Mike Todd
Encyclopedia
Michael Todd was an American
theatre and film producer
, best known for his 1956 production of Around the World in Eighty Days, which won an Academy Award for Best Picture
. He is also well-known as the third of Elizabeth Taylor
's seven husbands and the third of her eight marriages.
, to Chaim Goldbogen (an Orthodox rabbi) and Sophia Hellerman, both Polish Jewish immigrants. He was one of nine children in a poor family, the youngest son, and his siblings nicknamed him "Toat" to mimic his difficulty pronouncing the word "coat." It was from this that his name was derived.
The family later moved to Chicago, arriving on the day World War I
ended. Todd was expelled in the sixth grade for running a game of craps
inside the school. In high school, he produced the school play, The Mikado
, which was considered a hit. He eventually dropped out of high school and worked at a variety of jobs, including shoe salesman and store window decorator. One of his first jobs was as a soda jerk
. When the drugstore
went out of business, Todd had acquired enough medical knowledge from his work there to be hired at Chicago's Michael Reese Hospital
as a type of "security guard" to stop visitors from bringing in food that was not on the patient's diet.
. Not yet twenty-one, Todd had lost over a million dollars with the loss of his backer. He was now the father of an infant son and had no home for his family.
He later served as a contractor to Hollywood studios, and during the 1933-1934 Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago he produced an attraction called the "Flame Dance." In this number, gas jets were designed to burn part of a dancer's costume off, leaving her naked in appearance. The act attracted enough attention to bring an offer from the Casino de Paris
nightclub in New York City.
Todd got his first taste of Broadway
with the engagement and was determined to find a way to work there. He came up with the idea of producing the Gilbert and Sullivan
operetta The Mikado
with an all African-American cast. The Hot Mikado
, starring Bill "Bojangles" Robinson
, opened on Broadway March 23, 1939.
His Broadway success gave him the nerve to try taking on showman Billy Rose
. Todd visited Grover Whalen
, president of the 1939 New York World's Fair
, with a proposal to bring the Broadway show to the World's Fair. Whelan, eager to have the show at the fair, covered Todd's Broadway early closing costs. Rose, who had an exclusivity clause in his fair contract, met Todd at Lindy's
, where Rose learned his contract covered new forms of entertainment only. To avoid any head-to head competition, Rose quickly agreed to promote Todd's production along with his own. Todd went on to produce 30 Broadway shows during his career.
Todd's business career was volatile, and failed ventures left him bankrupt many times.
In 1945, Todd floated the idea of holding the Major League Baseball All-Star Game
in newly-liberated Berlin
. Although baseball's new commissioner
Happy Chandler
was reportedly "intrigued" by the idea, it was ultimately dismissed as impractical. The game was finally cancelled due to wartime travel restrictions.
In 1952, Todd made a production of the Johann Strauss II
operetta A Night in Venice, complete with floating gondolas at the then-newly constructed Jones Beach Theatre in Long Island, New York. It ran for two seasons.
In 1950, Mike Todd formed Cinerama
with the broadcaster Lowell Thomas
(who founded Capital Cities Communications
) and the inventor Fred Waller. The company was created to exploit Cinerama, a widescreen
film process created by Waller that used three film projectors to create a giant composite image on a curved screen. The first Cinerama feature, This is Cinerama
, was released in September 1952.
Before its release, Todd left the Cinerama Company to develop a widescreen process which would eliminate some of Cinerama's flaws. The result was the Todd-AO
process, designed by the American Optical Company. The process was first used commercially for the successful 1955 film adaptation of Oklahoma!
. Todd later produced the film for which he is best remembered, Michael Todd's Around the World in 80 Days, which debuted in cinemas on October 17, 1956. Costing $6 million to produce, the movie earned $16 million at the box office. In 1957, Around the World in 80 Days won the Best Picture Academy Award
.
A William Woolfolk novel from the early 1960s, entitled My Name Is Morgan, was considered to be loosely based on Todd's life and career.
, on Valentine's Day
1927. He had been serious about Bertha since age 14, but needed to develop confidence before even asking her out. In 1929, she bore him a son, Mike Todd, Jr.
