Paige Young in Los Angeles.1974 #1. Death Cert. Witness. “Sex Tapes.” Cremation. Ocean burial. Secrets of Playboy. Questions remain. Updated 03/25/23
Posted on August 7, 2020
March 16, 1974 is Paige Young’s 30th birthday.
April 7th 1974 is a Palm Sunday, on that day Paige commits suicide with a gunshot to her head, 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.”
Daily Mail Dec. 2014
“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 in the Daily Mail
Below is the account neighbor Melanie gave to reporter Ryan Parry of the Daily Mail.
“Paige had the whole thing planned down to the last detail… It was 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.”
Paige in the late 1960s. Photo by Peter Gowland.
In the A&E channel documentary Secrets of Playboy, Melanie is interviewed
and says she was told by Paige Young that a member of Hefner’s entourage filmed and had possession of a tape of her in a sexual situation at the Playboy mansion. And she was very afraid of it “getting out.”
And at her “staged” suicide scene, a wall in her room was dedicated to images of Hugh Hefner and her hatred of him.
Why did Paige “blame” her suicide on Hefner and others?
All evidence points to a major factor being the sex tape she appeared in, and its’ association with the Playboy mansion scene.
Below is a photo of the death certificate copy I obtained. A partial autopsy/police report copy is included in the Daily Mail story, but not the death certificate.
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) who have appeared 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.
From an article in 2007 upon the death of Anna Nicole Smith.
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.
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 one reason I was motivated to research more about Paige Young.
Back to 1974……..
What about this alleged sex tape?
A well known part of Hefner’s biography is that he was fascinated by audio and video technology.
He collected home video, film cameras and cutting edge 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.
The docu-series Secrets of Playboy has revealed accounts of sex being filmed by Hugh Hefner at his mansion in Holmby Hills. (See accounts by Sondra Theodore, Butler Stefan Tetenbaum and many others.)
There are reports of video tapes of sexual encounters over the decades, with some involving celebrities.
Secrets of Playboy shows an interview with former head of Playmate Promotions Miki Garcia, reading her personal notes about actor Tony Curtis. Curtis and his lawyers were quite upset about Tony’s appearance in sex tapes filmed at the mansion.
Stories of “sex tapes” go back to the Chicago Playboy mansion days: an ex-girlfriend of Hefner’s, with help from one of his secretaries, snuck in the mansion and retrieved “her” tape. This incident was told to Russell Miller, and published in his book Bunny: The Real Story of Playboy.
One of the clips shown in the opening of the Secrets of Playboy show, features a 1970s Hugh Hefner talking to reporters about all the “electronic equipment in the mansion,” including cameras and “sometimes stuff happens in the bedroom.”
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 fearful after friend and frequent Playboy model Pamela Anderson had her, and her husband Tommy Lee’s, private sex tapes stolen and released to the public.
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 revealed.
The 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.
“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.
“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.
“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.
“After what [Anderson] had told him, he was certain that this material was best lost rather than locked away.
“He even worried that if anything happened to him it could get in the wrongs hands and hurt those who were still alive.” END.
Former Playboy employee Lisa Loving Barrett says in Secrets of Playboy, that she heard the the ocean burial story and has reason to believe it is true.
I am going to conclude that Paige Young’s case is an early example of what later became known as “sex tape scandals,” or even possibly “revenge porn,” although this was one that never went public. It seems to have remained firmly swept under the rug by people at Playboy, at the time that it happened and subsequent decades.
I was told by an individual working on the Secrets of Playboy docu-series that there was a “female fixer” working for Playboy/Hef in Los Angeles in the early and mid-1970s. I did not see this information included in the series.
Paige’s suicide scene and notes left behind, which implicated Hefner and his friends, certainly presented a problem that needed to be fixed.
April of 1974 was not a good time for bad publicity to be attached to Hefner/Playboy as Bobbie Arnstein, Hefner’s long-time, deeply loyal and equally troubled Chicago secretary, had been arrested for drugs in front of the Chicago Playboy Mansion, only two weeks previous to Paige’s suicide.
San Francisco Examiner Mar. 22, 1974
Context:
Hugh Hefner had been spending more and more time in Los Angeles since meeting 18-year-old Barbi Benton in 1968 on the CBS set of Playboy After Dark.
