.Incomplete Character List.2/8/2024
Posted on February 8, 2024
Originally part of the Start Here Introduction.
As a Playboy Playmate, Paige Young experienced a minor type of celebrity status for a brief portion of her short life. I
She was an actual human with a life besides her association with Playboy.
At times, Paige associated with people who were much more famous than she. They were major celebrities known to the mass public.
This includes (that we know of) Hugh Hefner, John Huston, Andy Warhol, Bill Cosby; Jonathan Winters, men who lived with massive fame which outlives them.
Bill Cosby is still alive as of this writing.
Others were and are famous to a smaller audience.
On this website I have written about all these men and Paige’s connection to them. Someone basically forgotten and seemingly inconsequential.
The men famous to a more niche audience includes: Peter Gowland, son of English film actor Gibson Gowland, an LA native like Paige. Peter and his wife Alice ran a successful pinup and commercial photography business from the late 1940s through the early 1990s.
Paige Young was the team’s last contribution to Playboy magazine in 1968. They didn’t like the turn Playboy took to showing visible “pubic hair” and debated about in the media, so they quit and continued on with a lucrative business.
Paige had modeled for Gowland years before Playboy I have learned. The only photos one can normally find on the internet of Paige Young, were taken by Peter and Alice.
For a few years, Marvin M. Mitchelson represented Paige Young in her divorce against husband Mark F. Segal in 1964. Mitchelson, a Beverly Hills lawyer was a prominent media personality in the 1970s and 80s and 90s.
Mitchelson is credited for introducing the term “Palimony” into divorce court and to the general public when he represented Michelle Triola Marvin in a financial claim against actor Lee Marvin. Lee Marvin dumped live-in lover Michelle without a penny and Marvin Mitchelson became famous representing her when Michelle wanted compensation for the loss of her career as a singer.
M.M.M. is all but forgotten in 2022.
The Hon. Desmond Guinness, is frequently how his name is written, is from the famous Irish beer brand family but also a highly titled, wealthy, socially elite and sometimes controversial family. Legendary photographer Slim Aarons produced some iconic photos of Desmond Guinness, one in particular with his very young children. The photo has probably been seen by more people than know the identity of Desmond Guinness.
He died in August of 2020.
DeWain Valentine, Colorado born, Venice Beach based sculptor-artist, is one of the founding members of the “Light and Space movement” or “Finish Fetish” school which was born in Venice Beach, California in the 1960s.
Valentine died in February of 2022.
John Huston obviously needs no explanation. John Huston lived in Ireland and was acquainted with the aforementioned Desmond Guinness. Paige visited Ireland as a guest of Huston’s according to 2 sources.
Paige Young and her family’s journey encompass both the industry and town of Hollywood, WW2 Los Angeles and post-war Los Angeles, growing up in the San Fernando Valley in the 1950s-the prototypical suburban middle class existence. Malibu and Topanga Canyon in the 1960s and 70s, and the spectre of Hollywood the industry throughout the 3 decades she lived.
It’s the old story of time and place and people.
Research Methods
My (ongoing) research consisted of obtaining various LA County public records like birth and death certificates, viewing City of LA building permit documents, (online), perusing telephone directories in the DTLA public library, voting records, marriage, divorce, and military records on ancestry.com.
I have spoken with a few first hand sources, there were several who refuse to speak with me, or I couldn’t locate. At this point, many are dead. And the living people who know, aren’t talking, with the exception of the few I have written about on this blog.
**NEW** Names in Paige’s Phone Book: Desmond & Jonathan Guinness, Michael Butler of “Hair,” Hef & Joni, Cosby, FWHC. New painting. Expect updates. 02/25/2024. Very LONG! Under Construction!
Posted on October 6, 2023
This entry will make more sense if you have read at least the 2nd half of this website.
I was in Los Angeles in April of 2023 and visited with Melanie Myers from the Daily Mail and Secrets of Playboy.
She showed me an old paper she had saved with phone numbers she copied out of Paige’s personal phone directory, after her suicide.
Melanie and B.J. Royale, who lived in the front duplex in front of Paige’s apartment in 1974, were preparing to share the task of calling Paige’s friends to tell them the news of her suicide. And to inform some, that Paige left instructions for them to receive one (or more) of her paintings.
Melanie made me a copy of her original notes. I took photos of that as well.
Thank you Melanie, I enjoyed our interview and appreciate the phone list. It has given me several more clues into the last couple years of Paige’s life.
Below are images of the phone list.
Joni-Hefner entry below Jonathan Guinness. Joni refers to Joni Mattis, Hugh Hefner’s longtime assistant, personal secretary and friend from the Chicago mansion days and possible (probable) “fixer.” I believe Joni Mattis is the person who put into motion (with HMH approval) the actions taken to cover up Paige’s suicide and all the blame she placed on HMH and his friends, for instance: preventing the sensational news from leaking to the press, leaving out important details in the police incident report (like the mural), destroying or hiding the police photos taken at the scene, destroying notes written by Paige at scene.
Melanie in Daily Mail-“police read some of the note to me… most vitriol for HH and John Huston.” And Paige’s apartment being “cleaned and cleared out very quickly,” according to Melanie.
Melanie told me that that Paige’s mother (Donna) and sister (Constance) came the next day to pack up belongings. They gave a painting to Melanie before leaving.
Hefner received reports on a regular basis from employees about goings on at the mansion, its’ players and visitors. (PJ Masten)
Proximity: Paige lived in Westwood, a 10 minute car drive to Holmby Hills. The local police had a friendly relationship with Hefner and the mansion employees.
Many former LAPD officers became Mansion security for Hefner over the decades. This according to Secrets of Playboy. (PJ Masten).
The LAPD certainly knew who the hell Hugh Hefner was when they were greeted by Paige’s mural at her suicide scene 2 miles from the Playboy mansion.
As I continue to read and study the history of the LAPD, it’s for good reason they have Mythic status as a corrupt institution.
So really, it is not surprising that information unflattering to Hefner could be buried and made up to be like it just didn’t happen.
I am not in any way saying Hugh Hefner is directly responsible for Paige’s suicide.
But it’s all about the image.
Particularly at this date, when Bobbie Arnstein was arrested in Chicago on (exaggerated) cocaine smuggling charges just 9 days previous to Paige’s suicide.
Joni and Hef could have “believed” that by burying Paige’s story from getting out, they were helping Bobbie and Hef.
There was more motivation than usual to justify sweeping this incident under the rug.
PJ Masten in Secrets of Playboy talked about an awareness that negative press was to be avoided.
Jennifer Saginor, Secrets of Playboy and author of Playground said on the podcast Power,“Hef was always image conscious.”
I think the Playboy people including Hugh Hefner saw an opportunity to shut down the possibility of this news about Paige from getting out and they took it.
Jim Ellis, former body guard for Hefner in the early 1980s, said in Secrets of Playboy that his job was not only “protecting” his clients physical being, but “also their reputation.”
Why does Paige Young’s entry in the Playmate Book, say “drug overdose.” If they knowingly made that up, why that manner of death was chosen is beyond me.
END
Michael Brandon, too many. Cindy Manay brings nothing.
Looking at the list, so far have not found anything on Larry Fisher or a Gretchen Foster.
Steve Moress, listed below Joni-Hefner, opened a museum and shop of acrylic arts in 1974 at 2360 S. Robertson Blvd. It was open for several decades selling to interior decorators, but is now closed. I called several numbers for a “Stephen Moress” but none of them were working numbers. He’s about 80 years old now.
The following screenshots are from a real estate website and show the interior of Paige’s carriage house/apartment over a garage in Westwood, located down the street from the Mormon Temple. The apartment was built over a garage in 1940, it is where Paige lived the last years of her life and committed suicide. Among her belongings was a suicide note mentioning names she said were complicit in her downfall, a will, a mural proclaiming “Hugh Hefner is the devil,” and many of her paintings. A few unfinished. All her personal belongings.
These real estate photos are all the world has left of this particular place of what is old Los Angeles.
Unless there are photographs lying in some attic or perhaps in a landfill placed there decades ago?
In this case a carriage house over a garage built there in 1940 by Kathryn Eddy, who had appeared in some walk-ons in the Silents.
All original built-ins. (Visiting reminded me of another LA trip — I visited the place Paige was born as Diana Lee Cotterell: 1933 Griffith Park Blvd, originally a Christian Science Maternity center and the building was being torn down on the day I was there.)
The builts-in of the 800 sq. foot apartment were being ripped out the day I visited; the place was being completely renovated.
Meet Michael Butler
The next section provides information on the Michael Butler entry found in Paige’s phone book seen below. Top right below sister Connie Smashey’s contact information.
I believe he is the same Michael Butler who was the producer of Hair, the famous “Tribal Love Rock” musical producing several pop hits that endure to this day. Hair is a definitive part of what represents 1960s culture.
Dubbed by the media as a “hippie-millionaire”
A detailed description of Michael Butler and his upper crust background in article below by Eugenia Sheppard. It appeared in newspapers across the country in 1968, the year Hair opened. The year Paige Young was a Vietnam era Playboy Playmate.
Mary Blume wrote an eye-opening article about Butler in the LAT. Oct. 11, 1970.
Three marriages so far and a production company in LA “Natoma” And an avid polo player.
Page 1
Page #3 of the LAT article. Butler was and avid polo player
San Fran Examiner June 25, 1971
San Francisco Examiner, May 1, 1972
Like Paige and John Huston and Celeste, there was the “horse connection.”
END
Note below that David Shane right below a Geo. Roberts.
Shane is an important character from several other chapters. He was a man with a pornstache, business owner set up by his successful Beverly Hills business owner father and brother of Cici Shane (Mrs.John) Huston. He was a visitor to the LA Mansion and alleged holder or keeper, of Paige’s “sex tape.” See chapters with Shane in the title.
Nothing comes up for Gus Prall at the top left.
The Playboy Club moved from the classic 1960s-linked Sunset Strip to the hot and brand new, ABC Entertainment Center set in futuristic modern Century City.
Paige lived about a 3 minute drive from Century City.
LAT Nov. 1, 1973. I think the CC Playboy Club opened earlier in the fall. Paige lived about a 3 minute drive from Century City.
Charity performance of Cabaret was performed at the opening.
*Notice the advert below for the Classic Cat. They too present their take on Cabaret (June 1973)
Playboy Club,Ad for the Classic Cat Performance of Cabaret and A mexican restaurant actually named speedy Gonzales.
Marty Tregman is a long time realtor in Santa Monica, he doesn’t remember Paige. Jon Von Newman…. came up with nothing. Brian Wilson is a common name.
I was intrigued with the entry “Feminist Women’s Health Center 746 Crenshaw”
I began researching it as I am doing with all the entries.
Turns out it played a not insignificant role in the 2nd Wave Feminist movement.
This FWHC was one of, if not the first, women’s self-help health centers in the nation.
There were many services that Paige might have used at the “Feminist Women’s Health Center 746 Crenshaw,” as you will see through newspaper articles written at the time, both local and national.
A brief context of the times is important:
In the early 1970s, the Feminist movement was more active than ever.
More so even than the 1960s, despite publication of The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan in 1963.
1973: The Roe V.Wade case enabled a woman’ right to an abortion to become national law in January of 1973.
1972: The Equal Rights Amendment was reintroduced and 22 states quickly ratified. This same year Title 9 was made a law.
Domestic violence and rape crisis centers and phone lines opened and self-defense classes for women proliferated in the 1970s.
