Paige Young in Los AngelesPermanently Incomplete Character List. 10/19/2025
Posted on February 8, 2024
Originally part of the Start Here/About page.
As a Playboy Playmate, Paige Young experienced a minor type of celebrity status as opposed to what we think of as a Major Hollywood star. The Playmates special type of fame was at its’ highest when the issue was current. Within the same year I would say.
This type of fame Paige experienced lasted for a brief part of her short life.
She was, of course, an actual human being with a life and history besides her association with Playboy.
At times, Paige did associate with people who were 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 for decades with massive fame that continues outlives them. They are still talked about in 2025.
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.
More characters can be found in the chapter: Names Found in Paige’s Phone Book.
The men famous to a more niche audience includes
Peter Gowland, who you see at left.
Peter is the son of English film actor Gibson Gowland. And an LA native like Paige. Peter and his wife Alice ran a successful pinup and commercial photography business from the late 1940s through the 1990s.
They published dozens of books for the amateur photographer. Alice Gowland was the writer of the books and the business manager.
Paige Young was the team’s last contribution to Playboy magazine in 1968. Alice said she did not care for the more explicit direction of the magazine photographs.
Paige had modeled for Gowland years before Playboy I have learned through Richard Sample.
The only photos one can normally find on the internet of Paige Young, were taken by Peter or 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. He represented Michelle Triola Marvin in a financial claim against actor Lee Marvin.
Lee Marvin dumped live-in lover Michelle without a penny, or tried to. Marvin Mitchelson became famous representing her. 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. He dated Paige for a while according to his 1st wife Darlene Valentine, who also knew Paige.
Valentine died in February of 2022.
Michael Butler was listed in Paige’s phone book, of which I have seen a portion.
The names and numbers were written down by someone else. Butler was the producer of Hair the Broadway musical. He was also part of the Santa Barbara crowd that Desmond Guinness hung around when he was in town. (One time we know, Paige Young was along as his date.)
Paige Young and her family’s journey encompass both the industry and town of Hollywood. Their experience includes WW2 and post-war Los Angeles. Their/Her journey includes places like Franklin Hills and Gardena, San Fernando Valley in the 1950s, representing the prototypical suburban middle class existence for the nation. Malibu and Topanga Canyon, Venice Beach and Westwood, in the 1960s and 70s, and the scope of the Entertainment 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 firsthand sources. Several others refused to speak with me. I couldn’t locate some sources. 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.
1971-1973 #1. John Huston & Wives Ricki Soma & Celeste Shane. St. Clerans in Ireland. Hollywood Publicist Bill Gardner. LAT writer Jack Smith sees Huston, Hefner and “Unidentified Sex Object” at Trendy Backgammon Club. Westwood. Modeling. Celebrity Connections Update 5/13/2025. Long. SOME NSFW.
Posted on April 7, 2023
1972
Paige Young appears in the 1972 edition of Gowland’s Guide to Glamour PhotographY, Cover Below.
The photos were obviously taken during the Ridgid Calendar shoot, 4 years earlier.
. Peter Gowland is well-known to a niche audience.
The B&W photo from Gowland’s Guide to Glamour, is from the same photo session as the color one, used in the 69/70 Ridgid Tool calendar. So Paige wouldn’t be paid of course, for the ’72 appearance in the newly published book.
1971
Around this time, Paige moved into a carriage house in Westwood. It is still standing near UCLA and the Playboy Mansion.
1972/73 cont…
According to the Daily Mail report of 2014, Paige complains to neighbor Melanie, about 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
In case you don’t know, John Huston directed several classic movies including The Maltese Falcon, Key Largo, The Asphalt Jungle, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, African Queen, The Man Who Would Be King, The Misfits, Prizzi’s Honor, to mention only a few.
Despite his fame, few know that John Huston’s oeuvre as a director, actor, writer and narrator is vast.
“I know she dated Huston for a while and had just gotten back from a trip to Ireland with him.”
The “trip to Ireland” Melanie mentions, happened during the time that John Huston was married to Celeste Shane Huston.
Background
John Huston did live in ireland on an estate named St. Clerans, near Galway.
He lived there as often as possible from 1953 to 1975, when he wasn’t traveling around the world directing films.
Huston’s 4th wife Ricki Soma, located the estate and The couple moved in with their two young children, Anjelica and Tony.
Huston’s daughter, Oscar winning actress and director Anjelica, lived at St. Clerans as a child. She wrote about coming of age in Ireland as essentially Irish in culture, with two American parents.
Huston identified with being an Irishman and even became a citizen January of 1964.
He had long been disgusted with the investigations by the House on Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) during what is known as the “Communist witch hunts” era. Begining in 1947 and continuing throughout the 1950s.
From my source biography: Courage and Art by Jefferey Meyers.
Memoir about St.Clerans childhood.
Anjelica Huston’s memoir, describes her famous father and her relationship with him and his larger than life personality.
And her beautiful and artistic mother whose life ended tragically young.
A little background on Celeste Shane Huston.
John Huston marries Celeste Shane in 1972.
“Cici” grew up in a wealthy Beverly Hills family with three brothers. Her father owned a successful car leasing companies and rented out his yacht to celebrities like Frank Sinatra. (See chapter: The Shanes of Beverly Hills for more details.)
There are many stories about step-mother Cici in Anjelica Huston’s 2nd memoir Watch Me.
(Basically they got along.)
This was Huston’s 5th marriage and “CiCi’s” 2nd.
LAT June 22, 1958 Before John Huston and Wally Green, Celeste had a short lived marriage to Gene Shacove. Shacove was a prominent Hollywood hair stylist. He was an inspiration for the character of George in Shampoo, the classic Warren Beatty 1970s movie. I’ve also read Jay Sebring
The chapter “The Shanes of Beverly Hills” has more information about Celeste Shane Huston. It also explores her brother David Shane, a key player in Paige’s story.
After a Sexully-charged Courtship And honeymoon phase, John and CiCi’s marriage became strained in Ireland. 1972 continued.