. A turning point came for Todd when his father died in 1931; Avrom Goldbogen made the decision to change his name to Mike Todd the same day. Bertha Todd died of a pneumothorax
(collapsed lung
) in 1946 in Santa Monica, California
, while undergoing surgery at St. John's Hospital
for a damaged tendon in her finger. Todd and his wife were separated at the time of her death; less than a week earlier, he had filed for divorce.
The following year, Todd married actress Joan Blondell
on July 5, 1947. They were divorced on June 8, 1950, after she alleged that he had abused and extorted her, including holding her out of a window by her ankles.
Todd's third marriage was to the actress Elizabeth Taylor
, with whom he had a tempestuous relationship. The couple exchanged vows on February 2, 1957. Todd was 47 and Taylor was 24; he was also her third husband. Todd and Taylor had a daughter, Elizabeth Frances (Liza) Todd, who was born on August 6, 1957.
. The plane, a twin-engine Lockheed Lodestar
, suffered engine failure while being flown, grossly overloaded, in icing conditions
at an altitude which was too high to sustain flight with only one working engine under those conditions. The plane went out of control and crashed, killing all four on board.
In addition to Todd, those who died in the crash were screenwriter and author Art Cohn
, who was writing Todd's biography The Nine Lives of Mike Todd, pilot Bill Verner, and co-pilot Tom Barclay. Taylor wanted to fly to New York with her husband, but stayed home with a cold after her pleas to come along were overruled by Todd. Just hours before the crash, Todd described the plane as safe as he phoned friends, including Joseph Mankiewicz and Kirk Douglas
, in an attempt to recruit a gin rummy
player for the flight: "Ah, c'mon," he said. "It's a good, safe plane. I wouldn't let it crash. I'm taking along a picture of Elizabeth, and I wouldn't let anything happen to her."
His son, Mike Jr., wanted his father's body to be cremated after it was identified through dental records and brought to Albuquerque, New Mexico
, but Taylor refused, saying he would not want cremation
. Todd was buried in Forest Park, Illinois
, at Beth Aaron Cemetery in plot 66, which is part of Jewish Waldheim there. In his autobiography, Eddie Fisher
, who considered himself to be Todd's best friend, stated:
The remains were desecrated by robbers, who broke into Todd's coffin looking for a $100,000 diamond ring, which, according to rumor, Taylor had placed on her husband's finger prior to his burial. The bag containing Todd's remains was found under a tree near his burial plot. The bag and coffin had been sealed in Albuquerque after Todd's remains were identified following the 1958 crash. Todd's remains were once more identified through dental records and were reburied in a secret location.
|-
!colspan="3" style="background:#C1D8FF;"| Husband of Elizabeth Taylor
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
theatre and film producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
, best known for his 1956 production of Around the World in Eighty Days, which won an Academy Award for Best Picture
Academy Award for Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...
. He is also well-known as the third of Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...
's seven husbands and the third of her eight marriages.
Early life
Todd was born Avrom Hirsch Goldbogen in Minneapolis, MinnesotaMinneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
, to Chaim Goldbogen (an Orthodox rabbi) and Sophia Hellerman, both Polish Jewish immigrants. He was one of nine children in a poor family, the youngest son, and his siblings nicknamed him "Toat" to mimic his difficulty pronouncing the word "coat." It was from this that his name was derived.
The family later moved to Chicago, arriving on the day World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
ended. Todd was expelled in the sixth grade for running a game of craps
Craps
Craps is a dice game in which players place wagers on the outcome of the roll, or a series of rolls, of a pair of dice. Players may wager money against each other or a bank...
inside the school. In high school, he produced the school play, The Mikado
The Mikado
The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...
, which was considered a hit. He eventually dropped out of high school and worked at a variety of jobs, including shoe salesman and store window decorator. One of his first jobs was as a soda jerk
Soda jerk
A soda jerk was a person — typically a youth — who operated the soda fountain in a drugstore, often for the purpose of preparing and serving ice cream soda. This was made by putting flavored syrup into a specially designed tall glass, adding carbonated water and, finally, one or two scoops of ice...