Driving around one day in 1971, Barbi located the mansion in Holmby Hills in 1971.
Back in the Chicago mansion, Bobbie Arnstein was feeling increasingly left out and let down by her mentor. Hefner had previously been so dependent on her.
Bobbie had shared with a few friends her frustration in not receiving more credit and a commensurate salary for her complete devotion to Playboy the corporation, and Hugh Hefner the man, both professionally and personally.
Despite her conflicted feelings, in 1975 Bobbie was supposed relocate to the west coast and continue as Hefner’s secretary. Tragically, she killed herself shortly before that scheduled date arrived.
In the fall of 1974, Bobbie was given a 15-year provisional jail sentence for a drug trafficking crime she did not commit; it was a set-up, even though Bobbi was a drug abuser. She refused to give false evidence to implicate Hugh Hefner and she praised him in her suicide note.
Bobbie’s suicide in 1975, is usually cited in Hefner biographies as finalizing his decision to leave behind the midwest, and reside in LA full time.
Paige’s home in Westwood is only a 10 minute car drive to the location of the Playboy Mansion.
The local police were friendly, and on good terms with Hef and welcomed at the mansion, as several former employees say in Secrets of Playboy.
Former police were employed by Hef as security guards on many occasions.
The local police would have attended Paige’s suicide scene and written it up. (See chapter LAPD suicide report.) And word of this would have made it to the Mansion in short order. Probably to the “female fixer,” even before Hefner himself.
Math figures show Paige’s age on mortuary paperwork.
Santa Monica Beach Fall 2022
1963 Marriage & 1964 Divorce to Mark F. Segal. Meet Marvin M. Mitchelson, Lawyer. Headlines. Pamela & James Mason Divorce.
Posted on May 26, 2020
1963 October 1st Paige Young marries Mark Frederick Segal in Las Vegas, per nearly impossible to read ledger records found on ancestry.com.
An elopement likely in one of those 24-hour Las Vegas wedding chapels.
The record shows only the date and names.
Paige’s new husband was born in 1942 and was the son of WW2 veteran Harold Segal and his wife. They resided in Sherman Oaks at 4518 Vista Del Monte, at one time. Mark was a marine private who took combat training in 1961 at Camp Pendleton.
Segal was also a car dealer at “Sea-Gull Motors,” a business started by his father, according to newspaper ads in the late 1950s, and Segal friend Rex Ramsey. Sea-Gull Motors either had several locations or moved locations several times in the Sherman Oaks/Van Nuys area in the 1950s and 1960s: 7211 Balboa Avenue, 4425 Van Nuys Blvd. and 6738 Sepulveda Blvd.
Only photo I’ve found of Mark F. Segal, from the Van Nuys News and Valley Green Sheet Aug. 17, 1961.
Rex Ramsey, a friend of Mark Segal’s, was a semi-successful race car designer and driver, told me that Mark’s father Harold Segal, also owned the business Fox Auto Service in the SFV, and the Segal family had several brothers in addition to Mark. He mentioned that the family was “pretty well-off.”
1963-1964 Paige and Mark live together as husband and wife at 4133 Crisp Canyon Road in Sherman Oaks, “South of the Boulevard.” Ramsey said that that the home was a cabin type, the kind that Hollywood stars would rent on the weekend to “get away from it all.”
It’s very close to the neighborhood where Diana Cotterell lived and attended elementary, Dixie Canyon, and junior high school, Van Nuys Junior High.
Paige continues to board her horse Hamish at Sepulveda Stables. I corresponded with a woman who told me that when she was 12 years old, she met Paige at Sepulveda Stables; Paige was about 19/20 years old and Paige drove her to the house on Crisp Canyon Rd., to hang out and drink lemonade.
August 28, 11 months after her Las Vegas marriage, Paige and her attorney file for divorce from Mark F. Segal. Paige is represented by rising Beverly Hills attorney Marvin M. Mitchelson.
Below are just a few of the dozens of divorce documents I obtained from a records department located in Downtown LA.
The filing below states that Mark threatened Paige and her animals with bodily harm “on numerous occasions,” and on August 17, 1964, “brandished a knife in her presence,” and “Plaintiff’s profession is that of an artist and painter and on or about June 15, 1964, defendant maliciously and with intent to destroy plaintiff’s artwork drove nails through plaintiff’s prized paintings and further did mischievous damage by driving nails through plaintiff’s personal belongings including an expensive fur stole.”