Cici spent time living (visiting really) 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 Irish estate during this time span.
Cici was as out of place at St. Clerans as anyone could possibly be,” said John Huston remembering those days.
When Cici was asked she said “I wasn’t prepared for the eleven servants, the mistresses, Betty O’Kelly, Gladys.”
Ending Credits to Gladys Hill on the John Huston film Fat City 1972. Location filming in Stockton, California. Star Stacy Keach on street.
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.
Cici said of Gladys, “ I loved Gladys and hated her at the same time. She had too many people inside her. One day she’d get drunk and tell me everything and the next day she’d be awful..”
Betty O’Kelly was a close family friend and manager of the St. Clerans estate.
Tony Huston referred to her as “Dad’s hot water bottle.”
Cici said of Betty: “Betty O’Kelly was a terrible woman. She looked like an old leather shoe, a prune face, hard, nasty piece of work. But she was very loyal to John; she was in love with him.”
Both Betty and Gladys were completely devoted to John Huston for decades. They supported him in the running of his life.
Cici said while at St. Clerans, she observed several of the employees’ behavior and took a peek at the financial books. She concluded many 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 Huston biography Courage and Art by Jeffrey Myers.
Huston had often been absent over the years, busy directing films all over the globe. Money matters did not interest him.
He had a lax attitude about what his employees and assistants were doing with his money.
Cici wanted most of the staff fired but Huston refused.
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 encouraged Huston to sell St. Clerans to help cut down on his expenses.
This all created a lot of tension.
ZOE SALLIS
Another drama at St. Clerans was Cici’s anger about the visit of her husband’s young ex-and sometimes current mistress, Zoe Sallis.
The visit was ostensibly about bringing her young son fathered by John Huston: Danny.
Huston was still married to Ricki Soma at the time Danny was born.
Angelica Huston was about 11 years and said in her memoirs how it devastated her when she learned the news.
She quickly grew to love Danny.
Cici resented the monthly allowance (and breakfast in bed) afforded to Zoe.
Zoe Sallis said that Cici forbade Huston to cast her in the movie “The Man Who Would Be King,” filmed in 1975.
The part went to Shakira Caine, whose husband was co-leading man with Sean Connery.
Michael Caine and wife Shakira are seen on the set in Morocco. >>>>>>>>>>>
Zoe felt then, and still does, that this was a major missed opportunity for her potential career as an actress. (Sallis has a youtube channel)
Her blame on Cici is understandable but misplaced.
Huston could have pushed the issue to cast Zoe. I don’t think it was worth it to him, in that moment, to upset Cici and have her around when she was in a pissy, bitchy and jealous mood.
That’s how little he cared.
By 1975 the marriage was at its’ end.
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…THANK GOD I’m not madly in love or I would be destroyed by him as he’s done to these three I mentioned (Gladys, Betty and Zoe). Also, Eloise is another wreck of John’s, as well as the Italian countess (Valerica Alberti) and Tony’s poor mother! I can see it so clearly! He is the devil!”
It seems Eloise (another girlfriend) 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.
In a letter from CiCi to her parents from Courage and Art, Jeffrey Meyers.
According to biographer Meyers, Huston enjoyed women fighting over him. (as did Hugh Hefner)
insightful review of Courage & Art
by Todd McCarthy.
One could construct several categories for the women in Huston’s life. There were the quick conquests; as Celeste says, “John would screw anything that wasn’t nailed down.” Some of these were actresses, including Zita Johann, Mary Astor, Ava Gardner and Eiko Ando. He also had five wives: first sweetheart Dorothy Harvey, aristocratic Irish beauty Lesley Black, actress Evelyn Keyes and model/ballerina Ricki Soma (Anjelica’s mother) and then the wealthy, self-possessed Celeste. He was faithful to none of them and generally tired of them after a while, which runs contrary to his pattern with the women who make up a third category, the long-standing mistresses. With de Havilland, the refined and sophisticated Marietta FitzGerald Tree, French actress Suzanne Flon and Zoe Sallis, the mother of his son Danny, to name four of the most important of his long-term lovers, Huston conducted affairs that continued, on and off, across many years and marriages. He sired three children.
Illuminating this hitherto unexplored but obviously central aspect of Huston’s life helps Meyers round out a fuller portrait of the man than has previously been offered; he clearly conveys his subject’s allure, cruelty, intellectual thirst, game-playing, paradoxical emotional intensity and distance, callousness and egoism. Meyers does not mention it, but I always loved Orson Welles’ remark to the effect that his friend excelled at playing Mephistopheles to his own Faust. He was, indisputably, a complex figure, and Meyers catches that while also writing with evident haste.
From the Hollywood Reporter by Todd McCarthy. Nov. 2011
John and Cici left Ireland and returned to Cici’s house in the Pacific Palisades, at some point in 1973.
In this last full year of Paige Young’s life, I believe she continued her friendship with the Hustons.
John stayed on long enough in Ireland to film The Makintosh Man with Paul Newman, partly filmed in Ireland. (The duo had filmed Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean two years earlier.)
Huston cast a young Victoria Principal in a small role in Judge Roy Bean. She posed for Playboy during this time due to some contractual obligation as part of promoting the film. As I recall the photo spread is non-explicit.
John Huston finally threw in the towel over St. Clerans when he realized he could not afford the upkeep, large staff, Danny and Zoe, Allegra and Gladys.
The St. Clerans estate was sold sometime in 1973/4. John Huston did not completely vacate it until 1977, according to Celeste Shane Huston in an online response to me.
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.
Their divorce was finalized in 1977.
John Huston and Paige were both painters besides being horse lovers. These factors may have played a role in their “connection,” whatever it was.
Paige, John and Cici were all horse lovers and riders.
From what I’ve read in these bios, Huston had a mean-streak in his personality.
And when he unleashed the mean-streak, it was mostly aimed at the ones most likely to become upset over it.
In the Daily Mail article, Melanie tells of Huston hiding Paige’s shoes. “It really bothered her,” even though she knew “it was a little thing.”
