Two Days With Richard Burton
In 1974 I worked with my father songwriter/producer Buddy Kaye as associate producer of The Little Prince spoken word album. I flew to New York City from Los Angeles and met with A. Joseph Tandet, Esq. owner of North American book and theatrical rights to the Antoine de Saint-Exupery children's story and negotiated a license to record an English narration based on the original Kathleen Woods book translation. The world famous book first published in 1943 had already sold 40-million copies but no record company wanted to finance the recording. My father then partnered with a Los Angeles based TV cartoon producer and formed LP Ventures to independently produce the album. A third partner, a greetings card company owner from Chicago, was brought in and funding was complete.
Our next challenge was to cast the characters, but no “name” actors wanted to sign-on? About this same time we read that Richard Burton was asked to play the aviator in a new Paramount Pictures-Bob Fosse-Lerner and Loewe live-action musical adaptation of The Little Prince but was rejected when he refused to test for the singing part… Note: Rich already won two Tony Awards, including a Tony for his singing role in the Lerner and Loewe musical Camelot (…what were they thinking?)
So, my father then called Rich's agent who said Rich would have to be paid $1,000,000 US if he agrees to play the aviator in our production? This was a problem when our total budget was $60,000… Fortunately, after several calls he agreed to pitch the project to the star who lived in Switzerland and to our delight Richard Burton accepted the engagement for our proposed $25,000 upfront payment - plus a royalty after 250,000 albums sold. Needless to say at this point the other actors we were speaking with (Jonathan Winters, Jim Backus, John Carradine, Claudine Longet, Mark Conrad and young Christian Williams - son of Andy Williams and Claudine Longet) signed on to the project. Williams' part was later replaced by the brilliant 7-year-old actor Billy Simpson who delightfully played the Little Prince.
To be helpful, Rich also agreed to coordinate the recording session to coincide with his day-off while filming The Klansman, in Oroville, California, rather than having us pay for an expensive trip to Los Angeles from Switzerland. A&M Recording Studio, Hollywood (a 5-hour drive from Oroville) was then booked for a one-day recording session March 24, 1974 and on that day our production team, cast and A&M studio personnel gathered to await Rich's arrival. At 12-noon, precisely on time, a chauffeured white Cadillac-limo drove through the A&M guard gates on La Brea Ave. and Richard Burton stepped out from the back seat of the car wearing a sport jacket, mock-turtle neck shirt - and, holding a scruffy white Maltese (one-eyed) dog.
A catered lunch was served in the studio and PR photos were taken with the actors and producers and the recording began. I sat in the control booth with the recording engineer as levels were set on the vocal mic's while my father stood in the studio, script in hand, directing the actors. Note: Richard Burton, was always very respectful with his response when suggestions about his lines were made, but he never waivered when what he was doing was to his liking and if asked to do another take he would politely agree but do his lines exactly as he did the first time (i.e., he did his lines, his way) and, that turned out to be a good thing…
After completing our A&M recording session - day two - that Rich graciously stayed for (with no additional pay) while having lunch in Hollywood at the Formosa Café, he conveyed to my father and I that Paramount Pictures director Stanley Donen had called him to ask if he would come to Los Angeles to test for the lead role of the aviator in Paramount's Little Prince musical and Rich pointedly answered that he'd rather audition over the phone - and improvised to the French folk song Ferra Jacka singing: “Mr. Donen, Mr. Donen, Go F*** Yourself” and hung up! (Giving us greater insight into why he accepted a $25,000 fee for playing the aviator in our album production and turned down One-Million Dollars from Paramount).
The lunch conversation continued and he told us about the one-eyed Maltese (a present given to he and Elizabeth Taylor by someone who thought the most beautiful couple should have this ugly dog) but, in true character, instead of refusing the scruffy Maltese, the dog was loved and became a lifelong companion. After lunch as we were leaving the cafe Rich asked the waiter for a to-go bag to take his barely eaten lunch back to the limo - for his dog - and, it was clear that his two-Martini lunch was more to his liking…
Burtons' Revenge: The Paramount Pictures seventeen-million dollar budget feature length musical The Little Prince turned out to be a box office stiff (grossing less than one-million dollars) - giving Richard Burton great satisfaction in 1976 when he accepted the Grammy Award for “Best Children's Recording” for his narration of our $60,000 Little Prince recording and I was once again reminded of Richard Burton's words as he departed A&M Studios, in 1974
“The LP version of The Little Prince is a memorable work and the time allotted for its stay on earth is always and forever and eternal”
Listen and enjoy Richard Burton Narrating The Little Prince on Audible…
https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Little-Prince-Audiobook/B08DYFVBDF?
Sound Recording © Richard D. Kaye
(All Rights Reserved)
Watch TWO DAYS WITH RICHARD BURTON Video on YouTube