.Incomplete Character List.2/8/2024
Posted on February 8, 2024
Originally part of the Start Here Introduction.
As a Playboy Playmate, Paige Young experienced a minor type of celebrity status for a brief portion of her short life. I
She was an actual human with a life besides her association with Playboy.
At times, Paige associated with people who were much more famous than she. They were major celebrities known to the mass public.
This includes (that we know of) Hugh Hefner, John Huston, Andy Warhol, Bill Cosby; Jonathan Winters, men who lived with massive fame which outlives them.
Bill Cosby is still alive as of this writing.
Others were and are famous to a smaller audience.
On this website I have written about all these men and Paige’s connection to them. Someone basically forgotten and seemingly inconsequential.
The men famous to a more niche audience includes: Peter Gowland, son of English film actor Gibson Gowland, an LA native like Paige. Peter and his wife Alice ran a successful pinup and commercial photography business from the late 1940s through the early 1990s.
Paige Young was the team’s last contribution to Playboy magazine in 1968. They didn’t like the turn Playboy took to showing visible “pubic hair” and debated about in the media, so they quit and continued on with a lucrative business.
Paige had modeled for Gowland years before Playboy I have learned. The only photos one can normally find on the internet of Paige Young, were taken by Peter and Alice.
For a few years, Marvin M. Mitchelson represented Paige Young in her divorce against husband Mark F. Segal in 1964. Mitchelson, a Beverly Hills lawyer was a prominent media personality in the 1970s and 80s and 90s.
Mitchelson is credited for introducing the term “Palimony” into divorce court and to the general public when he represented Michelle Triola Marvin in a financial claim against actor Lee Marvin. Lee Marvin dumped live-in lover Michelle without a penny and Marvin Mitchelson became famous representing her when Michelle wanted compensation for the loss of her career as a singer.
M.M.M. is all but forgotten in 2022.
The Hon. Desmond Guinness, is frequently how his name is written, is from the famous Irish beer brand family but also a highly titled, wealthy, socially elite and sometimes controversial family. Legendary photographer Slim Aarons produced some iconic photos of Desmond Guinness, one in particular with his very young children. The photo has probably been seen by more people than know the identity of Desmond Guinness.
He died in August of 2020.
DeWain Valentine, Colorado born, Venice Beach based sculptor-artist, is one of the founding members of the “Light and Space movement” or “Finish Fetish” school which was born in Venice Beach, California in the 1960s.
Valentine died in February of 2022.
John Huston obviously needs no explanation. John Huston lived in Ireland and was acquainted with the aforementioned Desmond Guinness. Paige visited Ireland as a guest of Huston’s according to 2 sources.
Paige Young and her family’s journey encompass both the industry and town of Hollywood, WW2 Los Angeles and post-war Los Angeles, growing up in the San Fernando Valley in the 1950s-the prototypical suburban middle class existence. Malibu and Topanga Canyon in the 1960s and 70s, and the spectre of Hollywood the industry throughout the 3 decades she lived.
It’s the old story of time and place and people.
Research Methods
My (ongoing) research consisted of obtaining various LA County public records like birth and death certificates, viewing City of LA building permit documents, (online), perusing telephone directories in the DTLA public library, voting records, marriage, divorce, and military records on ancestry.com.
I have spoken with a few first hand sources, there were several who refuse to speak with me, or I couldn’t locate. At this point, many are dead. And the living people who know, aren’t talking, with the exception of the few I have written about on this blog.
**NEW** Names in Paige’s Phone Book: Desmond & Jonathan Guinness, Michael Butler of “Hair,” Hef & Joni, Cosby, FWHC. New painting. Expect updates. 02/25/2024. Very LONG! Under Construction!
Posted on October 6, 2023
This entry will make more sense if you have read at least the 2nd half of this website.
I was in Los Angeles in April of 2023 and visited with Melanie Myers from the Daily Mail and Secrets of Playboy.
She showed me an old paper she had saved with phone numbers she copied out of Paige’s personal phone directory, after her suicide.
Melanie and B.J. Royale, who lived in the front duplex in front of Paige’s apartment in 1974, were preparing to share the task of calling Paige’s friends to tell them the news of her suicide. And to inform some, that Paige left instructions for them to receive one (or more) of her paintings.
Melanie made me a copy of her original notes. I took photos of that as well.
Thank you Melanie, I enjoyed our interview and appreciate the phone list. It has given me several more clues into the last couple years of Paige’s life.
Below are images of the phone list.
Joni-Hefner entry below Jonathan Guinness. Joni refers to Joni Mattis, Hugh Hefner’s longtime assistant, personal secretary and friend from the Chicago mansion days and possible (probable) “fixer.” I believe Joni Mattis is the person who put into motion (with HMH approval) the actions taken to cover up Paige’s suicide and all the blame she placed on HMH and his friends, for instance: preventing the sensational news from leaking to the press, leaving out important details in the police incident report (like the mural), destroying or hiding the police photos taken at the scene, destroying notes written by Paige at scene.
Melanie in Daily Mail-“police read some of the note to me… most vitriol for HH and John Huston.” And Paige’s apartment being “cleaned and cleared out very quickly,” according to Melanie.
Melanie told me that that Paige’s mother (Donna) and sister (Constance) came the next day to pack up belongings. They gave a painting to Melanie before leaving.
Hefner received reports on a regular basis from employees about goings on at the mansion, its’ players and visitors. (PJ Masten)
Proximity: Paige lived in Westwood, a 10 minute car drive to Holmby Hills. The local police had a friendly relationship with Hefner and the mansion employees.
Many former LAPD officers became Mansion security for Hefner over the decades. This according to Secrets of Playboy. (PJ Masten).
The LAPD certainly knew who the hell Hugh Hefner was when they were greeted by Paige’s mural at her suicide scene 2 miles from the Playboy mansion.
As I continue to read and study the history of the LAPD, it’s for good reason they have Mythic status as a corrupt institution.
So really, it is not surprising that information unflattering to Hefner could be buried and made up to be like it just didn’t happen.
I am not in any way saying Hugh Hefner is directly responsible for Paige’s suicide.
But it’s all about the image.
Particularly at this date, when Bobbie Arnstein was arrested in Chicago on (exaggerated) cocaine smuggling charges just 9 days previous to Paige’s suicide.
Joni and Hef could have “believed” that by burying Paige’s story from getting out, they were helping Bobbie and Hef.
There was more motivation than usual to justify sweeping this incident under the rug.
PJ Masten in Secrets of Playboy talked about an awareness that negative press was to be avoided.
Jennifer Saginor, Secrets of Playboy and author of Playground said on the podcast Power,“Hef was always image conscious.”
I think the Playboy people including Hugh Hefner saw an opportunity to shut down the possibility of this news about Paige from getting out and they took it.
Jim Ellis, former body guard for Hefner in the early 1980s, said in Secrets of Playboy that his job was not only “protecting” his clients physical being, but “also their reputation.”
Why does Paige Young’s entry in the Playmate Book, say “drug overdose.” If they knowingly made that up, why that manner of death was chosen is beyond me.
END
Michael Brandon, too many. Cindy Manay brings nothing.
Looking at the list, so far have not found anything on Larry Fisher or a Gretchen Foster.
Steve Moress, listed below Joni-Hefner, opened a museum and shop of acrylic arts in 1974 at 2360 S. Robertson Blvd. It was open for several decades selling to interior decorators, but is now closed. I called several numbers for a “Stephen Moress” but none of them were working numbers. He’s about 80 years old now.
The following screenshots are from a real estate website and show the interior of Paige’s carriage house/apartment over a garage in Westwood, located down the street from the Mormon Temple. The apartment was built over a garage in 1940, it is where Paige lived the last years of her life and committed suicide. Among her belongings was a suicide note mentioning names she said were complicit in her downfall, a will, a mural proclaiming “Hugh Hefner is the devil,” and many of her paintings. A few unfinished. All her personal belongings.
These real estate photos are all the world has left of this particular place of what is old Los Angeles.
Unless there are photographs lying in some attic or perhaps in a landfill placed there decades ago?
In this case a carriage house over a garage built there in 1940 by Kathryn Eddy, who had appeared in some walk-ons in the Silents.
All original built-ins. (Visiting reminded me of another LA trip — I visited the place Paige was born as Diana Lee Cotterell: 1933 Griffith Park Blvd, originally a Christian Science Maternity center and the building was being torn down on the day I was there.)
The builts-in of the 800 sq. foot apartment were being ripped out the day I visited; the place was being completely renovated.
Meet Michael Butler
The next section provides information on the Michael Butler entry found in Paige’s phone book seen below. Top right below sister Connie Smashey’s contact information.
I believe he is the same Michael Butler who was the producer of Hair, the famous “Tribal Love Rock” musical producing several pop hits that endure to this day. Hair is a definitive part of what represents 1960s culture.
Dubbed by the media as a “hippie-millionaire”
A detailed description of Michael Butler and his upper crust background in article below by Eugenia Sheppard. It appeared in newspapers across the country in 1968, the year Hair opened. The year Paige Young was a Vietnam era Playboy Playmate.
Mary Blume wrote an eye-opening article about Butler in the LAT. Oct. 11, 1970.
Three marriages so far and a production company in LA “Natoma” And an avid polo player.
Page 1
Page #3 of the LAT article. Butler was and avid polo player
San Fran Examiner June 25, 1971
San Francisco Examiner, May 1, 1972
Like Paige and John Huston and Celeste, there was the “horse connection.”
END
Note below that David Shane right below a Geo. Roberts.
Shane is an important character from several other chapters. He was a man with a pornstache, business owner set up by his successful Beverly Hills business owner father and brother of Cici Shane (Mrs.John) Huston. He was a visitor to the LA Mansion and alleged holder or keeper, of Paige’s “sex tape.” See chapters with Shane in the title.
Nothing comes up for Gus Prall at the top left.
The Playboy Club moved from the classic 1960s-linked Sunset Strip to the hot and brand new, ABC Entertainment Center set in futuristic modern Century City.
Paige lived about a 3 minute drive from Century City.
LAT Nov. 1, 1973. I think the CC Playboy Club opened earlier in the fall. Paige lived about a 3 minute drive from Century City.
Charity performance of Cabaret was performed at the opening.
*Notice the advert below for the Classic Cat. They too present their take on Cabaret (June 1973)
Playboy Club,Ad for the Classic Cat Performance of Cabaret and A mexican restaurant actually named speedy Gonzales.
Marty Tregman is a long time realtor in Santa Monica, he doesn’t remember Paige. Jon Von Newman…. came up with nothing. Brian Wilson is a common name.
I was intrigued with the entry “Feminist Women’s Health Center 746 Crenshaw”
I began researching it as I am doing with all the entries.
Turns out it played a not insignificant role in the 2nd Wave Feminist movement.
This FWHC was one of, if not the first, women’s self-help health centers in the nation.
