Elizabeth Taylor had links to Las Vegas

Elizabeth Taylor never performed on the Strip, but she filmed a movie in Las Vegas, defended Michael Jackson at the MGM Grand and sang "Happy Birthday" to Roy Horn.

Taylor was photographed in Las Vegas as long ago as 1956, clowning around poolside at the Sahara with second husband Michael Wilding. But the city figured more prominently in her marriage and divorce with her fourth husband, showroom headliner Eddie Fisher.

In April 1959, reporters were summoned to a news conference after Fisher's opening-night show at the Tropicana. The couple fielded questions for several minutes before Fisher gave them what they came for: "It's obvious that we're very much in love and that we want to get married. We want to travel all over the world together."

At this point, Taylor interjected, "As man and wife."

On May 12, 1959, 3½ hours after Fisher's divorce from Debbie Reynolds became final, he and Taylor were married in Las Vegas in a Jewish ceremony.

By July 1962, Fisher had lost favor to Taylor's "Cleopatra" co-star Richard Burton. Fisher told "Cleopatra" jokes to his opening-night audience at the Desert Inn: "You know they started that picture so long ago, they could have used the original cast. I wish they would have."

The next year, Fisher strung together engagements at the Desert Inn and in Northern Nevada to meet the six-week residence required by Nevada divorce law.

In early 1969, Burton and Taylor spent eight days in Las Vegas for location work on the movie "The Only Game in Town," which was set in Las Vegas but was shot mostly in Paris at Taylor's insistence.

Broadway photographer Leo Friedman, now a Las Vegas retiree, first met Taylor when she was honeymooning on the French Riviera in 1957 with her third husband and his old boss, showman Mike Todd.

Years later, when Taylor was with Burton, Friedman traveled to Toronto, at the actor's invitation, to take photos of Taylor's birthday party at the theater where Burton was starring in "Hamlet."

"She was too fantastic," Friedman said, recalling how she preferred "Elizabeth" to "Liz."

Taylor was down-to-earth despite her international stardom, he recalled.

At the party, Taylor fled when she saw the birthday cake, Friedman said, "but the cast ran after her and dragged her back."

Later, she cut the cake with the sword Burton wore onstage as Hamlet.

When Friedman arrived at the backstage bash without his cameras, planning to preserve Taylor's privacy, she encouraged him to take pictures. When he asked why, she told him, "Because I want you to make the money."

In the Siegfried & Roy autobiography "Mastering the Impossible," Roy Horn recounts that in October 1991, Taylor flew in from Los Angeles to be a surprise guest at his birthday party.

"It was four days before her marriage to Larry Fortensky, the night of her bridal shower, and she had to escape the media by climbing over a neighbor's wall," Horn recalls in the book.

"She arrived on a plane just before midnight, in time to sing 'Happy Birthday' at the stroke of twelve. I joined in and soon we were both singing perfectly out of tune. The only interruption was our laughter. After that we reassured each other we would stick to our real professions."

In February 1994, Taylor took part in the televised "Jackson Family Honors" concert at the MGM Grand Garden arena. Michael Jackson's presence was guaranteed despite his tenuous relationship with some family members, and Taylor was likely the insurance policy. Jackson presented his friend with a lifetime achievement award.

It was clear that much of the audience was there to show support for the scandal-plagued Jackson and harbored hopes of him performing.

The cheers turned to boos when Taylor told the crowd that Jackson wasn't prepared to sing, and she took the tone of a kindergarten teacher telling them it wasn't polite to boo.

Taylor also admonished the tabloid press: "Only you can put them out of business ... simply by not buying their garbage."

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288. Las Vegas Review-Journal writer Carol Cling contributed to this report.