From my copy of names with phone numbers that Melanie Myers recorded from Paige Young’s phone book. The LAPD confiscated the phone book after Melanie wrote down the names and numbers.
For a long time I had no clue as to “who (the hell) is Samson?”
In the spring of 2024
I interviewed Mrs. Darlene Valentine.
She lives in my state about one hour north of me.
Darlene Valentine was an artist and worked art-related jobs in Hollywood, for many years. Set design and wardrobe.
She was acquainted with Paige Young.
Darlene’s ex-husband DeWain Valentine was a prominent Venice Beach based artist. He dated Paige Young in the late 60s-early 70s.
I don’t know for how long.
Darlene and DeWain divorced around 1968.
They shared 3 young sons and a mutual social circle in the LA Art world.
Link to chapter on Pasadena Art Museum/Venice Beach art world:
Darlene Valentine was on friendly terms with Paige. She said ex-husband DeWain usually brought his girlfriends over to her house to meet them.
Darlene saw or interacted with Paige on a handful of different social occasions from about 1970-1974.
One incident she recalls, took place at the the deli Zucky’s, approx, 1970–72:
“Many of us went to Zucky’s because it was one of the only places open all night.”
Darlene was there with a friend and they sitting with her ex-husband DeWain and his date, Paige Young.
Darlene remembers that at one point that evening, Paige “cried out like she was in pain.”
The cry was in response to DeWain grabbing Paige’s thigh or knee and squeezing really hard. His action looked like it was in response to Paige “saying something he did not want her say,” said Darlene.
The gesture was meant for Paige to “shut up.”
Darlene said her ex-husband “was not shy about saying things considered outrageous or shocking.” So she remembers being surprised at his strong reaction to whatever it was that Paige said.
The main (for me, only) appeal of Zucky’s when I used to go there was that it was open 24 hours so it was a great location to take your date for ice cream or a snack after you took her to one of the movie theaters out on Third Street. It was also “the” place for breakfast and sometimes lunch for folks who worked in Santa Monica. It struck me as a restaurant that wasn’t very good but it drew a crowd for lack of alternatives. When better places to eat opened in the neighborhood, Zucky’s floundered.
Paige mentioned DeWain in her suicide note/will, according to Darlene. She left him a statue of a horse. (Please see related chapters.)
Zucky’s closed in 1993.
Another of these social occasions Darlene remembers, was a “daytime, all-female tea party, at Paige’s place in Westwood.”
Darlene remembers seeing Michelle Phillips of the Mamas and thePapas at the tea party.
She also recognized “Samson De Brier, the only man there.”
Darlene saw Samson at Art related events, openings and parties, during the time she lived in LA.
Later in the chapter I discuss more of what Darlene told me during our interview.
So who the hell was Samson De Brier?
If you don’t know, I hope you get a good idea by the end of this chapter. Samson, along with several of his colleagues mentioned here, are worthy of their own dedicated biography.
late summer of 2024:
I visited the Samson De Brier archives located at ONE Archives USC Libraries.
I spent about 3 hours looking through the 2 large containers, the size of a large size liquor box. Together, they make up the archive.
Samson with prominent gallery owner Molly Barnes in the 1980s. Darlene Valentine mentioned Molly Barnes a few times during our interview.
Ultimately, I did not find Paige Young’s name in any of the files.
I checked the many pieces of paper and envelopes with names, phone numbers, lists or notations, written on the back.
I looked through a big file of Christmas cards sent to Samson over the years.
From my written notes atOne ArchivesUSC. The archives’ focus is LGBTQ histories of Los Angeles. Samson knew many leaders in the early LGBTQ movement as you shall see. I have not yet researched actress Francine York.
The archives include a file with xeroxed press articles about Samson.
From a gossip column mentioning Samson De Brier. As a “gadabout raconteur,” DeBrier hosted a salon in the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s. During this time until his death in 1995, he was a frequent guest at Hollywood parties, Art world parties, and parties with a mix of both. Samson was an occultist (at one time) and a friend of cult filmmaker Kenneth Anger. Kenneth Anger directed Samson in his 1953 experimental film Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome. The film is based on writings of occult figure head Aleister Crowley. I recently read the film was inspired by a Renate Druks party with a theme: Come As Your Madness.
The salon De Brier hosted from the 1950s through the1970s, took place at his home close the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
Samson rented out the rooms in his Georgian house, visible on Barton Way.
His residence/salon was in a smaller house behind the Georgian and not visible to the street.