. When the drugstore
Drugstore
Drugstore is a common American term for a type of store centrally featuring a pharmacy. Drugstores sell not only medicines, but also miscellaneous items such as candy, cosmetics, and magazines, as well as light refreshments....
went out of business, Todd had acquired enough medical knowledge from his work there to be hired at Chicago's Michael Reese Hospital
Michael Reese Hospital
Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center was an American hospital founded in 1881. In its heyday, it was a major research and teaching hospital and one of the oldest and largest hospitals in Chicago, Illinois. It was located on the near south side of Chicago, next to Lake Shore Drive Michael...
as a type of "security guard" to stop visitors from bringing in food that was not on the patient's diet.
Career
Todd began his career in the construction business, where he made, and subsequently lost, a fortune. He opened the College of Bricklaying of America, buying the materials to teach bricklaying on credit. The school was forced to shut its doors when the Bricklayers' Union did not view the college as an accepted place of study. Todd and his brother, Frank, next opened their own construction company. Their company was worth over a million dollars but came to an abrupt halt when its financial backing failed in the wake of the Great DepressionGreat Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. Not yet twenty-one, Todd had lost over a million dollars with the loss of his backer. He was now the father of an infant son and had no home for his family.
He later served as a contractor to Hollywood studios, and during the 1933-1934 Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago he produced an attraction called the "Flame Dance." In this number, gas jets were designed to burn part of a dancer's costume off, leaving her naked in appearance. The act attracted enough attention to bring an offer from the Casino de Paris
Casino de Paris
The Casino de Paris, located at 16, rue de Clichy, in the 9th arrondissement is one of the well known music halls of Paris, with a history dating back to the 18th century. Contrary to what the name might suggest, it is a performance venue, not a gambling house...
nightclub in New York City.
Todd got his first taste of Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
with the engagement and was determined to find a way to work there. He came up with the idea of producing the Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
operetta The Mikado
The Mikado
The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...
with an all African-American cast. The Hot Mikado
The Hot Mikado (1939 production)
The Hot Mikado was a 1939 musical theatre adaptation of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado with an African-American cast. Mike Todd originally produced it after the Federal Theatre Project turned down his offer to manage the WPA production of The Swing Mikado .The Hot Mikado was jazzier than The...
, starring Bill "Bojangles" Robinson
Bill Robinson
Bill “Bojangles” Robinson was an American tap dancer and actor of stage and film. Audiences enjoyed his understated style, which eschewed the frenetic manner of the jitterbug in favor of cool and reserve; rarely did he use his upper body, relying instead on busy, inventive feet, and an expressive...
, opened on Broadway March 23, 1939.
His Broadway success gave him the nerve to try taking on showman Billy Rose
Billy Rose
William "Billy" Rose was an American impresario, theatrical showman and lyricist. He is credited with many famous songs, notably "Me and My Shadow" , "It Happened in Monterey" and "It's Only a Paper Moon"...
. Todd visited Grover Whalen
Grover Whalen
Grover Aloysius Whalen was a prominent politician, businessman, and public relations guru in New York City during the 1930s and 1940s.-Early years:Grover A. Whalen was born on June 2, 1886 in New York City...
, president of the 1939 New York World's Fair
1939 New York World's Fair
The 1939–40 New York World's Fair, which covered the of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park , was the second largest American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904. Many countries around the world participated in it, and over 44 million people...
, with a proposal to bring the Broadway show to the World's Fair. Whelan, eager to have the show at the fair, covered Todd's Broadway early closing costs. Rose, who had an exclusivity clause in his fair contract, met Todd at Lindy's
Lindy's
Lindy's is a deli and restaurant with two locations in New York City, at 825 7th Avenue and 401 7th Avenue . Lindy's is best known for its original incarnation which opened in 1921 on Broadway...
, where Rose learned his contract covered new forms of entertainment only. To avoid any head-to head competition, Rose quickly agreed to promote Todd's production along with his own. Todd went on to produce 30 Broadway shows during his career.
Todd's business career was volatile, and failed ventures left him bankrupt many times.