I wrote that Cici Huston and Paige both boarded horses at Sepulveda Stables in Sherman Oaks. This I know because there was information and photos of on an alum website, no longer found.
Celeste facebook messaged me once that she was the one who introduced Paige to Sepulveda Stables. (No I do not have the emails saved, they were lost. Take my word for it or not.)
I had already learned that Paige boarded her horses at the stables located at Sepulveda Blvd. & Hatteras, in Sherman Oaks, by the time I read Cici’s message.
Paige had boarded a horse at the stables since grade school age when she was known as Diana Cotterell. (See related chapters)
“Diana Cotterell,” gave 2 school photos to the owners of the stables. These photos 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.
That would mean Cici knew Paige as Diana in grade school.
I find this unlikely. She gave no sign she ever knew her as a child named Diana.
Diana changed her name sometime between the ages of 16-18, to Paige Young.
Paige was tight-lipped about her past I have been told by 3 sources.
She was also quiet about any future plans. She was “more focused on the present moment,” said to me by her good friend Veronica.
Richard Sample to me, said Paige never talked about her past or childhood.
Cici, in the early 1960s, along with actresses Donna Reed and the aforementioned Jill St. John, boarded horses at Sepulveda Stables according to the website.
(Maybe Paige and CiCi met in the early 1960s, but not before.)
Cici in a facebook message exchage with me
denied that Huston and Paige had an “affair.”
And that she and John Huston “we were only trying to help Paige” (Presumably, due to Paige’s emotional troubles that resulted in a suicide.)
She wrote that “2 prominent lawyers.” connected to show business purchased Paige’s ticket to Ireland for the visit. Paul Caruso was one.
Bill Gardner
A visitor to St. Clerans during these few months of John and Cici’s Ireland honeymoon was Bill Gardner.
Here is a photo of Bill and Cici posted by Bill to his Instagram account.
- 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. (from Bill’s social media.)
This is the same Bill Gardner from the Pasadena Art Museum chapter.
Another connection with Celeste Huston to Paige Young. And he was another horse lover.
The following paragraph is what Bill wrote 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 linked to Paige Young.
Cici Huston wrote a nice compliment on Gardner’s Amazon author page.
Legendary LAT columnist Jack Smith sees Huston and Hefner and an “unidentified sex object,” possibly Paige Young, present 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 column:
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 time frame coincides with the years that Paige was hanging out at the Playboy mansion “scene,” on an occasional, if not regular basis.
Paige was seen at the Playboy mansion near the end of her life. In fact, weeks away from. This is recounted by neighbor Melanie Myers, who herself was invited to and attended a party the Mansion. Melanie talks about this in Secrets of Playboy documentary, episode 8 and to me personally.
Paige attended with BJ Royale, neighbor in Westwood.
More about John Huston ahead.
Chinatown was a major hit movie and an instant classic. It was released June 20, 1974 about 2 1/2 months after Paige Young’s suicide
NSFW
It looks like Paige was still modeling in the early 1970s.
However it’s the only modeling I’ve found since the Playboy years.
She appears in some Electrochemical Company photographs, credited to Peter Gowland,probably taken in 1972 or 73.
Maybe used in gift calendars for clients? I’m not certain.
They are rare.
I suspect Gowland had Paige in mind at once, for this assignment.
He knew Paige needed the paycheck and that she would be willing to pose topless or nude.
Obviously quite tame by today’s standards but still NSFW.
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. 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 model or “girl.”
I recognized Paige and informed the seller.
Los Angeles Mormon Temple with Angel Moroni lording over the Westwood neighborhood where Paige Young lived and died. Her friend Veronika remembered this landmark statue near Paige’s carriage house.
END
What is the connection with Desmond Guinness (see related chapters) and John Huston?
Paige Young was acquainted with both men, and she was friends with Huston’s 5th wife Celeste Shane Huston.
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.
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 with eager hosts when he visited Los Angeles and Santa Barbara.
John Huston in his bedroom St. Clerans, his Georgian Mansion.
More on Anjelica Huston’s mother Ricki Soma.
Enrica Soma was the 4th wife of director John Huston and mother of actress Anjelica. Here she appears on the cover of Life Magazine by Philippe Halsman.
Because of the attention Ricki received from the Life Magazine cover, she was pondering a possible movie career.
was photographed with Marilyn Monroe and others starlets as “up and coming” actresses.
John Huston came into her life and pretty quickly she abandoned that idea. I’ve read it was after see her Life cover.
Ricki married Huston and had 2 children. She devoted her life to John, Anjelica, and Tony.
She earned a reputation for her naturally exquisite taste in decorating and was collecting unusual antiques and wearing exotic “bohemian” clothing years before it was the popular thing to do.
Basically, she was a trend setter who didn’t get much recognition for it when she was alive. (Much like Brooke Hayward Hopper, and Marina Guinness)
Ricki became a “Wife #1“at St. Clerans when Huston invited his mistresses or girlfriends for a visit. Or they dropped in unannounced.
She tolerated it for a long time.
But Huston’s girlfriends and his lack of interest in her, finally pushed Ricki past her limit. She moved to London in 1960.
Ricki gave birth to a baby girl in 1964 named Allegra whose father is John Julius Cooper, an Englishman who inherited the title Viscount Norwich upon his father’s death in 1954.
Ricki remained married to John Huston from 1950 until her untimely death in a car accident in 1969.
John Huston adopted Allegra after this tragedy and financially supported her for a long time. I have read that John Julius Cooper and his wife were willing to raise Allegra despite the social scandal and gossip it would cause. (But I’m not sure.)
And I’m not sure Huston was any more attentive to Allegra as a child than he was to Angelica and Tony.
I need to research this aspect more deeply.
Allegra wrote a memoir: Love Child.
Anjelica and half-sister Allegra are very close as are Anjelica and half-brother Danny Huston. I don’t know about Tony Huston.