Renting the rooms in his house provided De Brier with an income for several decades. It was enough for him to get by without working the grind of a “real job.” (Interesting as Paige Young was quoted in Playboy as averse to “the 9-5 doldrums.”)
This did cause De Brier to live more sparsely than some of his friends and Salon guests. Legend has it that the Salon host served only water.
credit: Kitchen Cultist. Kenneth Anger poses at the Hollywood sign. Some of his most well-known/infamous underground films are Scorpio Rising and Lucifer Rising. I found Hollywood Babylon at a college bookstore around 1978. It fueled my interest in Hollywood history and its’ many tragic-bizarre deaths, lurid sex scandals and Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
Samson DeBrier co-starred alongside occultist/artist Marjorie Cameron, writer Anais Nin, and painter Renate Druks in what became a classic of Avant-garde/ experimental film: Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome,1954. Samson’s friend Kenneth Anger directed the film.
Samson’s home was the perfect filming location for Pleasure Dome, filled with his collection of antique objects, mirrors, exotic rugs, statues, tapestries.
Anger authored a book, Hollywood Babylon, about early film industry scandals and tragedies. It’s legendary to a certain audience.
Kenneth Anger and his influential book Hollywood Babylon are worth exploring in greater detail. As well as the book itself, I highly recommend a BBC documentary of the same name. Directed by Nigel Finch and first aired in 1991. Last time I checked, it was available on youtube.
I’ve heard conflicting stories about the truthfulness of the stories Anger wrote in Hollywood Babylon; his stories on the deaths of Lupe Velez and Jayne Mansfield have been debunked.
I recently read that DeBrier helped research the material for Hollywood Babylon.
END
Darlene told me about her time spent at Paige Young’s house. The occasion was an “all-female tea party.”
As I said earlier, she remembers Michelle Phillips of the Mamas and thePapas attending the party.
“The only male at Paige’s tea party was Samson De Brier.”
Darlene said Samson acted openly gay at a time when very few did so. “He was kind-of flamboyant.”
And “He called himself a warlock.”
The next several images are from a magazine interview found in the De Brier ONE archives.
De Brier died in 1995.
Attendees at the De Brier salons were Jack Nicholson, James Dean, directors Paul Mazursky and Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick was not a fan of LA. Jane Fonda, Anais Nin. Nin acted in Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome.
In one box I found two legal size envelopes stuffed with around 200 scraps of paper and torn envelopes.
The paper scraps had names, numbers and personal notes recorded on them. They often included descriptions of people as if intended to help Samson remember them at a future date.
Article from a special “movie issue” that goes with photo of Samson and Molly Barnes.
In the early 1980s, the Ferus Gallery days must have seemed like a long time in the past.
I wrote down the names or took photos.
Throughout this chapter, I will review some of the names and what I learned about them through research.
A perfect example: Kimberly Hyde.
“Young woman long blonde hair met at Finley Gallerys.”
Hyde was an actress who appeared in small and bit parts in a handful 1970s “sexploitation,” horror and action films: Simon, King of the Witches in 1971 as a “religious object”(set decoration). The Young Nurses 1974,The Cheerleaders, Candy Stripe Nurses, 1973.
Credited as Annie-Annie Martin in a classic of New Hollywood Cinema:The Last Picture Show, 1971.
Movie credits according to imdb.
Hyde plays Jennifer in a famous movie of the 1970sBlaxploitation genre: FoxyBrown, 1974.
The queen of the genre, PamGrier, in the title role, of course.
I could not find a usable photo for Kimberly Hyde.
Pam Grier in Foxy Brown.Casey Shelton Pinterest.
Gingere Blakely
partner to Joan Corbin-I can’t find any more about Blakely other than that fact.
Corbin has her own archive at ONE on the USC campus.
Joan Corbin was born on May 25, 1921, in Armada, Michigan. She grew up in Richmand, Michigan, and moved to Los Angeles, California, in January 1946. She soon moved in with Irma “Corky” Wolf, pseudonym Ann Carll Reid, and both joined ONE Incorporated as founding board members in 1953. Using the pseudonym Eve Elloree, Joan Corbin planned, designed, and illustrated ONE Magazine as an editorial staff member, 1953-1954, and art director, 1954-1963. Joan Corbin continued to draw and write poetry when in August 2000 she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She died in 2004.
Biography from ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, USC Libraries.
Luana Anders. Actress with many supporting roles in movies and TV 1950s-1980s. Good friends with Jack Nicholson and Dennis Hopper, she acted in several of their films. Night Tide, Easy Rider, The Last Detail, Goin’ South, The Two Jakes.
