Doll-A-Day 158: Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra

  Today I'm showing you a doll I have waited a long time for: Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra, by Mattel.

 I have wanted one of these for ages. They have become so expensive! My only hope was to catch one at an auction at a decent price. But even at that they have been too expensive for me recently. I got super lucky at the auction last week though. I had missed the Elizabeth Taylor in Father of the Bride Mattel doll in a box of other boxed dolls for $40. That was a great deal for that doll these days. So I was determined to get the Cleopatra when she came up. I had bought a few other things, but was holding out some money to bid on the Cleo. I still had to borrow a little from Emma to top off what I had, but I got the box with Cleo for $50!

 

I love this doll. As I have said before, I love dolls of famous people that really look like them. This is a great likeness of Elizabeth Taylor.

 

  As great as this doll is, I have seen some one of a kind repaints of this head mold that are really amazingly realistic.
  Elizabeth Taylor was so beautiful. I always wanted to have black hair myself.

 

This doll was still in her box, but I knew I wouldn't leave her in there.

  Mattel copied the Cleopatra costume pretty well too, without making it totally out of a regular person's price range, or being quite as busty as the original.

  This is the costume from the part of the movie where Cleopatra enters Rome.

  Cleopatra was released in 1963, after being a couple of years in the making. At the time it was the most expensive movie ever made, and today, taking inflation into account, it's still one of the most expensive.

  Elizabeth Taylor became the first actor to be paid a million dollars for a movie when she asked for a million for "Cleopatra" in an effort to get the producers to leave her alone! When they surprisingly said yes, she accepted, (Wouldn't you?!) After adding her share of the profits, which was also part of her contract, she made well over a million.

    The movie was originally considered a flop, but in the long run it was profitable.

  The Cleopatra doll was the first of Mattel's three Elizabeth Taylor dolls, The other two were Father of the Bride and White Diamonds. I showed you the White Diamonds doll during Oscar Week earlier this year.

    I have had this Egyptian throne for two or three years, just waiting to get this Cleopatra doll to go with it! (Of course, when she sits in it she totally covers it up, and it's far too neat for that!)

  I actually bought two different Egyptian thrones. I got them at a gift shop in a very small town near here. It was my birthday and when I saw them I loved them, so Ken bought me one for my birthday. We have taken the other to a few doll shows, but so far no takers. I may bring up the birthday thing and suggest keeping the other one too. Keeeen?

Three Stooges fans will know what I mean when I say that's King Rootin Tootin's sarcophagus.

  So, I love the throne. And the box even served as the backdrop for some of these pictures.

And the other back drop is a piece of tile I got for free when a local interior decorator was getting rid of all her tile samples. The big one I used for the floor in the pictures with the box back drop, and the wall in the tile backdrop. The smaller tile that I used for the floor in the tile backdrop pictures I normally use to bake polymer clay stuff on. It works great. I haven't burned anything since I started baking on the tile.

 The sarcophagus came from Hobby Lobby a couple of years ago.

I wanted these pictures to look all dark and torch lit, but that was never going to happen!

  That's all for today's doll. If it ever stops raining I'll show you another of my auction buys tomorrow.

Doll-A-Day 62: Oscar Week: Elizabeth Taylor

Today's doll is the Elizabeth Taylor White Diamonds doll by Mattel.

It's from the Timeless Treasures line of dolls, and was available in 2000. If you look closely you'll see that I was lucky enough to get mine years ago for $9.99.
  It's actually quite a good likeness, other than the fact that Elizabeth Taylor was a bit more zaftig than this Barbie body!

The box says the dress is a copy of one of her real dresses. She also has a ring, and a Swarovski crystal necklace.

The head mold was also used on the Cleopatra and Father of the Bride dolls, and I think they got the likeness even better. If I was any good at it, I'd try a repaint to improve her, but I'm afraid I'd ruin her and not have one at all. Someday I'd like to get a Cleopatra and a Father of the Bride.

Elizabeth Taylor was born in 1932,to an American family living in England. In 1939 they moved back to America to avoid the dangers of World War 2. Her mother was a former actress, but didn't originally think of getting Elizabeth into films, in spite of being told by friends and strangers alike that she should try to get her amazingly beautiful daughter tested for the role of Bonnie Blue Butler in Gone With the Wind. Finally though,she succumbed to the lure. Universal and MGM apparently almost fought over Elizabeth. Universal got there first, but fired her after a year of her seven year contract. They didn't know what to do with her and her grown up eyes. She was then signed to MGM. She had an uninterrupted career from child actress to adult actress, which happens to few people. 
  With "Cleopatra", released in 1963, Elizabeth became the first actor to be paid a million dollars for a movie. (Not coincidentally  it also became the most expensive movie ever made.The entire budget was originally only two million dollars! Eventually all the problems and delays left the budget at $44 million dollars, at that's at 1960's values. It's still considered one of the most expensive movies ever made when the price is adjusted for inflation.)

She was only joking when she asked for a million. She didn't want to work at the time and was hoping to put them off by asking for so much. Poor girl. They wanted her anyway. She ended up making more than a million, since she had it in her contract that she'd be paid more if the movie went past it's scheduled shooting time. (Of course it was WAAAY over!).plus she also got a percentage of the profits.

  Elizabeth won her two Best Actress Oscars, for Butterfield 8 in 1960 and Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe in 1966.

  Tomorrow we'll see another Oscar winner.