There were many services that Paige might have used at the “Feminist Women’s Health Center 746 Crenshaw,” as you will see through newspaper articles written at the time, both local and national.
A brief context of the times is important:
In the early 1970s, the Feminist movement was more active than ever.
More so even than the 1960s, despite publication of The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan in 1963.
1973: The Roe V.Wade case enabled a woman’ right to an abortion to become national law in January of 1973.
1972: The Equal Rights Amendment was reintroduced and 22 states quickly ratified. This same year Title 9 was made a law.
Domestic violence and rape crisis centers and phone lines opened and self-defense classes for women proliferated in the 1970s.
So did media conversations about equal pay for equal work, ending workplace sexual harassment, limited job opportunity, gender discrimination in housing and credit, and implementation of subsidized childcare and wages for housework.
1974 – Housing discrimination on the basis of sex and credit discrimination against women are outlawed by Congress.
1975: An influential book about sexual violence and rape, “Against Our Will” by Susan Brownmiller was published.
In this environment were many women weary and fed up with their treatment by almost always male doctors, OB/Gyns, as experts and authorities on their own female bodies, including the parts and functions that make up the whole woman.
The health and reproductive aspect of “Women’s Liberation” is symbolized by the worldwide success of the book “Our Bodies, Ourselves,” published in 1970 and now on its’ 9th edition.
You or someone you know may very well have a copy.
Women were talking about it and organized.
Please see article at right about the FWHC by Linda Zink of Long Beach.
2 such women were Carol Downer and Lorraine Rothman, both mothers in the Los Angles area. Together they started the Los Angeles Feminist W0men’s Health Clinic and taught classes to women on how to be the expert on their own reproductive health, which of course, includes control of fertility.
Some examples of what was taught at the FWHC:
How to do a self-check on your cervix (pelvic exam) using a speculum and mirror, how to extract one’s menstrual period before it starts (explained in-depth below) treat one’s own female health concerns and conditions, self -insertion of an IUD, practice these procedures on other women and teach them self-care.
Quote below from LA Conservancy Website as part of their nomination for historic status of the FWHC building at 1027 Crenshaw.
“Women’s Self-Help One clinic was the first in the nation and consequently placed the Crenshaw Women’s Center at the genesis point of the women’s self-help movement. Founded by Carol Downer and Lorraine Rothman, the clinic became a model for the national movement. In 1972, the Center was raided by police. Ms. Downer had applied yogurt as a cure for a yeast infection and was arrested for practicing medicine without a license. She was acquitted and the platform and publicity of The Great Yogurt Conspiracy raised the consciousness of the nation and helped make woman’s clinics a national movement.”
The raid happened at 1027 Crenshaw.
746 Crenshaw was demolished in the 1980s.
The Great Yogurt Conspiracy received wide press coverage due to its’ humorous title and the absurdity of the charges.
“Carol Downer revolutionized the women’s health movement, learning how to perform abortions and vaginal self-examinations, and teaching other women how to, as well. In the early 70s, at a time when abortion, birth control, and fertility information was not widely available to women, Carol and some other women developed the practice of menstrual extraction, offering women a means to take control of their reproduction. She and her group, which incorporated as the Feminist Women’s Health Center (FWHC) post-Roe v Wade, and travelled around the United States, equipped with vaginal speculums, teaching women about their bodies and reproductive systems. The FWHC also established the Women’s Abortion Referral Service, the first of its kind to offer pregnancy screening. From the website Feminist Current, an interview with Carol Downer conducted about 2 years ago.
Move to 746 mentioned below.
The “yogurt conspiracy,” arrest and acquittal caught the attention of cultural icons like Gloria Steinem, Bella Abzug and Dr. Benjamin Spock, bringing national attention to these LA activists.
Last column in Zink article. 5/13/73
“Lorraine Rothman was a founding member of the feminist centered Self-Help Clinic movement and a major mover of many successful behind-the-scenes projects. With Carol Downer, she worked on the concept of menstrual extraction as a viable women’s home health care technique; and, in 1971, she invented the Del-Em menstrual extraction kit, which was patented n 1974……… Rothman’s collaborative relationship with Downer and the self-help clinic movement began when she attended an April 7, 1971 meeting organized by Downer to discuss women’s reproductive rights and abortion. At the second meeting, one week later, Rothman shared her idea of a safe home health care tool, demonstrating the prototype of the Del-Em menstrual extraction kit. Shortly afterwards, Downer and Rothman founded the Feminist Women’s Health Center (FWHC) in Los Angeles; Rothman went on to open a second FWHC in Orange County, closer to her home and family. Over the next two decades, Rothman traveled widely, taking the Self-Help Clinic concept to women’s groups both in and outside the US....”Archived interview subject description at CSU Long Beach.
Therefore, if a fertilized egg had just been planted on the uterine wall, of course it would be suctioned out along with the rest of the menstrual material. If this was the case, indeed one would be preventing a birth. But you really wouldn’t know.
Several doctors are quoted below as being against menstrual extraction.
Carol Downer continues to lives in Eagle Rock and has been working in disability and immigration law for many years. She has lived a life of activism in the field of women’s reproductive rights and the peace movement.
For more details, please see the Carol Downer entry in the Embryo Project Encyclopedia.
END
Veronica told me she heard Paige’s death announced on the car radio as she was driving. What she heard caused her to pull over, too shocked to continue the rest of the way home. She tried later to call the radio station but was unable to get through.
Veronica met Paige at the Malibu beach home she shared with husband Frank.
Paige had been brought over to their home by Joe Rank, an art lover and collector who worked in radio and live close by.
Veronica never saw them together again but Paige and Joe remained friends and she thinks Joe did know about Paige’s background and family.
By the end of the 1970s Rank was the founder of a very successful clothing company. (More details at the end.)
Veronica said that Joe Rank knew Paige quite well and I should contact him.
I have tried, unfortunately with no luck. He would be in his 80s or 90s now.
The only place Joe or Joseph Rank turns up in newspaper archives is as a Spanish language radio station owner. And this is the same Joe Rank.
Veronica said Paige told her that Bill Cosby was an “art patron” and was helping her to stay in her Topanga Canyon cabin home and art studio.
Veronica thought it was “nice of Bill Cosby to help her out” and thought nothing sinister about it as Paige did not say anything sinister about Bill or the arrangement.
Veronica concurred with others I have interviewed, that Paige often walked around topless or nude. She remembers Paige being naked or topless playing in volleyball games and the “the beach boys” who hung around certainly appreciated it.
Veronica thought it might be explained by Paige’s personality which could be described as “High and Low” or “hi-lo.”
Veronica told me about an occasion that Paige used LSD and experienced a “bad trip.” Veronica stayed with Paige and helped her through the ordeal. Veronica was motherly to many of the young people who would show up at her home even though she was still young herself, in her 30s.
Her husband Frank enjoyed “collecting people,” wrote Veronica. And many young people would hang around their beach house socializing and playing.
I’m grateful to Veronica for her permission to use this image.
Veronica remembers buying groceries for Paige, at a store located at the bottom of “Fernwood & Topanga Canyon Dr.”
And the Safeway on Sunset & PCH, later Vons.
This happened about once a month for quite a while and the “2 friends would chit chat and catch up on news” and Paige never wanted more food than she could physically carry.
This was before her move to Westwood. After that Veronica didn’t see Paige as much but they frequently talked on the phone.
She remembers just vaguely: Paige telling her about her own art studio in Venice Beach, a block away from the beach. (See 2 chapters: Venice Beach, Richard Sample.)
(Dennis Hopper has a connection to Paige as he knew the artists that Paige knew, Larry Bell and in the same building: DeWayne Valentine. Robert Irwin lived across the street at this time. )
Paige sometimes expressed her suicide ideation in phone conversations with Veronica.
She did not discuss Hugh Hefner or John Huston, David Shane, Desmond Guinness or a”sex tape.”(See related chapters)
Several times Paige needed a ride to visit her sister, but Veronica never met the sister: Constance/Connie.
The last couple times the two friends had a phone conversation, Veronica noted an “echoey sound in the background like Paige was in a bathroom.” Veronica tried to lighten the mood by asking her about the echoey sound and said,”Paige are you already in heaven?” Paige laughed and they hung up the phone with Veronica feeling Paige was in a better space.
It would be the last time they spoke.
Paige one time had checked herself into the UCLA Psych Center but was released in a just a few days.
Paige told Veronica “she said she had cured all the patients at the ward.”
Veronica said she never believed that Paige would actually go through with the suicide.
Separately, Melanie told me about one time driving Paige to the UCLA Psych Ward. Melanie remembers Paige returning from the ward with a very strange character who acted violently but the women scared him off. Paige showed up with a gun and he bolted.
“In California we have a law (5150) that the police (or yourself if you may harm yourself) can commit you for 3 days to a hospital for psych care. If you are pronounced no longer liable to harm yourself or others or decide you want to leave voluntarily you can after three days.”
Paige probably took advantage of the 51/50 law, which began in California in 1967.
Veronica does remember before Paige’s suicide she had expressed not having enough money for paint and told her to just wait a few days and she would be able to help her out with that. But Paige was dead before that happened.
Lack of money was a recurring problem for Paige.
She did not know Paige to own a car, says Veronica.
Paige did not talk of her past or much about her future, she seemed to always exist in and speak in the present moment.
Melanie said does not remember Paige owning a car either.
I personally think Paige must have sold her yellow Mustang that was seen by Sample in Malibu 64-67, and seen by her cousin Christian/Chris in Sherman Oaks in 1964, when Paige made Chris a cup of coffee during his visit to her apartment.
Paige told Chris about her short lived marriage, (did not say the name Mark F. Segal to Chris) and impending divorce. She did not mention the violence and threats in her divorce papers to Chris, I told him and he said “Oh, she would not have put up with that.”
No one I’ve communicated with who knew Paige say they can remember a time when she talked about her childhood her family or her background. Veronica says Joe Rank may have known about Paige’s background.
Chris Young already knew about it as they were family in each others lives in childhood when she was Diana Cotterell in Sherman Oaks in the 1950s. He last saw her right before the move to a chicken coop converted house near the east end of Malibu.
Chris said he and his mother were contacted by Connie, Paige’s sister, about the suicide. Chris remembers Connie had a cold and seemingly indifferent attitude about Paige’s death. He said this made he and his mother sick to their stomach and angry.
Aca Joe History
“Joe Rank, a Los Angeles broadcasting executive who had managed KMEX-TV, the Spanish language TV station in Los Angeles, moved to Mexico in 1973 to establish a printed tee shirt business on the beach resorts which were booming with international tourism. By 1978, Rank had shops in 75 stores in Acapulco, Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlán, and Mexico City, plus tee shirt shops in 15 of the popular Carlos n’ Charlie’s bars and restaurants throughout Mexico.