So did media conversations about equal pay for equal work, ending workplace sexual harassment, limited job opportunity, gender discrimination in housing and credit, and implementation of subsidized childcare and wages for housework.
1974 – Housing discrimination on the basis of sex and credit discrimination against women are outlawed by Congress.
1975: An influential book about sexual violence and rape, “Against Our Will” by Susan Brownmiller was published.
In this environment were many women weary and fed up with their treatment by almost always male doctors, OB/Gyns, as experts and authorities on their own female bodies, including the parts and functions that make up the whole woman.
The health and reproductive aspect of “Women’s Liberation” is symbolized by the worldwide success of the book “Our Bodies, Ourselves,” published in 1970 and now on its’ 9th edition.
You or someone you know may very well have a copy.
Women were talking about it and organized.
Please see article at right about the FWHC by Linda Zink of Long Beach.
2 such women were Carol Downer and Lorraine Rothman, both mothers in the Los Angles area. Together they started the Los Angeles Feminist W0men’s Health Clinic and taught classes to women on how to be the expert on their own reproductive health, which of course, includes control of fertility.
Some examples of what was taught at the FWHC:
How to do a self-check on your cervix (pelvic exam) using a speculum and mirror, how to extract one’s menstrual period before it starts (explained in-depth below) treat one’s own female health concerns and conditions, self -insertion of an IUD, practice these procedures on other women and teach them self-care.
Quote below from LA Conservancy Website as part of their nomination for historic status of the FWHC building at 1027 Crenshaw.
“Women’s Self-Help One clinic was the first in the nation and consequently placed the Crenshaw Women’s Center at the genesis point of the women’s self-help movement. Founded by Carol Downer and Lorraine Rothman, the clinic became a model for the national movement. In 1972, the Center was raided by police. Ms. Downer had applied yogurt as a cure for a yeast infection and was arrested for practicing medicine without a license. She was acquitted and the platform and publicity of The Great Yogurt Conspiracy raised the consciousness of the nation and helped make woman’s clinics a national movement.”
The raid happened at 1027 Crenshaw.
746 Crenshaw was demolished in the 1980s.
The Great Yogurt Conspiracy received wide press coverage due to its’ humorous title and the absurdity of the charges.
“Carol Downer revolutionized the women’s health movement, learning how to perform abortions and vaginal self-examinations, and teaching other women how to, as well. In the early 70s, at a time when abortion, birth control, and fertility information was not widely available to women, Carol and some other women developed the practice of menstrual extraction, offering women a means to take control of their reproduction. She and her group, which incorporated as the Feminist Women’s Health Center (FWHC) post-Roe v Wade, and travelled around the United States, equipped with vaginal speculums, teaching women about their bodies and reproductive systems. The FWHC also established the Women’s Abortion Referral Service, the first of its kind to offer pregnancy screening. From the website Feminist Current, an interview with Carol Downer conducted about 2 years ago.
Move to 746 mentioned below.
The “yogurt conspiracy,” arrest and acquittal caught the attention of cultural icons like Gloria Steinem, Bella Abzug and Dr. Benjamin Spock, bringing national attention to these LA activists.
Last column in Zink article. 5/13/73
“Lorraine Rothman was a founding member of the feminist centered Self-Help Clinic movement and a major mover of many successful behind-the-scenes projects. With Carol Downer, she worked on the concept of menstrual extraction as a viable women’s home health care technique; and, in 1971, she invented the Del-Em menstrual extraction kit, which was patented n 1974……… Rothman’s collaborative relationship with Downer and the self-help clinic movement began when she attended an April 7, 1971 meeting organized by Downer to discuss women’s reproductive rights and abortion. At the second meeting, one week later, Rothman shared her idea of a safe home health care tool, demonstrating the prototype of the Del-Em menstrual extraction kit. Shortly afterwards, Downer and Rothman founded the Feminist Women’s Health Center (FWHC) in Los Angeles; Rothman went on to open a second FWHC in Orange County, closer to her home and family. Over the next two decades, Rothman traveled widely, taking the Self-Help Clinic concept to women’s groups both in and outside the US....”Archived interview subject description at CSU Long Beach.
Therefore, if a fertilized egg had just been planted on the uterine wall, of course it would be suctioned out along with the rest of the menstrual material. If this was the case, indeed one would be preventing a birth. But you really wouldn’t know.
Several doctors are quoted below as being against menstrual extraction.
Carol Downer continues to lives in Eagle Rock and has been working in disability and immigration law for many years. She has lived a life of activism in the field of women’s reproductive rights and the peace movement.
For more details, please see the Carol Downer entry in the Embryo Project Encyclopedia.
END
Veronica told me she heard Paige’s death announced on the car radio as she was driving. What she heard caused her to pull over, too shocked to continue the rest of the way home. She tried later to call the radio station but was unable to get through.
Veronica met Paige at the Malibu beach home she shared with husband Frank.
Paige had been brought over to their home by Joe Rank, an art lover and collector who worked in radio and live close by.
Veronica never saw them together again but Paige and Joe remained friends and she thinks Joe did know about Paige’s background and family.
By the end of the 1970s Rank was the founder of a very successful clothing company. (More details at the end.)
Veronica said that Joe Rank knew Paige quite well and I should contact him.
I have tried, unfortunately with no luck. He would be in his 80s or 90s now.
The only place Joe or Joseph Rank turns up in newspaper archives is as a Spanish language radio station owner. And this is the same Joe Rank.
Veronica said Paige told her that Bill Cosby was an “art patron” and was helping her to stay in her Topanga Canyon cabin home and art studio.
Veronica thought it was “nice of Bill Cosby to help her out” and thought nothing sinister about it as Paige did not say anything sinister about Bill or the arrangement.
Veronica concurred with others I have interviewed, that Paige often walked around topless or nude. She remembers Paige being naked or topless playing in volleyball games and the “the beach boys” who hung around certainly appreciated it.
Veronica thought it might be explained by Paige’s personality which could be described as “High and Low” or “hi-lo.”
Veronica told me about an occasion that Paige used LSD and experienced a “bad trip.” Veronica stayed with Paige and helped her through the ordeal. Veronica was motherly to many of the young people who would show up at her home even though she was still young herself, in her 30s.
Her husband Frank enjoyed “collecting people,” wrote Veronica. And many young people would hang around their beach house socializing and playing.
I’m grateful to Veronica for her permission to use this image.
Veronica remembers buying groceries for Paige, at a store located at the bottom of “Fernwood & Topanga Canyon Dr.”
And the Safeway on Sunset & PCH, later Vons.
This happened about once a month for quite a while and the “2 friends would chit chat and catch up on news” and Paige never wanted more food than she could physically carry.
This was before her move to Westwood. After that Veronica didn’t see Paige as much but they frequently talked on the phone.
She remembers just vaguely: Paige telling her about her own art studio in Venice Beach, a block away from the beach. (See 2 chapters: Venice Beach, Richard Sample.)
(Dennis Hopper has a connection to Paige as he knew the artists that Paige knew, Larry Bell and in the same building: DeWayne Valentine. Robert Irwin lived across the street at this time. )
Paige sometimes expressed her suicide ideation in phone conversations with Veronica.
She did not discuss Hugh Hefner or John Huston, David Shane, Desmond Guinness or a”sex tape.”(See related chapters)
Several times Paige needed a ride to visit her sister, but Veronica never met the sister: Constance/Connie.
The last couple times the two friends had a phone conversation, Veronica noted an “echoey sound in the background like Paige was in a bathroom.” Veronica tried to lighten the mood by asking her about the echoey sound and said,”Paige are you already in heaven?” Paige laughed and they hung up the phone with Veronica feeling Paige was in a better space.
It would be the last time they spoke.
Paige one time had checked herself into the UCLA Psych Center but was released in a just a few days.
Paige told Veronica “she said she had cured all the patients at the ward.”
Veronica said she never believed that Paige would actually go through with the suicide.
Separately, Melanie told me about one time driving Paige to the UCLA Psych Ward. Melanie remembers Paige returning from the ward with a very strange character who acted violently but the women scared him off. Paige showed up with a gun and he bolted.
“In California we have a law (5150) that the police (or yourself if you may harm yourself) can commit you for 3 days to a hospital for psych care. If you are pronounced no longer liable to harm yourself or others or decide you want to leave voluntarily you can after three days.”
Paige probably took advantage of the 51/50 law, which began in California in 1967.
Veronica does remember before Paige’s suicide she had expressed not having enough money for paint and told her to just wait a few days and she would be able to help her out with that. But Paige was dead before that happened.
Lack of money was a recurring problem for Paige.
She did not know Paige to own a car, says Veronica.
Paige did not talk of her past or much about her future, she seemed to always exist in and speak in the present moment.
Melanie said does not remember Paige owning a car either.
I personally think Paige must have sold her yellow Mustang that was seen by Sample in Malibu 64-67, and seen by her cousin Christian/Chris in Sherman Oaks in 1964, when Paige made Chris a cup of coffee during his visit to her apartment.
Paige told Chris about her short lived marriage, (did not say the name Mark F. Segal to Chris) and impending divorce. She did not mention the violence and threats in her divorce papers to Chris, I told him and he said “Oh, she would not have put up with that.”
No one I’ve communicated with who knew Paige say they can remember a time when she talked about her childhood her family or her background. Veronica says Joe Rank may have known about Paige’s background.
Chris Young already knew about it as they were family in each others lives in childhood when she was Diana Cotterell in Sherman Oaks in the 1950s. He last saw her right before the move to a chicken coop converted house near the east end of Malibu.
Chris said he and his mother were contacted by Connie, Paige’s sister, about the suicide. Chris remembers Connie had a cold and seemingly indifferent attitude about Paige’s death. He said this made he and his mother sick to their stomach and angry.
Aca Joe History
“Joe Rank, a Los Angeles broadcasting executive who had managed KMEX-TV, the Spanish language TV station in Los Angeles, moved to Mexico in 1973 to establish a printed tee shirt business on the beach resorts which were booming with international tourism. By 1978, Rank had shops in 75 stores in Acapulco, Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlán, and Mexico City, plus tee shirt shops in 15 of the popular Carlos n’ Charlie’s bars and restaurants throughout Mexico.
In 1983, the name was changed to Aca Joe and product distribution was limited only to Aca Joe owned or franchised stores. The line was expanded to include pants, jackets, sweaters, and more than just tee shirts. After changing to this more exclusive distribution of the product, the stores were swamped with customers. Lines were formed in front of the stores with people waiting to get in at all hours of the day.
The success of Aca Joe did not go without notice by international investors, and soon a deal was made with American partners for the expansion of Aca Joe outside of Mexico. William Meyer became Rank’s partner in Aca Joe International and the first stores in the U.S. were opened in the Bay Area of San Francisco, with shops in Union Square, Sausalito, and the Stanford Shopping Center.
The U.S. shops were very successful, and to provide financing for expansion, the new U.S. company filed for listing on the NASDAQ stock exchange. Prospects for the future of the stores were bright, and in 1985 Aca Joe International was the fastest rising stock on NASDAQ” From the ACA Joe website.
Joe left LA and had moved to Mexico in 1973, before Paige killed herself.
I have not communicated with anyone who heard about Paige’s death through any media with the exception of Veronica who heard part of an announcement about it on the radio.
Away from the backyard and duplex.
