Who Is The Man On The Beach With Elizabeth Taylor?

Q. Who is the man on the beach with Liz?

He is Arthur Loew, Jr. He lives in Tucson, Arizona, where he has lived since he was nine years old when he came down with a severe attack of chronic asthma. He is in the cattle business and he is a rich man. But he would have been rich if he’d never lifted the little finger of his right hand. For his grandfather was Adolph Zukor, one of the fabulous Hollywood pioneers. And his father practically ran MGM studios.

He is in his mid-thirties now. When he was in his early twenties he fell in love with Elizabeth Taylor, a beautiful young actress at his father’s studio. Liz, however, did not return his love. He was the boss’s son—plain-looking, not particularly witty, nice but far from exciting.

Arthur changed. He’d lost Liz, but still he thought he could have some fun out of life. He tried to make himself exciting. With cold cash and prestige to back him up, he became a playboy, a compulsive party giver, a man about town. He tried to fall in love. He had a wild fling with Eartha Kitt. His father broke that up. He began dating lovely Marisa Pavan. Marisa adored him, but walked out on him because—as she said— “I couldn’t stand the way he threw himself into all those parties and friendships—he was too erratic—he always seemed to be trying to lose himself.” He turned to Joan Collins next. She was beautiful and a barrel of laughs and some people said they would marry—they were having so much fun. They didn’t marry because what these people who were busy making their predictions didn’t know was that Arthur Loew, Jr. was getting tired of the fun, the flings, the razzle-dazzle and the phony laughter. What they didn’t know was that deep down he really wanted only one thing out of life—to be important, not to Hollywood or a ranch full of cows or to the headwaiter at the most expensive restaurant in any town he happened to visit. He wanted only to be important—important to a woman he loved and who loved him back.

He knew who this woman was.

He knew that she would never love him back.

But then the great tragedy of her life took place and, suddenly, she turned to him. Of all the people she could have turned to, Elizabeth Taylor turned to him, Arthur Loew, Jr.

In the past few months since Mike Todd’s death, Arthur has given Liz Taylor all the affection he’s had stored up in his heart for the past ten, long years.

He has been kind.

He has advised Liz when she needed advice.

He has consoled and comforted her.

He has fallen in love with her again, ten times over.

He knows she will never forget Mike Todd.

But he has hoped, hoped hard, that it will be possible for Liz to fall in love with him, too.

As the days have passed—as Liz has turned to him for more and more companionship, as they have found themselves having dinner together, taking an occasional drink together, sometimes at his place, sometimes at hers, as they have found themselves driving out to the beach together where they could be alone and swim it and then lie in the sand and talk—as all this has happened, as all this is happening right now, it seems that maybe Arthur’s hope is fast turning into the real thing.

Louella Parsons, for one, feels that it is.

And you can read it here. Turn the page for what she says about Liz and Loew in an exclusive to MODERN SCREEN.

A. He’s Liz’s next husband!

s, I think the Elizabeth Taylor-Arthur Loew, Jr., romance is serious—very. I won’t bat an eyelash if they marry.

And, I rather expect such an announcement will come from Europe where Liz and Arthur expect to be when you read this.

I’m asked on all sides, “But if she loved Mike Todd as much as she did and was so grief stricken at his death—which she was—how can she have found a new love so fast?”

To which the only answer can be—there are loves . . . and loves.

Someone who is very close to Liz explained it to me this way: “She will never again love any man the way she loved Mike. Early in their love story she herself said, ‘I love Mike passionately. And he loved her the same way. There was an enormous vital physical attraction between them as well as the wonderful companionship they found.

“Together, Mike and Liz were love and war, fire and ice, battles and reconciliations. They kissed and brawled publicly and privately. The French have a name for it—the grande passion. It is doubtful if there will ever again be anything like it in her life.

“Arthur Loew knows this. Although he is a young man, he has a great deal of mature wisdom and understanding. He is a millionaire many times over; his father was a builder of the entire motion picture industry.

“What many people do not realize is that Arthur may have been quietly in love with Elizabeth for many years. She was a star under contract to his father’s company, MGM. But he knew her feeling for him was just admiration—and friendship.

“When Liz’s great tragedy struck—she needed a friend as she has never needed a friend in her whole life. Arthur was there. He was a comfort and a crutch. She sobbed her heart out to him. All he wanted was to be there to help and protect her.

“And so a great bond grew up between them. Liz closed her circle of friends to a tight little group numbering Arthur, Mike Todd, Jr., her personal physician, and Debbie and Eddie Fisher. When she finally started going out again, she turned to Arthur to escort her.

“I think she feels an enormous gratitude to him. And lately, I think his kindness and sweetness is awakening a deeper emotion in: her—devotion, born of understanding. This, too, is love.”

I think these words explain better than any I’ve yet heard just what is happening to Elizabeth Taylor and Arthur, Jr.

But all is not sombre and sedate ‘between Liz and young Loew by a long shot.

Recently he gave a party in her honor, About fifty guests were invited. When word got around that the party was to be held, suspicions were aroused that this might he the occasion of the announcement.

Naturally, Elizabeth and Arthur heard the gossip.

About half way through the evening, Arthur turned to Liz and said, “Will you tell them, darling?”

“No, darling, you tell them,” Liz smiled.

Cracked Arthur, “Dinner is served!”

Because he thought Elizabeth might be happier away from Hollywood and its memories, Arthur encouraged her to visit his sister at her ranch in Arizona.

She liked the peace and quiet of it so well she later arranged to rent a house—$3,000 per month—of her own near Tucson.

But before she ever moved in, Liz had had enough of it. With Tucson newspapers and even radio and TV announcers giving out exactly where her house was, located, the place began to be surrounded by tourists and townspeople.

Liz literally fled back to the sanctuary and privacy of Beverly Hills. And added she would be leaving for Europe in mid-September.

That’s where we are now in the unending, interesting saga of Elizabeth Taylor.

THE END

—BY LOUELLA PARSON

 

It is a quote. PHOTOPLAY MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 1958