.**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.
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