I’m looking up from the alley. This window faces the building next door. There is a bit of yard between trees house and fence, I did not see that part. It’s where Paige kept the Akitas she wanted to breed and Melanie complained about them barking. LAPD reports talks about a man named DeWitt to whom Paige wrote instructions to take her dogs. (See chapter on death certificate.) Veronika thinks Paige was going to try and make money from breeding the Akitas.
These windows face the alley. Garage had storage in it but no cars says Melanie.
1971-1973 #1. John Huston. Meet Celeste Shane. St. Clerans in Ireland. Bill Gardner. LAT writer Jack Smith Observes Huston and Hefner at Trendy Backgammon Club. Westwood. Modeling. Update 5/2/2024. Long.
Posted on April 7, 2023
IN 1972
Paige in B&W appears in the 1972 edition of “Gowland’s Guide to Glamour Photography.” However the photos were not taken recently.
This B&W photo is from the same photo session as the color one used in the 69/70 Ridgid Tool calendar at right.
(SFW)
1971
It was around this time that Paige moved into a carriage house in Westwood, near UCLA and the famous and infamous “Playboy Mansion” located in Holmby Hills section of Los Angeles. Also part of the Hefner legend , the estate was discovered by “constant companion” Barbi Benton driving around the neighborhood one day.
1972/73 cont…
According to the Daily Mail report of 2014, Paige complains to (neighbor who lived in duplex in front of the carriage house) Melanie about her relationship with famed film director John Huston:
“She (Paige) said she had an affair with John Huston, and that he had done things to her, abused her. I remember one incident in which John hid her shoes to make her think she had gone crazy. It was a small thing, but she was really bothered by it.”
Daily Mail Dec. 2014
“I know she dated Huston for a while and had just gotten back from a trip to Ireland with him.”
Background
Huston fled Hollywood in disgust over the Huac Tactics and moved to St. Clerans, an estate in Ireland. He lived there as often as possible from 1953 to 1975.
Huston’s 4th wife Rikki Soma found the estate and the couple moved in with their two children Anjelica and Tony.
Huston’s daughter, Oscar winner and director Anjelica, lived there as a child and wrote about her childhood and coming of age at the estate and what it was like having John Huston as a father and her mother’s death in a car accident at age 39 Rikki Soma when Anjelica was a teenager.
Memoir about St.Clerans childhood.
Melanie is quoted in Daily Mail that Paige had “just returned from Ireland,” after a visit there to Huston.
Paige Young’s visit is in the same time frame of John Huston’s marriage to Celeste Shane Huston, Huston’s 5th marriage and “CiCi’s” 2nd. She is quite a character herself.
Her first husband was screenwriter Wally Green and they have a son named Collin.
Celeste Shane Huston Background:
“Cici” grew up in a wealthy Beverly Hills family with three brothers. Her father owned a few successful car leasing companies and rented out his yacht to celebrities like Frank Sinatra. (See chapter: The Shanes of Beverly Hills)
Cici was (and is) involved with horses and boarded at least one at Sepulveda Stables in the early 1960s. I talked with a woman who was around 12 years old during these years and knew both Paige and Cici at Sepulveda Stables.
It’s a factor which places Celeste and Paige in the same world.
One of Cici’s long time best friends is actress Jill St. John.
Before Wally Green, another love of CiCi’s in the late 1950s and early 1960s was famed Hollywood hairdresser Gene Shacove. Their engagement was announced in the Los Angeles Times June 22, 1958. It seems the marriage was less than a year in length.
My chapter entitled “The Shanes of Beverly Hills” delves deeper into Celeste Shane Huston and her brother David Shane, a key player in Paige’s story.
END.
Back to John Huston:
After a Sexully-charged, Whirlwind Courtship And honeymoon phase, John and CiCi’s marriage became strained in Ireland.
Cici spent time living (visiting really) at St. Clerans at the beginning of her short marriage to Huston.
She brought along her son Collin and his caregiver Maricela, who also acted as Cici’s “maid.” Dad Wally Green also visited his son at the estate.
“Cici was as out of place at St. Clerans as anyone could possibly be,” said John Huston of his ex, by that point.
When Cici was asked she said “I wasn’t prepared for the eleven servants, the mistresses, Betty O’Kelly, Gladys.”
Gladys Hill was an assistant on several Huston films, a co-writer on some, including Reflections in a Golden Eye. Hill acted in 3 Huston films, the most famous being Night of the Iguana.
Betty O’Kelly was a close friend and manager of the St. Clerans estate. Tony Huston referred to her as “Dad’s hot water bottle.”
Both women were devoted to John Huston.
Cici said she observed several employees behavior, looked at some financial books, and concluded they were taking advantage of Huston by overcharging him.
….”she was horrified by the seething sexual history of the estate and the rampant theft by the Irish staff…” from Courage and Art by Jeffrey Myers.
Huston was frequently absent due to directing films all over the globe and money matters did not interest him. He had a lax attitude about what his employees and assistants were supposedly doing with money.
When his publicist friend Bill Gardner heard about the theft from Cici and mentioned it to him, John surprised him by exclaiming, ‘What are you trying to do, lose all my friends.’
from Courage & Art by Myers
Cici wanted most of the staff fired but Huston refused.
She also encouraged him to sell the estate to cut down on his expenses.
This all created a lot of tension.
Of the horse’s caretaker Cici said, “I caught him with quadruple charges for horseshoeing. I know about horses. He couldn’t screw me around.”
Cici was especially outraged by the visit of her husband’s young mistress, Zoe Sallis, who of course brought along her out-of-wedlock son by John Huston: (the actor ) Danny Huston.
Cici resented the monthly allowance (and breakfast in bed) afforded to Zoe.
John has the women around for amusement. Zoe is back to ‘see her boy.’ Ha ha. She is here to ask “Big Daddy’ whether she should turn Jewish…
written in a letter from Cici Huston to her parents from Courage and Art by Jeffrey Meyers.
Zoe claims that Cici forbade Huston to cast her in the movie “The Man Who Would Be King.” It was the part that went to Shakira Caine.
Zoe felt then and still does, that this was a major missed opportunity for her as an actress.
John and Cici left Ireland and returned to Cici’s place in the Pacific Palisades at some point in 1973.
It was becoming obvious even to John Huston that his spending habit, child and ex-wife support, a large staff, and his gambling habits were making the financial upkeep of the estate impossible.
The St. Clerans estate was sold sometime in 1973/4 but wasn’t completely vacated by John Huston until 1976, according to Celeste Shane Huston, in an online response to me.
Their divorce was finalized in 1977.
John Huston and Paige were both painters in addition to being horse lovers; these factors may have played a role in their “connection.”
Huston was a womanizer and had several marriages, flings, short and long-term affairs with numerous women over the decades and apparently of all ages.
It seems Eloise and you have been screwing each other for years and that you are a wonderful ‘ball.’ I am fucking bored with hearing about who you fucked and especially since you put me with all you ‘OLD’ bangs.
Cici in a letter to Huston from Courage & Art.
John Huston in later life.
Also, from what I’ve read in these bios, Huston had a meanstreak in his personality that he would, at times, unleash on the very ones most likely to be wounded by it.
Example: In the Daily Mail article, Melanie tells of Huston hiding Paige’s shoes, “it really bothered her,” even though, “it was a little thing.”
In another chapter, I wrote that Cici and Paige both boarded horses at Sepulveda Stables in Sherman Oaks.
Celeste messaged me once that she was the one who introduced Paige to Sepulveda Stables. (No I do not have it. Take my word for it or not.)
At the time I read her message, I had already learned that Paige boarded her horses at the stables located at Sepulveda Blvd.& Hatteras since grade school when she was known as Diana Cotterell. (See related chapter)
“Diana Cotterell,” gave 2 school photos to the owners of the stables which were published on a website about Sepulveda Stables.
Diana definitely looks grade school age in them.
Diana Cotterell lived close to Sepulveda Stables as did several of her classmates, like Joan Edwards, who boarded a horse there in the 1950s.
That would mean Cici knew Paige as Diana in grade school. I find this unlikely. She gave no indication she knew her as Diana.
Paige was tight-lipped about her past or any future plans and “more focused on the present moment,” said to me by her good friend Veronika.
Celeste, in the early 1960s along with actresses Donna Reed and the aforementioned Jill St. John, boarded horses at Sepulveda Stables according to the website where I found Diana Cotterell’s school pictures.
Maybe Paige and CiCi met in the early 1960s, but not before.
Given what Melanie’s story says in the Daily Mail and the sale of St. Clerans, Paige’s visit must have necessarily been in 1972 or 1973.
If so, she may have witnessed or even been involved in the drama between Cici, Betty, Gladys, and Zoe Sallis. According to biographer Jeffrey Meyers, Huston enjoyed women fighting over him. (as did Hugh Hefner.)
I had an email exchange with Celeste Shane Huston and she confirmed that she and Huston knew Paige and they “were only trying to help her.”
She denied that Huston and Paige had affair.
She wrote that “2 prominent lawyers.” connected to show business purchased Paige’s ticket to Ireland for the visit.
A visitor to St. Clerens during these years was Bill Gardner.
Another connection to Paige.
This is the same Bill Gardner from the Pasadena Art Museum chapter.
- William Louis Gardner and #CelesteHuston on some of the #horses in #StClarens #Manor in #Ireland, back when #JohnHuston owned the estate. #Hollywood #1950s #1960s #vintage.
The following paragraph is what Bill wrote on for his author page on Amazon. Numerous celebrities are mentioned.
William Louis Gardner started his career getting a diploma from the Pasadena Play House in the fifties. The US Air sent him to Pasadena, California to learn film and television production. During his education at the Playhouse he was sent to do on-the-job-training at ABC, CBS and NBC. He spent time on the on the sets of Colgate Comedy Hour studying, observing and watching the process of television variety type shows. Bill became acquainted with the Martin & Lewis show, Jimmy Durante Show, Danny Thomas Show, Lucille Ball, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland and Milton Berle Shows. After William left Hollywood he joined his squadron and wrote and produced films for the US Air Force. When he was discharged from the Air Force he returned to Hollywood and went to work for Mickey Rooney as his assistant and manager for ten years. After he joined Jonathan Winters as his manager. In 1965 William moved to Ireland and joined director, John Huston, as his assistant. He worked on John’s films in England and Morocco. John sent Bill to East Africa to do pre-production for a film Bill had written called “The Games End”. The film has yet to be made. William, left the industry in 1972 and came back to California and moved to Montecito and became a real estate broker. He formed a Real Estate office in Santa Barbara and retired thirty five years later to write a novel “Confession of a Hollywood Agent” and numerous screenplays. His novel “The End of the Game” struggles with Africanization, intrigue and murder to save the elephant. Present, Bill keeps on writing.
scribd.com
Gardner is quoted twice in the Jeffrey Meyers biography of John Huston, identified as a publicist-friend.
Notice that Gardner mentions Jonathan Winters and John Huston, both associated with Paige Young.
Legendary LAT columnist Jack Smith sees Huston and Hefner with others including an “unidentified sex object,” (possibly Paige Young) at a backgammon tournament in 1972. The observation by Smith happened around the time Cici and Huston tied the knot. The group partly inspires the title of the article:
Allegedly the cast and crew of the film Chinatown spent some off-set time at the Playboy mansion.
The cast, of course, includes Huston and director Roman Polanski.
This would have been the same timeframe that Paige was hanging out at the Playboy mansion “scene,” such as it was, on an occasional, if not regular basis.
Paige was witnessed at the Playboy mansion near the end of her life as recounted by neighbor Melanie Myers, who herself was invited to the Mansion. This is told in the Secrets of Playboy documentary, episode 8.
