UPDATE: Richard L. Sample passed away on August 10, 2021.

Recently, I interviewed Richard Sample, Paige’s ex-boyfriend, friend, painter, sculptor, collage-maker, furniture-maker.

He now lives in the Coachella Valley area of California.

Richard Sample was still living in Sun Valley, Idaho when he was interviewed by Daily Mail reporter Ryan Parry in 2014. He says he doesn’t know who gave his name to Parry in association with Paige Young.

I am thankful to Richard Sample for inviting me to interview him in person and taking the time and effort to talk about Paige Young. It was not always easy for him (or me).

Thanks also to his niece Ellen (Ellie) Sample who has been insightful and supportive.

At the appointed time, I pulled up in my rental car and parked next to Richard’s house. There was a chainlink fence and gate that had a big padlock on it and the house was about 10 yards beyond it; I called out his name several times and did not get a response.

Luckily, Richard’s niece Ellie pulled up in her car, got out and told me Richard’s neighbor had called and told her that “there is woman in a red car in front of her Uncle Richard’s house.”

Ellie unlocked the gate and as we walked toward the house, she told me that Richard doesn’t hear very well now.

Ellie said that she was aware of the interview, but “didn’t ask him any questions so that he feels he has his own life.” Ellie lives one street over and has been very involved with caring for Richard since he moved to the area.

Richard warmly greeted me with a hug as did his dog Tolly. Ellie left us to the interview.

Richard Sample gave me permission to publish what he said during our interview.

After we sat down to talk, Sample said to me:

“In 2001 I got throat cancer. I got radiation that burned the lining of my throat and my whole body. I also had a surgery and they cut my throat, it left me hard to talk, hard to drink, hard to eat… I am dying.”

Richard Sample is now 84 years old and obviously does not hear well or speak easily. I strained to hear his whisper of a raspy voice to understand what he was saying, and I didn’t always understand right away. I got better at understanding pretty quickly as our conversation got going.

I will say Richard and I didn’t have a have a normal flowing conversation exactly, but more of a question and answer session. and mostly the answers Richard gave took him a long time to say. I also got to know him as a person and shared my journey with researching Paige’s story.

This chapter and the next will be a mixture of exact quotes from my tape recorder as well as transcribed hand notes.

First some background of Richard Sample and his connection to Los Angeles.

His father was Charles “Charlie” Sample, a well known artist, named Charles or Charlie L. Sample, an eccentric Los Angeles/California character.

Richard was born in Hunting Beach in 1936, 3 years after his parents married.

Charles was a locally famous and talented goldsmith/jeweler to the Hollywood stars, in particular the western ones. This kept him in Los Angeles for a long spell.

“My father (Charlie Sample) was a famous gold and silver smith. He made silver spurs for $8000 and made belt buckles and horse saddles for Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, John Wayne, Mae West, Tim Holt,” said Richard.

Richard showed me a recent catalog for a company producing high-end western gear called Bohlin. It featured Charlie Sample designs: horse saddles, bridles, spurs, belt buckles, bolo ties, rings, bracelets etc.

Richard’s mother, the former Virginia Smith, was one of about 8 women that modeled for the Columbia Pictures symbol. His parents divorced when Richard was young and his mother remarried and had more children. Richard was upset and angry about his parents’ divorce and “acted out negatively,” according to a relative of his whom I communicated with through ancestry.com

Richard grows up having a tough time due to his parents’ divorce if what the relative told me. I found this item from when he was grown up and a young man.

Richard and Paige got together after the end of his relationship with Sylvia Nicolosi, shown above, daughter of famed LA based sculptor Joseph Nicolosi. She was one of three sisters.

Richard said he was in the military in the 1960s but “never made it to Vietnam, just Ft. Bragg North, Carolina.” He showed me his military ID.

Richard had several memories of Paige he wanted to share right away.

“Paige lived in a converted chicken coop on the edge of Malibu.“

(Richard doesn’t remember which edge)

For a dinner party, Paige had a different chair for each guest to use, not a matching (dining) set.

She would only eat salad if it was a day old.

“I never saw Paige with shoes on.” (see chapter 1970 Warhol, Paige appears with her date at the Pasadena Art Museum Warhol opening and is photographed wearing a ankle length Rudi Gernreich dress barefoo. This is tas described by the reporter.)