In 1983, the name was changed to Aca Joe and product distribution was limited only to Aca Joe owned or franchised stores. The line was expanded to include pants, jackets, sweaters, and more than just tee shirts. After changing to this more exclusive distribution of the product, the stores were swamped with customers. Lines were formed in front of the stores with people waiting to get in at all hours of the day.
The success of Aca Joe did not go without notice by international investors, and soon a deal was made with American partners for the expansion of Aca Joe outside of Mexico. William Meyer became Rank’s partner in Aca Joe International and the first stores in the U.S. were opened in the Bay Area of San Francisco, with shops in Union Square, Sausalito, and the Stanford Shopping Center.
The U.S. shops were very successful, and to provide financing for expansion, the new U.S. company filed for listing on the NASDAQ stock exchange. Prospects for the future of the stores were bright, and in 1985 Aca Joe International was the fastest rising stock on NASDAQ” From the ACA Joe website.
Joe left LA and had moved to Mexico in 1973, before Paige killed herself.
I have not communicated with anyone who heard about Paige’s death through any media with the exception of Veronica who heard part of an announcement about it on the radio.
Away from the backyard and duplex.
I’m looking up from the alley. This window faces the building next door. There is a bit of yard between trees house and fence, I did not see that part. It’s where Paige kept the Akitas she wanted to breed and Melanie complained about them barking. LAPD reports talks about a man named DeWitt to whom Paige wrote instructions to take her dogs. (See chapter on death certificate.) Veronika thinks Paige was going to try and make money from breeding the Akitas.
These windows face the alley. Garage had storage in it but no cars says Melanie.
1971-1973 #1. John Huston. Meet Celeste Shane. St. Clerans in Ireland. Bill Gardner. LAT writer Jack Smith Observes Huston and Hefner at Trendy Backgammon Club. Westwood. Modeling. Update 5/2/2024. Long.
Posted on April 7, 2023
IN 1972
Paige in B&W appears in the 1972 edition of “Gowland’s Guide to Glamour Photography.” However the photos were not taken recently.
This B&W photo is from the same photo session as the color one used in the 69/70 Ridgid Tool calendar at right.
(SFW)
1971
It was around this time that Paige moved into a carriage house in Westwood, near UCLA and the famous and infamous “Playboy Mansion” located in Holmby Hills section of Los Angeles. Also part of the Hefner legend , the estate was discovered by “constant companion” Barbi Benton driving around the neighborhood one day.
1972/73 cont…
According to the Daily Mail report of 2014, Paige complains to (neighbor who lived in duplex in front of the carriage house) Melanie about her relationship with famed film director John Huston:
“She (Paige) said she had an affair with John Huston, and that he had done things to her, abused her. I remember one incident in which John hid her shoes to make her think she had gone crazy. It was a small thing, but she was really bothered by it.”
Daily Mail Dec. 2014
“I know she dated Huston for a while and had just gotten back from a trip to Ireland with him.”
Background
Huston fled Hollywood in disgust over the Huac Tactics and moved to St. Clerans, an estate in Ireland. He lived there as often as possible from 1953 to 1975.
Huston’s 4th wife Rikki Soma found the estate and the couple moved in with their two children Anjelica and Tony.
Huston’s daughter, Oscar winner and director Anjelica, lived there as a child and wrote about her childhood and coming of age at the estate and what it was like having John Huston as a father and her mother’s death in a car accident at age 39 Rikki Soma when Anjelica was a teenager.
Memoir about St.Clerans childhood.
Melanie is quoted in Daily Mail that Paige had “just returned from Ireland,” after a visit there to Huston.
Paige Young’s visit is in the same time frame of John Huston’s marriage to Celeste Shane Huston, Huston’s 5th marriage and “CiCi’s” 2nd. She is quite a character herself.
Her first husband was screenwriter Wally Green and they have a son named Collin.
Celeste Shane Huston Background:
“Cici” grew up in a wealthy Beverly Hills family with three brothers. Her father owned a few successful car leasing companies and rented out his yacht to celebrities like Frank Sinatra. (See chapter: The Shanes of Beverly Hills)
Cici was (and is) involved with horses and boarded at least one at Sepulveda Stables in the early 1960s. I talked with a woman who was around 12 years old during these years and knew both Paige and Cici at Sepulveda Stables.
It’s a factor which places Celeste and Paige in the same world.
One of Cici’s long time best friends is actress Jill St. John.
Before Wally Green, another love of CiCi’s in the late 1950s and early 1960s was famed Hollywood hairdresser Gene Shacove. Their engagement was announced in the Los Angeles Times June 22, 1958. It seems the marriage was less than a year in length.
My chapter entitled “The Shanes of Beverly Hills” delves deeper into Celeste Shane Huston and her brother David Shane, a key player in Paige’s story.
END.
Back to John Huston:
After a Sexully-charged, Whirlwind Courtship And honeymoon phase, John and CiCi’s marriage became strained in Ireland.
Cici spent time living (visiting really) at St. Clerans at the beginning of her short marriage to Huston.
She brought along her son Collin and his caregiver Maricela, who also acted as Cici’s “maid.” Dad Wally Green also visited his son at the estate.
“Cici was as out of place at St. Clerans as anyone could possibly be,” said John Huston of his ex, by that point.
When Cici was asked she said “I wasn’t prepared for the eleven servants, the mistresses, Betty O’Kelly, Gladys.”
Gladys Hill was an assistant on several Huston films, a co-writer on some, including Reflections in a Golden Eye. Hill acted in 3 Huston films, the most famous being Night of the Iguana.
Betty O’Kelly was a close friend and manager of the St. Clerans estate. Tony Huston referred to her as “Dad’s hot water bottle.”
Both women were devoted to John Huston.
Cici said she observed several employees behavior, looked at some financial books, and concluded they were taking advantage of Huston by overcharging him.
….”she was horrified by the seething sexual history of the estate and the rampant theft by the Irish staff…” from Courage and Art by Jeffrey Myers.
Huston was frequently absent due to directing films all over the globe and money matters did not interest him. He had a lax attitude about what his employees and assistants were supposedly doing with money.
When his publicist friend Bill Gardner heard about the theft from Cici and mentioned it to him, John surprised him by exclaiming, ‘What are you trying to do, lose all my friends.’
from Courage & Art by Myers
Cici wanted most of the staff fired but Huston refused.
She also encouraged him to sell the estate to cut down on his expenses.
This all created a lot of tension.
Of the horse’s caretaker Cici said, “I caught him with quadruple charges for horseshoeing. I know about horses. He couldn’t screw me around.”
Cici was especially outraged by the visit of her husband’s young mistress, Zoe Sallis, who of course brought along her out-of-wedlock son by John Huston: (the actor ) Danny Huston.
Cici resented the monthly allowance (and breakfast in bed) afforded to Zoe.
John has the women around for amusement. Zoe is back to ‘see her boy.’ Ha ha. She is here to ask “Big Daddy’ whether she should turn Jewish…
written in a letter from Cici Huston to her parents from Courage and Art by Jeffrey Meyers.
Zoe claims that Cici forbade Huston to cast her in the movie “The Man Who Would Be King.” It was the part that went to Shakira Caine.
Zoe felt then and still does, that this was a major missed opportunity for her as an actress.
John and Cici left Ireland and returned to Cici’s place in the Pacific Palisades at some point in 1973.
It was becoming obvious even to John Huston that his spending habit, child and ex-wife support, a large staff, and his gambling habits were making the financial upkeep of the estate impossible.
The St. Clerans estate was sold sometime in 1973/4 but wasn’t completely vacated by John Huston until 1976, according to Celeste Shane Huston, in an online response to me.
Their divorce was finalized in 1977.
John Huston and Paige were both painters in addition to being horse lovers; these factors may have played a role in their “connection.”
Huston was a womanizer and had several marriages, flings, short and long-term affairs with numerous women over the decades and apparently of all ages.
It seems Eloise and you have been screwing each other for years and that you are a wonderful ‘ball.’ I am fucking bored with hearing about who you fucked and especially since you put me with all you ‘OLD’ bangs.
Cici in a letter to Huston from Courage & Art.
John Huston in later life.
Also, from what I’ve read in these bios, Huston had a meanstreak in his personality that he would, at times, unleash on the very ones most likely to be wounded by it.
Example: In the Daily Mail article, Melanie tells of Huston hiding Paige’s shoes, “it really bothered her,” even though, “it was a little thing.”
In another chapter, I wrote that Cici and Paige both boarded horses at Sepulveda Stables in Sherman Oaks.
Celeste messaged me once that she was the one who introduced Paige to Sepulveda Stables. (No I do not have it. Take my word for it or not.)
At the time I read her message, I had already learned that Paige boarded her horses at the stables located at Sepulveda Blvd.& Hatteras since grade school when she was known as Diana Cotterell. (See related chapter)
“Diana Cotterell,” gave 2 school photos to the owners of the stables which were published on a website about Sepulveda Stables.
Diana definitely looks grade school age in them.
Diana Cotterell lived close to Sepulveda Stables as did several of her classmates, like Joan Edwards, who boarded a horse there in the 1950s.
That would mean Cici knew Paige as Diana in grade school. I find this unlikely. She gave no indication she knew her as Diana.
Paige was tight-lipped about her past or any future plans and “more focused on the present moment,” said to me by her good friend Veronika.
Celeste, in the early 1960s along with actresses Donna Reed and the aforementioned Jill St. John, boarded horses at Sepulveda Stables according to the website where I found Diana Cotterell’s school pictures.
Maybe Paige and CiCi met in the early 1960s, but not before.
Given what Melanie’s story says in the Daily Mail and the sale of St. Clerans, Paige’s visit must have necessarily been in 1972 or 1973.
If so, she may have witnessed or even been involved in the drama between Cici, Betty, Gladys, and Zoe Sallis. According to biographer Jeffrey Meyers, Huston enjoyed women fighting over him. (as did Hugh Hefner.)
I had an email exchange with Celeste Shane Huston and she confirmed that she and Huston knew Paige and they “were only trying to help her.”
She denied that Huston and Paige had affair.
She wrote that “2 prominent lawyers.” connected to show business purchased Paige’s ticket to Ireland for the visit.
A visitor to St. Clerens during these years was Bill Gardner.
Another connection to Paige.
This is the same Bill Gardner from the Pasadena Art Museum chapter.
- William Louis Gardner and #CelesteHuston on some of the #horses in #StClarens #Manor in #Ireland, back when #JohnHuston owned the estate. #Hollywood #1950s #1960s #vintage.
The following paragraph is what Bill wrote on for his author page on Amazon. Numerous celebrities are mentioned.