In 1945, Todd floated the idea of holding the Major League Baseball All-Star Game
1945 Major League Baseball All-Star Game
The 1945 Major League Baseball All-Star Game was to have been the 13th annual playing of the midseason exhibition baseball game between the all-stars of the American League and National League, the two leagues comprising Major League Baseball...
in newly-liberated Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. Although baseball's new commissioner
Commissioner of Baseball
The Commissioner of Baseball is the chief executive of Major League Baseball and its associated minor leagues. Under the direction of the Commissioner, the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball hires and maintains the sport's umpiring crews, and negotiates marketing, labor, and television contracts...
Happy Chandler
Happy Chandler
Albert Benjamin "Happy" Chandler, Sr. was a politician from the US state of Kentucky. He represented the state in the U.S. Senate and served as its 44th and 49th governor. Aside from his political positions, he also served as the second Commissioner of Major League Baseball from 1945 to 1951 and...
was reportedly "intrigued" by the idea, it was ultimately dismissed as impractical. The game was finally cancelled due to wartime travel restrictions.
In 1952, Todd made a production of the Johann Strauss II
Johann Strauss II
Johann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...
operetta A Night in Venice, complete with floating gondolas at the then-newly constructed Jones Beach Theatre in Long Island, New York. It ran for two seasons.
In 1950, Mike Todd formed Cinerama
Cinerama
Cinerama is the trademarked name for a widescreen process which works by simultaneously projecting images from three synchronized 35 mm projectors onto a huge, deeply-curved screen, subtending 146° of arc. It is also the trademarked name for the corporation which was formed to market it...
with the broadcaster Lowell Thomas
Lowell Thomas
Lowell Jackson Thomas was an American writer, broadcaster, and traveler, best known as the man who made Lawrence of Arabia famous...
(who founded Capital Cities Communications
Capital Cities Communications
Capital Cities redirects here. For the article about the seat of a government, see Capital .Capital Cities Communications was an American media company best known for its surprise purchase of the much larger American Broadcasting Company in 1985...
) and the inventor Fred Waller. The company was created to exploit Cinerama, a widescreen
Widescreen
Widescreen images are a variety of aspect ratios used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than the standard 1.37:1 Academy aspect ratio provided by 35mm film....
film process created by Waller that used three film projectors to create a giant composite image on a curved screen. The first Cinerama feature, This is Cinerama
This is Cinerama
This is Cinerama is a 1952 full-length film designed to introduce the then-new widescreen process Cinerama, which broadens the aspect ratio so the viewer's peripheral vision is involved...
, was released in September 1952.
Before its release, Todd left the Cinerama Company to develop a widescreen process which would eliminate some of Cinerama's flaws. The result was the Todd-AO
Todd-AO
Todd-AO is a post-production company founded in 1953, providing sound-related services to the motion picture and television industries. The company operates three facilities in the Los Angeles area.-History:...
process, designed by the American Optical Company. The process was first used commercially for the successful 1955 film adaptation of Oklahoma!
Oklahoma!
Oklahoma! is the first musical written by composer Richard Rodgers and librettist Oscar Hammerstein II. The musical is based on Lynn Riggs' 1931 play, Green Grow the Lilacs. Set in Oklahoma Territory outside the town of Claremore in 1906, it tells the story of cowboy Curly McLain and his romance...
. Todd later produced the film for which he is best remembered, Michael Todd's Around the World in 80 Days, which debuted in cinemas on October 17, 1956. Costing $6 million to produce, the movie earned $16 million at the box office. In 1957, Around the World in 80 Days won the Best Picture Academy Award
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
.
A William Woolfolk novel from the early 1960s, entitled My Name Is Morgan, was considered to be loosely based on Todd's life and career.
Personal life
At age 17, Todd married Bertha Freshman in Crown Point, IndianaCrown Point, Indiana
As of the census of 2010, there were 27,317 people and 10,976 households in the city. The racial makeup of the city was 88.20% White, 6.30% African American, 0.20% Native American, 1.80% Asian, 0.00% Pacific Islander, 1.90% from other races, and 1.60% from two or more races...
, on Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day
Saint Valentine's Day, commonly shortened to Valentine's Day, is an annual commemoration held on February 14 celebrating love and affection between intimate companions. The day is named after one or more early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine, and was established by Pope Gelasius I in 496...