These were the last years of Paige’s life.
Chinatown was released 2 months after Paige Young’s suicide.
More about John Huston ahead.
NSFW
There was an indication of what Paige was doing in her professional life when I found the following item on ebay.
It looks like Paige was still modeling in the early 1970s; she appears in some Electrochemical Company photographs, credited to Peter Gowland, probably taken in 1972 or 73.
I suspect Gowland had her in mind immediately for this assignment; he knew Paige needed the paycheck and would be willing to appear topless or nude.
Obviously,quite tame by today’s standard
There is an association between Electrochemical Company and the Ridgid Tool Company, Gowland’s long time clients. Paige appears in the 69/70 Ridgid calendar shown at the top of this chapter.
Paige was one model of a few featured in this series, possibly a gift for special clients. A calendar I guess. Ann Cushing and starlet Brook Mills, two Gowland favorites, are the others. Plus one I don’t recognize.
The models all go uncredited including Paige, her “Playmate” status is not indicated anywhere. She is portrayed in this series, like the others, as an anonymous girl. I recognized her and informed the seller.
Mormon Temple with Angel Moroni who lords over the Westwood neighborhood where Paige Young lived and died only few blocks away. Her friend Veronika spoke to me about this statue being near Paige’s carriage house.
What is the connection with Desmond Guinness and John Huston?
Paige Young was acquainted with both men, and she was friends with Huston’s 5th wife Celeste Shane.
A renowned socialite, party animal and generous host, Guinness entertained the international jet set at his home, Leixlip Castle. Those who visited included British royalty Princess Margaret, her husband Lord Snowdon, and Lord Mountbatten, A-listers such as Jacqueline Kennedy, film director John Huston, Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull, and his stepfather the British fascist leader Oswald Mosley, his mother Diana Mitford’s husband.
Desmond Guinness Obituary in The Irish Times August 29, 2020.
Memoir about childhood St.Clerans
Anjelica Huston wrote a memoir about growing up in the St. Clerans estate.
Did Paige Young meet Desmond Guinness when she stayed with John and Celeste Huston at St. Clerans in 72-73 ish? Possibly. Desmond always had a place to stay when he went to Los Angeles and Santa Barbara.
1960 issue of Color Photography Magazine shows an image of Ricki Soma Huston by legendary photographer Philippe Halsman. He “discovered” her I read. She was already a ballet dancer photographed by Halsman for a Life Cover portrait and feature.
Enrica Soma on the cover of Life Magazine by Halsman.
” The dancer Leo Coleman was also part of the entourage, alongside a “girl with a classically beautiful face” and a “classically perfect body”: Enrica Soma, a 19-year-old model and prima ballerina who had appeared on the cover of LIFE herself in 1947, where she was spotted by the filmmaker John Huston. She became his fourth wife in 1950.”
Rikki was pondering a possible movie career when John Huston came into her life. She was photographed with Marilyn Monroe and others as “up and coming” actresses. Pretty quickly she abandoned that and the couple had 2 children. Rikki devoted her life to John and Anjelica and Tony.
Rikki became like a “Wife #1″at the Irish estate when Huston invited his mistresses or girlfriends to visit.
Rikki was married to John Huston from 1950 until her untimely death in a car accident in 1969.
Ricki had already moved out of St. Clerans by this time and resided in London.
The other women Huston brought to the estate finally pushed past her limit.
Coincidentally Huston’s 5th wife, Celeste Shane Huston’s photo appears in the same issue of Color Photography magazine, below, as Rikki; photo by Halsman above.
Paige Young and Bill Cosby 1970 (and before). El Paso, Malibu, Sunset Strip. 2/10/2024
Posted on February 9, 2023
In this chapter, I have gathered all the accounts of witnesses to Bill Cosby and Paige Young’s relationship, either seen with their own eyes or told to them by Paige. Many of the witnesses are probably dead.
Tamara Green’s account was published in the Dailymail.com Dec. of 2014. She is quoted at length below. Ryan Parry was the reporter.
A modeling shot of Tamara Green, late 1960s. Dailymail.com
“One of Cosby’s victims, attorney Tamara Green, knew Paige from modeling circles and recalls seeing the pair together.
Tamara Green recalls that she ran into Paige while in El Paso, Texas around 1970 and learned she was dating Bill Cosby.
‘I was there seeing my boyfriend and Paige called me and said Bill was on tour and she was travelling with him.
‘They picked me up at my friend’s house and I remember sitting in the back of a stretched black limo with them both and Bill wanted to score some drugs.
I called around and found a bag of pot some place on the edge of El Paso.’
El Paso Times Feb. 22, 1970.
Cosby was in El Paso at the time Tamara recalls.
‘Paige was in to her drugs and Bill wanted to get her some, she was along on the trip like his pet dog, she was a very subdued person, more like moon on the water in terms of her personality.
El Paso Herald Feb. 21st. 1970. Cosby was in El Paso at the time Tamara Green recalls.
‘They were clearly well acquainted with each other, it didn’t seem like a new thing. As far as I know they dated for a while.
‘Paige always seemed in a stupor, a daze, like he was controlling her. All I remember is that their relationship wasn’t healthy.’
‘Paige was a young thing who was very much taken advantage of by the men of Hollywood, she was intelligent and talented, it’s a tragedy what happened to her.'”
Cosby – whom has recently become the subject of at least 17 sex attack allegations dating back to the late 60s and 70s – was obsessed with Young who had caught his eye during his many visits to the glitzy Playboy Club where she worked on Hollywood’s Sunset strip.
Cosby was also a regular at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles as he and Hugh Hefner began working on many projects together.” END
A few years ago I made a post in an “old-timers” Malibu facebook group asking if anyone remembered Paige Young from about 1965-70.
“Henry G“contacted me to say he knew Paige from Malibu and used to hike with her frequently in Topanga Canyon. Henry remembers Paige living in a cabin in Topanga.
Again, it happened around 1970.
Henry told me about one time he was with Paige at her home and she began to “break down and cry.” Henry asked her what was wrong and she told him that Bill Cosby had raped her.
Henry worked in the television industry and said that he “always thought Bill “was a nice guy,” to which Paige replied that he is not nice, he is “a piece of shit,” “scum,” “a bastard” and “don’t even get me started.”
I then asked Henry if Paige indicated that Cosby had drugged her prior to the rape. Henry said he remembers Paige saying how she “came to” and “realized she had been raped.”
Henry said that at one point in this conversation Paige “tilted her head in the direction of her dresser, I looked over and saw a check made out to Paige signed by Bill Cosby,” and that “it had several zeroes.”
In one episode of the 2020 Docu-series Secrets of Playboy, I am shown moving around my office with my voice over telling the above story about Cosby told to me by friend Henry G.
. I sent some audio to the producers and it is edited with a couple different audios I sent to them. Not totally clear what I am saying
So, I hope the story is now clear and comprehensible.
Later in the year, Henry let Paige stay in one of the rooms he was renting out in his house in the Trancas Beach area of Malibu. It was off of Broad Beach Rd. across from the Trancas Market.
Paige stayed at Henry’s house for “only about 3 months” he said.
She had been complaining that the “isolation” in the area was making her “antsy” and “unable to paint.”
Paige’s cabin, probably helped funded by Bill Cosby according to friend Veronika, was at the southern end of Topanga Canyon Rd., closer to the PCH and beach. Somewhere in that area. She frequented Fernwood Market said Veronika. Ferwood Market is the southern end of Topanga Canyon Rd. Before moving back into Los Angeles, to the Westwood area of the city, Paige moved further west along the coast to Trancas Beach but found the location “isolating.” Apologies if the map doesn’t transfer.
Henry also told me that he didn’t see Paige very much the last 2-3 years of her life as she had become “reclusive.”
I asked Henry if Paige ever mentioned Hugh Hefner, or her Playboy experience and he said, No she didn’t, but that he had a Playboy experience when he ended up at the Playboy mansion with the beautiful Malibu girls he was with allowed their entree to the they got in the Mansion. Henry said at one moment in the night he and Hefner locked eyes.
After Paige left Henry’s house on Trancas beach, is likely the time she moved to her final home, a carriage house behind a duplex in Westwood, by UCLA and the Playboy Mansion.
The next incident was told to me by Richard Sample before he died.
It must have happened before 1970, because Paige and Richard were not seeing each other by then from my estimation.
This story also appears in chapter Richard Sample Interview #1.
Richard said he would occasionally pick up Paige at the Sunset Strip Playboy Club, after her shift.
She worked at the club “for about 3 months,” he said.
Bill Cosby was a frequent visitor and performer at many Playboy Clubs and a closed friend of Hugh Hefner.
“Bill Cosby was always trying to put the make on Paige. She didn’t want anything to do with him, she ignored him.”
Richard Sample
One time Richard was waiting for Paige in his car near enough to the Playboy Club to witness Bill Cosby get quite angry at Paige. Apparently she had rebuffed yet another one of his advances.
Bill Cosby’s name was found in Paige’s phone book after she died so they definitely knew each other.
LAPD Report Paige Young Suicide. Updated 1/18/2024
Posted on August 29, 2021
I obtained a copy of the LAPD report on Paige Young’s suicide, transcribed below.
The report is difficult to read; it looks like a copy of a copy of a copy, several words are faded almost beyond recognition.
Someone familiar with police codes and reports may understand it better.
When I was interviewed for the docu-series Secrets of Playboy; the crew filmed me opening the envelope containing this report.
The interviewer asked me to read the report on camera and I absolutely struggled.
I can see why that happened because the next day it took me an entire afternoon with a magnifying glass to transcribe what you see below.
Anyway, no footage or mention of the police report made it into Secrets of Playboy.
I have placed ??? for words and codes I was unable to decipher.
EDI (PDI?) is witness and neighbor Melanie. I/D is the Investigating Detective.
Page 1:
I/D responded to a D/5 call at the above location. Upon arrival at 1500 hrs. I/D was met by 8A53 Ofcc’s Sullivan FI5452 and Peckins #15665. Death was pronounced by CA#92 at 1431. 8A53 upon arrival at the scene were met by EDI, who stated that the deceased was upstairs with a gun and was going to shoot herself. 8A53 at this time phoned for a backup unit. 8L/??and 8L10 responded. Ofccs at this time spent approx. 2 hours attempting to contact the deceased via the telephone and by calling ?? HEC? Offcs during this period were informed that a “SWAT” team was enroute and to stand by for their arrival. While Ofccs. were waiting for “SWAT” EDI suddenly ran into deceased’s apt. Ofccs fearing for EDI safety also entered the apt. Offcs. at time obs. the deceased lying on the bed with what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the head. Ofccs at this time phoned for an ambulance.
Page 2
EDI stated that she last saw the Dec. alive on 4-7-74 at approx. 10:30. Deceased stated at this time that she was going to end her life. Dec. at this time placed the barrel of her gun in her mouth. EDI attempted to talk Dec. out of taking her life. Dec. asked EDI to phone the police because she wanted to kill herself in front of the police. EDI at this time left and returned to her apartment and started to call friends of the Dec. Approx. one hr. later (1130) EDI contacted the PD. EDI further stated that deceased had been in a constant state of deep depression for the last two years.