Anjelica wrote in her memoirs that she and “full” brother Tony were very different from each other and not close siblings growing up.
Paige Young in Los Angeles
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Meet Artist & Paige Young Friend Richard Sample. 1964-1969. Malibu. Venice. Celebrity Connections. Cult Characters. PART 1. Under Construction. Long. 2/12/2025
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. He took the time and effort to talk about Paige Young. It was not always easy for him (or me).
Thanks also to his niece Ellen (Ellie) Sample who has been insightful and supportive.
At the appointed time, I pulled up in my rental car and parked next to Richard’s house. There was a chainlink fence and gate that had a big padlock on it and the house was about 10 yards beyond it; I called out his name several times and did not get a response.
Luckily, Richard’s niece Ellie pulled up in her car, got out and told me Richard’s neighbor had called and told her that “there is woman in a red car in front of her Uncle Richard’s house.”
Ellie unlocked the gate and as we walked toward the house, she told me that Richard doesn’t hear very well now.
Ellie said that she was aware of the interview, but “didn’t ask him any questions so that he feels he has his own life.” Ellie lives one street over and has been very involved with caring for Richard since he moved to the area.
Richard warmly greeted me with a hug as did his dog Tolly. Ellie left us to the interview.
Richard Sample gave me permission to quote him in my article.
After we sat down to talk, Sample said to me:
“In 2001 I got throat cancer. I got radiation that burned the lining of my throat and my whole body. I also had a surgery and they cut my throat, it left me hard to talk, hard to drink, hard to eat… I am dying.”
Richard Sample is now 84 years old and does not hear too well or speak easily. I strained to hear his whisper of a raspy voice. I tried to understand what he was saying, but I didn’t always understand right away. I got better at understanding him as our conversation got going.
I will say Richard and I didn’t exactly have a normal flowing conversation. It was more of a question and answer session. Mostly the answers Richard gave took him a long time to say. I also got to know him as a person and shared my journey with researching Paige’s story.
This chapter will be a mixture of exact quotes from my tape recorder and hand written notes.
Background of Richard Sample and his connection to Los Angeles.
His father was Charles “Charlie” Sample, well known artist and metal smith, eccentric Los Angeles (and other parts of California) character.
Richard was born in Huntington Beach in 1936, 3 years after his parents married.
“My father (Charlie Sample) was a famous gold and silver smith. He made silver spurs for $8000. He also made belt buckles and horse saddles for Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, John Wayne, Mae West, Tim Holt,” said Richard.
Richard showed me a recent catalog for a company producing artistic, high quality western gear: Bohlin.
It featured Charlie Sample designs by name.
Horse saddles, bridles, spurs, belt buckles, bolo ties, rings, bracelets etc.
Richard’s mother, the former Virginia Smith, was one of about 8 women that modeled for the Columbia Pictures symbol.
His parents divorced when Richard was young and his mother remarried and had more children. Charlie moved on and did not see Richard for a while. Charlie had more marriages and children too.
Richard was upset and angry about his parents’ divorce. He “acted out negatively,” according to a relative I messaged on ancestry.com.
Father metalsmith artist Charlie Sample mentioned. LAT Jan. 18, 1937
News articles indicate that Richard’s
“negative acting out” included being on the wrong side of the law.
. At some point after this Richard was tried and sent to prison at California Medical Facility in Vacaville California.
San Bernardino County Sun Feb. 29, 1960
Richard and Paige got together after the end of his relationship with Sylvia Nicolosi shown above.
Sylvia is the daughter of famed LA based sculptor Joseph Nicolosi. She was one of three sisters.
I found several articles about her, she usually went by the name Maria.
Richard said he was in the military in the 1960s but “never made it to Vietnam, just Ft. Bragg North, Carolina.” He then showed me his military ID.
When our interview began, Richard was excited to tell me about aspects of Paige’s personality and character.
“Paige lived in a converted chicken coop on the edge of Malibu.“
Richard doesn’t remember which edge. (I’m confident it was the Topanga Canyon area or closeby.)
“For a dinner party, Paige had a different chair for each guest to use, not a matching (dining) set.”
“She would only eat salad if it was a day old.”
“I never saw Paige with shoes on.” (see chapter 1970 Warhol, Paige appears with her date at the Pasadena Art Museum Warhol opening and is photographed wearing a ankle length Rudi Gernreich dress barefoot. This is described by the reporter.)
“She is the only person I’ve ever known who ate ice cream with a fork,”
At the end of Richard and Paige’s first date….coming soon.
I asked about Hamish, the horse she had owned since junior high and still had in late 1964 according to her divorce filing. Richard responded she did not keep a horse in Malibu that he knew of. (Malibu is a town with a history of horse and stable owners and dedicated riders)
Paige would often strip down to her underwear and “run around topless or even nude.” Confirmed. Westwood neighbor Melanie told me that Paige often walked around nude in the shared backyard. It got on her nerves. Paige’s nudity was also described to me by Malibu friend Veronica.
When Richard met Paige
Paige was “going with a man named Harry Gesner.“
“He was an architect who designed the Cooper 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,” said Richard
“Ravick sent Gesner and Paige to my studio in Malibu, to see my art.”
“This is how I met Paige.”
Eleven months ago, the world got a little duller with the passing of Malibu architect Harry Gesner at the age of 97. To say Gesner led a full life would be putting it mildly; the word “epic” might be more apt. Born in Oxnard to an engineer father and an artist mother, he learned to fly a plane at 14, stormed the beach at Normandy aged 19, worked as a waterski instructor in Lake Arrowhead, turned down an invitation from Frank Lloyd Wright to study at Taliesin in favor of being a tomb raider in Ecuador, squired models and actresses, fraternized with Errol Flynn and Marlon Brando, collected fancy sports cars, including a 1957 Mercedes 190SL convertible that he adapted to be all-electric, and surfed every day into his late ’80s
Pauline O’Connor DIRT, a magazine about real estate. June 1, 2023. Dirt is now called The Robb Report.
Paige Young was one of the models Harry squired.