William Louis Gardner started his career getting a diploma from the Pasadena Play House in the fifties. The US Air sent him to Pasadena, California to learn film and television production. During his education at the Playhouse he was sent to do on-the-job-training at ABC, CBS and NBC. He spent time on the on the sets of Colgate Comedy Hour studying, observing and watching the process of television variety type shows. Bill became acquainted with the Martin & Lewis show, Jimmy Durante Show, Danny Thomas Show, Lucille Ball, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland and Milton Berle Shows. After William left Hollywood he joined his squadron and wrote and produced films for the US Air Force. When he was discharged from the Air Force he returned to Hollywood and went to work for Mickey Rooney as his assistant and manager for ten years. After he joined Jonathan Winters as his manager. In 1965 William moved to Ireland and joined director, John Huston, as his assistant. He worked on John’s films in England and Morocco. John sent Bill to East Africa to do pre-production for a film Bill had written called “The Games End”. The film has yet to be made. William, left the industry in 1972 and came back to California and moved to Montecito and became a real estate broker. He formed a Real Estate office in Santa Barbara and retired thirty five years later to write a novel “Confession of a Hollywood Agent” and numerous screenplays. His novel “The End of the Game” struggles with Africanization, intrigue and murder to save the elephant. Present, Bill keeps on writing.
scribd.com
Gardner is quoted twice in the Jeffrey Meyers biography of John Huston, identified as a publicist-friend.
Notice that Gardner mentions Jonathan Winters and John Huston, both associated with Paige Young.
Legendary LAT columnist Jack Smith sees Huston and Hefner with others including an “unidentified sex object,” (possibly Paige Young) at a backgammon tournament in 1972. The observation by Smith happened around the time Cici and Huston tied the knot. The group partly inspires the title of the article:
Allegedly the cast and crew of the film Chinatown spent some off-set time at the Playboy mansion.
The cast, of course, includes Huston and director Roman Polanski.
This would have been the same timeframe that Paige was hanging out at the Playboy mansion “scene,” such as it was, on an occasional, if not regular basis.
Paige was witnessed at the Playboy mansion near the end of her life as recounted by neighbor Melanie Myers, who herself was invited to the Mansion. This is told in the Secrets of Playboy documentary, episode 8.
These were the last years of Paige’s life.
Chinatown was released 2 months after Paige Young’s suicide.
More about John Huston ahead.
NSFW
There was an indication of what Paige was doing in her professional life when I found the following item on ebay.
It looks like Paige was still modeling in the early 1970s; she appears in some Electrochemical Company photographs, credited to Peter Gowland, probably taken in 1972 or 73.
I suspect Gowland had her in mind immediately for this assignment; he knew Paige needed the paycheck and would be willing to appear topless or nude.
Obviously,quite tame by today’s standard
There is an association between Electrochemical Company and the Ridgid Tool Company, Gowland’s long time clients. Paige appears in the 69/70 Ridgid calendar shown at the top of this chapter.
Paige was one model of a few featured in this series, possibly a gift for special clients. A calendar I guess. Ann Cushing and starlet Brook Mills, two Gowland favorites, are the others. Plus one I don’t recognize.
The models all go uncredited including Paige, her “Playmate” status is not indicated anywhere. She is portrayed in this series, like the others, as an anonymous girl. I recognized her and informed the seller.
Mormon Temple with Angel Moroni who lords over the Westwood neighborhood where Paige Young lived and died only few blocks away. Her friend Veronika spoke to me about this statue being near Paige’s carriage house.
What is the connection with Desmond Guinness and John Huston?
Paige Young was acquainted with both men, and she was friends with Huston’s 5th wife Celeste Shane.
A renowned socialite, party animal and generous host, Guinness entertained the international jet set at his home, Leixlip Castle. Those who visited included British royalty Princess Margaret, her husband Lord Snowdon, and Lord Mountbatten, A-listers such as Jacqueline Kennedy, film director John Huston, Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull, and his stepfather the British fascist leader Oswald Mosley, his mother Diana Mitford’s husband.
Desmond Guinness Obituary in The Irish Times August 29, 2020.
Memoir about childhood St.Clerans
Anjelica Huston wrote a memoir about growing up in the St. Clerans estate.
Did Paige Young meet Desmond Guinness when she stayed with John and Celeste Huston at St. Clerans in 72-73 ish? Possibly. Desmond always had a place to stay when he went to Los Angeles and Santa Barbara.
1960 issue of Color Photography Magazine shows an image of Ricki Soma Huston by legendary photographer Philippe Halsman. He “discovered” her I read. She was already a ballet dancer photographed by Halsman for a Life Cover portrait and feature.
Enrica Soma on the cover of Life Magazine by Halsman.
” The dancer Leo Coleman was also part of the entourage, alongside a “girl with a classically beautiful face” and a “classically perfect body”: Enrica Soma, a 19-year-old model and prima ballerina who had appeared on the cover of LIFE herself in 1947, where she was spotted by the filmmaker John Huston. She became his fourth wife in 1950.”
Rikki was pondering a possible movie career when John Huston came into her life. She was photographed with Marilyn Monroe and others as “up and coming” actresses. Pretty quickly she abandoned that and the couple had 2 children. Rikki devoted her life to John and Anjelica and Tony.
Rikki became like a “Wife #1″at the Irish estate when Huston invited his mistresses or girlfriends to visit.
Rikki was married to John Huston from 1950 until her untimely death in a car accident in 1969.
Ricki had already moved out of St. Clerans by this time and resided in London.
The other women Huston brought to the estate finally pushed past her limit.
Coincidentally Huston’s 5th wife, Celeste Shane Huston’s photo appears in the same issue of Color Photography magazine, below, as Rikki; photo by Halsman above.
Paige Young and Bill Cosby 1970 (and before). El Paso, Malibu, Sunset Strip. 2/10/2024
Posted on February 9, 2023
In this chapter, I have gathered all the accounts of witnesses to Bill Cosby and Paige Young’s relationship, either seen with their own eyes or told to them by Paige. Many of the witnesses are probably dead.
Tamara Green’s account was published in the Dailymail.com Dec. of 2014. She is quoted at length below. Ryan Parry was the reporter.
A modeling shot of Tamara Green, late 1960s. Dailymail.com
“One of Cosby’s victims, attorney Tamara Green, knew Paige from modeling circles and recalls seeing the pair together.
Tamara Green recalls that she ran into Paige while in El Paso, Texas around 1970 and learned she was dating Bill Cosby.
‘I was there seeing my boyfriend and Paige called me and said Bill was on tour and she was travelling with him.
‘They picked me up at my friend’s house and I remember sitting in the back of a stretched black limo with them both and Bill wanted to score some drugs.
I called around and found a bag of pot some place on the edge of El Paso.’
El Paso Times Feb. 22, 1970.
Cosby was in El Paso at the time Tamara recalls.
‘Paige was in to her drugs and Bill wanted to get her some, she was along on the trip like his pet dog, she was a very subdued person, more like moon on the water in terms of her personality.
El Paso Herald Feb. 21st. 1970. Cosby was in El Paso at the time Tamara Green recalls.
‘They were clearly well acquainted with each other, it didn’t seem like a new thing. As far as I know they dated for a while.
‘Paige always seemed in a stupor, a daze, like he was controlling her. All I remember is that their relationship wasn’t healthy.’
‘Paige was a young thing who was very much taken advantage of by the men of Hollywood, she was intelligent and talented, it’s a tragedy what happened to her.'”
Cosby – whom has recently become the subject of at least 17 sex attack allegations dating back to the late 60s and 70s – was obsessed with Young who had caught his eye during his many visits to the glitzy Playboy Club where she worked on Hollywood’s Sunset strip.
Cosby was also a regular at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles as he and Hugh Hefner began working on many projects together.” END
A few years ago I made a post in an “old-timers” Malibu facebook group asking if anyone remembered Paige Young from about 1965-70.
“Henry G“contacted me to say he knew Paige from Malibu and used to hike with her frequently in Topanga Canyon. Henry remembers Paige living in a cabin in Topanga.
Again, it happened around 1970.
Henry told me about one time he was with Paige at her home and she began to “break down and cry.” Henry asked her what was wrong and she told him that Bill Cosby had raped her.
Henry worked in the television industry and said that he “always thought Bill “was a nice guy,” to which Paige replied that he is not nice, he is “a piece of shit,” “scum,” “a bastard” and “don’t even get me started.”
I then asked Henry if Paige indicated that Cosby had drugged her prior to the rape. Henry said he remembers Paige saying how she “came to” and “realized she had been raped.”
Henry said that at one point in this conversation Paige “tilted her head in the direction of her dresser, I looked over and saw a check made out to Paige signed by Bill Cosby,” and that “it had several zeroes.”
In one episode of the 2020 Docu-series Secrets of Playboy, I am shown moving around my office with my voice over telling the above story about Cosby told to me by friend Henry G.
. I sent some audio to the producers and it is edited with a couple different audios I sent to them. Not totally clear what I am saying
So, I hope the story is now clear and comprehensible.
Later in the year, Henry let Paige stay in one of the rooms he was renting out in his house in the Trancas Beach area of Malibu. It was off of Broad Beach Rd. across from the Trancas Market.
Paige stayed at Henry’s house for “only about 3 months” he said.
She had been complaining that the “isolation” in the area was making her “antsy” and “unable to paint.”
Paige’s cabin, probably helped funded by Bill Cosby according to friend Veronika, was at the southern end of Topanga Canyon Rd., closer to the PCH and beach. Somewhere in that area. She frequented Fernwood Market said Veronika. Ferwood Market is the southern end of Topanga Canyon Rd. Before moving back into Los Angeles, to the Westwood area of the city, Paige moved further west along the coast to Trancas Beach but found the location “isolating.” Apologies if the map doesn’t transfer.
Henry also told me that he didn’t see Paige very much the last 2-3 years of her life as she had become “reclusive.”
I asked Henry if Paige ever mentioned Hugh Hefner, or her Playboy experience and he said, No she didn’t, but that he had a Playboy experience when he ended up at the Playboy mansion with the beautiful Malibu girls he was with allowed their entree to the they got in the Mansion. Henry said at one moment in the night he and Hefner locked eyes.
After Paige left Henry’s house on Trancas beach, is likely the time she moved to her final home, a carriage house behind a duplex in Westwood, by UCLA and the Playboy Mansion.
The next incident was told to me by Richard Sample before he died.
It must have happened before 1970, because Paige and Richard were not seeing each other by then from my estimation.
This story also appears in chapter Richard Sample Interview #1.
Richard said he would occasionally pick up Paige at the Sunset Strip Playboy Club, after her shift.
She worked at the club “for about 3 months,” he said.
Bill Cosby was a frequent visitor and performer at many Playboy Clubs and a closed friend of Hugh Hefner.
“Bill Cosby was always trying to put the make on Paige. She didn’t want anything to do with him, she ignored him.”
Richard Sample
One time Richard was waiting for Paige in his car near enough to the Playboy Club to witness Bill Cosby get quite angry at Paige. Apparently she had rebuffed yet another one of his advances.
