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 (?)
Close up of a small copy: Richard Sample as painted by Paige Young.
Richard showed me this photo of him painting with Paige’s portrait of him hanging prominently. It hangs along with some kind of a Paige Playboy plaque. Mid to late 1960s Malibu or Venice.
To open our interview, I promised Richard on our 2nd day interview, we would end after one hour. It end up being two.
I asked Richard if Paige ever used LSD, the drug that inspired the label “thePsychedelic Era.” Richard said no, not that he ever witnessed or heard.
(Melanie Myers, neighbor who found Paige dead, said on the documentary Secrets ofPlayboy, that she never witnessed Paige using drugs; she was more into “clean living.”)
I brought up the sex tape mentioned in the Daily Mail article, and I brought up David Shane, who was not mentioned in the article.
Richard said, “I think that that is something Dennis (from a Los Alamos, California art gallery) told me about JonathanWinters. And that tape. I think Dennis knows something about that tape.”
Richard said this is all he can remember.
He has not heard of David Shane.
Richard again mentioned how he and Paige were regulars at Barney’s Beanery and added that they sometime socialized there with the Smothers Brothers.
Malibu Friends:
“In Malibu we hung out a lot with Don Dwiggens. He wrote the book ‘The Lifeand Loves of Frank Sinatra’. Another one was ‘The Bachelor.’ “Dwiggins took a lot of pictures of Paige.”
Richard does not know if these photos were were ever published. “His wife still lives in Malibu.”
“He was killed in a car accident.” (1988)
I had never heard of Don Dwiggins and neither have most people. It turns out he was a longtime LA reporter, prolific author, pilot, stunt pilot and aviationhistorian. And a man of numerous hobbies apparently.
Dwiggins lived in Malibu for decades where he was a legend. There is an in- depth tribute for Don Dwiggins that appeared in the LAT, at the bottom of this page. It is written by Jack Smith, one of Don’s good friends. Smith is a legendary Los Angeles columnist and writer who spotted Huston and Hefner playing backgammon, probably at Pips and possibly Paige Young.
More Malibu friends:
“I had my paintings in Jack Bailey’s (Queen for a Day host) gallery and many of my paintings sold when his gallery was shown on a TV show.”
Jack Bailey resided in Malibu during the mid-60s where he ran the Jack Bailey Gallery for about 2 years. There are articles in the Malibu newspapers to support this.
“He owned about 65 of my paintings.”
Vincent Price was another patron of Richard’s. Price is well-known for his art collection.
About the ending of his relationship with Paige: “I had moved out of the studio in Venice and moved to Solvang, and Paige stayed there. (Venice) She was supposed to pay me rent, but she never did. I went and asked her to leave.”
Paige had moved out and and at some point moved onto a houseboat in Marina Del Rey. (See chapter: Paige’s Most Public Year 1969)
“I only talked to her on her houseboat for about 10 minutes. I don’t know who owned it.”
I got the feeling it was an uncomfortable and sad conversation.
We again discussed Rex Ramsey, who tried to steal Richard’s Corvette and Paige’s Mustang.
The Corvette that Rex Ramsey tried to steal: His wife got a flat tire in the Corvette and was on the side of the freeway, when a semi-truck flattened it.
I have spoken to Rex Ramsey briefly on the phone. He said he does not remember Paige, but does remember her husband of one year, Mark F. Segal, his long time friend from high school.
A SFV newspaper 1968. The address is the home of Mark F. Segal and Paige Young when she and Mark were married.
Ramsey hasn’t answered or returned any of my phone calls since that first one.
Richard brought up Hugh Hefner.
“Paige told me she overheard a conversation, with Hefner, about selling women to business men from a foreign country. They were talking about the money.”
Richard Sample
I responded “For what, like, sex or types of sexual favors, or….?”
Yes, he nodded without elaborating.
I prompted with “When Paige told you this, did she seem shocked, upset or…?”
“She said ‘I hope that doesn’t happen to me.'”
He added, “If I could, I would shoot Hugh Hefner and probably get away with it.”
I pressed but he didn’t answer.
Sample just said “Hefner ruined a lot of good women.”
Anything else you can recall that Paige said about Hugh Hefner or anyone connected to him? “Not that I can remember.”