Anders guested in many classic TV shows like Mannix, Bonanza, Ironside,Mayberry RFD, Adam 12, 3 episodes of Dragnet.
A practicing Buddhist for many years, Anders died of breast cancer in 1996 at age 58. It was one year after her friend Samson’s death.
Image of Luana Anders from Dementia 13,1963. A Roger Corman film production with Francis Coppola directing his first film.
A biography of Luana Anders is sorely needed as she is the ultimate cult actress.
LAT obituary July 27, 1996. The Times saying Anders died at age 54. Wikipedia and Find-a-Grave say 58.
Betty Berzon 8560 Hollywood Blvd.
Another unknown pioneer of LGBTQ history
LAT obit. Jan. 25, 2006
Ventura County Star
Nicky Blair
An actor who made a career of bit parts and small roles in famous movies and TV shows with legendary actors from 1949 to 1998.
LAT Nov. 24, 1998
A fraction of his diverse appearances:
Voiced the character Hammerhead in 4 episodes of a mid-1990s version of Spider-man.
Appeared in Truck Stop Women, starring tragic Playmate of the Year 1970,Claudia Jennings.
(Read about Jennings in the Start Here chapter.)
Shaft, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, A Bronx Tale, Beaches.
In 1977: Old Wino in Record City with Rick Dees of Disco Duck fame, to a Cab Driver in Scorsese’sNew York, New York with DeNiro and Minnelli;
His TV work consisted of classic and cult mid-century shows: Combat!, The Felony Squad, McHale’s Navy, The Munsters, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Batman, Mannix, Gomer Pyle, Wild, Wild West, Medical Center, Magnum P.I., Hardcastle and McCormick.
Beverly Hills 90210 in 1998, the same year he died. His first credit was a “boy” in a 1949 juvenile delinquent themed movie City Across the River.
He became locally famous as a successful restaurateur on the Strip from 1986 to 1993. Blair’s first restaurant opened in 1971 in LA, but burned down in 1976 according to SFGate.
Born Nicholas Macario in Brooklyn, the bit-part actor played Shorty Farnsworth, Elvis Presley’s sidekick in the 1964 “Viva Las Vegas,” and was an usher with one line in Frank Sinatra’s “Ocean’s Eleven.” Blair’s Las Vegas restaurant had several autographed photos on the walls, including one from Sinatra signed, “To the star from his favorite bit player.”
Among Blair’s other film credits over 40 years were “Rogue Attack,” “Operation Petticoat,” “Hell to Eternity,” “The Manchurian Candidate” and “Diamonds Are Forever.” He began playing parts close to home–maitre d’s and casino hosts–in later years including in “Beaches” and “The Godfather, Part III.” He also played a fight promoter in “Rocky V.
LAT Nicky Blair obituary Nov. 24, 1998.
hollywoodphotographs.com Nicky Blair’s restaurant
More from LAT Obit. Hollywood “tea” describing the heyday of Nicky Blair’s.
Columnist Sidney Skolsky was also a friend of Marilyn Monroe.
Richard Burton.
Director Curtis Harrington with actress Shelley Winters during the filming of Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?
I viewed several Christmas cards to Samson from Curtis Harrington. Harrington was a director from the 1950s through the 1970s. He is most known for his cult film Night Tide, 1961, featuring a young Dennis Hopper, occultist-artist Cameron and Luana Anders. Harrington directed 1970s cult horror films: What’s the Matter with Helen?How Awful AboutAllan, 1970, The Killing Kind, 1973 with Luana Anders. Whoever slew AuntieRoo?1972 with Shelley Winters seen above. Lots of episodic TV: Charlie’s Angels,Wonder Woman, Hotel, Vega$, Dynasty, The Colbys. Harrington’s last credit was for acting in a short horror film: Usher, 2000. He died in LA in2007. From what I’ve read on the internet, Harrington never got the chance to fully realize his vision as a director. This is why Night Tide is considered his most realized work. I am interested in looking at the TV episodes he directed. There is no dedicated biography of Harrington. He wrote a memoir with a marvelous title: Nice Guys Don’t Work InHollywood. I plan to read it soon!
Stuart Florida News May 11, 2007
I discovered several Christmas cards signed by Roberta Haynes. Haynes lived near Samson for a time, I read in one of the archived articles.
At one time, both RichardBurton and Marlon Brando competed for Roberta’s attention.
