Around the World of Mike Todd

A decade after Mike Todd’s untimely death, Elizabeth celebrated his legacy in the TV documentary Around the World of Mike Todd, which aired on September 8, 1968. Co-written by her stepson, Michael Todd Jr., and narrated by Orson Welles, luminaries such as Gypsy Rose Lee and Ethel Merman also shared their memories of Mike. The program features many rare home movies of the Todds that were seen here publicly for the first time.

Elizabeth filmed her interview on April 19, 1966 in Rome, where she and Richard Burton were making The Taming of the Shrew (1967). “E was very good I thought,” Richard wrote in his diary. In the program, Elizabeth shares memories of the all too brief time she shared with Mike, such as the birth of their daughter, Liza:

"When Liza was born she looked like, well, all premature babies, a bit like Methuselah, but to Mike she was a total miracle. He was quite convinced that when he went to see her right after her birth, and she was in an incubator, and really breathing for her life, while evidently in some sort of gastric spasm, a little hand came up and made a sort of sign, and Mike was totally convinced, and told everyone in the world that would listen to him, that she was waving at him and that she looked him right full in the eyes and that she recognized him and waved to him, and from there on in he said that was the most brilliant child, and was certainly going to be the first female president of the United States, and of course the first Jewish president of the United States. Liza did, and does, so much resemble Mike. ... She has inherited all of his gestures, his mannerisms, his vitality, and it's scary at times, but beautiful."

Elizabeth’s “ice skating rink” engagement ring from Mike glittered on her finger during the interview, while “The Night of the Iguana” brooch, a gift from Richard, was pinned to her shoulder.