“She is the only person I’ve ever known who ate ice cream with a fork,”

I asked about Hamish, the horse she had owned since junior high and still had in late 1964 according to her divorce filing. Richard says she did not keep a horse in Malibu that he knew of. (Malibu is a town where people have kept their horses and been involved with these animals for many decades.

Paige would often strip down to her underwear and “run around topless or even nude.” Confirmed. Westwood neighbor Melanie told me that Paige often walked around nude in the shared backyard and it got on her nerves.

How Richard met Paige

Paige was “going with a man named Harry Gesner.“

“He was an architect who designed the Cooper house in Malibu. The house was on the cover of Life magazine. Harry Gesner was a client of my landlord.”

“My landlord was Edward Ravick; he was involved with the Malibu Colony and maybe lived there at times.”

“Ravick sent Gesner and Paige to my studio in Malibu, to see my art.”

I have found two mentions in a Malibu paper online but not “saveable,” of an Edward Ravick in a Malibu paper connected to real estate in the 1960s.

Most recently I found an article in the LAT mentioning both Gesner and Ravick’s involvement with much needed shopping center and local government building in Malibu.

Eleven months ago, the world got a little duller with the passing of Malibu architect Harry Gesner at the age of 97. To say Gesner led a full life would be putting it mildly; the word “epic” might be more apt. Born in Oxnard to an engineer father and an artist mother, he learned to fly a plane at 14, stormed the beach at Normandy aged 19, worked as a waterski instructor in Lake Arrowhead, turned down an invitation from Frank Lloyd Wright to study at Taliesin in favor of being a tomb raider in Ecuador, squired models and actresses, fraternized with Errol Flynn and Marlon Brando, collected fancy sports cars, including a 1957 Mercedes 190SL convertible that he adapted to be all-electric, and surfed every day into his late ’80s

Pauline O’Connor DIRT a magazine about real estate. June 1, 2023

Paige Young was one of the models Harry squired.

Before I saw the above pamphlet on ebay, Richard had told me that his art had been purchased by Vincent Price, Elaine de Kooning, and Harry Gesner, spelled incorrectly here. Edward Ravick is also listed as a buyer. This confirms Richard’s comments to me using all these names was the truth.

Jonathan Winters

I first contacted Richard by old school letter writing because no phone numbers and one address were not working, one thing I asked him in that letter was if he knew of a connection with Paige and comedian-actor -Glad Bags spokesperson Jonathan Winters.

When we met in person, he asked me why I wrote to him asking about Winters.

I told him of the many newspaper interviews I found from 1969, when Paige was travelling to promote Playboy After Dark, and in a few article it says Paige “appeared in many skits on The Jonathan Winters Show.”

(See my chapter on Paige’s Most Public Year 1969).

I then asked Richard why he called Jonathan Winters an “asshole” in his letter back to me.

His answer:

“Dennis, (does not remember his last name) was the owner of the Golden O Gallery, in Los Alamos, he told me that Jonathan Winters used to come and sit on the sidewalk at Dennis’ gallery and talk about Paige, and he had nothing good to say, it was always nasty or negative. I never met the man, but Dennis could tell you all about it. Richard added that Dennis never met Paige, but he “did know about her.”

Presumably because of Jonathan Winters.

Richard said that Paige did not say anything about Jonathan Winters when they were together.

He said he wasn’t aware of her appearing on the show during its run from 1967-1969.

He said it is a possibility that she did and he didn’t know about it.

I have since learned 2 thing about Jonathan Winters: He painted seriously as a hobby, and even published a book of his paintings entitled “Hang-Ups.“

And it easy to find out that Winters had a residence in Montecito, quite close to the artsy town of Los Alamos.

Bill Cosby

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. He was a close friend to 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,” said Richard.

Richard then told me of one time when he was picking Paige up from the club after her shift. He saw Bill Cosby get angry at Paige after she rebuffed another one of his advances.

Richard then asked me if I was, “sure that Paige committed suicide and was not murdered.” I told him that I owned a copy of her death certificate with suicide by gun typed into the cause of death box cert. and I showed it to him.

“I wouldn’t ever think she would do that,” he said shaking his head at the document.

I decided not to tell Richard there is more proof of a suicide besides the death certificate: witnesses like neighbor Melanie, the man D. DeWitt listed as a “2nd witness” on the police report, the police at Paige’s house on that day. (See chapter on LAPD report) And the coroner’s report.

Celeste Huston to me in a facebook exchange that I no longer have said Bill paid for Paige’s art lessons and had lunch with Bill and Paige at the studio where he was filming in the early 70s.

Melanie is the only one of these people to have spoken out publicly about the day of Paige’s suicide.

“She was a good person. I really miss her.” Richard said about Paige a few times that afternoon.

Richard Sample moved to Venice Beach, around 1967 motivated by the thriving art scene becoming known on a national level.

His father Charlie Sample was already in a Venice studio and he also had a storefront.

“Paige liked my father, he made some jewelry for her.”

Paige joined Richard not too long after he moved to Venice Beach. He said he invited her and was thrilled that she moved in. (more on this later)

Records show that Richard was married in 1968 and not to Paige Young. His niece Ellie says Richard actually “leased” the Venice studio to Paige.

I asked Richard if he encountered any of the many artists who became famous out of the Venice Beach art scene (that started in the 1950s with “The Cool School” and the slightly later “Light and Space” or “Finish Fetish” art movement.)

He said “De Wain Valentine had a studio next door to Paige and me.” (See chapter on Pasadena Art Museum appearance with Warhol 1970)

“Valentine was a friend of mine.”

“Another friend, Larry Bell, lived across the street from us, on Market.”

(Turns out Larry Bell had a building next door to Valentine, it was Robert Irwin who lived across the street. I did mention Irwin and Ruscha but Richard did not recognize those names.)

“We (Paige and I) all used to hang out a lot, with all these (Venice artists) at Barney’s Beanery.”

After I returned from my trip, I did some research and I found quotes from Bell and Valentine in Art magazines.

There were a lot of actors and writers. We all used to hang out at a place called Barney’s Beanery, which was in West Hollywood. It was a local bar, a funky little place right at the end of La Cienega Boulevard where all the galleries were. So after the Tuesday or Thursday night openings, everyone would go up to Barney’s and hang around—there was The Raincheck Room on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood as well.

Larry Bell in Whitewall: Beyond the Walls, Dec. 2019

See chapter on Pasadena Art Museum for much more on DeWain Valentine.

Cars

Paige owned a yellow Mustang, and Richard owned a red Corvette.

“A guy named Rex Ramsey stole our cars, but Paige got them back.”

Before the interview, I already knew about Rex Ramsey; he’s connected to Mark F. Segal, through renting Segal’s (where Paige lived as his wife) house at 4144 Crisp Canyon in Sherman Oaks. Both men spent a career heavily involved with cars: sales, importing and racing. Ramsey designed a successful race car once. He did some stunt driving in Hollywood and is credited in the 1968 hit The Love Bug.

(Rex Ramsey told me Mark’s family had a series of car dealerships and a towing service business. “They were quite well off,” Ramsey said. Otherwise he said he did not remember Paige Young but maybe he would later. I haven’t been able to reach him since the second phone call when he was unable to talk with me.)

Richard shows me a picture of himself decked out head to toe in animal fur, looking like mountain man Jedidiah Smith.

Richard and his father were both quite handsome.

He says that “unfortunately” he has no photos of Paige or paintings by her; he has lost a lot of his possessions and paintings over the years but he is hoping to retrieve some of Paige’s paintings in Santa Maria.

“I never knew Paige to be involved with drugs, except an occasional use of grass.” Richard said that she did sometimes drink alcohol and occasionally went to clubs “in the Marina.”

Richard Sample

And possibly the Raincheck Room per Larry Bell’s quote.

After I asked about something else and not hearing my question, Richard said “Paige was basically a very good person, until she got mixed up with Hefner. She went downhill then.”

Lewis Beach Marvin 3rd

was born into the family, “who owned Green Stamps. He was a friend of Paige’s and mine. He introduced me to Robert Carl Cohen who put a lot of my sculptures in his movie Mondo Hollywood.“

Lewis Beach Marvin and the amazing dwelling he put together in the hills of Malibu, is featured in Mondo Hollywood. The movie is a cult film known as an important document of counterculture LA/1960s history.