Notice the names above. Edward Ravick being one. Before I saw the above pamphlet on ebay, Richard had told me about the buyers of his art: Vincent Price, Elaine de Kooning, and Harry Gesner, spelled incorrectly here, had purchased his art. Edward Ravick is also listed as a buyer.
This confirms Richard’s comments to me using all these names was the truth.
Elaine De Kooning attended the prison art exhibits that Richard participated in during his prison stint. Documented in newspapers.
I have found two mentions in an online Malibu newspaper on but not “saveable.” There was an Edward Ravick mentioned in a Malibu paper connected to real estate in the 1960s.
Jonathan Winters
I first contacted Richard by old school letter writing as there was no phone number for him that worked.
In that letter, I asked him if he knew of a connection with Paige and comedian-actor legend Jonathan Winters.
Early on in our interview, Richard asked why I wrote him asking about Winters.
I told him about the many newspaper interviews with Paige, I found from 1969 as she was traveling to promote Playboy After Dark.
In a few or the articles, it says Paige “appeared in many skits on The Jonathan Winters Show.”
(See my chapter on Paige’s Most Public Year 1969).
I then asked Richard why he called Jonathan Winters an “asshole” in his letter back to me.
His answer:
“Dennis, (does not remember his last name) was the owner of the Golden O Gallery, in Los Alamos, he told me that Jonathan Winters used to come and sit on the sidewalk at Dennis’ gallery and talk about Paige, and he had nothing good to say, it was always nasty or negative. I never met the man, but Dennis could tell you all about it. Richard added that Dennis never met Paige, but he “did know about her.”
Presumably because of Jonathan Winters.
He said he wasn’t aware of her appearing on the show during its run from 1967-1969.
He said it is a possibility that she did and he didn’t know about it.
Richard said that Paige never said anything about Jonathan Winters when they were together.
Winters was serious about his painting hobby.
He published a book of his paintings, Hangups.
For many years Winters resided at least part time in Montecito, which is quite close to the town of Los Alamos.
Bill Cosby
was a frequent visitor and performer at many Playboy Clubs in the 60s 70s and maybe even beyond. He was a close friend to Hugh Hefner during those years.
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 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 told me in a Facebook exchange, which I no longer have, that Bill paid for Paige’s art lessons. She mentioned having lunch with Bill and Paige (and her husband John Huston) at the studio where he was filming in the early 70s.
Melanie is the only one of these people to have spoken out publicly about the day of Paige’s suicide.
“She was a good person. I really miss her.” Richard said about Paige a few times that afternoon.
More Background
Richard Sample moved to Venice Beach around 1967. He was motivated by the thriving art scene which was becoming more well-known on a national level. At least for those who paid attention to the Art scene.
His father Charlie Sample was already working and living in a Venice studio.
Darlene Valentine remembers Charlie as a landlord of sorts at the Venice Beach studios rented by DeWain Valentine, Richard Sample and Paige Young.
Richard got a studio for himself through his dad and Paige through her connection to Richard.
“Paige liked my father, he made some jewelry for her.”
Paige joined Richard not too long after he moved to Venice Beach. He said he invited her and was thrilled that she moved in.
Records show that Richard was married in 1968 and not to Paige Young. His niece Ellie says Richard actually “leased” the Venice studio to Paige.
I asked Richard if he encountered any of the many artists who became famous out of the Venice Beach art scene (that started in the 1950s with “The 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 ask about Irwin and Ruscha but Richard did not recognize those names.)
“We (Paige and I) all used to hang out a lot, with all these (Venice artists) at Barney’s Beanery.”
After I returned from my trip, I did some research and I found quotes from Bell and Valentine in Art magazines.
There were a 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.
I spoke with Darlene Valentine, the first Mrs. Valentine. When she, her husband and children moved to Venice, California in 1965, they found the studio on Market St.
She remembers him being and eccentric character and a funny man. “You were not supposed to live in the studio, (only practice your art), but many did anyway.”
Cars
Paige owned a yellow Mustang, and Richard owned a red Corvette.
“A guy named Rex Ramsey stole our cars, but Paige got them back.”
Before the interview, I already knew about Rex Ramsey; he’s connected to Mark F. Segal, through renting Segal’s (where Paige lived as his wife in 1963 and 64) house at 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 Disney hit The Love Bug.
Rex Ramsey told me Mark’s family had a series of car dealerships and a towing service business. “They were quite well off,” Ramsey said. Otherwise he said he did not remember Paige Young but maybe he would later. I haven’t been able to reach him since the second phone call when he was unable to talk with me.
Richard shows me a picture of himself decked out head to toe in animal fur, looking like mountain man Jedidiah Smith.
Richard and his father were both quite handsome.
He says that “unfortunately” he has no photos of Paige or paintings by her; he has lost a lot of his possessions and paintings over the years but he is hoping to retrieve some of Paige’s paintings in Santa Maria.
“I never knew Paige to be involved with drugs, except an occasional use of grass.” Richard said that she did sometimes drink alcohol and occasionally “went to clubs in the Marina.”
Richard Sample
And possibly the Raincheck Room per Larry Bell’s quote. And definitely Barney’s Beanery.
After I asked about something else and not hearing my question, Richard said “Paige was basically a very good person, until she got mixed up with Hefner. She went downhill then.”
Lewis Beach Marvin 3rd
was born into the family, “who owned Green Stamps. He was a friend of Paige’s and mine. He introduced me to Robert Carl Cohen who put a lot of my sculptures in his movie Mondo Hollywood.“
Lewis Beach Marvin and the amazing dwelling he put together in the hills of Malibu, is featured in Mondo Hollywood. The movie is a cult film known as an important document of counterculture LA/1960s history.
I did some research and one story says that Lewis Beach Marvin is the young man who gives Jim Morrison a lamb on stage in Miami on May 1st 1969. This can be seen on a video. It’s the concert that resulted in Morrison’s arrest due to allegedly exposing his penis on stage.