Bill Cosby’s name was found in Paige’s phone book after she died so they definitely knew each other.
LAPD Report Paige Young Suicide. Updated 1/18/2024
Posted on August 29, 2021
I obtained a copy of the LAPD report on Paige Young’s suicide, transcribed below.
The report is difficult to read; it looks like a copy of a copy of a copy, several words are faded almost beyond recognition.
Someone familiar with police codes and reports may understand it better.
When I was interviewed for the docu-series Secrets of Playboy; the crew filmed me opening the envelope containing this report.
The interviewer asked me to read the report on camera and I absolutely struggled.
I can see why that happened because the next day it took me an entire afternoon with a magnifying glass to transcribe what you see below.
Anyway, no footage or mention of the police report made it into Secrets of Playboy.
I have placed ??? for words and codes I was unable to decipher.
EDI (PDI?) is witness and neighbor Melanie. I/D is the Investigating Detective.
Page 1:
I/D responded to a D/5 call at the above location. Upon arrival at 1500 hrs. I/D was met by 8A53 Ofcc’s Sullivan FI5452 and Peckins #15665. Death was pronounced by CA#92 at 1431. 8A53 upon arrival at the scene were met by EDI, who stated that the deceased was upstairs with a gun and was going to shoot herself. 8A53 at this time phoned for a backup unit. 8L/??and 8L10 responded. Ofccs at this time spent approx. 2 hours attempting to contact the deceased via the telephone and by calling ?? HEC? Offcs during this period were informed that a “SWAT” team was enroute and to stand by for their arrival. While Ofccs. were waiting for “SWAT” EDI suddenly ran into deceased’s apt. Ofccs fearing for EDI safety also entered the apt. Offcs. at time obs. the deceased lying on the bed with what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the head. Ofccs at this time phoned for an ambulance.
Page 2
EDI stated that she last saw the Dec. alive on 4-7-74 at approx. 10:30. Deceased stated at this time that she was going to end her life. Dec. at this time placed the barrel of her gun in her mouth. EDI attempted to talk Dec. out of taking her life. Dec. asked EDI to phone the police because she wanted to kill herself in front of the police. EDI at this time left and returned to her apartment and started to call friends of the Dec. Approx. one hr. later (1130) EDI contacted the PD. EDI further stated that deceased had been in a constant state of deep depression for the last two years.
Wit-2 stated that on 4-7-74 at approx. 0930, he rec a phone call from Dec. who requested that he come to her and pick up her (Dec) dogs. Dec. also stated she would leave a note explaining about the dogs. Wit. went to the above location and obs. the dogs in their pen. Wit also obs what appeared to be a note which had been torn up ?? the dogs. Wit took the dogs and the note to his home. Once there Wit pieced the note together. The note instructed Wit. what to do with the dogs. At the bottom it read, “don’t come up call the police.” Wit at this time contacted the LAPD and then returned to the above location.
I/D obs. the deceased lying on her back in bed with her her feet resting on the ?? Dec. head was pointed in a S/E direction. I/D obs. no evid of foul play. An inspection of weapon showed it to be A 2? .38 caliber S/W B/S bed 5 shot chief. The weapon was fully loaded with one spent gund(?) directly under the hammer. This weapon was BKD? at ???? and rigor mortis were obs. I/D obs. no evid of an exit wound.
Page 3
2H22 of SID was at the scene and took photos.
It is the opinion of the I/D that the Dec. committed suicide by firing a single shot from the above described weapon. This opinion is based of the statement of the EDI, and lack of evid to indicate otherwise. This death will be ???? as a suicide pending the final result of the cor. invest. The shot was fired into Dec. mouth and did not exit.
Since there was noone to ??/Dec. Prod, ???sealed the location.
END.
Suicide note not mentioned in LAPD report. “Possible Note at Scene” on report above.
“Decedent found in residence by friend Melanie Myers, decedent lying on bed w/38 revolver in rt. hand. Investigation by IHD. Possible Note at scene. Brought into Metro for Recovery of missile as requested by Dr. Mall.” Signature.
Melanie said to the Daily Mail and Secrets of Playboy that she was read part of Paige’s suicide note by the police which mentioned Hollywood powerful men who used and abused her, including Huston and Hefner.
Occupation listed as “model” and reason for suicide “extreme depression.” Paige is listed as “artist” on her death certificate.
Officers called to Paige’s suicide scene: Sullivan and Perkins or Peckins.
Investigating Detective I/D : Reddish, probably Richard M. Reddish who handled at least 2 other suicides in LA in his career per newspapers.com.
Police photographer on scene: Unknown
Coroner: Dr. Mall
Coroner’s office, removed Paige’s body from her home: Tim Gee.
2nd Witness: D DeWitt. Called by Paige on the 7th to take care of her dogs. According to this police report, this witness went to Paige’s house, retrieved the dogs and took the torn up note with with instructions for the dogs(?) Went to his house, pieced the note together. Note said “don’t come up call police.” Witness then returned to Paige’s house.
From there, nothing is said about witness DeWitt.
UPDATE: 7/8/23 I exchanged emails with Paige’s friend Veronica who suggested that DeWitt may be the individual who supplied Paige with Akitas that she was had started to breed for income. She was arranging for him to take the dogs because of her self-imposed death.
Members of SWAT team not recorded.
We can see what is not described in the report by Reddish: the suicide note and mural created by Paige Young about hatred towards Hugh Hefner— what Melanie described to the Daily Mail Dec. 2014 and dramatized in Secrets of Playboy.
Why not?
Both witnesses, Melanie and DeWitt, in the 1974 report, corroborate what Melanie said in 2014: Paige wanted to make a statement about these men who abused her.
The fact that a police photographer took photos of Paige’s suicide scene is easy to read in the report. But where are those photos now?
I was asked what I thought about this 3 times by the director of Secrets of Playboy, it was not included in the finished documentary.
(In fact, there was no mention of this police report at all in Secrets of Playboy.)
I found a blog that linked the Daily Mail Paige Young article with a personal comment about it:
oped: I totally believe the accusations…being that I worked for LAPD Van Nuys Division 1971-1974 I remember one of my Sgts. discussing this case…
I remember one of my Sgts discussing this case…it was hushed up at the higher levels of management… speculation being a cover up on pressure from the entertainment moguls! And I can honestly say after dealing with the bookings of numerous celebrities during this period of time from DUI,Drugs,perversion,disturbing the peace on and on…oh the stories I could tell…maybe another time I will!
From Sharla’s Labyrinth
I can’t confirm independently that this person wrote the truth, but I don’t know why they would make it up. When I asked what exactly what s/he remembers about what was said by the sargeant, h/she responded “they (police) just said it was very sad.”
Keep in mind, there was absolutely no interest shown in 2014 and 2015 when the Paige Young suicide and a connection to celebrities Cosby, Hefner and Huston, was published in the Daily Mail online. During 2014 and 2015 dozens of women were coming forward with allegations of being raped and drugged by Bill Cosby. Famously Hefner and Cosby were close for a long time.
PART 2: Richard Sample Interview
Posted on June 15, 2021
Close up of a small copy: Richard Sample as painted by Paige Young.
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 “the Psychedelic Era.” Richard said no, not that he ever witnessed or heard.
(Melanie Myers, neighbor who found Paige dead, said on the documentary Secrets of Playboy, 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 Jonathan Winters. 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 Life and 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 aviation historian. 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.
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.
Paige personality:
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.
Lower article by legendary LA writer Jack Smith.
Eagle Rock Sentinel OCT.31, 1968
The timing of his accident is chilling….
LAT March 29. 1989.
Meet Artist & Paige Young Friend Richard Sample. 1964-1969. Malibu. Venice. Celebrity Connections. Cult Characters. PART 1. Updated 9/25/2023
Posted on June 8, 2021
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
Father metalsmith artist Charlie Sample mentioned. LAT Jan. 18, 1937
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.
Nick Lees and Bob Sanders Reminisce about Paige Young.
Posted on August 21, 2020
Nick Lees, a writer for the Edmonton Journal, wrote the following article in 1981.
Nick Lees returned to his job at the Edmonton Journal 7 years after he was fired for leaving on his unscheduled vacation with Paige.
Is Nick the reason Paige missed her contracted appearance at the winter sports show? Did she make up this“sudden illness” excuse?
The part in Lees’ article about Paige Young being from Sacramento and a dental assistant, I don’t buy it. There is too much proof that she was born and lived in Los Angeles her entire life. Plus, I don’t see her going through the rigors of dental school and the “9-5 doldrums.” Paige may have told this fib to Lees or he remembers incorrectly.
Lees had a long career at the newspaper as a popular columnist.
The text at right is from an article about Lees, written by journalist Michael Hingston. The article appeared in Canadian Avenue magazine sometime in the early 2000s.
I thank Edmonton writer Michael Hingston for sending me this portion of his notes that were not included in his published story.
Lees’ opinion of Paige seems to have softened over the years. He sounds more resentful in 1981.
Lees specifies the Colorado Rockies as the mountains he and Paige escaped to (Vale above actually spelled Vail) rather than the Canadian Rockies as he says in 1981.
Nick doesn’t indicate any knowledge of Paige’s suicide in 1974, either in his 1981 column or his more recent interview with Michael Hingston.
I have been unable to get in touch with Nick Lees.
He was in the hospital a few years ago per a facebook post.
Below is an entry from a website of the late Bob Sanders who blogged about his lengthy and diverse career.
He has some fascinating stories about Hugh Hefner and working for Playboy as well as TV Guide. He was hired to help promote Hefner’s new TV Show “Playboy After Dark” which led him to meet Paige Young in the late 1960s. Sanders was a regular American working man with a family.
7/10/2009
Paige Young….by Bob Sanders
I never learned her real name, but Paige Young, Playboy magazine’s “Miss November” of 1968, was absolutely perfect for a rather challenging assignment: Creating interest in a mediocre TV series.
“Playboy After Dark,” was a follow-up to “Playboy’s Penthouse” which also starred Hugh Hefner, pipe in hand. In both the original and the reincarnation, an elevator whisked viewers to a penthouse where host Hefner, his free arm wrapped around his then current squeeze as we called them, feigned surprise at another drop-in, finally announcing who was in the house to perform. It was pretty awkward stuff.
I met Paige late in January, 1969. That was three months after her appearance in the magazine; an illness had prevented what would have been a timely trip to Chicago. Page was in town to collect $10,000 then awarded Playmates who now receive $25,000 with $100,000 going to the Playmate of the Year. They got to stay a week or so at the Playboy Mansion, attend parties, make personal appearances and meet Hefner, a cultural summit for most. One of my contributions to the process was to interview each of them to determine if they could be of promotional help. Among a year’s monthly winners, you could count on two being particularly good or outstanding. Paige was one of the latter and who could forget either her center-fold or the woman in person? Peter Gowland did the photography in Los Angeles posing a prone Paige, back scratcher in hand. The flashing brown eyes did no harm to the overall effect.
