ELIZABETH TAYLOR ARCHIVES: Taylor the Tycoon

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Taylor the Tycoon

“I was always able to sell Elizabeth Taylor,” Elizabeth once said. She’s not kidding. When Elizabeth began a career in fragrances, she made more money than her prolific film career ever brought her. But Elizabeth has always been enterprising. Beginning with a lemonade stand she set up with her brother at the age of seven, Elizabeth always knew her target audience. While at MGM, Elizabeth’s face was used to advertise many products, including Lux soap, Max Factor cosmetics, Luster-Creme shampoo, Woodbury Creme, Whitman’s Sampler chocolates, greeting cards, as well as her own line of paper dolls, and painting and colouring books. With these endorsements, as well as a succession of radio show appearances (which often paid her $3,000 a pop), young Elizabeth was able to supplement the income she was making at MGM. In those days, the stars didn’t make what they do now, or even the million dollars Elizabeth was making for films like Cleopatra and The V.I.P.s.

When Elizabeth was making a million dollars a picture, she and husband Richard Burton wisely invested their money in many different ventures, including Harlech Television (for who they would make the TV film Divorce His—Divorce Hers), the Vickey Tiel boutique in Paris, as well as in property around the world, including Mexico, Ireland, London, Switzerland, and Tenerife. The two also had a joint production company, Taybur Productions, which made The Taming of the Shrew. Elizabeth was also successful when she and producer Zev Buffman formed the Elizabeth Taylor Repertory Co., which staged Private Lives with Taylor and Burton. However, when Elizabeth introduced her first fragrance, Passion, the public would come to realize just how business savvy Elizabeth Taylor really is.

More information: Perfumes/House of Taylor Beauty | Avon Collection

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