1927. He had been serious about Bertha since age 14, but needed to develop confidence before even asking her out. In 1929, she bore him a son, Mike Todd, Jr.
Mike Todd, Jr.
Michael Todd Jr. was the son of movie producer and cinema pioneer Mike Todd and his first wife, Bertha Freshman Todd. He also a stepson of Elizabeth Taylor eventhough he was older than his famous stepmother through his father's third marriage. Todd Jr...
. A turning point came for Todd when his father died in 1931; Avrom Goldbogen made the decision to change his name to Mike Todd the same day. Bertha Todd died of a pneumothorax
Pneumothorax
Pneumothorax is a collection of air or gas in the pleural cavity of the chest between the lung and the chest wall. It may occur spontaneously in people without chronic lung conditions as well as in those with lung disease , and many pneumothoraces occur after physical trauma to the chest, blast...
(collapsed lung
Collapsed lung
Collapsed lung can refer to:* Pneumothorax, accumulation of air in the chest leading to collapse of the lung* Atelectasis, collapse of the air-containing sacs of the lung* Collapsed Lung, a British hip-hop band active in the 1990s...
) in 1946 in Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...
, while undergoing surgery at St. John's Hospital
St. John's Hospital
St. John’s Hospital, founded in 1875 by the Hospital Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis, has 457 licensed beds and is a primary teaching hospital for the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine . St...
for a damaged tendon in her finger. Todd and his wife were separated at the time of her death; less than a week earlier, he had filed for divorce.
The following year, Todd married actress Joan Blondell
Joan Blondell
Rose Joan Blondell was an American actress who performed in movies and on television for five decades as Joan Blondell.After winning a beauty pageant, Blondell embarked upon a film career...
on July 5, 1947. They were divorced on June 8, 1950, after she alleged that he had abused and extorted her, including holding her out of a window by her ankles.
Todd's third marriage was to the actress Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...
, with whom he had a tempestuous relationship. The couple exchanged vows on February 2, 1957. Todd was 47 and Taylor was 24; he was also her third husband. Todd and Taylor had a daughter, Elizabeth Frances (Liza) Todd, who was born on August 6, 1957.
Death
On 22 March 1958, Todd's private plane Lucky Liz crashed near Grants, New MexicoGrants, New Mexico
Grants is a city in Cibola County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 9,182 at the 2010 Census. It is the county seat of Cibola County....
. The plane, a twin-engine Lockheed Lodestar
Lockheed Lodestar
The Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar was a passenger transport aircraft of the World War II era.-Design and development:The prototype of the Lockheed Model 18, which first flew in 1939, was constructed from one of a batch of Lockheed Model 14 Super Electras which had been returned to the manufacturer by...
, suffered engine failure while being flown, grossly overloaded, in icing conditions
Icing conditions
In aviation, icing conditions are those atmospheric conditions that can lead to the formation of water ice on the surfaces of an aircraft, or within the engine as carburetor icing. Inlet icing is another engine-related danger, often occurring in jet aircraft. These icing phenomena do not...
at an altitude which was too high to sustain flight with only one working engine under those conditions. The plane went out of control and crashed, killing all four on board.
In addition to Todd, those who died in the crash were screenwriter and author Art Cohn
Art Cohn
Art Cohn was an American sportswriter, screenwriter and author.Cohn was born in New York, New York. He was a sportswriter and sports editor for the Oakland Tribune newspaper who published the sports column The Cohn-ing Tower. He also wrote for the Long Beach Press-Telegram...
, who was writing Todd's biography The Nine Lives of Mike Todd, pilot Bill Verner, and co-pilot Tom Barclay. Taylor wanted to fly to New York with her husband, but stayed home with a cold after her pleas to come along were overruled by Todd. Just hours before the crash, Todd described the plane as safe as he phoned friends, including Joseph Mankiewicz and Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas is an American stage and film actor, film producer and author. His popular films include Out of the Past , Champion , Ace in the Hole , The Bad and the Beautiful , Lust for Life , Paths of Glory , Gunfight at the O.K...