It was a few months before I met Paige that Hefner’s reclusive lifestyle began undergoing a change. The not-so-poor-man’s Howard Hughes had come out of his shell swearing off the uppers and downers that enabled him to stay awake editing his magazine three days at a time. Not only had Hefner hit the streets to observe police outrage during the 1968 Democratic National Convention but he would soon return to the TV trough with “Playboy After Dark” scheduled for Screen Gems release.
Owned by Columbia Pictures, the first major studio to learn to live with the new medium through the creation of a subsidiary, Screen Gems not surprisingly realized the series was a tough sell. They backed off midway through production refusing to promote the show for an additional good reason. Screen Gems had a huge backlog of product including a boatload of Perry Masons–271 to be exact. Up to that point, my involvement was little more than choosing pictures from contact sheets provided by a Hollywood photographer. I soon learned Hefner had little use for black and white photography, perhaps because Playmates’ skin tones looked much more ravishing in color. It was as though black and white was O.K. for Citizen Kane and little more in Hefner’s opinion. I began to bootleg photography; pictures I used to promote the firm’s Lake Geneva resort via newspapers were actually shot by a Chicago Tribune snapper assigned to a narrowly focused feature about the hotel. I paid him $100 after his gig to shoot what I needed: pictures that went beyond architectural renderings ordered by my predecessor. I was never questioned by my management about the photos I used because it was assumed the pics were transferred from color to black and white. Had I gone that route, the shots would have lost about 20% of their sharpness.
Corporate expenses will always be a subject of much conjecture. During what turned out to be 40 years spending other people’s money, I was questioned but once. That was while working for TV Guide in St. Louis, my first gig for the magazine. The year was 1955, eight months after we opened; the office manager, a hopeful sort, had determined we should send parents of newborn children copies of the magazine. Names and addresses of the parents were gleaned from pages of local newspapers and the copy, set in five point agate type, required a magnifying glass to determine accuracy. It was regional manager Arthur Shulman who asked me what the hell was I doing spending $1.99 of TV Guide’s money in such strange fashion?
Playboy was far and away the least concerned of my employers about spending money. Hefner made it clear that he wanted things done in the best possible manner. It was terrific working for a firm striving for promotion efforts done, as Hefner suggested,” first class.” I never took advantage of the situation there or anywhere else.
That early contact sheet assignment for “Playboy After Dark” involved work by an independent photographer, a rather strange determination considering the number of excellent snappers on the payroll. Admittedly, they were rather specialized.
It was while looking at pictures of the fifth show that I found the best shots–maybe ever–of Hefner. All of them found him next to one of the show’s chickie poos. Soon my hunch was verified. Barbie Benton, then a theater major at UCLA–had become a regular on the show eventually attaining status as Hef’s significant love of eight years. I ordered a dozen of one picture of the adoring couple I had cropped from a group shot.
On a trip to Los Angeles, promotion director Nelson Futch and I learned at a meeting called by Screen Gems that its management had determined a preference for releasing “Perry Mason” starring Raymond Burr, then successful in keeping quiet his homosexuality, over the ultimately virile Hefner. It was regarded as a savage blow and Futch, unperturbed, turned the project over to me immediately following the meeting. That was when I thought of Paige Young.
A couple of months passed during which I worked my ass off concentrating on the show. One day Futch and I got a hurry up call to meet with Hefner at The Mansion. Oh, yes. Bring the promotion work. After waiting four hours during which Futch put the Benton/Hefner photo on top the pile of my creativity, we finally entered his office. Our meeting followed one between Hef and his editor-in-chief A.C. Spectorsky–the man who, among many things, coined the word “exurbanites.” Moments later, Hefner spotted the photo, held it up to the light and did a series of gyrations reminiscent of Charlie Chaplin’s examination of the world in The Great Dictator.
“Where did you get this?” he asked–a pretty dumb question under the circumstances unless a UCLA photo-journalist had grabbed a shot of the Bunny King attired in a silly Edwardian suit while visiting one of Barbie’s acting classes.
“The fifth show,” I replied.
“Can I have one?” he asked in very boyish fashion as if I were the editor of the high school yearbook and he, infatuated by a photo of his best girl.
“Would you like six? I can get you at least five more.” That was it. He never looked at any of the rest of my promotional efforts. Apparently, he had decided the Hef/Barbie choice was sufficient. The picture became paramount in the print promotion of the show.
The series played in something like 21 markets with the stations located north and south from Minneapolis to Miami and east to west from New York to Los Angeles. Among them were two Lafayettes–Indiana and Louisiana–plus other locations across the fruited plain and Canada where the program was seen in Montreal. The series had but one show worth viewing; it starred Sammy Davis, Jr., Anthony Newley, Jerry Lewis and Peter Lawford, the latter of unique adroitness: dressing up a set.
Hefner’s published comments on the series and his host role give pause: “It’s better than the ‘Johnny Carson Show’ or the ‘Joey Bishop Show’ and I do a better job hosting than Ed Sullivan does.”
KTLA, the then Gene Autry-owned independent channel , bought the series and we scheduled a party for what was then called the Playboy Building at 8560 Sunset Boulevard. Built in the early 1960s, it had a parking lot to the west set beneath 10 stories of reinforced concrete. It is now part of the Sunset Millennium Project–three buildings totaling approximately 300,000 square feet of office space.
Back then, my attention was captivated by a huge windowless area of the building’s west façade. Recalling all the “Playboy After Dark” color photos taken on the set, I wondered if we could project pictures on the wall in a rotating series of six or so with enticing copy to promote the show. I found a Swedish company with equipment about the size of a small TV set which we secured at the entrance to the parking lot.
My idea had unusual origins. Years before, comedian Red Skelton had a neighbor in Palm Springs he didn’t like or so the story went. The guy, a moralistic type, had a white stucco home with a large wall visible to the street. In reaction to the neighbor’s latest outrage, Skelton began showing adult movies on the fellow’s home.
In the fall of 1969, eastbound Sunset Blvd. motorists were confronted by color photos of scantily clad young ladies in addition to 30-ft pipe-clutching Hefs and bug cute Barbies.
We had a minor “Playboy After Dark” promotion problem which never surfaced. Paige Young had not appeared in the series having turned down a request. Thoughtful and intelligent, she had other things to do, notably painting. Horses were a subject dear to her as I learned during time out on the north side of Phoenix where many Arabian thoroughbred farms used to exist.
Paige was a total delight. One time she flew to Minneapolis where I met her at the airport before we moved on to newspaper, magazine and broadcast interviews. After a couple of days, we flew to Miami for more of the same. Phoenix was particularly productive offering a good example of the Playboy mystique. Shortly after our arrival, I learned a local PR representative hired by us had not set up any interviews. I made five phone calls to the TV stations then located in the area and placed Paige on each channel for interviews–mostly on news programs. It may have been a very slow news day, but getting that kind of attention on such short notice with little going for us except the Playboy mystique was absolutely amazing; the series was about to be carried on one of those five stations. The trick was to set up the interviews along different lines emphasizing such things as the magazine and Paige’s appearance in it, her life and travels, and what Hugh Hefner was really like.
During my Playboy Enterprises days there was a story, probably apocryphal, told about Hefner by Victor Lownes who was, in my opinion, a promotional genius responsible for a lot of the magazine’s (and later the clubs’) success. Lownes had introduced a young woman to Hefner, referring to him as “a living legend.” The couple wandered off to a nearby bedroom where, scant minutes later, the woman emerged commenting to Lownes: “And you call that a living legend?” Hey, nobody bats 1.000.
It was no secret Lownes had been run out of Chicago after dallying with a teenage TV star. Adding to the speed of his departure was her being the daughter of a high profile newspaper columnist. Lownes settled in London where he established the London Playboy Club, then gained a gambling permit. It wasn’t long before he had created a lifestyle many thought at least the equivalent of Hefner’s; included was Stocks, an impressive manor house. While Benny Dunn was dressing up Hefner’ Chicago Gold Coast home with people from the entertainment world, Lownes was attracting a much broader spectrum of notables.
Things went nicely for Lownes. Treated as a company hero as Playboy Enterprises peaked during my years there, his short returns to Chicago were largely joyous occasions although Lownes could be a jerk. Circulation of the magazine hit 6,000,000, the hotels were showing promise, and the clubs were doing well thanks to Victor’s London gambling license. Suddenly, in 1981, England’s gaming commission yanked the permit. Some Arabs, among the club’s highest rollers, had been given markers by Lownes and the license was pulled. To this day, Lownes denies the charges. No question the timing was dreadful. Hefner was in the midst of what turned out to be an unsuccessful attempt to get a gambling permit for Atlantic City and the London catastrophe played a major role. An earlier New York City liquor license obtained under questionable circumstances was another.
The relationship between old friends Hefner and Lownes cooled. The latter eventually left the organization and wrote a tough but largely accurate book about his former pal and a public company having difficulty adjusting to a world enormously changed since Hefner planned the magazine in his kitchen nearly 30 years before. The magazine business was undergoing upheavals of its own. Penthouse, inspired by Hefner but tawdry by comparison, offered full frontal nudity and Playboy met the challenge. Marilyn Cole, who later married Lownes, was the first Playmate to be so photographed.
While my association with Paige Young remained purely professional, I’m sure a lot of people in the home office and air travelers thought otherwise. The airport scenes were rather wondrous. Paige wore big floppy hats in a great variety of singular colors. We arranged our airport meets so that scheduled arrivals in those halcyon days of dependability were very close. I could spot her hat from impressive distances and she could do the same with me although I never wore a floppy hat. The last half of our promotion tour found us running toward each other in airports and embracing in corny displays suggesting to many that we were something we weren’t.
So many memories remain including a rainy night in New Orleans during which we ran barefoot through the French Quarter (she was a physical fitness nut) and were later entertained by the Playboy Club’s musical director, Al Belletto, one of the few non-Dixie musicians in town. A Stan Kenton discovery, Belletto introduced us to such people as Al Hirt, Pete Fountain and Eddie Miller, the Fred Astaire of tenor saxophonists. When I met Miller, I made the observation and he said: “I think that’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said about me.”
West Bank Guide May 1969.
Paige and I lost track of each other and I attempted to find her on the internet some five years ago. I wish I hadn’t. She had committed suicide at age 30, six years after we stopped promoting Hefner’s TV show.
I can’t recall a single clue that might have suggested such a splendid blithe spirit was capable of such a decision. END
A woman contacted me by e-mail about 4 years ago and said she was the daughter of the late Bob Sanders.
She told me that when the Daily Mail article was published, she was relieved that her father was not alive to learn that Paige’s method of suicide was a gunshot to head, not an overdose of drugs. She said learning that would have greatly upset him.