Paige requests and is granted a temporary restraining order from the court.
Mark quickly countersues and denies all of Paige’s claims of abuse. He claims that she is the one who caused him mental anguish and suffering. I see nothing in the documents further explaining what Mark meant by that, no further details on what Paige did to him.
Marvin Mitchelson, on behalf of client Paige, asks for alimony, lawyer’s fees and court costs: “Plaintiff is not employed and presently embarking on a career as a painter, therefore needs the money from Defendant who is able bodied and employed.”
Marks balks at this request and states he can’t afford it.
Paige sues Mark Segal for divorce after less than one year of marriage. She is represented by rising and soon to be celebrity attorney Marvin M. Mitchelson
The divorce filing was picked up by the wire service UPI and appears in several of newspapers across the country.
We might call these headlines “clickbait” today.
There is a high probability that Marvin M. Mitchelson was behind the above stories.
Beginning early in his career, Marvin had a belief in the power of publicity and looked for ways to garner some for his cases.
“No matter how trivial the cause of action, if he (M.M.M.) found an angle, he could turn it into a story. And in the early days when his client list was still thin, he could gin up publicity by filing an oddball lawsuit himself.”
…”But Mitchelson knew that Man Bites Dog was what sold papers…this was 1964 and he had to work with the material fate sent him.”
Patti Corman recalled that for her in 1976 divorce, Mitchelson “called AP, UPI and every other P there is.!”
From the book “Ladies Man, The Life and Trials of Marvin Mitchelson” by John A. Jenkins
This is likely the reason Mitchelson took Paige’s case despite her lack of ability to pay him any money upfront. The case was unusual or “oddball” enough for it to be of use to him.
Hollywood History/Celebrity Connections: Only a few days after the articles about Paige Young/Mark Segal divorce is published in a few newspapers, more news breaks that Beverly Hills society matron and LA talk show host, Pamela Mason, has won the unprecedented amount of 1 million dollars, for her divorce settlement from husband of 20 years: actor James Mason.
Her lawyer is Marvin Mitchelson.
Sept.1, 1964 Pasadena Independent, Pasadena, California.
Author Jenkins discusses the 1 million dollar settlement Mason case:
“Afterward in the courthouse corridor, “James (Mason) called the settlement ‘a flea bite.’ After all, he was getting off the hook without giving her any alimony at all. But Pamela was ecstatic. Her settlement was one of the first to break the magic million-dollar mark, and Mitchelson had gotten her, and himself, a ton of publicity about it.”
“The Mason case set the tone for the Hollywood divorces to come. Pamela was so grateful she did everything she could to make Marvin Mitchelson a household name. Pamela introduced Mitchelson to her divorcing friends…she became his entrée to those rarefied upper brackets of Beverly Hills and Hollywood. Pamela hired him eight months later for a 138, 500 breach-of-contract suit against actress Loretta Young on behalf of Pamela’s sixteen-year-old daughter Portland.”
“Pamela Mason introduced Mitchelson to her divorcing friends, all of whom were wildly delighted with the results, she later said.”
The two remained great friends and Pamela had him as a guest on her own Talk Show in Los Angeles.
The Mason case was a first as far as Hollywood divorces go, and a major breakthrough for Marvin Mitchelson’s career.
Later this same year, Michelson represents legendary lyricist Alan Lerner’s estranged wife, Micheline in a contentious custody fight. Roy Cohn was Micheline’s divorce attorney in NYC. Yes, that Roy Cohn, who had a great admirer in Mitchelson.
Mark F. Segal came from a fairly well off Sherman Oaks family. His father Harold Segal owned a thriving car business according to his friend racing and stunt car driver, Rex Ramsey.
Still Mark Segal wasn’t anywhere near the league of My Fair Lady composer Alan Lerner.
Both men however, did have some things in common that most divorcing men didn’t, and that was estranged wives represented by rising lawyer Marvin M. Michelson. The other is being found in contempt of court by failing to pay alimony to these estranged wives.
Mark’s attorney is Bernard Echt from Sherman Oaks. Echt, a few years down the road, would represent the milkman who was being sued by Vincent Bugliosi for suspected impregnation of his wife. Strange yet true.