, in an attempt to recruit a gin rummy
Gin rummy
Gin rummy, or simply gin, is a two-player card game created in 1909 by Elwood T. Baker and his son C. Graham Baker. According to John Scarne, Gin evolved from 18th-century Whiskey Poker and was created with the intention of being faster than standard rummy, but less spontaneous than knock...
player for the flight: "Ah, c'mon," he said. "It's a good, safe plane. I wouldn't let it crash. I'm taking along a picture of Elizabeth, and I wouldn't let anything happen to her."
His son, Mike Jr., wanted his father's body to be cremated after it was identified through dental records and brought to Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque is the largest city in the state of New Mexico, United States. It is the county seat of Bernalillo County and is situated in the central part of the state, straddling the Rio Grande. The city population was 545,852 as of the 2010 Census and ranks as the 32nd-largest city in the U.S. As...
, but Taylor refused, saying he would not want cremation
Cremation
Cremation is the process of reducing bodies to basic chemical compounds such as gasses and bone fragments. This is accomplished through high-temperature burning, vaporization and oxidation....
. Todd was buried in Forest Park, Illinois
Forest Park, Illinois
Forest Park is a village in Cook County, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago in the United States. The population was 15,688 at the 2000 census...
, at Beth Aaron Cemetery in plot 66, which is part of Jewish Waldheim there. In his autobiography, Eddie Fisher
Eddie Fisher (singer)
Edwin Jack "Eddie" Fisher , was an American entertainer. He was one of the world's most famous and successful singers in the 1950s, selling millions of records and hosting his own TV show. His divorce from his first wife, Debbie Reynolds, to marry his best friend's widow, Elizabeth Taylor, garnered...
, who considered himself to be Todd's best friend, stated:
The remains were desecrated by robbers, who broke into Todd's coffin looking for a $100,000 diamond ring, which, according to rumor, Taylor had placed on her husband's finger prior to his burial. The bag containing Todd's remains was found under a tree near his burial plot. The bag and coffin had been sealed in Albuquerque after Todd's remains were identified following the 1958 crash. Todd's remains were once more identified through dental records and were reburied in a secret location.
Selected Broadway productions
- Call Me Ziggy (Play, Farce, 1937)
- The Hot MikadoThe Hot Mikado (1939 production)The Hot Mikado was a 1939 musical theatre adaptation of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado with an African-American cast. Mike Todd originally produced it after the Federal Theatre Project turned down his offer to manage the WPA production of The Swing Mikado .The Hot Mikado was jazzier than The...
(Musical, Operetta, 1939) - Something for the BoysSomething for the BoysSomething for the Boys is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter and a book by Herbert Fields and Dorothy Fields. Produced by Mike Todd, the show opened on Broadway in 1943 and starred Ethel Merman in her fifth Cole Porter musical.-Productions:...
(Musical, Comedy, 1943) - Mexican HayrideMexican Hayride (musical)Mexican Hayride is a musical with a book by Herbert Fields and Dorothy Fields and music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The show opened on Broadway in 1944.-Production:...
(Musical, Comedy,1944) - Up in Central ParkUp in Central ParkUp in Central Park is a Broadway musical with a book by Herbert Fields and Dorothy Fields, lyrics by Dorothy Fields, and music by Sigmund Romberg...
(Musical, Comedy, 1945) - As the Girls GoAs the Girls GoAs the Girls Go is a musical with music by Jimmy McHugh, lyrics by Harold Adamson and a book by William Roos.After an out-of-town tryout at the Opera House in Boston in October 1948, the original Broadway production of As the Girls Go opened at the Winter Garden Theatre on November 13, 1948,...
(Musical, Comedy, 1948)
Sources
- Dictionary of First Names, ISBN 0-304-36226-3
- City of Light : The Story of Fiber Optics, ISBN 0-19-516255-2
- Cohn, Art. The Nine Lives of Mike Todd. Hutchinson of London, 1959.
- Walker, Alexander. Elizabeth: The Life of Elizabeth Taylor. Grove Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8021-3769-5
External links
- Mike Todd's "A Night in Venice" on Amazon.com
- Mike Todd - Accident Report Aviation Safety - March 22, 1958
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!colspan="3" style="background:#C1D8FF;"| Husband of Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...