I did some research and one story says that Lewis Beach Marvin is the young man who gives Jim Morrison a lamb on stage in Miami on May 1st 1969. This can be seen on a video. It’s the concert that resulted in Morrison’s arrest due to allegedly exposing his penis on stage.

Lewis Beach Marvin was a vegan activist WAY before it was a “thing.”

He does appear in a Miami article with a lamb around the time of the Doors concert. But I have also read a local Miami man gave Morrison the lamb.

The Miami arrest hanging over his head is supposedly one reason Jim Morrison left for Paris where he fatally overdosed on heroin. He was already in bad health due to alcohol abuse.

Shortly after I returned from California, I rented Mondo Hollywood on Amazon. I was unable to specifically identify Richard’s sculptures in the film–a sculptor named Valerie Porter is one of the “main characters” and the movie is heavy on a variety of her sculptures and many sculptures and structures.

I did see an ending credit:

Moonshadow sculpture: Richard Lauren Sample..

Famous pinup and 1950s, 60s Playboy photographer Peter Gowland

According to Richard:

Peter Gowland called Richard (in 1974) looking for Paige because she hadn’t been seen for a while. He called Richard back some time later to tell him that Paige had committed suicide. Peter did not tell Richard the method that Paige used to kill herself.

Peter Gowland and Paige had met a few years previous to the Playboy centerfold; Paige had already modeled for Gowland several times.

Peter Gowland is the one who suggested and encouraged Paige to try out for Playboy and he submitted her photos as she reounted in 1969 to newspaper reporters.

Without mentioning this to Richard, I knew that Paige had said in a few 1969 interviews “my photographer friend suggested” the idea and submitted her photos to Playboy.

Richard opened Eros Gallery in Westwood in the late 60s. He can’t remember the location beyond that.

The next several photos are from Playboy magazine November 1968, taken by Peter Gowland. I went through them with Richard.

Richard said this photo above shows him helping Paige carry one of her paintings into his Eros Gallery.

Richard says the seated woman on the left is “Mrs. Burke, my partner in Eros Gallery.” Mrs. Burke was a local patroness of the Arts. He said that Peter Gowland is the man in between Mrs. Burke and Paige.

If it is Gowland, I don’t know who took the shot; Richard said Peter’s wife and co-owner of their photography business, Alice Gowland, was not there that day and he never met her.

According to Richard, this photo of Paige running with her dog Joshua was taken at the Malibu Colony.

Richard said he has no idea who any of these people are at the cookout or in the room with Paige painting. He doesn’t recognize the location.

Richard said that when he was living with Paige he “never questioned where she was going, what she was doing” or with whom she was doing it. “And she never questioned me. That is just the way the relationship was.”

Malibu fire

“Me and Harry Gesner went to Paige’s house during the Malibu fire (he’s not sure which year in the 1960s.) and hosed everything down. Paige’s house didn’t burn but everything around it did.”

I then asked a couple of my questions about Paige’s family.

Was there ever an indication that Paige had grown up with a grandmother (Virginia Young LaRocca) who was a Christian Science practitioner/ 1st Reader in the Church for decades? Richard answered, “Nope, nope, not at all.”

Richard said that Paige never talked about her childhood in the SFV, her family, that her birth name was Diana Cotterell, or her marriage to Mark F. Segal. She never said she used Marvin Mitchelson as her lawyer, Richard had never heard of Marvin Mitchelson anyway.

Richard said he met Paige’s sister (Constance/Connie) one time only, when Paige drove him to a visit with her. He said he doesn’t “think that they had a close relationship.”

Richard looked quite exhausted so I ended the interview for the day. I felt bad about telling him too much of Paige’s background that he never knew.

He said it didn’t bother him.

He shared one last thing:

“I introduced Paige to Tony Dow, a good friend of mine. He drove a Porsche. He liked my Vette. He lived in the Valley. “

Tony Dow purchased some of Richard’s art .

Tony Dow died July 27, 2022, just a little over a month after Harry Gesner. He was 77 years old and had decades of pursuing his hobby of sculpture.

Part 2 of the Richard Sample interview is posted.