An initial agreement is reached pretty quickly: Sept. 18,1964 . Mark is required to pay Paige alimony, but only for six months.
This would be about $1000 in 2017, so the equivalent of $6000 total in today’s money.
1964 November 24: Paige and her grandmother Virginia LaRocca are sworn-in for testimony in a Los Angeles courthouse, probably 111 Hill Street, for the divorce trial; Mark is a no-show. Virginia LaRocca testifies for the plaintiff, her granddaughter Paige. An interlocutory decree of divorce is granted to Paige on grounds of extreme cruelty.
Paige waives her right to any further alimony payments beyond the six months. Mark is also ordered to pay Marvin Mitchelson $300 (about $2072 in 2017 dollars) and $15.00 in court costs around $100 today. Paige is awarded a 1953 MG Roadster; Mark is ordered to sign the title over to her. Paige gets to keep certain antiques and wedding gifts. Mark gets to keep his home at 4133 Crisp Canyon Rd. in Sherman Oaks.
Both parties are ordered to not annoy, molest or harass the other.
1965
This year shows Mark has not been making his required alimony and lawyer’s fees since 1964.
1965-Marvin Michelson goes hard on Mark Segal this year. For every month Mark fails to make his monthly alimony payment to Paige and the lawyer’s fees, Michelson files a contempt suit in court.
And it turned out to be all 12 months.
More on this in the next chapter.
1950s #2 Diana Cotterell in the SFV. Grade School. Horses. Sepulveda Stables. Van Nuys Junior High. Donna V. Remarries. Grandfather Ned Dies. Updated 03/5/23
Posted on May 15, 2020
Diana should have started grade school in about 1950. It appears she lived in Gardena in 1950 per the 1950 census. It’s unknown where or if she started grade school in that community. See chapter 1950s #1.
Grandmother Virginia LaRocca is listed in an online Gardena 1951 phone directory as a Christian Science Practitioner, see below. Husband Joseph Ned is not listed. This is unusual after looking at decades of the couple linked. Had Ned already moved up to the SFV? Did the girls and Donna move with him or stay with Virginia another year in Gardena?
The family likely moved to 13055 Moorpark St in Studio City between 1953-1954.
Riverside Drive Elementary is located at 13061 Riverside Drive, very close to the Moorpark house.
If the Cotterell girls walked to school from their house on Moorpark, all they had to do was turn north on Ethel Ave., and it was a straight walk straight to the school. It would have taken only a few minutes.
There would have been no Ventura Freeway to walk under along the way. I think that came in 1959.
UPDATE 5-20-20 I found this article.
Both Dixie Canyon and Riverside Drive elementary schools are the same distance, .6 miles, to the Moorpark/Ethel house where Diana lived with her mother, sister and grandparents through much of the 1950s.
Diana was definitely at Dixie Canyon in the 6th grade as seen in the above article.
It can be confirmed that she attended Van Nuys Junior High for the 7th and 9th grades.
This photo below is one of the first articles I found that showed me Diana Cotterell and Paige Young were the same person.
1959 The above photo is from the Van Nuys Junior High yearbook. Diana Cotterell was in the 9th grade. Her grandfather Jospeh Ned LaRocca would die later that year. (separate post) I found these photos in the VNJH school library with the librarian standing over me as lunch was about to start. There were several yearbooks, more like paper notebooks, in a jumble. This was the only photo I could find of Diana on that day. I haven’t found a photo of her 8th grade year.
I have reason to believe that Diana Cotterell dropped out of school after the 9th grade.
Here is the photo in a larger context. Candy Conklin was a member of the Singing King family and performed with them at some point.
Many SFV schools had graduation ceremonies, mid June 1959, including Van Nuys Junior High shown in the 3rd column. Diana Lee Cotterell would have been among the graduates that day.
1953-1959 Like many kids living in 1950s San Fernando Valley, Diana Lee Cotterell is obsessed with horses according to her friend from junior high, Joan Edwards. Diana and Joan ride and board their horses at Sepulveda Stables, located at 5763 Sepulveda Blvd, on the corner of Hatteras.
Equestrian shows were held almost every weekend in the Los Angeles area in the 1950s.
There were commercial horse stables and riding trails all over the SFV in the 50s and 60s. In fact the whole area was known as still quite rural in the post-war era, even as the population exploded and the rural land was paved over.