Valley Times July 25, 1953. Return to Paradise was the breakthrough role for Encino resident Roberta Haynes. 1953 was also the year of Marilyn Monroe’s Movieland breakthrough. Considered a high compliment to be cast as the love interest of Gary Cooper, Haynes career is forgotten.
I purchased 2 Playboy interviews, 1972 and 2003, with star Jack Nicholson. Cost is about $2 on Amazon.
The next quotes are from the 1972 issue. Not from the archives.
Jack Nicholson:…actually Dennis (Hopper) and I originally became actors because we like parties and people and girls and art and acceptance and all the things that are really very momentary and immediate.
Playboy: Can you recall any particular festivities that the two of you attended together?
Jack Nicholson: We used to go to a lot of the salons held by Samson DeVreer (sic) a male witch. He’s one of the great L.A. puries, no question about that.
Playboy: Puries?
Jack Nicholson:By puries, I mean people who are very expressive of LA culture–the overstuffed California hamburger, the 48, 000 ice-cream flavors, the Hollywood electric whiz-bang kids.
Anway, DeVreer had a running house for crazos over there, all the local eccentrics like Vampira and occasionally James Dean. People would be reading tarot cards at those gatherings –long before it was fashionable. Just big walking around parties. Every once in a while, Samson would turn of the lights and read from his memoirs. I didn’t know many people who had been Andre Gide’s lover, so it was very exotic to me.
END
Playboy interviewer heard Nicholson saying “DeVreer.” He is not the only journalist to hear Samson’s last name that way.
Too bad Playboy didn’t ask more about the De Brier salons and the hip and obscure characters who attended.
Credit Getty Photo. Jack, Dennis and Michelle. Paige hosted a tea-party where Michelle was a guest, as seen by Darlene Valentine. (She thinks 1974)
Jack Nicholson,Dennis Hopper and Michelle Phillips at an Oscar after-party about 1970. Dennis and Michelle famously had an 8-day marriage before before getting it annulled.
Was Paige Young acquainted with Dennis and Jack? I think so.
We know Paige was acquainted with Michelle Phillips.
How well Paige knew these 3 major Hollywood players is not known.
“nowhere people are very busy.”
I don’t recall hearing or reading the name Marin Scott Milam– But I certainly remember media reports, sightings at newsstands and convenience stores, of the notorious magazine she launched: Playgirl
Calgary Herald Sept. 27, 1974 Males Nudes Were the Key, reads the headline. Marin’s letter to Samson seen above, is postmarked1970. There was not a letter in the envelope.
Part 2 of article above, Marin Scott Milam.
Innovative LA artist Wallace Berman made these thick cardboard Christmas “postcards.” He sent them out every year to friends/ fellow artists. This is one for Samson.
From the Samson archives. Year on the postmark lookslike 1964.
These Christmas postcards are now seen in museum collections like the Getty, LACMA and my Art History book collection.
About the Artist
Wallace Berman was an American artist – a self-taught modernist, hipster, and poet-mystic, who worked at a time of extraordinary socio-political and cultural change. Born shortly before the Great Depression, he came of age in the aftermath of World War II, when the horrors of global warfare, the Holocaust, and atomic bombings lingered vividly in people’s hearts and minds. Far from the traditional centers of art and culture, Berman matured as an artist in Los Angeles, on the creative frontier of the American West. His was a reality bifurcated by the clash of an old world and a new, in which lifestyles born of war and deprivation coexisted with unparalleled prosperity, economic growth, and technological innovation. In the 1950s and ’60s, Berman witnessed the rise of the enthusiastic consumerism and militarized bureaucracies of Cold War America, soon to be challenged by the countercultural revolutions of the civil rights, antiwar, and women’s rights movements. He died before the global information age had fully formed, his prolific career cut short by a drunk driveron the eve of his fiftieth birthday in 1976. In the half-century of his all too-short life, America – and, indeed, the world – transformed dramatically, rushing to the brink of a new technological era that few could have envisioned or anticipated.
Michael Kohn Gallery website
This image scanned from my book PacificStandard Time: Los Angeles Art 1965–1980. Named for the city-wide Art exhibit of the same name.
Wallace or “Wally” Berman postcard sent to photographer friend Edmund Teske in 1967
From Made in California” Art, Image and Identity, 1900-2000. Exhibit at LACMA.
Another Berman Christmas postcard from the Samson archives.
Date on back of the above postcard.
