Richard Meryman Tapes

Between 1964 and 1965, Journalist and Biographer Richard Meryman recorded interviews with Elizabeth Taylor for a December 1964 LIFE Magazine profile, and subsequently Taylor's 1965 autobiography. These tapes contain over 40 hours of candid conversation, recorded in suites at the Beverly Hills Hotel, in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, restaurants and hotels in New York City, and aboard the SS Michelangelo in the Atlantic. In them, Elizabeth discusses all facets of her life, her passionate loves, and her legendary career. Then-husband Richard Burton as well as close friend and actor Roddy McDowall also make appearances. These tapes ultimately became the basis of the critically acclaimed 2024 documentary “Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes,” allowing Elizabeth to tell her own story in her own voice.