man states.
“Your own hair looks terrific. It’s very sexy.”
She contemplates his statement, then
replies “You’re right! I’ll leave the damned thing here.”
The man walks over to the bedroom closet
and takes out a plastic-wrapped garment containing her evening gown. She will
not wear it in the limosine bearing them to Town Hall for fear of wrinkling the
fabric, but will change into it before making her first public appearance in
many years in New York City. The gown is a one-of-a-kind designer creation made
especially for this evening’s event.
The man holds out a white, Tourmaline
Mink Coat for her to wear to the theater. She slips into it and adds a colorful
chiffon scarf. Into her mink pocket she slips a small, blue velvet bag whose
zippered interior holds her sixteen carat, Marquise diamond ring, a pair of pearl
earrings the size of golf balls suspended from a long thread of square-cut
diamonds, and one of her many large gold and diamond bracelets.
John Springer greets them as they ascend
the stairs of the Artist’s Entrance to the theater. The seventeen film clips
have almost come to an end, and his star has finally arrived. He is dismayed to
hear that she needs still more time to change into her gown. His eye falls upon
the portable bar the man is carrying, but says nothing. There must be nothing
to disturb her now that she has arrived.
Lana Turner and her secretary turned
personal manager, Taylor Pero, work together in perfect precision as she makes
ready for her personal appearance. The first thing he does is to fix her
another drink while she lights one of her special Sherman cigarettes. She slips
out of her mink coat and dressing gown, attired now in nothing but bra and
panty hose. Her tiny, fifty-four year old body is in astonishingly good shape
for one who never exercises or works out, save for daily stretching first thing
every morning. This is a body which has never known liposuction, or a surgeon’s
scalpel. Her face, however, is a different story.
Taylor holds the hand beaded, chiffon
gown so that Lana can step into it, then zips it up in back for her. Outside
the dressing room, they can hear the sounds of her many movie clips being
played in the theater. Taylor opens the door to allow John Springer in as if
handing his daughter over to a new husband. He gives Lana a quick kiss on her
cheek for luck and rushes out the backstage to find a spot along the walls of
the jammed theater so that he, too, can enjoy seeing Lana Turner’s entrance. He
has been with her since August of 1969 and never tires of witnessing the
incredible impact she has on people, even though she is always heart-stopingly
late.
The house is dark, save for the final clip being played to the
hushed, intent, entranced crowd. It is a scene she did in one take, making
cinematic history for Director Vincent Minnelli’s film The Bad and the Beautiful.
Her character, Georgia Lorrison, is driving wildly through a stormy night,
sobbing uncontrollably, having been thrown away by her mentor and lover, played
by Kirk Douglas. She is dressed in a white fur stole, which slips as she twists
and turns the wheel of the car. She narrowly misses hitting an oncoming car,
and is forced to brake, hard. Her sobs echo throughout Town Hall as her head
falls forward on the steering wheel, bearing nothing more now than her
desperate, unrestricted sobs of loss.
The screen goes blank, and not a sound
can be heard from the audience, so caught up in the performance they have just
seen. A stark, white spotlight shines on the green velvet curtain, stage left.
The applause builds as the audience realizes the Goddess is about to make her
entrance.
The spotlight remains stage left until a
delicate female hand with the sixteen carat marquis diamond on it and long,
pink manicured nails appeared, as if to tease and titillate. Screams and shouts
erupt until, finally, the curtain is swept aside and the living embodiment of
everything female steps into the spotlight, her right hand over her heart; a
signal to her fans that she feels the waves of love and adoration flowing from
them to her. The standing ovation lasts for nearly five full minutes.
It was, indeed, the Movie Star of
Hollywood legend who was discovered at a Malt Shop in her teens and went on to
become the Queen of MGM Studios. She was dubbed “The Sweater Girl” because a
small role in her first movie focused on her perfectly formed breasts bouncing
through a sweater as she walked along an all-American street to her character’s
murder. In 1937 the movie with the prophetic title “They Won’t Forget” caused a
sensation. For years to come Lana Turner was filmed in sweaters, sweaters, and
more sweaters.
Everyone in the audience that night and, indeed, the world over
knew practically everything about her, or so they thought.
They had read in newspapers and Movie
magazines about her many love affairs with the most handsome men Hollywood had
to offer. They knew of her seven marriages and subsequent divorces. They
reveled in the sensational murder trail which consumed headlines for weeks when
her then fourteen year old daughter, Cheryl Crane, stood trial for stabbing
Lana’s ex-Marine, gangster boyfriend, Johnny Stompanato, with a butcher knife
through the heart on Good Friday of 1958. Everyone in Hollywood was betting
money that it was the end of Lana Turner’s career, but what did they know?