Wit-2 stated that on 4-7-74 at approx. 0930, he rec a phone call from Dec. who requested that he come to her and pick up her (Dec) dogs. Dec. also stated she would leave a note explaining about the dogs. Wit. went to the above location and obs. the dogs in their pen. Wit also obs what appeared to be a note which had been torn up ?? the dogs. Wit took the dogs and the note to his home. Once there Wit pieced the note together. The note instructed Wit. what to do with the dogs. At the bottom it read, “don’t come up call the police.” Wit at this time contacted the LAPD and then returned to the above location.
I/D obs. the deceased lying on her back in bed with her her feet resting on the ?? Dec. head was pointed in a S/E direction. I/D obs. no evid of foul play. An inspection of weapon showed it to be A 2? .38 caliber S/W B/S bed 5 shot chief. The weapon was fully loaded with one spent gund(?) directly under the hammer. This weapon was BKD? at ???? and rigor mortis were obs. I/D obs. no evid of an exit wound.
Page 3
2H22 of SID was at the scene and took photos.
It is the opinion of the I/D that the Dec. committed suicide by firing a single shot from the above described weapon. This opinion is based of the statement of the EDI, and lack of evid to indicate otherwise. This death will be ???? as a suicide pending the final result of the cor. invest. The shot was fired into Dec. mouth and did not exit.
Since there was noone to ??/Dec. Prod, ???sealed the location.
END.
Suicide note not mentioned in LAPD report. “Possible Note at Scene” on report above.
“Decedent found in residence by friend Melanie Myers, decedent lying on bed w/38 revolver in rt. hand. Investigation by IHD. Possible Note at scene. Brought into Metro for Recovery of missile as requested by Dr. Mall.” Signature.
Melanie said to the Daily Mail and Secrets of Playboy that she was read part of Paige’s suicide note by the police which mentioned Hollywood powerful men who used and abused her, including Huston and Hefner.
Occupation listed as “model” and reason for suicide “extreme depression.” Paige is listed as “artist” on her death certificate.
Officers called to Paige’s suicide scene: Sullivan and Perkins or Peckins.
Investigating Detective I/D : Reddish, probably Richard M. Reddish who handled at least 2 other suicides in LA in his career per newspapers.com.
Police photographer on scene: Unknown
Coroner: Dr. Mall
Coroner’s office, removed Paige’s body from her home: Tim Gee.
2nd Witness: D DeWitt. Called by Paige on the 7th to take care of her dogs. According to this police report, this witness went to Paige’s house, retrieved the dogs and took the torn up note with with instructions for the dogs(?) Went to his house, pieced the note together. Note said “don’t come up call police.” Witness then returned to Paige’s house.
From there, nothing is said about witness DeWitt.
UPDATE: 7/8/23 I exchanged emails with Paige’s friend Veronica who suggested that DeWitt may be the individual who supplied Paige with Akitas that she was had started to breed for income. She was arranging for him to take the dogs because of her self-imposed death.
Members of SWAT team not recorded.
We can see what is not described in the report by Reddish: the suicide note and mural created by Paige Young about hatred towards Hugh Hefner— what Melanie described to the Daily Mail Dec. 2014 and dramatized in Secrets of Playboy.
Why not?
Both witnesses, Melanie and DeWitt, in the 1974 report, corroborate what Melanie said in 2014: Paige wanted to make a statement about these men who abused her.
The fact that a police photographer took photos of Paige’s suicide scene is easy to read in the report. But where are those photos now?
I was asked what I thought about this 3 times by the director of Secrets of Playboy, it was not included in the finished documentary.
(In fact, there was no mention of this police report at all in Secrets of Playboy.)
I found a blog that linked the Daily Mail Paige Young article with a personal comment about it:
oped: I totally believe the accusations…being that I worked for LAPD Van Nuys Division 1971-1974 I remember one of my Sgts. discussing this case…
I remember one of my Sgts discussing this case…it was hushed up at the higher levels of management… speculation being a cover up on pressure from the entertainment moguls! And I can honestly say after dealing with the bookings of numerous celebrities during this period of time from DUI,Drugs,perversion,disturbing the peace on and on…oh the stories I could tell…maybe another time I will!
From Sharla’s Labyrinth
I can’t confirm independently that this person wrote the truth, but I don’t know why they would make it up. When I asked what exactly what s/he remembers about what was said by the sargeant, h/she responded “they (police) just said it was very sad.”
Keep in mind, there was absolutely no interest shown in 2014 and 2015 when the Paige Young suicide and a connection to celebrities Cosby, Hefner and Huston, was published in the Daily Mail online. During 2014 and 2015 dozens of women were coming forward with allegations of being raped and drugged by Bill Cosby. Famously Hefner and Cosby were close for a long time.
What happened to Paige’s family, ex Husband, Desmond Guinness Marvin M. Mitchelson And Paige Young Coming Soon. Updated 1/28/2023
Posted on August 26, 2020
Paige’s grandmother Virginia Young LaRocca died in August of 1976 in the Studio City Convalescent Hospital located at 11429 Ventura Blvd.
She was a 1st Reader for the Church of Christ Science for 35 years according to her death certificate.
Virginia was cremated and her ashes were scattered in the ocean near the Santa Monica shoreline, just like granddaughter Paige’s ashes two years previous.
Josephine’s daughter, former Warner Brothers starlet Mary Jane Harker Lanier died in 1986 in Jacksonville, Florida. Her husband Samuel Lefkovitz Lanier remarried and lived with his second wife for over 10 years until his death in 2007 at age 88, also in Florida. The oldest child of Jane and Samuel Lanier, Samuel Harker Lanier, passed away in 2018; he was only in his 60s. A Florida lawyer, he had been disbarred in St. Augustine on a cocaine related arrest only a few years before.
Virginia’s sister and former Vaudeville performing and travelling partner, Josephine Young Harker, Paige Young’s great aunt, died in June of 1979 in the Jacksonville, Florida area. Public record.
.
Donna Virginia LaRocca Holroyd, had moved sometime in the late 60s, with mother Virginia? (had she had her stroke?) and husband Jack, to the Simi Valley. Were they divorced already? Possibly as it is looking like Jack Holroyd married and divorced twice after Donna. Still need to confirm.
By 1970, Donna was the head supervisor for the Ocean View Children’s Center (5201 Squires Dr.) in Port Hueneme “for low income and welfare families…. so that the mothers (of the Valley Village neighborhood) could work or go to school.” Oxford News 1970.
Article below mentions that Donna received a degree from UCLA in Early Childhood Education.
Oxford Press Courier March 21, 1971. Her daughter Paige was probably living in Westwood or Trancas Beach at this time.
By the time of her daughter Paige’s suicide in April of 1974, Donna and Jack Holroyd were divorced and Donna was living with her mother Virginia back in Sherman Oaks, at the lovely Chase Knolls Apartment Community on Huston St.
Donna’s Chase Knolls address is on Paige’s death certificate as her next of kin.
This address is also on Virginia LaRocca‘s death cert. in 1976. Donna is listed as her mother’s next of kin. (See Above)
In 1980 this address appears on Donna’s own death certificate.
Donna dies of a “hypertensive arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease,” in her Chase Knolls apartment at age 59 years. Her and Jack’s son Wesley would have been about 20 years.
Donna outlives her mother by 4 years, and her daughter by 6.
Oldest daughter and Paige’s sister Constance Smashey is listed on Donna Holroyd’s death certificate as next of kin with a Simi Valley address.
Constance and Steve Smashey divorced and Connie would move to the Palm Desert area in the 1980s. She now lives in Banning, California.
She turned down my request to ask her a few questions about her sister Paige and their family.
Wesley Scott Holroyd died of alcoholism in 2014 at age 53. He was living in the San Fernando Valley where he spent most of his life.
Paige’s father Robert Morgan Cotterell and his wife Pat, moved to Oregon in the 1970s after he retired from Douglas Air. They lived there until their deaths around 2010.
Bob Cotterell’s obituary is no longer online. When it was, there was no mention of his daughters by Donna LaRocca: Diana/Paige and Constance.
It appears that Connie has reunited with her half siblings.
Richard Sample told me that Paige drove him to meet her sister one time only. and that he “did not get any impression” they were close.
Paige did not disclose her personal history or childhood, to anyone I’ve talked with who knew her.
Paige’s ex-husband Mark Frederick Segal married a woman named Denise in 1974 and a few years later they had a son: Ivan Mark Segal.
1985/86 Mark F. Segal stayed in the car business:
Segal sold his home on Crisp Canyon Ave. to Rex Ramsey and later bought it back from him. He sold it again and moved to Portland in the late 80s? He died there on October 16, 2012.
4133 Crisp Canyon Ave. was razed and replaced with a really horrible McMansion.
His son Ivan Segal lives in Portland and Scottsdale.
Desmond Guinness married Penelope Cuthbertson in 1984.
She is his cousin according to “International Set” gossip writer Suzy Knickerbocker back in 1973. They were not couple at that time.
Desmond continued fundraising for his Irish Georgian Society well into old age. He died on August 20, 2020. I have read Desmond had some degree of dementia.
Ex-wife Mariga and co-founder of the IGS had died decades earlier.
There are numerous obituaries online for Hon. Desmond Guinness.
Desmond’s niece is fashion icon and socialite Daphne Guinness. His granddaughter is popular fashion model Jasmine Guinness.
How and where Desmond became acquainted with Paige Young is a mystery. Possibly was through John and CiCi Huston in Ireland. Celeste to me denied knowing the two were acquainted.
Desmond on his own was well connected in Los Angeles and Southern California. He had a receptive audience in the area.
In the late 1970s……..
Paige’s divorce lawyer Marvin Mitchelson went from “Beverly Hills and LA famous” with some degree of national fame, to internationally famous, when he represented Michelle Triola Marvin in her lawsuit against live-in lover of 6 years, actor Lee Marvin. I
Mitchelson introduced the term and concept of “palimony” into the courts.
Commonly known as Marvin vs. Marvin, the case received major publicity in the mass-media of the time. It’s something I personally remember as a young teenager. I call it “People magazine” famous.
I didn’t learn the back story in detail until I researched this project. I am condensing the details for this website.
Michelle Triola Marvin was a singer in Hollywood. She felt she was owed part of Lee Marvin’s $3.2 million fortune, as she had given up her own career, per his demand, to become his live-in lover, helpmate, career advisor, and even helped to raise his 4 children from first wife Betty.
Triola said Lee Marvin had promised her life-long financial support. Triola-Marvin was abruptly dumped when Lee Marvin suddenly married his high school sweetheart Pamela Feeney in 1970. Marvin kicked Triola-Marvin out of their Malibu home and cut her off financially.
Because Michelle Triola Marvin was not legally married to Lee Marvin, she had no legal standing to demand any financial compensation.
Mitchelson saw an opportunity in California’s newly enacted “no-fault” divorce laws.
Mitchelson filed a breach-of-contract suit against Lee Marvin in February of 1972 asking for 50% of his estate.
After being rejected by two lower courts, Mitchelson pushed the case to the California Supreme Court, where he won.
The Marvin vs. Marvin case finally reached trial in January of 1979 and it quickly became a mass-media event.
The judge in the case, Judge Marshall, awarded about $100,000 to Triola-Marvin, for the salary she potentially lost giving up her career as a singer.
Lee Marvin’s attorneys appealed, and the decision was reversed, leaving Triola with nothing and Mitchelson with nothing.
Mitchelson didn’t care though, because the fame the case brought him was worth millions of dollars in representing “wronged spouses,” mainly women.
The fact that in the end, Triola got nothing was not well publicized in the many media reports. It happened after the initial hoopala had died down and was never emphasized in the reporting.