Copies of Wallace Berman’s Semina magazines are highly prized now: (Marjorie) Cameron: on the left looking masculine. She was a key player in this underground artistic world. Wally Berman’s wife Shirley, on the right. Samson, Cameron, Shirley and Kenneth Anger were all friends.
I have read that while Berman was very fond of Cameron, he did not care for Anger; maybe even actively disliked him.
Excerpt and image from Made in California: Art, Image and Identity 1900-2000
Image of Wallace Berman being arrested at Ferus Gallery in 1957.
Berman had placed a small drawing by Cameron, explicitly erotic/pornographic, on his installation piece in Ferus.
An anonymous “complaint” about the drawing was registered with the police. The gallery was raided and Berman was arrested.
I did read that some folks have a theory that Ferus gallery owner Irving Blum called the police to make the complaint, for purposes of publicity!
The sender of this Christmas card is…..
Darlene Valentine remembers seeing Eve Babitz out on the LA scene. While she did not have a story or comment about Eve, she did have a smile.
“He’s got a woman who’s going to be 50 in 5 years.” Samson wrote down bits of conversation he heard at social gatherings. This one said by a David Stark. I am unable to find which David Stark, as there are at least a few in the industry of Hollywood, according to imdb. Agnes Scott Black Medium (hair) sent Joan Hackett (actress) and Sally Man(n) (not the photographer) to her.
“Psychic-met at Robertas.” This would be Samson’s friend, actress Roberta Haynes.
“Knew Warren Beatty and wants to meet Natalie Wood.”
Paula Shaw
Christmas card from Renate Druks. Druks was a cult actress, experimental filmmaker, surrealist painter and salon mistress.
In Malibu, Druks became famous for hosting outlandish costume parties. One such masquerade ball, called “Come as Your Madness,” became the inspiration for Anger’s short 1954 film “Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome,” in which Druks would appear. In 1957, she debuted her first major solo show at the Lane Galleries in Westwood, California, which opened to critical accolades.
Over the decades, Druks’s home became a nexus where artists, writers, and actors gathered.
Katie White artnetMay 5, 2020
More about Druks in Samson #2
I learned recently that this person, Paul Mathison was romantically involved with Renate. He is the “Paul,” signed in Druks Christmas card above.
On IMDb, Mathison has 4 credits.
Art department, Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome, 1953, and The Wormword Star1954. (A film about Cameron.)
Production Director on Night Tide,1961, cited previously.
Art Director on Third of aMan, 1962.
If you’ve seen Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome, (available on youtube) Mathison is the blonde, white, menacing looking Pan. Really memorable. 2nd only to the presence of Cameron with her flaming red hair, blood red lips and 1 inch long eyelashes and fingernails.
Christmas card from a box of dozens. I remember this image as a popular poster early 1970s (or earlier.) from actress Elizabeth Ashley.
Notice: “Wally & CeCe Green-Are they bringing someone?”
See chapters on Celeste Shane Green Huston and John Huston. Yet another person that Paige Young and Cici Huston had in common. Bob Gardner, Desmond Guinness, John Huston, Samson, Sepulveda Stables, Douglas Campbell.
Dick Derso-Prod. Doris Day. Betty-met At Molly Barnes (Gallery) Mary Ann Hooper-works for DD. Typical of notes Samson jotted down to remember people he met.
Buck Henry on list, 4th name down.
Another list written on the back of a torn envelope. >>>>
It looks like it is a party going to happen.
Vicki Dougan is one name seen lower down the list .
From The Mind Circle Pinterest. Vicki Dougan.
Already a veteran pinup model by 1957, Vicki Dougan was photographed walking around town wearing backless dresses. This was done as a publicity stunt.
Dougan’s backless gowns and day dresses were an intentional nod to the 1950s craze of the frontside busty bombshells : Marilyn, Jayne, Mamie, Diana, Sabrina et al…
Virginia newspaper. Syndicated Hollywood gossip columnist Erskine Johnson.
Please read Samson PART 2.
Alex Lucas. Kim Fowley was an eclectic record producer, arranger and manager. Most famous for managing The Runaways, with Joan Jett. Rumor has it, Fowley was not a good person. From my research, he was a well-known “scenester” Other names are Jonathan Lucas, Booker McClean, Elizabeth Budy (?)
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 hip happenings of the LA social set.
The occasion at PAM was a gala opening for the new Andy Warhol exhibit.
Warhol himself makes an appearance, obviously a big deal.