Bob’s daughter also wrote that she thinks despite what her father wrote in his blog post, there many have been a fling of sorts between Bob and Paige.
Because of the Nick Lees story, I don’t think Bob Sanders travelled with Paige to Edmonton, she was likely travelling on her own at this point.
If you read the chapter on 1969–there are several articles that mention Bob Sanders, not by name but by profession, as Paige’s “handler,” “assistant,” even “flack.”
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1974 #1 Official Death Cert. Witness.”Sex Tapes.” Cremation, Ocean Burial Records.David Shane & Family. Secrets of Playboy. Bobbie Arnstein. Joni Mattis. (Very Long) Updated 3/24/24
Posted on August 7, 2020
March 16, 1974 is Paige Young’s 30th birthday.
April 7th 1974, a Palm Sunday, Paige Young commits suicide with a gunshot to her head. The the location was her residence, pictured below.
“She was terrified of it coming out, in that day you knew your career was going to be over once it got “round.”
“For weeks all she could think about was getting hold of that tape, she thought it was going to ruin her.”
Melanie, Paige’s neighbor quoted in the Daily Mail about an alleged sex tape of Paige.
Below is the account neighbor Melanie gave to reporter Ryan Parry of the Daily Mail Dec. 2014 issue.
“Paige had the whole thing planned down to the last detail… It was a Palm Sunday and she came to tell me she was going to kill herself. She stayed in the back of the house where we (B.J.) lived and I was at the bathroom window. She comes up to the window and calls out to me “I want to show you something.” I couldn’t be bothered by any more of her drama. But she was like, “No, you’ve gotta come and see it.” So I go to her apartment and she gave me a guided tour …of her suicide scene in her bedroom….It was chilling..there was a large American flag draped across her bed and there was a pentagram laid out on the wooden floor…I remember her showing me around it because it was somehow important, but I didn’t know what it meant.”
But it was the bedroom was that shocked Myers the most.
“It was covered floor to ceiling with photos of Hugh Hefner, there were news clippings, magazine articles, everything you could think of. Written across it was something like “Hugh Hefner is the devil.” The whole wall was a shrine saying, ‘I hate Hugh Hefner,’ the crux of her anger was against him. That was the message she wanted to get across to me. She was pointing up at things, showing me around it. She’s put a lot of work into this, it must have taken her days.
Myers said that Young then calmly explained that she planned to kill herself.
She produced a gun and put it into her mouth…lay back on her bed and said, ‘this is how I’m going to do it.’
“It was chilling. We were friends but not the best of friends, I was always bitching about her and her dog, so I was scared. I thought maybe she could shoot me, you know, take me with her, it was all so weird. I thought, I’ve got to get out of here.”
“Myers quickly retreated to her apartment and called the police. LAPD officers arrived soon afterwards and cordoned of the whole of Eastbourne Ave.”
Myers said, “The cops didn’t want to go in her apartment first, so they asked me to go check on her, so I did.”
“I walked into her apartment and they were behind me. I walked into her bedroom and she was lying dead on the bed. She had shot herself in the head as she told me she would. There was a huge mass of blood, her whole bed was soaked red, it was shocking. But she looked happy and very peaceful, she didn’t look in distress.”
“The cops had Paige’s suicide note and read some of it to me…the whole thing was about her anger towards the men who she believed had chewed her up and spat her out. The two men who got the most attention were Hugh Hefner and the director John Huston. I know she dated Huston for a while and had just gotten back from a trip to Ireland with him.”
Paige expressed anger to other Hollywood stars who had used her.
“I believe Paige was making a huge statement in a bid to get at the elite of Hollywood…She thought the story of her death would spark a big scandal, but it didn’t. Sadly no one cared.”
In the A&E channel documentary Secrets of Playboy, Melanie is interviewed and gives the same account.
She says she was told by Paige Young that a member of Hefner’s entourage had possession of a tape (or film possibly) of her in a sexual situation. Paige seemed ” over the top,” afraid of it “getting out.”
I know now…..that this person was probably David Shane. He was not a celebrity. Not in the way Hugh Hefner was, not in the way his brother-in-law at the time was, director John Huston.
Shane was known on the local scene of the Sunset Strip as he owned two businesses. And apparently, a never-known or little-known Playboy mansion regular.
However, Shane was a perfect candidate for someone who would be involved with a sex tape and Hugh Hefner.
(Much more below about David Shane and his prominent family.)
According to Melanie, at Paige’s staged suicide scene, a wall in her room was filled with images of Hugh Hefner, newspaper and magazines, and her hatred of him along with a pentagram drawn on the floor, and an American flag.
The other witnesses would have been the LAPD, the I.D. and the coroner’s office.
When I first read the Daily Mail article, I was left with some questions like
Why did Paige “blame” her suicide on Hefner and others?
Why is one wall dedicated to Hugh Hefner exclusively?
What was going on in Paige’s mind when she made the mural?
I began researching the answer to this question with an open mind.
Perhaps Paige Young wrongly, mistakenly, or inappropriately blamed Hugh Hefner for her suicidal thoughts.
(The note left behind mentioned H.H. and others according to Melanie in the DM.)
Some critics will say it was my motivation to prove Hugh Hefner was an evil man and was responsible for the death of a vulnerable young woman.
That is not my motivation or opinion.
Obviously, Paige had other problems in her life.
Lack of money was another problem a friend of Paige’s wrote to me.
However evidence points to at least one factor being the above mentioned sex tape she appeared in, and its’ association with the Playboy mansion scene.
A partial autopsy/police report copy is included in the Daily Mail story, but not the death certificate.
Below is a photo of the death certificate copy I obtained.
Reporter Ryan Parry of the Daily Mail discovered that Paige did not die of a drug overdose as is stated in “The Playmate Book,” and several websites, but actually committed suicide from a gunshot wound to the head, per an autopsy report and death certificate, as one can see.
On April 9, Price-Daniel Mortuary handles Paige’s death services. Her cremation takes place at Roosevelt Memorial Park in Gardena. Burial of her ashes to take place at sea near Santa Monica shoreline.
It is unknown how the (false) story of Paige overdosing on drugs started to be written and repeated on the internet so much that it became her “official” means of suicide.
Is the Playmate Book the source?
This book is a compendium of all the Playmates or “Sweethearts” that were so named in the magazine since the first issue in 1953, up to the date of publication.
An update on the lives of the women accompanies each entry.
Marilyn Monroe was famously on the cover of the first issue.. and…. inside the issue were a few years old of her pinup photos.
It’s part of the Marilyn and Playboy Myth.
Credit George Vreeland Hill.
From an article in 2007 upon the death of Anna Nicole Smith. The Playmate Books are updated about every 10 years.
Paige Young’s entry says she died of a drug overdose in 1974.
Paige’s suicide appears to have never been reported in the Los Angeles media, in 1974 or since.
UPDATE: 5/12/2023 I have spoken with one friend of Paige’s who says she heard an announcement on a radio station about it while driving, but doesn’t remember much more than it was shocking and saddening, causing her to pull over to the side of the road.
I have not yet found any death, obituary or memorial announcement.
In the weeks and months after the Daily Mail article was published, no one spoke out publicly about knowing or having met Paige Young.
No one came forward on social or entertainment media to shed any more light on what could have driven or influenced her to take her own life.
This is another reason I was motivated to research more about Paige Young.
What about the alleged sex tape that caused Paige so much anguish?
“Numerous women say Hefner filmed all of the sex he had in his bedroom at the Playboy Mansion — often without consent — and kept the tapes.”
LAT Review of Secrets of Playboy 2/28/22
It makes sense because a well known part of Hefner’s biography is that he was fascinated by audio and video technology.
He purchased and collected cutting edge home video, film cameras, projectors, and stereo equipment, before they were available to the mass consumer.
In the early decades of the magazine, Playboy magazine often featured an ideal “bachelor pad” decked out with the finest stereo equipment and other electronic gadgets, sure to impress the ladies, (or other men) like a Cadillac or Picasso painting might. In fact Playboy magazine invented the template for the “Bachelor” magazines of the 1950s.
It often included gadgets in the Bachelor Home.
The shapley young woman would make a great accessory to your lifestyle and the Bachelor Pad will entice her..
This is one reason Hef and Playboy were criticized beginning in the late 1960s for its’ materialistic and consumerist lifestyle as a way to happiness, approach to life. Not only “Women’s Libbers” criticized Hef and Playboy.
One of the clips shown in the opening of Secrets of Playboy, features a 1970s Hugh Hefner speaking to reporters at a press conference about his “electronic equipment in “the mansion.”…”including cameras” and says that “sometimes stuff happens in the bedroom.”
Secrets of Playboy revealed accounts of sexual acts being filmed by Hugh Hefner, or others, at his mansion in Holmby Hills. (See interviews with Sondra Theodore, Butler Stefan Tetenbaum and others.)
Secrets…shows an interview with former head of Playmate Promotions Miki Garcia, reading work notes she saved, this one about actor Tony Curtis. Curtis, through his lawyer, was highly upset about Tony’s appearance in sex tapes filmed at the mansion. Curtis was a Mansion regular for decades.
Stories of sex tapes or films, go back to the Chicago mansion days: an ex-girlfriend of Hefner’s, with help from one of his secretaries, snuck into the mansion and retrieved “her” tape. This incident was told to Russell Miller, and published in his book Bunny: The Real Story of Playboy. Miller appears in Secrets of Playboy but doesn’t tell this story.
I am shown in Secrets of Playboy reading a brief excerpt from his book Bunny, which I first read in 1985.
Melanie’s interview indicates that Paige was filmed at the Playboy mansion and fearful that this tape or film, would be shown to some type of an audience that would recognize her.
What happened to Hefner’s collection of sex tapes?
There are reports of Hefner ordering the tapes and films destroyed before his death, by sinking them in the ocean.
Allegedly, Hefner had become more paranoid after friend, Playmate, actress and frequent Playboy Cover model Pamela Anderson had her, and husband Tommy Lee’s, private sex tapes stolen and released to the public. In fact a recent dramatic series was made about the public “Pam and Tommy sex tape scandal.”
“…..And I’d recently discovered little spy holes on either side of the big televisions at the foot of the bed, where one might set up cameras. When I asked him about them, he just shrugged. ‘But what are they for?’ I asked. ‘I used to do a lot of filming,’ he said proudly. ‘VHS. I had hours of videos, hundreds of sexy tapes.’ ’Did people know you were filming?’ I could only imagine what, and who, was on those tapes. ‘It’s my bedroom. My house.’ He said this dismissively. When I didn’t say anything back, he got a little defensive. ‘I destroyed them all. After the Pam and Tommy thing…..’
Only Say Good Things by Crystal Hefner
Article From Page Six Nov. 23, 2018 quoted below:
“Hugh Hefner dumped a casket full of his private sex tapes into the sea before he passed away, insiders have revealedThe Playboy founder chucked his collection of sex tapes into the Pacific ocean because he feared that his most famous and secret conquests would be exposed, sources told The Sun.