Over the years, some of the women Marvin represented were celebrities like Bianca Jagger, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Joan Collins ( a reverse of his norm as Collins was the one being sued by estranged husband Peter Holm.)
Mostly though, Mitchelson took cases of non-celebrity live-in girlfriends or mistresses of rich celebrities: Sara Dylan (Bob), Anna Kashfi (Marlon Brando) Nancy Lee Andrews (Ringo Starr), Veronica Buss and Puppi Buss (girlfriends of Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss) Soraya Khashoggi, Kayatana Harrison (Flip Wilson.)
Marvin represented a few men: Mark Christian, ex-lover of Rock Hudson, in his widely publicized case against Hudson’s estate for failing to disclose his AIDS status to Christian. Mel Torme, Carl Sagan and Sonny Bono were other clients.
Mitchelson was disbarred in 1988 for grossly overcharging clients and went to prison in 1993 for tax evasion.
Marvin Mitchelson was released from prison in 1998 and died in 2004.
Lee Marvin died in 1987 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Michelle Triola went on to have a long live-in relationship with actor- comedian Dick Van Dyke. She died of lung cancer in 2009.
Information from: Ladies’ Man: The Life & Trials of Marvin Mitchelson, by John A. Jenks. The only published biography of Marvin Mitchelson. It’ a fascinating look at an LA character of his time.
Which is all you can ever be right?
1973 #2 Meet the Hon. Desmond Guinness & His Mother Diana Mitford, her husband Oswald Mosley, his first wife Mariga. IGS. 1969 Flashback. Suzy Knickerbocker. LONG. 4/17/24
Posted on August 5, 2020
About two years into my research I subscribed to newspapers.com and found this article.
It was written by society columnist Jody Jacobs and published in the Los Angeles Times, Oct. 10, 1973.
Jacobs worked in this position for many years.
Ironically, this story involves another newspaper society columnist, Beverley Jackson of Santa Barbara, she is pictured to the left of Mrs. Louis-Dreyfuss.
I was able to email with Beverly Jackson a few years before she passed away at age 91 in 2020. Jackson had yet another career as a scholar and author on Chinese culture and fashion, along with working as a curator at the Santa Barbara Art Museum.
She did remember Desmond, but not Paige.
Beverley Jackson volunteered without my prompting, that “Desmond was always very discreet in these matters.”
What you see above, is the only mention of Paige Young in this article, besides her photo.
It’s chilling to know that Paige had only 6 months to live when this article appeared.
The rest of the Jody Jacobs article, discusses the many Santa Barbara society VIPs who attended this party for Desmond Guinness.
After reading the article I thought, who is this Desmond Guinness?
attending a party in his honor given by a Who’s Who of Santa Barbara?
I found his name most often written as “the Hon. Desmond Guinness.”
There is plenty of information about his family.
Let’s start with his family of origin.
*Please note: What I have written is a brief overview. The story of Desmond’s maternal side is the stuff of books. I will recommend a few for in-depth history.*
Hon. Desmond Guinness, as his last name indicates, is an heir to the famous Guinness brewery fortune.
Bryan Guinness, the 2nd Baron Moyne and father to Desmond, poet, playwright and author.
Desmond’s mother was a controversial woman named Diana Mitford, from the equally controversial English society family of 6 eccentric, beautiful, intelligent, gracious and scandal prone sisters, 2 of them followers of Hitler and other fascists. The family was cash-poor and title-rich, something not uncommon then from what I understand.
Desmond’s parents Bryan Guinness and Diana Mitford on their wedding day in 1929. Pinterest. Diana was 18, Bryan, 24. The couple was part of the “Bright Young Things.” a group of Aristocratic Bohemians in 1920s London.
There are several books published about the Mitford family, the sisters in particular.
One was a main source I used for this chapter Diana Mosley: Mitford Beauty, British Fascist, Hitler’s Angel by Anne De Courcy. The family photo is scanned from the book.
Tom Mitford was a soldier in Burma and killed in battle in 1945 only weeks away from the war’s end. “It was loss the family never recovered from,” wrote his sister Diana to a friend.
Diana with her first two sons, in the mid-1930s. Desmond and Jonathan Guinness. Desmond was the younger of the two boys. National Gallery website.
Desmond and his brother didn’t grow up with their mother Diana; she divorced their father when the boys were toddlers.
She met Sir Oswald Mosley and was smitten. Diana Guinness soon asked Bryan Guinness for a divorce.
Mosley was an aristocrat and served in the British House of Commons from 1918-1931. He ran as a Conservative, an Independent and then Labour Party. He was finally defeated when he ran with his “New Party.“
Oswald Mosley founded the British Union of Fascists (BUF) in 1932, after visiting with Mussolini.
He organized his own version of the fascist Blackshirts of Italy when back in England.
“Organized along paramilitary lines, they wore black shirts and patrolled cities to fight socialism and communism by violent means. In 1921 they were incorporated into the Fascist Party (see fascism) as a national militia.” Oxford Reference
The BUF was banned by the British Government in 1940.
When Diana Mitford Guinness and Oswald Mosley met through mutual social circles in 1932, he was already married to wealthy society woman Lady Cynthia Curzon since 1920.
Tom Mosley and Cimmie had 3 children, the youngest born in 1932.
Mosley was a philanderer and an ambitious one at that.
He had affairs with both Cimmie’s sister and their stepmother.
Apparently he was irresistible to women? The answer is yes according to historians.
photo from the book by Anne de Courcy.
Mosley was a powerhouse and convincing speaker.
Mosley declared to Diana that he would not divorce his wife, yet Diana went ahead and filed for divorce from husband Bryan, Lord Moyne, who adored her. As Cimmie did of her nicknamed “Tom.”
Diana asked Bryan for only enough money to live on.
She returned the Guinness family jewels and kept only the jewels Bryan had gifted her during their marriage.
And just like that Diana became Mosley’s mistress.
Diana did see her Guinness sons on a fairly regular basis and apparently was a decent enough mother when she was with them.
Cimmie was increasingly stressed because she felt threatened by Diana’s divorced, unattached status, and all the time she was spending with her husband.
What Diana did not understand was that Cimmie had realized that her husband’s feelings for Diana were more profound than any other liaison…and that Cimmie would be sharing him on the deeper level which she had assured her was hers alone.
Apparently Diana and Mosley were pretty brazen about appearing in public together.
This affair was gossiped about amongst the titled crowd.
“From Diana’s point of view, Mosley had been unfaithful from the start of his marriage and even if she gave him up would continue to have liaisons with other women. If Cimmie had come to terms with all the affairs, she reasoned, why should she not do so with Diana? from the book Hitler’s Angels.
Many of Diana’s old friends, family members and acquaintances shunned her, yet she kept a group of loyal supporters. This included several male admirers, due to her renowned beauty and charming personality. including Brideshead Revisited author Evelyn Waugh.
Cimmie conveniently died in 1934 following a bout of peritonitis, allowing Diana and “Kit,” as she called Oswald, to marry in 1936. Mosley decided to wait 2 years after his wife’s death so as not to appear vulgar. Diana went along.
Hitler attended the secret wedding of Mitford and Mosley and the reception took place at the home of Joseph Goebbels.
Within the Hitler circle, Diana hit it off in particular with Magda Goebbels, wife of Joseph.
From the book by Anne De Courcy.
De Courcy has also written the biography of The Curzon Sisters entitled “The Viceroy’s Daughters.”
Unity Mitford shot herself in the head when Britain declared war on Germany. She survived but had limited mental capacity until meningitis killed her in 1948.
There is a recently published biography by author Lauren Young: Hitler’s Girl: The British Aristocracy and the Third Reich on the Eve of WW2.
During WW 2, Mitford and Mosley were considered a threat and placed under British house arrest; 3 years in Holloway Prison followed by house arrest until 1949.
Diana Mitford Guinness Mosley gave birth to 2 more sons, Max and Alexander, with Mosley.
Desmond and Jonathan Guinness did visit their mother in prison, and apparently got along fine with their stepfather.
These would be the circumstances the Guinness and Mosley boys would experience their mother for a long stretch of their childhoods.
The Mosley boys had financial struggles that the Guinness sons just did not. Mosley was tight fisted with money when it came to his sons with Diana.
And Diana didn’t have much money independently of her husband. She did have some steady income from Guinness and shared it with her sons.
The couple lived out their years in France and Ireland after the war as they were highly disliked in England.
but Diana called her husband “Kit” because her beloved only brother who was cut down in his youth by war, was named Tom.
Tom Mitford was a Nazi sympathizer as well.
I have no idea why a dramatic series or feature film about the Mitford sisters and their parents, hasn’t yet been produced. The storyline provides all the elements of high melodrama: birth, death, war, marriage, divorce, innocent children, betrayal, treason, political intrigue, adultery, scandal, high society, wealth, royalty, and eccentric English personalities. (Not all the sisters were Nazis. One was a Communist and 2 were writers. One sister had a tragic love life)
The BBC series Peaky Blinders features Oswald Mosley and Diana Mitford in a storyline.
See interview with “Lady Mosley” on Thames TV youtube channel. Recorded in the 1970s.
END
1954: Desmond Guinness
has grown up and gets married to the beautiful Hermione Maria-Gabrielle Von Urach, who had German royalty and titles on her father’s side. Her English mother was institutionalized when “Gabrielle” was only 6 years old. At age 18, Gabrielle became known as “Mariga.”
This beautiful young couple shared a love of architecture, history and had no need to work for a living.
1954 wedding day of Desmond and Mariga Guinness.
Desmond and Mariga purchased the decaying Leixlip castle of Ireland, restored it and made it their primary residence.
Leixlip village was established by the Vikings and Adam de Hereford, a follower of Strongbow, built the castle. It is located in County Kildare and has an interesting history.
The plasterwork in the Library dates from the mid 18th Century. The carpet is French Savonnerie. A treat in the Drawing Room is the large 18th century Dolls House that originally came from Newbridge House and drawings of the six Mitford sisters by William Acton
Desmond Guinness at Leixlip Castle Ireland. Photo by Slim Aarons.
(Cropped)
The couple were known for giving fabulous high society parties in Leixlip. The couple produced two beautiful children Marina and Patrick, evidenced in a famous photo taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, seen below.
Features of Leixlip Castle include, The Front Hall, which boasts a 17th century Brussels tapestry depicting Theodotus offering the head of Pompey to Caesar. The Dining Room is furnished with Chippendale Chairs and Bavarian tapestries. From DiscoverIreland.
Together the couple founded the Irish Georgian Society (IGS) in 1957/58, dedicated to preservation of Irish Georgian castles and Irish castles in general.
Mariga and Desmond were able to restore several more historic castles and published books on the topic.
I found in my research that Desmond toured the US extensively to fundraise for the IGS from about the mid– 1960s through the 1980s. I read dozens of articles about his visits in the newspaper archives.
Desmond was warmly welcomed at numerous US high society and historical society gatherings; he would present lectures and slideshows to promote his books about Irish architecture, history, design, and of course to support the IGS.
His visits were covered by local newspaper society columnists who would write about the society folk’s attendance at either a lecture, party, luncheon, cocktail party, dinner, or some combination of, in honor of the Hon. Desmond Guinness.
I’m including a only a few of many newspaper examples from 1969.
I picked 1969
out of the many years Desmond travelled the US because it’s the same year Paige Young was touring the US and Canada for Playboy promotion.
Desmond visited towns one may not have expected him to: Des Moines, Shreveport, and the Corning Glass Center in Ithaca, New York.
“Suzy”
aka Suzy Knickerbocker, was a syndicated society columnist for over 50 years and worked for many different newspapers.
The following article from 1969 informs the reader about her interesting career climb.
Daily News Nov. 19, 1969. A typical example of a Suzy column. Mentions the infamous Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Mrs. Claus Von Bulow and Barbara Hutton marries a Prince.
Suzy owned her specialty: European society types, with or without titles, Royals and would-be Royals.
Suzy K. wrote adoringly about Desmond (mainly) and Mariga several times.
Desmond Guinness had a busy schedule of traveling to fundraise for IGS for decades.
Return to 1973 Santa Barbara
Desmond had already been the houseguest of Douglas Campbell in Los Angeles for 2 weeks when:
Paige appeared as the date of Desmond Guinness at a series of high society parties over a weekend in Santa Barbara.
It was described by LAT society writer Jody Jacobs as a season of cloudy, grey and rainy weather.
This Suzy syndicated column below, appeared just 2 days later on October 12.
The timing is intriguing to say the least, Desmond is seen out with a date, Paige Young, and his divorce is announced in these Suzy articles only two days later.
.
Was Desmond feeling unencumbered that evening in Santa Barbara, knowing his pending divorce would soon be newsworthy?
1973 before the separation:
Desmond’s date with Paige in California was just 5 months in the future. So is the announcement of his and Mariga’s divorce. Desmond would marry this “pretty English cousin Penny”mentioned in the last few sentences, in the 1980s.
Did Desmond and Paige spend time in Los Angeles together?? Or Ireland? More on that to appear here soon.
Paige Young would be dead in 3 weeks.
Desmond and Marina appeared in Raleigh, NC on or around March 28th, 1974, see article below. And Desmond was in Miami just on the 19th.
In the lower 2nd column, writer describes Marina’s lovely velvet and brocade dress. This is the dress she is wearing in the LAT photos with Beverly Hills designers and art patrons Beegle and Tony Duquette, seen below.
This article is unusual because it brings up the uncomfortable subject of Desmond’s mother Diana Mitford and step-father Oswald Mosley.
Notice the comment and story about Stanley Kubrick!
Raleigh News and Observer March 29, 1974.
Desmond was in LA around this time too so he would have been cross country traveling frequently.
Desmond is back in Los Angeles, this time with his daughter Marina. This visit coincides with the time Paige Young was contemplating suicide.
It is interesting that Desmond visited Los Angeles twice, 6 months apart.
The following article by Suzy, was published 10 days before Paige’s suicide. Desmond in bold.
According to Paige’s neighbor Melanie, Paige was afraid of a sex tape/film being seen by certain people or a certain person, and that “Cici Huston’s brother,” was a phrase Paige threw around a lot in connection to the tape. (David Shane) He had possession of the tape and would not hand it over to her.
I have to wonder if at least one person in Paige’s mind was Desmond Guinness (and his crowd?)
He was photographed with Paige in Santa Barbara in October of 1973.
Desmond and his number to Leixlip Castle and his brother Jonathan Guinness were listed in Paige’s phonebook found at the time of her suicide.
This indicates she saw Desmond outside of the their dates in Santa Barbara.
See chapter on Paige’s phone book.
1970/1 Pasadena Art Museum With Warhol Wearing A Rudi Gernreich Dress. Meet Paige’s Date Bill Gardner. Artist DeWain Valentine. Venice Beach Studio. Art Scene LA.(Long) *Updated* 4/12/24
Posted on July 21, 2020
Around May 15, 1970, An appearance by Paige Young at the Pasadena Art Museum (PAM), was recorded by Marvene Jones of the los angeles evening news,and her photographer. Jones’ column, The Social Butterfly, focused on the Hip happenings of the LA social scene.
The occasion was a gala for the new Andy Warhol exhibit.
Warhol himself makes an appearance, obviously a big deal.
Los Angeles Evening Citizen 5/16/1970
Who is Bill Gardner?
William Louis Gardner
William Louis Gardner was born in Minnesota and finished school there. He
Bill Gardner’s website
joined the US Air Force and worked at the Pentagon in the Target Library of the world. Went on to the Pasadena Playhouse to learn television and movie making. He got a job with actress Marion Davies at her home. There He met a movie agent and started a career in Hollywood. William Louis Gardner has worked in Hollywood as the agent, personal secretary, PR advisor and manager for for Mickey Rooney, Jonathan Winters, Jill St.John, Bobby Van and director, John Huston. William Gardner is the author of two books, “Confessions of a Hollywood Agent,” and “The Games End.”
According to the Jones article, column 2 above, Paige Young and Andy Warhol discuss a role for Paige in an upcoming Andy Warhol film. It’s not something that ever happened. I think the two were making flirty small talk. Ironically, Paige mentions Warhol and the Pop Art scene in an interview with Playboy magazine.
She said about Pop Art “it gives me a headache.” “I wouldn’t waste my paint on it.”
Marvene Jones also says that Mr. and Mrs. DeWain Valentine made up a foursome that evening with Paige and Bill Gardner. Valentine had an exhibit showing some of his large cast polyester resin pieces at the Pasadena Art Museum. It was being shown right along with the Warhol exhibit.
LAT? PAM has been called the Norton Simon Museum since October 1975. A very interesting LA-Hollywood story itself.
Los Angeles Time March 10, 1968.
DeWain Valentine was one the the hottest young rising artists in the 1960s Venice Beach art scene.
Valentine is considered an innovator in the “Light and Space” art movement along with artists Larry Bell, Robert Irwin, Helen Pashgian, James Turrell, John McCracken, Fred Eversley, and Doug Wheeler.
Many of these artists lived in Venice Beach due to the cheap rent. They were continuing a practice well established by this point in time.
Some brief Background for context of the Venice Beach Art scene:
Before
the Light and Space artists emerged, the Cool School or Ferus Gallery artists, had already established themselves beginning in the early 1950s.
The Ferus Group includes: Ed Keinholz (original part owner) , Wally Berman, Billy Al Bengston, Ed Ruscha, Robert Irwin, Ed Moses, Craig Kauffman, John Altoon, Allen Lynch, Peter Alexander and the curators and owners of the Ferus Gallery who helped bring them to renown, Walter Hopps and Irving Blum. Walter Hopps had an eye for cutting edge art.
The Ferus Gallery artists loved the freedom to explore and experiment and basically be able to live “Do Your Own Thing.”
Many of them lived in Venice Beach.
The artists lived and worked far away from the competitive New York City art world and its’ critics. Ed Moses once said “No one cared what we were doing.”
The Ferus Gallery gang famously interacted with Andy Warhol during his well documented stay in Los Angeles in the early 1960s. Warhol drove with actor Taylor Mead, assistant Gerard Malanga and painter Wynn Chamberlain from NYC to LA.
It was Warhol’s very first trip to LA.
Andy Warhol, Irving Blum in background, Billy Al Bengston, Dennis Hopper, unidentified. At the DuChamp retrospective in 1963 Pasadena Art Museum. Photo by the legendary Julian Wasser.
The trip was to catch opening night for Warhol’s 2nd exhibit at Ferus.
Alongside this growing art scene in Venice Beach in the 1950s and early 1960s, the “Beatnik Scene” was happening and was documented by author Lawrence Lipton.
Lawrence Lipton observed and wrote about the characters of the beatnik culture in Holy Barbarians, while he was living in Venice West, California.
Valley Times. November 7, 1959. The year that Holy Barbarians was published. Beatniks became a fad into the early 1960s and permanently after that..
Venice Beach in LA, North Beach in San Francisco and Greenwich Village in NYC were hotspots for Beats and Beatnik culture.
You probably
I am imagining you have at least seen somewhere, the Beatnik trope and stereotype.
Here is a cliche image of a beatnik girl with coffee, cigarettes, a black beret, black clothing and snapping fingers to poetry and bongo drums in a coffee house.
1959 movie poster for a movie about Beatniks: Mr. Tucker, proprietor of a Los Angeles coffee house, hires three down-on-their-luck classic beatnik patrons: out-of-work actor John Mapes; struggling writer Ray Miller; and George Leland, the wayward son of movie star Rita Leland, to participate in an armored car robbery to take place during a four-hour stopover in Chicago during the trio’s train trip from Los Angeles to New York. Mapes’ worried wife Jeanne joins him on the train, concerned about his not having had a job in more than a year. (wikipedia)
The Ferus ‘Studs’ the new generation of artists, young abstract painters, ceramicists and assemblage makers who had been flying under the wire now were the featured artists at the Ferus Gallery. The Gallery was ripe for the adventurous artists who would set the new bar in contemporary styles. The Ferus Gallery had belief in the performance of their work and was one of the first galleries to support it.
Ferusgallery.com
END
Out of this milieu was born the Light and Space movement in the mid-1960s.
DeWain Valentine was a key player in Light and Space.
Originally from Ft. Collins, Colorado, Valentine developed a type of polyester resin material that allowed him to make large scale pieces like the one shown below.
Previously the material would crack when making a piece this size: approx: 17 1/4x 17/4 x 7/8.
Valentine was a newcomer to Venice Beach compared to the others artists, arriving in 1965. It appears he was a fairly quick success on the West Coast.
For much more detail on these art movements which established the Los Angeles art scene as one on par with New York City or even Europe, watch the documentary “The Cool School,” available on Netflix. Or the book referenced above.
Richard Sample
told me that after he moved to a studio-home in Venice (late 1960s) he invited Paige to move in with him.
I think it was Richard’s father, artist and western jewelry maker Charlie Sample, who was able to get Richard the studio space in Venice Beach.
I asked Richard the location and he said he could not remember it, but that it was quite close to the ocean and his artist neighbors and friends were, DeWain Valentine and Larry Bell. (See chapter: Interview with Richard Sample)
Paige refers to her “new Venice art studio” and the art scene there, in several interviews with Playboy magazine and US newspapers in 1969 and 1970. (See chapter: Most Public Year 1969)
Richard Sample and Paige Young joined the community of Venice artists, but were “not working with the new materials,” to quote Paige in an interview. She was referring to her neighbors and friends, Valentine, Bell and Irwin, etc.
De Wain Valentine, Concave Circle Blue Green, 1968–2017. Cast polyester resin, 23 1/2 x 23 1/2 x 9 7/8 inches. © De Wain Valentine. Courtesy of the artist and Almine Rech. Photo: Melissa Castro Duarte. Brooklyn Rail.
Paige mentions Venice Beach as an “art colony,” where she now lives.
Philadelphia Inquirer Jun. 27, 1969
After a long search I found the location of this Venice studio: 62-68 Market St.
Research and interviews show that Robert Irwin lived across the street from Valentine. This was not mentioned by Richard Sample. At one point I asked him if he “knew Ed Ruscha or Robert Irwin” and some others. He did not recognize those names, he was definitive about Larry Bell and DeWain Valentine.
Richard Sample’s niece Ellen Sample remembers visiting her uncle and grandfather Charles Sample at the art studio/home in Venice Beach. Charles Sample was a jewelry maker and had a retail storefront in addition to his studio.
Ellen, a child at the time, remembers hearing frequent talk about a man named “Valentine.”
Richard and Ellen both recalled being able to see the beach from the studio. 62-68 Market St., a block from the ocean, is a large structure and was divided amongst many artists who rented their own studio according to Ellie. This is why the address lists a range of numbers.