Los Angeles Evening Citizen 5/16/1970
Column #2 of article. Richard Sample told me Paige was always barefoot. (And frequently topless) Iconic 1960s fashion designer, from Los Angeles Rudi Gernreich, was the designer of Paige’s dress this evening. Rudi Gernreich is famous for his aesthetic contributions to fashion in the 1960s. Did Paige get the dress directly from Rudi? I think so. Paige Young and Rudi Gernreich lived or hung around Venice Beach at the time. Both were guests at Venice Beach artists’ openings. Rudi Gernreich was and is known for his innovative, modern, risque and gender-bending clothing. He is celebrated to this day for his impact on 1960s fashion and way beyond.. At the end of the article, Marvene Jones gossips that Paige removed her Gernreich dress in the VIP area, later in the evening.
William Louis Gardner was born in Minnesota and finished school there. He 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.”
Bill Gardner’s website
Paige’s date for the Warhol opening at PAM, Bill Gardner, is shown on the set of the Jonathan Winters Show 67-69 CBS. Gardner is with 2 men he “managed,” Mickey Rooney and Jonathan Winters. Paige Young said in 1969 interviews that she was an extra on the Jonathan Winters show and Playboy After Dark. Both shows were filmed at CBS Television City at 7800 Beverly Blvd.Marvene Jones wrote in the above article that Bill was Jonathan’s manager for a while. She also wrote that his main job was to keep Winters sober.
According to the Jones article column 2, Paige Youngand 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.” And
“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 along with the Warhol exhibit.
Notice in the Los Angeles Times
Last part of Marvene Jones’ column shows Warhol with locally famous art patrons Robert and Carolyn Rowan.
PAM has been called the Norton Simon Museum since October 1975. (An interesting LA story itself.) Classic Hollywood actress and widow of producer David Selznick, JenniferJones married Norton Simon, a very wealthy man. He took over the museum in the mid-1970s.
LA Times article 1970, about the upcoming Warhol Show.
Another article on the show.
DeWain Valentine, sculptor from Colorado, was a young and rising artist in the 1960s Venice Beach art scene.
Los Angeles Time March 10, 1968.
(Name misspelling of Warhol!) This refers to the exhibit Paige attended with Bill Gardner, DeWain Valentine and Mrs. Valentine. I interviewed Mrs. Darlene Valentine, who is referred to in the Marvene Jones article. She wasn’t sure if it was a planned foursome or if they just happened to be standing together. She did tell me that after her separation from DeWain, she felt pressured to attend some openings with her estranged husband. Some in the art world didn’t want a hint of scandal gossip at an important openings. They feared it could alienate potential buyers.
Valentine is considered one of the innovators of the “Lightand Space” art movement. The others include Larry Bell, Robert Irwin, Helen Pashgian, James Turrell, John McCracken, Fred Eversley, and Doug Wheeler.
Many of these artists lived or rented a studio in Venice Beach due to the cheap rent. This was continuing a practice already established by this point in time.
From Pacific Standard Time exhibit website, 1968. DeWain Valentine in front of one of his works of art (or is it material for the artpiece?) in the Market St. studio where Paige Young also lived, or rented, at the time her Playboy issue was released.
brief Background of the Venice Beach Art scene:
End of sentence reads: “exoticism: and of course, it’s glorious beach.” From “Made in California: Art Image and Identity 1900-2000
Before the
Light and Space artists emerged in the 1960s, there was the Ferus Group. Named so because they exhibited at the Ferus Gallery, which opened in 1957.
From top right: Billy Al Bengston, Irving Blum, Ed Moses, John Altoon in front of the Ferus Gallery on La Cienega Blvd, in 1959. Photo from the book PacificStandard Time, by William Claxton.
The Ferus Group includes California based artists: Ed Keinholz (original part-owner of the Gallery), Wally Berman, Billy Al Bengston, Ed Ruscha, Larry Bell, Robert Irwin, Ed Moses, Craig Kauffman, Ken Price and John Altoon.
Artists Jay DeFeo and Sonia Gechtoff from San Francisco.
Ferus Gallery included New York artists in their exhibits: Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg,RoyLichtenstein, Frank Stella.
The curators and owners of the Ferus Gallery who helped bring them to renown are Walter Hopps and Irving Blum.
end of sentence “directly onto sheetmetal.” From Made in California: Art, Image and Identity 1900-2000
Hopps had the eye for cutting edge art. Irving Blum was good at selling it.
Many of southern California artists lived in VeniceBeach.
The Ferus Gallery gang 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.
Ken Price exhibition announcement from 1961, Ferus Gallery. From the book: Made in California: Art, Image and Identity.1900-2000
The trip plan was to catch opening night for Warhol’s 2nd exhibit at Ferus. His Campbell’s soup can collection has already shown there to jeers and laughter.