Lewis Beach Marvin was a vegan activist WAY before it was a “thing.”
He does appear in a Miami article with a lamb around the time of the Doors concert.I have also read a local Miami man gave Morrison the lamb.
The Miami arrest hanging over his head is supposedly one reason Jim Morrison left for Paris where he fatally overdosed on heroin. He was already in bad health due to alcohol abuse.
Shortly after I returned from California, I 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..
According to Richard:
Peter Gowland Playboy and Glamour Photographer
and Paige had met a few years before her appearance as a Playboy centerfold. Paige had already modeled for Gowland several times. This checks out with a few pre-centerfold photos of Paige taken by Gowland. These can be found on the internet.
Peter Gowland is the one who suggested and encouraged Paige to try out for Playboy; he submitted her photos as she recounted in 1969 to newspaper reporters.
I knew Paige mentioned in a few 1969 interviews that “my photographer friend suggested” the idea and he submitted her photos to Playboy. I did not previously mention this to Richard.
Gowland called Richard, in 1974, looking for Paige because he hadn’t heard from or seen her for a while. He called Richard back some time later to tell him that Paige had committed suicide. Peter did not tell Richard the method that Paige used to kill herself, Sample said to me.
Sample is quoted in Daily Mail story as saying he was told by Gowland that it was an overdose.
Richard says he opened Eros Gallery in Westwood in the late 60s.
He can’t remember the location beyond that.
The next several photos are from Playboy magazine November 1968, taken by Peter Gowland.
Richard and I went through them .
Richard said this photo above shows him helping Paige carry one of her paintings into his Eros Gallery.
Richard says the seated woman on the left is “Mrs. Burke, my partner in Eros Gallery.” Mrs. Burke was a local patroness of the Arts. He said that Peter Gowland is the man in between Mrs. Burke and Paige.
He may be mistaken, if it is Gowland, I don’t know who took the shot. Richard said Peter’s wife, who is the co-owner of their photography business, Alice Gowland was not there that day.
Richard said never met her.
According to Richard, this photo of Paige running with her dog Joshua was taken at the Malibu Colony.
Richard said he has no idea who any of these people are at the cookout or in the room with Paige painting. He doesn’t recognize the location. These may or may not be real friends of Paige’s.
Sometimes young people were hired to stand in as “friends” for a Playboy centerfold shoot. Connie Kreski is one.
Richard said that when he was living with Paige he “never questioned where she was going, what she was doing” or with “whom she was doing it.”
“And she never questioned me. That is just the way the relationship was.”
Malibu fire
“Me and Harry Gesner went to Paige’s house during the Malibu fire (he’s not sure which year in the 1960s.) and hosed everything down. Paige’s house didn’t burn but everything around it did.”
I then asked a couple of questions about Paige’s family.
Was there ever an indication that Paige had grown up with a grandmother (Virginia Young LaRocca) who was a Christian Science practitioner/ 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. She never mentioned her family. He did not know that her birth name was Diana Cotterell or that she was married to Mark F. Segal. She never said she used Marvin Mitchelson as her lawyer, Richard had never heard of Mitchelson anyway.
Richard said he met Paige’s sister (Constance/Connie) one time only, when Paige drove him to a visit with her. He said he doesn’t “think that they had a close relationship.”
Richard looked quite exhausted so I ended the interview for the day. I felt bad about telling him too much of Paige’s background that he never knew.
He said it didn’t bother him.
He shared one last thing:
“I introduced Paige to Tony Dow, a good friend of mine. He drove a Porsche. He liked my Vette. He lived in the Valley. “
And Tony purchased some of Richard’s art .
Tony Dow died July 27, 2022, one month and 2 days after Harry Gesner‘s death.
Dow was 77 years old and experienced decades of pursuing his passion of creating sculpture. He had a long and happy 2nd marriage to Lauren.
From an interview with Richard: The Boise Weekly, where Richard was living Early 2007.
After parting ways with Maria Nicolosi, Sample married 1969 Playboy Playmate Paige Young who later died at her L.A home of a sleeping pill overdose. An artist in her own right, Young’s impressionistic portrait of Sample hangs in Gallery 8.
Sample was born on Friday the 13th of November 1936, a “triple Scorpio” by astrological accounts. “I have my Sun, Moon and Mercury in Scorpio,” he says, which may explain his resourcefulness and intensity. The legend of Scorpio tells of a scorpion sent by the immortal huntress Artemis to slay Orion, the great hunter. Scorpio, ever resourceful, fulfilled the deed for the goddess and was given a place in the night sky as his reward.
“I may not be a famous artist, but I am a successful one,” Sample said. And prolific. To date, he has completed and sold 2,761 paintings and is currently at work on six more.
The following is the Entire interview with Richard Sample when he still lived in Idaho and opened a gallery in a storage unit.
Just across the highway from the airport in Hailey, where Gulf Stream jets blast off regularly, lies the South Wood Self Storage Facility. Row upon row of identical containers are filled with furnishings and cargo, all except for locker No. 8, otherwise known as “Gallery 8,” a space used by artist Richard Lauran Sample. Above the door reads a sign: “Art Patrons Association of Idaho,” which Sample refers to as “a group dedicated to the arts, music and literature.” Just inside is the face of the Beatles’ Eleanor Rigby, “… wearing a face that she keeps in a jar by the door.” A cat named Turpentine studies the ghost-like face in a jar and then ranges freely through the menagerie of paintings and sculptures by Sample that fill Gallery 8: abstracts, Westerns and magical realism paintings, canvases of Batman and numerous other examples of skilled craftsmanship and determined artistic vision. There is an unfinished ivory-handled knife, a tidy collection of cobalt blue glassware and a series of clocks marking time at various Air Force bases across the United States, including Area 51. Gallery 8 is a long way from the Bel-Air, Calif., mansion Sample once called home.