Richard Sample is listed with an address of 63 Market St. Venice, in a newspaper marriage announcement, 1968.
Ellen texted me a story: she thinks her Uncle Richard sublet the Venice studio to Paige at one point.
Ellen recalls “tensions” regarding Paige amongst Ellen’s aunts. These women were the wives of Charles Sample and his sons.
Ellen said her own mother was not bothered by Paige living at the studio, but that her mother did “go with her sister-in-laws to see what was going on at the studio.” Ellen says the most tense time was when Paige’s Playboy issue was current and shortly after.
Richard Sample told me he was forced to ask Paige to leave the Venice studio because she never paid him rent. (See chapter Richard Sample interview)
I asked Ellen if it was a possibility that Richard felt pressured to ask Paige to leave due to the tension.
Ellen said she thought it was possible, but just didn’t know for certain.
DeWain Valentine has spoken about his Venice studio in several art magazine interviews and the influence it had on his art.
His ex-wife told me in a telephone conversation that Paige was one of many women with whom Valentine “slept with” during those days. Mrs. Valentine confirmed Paige was a women on the Venice scene and saw her on social occasions. She remember the night at the Pasadena Art Museum, but not specifically that she double dated with Paige. Mrs. Valentine thinks she could have gone by herself that night but was seen with her ex and Paige. She does not recall knowing Bill Gardner, Paige’s date of the evening. I need to confirm that Mr. valentine learned about the studio through Richard Sample.
And Mrs. Val. remembers Richard being a friend of Paige.
DeWain Valentine fondly remembers the friendships with his many fellow artists, Larry Bell and Robert Irwin, particularly the years of the 1960s and early 70s.
DeWain Valentine above states that he lived in and eventually purchased the 62 -65 Market St.
And indeed, several records with his signature and name can be seen in public building archives from LA County, now available online. Copy of one seen below.
61-65 is the address listed here.
DeWayne Valentine spent many years living and creating art in Hawaii after the 1970s. He and the Mrs. Valentine mentioned in the Marvene Jones article, divorced at some point. He remarried and stayed married to the 2nd Mrs. Valentine until his death on February 2, 2022.
When he moved back to LA from Hawaii, it was to a large studio and home in Gardena.
.
From the Documentary “The Cool School.” Market St, where Valentine, Bell and Irwin had studios. And Richard Sample and Paige Young made art and lived, briefly. I would say Paige lived there about one year.
1969: January Playboy. Playmate of the Year Contest. Winner: Connie Kreski. Anthony Newley. Roman Polanski. Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe…..? 1970s James Caan. Under Construction. NSFW.
Posted on July 15, 2020
Paige’s photo appears in the January 1969 issue of Playboy magazine along with a brief update about her life, which was truthful I learned, if vague.
The issue shows all 12 Playmates of 1968, a brief update accompanies each one, standard protocol for this annual issue.
Playmate of the Year title will be announced soon.
It’s also the 15th anniversary issue of the successful magazine. Successful monetarily enough for founder Hugh Hefner to create a publishing and business empire, and successful by show of a slew of imitators.
The Playmate of the Year was a higher status title than Playmate of the Month, obviously. It meant more of everything: publicity, interviews, money, career opportunities, beneficial marriage proposals or at least fun dates with good looking actors. Plus you get a bunch of prizes, a car and a party thrown in your honor which will be attended by celebrities and the press.
I do not know how the PMOY was chosen. Did reader feedback influence the decision, was it up to Hugh Hefner only, or decided by committee at Playboy?
Paige did not win and I doubt if she was even in the top 3.
The winner was Connie Kreski, girlfriend of the Victor Lownes, head of the London Playboy Club/ Casino and Hef’s good friend.
By this time 1969, Connie had filmed a movie by Anthony Newley, shortly after her Playmate of the Month issue was released in January of 1968.
Read on…..
Connie Kreski-
was born Constance Joanne Kornacki in Wyandotte, Michigan. She grew up in a strict Polish Catholic family.
Connie Kornacki was studying for a degree is psychiatric nursing at Mercy College in Detroit when Playboy came calling in the form of a man she met at a University of Michigan football game.
He worked for Playboy and told her she possessed the right youthful face and figure required for Playmate candidates.
In the following articles, the reader learns about Connie’s background, how she got to Playboy, her move to London and her new film starring and directed by the British singer-songwriter-actor Anthony Newley.
Newley wrote many classic songs like: Goldfinger, What Kind of Fool and I?, Feeling Good and Candy Man!
Anthony Newly married English Hollywood starlet and beauty Joan Collins in 1963.
Connie appeared to look much younger than her 21 years. This is why Newley cast her as Mercy in his 1969 released film “Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?”
Anthony Newley plays himself in the title role of Hieronymus, real life wife Joan Collins plays his wife in the film, named Polyester Poontang.
It was pretty much a flop and skewered by the critics.
The article below was written before the disappointing reviews that followed the debut of the film in 1969.
It’s quite an interesting look at late-1960s popular culture by way of Newley’s film set on the island of Malta in 1968.
The Newley’s small children Alexander and Tara were in the film as well as and several starlets, models and dancers.
Detroit Press Nov. 17, 1969 BetteLou Petersen celebrity column.
Playboy magazine featured a nine page photo spread with an article promoting/showing nudity in friend Newley’s movie; showing nude starlets, a nearly nude Joan Collins, Connie has a whole page.
After Connie moved to London, she met not only Anthony Newley but Hef’s good friend from Chicago who was head of the London Playboy Club and Casino: Victor Lownes. Connie and Victor started dating.
Lownes is another colorful yet forgotten 1960s character. It was said that he embodied the Playboy man even more than Hugh Hefner. He was also known to sexually harass Bunnies.
Victor Lownes, Hefner and director Roman Polanski, along with Anthony Newley, were close friends in the late 1960s and early 1970s era.
Victoria Vetri, PMOY 1968, and starlet is mentioned in left column. She was also honored at the party for her reign of ’68 and the opening of her film, now a cult classic. Victoria Vetri had a small part in Roman Polanski directed hit film “Rosemary’s Baby.” Victoria was known as Angela Dorian as September Playmate of the Month in 1967.
Polanski and actress Sharon Tate lived together in London for a time.
Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate had their wedding reception at the London Playboy Club in 1968.
Connie and Victor appear together with several mourners at Sharon Tate’s funeral in Los Angeles, on film footage seen on youtube.
Roman and Sharon also appeared together on an episode of Playboy After Dark, interviewed by host Hef. Roman does most of the talking. (Available on youtube and tiktok.)
Victor Lownes is the person seen in a famous photo holding up a collapsing Roman Polanski at Sharon Tate’s funeral.
The couple broke up when Victor dumped Connie after falling hard for a new Bunny at the London Club.
Marilyn Cole’s Playboy centerfold is famous for being the first obvious view of a Playmate with full frontal nudity.
Very quickly, this Bunny became PMOM in 1972 and PMOY in 1973.
Her pubic hair not obscured in anyway this time. The issue was a boost at a time Playboy magazine felt pressure from new Penthouse magazine, more explicit.
Her name is Marilyn Cole, and she has her own long story to tell and has done so in interviews ( a little bit.)
Connie pretty quickly became involved with James Caan. She was his date for the premiere of The Godfather in NYC on March 24, 1972.
Marilyn and Victor married in 1984, and stayed married until his death in 2017.
END
April 6, 1969. Long Beach Press Telegraph
Connie Kreski has about 10 TV and film appearances after “Hieronymus.”
Connie appeared as a guest on the Merv Griffin and Joey Bishop talk shows.
Connie go-go danced on Laugh-In.
From the Fremont Tribune, June 21, 1973
She does have more lines on other episodes of PAD, mostly the ones from 1970, the last year of the program.
Connie was introduced on the Playboy After Dark TV show by Hugh Hefner as “Connie Kreski, our Playmate of the Year.” Connie does not say one word the entire show.
It seems Connie had about 15 minutes of fame as an actress.
The People, London. Aug. 23, 1970 A little over a year since Sharon Tate and the others were murdered, Connie remains friends with her widower Roman Polanski. Sorry for poor quality. Gossip about Roman and Connie also below.
At a fashion show in London, Connie was a featured model.
Kreski’s newspaper press indicates she was signed to a contract with Universal Studios.
Universal signed an extraordinary number of pinup models, beauty contest winners and starlets in the 1950s and 60s.
Detroit Free Press April 27, 1969 The hometown/homestate paper covered their Hollywood star.
Connie appeared on a memorable 1970 episode of Love American Style starring Kaye Ballard, playing a topless waitress: Love and the V.I.P. Restaurant.
After a few years Connie’s contract with Universal was dropped which merited one sentence in a Hollywood gossip column.
Her last credit is a TV mini-series Aspen in 1976.
James CaaN
Connie had a high profile romance with actor James Caan in the early and mid-1970s. She was identified in Hollywood news articles as his “girlfriend” and “ex-Playmate.” They got together soon after Caan’s star making turn in the Godfather; he was much in demand by directors and studios. And by many beautiful young women, according to several interviews at the time.
Playboy Mansion regular James Caan speaks about girlfriend Connie Kreski in NY Daily News Oct. 8, 1972
Below is from an 1970s Playboy feature on men’s jewelry with Connie and boyfriend James Caan.
It was determined that Connie Kreski died of cirrhosis of the liver at age 48 in 1995. Laennec’s is a cirrhosis most associated with alcohol abuse over time.
What happened in her life that caused it to end this way at the age of 45?
What happened to her friendships with Hefner and Polanski and that crowd? And James Caan?
Connie Kreski is rarely mentioned in any pop culture forum. I find that strange given the people that she was seen hanging out with.
Many of these people continue to generate attention and conversation. Some are still alive, many dead. Most recently, Connie’s ex and Playboy mansion regular and good friend of Hefner, James Caan passed away on July 6, 2022. His death drew numerous accolades and a film festival is in the works.
Unusually, Caan lacks a dedicated biography. This will likely be forthcoming.
Caan hadn’t been asked about Connie since the 1970s, that I have ever seen.
Like Paige Young, Connie’s cause of death is incorrectly identified on the internet. It usually says “blocked carotid artery” or “cancer.” Connie’s entry in The Playmate Book, mentions her death in Beverly Hills, 1995, but doesn’t state a cause. I have included closeups of her death certificate.
Connie and a man named Louis Edelman were married in New York in 1986. They set up a marital home in Beverly Hills. Connie was pregnant at the time but unfortunately lost the baby the same year.
Connie died in March of 1995 at age 49. She died before her about 10 years older husband, Louis Edelman.
I had long wondered what happened to Connie and I ordered her death certificate. Then of course I wondered how she had become an alcoholic with all her seeming advantages in life including backers in a budding career in moviedom.
Cirrhosis of Liver is clearly stated as the cause of Connie’s premature death.
I was fortunate enough to be able to get some answers by correspondence with Connie’s stepdaughter Barbara Cooper. Her father was Louis Edelman.
Barbara Cooper told me that after the loss, Connie began an obsession with calorie counting and losing weight. On top of that she abused alcohol and her husband Louis felt compelled to hide liquor bottles from his wife.
With those two illnesses, it’s no wonder that Connie died so young and before her older husband.
Barbara’s daughters spent vacations with “Grandpa and Connie in California.” Barbara told me how consistently kind and sweet Connie was to her daughters and to everybody.
She said that Connie did not talk about Playboy, Hefner, any of the Playmates, or her days in Hollywood.
More on Connie Kreski and her brief time in the spotlight
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