The Southern California artists were allowed to live and create far away from the competitive and critical Art world.
They found freedom to creativity outside of New York City.
Ed Moses once said “No one cared what we were doing.”
Alongside this growing art scene in Venice Beach in the 1950s and early 1960s, the “Beatnik Scene” was happening.
Author Lawrence Lipton documented and helped popularize Beats and Beatniks into a popular culture trope.
Lipton lived and observed the culture of people dropping out of the work-a-day world of post-war affluence.
They were moving away from the promotion of the so-called American Dream culture. This shift was noticeable in places like Venice West, California, North Beach, San Francisco, and Greenwich Village, NYC.
Lawrence Lipton wrote about the real life characters of the beatnik culture in his book Holy Barbarians.
Valley Times. November 7, 1959. The year that Holy Barbarians was published. Beatniks became a fad into the early 1960s and permanently after that..
The hotspots for Beats and Beatnik culture:
Venice Beach and Hermosa Beach communities in LA, North Beach in San Francisco and Greenwich Village in NYC.
Carolyn Keith on Pinterest.
Trope of a Beatnik Girl from the 1950s.
Here is an image of a Beatnik girl with many the cliches of Beatnik images in popular culture.
She has wine, cigarettes, a black beret, and black clothing.
Beatnik couple. Heidi Johnson pinterest. Beatnik accessories like bongo drums, wine, coffee, black striped t-shirts, Modern Art.
Beatnik culture featured in a late 1950s issue of Modern Man magazine. Modern Man was a “Bachelor” magazine and a competitor to Playboy magazine in the 1950s. KCET pinterest. Some of the 1950s pinup models were “Beatnik” in their philosophy about nudity. (Collette Berne)
Movies:
1959 Mr. Tucker, proprietor of a Los Angeles coffee house, hires three down-on-their-luck classic beatnik patrons. They are out-of-work actor John Mapes, struggling writer Ray Miller, and George Leland. George is the wayward son of movie star Rita Leland. They agree to participate in an armored car robbery. This occurs during a four-hour stopover in Chicago on 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)
Disappointingly, TheRebel Set is not about Beatnik culture.
The film begins in a Beatnik coffeehouse with Beatnik patrons. Two of the patrons are struggling actors. They are recruited to join in an armored car heist in Chicago.
The group of Ferus artists were organizing as a Cultural force at the same time the Beatniks were becoming a pop culture force.
Over the next couple of years, Ruscha fell in with the artists orbiting the Ferus Gallery, which opened in 1957 on La Cienega Boulevard in West Hollywood. Founded by the curator Walter Hopps, his wife Shirley Hopps, and the artist Edward Kienholz, Ferus quickly became the ground zero of Los Angeles art, hosting exhibitions by Kienholz and a roster of talents that included John Altoon, Larry Bell, Billy Al Bengston, Robert Irwin, John McCracken, and Ed Moses, as well as Ruscha. Stylistically they were a diverse lot whose efforts ranged across figuration, Expressionism and Minimalist abstraction and this was no less true of Ruscha’s output, which ran the gamut from Pop Art to conceptualism. ART NEWS Nov. 2, 2023. Article about Ed Ruscha by Howard Halle.
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
Inside the Ferus Gallery,1960.From left artists John Altoon,Billy Al Bengston with dancing owner and curator Irving Blum. Photo by William Claxton.
END
The Light and Space or Finish Fetish art movement was born in the mid-1960s.
DeWain Valentine was a key player along with Larry Bell, Doug Wheeler and Robert Irwin, Helen Pashigan, Peter Alexander and more.
Originally from Ft. Collins, Colorado, Valentine developed a type of polyester resin material. This material 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.
(Christies Auction online)
Valentine was a newcomer to Venice Beach compared to the others artists, he arrived with his wife Darlene and sons in 1965.
He had been hired to teach a course on plastics at the UCLA Extension program.
From my reading, he experienced a rapid success on the West Coast.
For much more detail on these art movements which established the LosAngeles art scene as one on par with New York City or even Europe, watch the documentary “The Cool School, ” available on Netflix.
Richard Sample
Told me that after he moved to a studio-home in Venice (late 1960s), he invited Paige to live with him.
Richard’s father is artist and western jewelry maker, Charlie Sample. He 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)
Valentine polyester resin discs from a newspaper article. This is what Paige and the attendees would have seen that night at the Pasadena Art Museum in 1970. But much more colorful like below!