Richard said he never met Hefner nor hung out with any of his crowd. Richard expressed to me and reporter Ryan Parry that he had a distaste for Hefner and “that crowd.” And he let that be known to Paige.
In my opinion, Paige took this into consideration when sharing things about Hefner and “that crowd.” She avoided telling Richard about it. I think she must have been very distressed to share the particular incidents that she did.
Paigepersonality:
Did Paige have an opinion about the Vietnam war?
“She said ‘ They should just bomb it and get it over with.'”
Did Paige attend any anti-war demonstrations?
Richard shook his head no and kept shaking his head no as I asked, “So that wouldn’t have been something she would have ever done?
Because I have not found any voter registration records for Paige, but I have found many records for her family members, I asked if he ever knew Paige to have voted for President.
Several minutes long pause.
“Who is the president that had a brother who let that girl drown in Chappaquiddick?“
“Teddy, brother of President John Kennedy.“
“Well, we had a picture of Teddy Kennedy hanging up that we would throw darts at, Paige was there (visiting) and she said ‘I hope he gets what he deserves.'”
I looked around at Richard Sample’s art work. He showed me some of his paintings that are “copies” of famous artists like Picasso, Miro, Kandinsky. He said he paints these because it pays well.
I apologized to Richard if I told him any information about Paige that was upsetting. He said it didn’t.
For example, Richard did not know that Paige was born Diana Cotterell or anything at all about her childhood. (Everyone I have talked to was unaware that Paige was ever Diana Cotterell who grew up in the San Fernando Valley.)
Richard misses Idaho and wishes he were still living there.
He mentions John Chapman, President of the NEA.? “I worked for him. And he bought many of my paintings, He owned a mansion in Sun Valley.”
Info: Don Dwiggins. Paige and Richard’s Malibu friend. Richard says Paige modeled for him several times. It was hard to choose which article about Dwiggins to include, there were so many of them. Lots of reviews of his Hollywood aviation stunt pilot books.
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. He took 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 quote him in my article.
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 does not hear too well or speak easily. I strained to hear his whisper of a raspy voice. I tried to understand what he was saying, but I didn’t always understand right away. I got better at understanding him as our conversation got going.
I will say Richard and I didn’t exactly have a normal flowing conversation. It was more of a question and answer session. 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 will be a mixture of exact quotes from my tape recorder and hand written notes.
Background of Richard Sample and his connection to Los Angeles.
His father was Charles “Charlie” Sample, well known artist and metal smith, eccentric Los Angeles (and other parts of California) character.
Richard was born in Huntington Beach in 1936,3 years after his parents married.
“My father (Charlie Sample) was a famous gold and silver smith. He made silver spurs for $8000. He also 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 artistic, high quality western gear: Bohlin.
It featuredCharlie Sample designs by name.
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. Charlie moved on and did not see Richard for a while. Charlie had more marriages and children too.
Richard was upset and angry about his parents’ divorce. He “acted out negatively,” according to a relative I messaged on ancestry.com.
Infant Richard and his mother Virginia in a fire, Father metalsmith artist Charlie Sample mentioned. LAT Jan. 18, 1937
News articles indicate that Richard’s “negative acting out” included being on the wrong side of the law.
RichlandRedland newspaper Oct. 31 1958
Santa Cruz Sentinel June 23rd 1960 Richard is in trouble again and was an inept burglar . At some point after this Richard was tried and sent to prison at California MedicalFacility in Vacaville California.
San Bernardino County Sun Feb. 29,1960
LAT Feb. 1965 #1
LAT Feb. 20, 1965 #2 Richard is pictured here with his girlfriend Sylvia Nicolosi. Richard had served a few years for breaking-entering and had a previous record for arson. He was released in 1964. He vowed to himself to never again risk going to jail as the article attests. There is much more to Richard Samples’s prison stint in Vacaville, California. More on this story is forthcoming.
Richard and Paige got together after the end of his relationship with Sylvia Nicolosi shown above.
Sylvia is the daughter of famed LA based sculptor Joseph Nicolosi. She was one of three sisters.
I found several articles about her, she usually went by the name Maria.