Ever since Sample’s mother, Virginia, posed for the Columbia Pictures torch lady painting, Sample has lived in and around the glamour of Hollywood. During the 1960s, he was featured on several television shows, including the Jack Bailey show Queen for a Day, on which lucky American housewives were given makeovers and European vacations. “I sold 75 pieces from [the notoriety of] that show,” he recalls. Over the years, people like Raymond Burr, Edgar G. Robinson, and Tony Dow of Leave it to Beaver fame have purchased Sample’s work. “I traded one of my Castle paintings to Hollywood stunt man Charlie Wilcox—a family friend who worked on the movie Ben Hur and also did stunt work on The Creature from the Black Lagoon—for a small Picasso in the 1970s,” says Sample. “I should have held onto the Picasso.”
Today, Sample’s studio contains 108 paintings, all of which he has produced within the last year, while restoring antique oil paintings and repairing artwork in the Sun Valley area to make ends meet.
“I paint fast,” he says. “I’m an insomniac, so I rest. I don’t sleep. I’ll lie down on that couch there and have dreams and visions.” Like Salvador Dali, who also experimented with the state between wakefulness and dreaming, Sample creates surrealist landscapes. His are populated with the artifacts of his youth spent in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri, where he pumped water from a well and milked 13 cows each day before walking to school. For sustenance, he hunted and fished the nearby James River, named after Jesse James. During a stint as a ranger in the U.S. Army’s Third Missile Command, Sample was part of a three-man team that fired the 32-foot-long Honest John Rocket.
“It was fully manual'” he says. “We could hit a moving tank at 15 miles.” He also painted mess halls in the military.
Sample’s surrealism features whisky jugs and mushrooms, mechanical parts and hillside shacks. A recent work, “Lunar Reactor,” has taken hillbilly motifs and expanded them upon the cosmos. The oil painting shines under several coats of deep varnish that the artist has poured over sections of the piece. “When I am finished, there will be a three-dimensional effect. You will be able to see around the individual brush strokes.”
A similar fascination with technique developed some years ago into Sample’s black and white “Castle Paintings,” which he describes as “oil etchings.” These medieval ramparts above calm rivers are painted using brushes only a few hairs thick with paint strokes made in exactly five directions, similar to the etching procedure used in the production of the U.S. dollar bill.
Sample worked alongside his father at many trades during his youth: making trick poker tables, saddles, doing bronze work and cabinetry. The father and son also ran the West Coast Mint, pounding out thousands of custom bronze medallions under a 350-ton die press, including one of a farm field with a rocket ship commemorating the POMO Air Force Installation in California. They later built a bronze foundry in Pasa Robles from the ground up, which would reconstruct Remington sculptures to exact specifications. An accomplished gunsmith and saddle-maker, Charles Sample designed and built the spectacular silver saddles used in the Pasadena Rose Bowl New Year’s Day Parade. He also introduced his son to the magic and glamour of Hollywood.
“My father made a solid silver telephone and platinum garter clips for Mae West,” Sample says. “She tried to give him a Deusenberg, but he turned her down because the car didn’t have a spare tire.” Sample worked extensively for movie star Bo Derek and made gold leaf and wooden jewelry for Willem de Kooning’s wife, Elaine. De Kooning collected Sample’s work and corresponded with him for some time in letters. Sample keeps the correspondences in boxes with color snapshots and other personal memorabilia. One photo from 1973 was taken at the Marion Davies Mansion in Bel-Air. In it, Sample stands beside a gingerbread castle he made for the Christmas/birthday party of Charlton Heston.
“I put 7,000 pieces of candy in that cake,” he recalls. Nearby stands J. Paul Getty and Sample’s one-time paramour, Maria Nicolosi.
Sample reminisces about the life he shared with Nicolosi for seven years in the mansion, which was built by William Randolph Hearst for his lover, silent film star Marion Davies.
“The place was unbelievable,” he recalls. “It had every tropical tree you could imagine. They used to shoot Tarzan movies in the back yard. There were waterfalls and caves. The swimming pool was the largest in the United States and ran like a snake through the property. Vincent Price collected my paintings. He would stop in from across the street and have tea with us.”
According to Sample, the patriarch of the Nicolosi clan, sculptor Joseph Nicolosi, an artist of international significance, held a 50 percent interest in the Park Plaza Hotel in New York City. He had passed away before Sample took up residence in the mansion with his daughter.
After parting ways with Maria Nicolosi, Sample married 1969 Playboy Playmate Paige Young who later died at her L.A home of a sleeping pill overdose. An artist in her own right, Young’s impressionistic portrait of Sample hangs in Gallery 8. (Richard married Daryl if you remember, in 1968. The stayed married for a few years.)
Sample was born on Friday the 13th of November 1936, a “triple Scorpio” by astrological accounts. “I have my Sun, Moon and Mercury in Scorpio,” he says, which may explain his resourcefulness and intensity. The legend of Scorpio tells of a scorpion sent by the immortal huntress Artemis to slay Orion, the great hunter. Scorpio, ever resourceful, fulfilled the deed for the goddess and was given a place in the night sky as his reward.
“I may not be a famous artist, but I am a successful one,” Sample said. And prolific. To date, he has completed and sold 2,761 paintings and is currently at work on six more.
Sample also inherited a collection of books from his father published by the “photographer on horseback,” L.A. Huffman, who traveled the West in the 1870s. A book of glass plate prints and accompanying stories have provided the heart of Sample’s work for many years. He renders the photographs in sepia-toned oils. “There is a story behind every one of these paintings,” he points out. One is of a prairie Indian burial on stilts, entitled “Spirit Poles.” Another represents a self-portrait of Huffman, painted, as they all are, on maximum density particle board, which Sample says will never warp or bend. “These will last a thousand years,” he says. “You can wash them with soap and water.”
His decision to work in “permanence” came after working in the art of restoration at the L.A. County Art Museum, where several of his cardboard collages were hung in the 1960s.
“I’m self-taught,” he explains, while extolling the virtues of Ralph Mayer’s The Artist’s Handbook of Materials and Techniques.