What they did not know was that
the former Julia Jean Mildred Frances Turner, born in Wallace, Idaho in 1921,
who became a manufactured movie star renamed Lana Turner, was, in reality
completely unlike her public image. She was a shy, sensitive, vulnerable,
incurably romantic soul who later in life said of herself. “I should have had
one husband and seven children. Instead, I got seven husbands and only one
child.”
Lana Turner addressed the subject of her
title, “The Sweater Girl” that night in Town Hall. She explained that she had
never been accustomed to people being so focused on that portion of her
anatomy. During those days, she explained every good looking actress seemed to
have a title of some kind. Clara Bow was The “It” Girl. Marie MacDonald was
“The Body”. Lana said she hated being called “The sweater Girl”, ending her
story by stating, “I finally got rid of mine” then added, “I mean my title”!
Later, she is asked, “Who could you
imagine playing you in your life story?” Lana answers “Honey, She ain’t been
born yet”.
She nearly brought down the house with
applause and laughter and illustrated once and for all that Lana Turner was
flesh and blood, with a healthy sense of humor, able to laugh at herself and
her public image, but only under her own conditions.
The story of the love-hate, co-dependant
relationship between Lana Turner and Taylor Pero lasted longer than any of her
other love affairs or marriages. Taylor Pero was with Lana Turner almost
twenty- four hours a day, seven days a week, for a period of ten years, from
August 1969 to November of 1979. As the Publisher’s Note in his book, “Always,
Lana” states: “Taylor Pero was Miss Turner’s private secretary and personal
manager for ten years. He worked with her, traveled with her, partied with her,
and he loved her. This book is not a Lana Turner biography. This is Taylor
Pero’s own story of his life with Lana Turner -- the fascinating, often
exasperating, but always lovely woman as he knew her”.
The story of Lana Turner and Taylor Pero
is also a modern day version of the classic movie, Sunset Boulevard. The story
of a young man, nineteen years her junior being sucked into the glamorous,
jet-setting, celebrity filled world of an actress just past her prime, but (in
her own words) with “my juices still flowing.”
·
Overview:
Every story ever told or written about Lana Turner, including the details of
the Stompanato murder, were recounted and retold to Taylor Pero by Lana Turner
herself as they passed away many nighttime hours sitting at the bar of her
homes. All the many threads of Lana’s life, loves, triumphs, disasters, and
will be woven into this screenplay.
·
The
Source: Taylor Pero, a backup singer-dancer for Johnny Mathis, attends a
cocktail party in 1969 and chats with a friend who is a makeup artist at
Universal Studios. He is working on a highly publicized TV Nighttime Melodrama
(the first of many to come) and the leading lady is unhappy with her personal
assistant. She is looking to replace him and Taylor’s public relations past as
well as performer and on-the-road publicist for Mathis would make him a perfect
candidate for the job. Taylor inquires “Well, who is it?” When he is told “Lana
Turner”, he knows he doesn’t want the job, but simply would like to meet her
face-to-face, so tells his friend to arrange and interview.
·
The
Interview: lasts two hours at Lana Turner’s white marble home sprawled across
the top of Mullholland drive and Coldwater Canyon. Taylor is amazed and
enthralled at Lana Turner’s 5’ 3 ½” stature and unbelievable complexion. She
never wears makeup when not filming. She is the antithesis of what he expected.
She later telephones Taylor herself at his small apartment in the San Fernando
Valley and asks him to come to work for her. He accepts, not suspecting the
ten-year roller coaster ride he is about to embark upon.
·
Universal
Studios: Lana’s excesses, in detail.
·
Joan
Crawford visits Lana’s sumptuous bungalow. She speaks to a non-existent person.
Later that evening, Lana explains Joan’s ‘idiosyncrasies’ to Taylor.
·
Scene
stealing: -- George Hamilton and Kevin McCarthy meet their match.
·
Taking
on the Suits: Lana’s refusal to say the line as written: “if the fruit is
rotten, look to the tree”.
·
Bargaining:
“The Survivors” is a bust. Lana’s agent calls. Universal is offering Lana fifty
cents on the dollar. Lana says for Taylor to tell him “Every dime!”
·
Star
Power: Taylor drives Lana to Universal. Lana collects her entire Nolan Miller
wardrobe, including panty hose, shoes, and costume jewelry. Her agent calls to
tell her to bring it back. Lana fights, but ends up returning what she doesn’t
really like anyway. The rest, she keeps.
·
Abandoned:
Lana’s seventh and final husband leaves Lana and Taylor in the Presidential
suite of The Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco. She is there for a fund
raising event. The husband of three months absconds with thirty four thousand
dollars Lana demanded her business manager give him to invest in a business
venture.
·
Taylor
Moves In: He sublets his one bedroom apartment and moves into Lana’s sprawling
mansion. Lana likes weekends to herself. With her husband gone, Taylor cannot
leave her alone. He moves into a guestroom.
·
Intrusion:
Lana climbs into Taylor’s single-sized bed in the middle of the night. She is
weeping like a child.
·
Nighttime
with Lana: The all night bumper pool and drinking begins. Lana begins
recounting her life history. It will take ten years to tell.
·
New
Year’s Eve, 1969: Harold Robbins “A” party at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Lana
proclaims “You and I are going to be an item”.
·
Cheryl
Crane: Taylor finds Lana weeping on her bed. The cause is her daughter, Cheryl.
Just the first of many times.
·
Lana’s
Mother: Mildred Turner, known as “Gran”. Lana instructs Taylor not to give out
any information about her when Gran calls numerous times per day. Gran is
trying to live her life through Lana. Walls are put up every day.
·
Divorce
Ritual: Lana rids her home of the ‘evil’ ex-husband. Her decorator replaces the
King-sized bed and truckloads of new and expensive furnishings are brought to
her home for acceptance or rejection. Many of her former belongings are sent to
Taylor’s apartment as gifts from his new employer.
·
The
Manson Family Murders: take place just two hilltops away and the city of Los
Angeles is in a grip of fear. Taylor secures the services of two armed guards
to patrol the property night and day. Taylor and Lana sit before the living
room TV trying to ignore the flashlights of armed guards in the pouring rain.
·
Las
Vegas: complements of the Sands Hotel. Lana and Taylor take in all the shows,
including Barbra Streisand. Ms. Streisand sends someone to invite Lana backstage.
Lana declines, saying she would never intrude after Streisand’s incredible,
exhausting performance. She then says to Taylor, “No way am I going to be
photographed with her. ‘The old broad and the new Star’”.
·
Lover’s
at last: During their decedent stay at the Sands, Lana and Taylor make love for
the first time. Taylor, who is divorced and the father of a daughter himself,
is surprised at Lana’s rigid rules. No tongue, no sweat, no South of the Border
and nothing oral. Missionary position only. It is no wonder that all men she
dated cheated on her. Lana makes love as if she’s playing a scene in a movie
and the camera is coming in for her closeup.
·
Back
home: in Lana’s Malibu penthouse bar Lana tells Taylor “I don’t care how many
men you fool around with on the side. It’s if I find out you’re dating another woman
that will bring you trouble.” Taylor smiles and emphatically relies, “No
problem!” In time, however, Taylor learns that Lana is not true to her word.
·
Lana’s
History Begins: During one of their many drink-talk sessions, Lana reveals that
her childhood matched that of Marilyn Monroe’s, “But she used hers” Lana says,
“I kept quiet about mine”. Lana tells of being born in poverty. She never had a
toy as a child, but loved her father and the way he danced with her and her
mother. Watching them dance is one of her only fond childhood memories. When
they divorced, Julia Jean, as she was then named, was put in a series of foster
homes as her mother worked in a San Francisco Beauty Shop to make ends meet. Though
never sexually abused, Lana remembers being made to work like a chambermaid and
having to sit under the dining room table while one family ate. Another family
beat her and her mother, Mildred, discovered the bruises when she came to
visit. She packed Julia’s belongings and took her to another home of a friend
she could trust. While living there, at age nine, Julia saw a white light in
her room and someone told her that her father was dead, but that she would be
allright. The following day, when her mother arrived, Julia told her that she
already knew her father was dead.
·
Bi-sexuality:
Many of Lana’s lover’s and even some husbands were Bi-sexual. She gave
permission for one husband to perform with another man, but only if she could
watch, which she did.
·
Hawaii:
A month long stay on Waikiki Beach. Lana charters a Catamaran to avoid being
with tourists.
·
Gay
Bars: She delights in going to the local gay bar and inviting some of the boys
to the hotel for an all night party.
·
Room
Service: Unable to make up her mind what she wants, Taylor says, “I’ve just
read everything on the fucking menu”.
Lana instructs Taylor to “order
everything on the menu”. He does.
·
An offer
of work comes in the form of a medium Lana has never before attempted; live
theater. Producers Lee Guber and Shelly Gross, owners of Summer Stock theaters
across the country have signed and delivered a contract to Lana’s agent at The
William Morris Agency which, because of a secretary’s mistake, will make Lana
the highest paid actress in the history of live theater. Their highest salary
for a Ginger Rogers or Dorothy Lamour is ten thousand a week. Without reading
the numbers on Lana’s contract, they have offered seventeen thousand, five
hundred a week, plus expenses for a sixteen week tour of a popular play “Forty
Carats” which is to be made into a movie and the star has not yet been cast.
Lana’s agent tells her by phone, “You’d
better think three times over before turning down this offer. You’ll never see
one like it again.” Lana spends the next three days alternating between sobs of
fear and bottles of vodka. Taylor spends his time trying to persuade her to
accept the challenge.
“It will be fun,” he says. “I’ve done
lots of Theater-In-The-Round with Johnny Mathis and, once you learn the lines,
it can be a lot of fun”. Much, much later and many weeks into the tour Lana
looks at him and asks, “When is the fun supposed to begin?”
·
Hollywood
is aghast: Lana Turner doing live stage? “She’ll never make it to opening
night”. “Look what just happened to
Rita Hayworth on Broadway.” “Lana has never acted outside of a closed set on a
Studio sound stage.” “She’ll have to be body-miked, that’s for sure. Her voice
is too soft for live theater.” And the killer comment, “She must really need
the money to take on a project like that.”
·
The
Challenge: For six months Taylor works with Lana on the script. They put the
entire play on cassette tape with Taylor reading every part but Lana’s. She
listens to it night and day between bouts of depression and drunkenness.
·
Overdose:
Nolan Miller awakens Taylor at his apartment at 3am. “You’d better get to Lana
right away. She called and sounds like she’s overdosed”. Taylor calls the
Malibu Paramedics instead and tells them to call him from her bedside. When
they do, he can hear her, refusing treatment, almost incoherent.
·
Remorse:
Lana in tears the following day. She feels she cannot fulfill her contract for
“Forty Carats”.
·
Opening
night in Westbury, Long Island is a triumph! For security, Lana has brought
along her studio makeup man and hairdresser.
During intermission, Taylor mingles with
the opening night crowd, eavesdropping on their conversation. There is a woman,
short, fat, and expensively dressed announcing to one and all, “Oy! If only I
looked like that! If I looked like that, I’d rule the World! Oy!” Taylor rushes
to the dressing room to repeat the scene for all. Everyone collapses in
laughter and for the next several months Lana repeats the phrase, “Oy! If I
only looked like that” in a bad Long Island accent.
·
Lana
makes it through the full sixteen weeks, but only barely. There are late
curtains and faked illnesses, but to the amazement of all, Lana Turner makes it
through. What Hollywood doesn’t know is that, every time Lana seems ready to
throw in the towel, Taylor reminds her, “Are you going to let the Nay-sayers in
New York and Hollywood have the last laugh?” Lana’s Dutch origins take hold and
her stubborn streak draws strength from hidden reserves as she straightens her
spine and sallies forth to slay yet another dragon.
·
To her
credit, Lana Turner goes on to perform in five separate plays during the next
five years with Taylor beside her all the way. As she becomes more and more
confident, the old Queen of MGM returns and she becomes selfish, demanding, and
haughty; going so far as to humiliate Taylor Pero in front of cast and crew,
referring to him as Mr. Per-ROT when he displeases her. Taylor becomes
the brunt of many jokes and silently endures the abuse because, if the truth
were known, the only time that Taylor made any money was when Lana Turner
worked.
·
Cheryl’s
Visits to Lana were infrequent and strained. On one occasion, Lana catches
Cheryl in the act of stealing money from her dresser drawer. On another, she
brings her lesbian lover to a party of Lana’s and openly makes out with her in
front of Lana’s friends.
·
Marijuana
Bust: Cheryl and her girlfriend/lover are stopped on the Ventura Freeway and
Marijuana is discovered on them. Cheryl calls from the Van Nuys Jail. Taylor
bails them out and walks them right past the waiting photographers who don’t
get their pictures.
·
1973, A
Movie in England: Lana and Taylor begin living at The Dorchester Hotel. Lana’s
arrival in London makes the headlines. She turns down an invitation to be
presented to The Queen, then says to Taylor, “Who needs to meet another Queen?”
·
Family
Strife: In their three months in England, Lana does not receive so much as a
telephone call or letter from either Gran nor Cheryl. Lana cries bitterly over
their treatment of her. Lana recounts her double marriages to Stephen Crane,
Cheryl’s father. The hemroidectomy she had while eight months pregnant. The
fact that baby Cheryl required a full blood transfusion nearly at birth. Lana
says she often wonders whose evil blood is running in Cheryl’s veins.
·
After
ten years together, the end of their relationship is near, but neither is aware
of how tragic and dramatic it will be.
·
Lana
Turner is asked by famed attorney, Melvin Belli’s wife, Lia, to make a series
of personal appearances around the country to raise money for a Children’s
charity. Weary and emotionally spent, Taylor confronts Lana in her living room
and tells her in no uncertain terms, “Look, Lana, I have heard you telling your
manicurist how marvelous you were on our last tour, but you know in your heart
it’s a lie. Now, I’ll support you in any lie you want to tell, but you know and
I know that they’re all lies! I want you to think long and hard before
accepting this personal appearance thing because I’m sick and tired of being
screamed at by producers and theater managers because you can’t get your ass on
stage on time.” Folding her arms across her bosom, Lana replies “You’re going
to leave me, aren’t you”. It’s a statement, not a question.
Taylor answers, “I’ve got a job to do. I
have a product to deliver -- on time! Unfortunately, that product is Lana
Turner, and if I can’t deliver her on time, I don’t want the job any more. I
think I’d rather be a bus driver than
go through that again”.
·
Lana’s
last personal appearance tour is a fiasco from the start. To make matters worse,
Lana insists in bringing along her faggot, gossiping hairdresser, whom Taylor
begs her not to. The end comes when they are ensconced in the Frank Sinatra
Suite of the Fountainblu Hotel in Miami. Lana has been a no-show, feigning
illness. Lia Belli insists on the hotel doctor examining Lana because the
charitable foundation is threatening to sue everyone connected with the
travesty, which netted them not one dime. The Doctor prescribes Gator Aid for
Lana, which she heavily laces with vodka.
·
Taylor
receives a telephone call from his ex-wife telling him that their
seventeen-year-old daughter has run away from home and cannot be found
anywhere. Taylor is torn between Lana and flying back to LA to look for his
daughter. Lana intervenes by calling the ex-wife herself, then coming into
Taylor’s bedroom and announcing that his daughter has run off to become a
prostitute! That it’s no use looking for her. That she’s become just one of
hundreds of runaways who litter the streets of Hollywood.
·
Taylor
has a nervous breakdown. As his angry scream splits the night, he picks up an
object and hurls it across the vast bedroom, toward a large, plate glass
window. The object smashes the window and sails out into the night, never to be
seen again. The object is the heavy billfold Taylor always carried which
contained all of Lana Turner’s credit cards and his gold and pave’ diamond
wristwatch.
·
Lana
runs from Taylor’s room to hers where the prissy hairdresser is calming her.
·
Taylor
is tearing at the opening in the window with his bare hands, trying to make it
large enough to throw himself out the fifteenth floor and end it all. Nearly
ready to jump and with bleeding hands, he looks down to see the concrete
parking lot he will land on. He hesitates just long enough to realize that Lana
is not worth it and that his daughter might yet be found.
·
Days
later, Taylor is alone in his apartment, staring vacantly into space, having
left Lana and her hairdresser and flown home to Los Angeles. He has received a
telephone call from his daughter reassuring him that she is fine and living
with friends. In just six months she will be eighteen and will then let him
know where she is and why she ran away from her mother and mother’s live-in
boyfriend. Taylor has received a box of goods from his desk in Lana’s high rise
condominium along with a hand written note from Lana. It reads “Nov - 19th,
1979. Taylor - This box contains everything that Carmen and I could find
belonging to you - I hope nothing is missing - If so write me a note -! Lana”
·
Taylor’s
final check arrives from Lana’s business manager. $305.22. Taylor asks, “What
was the twenty-two cents for?”
·
Lana
refuses to pay unused vacation pay.
·
Taylor
has lost everything; his job, his best friend and confidante, his identity. It
takes him years to recover, yet he continues to defend the woman he so deeply
loved.