Richard said he was in the military in the 1960s but “never made it to Vietnam, just Ft. Bragg North, Carolina.” He then showed me his military ID.
Richard and Paige met in the Art World of Malibu in about 1965.Jack Bailey had an art gallery for a few years. Bailey was most famous for being the host for the show “Queen For A Day.” This is a screen shot from ebay.
When our interview began, Richard was excited to tell me about aspects of Paige’s personality and character.
“Paige lived in a converted chicken coop on the edge of Malibu.“
Richard doesn’t remember which edge. (I’m confident it was the Topanga Canyon area or closeby.)
“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 barefoot. This is described by the reporter.)
“She is the only person I’ve ever known who ate ice cream with a fork,”
At the end of Richard and Paige’s first date….coming soon.
I asked about Hamish, the horse she had owned since junior high and still had in late 1964 according to her divorce filing. Richard responded she did not keep a horse in Malibu that he knew of. (Malibu is a town with a history of horse and stable owners and dedicated riders)
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. It got on her nerves. Paige’s nudity was also described to me by Malibu friend Veronica.
When Richard met Paige
Paige was “going with a man named Harry Gesner.“
“He was an architect who designed the Cooper housein Malibu. The house was on the cover of Life magazine. Harry Gesner was a client of my landlord.”
LAT July 19, 1964. This house has been famously known at the “Wave House” for decades. Sample called it “the Cooper House.” This name was used in earlier decades as we see from the LAT article in 1964. article. We see this in the article published in 1964. I’d love to know which issue of Life Magazine has an image of the house. Below we see a more recent view of the breathtaking Wave House in Malibu, CA.
“My landlord was EdwardRavick; he was involved with the Malibu Colony and maybe lived there at times,” said Richard
LAT Apr. 17, 1966. Richard was telling the truth. Article mentions Ravick and Gesner.
“Ravick sent Gesner and Paige to my studio in Malibu, to see my art.”
“This is how I met Paige.”
Detail of photo with artists Richard Sample left, Paige Young seated and Harry Gesner. Thank youEllen Sample for use of this photo. This confirms what Richard Sample told me about Gesner is true. I had never heard of Gesner previously. I think more people have seen an image of the Wave House in Malibu, than know who designed it. It’s insane that he’s not more well known.
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. Dirt is now called The Robb Report.
Paige Young was one of the models Harry squired.
Notice the names above. Edward Ravick being one. Before I saw the above pamphlet on ebay, Richard had told me about the buyers of his art: Vincent Price, Elaine de Kooning, and Harry Gesner, spelled incorrectly here, had purchased his art. Edward Ravick is also listed as a buyer.
This confirms Richard’s comments to me using all these names was the truth.
Elaine De Kooning attended the prison art exhibits that Richard participated in during his prison stint. Documented in newspapers.
I have found two mentions in an online Malibu newspaper on but not “saveable.” There was an Edward Ravick mentioned in a Malibu paper connected to real estate in the 1960s.
Jonathan Winters
I first contacted Richard by old school letter writing as there was no phone number for him that worked.
In that letter, I asked him if he knew of a connection with Paige and comedian-actor legend Jonathan Winters.
Early on in our interview, Richard asked why I wrote him asking about Winters.
I told him about the many newspaper interviews with Paige, I found from 1969 as she was traveling to promote Playboy After Dark.
In a few or the articles, 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.
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.
Richard said that Paige never said anything about Jonathan Winters when they were together.
Winters was serious about his painting hobby.
He published a book of his paintings, Hangups.
signed by Jonathan Winters 1972, from his book Hangups.
Taken at my visit to the now closed Paley Media Center in Beverly Hills. Now closed. This is theversion of the Winters show 67-69, that Paige Young’s press said she appeared in skits.
For many years Winters resided at least part time in Montecito, which is quite close to the town of Los Alamos.
Bill Cosby
was a frequent visitor and performer at many Playboy Clubs in the 60s 70s and maybe even beyond. He was a close friend to Hugh Hefner during those years.
Vintage Postcard. Playboy building on the right. It had the club, offices and a suite on the top floor Hugh Hefner while he was in LA.
Richard said he would occasionally pick up Paige at the SunsetStrip Playboy Club, after her shift. She worked at the club “for about 3 months,” he said.
