Shining Through Scandal: The Incredible Life Of Elizabeth Taylor

She Signed Her Life Away To MGM

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National Velvet became a box-office success and marked the official start of Elizabeth Taylor’s lengthy career. However, her contractual obligations to MGM gave the studio control over many aspects of her life. She would say later in her life that her childhood ended once she became a star, telling Rolling Stone, “I was used from the day I was a child, and utilized by the studio.” MGM wanted to die Taylor’s black hair, change her name to “Virginia,” and pluck her eyebrows into the thin shape popularized in the ’30s—all demands that Taylor and her parents were able to successfully turn down at the time.