Paige refers to her “new Venice art studio” and discusses 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. They were “not working with the new materials,” to quote Paige in an interview. She was referring to her neighbors and friends, Valentine, Bell, Irwin, etc.
Paige mentions her Venice Beach art studio in several articles including Playboy January 1969. So, it was not made up for publicity. A female friend does remember Paige talking about her Venice art studio. For the most part, I have confirmed that Paige’s Playboy publicity about her personal life mostly aligned with the truth of her real life. She did live in Malibu as her Playmate feature and interviews state. However, technically it was the southern end of Topanga Canyon near the beach across the Pacific Coast Highway. So Topanga Beach?
Paige mentions Venice Beach as an “art colony,” where she now lives.
Philadelphia Inquirer Jun. 27, 1969
I found the location of this Venice studio:62-68Market St.
Research and interviews show that artist Robert Irwin lived across the street from Valentine. His name was not mentioned by Richard Sample.
At one point I asked Richard if he “knew EdRuscha or Robert Irwin” and some others. He did not recognize those names, he was certain about Larry Bell and DeWain Valentine.
Richard Sample’s niece EllenSample 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. Many artists rented their own studios according to Ellie. This is why the address lists a range of numbers.
Richard Sample paints in Venice Beach. He was a friend and former lover of Paige. Richard left LA in the 1970s for Solvang and Los Alamos, Ca. eventually winding up in Idaho. Paige’s oil painting of Richard is hanging on the wall. To the upper left, we see some kind of Paige Playboy plaque. It looks like something the company would present to the Playmates.
Richard Sample is listed with an address of 63 Market St. Venice, in a newspaper marriage announcement, 1968.
Venice Evening Vanguard. Aug. 21 1968
Ellen texted me a story: she thinks her Uncle Richard sublet the Venice studio to Paige at one point.
Ellen recalls “tensions” about Paige among 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. However, 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. (This would have been November of 1968 and 1969. In 1969 Paige was frequently traveling all over the US to promote her photos published in a”current” issue of the magazine.
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 have learned that Paige was not a good manager of money.
I asked Ellen if it was a possibility that Richard felt pressured to ask Paige to leave due to the tension with the women in the family.
Ellen said she thought itwas 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.
Mrs. Darlene Valentine told me in a telephone conversation that Paige was one of many women Valentine “slept with” or “dated” during those days.
She remembered the night at the Pasadena Art Museum, but not specifically that she double dated with Paige. She does remember that Warhol superstar Ultra Violet was along with Warhol.
She does not recall meeting Bill Gardner, Paige’s date of the evening.
DeWain Valentine fondly remembers the friendships with his many fellow artists. He had a special connection with Larry Bell and Robert Irwin. This was particularly true during the 1960s and early 70s.
Brooklyn Rail 2019
DeWain Valentine above states that he lived in and eventually purchased the 62 -65 Market St.
61-65 is the address listed here.
And indeed, several records with his signature and name can be seen in public building archives from LA County. They are now available online.
Here is how 62-68 Market St. looked in September of 2022. Sold by Valentine approx. 20 years ago. Bell’s former place is to the right with the red and cream bricks.
DeWayne Valentine spent many years living and creating art in Hawaii after the 1970s.
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, probably others, had art studios. Richard Sample and Paige Young made art and lived, briefly. Paige lived or rented the studio space for about one year. When she could not pay the rent for several months, Richard Sample “had no choice but to ask her to leave.” When he went to tell her this, Sample found her living on a houseboat in Marina del Rey.
The first white building facade you see in this clip was Valentine’s studio, where Paige and Sample lived and worked for a while in 68/69. The ocean can be seen from this location on Market St., just as Ellen and Richard Sample described it. Larry Bell lived next door and Robert Irwin lived across the street where the arches are on the left. (I think.)
From an 800-page + biography of Andy Warhol.
by author Blake GopnikWARHOL, published in 2020, it is considered the definitive biography of Warhol according to “A.I.” I have uploaded these paragraphs from the Warhol Biography describing the night Paige attended the Warhol opening at PAM, written up in the Social Butterfly column. Notice the sentence “Specimen Days, a comedy about Walt Whitman’s time as a Civil War Nurse.”
<<<<<<<<<From the Marvene Jones column above. Andy’s new movie idea, Specimens of Man.
So DeWain Valentine and Ed Keinholz are chopped liver?
Paige Young in Los Angeles
Paige Young in Los Angeles 