From the archives: Elizabeth Taylor’s Monterey-area connections
Monterey County Herald
Editor’s note: Big news last week is some scenes from Disney’s upcomign “Finding Dory” are from Monterey Bay Aquarium. The arrival of the movie’s star, Dory the blue fish, brings back memories of another movie star who was featured in a couple of movies filmed in the Monterey area ­- Elizabeth Taylor. When Ms. Taylor […]
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Monterey Herald
Editor’s note: Big news last week is some scenes from Disney’s upcomign “Finding Dory” are from Monterey Bay Aquarium. The arrival of the movie’s star, Dory the blue fish, brings back memories of another movie star who was featured in a couple of movies filmed in the Monterey area ­- Elizabeth Taylor. When Ms. Taylor died in March, 2011, the Herald took a look at her Monterey Peninsula connections.

By Marcos Cabrera

newsroom@montereyherald.com

@MontereyHerald on Twitter

Monterey >> The Peninsula proved a pivotal place for Hollywood icon Elizabeth Taylor in her film career and personal life.

After news of her death at 79 years old surfaced in 2011, local film professionals and historians shared details of Taylor’s stays on the Peninsula, which served as the backdrop for two of her films. “National Velvet” was filmed in Pebble Beach and “The Sandpiper” was filmed in Big Sur.

“National Velvet,” the 1944 Oscar-winning film starring Taylor as a young equestrian prodigy with co-star Mickey Rooney, was filmed on the Pebble Beach golf course with Carmel Bay in the background.

“That was the movie that catapulted her into stardom,” said Doug Lumsden, owner and operator of Monterey Movie Tours, which tours film locations throughout the Peninsula.

The movie opens with a shot of Rooney walking on a trail between the sixth and 14th holes at Pebble Beach. He meets Taylor at the top of a hill, with Carmel, doubling as a small English town, in the distance.

Karen Nordstrand of the Monterey County Film Commission said “National Velvet” was important to the local film industry.

“The movies starring Elizabeth Taylor certainly helped to promote the beauty and drama of our local film locations,” Nordstrand said, “along with our ability to double faraway looks.”

Taylor returned a few years later as a newlywed. She and her first husband, Conrad “Nicky” Hilton, honeymooned at The Lodge at Pebble Beach, said Pebble Beach historian and archivist Neal Hotelling.

“The fact that she came back here those times when she was young was interesting,” Hotelling said.

Taylor returned in September 1964 to Big Sur, where she filmed “The Sandpiper” with husband Richard Burton.

The couple were eight months into the first of their two marriages. News of their arrival sent shock waves through the community.

“They were the talk of the town everywhere. They were probably the most watched couple in the world (at the time),” said Lumsden, who was a teenager when they filmed “The Sandpiper.”

“When they came to the little Monterey Peninsula, you can imagine what the buzz was,” he said.

An article in The Herald detailed the building of a home used as a set, located on the edge of a cliff some three miles south of Carmel Highlands.

During their visit, the couple stayed at a private home that now serves as the Monterey Museum of Art-La Mirada. Burton and Taylor are depicted on a wall mural that decorates the home’s dining room.

Museum docent John Greenwald, who has done extensive research on the property’s history, leads house tours. He uses the couple’s 1964 stay as a bit in his routine.

“I always save that little story for the end,” Greenwald said. “When we get to the bedroom, I say ‘Liz and Dick slept right there!’ The guests get a big chuckle.”

Nordstrand said the film commission gets calls and letters from all over the world from people wanting to know the locations where Taylor filmed.

Lumsden said Taylor will be missed.

“It’s a sad day. She was one of the greats,” he said. “It feels like the end of an era.”