It comes as the Playboy founder’s most personal belongings are being auctioned off later this month. But while his signature pipe, dressing gowns and other items are currently on show to the public before they go under the hammer, paranoid Hefner made sure his dirtiest secrets would never be found.The veteran Hollywood lothario, who passed away in 2017 at the age of 91, gathered up his entire hidden collection of tapes, X-rated photos and even intimate notes from superstars.
He then threw them all in a specially-made casket lined with cement and had his aides dump them in the sea.Hefner’s trusted head of security at the Playboy Mansion Joe Piastro – who died in 2011 – is believed to have overseen the burial.
“Hugh was terrified of the world finding out everything about his past,” a source revealed. “He had kept a treasure chest of memories of his life with all these beautiful women dating back from the 1950s to the mid-1990s.” “He only shared a few of the stories with his aides, but kept his personal items of his time with many famous beauties a secret.
“There was a batch of tapes, shot on 8 mm and cinefilm, which were filmed during some of the orgies he enjoyed in the 70s. “Some famous male movie stars too were in those videos and had that come out it would have been a huge scandal.
“Hef also had thousands of photographs taken at photo shoots or given to him by the girls over the years. Marilyn [Monroe] was definitely in them as well as many superstars who graced the pages of his magazine.Some of the women were in relationships and others never even made the magazine, but simply were partying with him.
“What actually sparked his concern was when Pamela had her tape with Brett Michaels aired and then Tommy Lee.“He got so upset and paranoid that he decided it was best to have them disappear. He didn’t trust people to burn them in case they got stolen, so he charged Joe with getting rid of them in the ocean.
“Joe had been his trusted head of security for years and had saved Hugh from many embarrassing situations in the past.
“He had hundreds of other photographs of women who were not famous, but he had enjoyed one nights stands with or even short relationships. There were also audio tapes too.“In the 1990s, he had concerns about these personal items being stolen and sold around the world … it filled him with dread.
“So he decided that Joe should go out in the middle of the ocean with the cask and dump it all. “Hugh explained that he didn’t want anyone’s lives, marriages or careers to be destroyed by what he had In his library. Joe did it and never told anyone.”Hefner decided to take action in the late 90s as parties at the Playboy mansion were becoming wilder.
“The parties at the mansion were becoming grander affairs and it was difficult to control where guests were going,” the source added.“He was terrified that some of this material would be stolen and the leaked out.
“He even worried that if anything happened to him it could get in the wrongs hands and hurt those who were still alive.”
“After what [Anderson] had told him, he was certain that this material was best lost rather than locked away. ” END.
Former Playboy employee Lisa Loving Barrett says in Secrets of Playboy, that she had heard the the ocean burial story and has reason to believe it is true.
I am going to conclude: Paige Young’s case is an early example of what later became known as a “sex tape scandal,” and more recently “revenge porn.”
It is one that never went public through the media.
It seems to have remained firmly swept under the rug by people at Playboy, at the time that it happened and in subsequent decades.
I was told by an individual working on the Secrets of Playboy series that the documentary team had learned of the existence of a “female fixer,” working for Hef (in Los Angeles in the early and mid–1970s). In the next sentence, she names Joni Mattis as a close assistant of Hef’s at that time.
This information of a female fixer, much less named as Joni Mattis was not mentioned in the Secrets of Playboy series.
Please see my new chapter about names found in Paige Young’s phone book after her suicide.
And it so happens that Paige’s suicide scene, mural and notes left behind naming Hefner and his friends and other Hollywood high level types, and there was a chance it could go public, certainly this presented a problem that would desperately need to be “fixed.”
April of 1974 Happened to be an especially awful time for Unflattering publicity to be attached to Hefner/Playboy.
Bobbie Arnstein, Hefner’s long-time loyal and troubled Chicago secretary, friend and “Girl Friday” had just been arrested for drugs in front of the Chicago Playboy Mansion.
San Francisco Examiner Mar. 22, 1974 Appeared all over US newspapers.
The arrest happened only two weeks previous to Paige’s suicide. (Secrets of Playboy has an episode about Bobbie Arnstein and her suicide.)
Context:
Hugh Hefner had been spending more and more time in Los Angeles ever since meeting 18-year-old Barbi Benton in 1968 on the set of his TV show: Playboy After Dark, filmed at CBS Studio on Fairfax. (Paige Young may or may not have appeared on the syndicated show.)
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Hef was looking for a property in LA. Driving around by herself one day in 1971, Barbi stumbled upon a mansion in Holmby Hills, which she knew was a perfect fit for a Playboy mansion “West.”
Back at the Chicago mansion, Bobbie Arnstein held down the fort during Hefner’s more frequent times away from Playboy Headquarters.
Bobbie felt increasingly left out and let down by Hefner and had shared with a few friends that she was frustrated in not receiving more public credit and a commensurate salary, for her years of dedication to Playboy the corporation, and Hugh Hefner who was her boss, mentor, father figure and friend.
She was struggling with drug abuse, an eating disorder and grief from her boyfriend’s death in a car wreck a few years previous where she was the driving.
Despite these conflicted feelings, there was a plan for Bobbie to relocate to the LA and continue on as Hefner’s secretary.
Unfortunately, Bobbie killed herself shortly before that scheduled date arrived.
In the fall of 1974, Bobbie Arnstein was given a 15-year provisional jail sentence for a drug trafficking crime that she did not commit; it was a set-up by whomever in the state/city government, certainly the Chicago prosecutor.
The zealous prosecutors in Chicago wanted Bobbie to implicate Hugh Hefner in drug trafficking and she refused.
Bobbie was a drug abuser and probably involved in purchasing and distributing drugs to friends and maybe friends of friends, according to Secrets of Playboy. Like Adrienne Pollock.
It appears to me that Hefner was innocent of formal organized drug trafficking.
The Daily Advertiser Dec. 8, 1974. Bobbie would commit suicide the next month at the Maryland Hotel in Downtown Chicago.
Hef admitted to having “laissez-faire” attitude about the behavior of his numerous guests at the mansion; he certainly wasn’t going to search them for drugs as he said publically at the time. END.
Paige’s home in Westwood is only a 10 minute car drive to the location of the Playboy Mansion in Holmby Hills.
Former police were employed by Hef as security guards on many occasions.
The local police were friendly and on good terms with Hef and welcomed at the mansion, say several former employees in Secrets of Playboy.
The local police in the Westwood/UCLA area would have attended Paige’s suicide scene and written the report. (See chapter LAPD suicide report.) And word of this would have made it to the mansion in short order. Possibly to the “female fixer,” before even Hefner himself.
Math figures show Paige’s age on mortuary paperwork. 1974-1944 =30
Inside this issue is a photo of Hef with Joni Mattis, his long time assistant and Playmate and lover both in 1960. Apparently Joni was as devoted to Hef and Playboy as Bobbie. Her entire working life was for Playboy. She was likely Hef and Playboy’s “female fixer,” at the time of Paige’s suicide.
1974#2
Melanie from the Daily Mail article told me that the “brother of Cici Huston,” had Paige’s “sex tape” in his possession and would not hand it over to Paige, despite her repeated requests.
And that Paige frequently expressed the serious mental anguish this was causing her.
…..fearful of a “sex tape” that “a relative of a major celebrity had made of her,” is how the Daily Mail phrased it.
One of the Shane brothers, David, is very likely the one holding on to Paige’s sex tape; he was very active on the Sunset Strip social scene at the time, owning business there and being attractive to women: 1950s-1960-1970s.
The Daily Mail didn’t wasn’t really interested in naming him as “wasn’t a big enough name,” said Melanie to me.
CiCi Huston had three brothers.
In a message to me, Celeste Shane Huston seemed angry that her brother David was a sex partner to both Paige and Tamara Green.
Below is from David Shane’s obituary.
He started a popular car rental agency, Hav -A -Kar, in the heart of the Sunset Strip. Hav-A-Kar was later sold to Thrifty, and David, as the property owner, saw the space become a Kenneth Cole store for many years before its current iteration, the Eveleigh restaurant. In the early 1960s David, who loved to cook, opened a burger joint called Alfie’s. It was a colorful fixture on the Strip and a veritable celebrity magnet. David decided to eventually lease the space in 1971 to the new owners who created Mirabelle, which remained steadfast on the Strip for over 40 years…… David was a jet setter and an avid outdoorsman. He attended USC for two years before transferring to the University of Mexico, in Mexico City, where he befriended painter Diego Rivera.
LAT Oct. 2016
Myron started Hav-A-Kar in 1959 per newspaper articles and apparently signed it over to his son David L. Shane.
Bob Shane is the oldest brother. Originally Myron Shane, Jr. I can’t find anything else about him but that he became known as Bob. He was listed in Beverly Hills High yearbooks as Myron Shane Jr.
The youngest Shane brother Stephan, not mentioned in the obituary above, moved out of Beverly Hills and lived further north in California. He married, divorced and died young in the 1970s.
David and Celeste’s father was Myron Shane, Sr. already a wealthy business owner from Kansas City who moved his young family to Beverly Hills in the 1940s.
Myron Shane owned a yacht named the “Celeste.” He rented it out to wealthy celebrities including Frank Sinatra.
Myron Shane also used his yacht for charitable purposes.
There is more about Celeste Shane in other chapters.
Melanie told the Daily Mail, and me personally, that Paige “went out with” several men.
Paige told Melanie that some of her boyfriends paid her living expenses including kitchen appliances and a dog run for her Akitas.
( Don’t know what happened to Joshua the Weimaraner or Hamish the horse)
However much Paige expressed her distress over the Shane brother and his refusal to hand over the sex tape, ultimately she built a shrine of sorts about hatred and blame, towards Hugh Hefner.
From the Daily Mail:
“It was covered floor to ceiling with photos of Hugh Hefner, there were news clippings, magazine articles, everything you could think of. Written across it was something like ‘Hugh Hefner is the devil.” The whole wall was a shrine saying, ‘I hate Hugh Hefner,’ the crux of her anger was against him. That was the message she wanted to get across to me. She was pointing up at things, showing me around it. She’s put a lot of work into this, it must have taken her days.”
According to Melanie, Hefner and John Huston were mentioned in the suicide note as well.
“The cops had Paige’s suicide note and read some of it to me…the whole thing was about her anger towards the men who she believed had chewed her up and spat her out. The two men who got the most attention were Hugh Hefner and the director John Huston. I know she dated Huston for a while and had just gotten back from a trip to Ireland with him.” Daily Mail Dec. 2014
“Paige also vented against other Hollywood stars who had used her, says Myers.”
This issue of People magazine was released at the end of 1974, 8 months after Paige’s suicide in LA and one month before Bobbie Arnstein’s in Chicago.
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