Back of postcard. This Playboy Club was opened on New Year’s Eve 1964
“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.
Bill Cosby at the Playboy Club in late 1967. LAT.
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 told me in a Facebook exchange, which I no longer have, that Bill paid for Paige’s art lessons. She mentioned having lunch with Bill and Paige (and her husband John Huston) 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.
More Background
Richard Sample moved to Venice Beach around 1967. He was motivated by the thriving art scene which was becoming more well-known on a national level. At least for those who paid attention to the Art scene.
His father Charlie Sample was already working and living in a Venice studio.
Darlene Valentine remembers Charlie as a landlord of sorts at the Venice Beach studios rented by DeWain Valentine, Richard Sample and Paige Young.
Richard got a studio for himself through his dad and Paige through her connection to Richard.
One of many newspaper articles on legendary Charlie/Charles Sample. Santa Maria Times Oct. 4, 1993.He lived to about 101 years. Mentions his career with Bholin and his clients, Gene Autry, Buck Jones, Ken Maynard and Tex Ritter.
“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.
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 CoolSchool” 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 ArtMuseum appearance with Warhol 1970)
Polyester Resin sculpture by DeWain Valentine, late 1960s.
“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 RobertIrwin who lived across the street. I did ask about 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 lotof 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
The Brooklyn Rail May 2019 Interview with DeWain Valentine
See chapter on Pasadena Art Museum for much more on DeWain Valentine.
I spoke with Darlene Valentine, the first Mrs. Valentine. When she, her husband and children moved to Venice, California in 1965, they found the studio on Market St.
She remembers him being and eccentric character and a funny man. “You were not supposed to live in the studio, (only practice your art), but many did anyway.”
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 in 1963 and 64) house at 4144Crisp 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 Disney 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. And definitely Barney’s Beanery.
1973 news clipping. Thank you Ellie Sample!
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.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 rentedMondo Hollywoodon 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..
According to Richard:
Peter Gowland Playboy and Glamour Photographer
and Paige had met a few years before her appearance as a Playboy centerfold. Paige had already modeled for Gowland several times. This checks out with a few pre-centerfold photos of Paige taken by Gowland. These can be found on the internet.
Peter Gowland is the one who suggested and encouraged Paige to try out forPlayboy; he submitted her photos as she recounted in 1969 to newspaper reporters.
I knew Paige mentioned in a few 1969 interviews that “my photographer friend suggested” the idea and he submitted her photos to Playboy. I did not previously mention this to Richard.
Gowland called Richard, in 1974, looking for Paige because he hadn’t heard from or seen her 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, Sample said to me.
Sample is quoted in Daily Mail story as saying he was told by Gowland that it was an overdose.
Richard says he 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.
Richard and I went through them .
Richard said this photo above shows him helping Paige carry one of her paintings into his Eros Gallery.
Playboy magazine November 1968. The gentleman pictured looks just like the man in the above photo helping Paige carry in one of her paintings.
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.
He may be mistaken, if it is Gowland, I don’t know who took the shot. Richard said Peter’s wife, who is the co-owner of their photography business, Alice Gowland was not there that day.
Richard said never met her.
According to Richard, this photo of Paige running with her dog Joshua was taken at the Malibu Colony.
Paige’s painting at right looks like the start of a self portrait. The nature of these photos is something you wouldn’t see in these centerfold features, after around 1973ish. After the “Pubic Wars” with Penthouse magazine, the Playmate feature in Playboy focused on lingerie or nudity in bedroom shots. There was much less content about a “regular girl hanging out with her friends” common in the 1950s and 1960s Playmates. Yes, The actual tri-fold centerfold was often a “bedroom shot” as it is with the Paige Young centerfold, but the other published photos of the Playmate feature were most often like the photo shown with Paige running along the beach with her dog Josh.
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. These may or may not be real friends of Paige’s.
Sometimes young people were hired to stand in as “friends” for a Playboy centerfold shoot. Connie Kreski is one.
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 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/ 1stReader in the Church for decades?
Richard answered, “Nope, nope, not at all.”
Richard said that Paige never talked about her childhood in the SFV. She never mentioned her family. He did not know that her birth name was Diana Cotterell or that she was married to Mark F.Segal. She never said she used Marvin Mitchelson as her lawyer, Richard had never heard of 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. “
And Tony purchased some of Richard’s art .
Tony Dow died July 27, 2022, one month and 2 days after Harry Gesner‘s death.
Dow was 77 years old and experienced decades of pursuing his passion of creating sculpture. He had a long and happy 2nd marriage to Lauren.
From an interview with Richard: The Boise Weekly, where Richard was living Early 2007.
After parting ways with Maria Nicolosi, Sample married 1969 Playboy Playmate Paige Young who later died at her L.A home of a sleeping pill overdose. An artist in her own right, Young’s impressionistic portrait of Sample hangs in Gallery 8.
Sample was born on Friday the 13th of November 1936, a “triple Scorpio” by astrological accounts. “I have my Sun, Moon and Mercury in Scorpio,” he says, which may explain his resourcefulness and intensity. The legend of Scorpio tells of a scorpion sent by the immortal huntress Artemis to slay Orion, the great hunter. Scorpio, ever resourceful, fulfilled the deed for the goddess and was given a place in the night sky as his reward.
“I may not be a famous artist, but I am a successful one,” Sample said. And prolific. To date, he has completed and sold 2,761 paintings and is currently at work on six more.
The following is the Entire interview with Richard Sample when he still lived in Idaho and opened a gallery in a storage unit.
Just across the highway from the airport in Hailey, where Gulf Stream jets blast off regularly, lies the South Wood Self Storage Facility. Row upon row of identical containers are filled with furnishings and cargo, all except for locker No. 8, otherwise known as “Gallery 8,” a space used by artist Richard Lauran Sample. Above the door reads a sign: “Art Patrons Association of Idaho,” which Sample refers to as “a group dedicated to the arts, music and literature.” Just inside is the face of the Beatles’ Eleanor Rigby, “… wearing a face that she keeps in a jar by the door.” A cat named Turpentine studies the ghost-like face in a jar and then ranges freely through the menagerie of paintings and sculptures by Sample that fill Gallery 8: abstracts, Westerns and magical realism paintings, canvases of Batman and numerous other examples of skilled craftsmanship and determined artistic vision. There is an unfinished ivory-handled knife, a tidy collection of cobalt blue glassware and a series of clocks marking time at various Air Force bases across the United States, including Area 51. Gallery 8 is a long way from the Bel-Air, Calif., mansion Sample once called home.
Ever since Sample’s mother, Virginia, posed for the Columbia Pictures torch lady painting, Sample has lived in and around the glamour of Hollywood. During the 1960s, he was featured on several television shows, including the Jack Bailey show Queen for a Day, on which lucky American housewives were given makeovers and European vacations. “I sold 75 pieces from [the notoriety of] that show,” he recalls. Over the years, people like Raymond Burr, Edgar G. Robinson, and Tony Dow of Leave it to Beaver fame have purchased Sample’s work. “I traded one of my Castle paintings to Hollywood stunt man Charlie Wilcox—a family friend who worked on the movie Ben Hur and also did stunt work on The Creature from the Black Lagoon—for a small Picasso in the 1970s,” says Sample. “I should have held onto the Picasso.”
Today, Sample’s studio contains 108 paintings, all of which he has produced within the last year, while restoring antique oil paintings and repairing artwork in the Sun Valley area to make ends meet.
“I paint fast,” he says. “I’m an insomniac, so I rest. I don’t sleep. I’ll lie down on that couch there and have dreams and visions.” Like Salvador Dali, who also experimented with the state between wakefulness and dreaming, Sample creates surrealist landscapes. His are populated with the artifacts of his youth spent in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri, where he pumped water from a well and milked 13 cows each day before walking to school. For sustenance, he hunted and fished the nearby James River, named after Jesse James. During a stint as a ranger in the U.S. Army’s Third Missile Command, Sample was part of a three-man team that fired the 32-foot-long Honest John Rocket.
“It was fully manual'” he says. “We could hit a moving tank at 15 miles.” He also painted mess halls in the military.
Sample’s surrealism features whisky jugs and mushrooms, mechanical parts and hillside shacks. A recent work, “Lunar Reactor,” has taken hillbilly motifs and expanded them upon the cosmos. The oil painting shines under several coats of deep varnish that the artist has poured over sections of the piece. “When I am finished, there will be a three-dimensional effect. You will be able to see around the individual brush strokes.”
A similar fascination with technique developed some years ago into Sample’s black and white “Castle Paintings,” which he describes as “oil etchings.” These medieval ramparts above calm rivers are painted using brushes only a few hairs thick with paint strokes made in exactly five directions, similar to the etching procedure used in the production of the U.S. dollar bill.
Sample worked alongside his father at many trades during his youth: making trick poker tables, saddles, doing bronze work and cabinetry. The father and son also ran the West Coast Mint, pounding out thousands of custom bronze medallions under a 350-ton die press, including one of a farm field with a rocket ship commemorating the POMO Air Force Installation in California. They later built a bronze foundry in Pasa Robles from the ground up, which would reconstruct Remington sculptures to exact specifications. An accomplished gunsmith and saddle-maker, Charles Sample designed and built the spectacular silver saddles used in the Pasadena Rose Bowl New Year’s Day Parade. He also introduced his son to the magic and glamour of Hollywood.
“My father made a solid silver telephone and platinum garter clips for Mae West,” Sample says. “She tried to give him a Deusenberg, but he turned her down because the car didn’t have a spare tire.” Sample worked extensively for movie star Bo Derek and made gold leaf and wooden jewelry for Willem de Kooning’s wife, Elaine. De Kooning collected Sample’s work and corresponded with him for some time in letters. Sample keeps the correspondences in boxes with color snapshots and other personal memorabilia. One photo from 1973 was taken at the Marion Davies Mansion in Bel-Air. In it, Sample stands beside a gingerbread castle he made for the Christmas/birthday party of Charlton Heston.
“I put 7,000 pieces of candy in that cake,” he recalls. Nearby stands J. Paul Getty and Sample’s one-time paramour, Maria Nicolosi.
Sample reminisces about the life he shared with Nicolosi for seven years in the mansion, which was built by William Randolph Hearst for his lover, silent film star Marion Davies.
“The place was unbelievable,” he recalls. “It had every tropical tree you could imagine. They used to shoot Tarzan movies in the back yard. There were waterfalls and caves. The swimming pool was the largest in the United States and ran like a snake through the property. Vincent Price collected my paintings. He would stop in from across the street and have tea with us.”
According to Sample, the patriarch of the Nicolosi clan, sculptor Joseph Nicolosi, an artist of international significance, held a 50 percent interest in the Park Plaza Hotel in New York City. He had passed away before Sample took up residence in the mansion with his daughter.
After parting ways with Maria Nicolosi, Sample married 1969 Playboy Playmate Paige Young who later died at her L.A home of a sleeping pill overdose. An artist in her own right, Young’s impressionistic portrait of Sample hangs in Gallery 8. (Richard married Daryl if you remember, in 1968. The stayed married for a few years.)
Sample was born on Friday the 13th of November 1936, a “triple Scorpio” by astrological accounts. “I have my Sun, Moon and Mercury in Scorpio,” he says, which may explain his resourcefulness and intensity. The legend of Scorpio tells of a scorpion sent by the immortal huntress Artemis to slay Orion, the great hunter. Scorpio, ever resourceful, fulfilled the deed for the goddess and was given a place in the night sky as his reward.
“I may not be a famous artist, but I am a successful one,” Sample said. And prolific. To date, he has completed and sold 2,761 paintings and is currently at work on six more.
Sample also inherited a collection of books from his father published by the “photographer on horseback,” L.A. Huffman, who traveled the West in the 1870s. A book of glass plate prints and accompanying stories have provided the heart of Sample’s work for many years. He renders the photographs in sepia-toned oils. “There is a story behind every one of these paintings,” he points out. One is of a prairie Indian burial on stilts, entitled “Spirit Poles.” Another represents a self-portrait of Huffman, painted, as they all are, on maximum density particle board, which Sample says will never warp or bend. “These will last a thousand years,” he says. “You can wash them with soap and water.”
His decision to work in “permanence” came after working in the art of restoration at the L.A. County Art Museum, where several of his cardboard collages were hung in the 1960s.
“I’m self-taught,” he explains, while extolling the virtues of Ralph Mayer’s The Artist’s Handbook of Materials and Techniques.
“I have had three copies of this book over the years. It is the best book ever written for artists wanting to learn. It has taught me permanence. It continues to teach me the chemistry and permanence of paint,” he says.
Sample proudly displays a diploma for an Honorary Doctorate in the Arts from California’s Polytechnic State University, which he earned after completing a rigorous examination on his knowledge of things such as paint chemistry.
Yet Sample’s interests and talents range far beyond the fine arts and include herbology, anthropology, astrology and rock-collecting, to name a few. Against one wall, beside a tableau of religious icons and tribal mementos, is a case filled with meteorites.
Among the artifacts Sample has collected as an amateur archeologist are two nearly perfectly round black stones he found in a dried river bottom near Shoshone. He explains that the natives used them as weapons at one time, bound in hard leather at the end of a battle axe. Sample is incorporating each of the balls into meter-high white plaster abstract sculptures that will resonate with deep history and contemporary sculptural forms. “I also practice Tai Chi and read quantum physics,” he says, “including just about anything Albert Einstein wrote.”
Sample’s studies in physics pertain to certain technical projects he plans to undertake with the U.S. military, projects he would rather not discuss publicly. Relying on friends from NASA, he has plans to install a live video feed of nearby heavenly bodies to a televison set in his studio in the near future.
Even in Idaho, where he continues restoration, cabinetry and painting projects for actors Bruce Willis, John Larroquette and others, Sample still has the occasional brush with fame.
“One night at my brother Bill’s, Muffet Hemingway,” who is Margaux Hemingway’s sister, Joan, “came driving straight across the yard and right over the Christmas tree,” Sample says. “Muffet walked into the house and started munching on a crab leg, waved to herself in the glass window and then got into her car and drove away back across the yard. My brother came out and said, ‘Who’s the chick grazin’ in the kitchen?'”
Sample will auction off some of his work in spring of 2008 and give 15 percent of the proceeds to the Parkinson’s Foundation. “All of these 108 paintings will be sold in two days,” he says. “The last show I had, 1,500 people showed up at the Sage Brush Arena in Hailey. My place is always open to students and lovers of art,” he says.
Paige gets transferred from the Marvin Mitchelson law firm of Beverly Hills, to the law firm of Silverton, Ruderman and Graf of Studio City. Her new law firm is located at 12345Ventura Blvd.; a 5 minute drive from her childhood home at 13055 Moorpark St.
Marvin Michelson was busy climbing the ladder of success in 1966.
He continued to represent Hollywood and Beverly Hills “soon-to-be-divorced-wives.”
LA Herald-Examiner gossip columnist Harrison Carroll 1966.
(66 also brought Marvin international work in London from a rock band.)
Aldo Ray spoke bitterly about his ex-wives. I have several more articles about him not included here.
Marvin Michelson probably grew tired of Paige’s non-payment divorce case by 1966. Her “interlocutory” divorced ex-husband Mark F. Segal, had not paid more than the one initial payment in 1964.
Mitchelson gave it his all in 1965. He filed in court for contempt against Mark Segal for non-payment, every single month of this year. It was all to no avail.
Any publicity for “attention getting headlines” (see chapter on Segal-Young Divorce Makes Headlines) had long since ceased to be of any benefit to M.M.M.
In the divorce documents, (I own copies) dated all the way into 1969 showing Paige and her lawyers, Silverton, Ruderman & Graff, still trying to collect the unpaid, court ordered alimony and lawyer’s fees.
1966 Paige’s Mother, Donna Holroyd, and her grandmother, Virginia Young LaRocca, are listed in the phone directory at 5760Hazeltine. It’s an apartment building on the corner of Hazeltine and Hatteras in Van Nuys. Jack Holroyd is not listed at this location. They may have been separated or even divorced, at this time. Jack Holroyd went on to divorce two more women before he passed away in the early 2000s.
From the Marvin Mitchelson biography Ladies Man by John A. Jenkins.
Paige Young in Los Angeles
Paige Young in Los Angeles 