In the 1950s of suburban/rural SFV, horse husbandry was considered a wholesome activity for youth and thought to produce responsible America citizens.
And probably most importantly, it would keep kids and teens busy and separated from the bad influences of “juvenile delinquency,” a growing social concern of the 1950s, all over America.
source: Making the San Fernando Valley: Rural Landscapes, Urban Development and White Privilege by Laura R. Barraclough
Diana owned a horse named Hamish from junior high, 1957-1959, to at least 1964 when she was married to Mark Segal and living at his house at 4133 Crisp Canyon Rd. .
Sepulvedastables.net is where I got much of this information and the website seems to have been removed. I spoke with the owner of the website a few years earlier who remembered Paige. This woman was 12 or 13 and Paige was probably 19 or 20 living with Mark Segal on Crisp Canyon Rd. which was located “south of the (Ventura) Blvd.” Paige invited this young girl up for lemonade to this address on Crisp Canyon Rd. (See chapters on Marriage and Divorce. 1963)
The future Mrs. John Huston and friend to Paige Young, Celeste Shane, (see chapters on her) also boards a horse at Sepulveda Stables in the early 1960s. So does actress Donna Reed and actress Jill St. John, who was a close friend of Celeste’s.
Donna Virginia LaRocca Cotterell marries John “Jack” Holroyd in Las Vegas on October 3, 1958, per online Vegas wedding records very difficult to decipher. Found on ancestry.com.
Patriarch Joseph Ned LaRocca dies of lung cancer towards the end of 1959.
LAT November 18, 1959.
Ned LaRocca’s grave is in Glen Haven Memorial Park in Sylmar.
Below are closeups of Ned LaRocca’s death certificate.
It looks like he spent about a year in a sanitarium located on Foothill Blvd. in the Tujunga/Sunland area. It was called “Lakeview Terrace Sanitarium” and the building was originally the home of silent film star Francis X. Bushman.
I have been unable to learn if this was specifically a Christian Science sanitarium, (his wife was a CSP) but I have learned that the Tujunga area was considered to have much cleaner air than other parts of the San Fernando Valley.
Note the name of last employer: Leith Stevens.
NEW
There was an obituary placed in Ned’s hometown of Peoria, Illinois upon his death. Recently posted to Find-a-grave, I will transcribe below.
Joe N. (Ned) LaRocca, a native Peorian like his brother Roxy LaRocca and a former Vaudeville star, died Sunday night at his home in Sherman Oaks, Calif. He had been in failing health a number of years and had suffered several strokes.
He was a music contractor for Columbia Broadcasting Co. in Hollywood for many years.
Mr. LaRocca, a harpist, appeared in vaudeville with the Young Sisters, Virginia and Josephine, and later married Virginia. They continued with their act until the birth of a child when Mr. LaRocca joined a brother, Paul LaRocca, now operator of a local barber shop, in a new stage act.
Later, he became associated with his brother Roxy in New York theatre appearances. After Roxy left on a European tour, Mr. LaRocca became associated with CBS Radio, an association that he continued until last summer when he retired due to bad health.
Born in July, 1894, in the house at 1411 Martin St., presently occupied by his brother Roxy, he was a son of Salvatore and Roseanne LaRocca. He and his wife have been married for 42 years. She survives, with a daughter Donna V., and two grandchildren, all of Sherman Oaks: his two brothers, Roxy and Paul: and a sister, Kathryn Marinello, of North Hollywood, Calif. Two other brothers, Nick and Frank, are deceased.
Funeral services and burial will be today in Sherman Oaks.
Peoria Illinois Star November 18, 1959
There are obvious discrepancies between the death cert. and the obit. “Died at home” in obit. instead of Lakeview Terrace Sanitarium, death cert. “Cancer of the lung” in death cert. vs. a “series of strokes,” as we see in the obit.
Joseph and Virginia Married in 1915 and then became a vaudeville act with Josephine. Not the order as described in the obit, which was likely written by Virginia or Donna V.
Ned Argo shown in the Edmonton Journal June 1919. Ned’s granddaughter Paige would memorably visit Edmonton 50 years later on behalf of Playboy. See chapter 1969 most popular year.
Paige Young in Los Angeles. 