“I have had three copies of this book over the years. It is the best book ever written for artists wanting to learn. It has taught me permanence. It continues to teach me the chemistry and permanence of paint,” he says.
Sample proudly displays a diploma for an Honorary Doctorate in the Arts from California’s Polytechnic State University, which he earned after completing a rigorous examination on his knowledge of things such as paint chemistry.
Yet Sample’s interests and talents range far beyond the fine arts and include herbology, anthropology, astrology and rock-collecting, to name a few. Against one wall, beside a tableau of religious icons and tribal mementos, is a case filled with meteorites.
Among the artifacts Sample has collected as an amateur archeologist are two nearly perfectly round black stones he found in a dried river bottom near Shoshone. He explains that the natives used them as weapons at one time, bound in hard leather at the end of a battle axe. Sample is incorporating each of the balls into meter-high white plaster abstract sculptures that will resonate with deep history and contemporary sculptural forms. “I also practice Tai Chi and read quantum physics,” he says, “including just about anything Albert Einstein wrote.”
Sample’s studies in physics pertain to certain technical projects he plans to undertake with the U.S. military, projects he would rather not discuss publicly. Relying on friends from NASA, he has plans to install a live video feed of nearby heavenly bodies to a televison set in his studio in the near future.
Even in Idaho, where he continues restoration, cabinetry and painting projects for actors Bruce Willis, John Larroquette and others, Sample still has the occasional brush with fame.
“One night at my brother Bill’s, Muffet Hemingway,” who is Margaux Hemingway’s sister, Joan, “came driving straight across the yard and right over the Christmas tree,” Sample says. “Muffet walked into the house and started munching on a crab leg, waved to herself in the glass window and then got into her car and drove away back across the yard. My brother came out and said, ‘Who’s the chick grazin’ in the kitchen?'”
Sample will auction off some of his work in spring of 2008 and give 15 percent of the proceeds to the Parkinson’s Foundation. “All of these 108 paintings will be sold in two days,” he says. “The last show I had, 1,500 people showed up at the Sage Brush Arena in Hailey. My place is always open to students and lovers of art,” he says.
Paige Young In Art and On Merchandise. Paintings By Paige Young. Never seen before and Rare Images. Several NSFW.
Posted on December 19, 2020
Please note many images will be NSFW
I found the next 4 slides on ebay.
The seller had purchased a batch of slides through an auction.
A handful were labeled (as taken by) Peter Gowland.
I looked through the lot on Ebay and recognized Paige in a handful of the many slides of topless or naked women.
There are very few images of Paige in circulation that weren’t take by Peter and sometimes his partner, wife Alice Gowland.
She did most of her modeling work with the couple or Peter alone.
I was interested only in Paige’s photos of course, but had to buy the whole lot. Now I own several slides of naked and topless unknown women.
I wish I had a few non-nude-modeling images of Paige. Especially the kind taken in a natural environment by family or friends.
Gowland took several non-nude photos of Paige modeling the current fashions of the day.
Never used in US Playboy magazine.
NSFW
Location is the Gowland’s Property in Rustic Canyon?
Image #1 would be an immediate reject. In fact all of them and the whole lot are rejects and that’s how the slides got on the market, probably.
Thank you for restoring and scanning the slides to: glamourphotographers.yolasite.com
Rosler created a series of collages appropriating images of Playmates from the late 1960s. Rosler used this image of Paige from the January 1969 issue. Original image seen in chapter Playboy 1969.
Mel Ramos. Pop artist known for appropriating images of Playboy Playmates intertwined or wrapped up in, consumer objects.
A cigar is just a cigar?
Ramos’ rendition of Paige Young’s face is a spot-on likeness. Her breast size is not, it’s greatly exaggerated.
The unique stone pattern of Gowland’s swimming pool was used for numerous photos in his photography instruction books over the decades. So was the green rug.
Cover of Playboy magazine in which Paige appeared as Playmate of the month November 1968.
She did not appear on the the cover of “her” issue as some Playmates did. A Femlin touting the election instead.
Party Joke page Femlin character by LeRoy Neiman, she appeared in sculpted clay model form a few times as we see in November of 1968, election month between Hubert Humphrey and Richard Nixon. I remember in El Paso finding out at school that Nixon had won.
Playmate Puzzles
LA based author Duke Haney told me about the history of Playmate puzzles.
Playmate Puzzles
were a series. One of them included the centerfold image of Paige Young. Look on ebay and there are several examples.
Duke Haney wrote to me:
“The successful Playmate puzzle series was released periodically, in groups of 4 Playmates at a time. Paige’s group included Cynthia Myers, Gwen Wong and DeDe Lind. It was released in 70/71.”
Haney describes the lid of the Playmate puzzle.
“The mini-centerfold measures 3×6.5 and two were included with every puzzle. One was folded so that only the face of the girl was visible through the opaque cap on the can. This was so that the buyer knew which puzzle it was, which Playmate. There are four pictured on the can itself. Then there was another mini-centerfold inside the can. This one wasn’t creased like the one below the lid. These pictures were guides to be referenced while piecing together the puzzle. Only one would have been necessary but hey…”
Author Duke Haney
Haney says Playmates “never received residuals, Playboy owned the photos outright.” And that “The last of the puzzles were released in 1973, so Paige would have certainly been alive when her puzzle was released.”
Thank you Duke Haney for speaking with me, I really appreciate it!
*NOTE* All the images of Paige’s paintings that follow were publicly posted on Pinterest and/or Facebook.
The Laundress
Painting by Paige Young courtesy of Melanie Myers. Myers said that Paige “was a true artist who stretched her own canvases and mixed her own paint.”
Thank you for contacting me S.D. with this information.
Paige’s lawyer was celebrity lawyer Marvin M. Mitchelson of Beverly Hills.
Please Read corresponding chapter about him.
PETER GOWLAND’S GIRLS exhibit and book curated by Thom Schrimbock 2016. German published and exhibited.
To mark the 100th birthday of Peter Gowland ZEPHYR – Space for Photography in Mannheim & