Razzamatazz - British comedy


TEENAGE AFFAIRS

"Burton's old flame tells of affair at 14", screamed the headline in the Sunday Times.
    It struck an immediate chord with me and I read on with great interest. The article told the story of author Rosemary Kingsland, now 'an attractive woman in her early sixties', and of her clandstine affair with actor Richard Burton when she was only fourteen. Apparently nobody else knew about the romance at the time and she has told nobody since, but now she 'wants the truth to be known'.
    In the absence of any corroborative proof of their liasion some might consider Mrs Kingsland's revelations to be a bit iffy to say the least, especially as being a writer she could easily have made up such a story, but I am not one of them, not least because a similar thing happened to me in 1961 when I too was a fourteen-year-old.
    At the time I had gone to stay with my Aunt and Uncle in Los Angeles for a while. Like most boys of my age at that time I was madly in love with Marilyn Monroe, so imagine my great joy when one day I happened to spot her in a Hollywood diner having a coffee. Shyly I approached her and asked her for her autograph. She was even lovelier in real life than she was on the silver screen. She was very friendly and unaffected and after we'd chatted for what seemed ages she asked me if I'd like to go back to her place for a coffee. I said that she'd just had a coffee, but she told me not to be silly. Ten minutes later we were making love on her big pink bed. Over the course of the next week we made love a further seventeen times. She told me that I was a very good lover, not quite as good as President Kennedy but better than Bobby, which I thought wasn't bad for a fourteen-year-old whose only previous sexual experience had been with his soapy hand whilst sat on the lavatory.
    Our affair might have gone on for longer but one day when I had gone down to the drugstore to get a soda for Marilyn I happened to bump into Natalie Wood. I mean literally bump into her. As we picked ourselves up and our eyes met we were immediately attracted to each other and when my hand accidentally touched one of her breasts as we dusted ourselves off it was all that was needed to bring us together. Our affair started just five minutes later. Our intention had been to go to the beach where Natalie had a property but we were so attracted to each other that we couldn't wait and ended up on the back seat of her open top Cadillac at the side of the freeway, screened from prying eyes by a roadside billboard.
    We eventually did make it to her beachside property where we spent the next four days making love and relaxing in the Californian sunshine. Four days might have become four weeks, or even four years, but on the fifth day whilst I was taking an early morning stroll along the beach, guess who I should meet? Greta bloody Garbo. That's right, the same Greta Garbo who ensnared Peter Cook. All thoughts of a life with Natalie were put on hold when Greta told me that she wanted to be alone with me, and of course the moment she was alone with me we made love. We spent a blissful, passionate, six days together but then sadly it was time for me to return to England as I had exams coming up.
    As is the case with Rosemary Kingsland and Richard Burton I have never told a soul about my affairs with three leading Hollywood film stars until now. Again as with Mrs Kingsland I was never seen with my lovers and nobody knew or found out about us. A final coincidence is that my lovers too are now dead and unable to either confirm or deny any affairs we may have had in the past. But Rosemary and I know the truth.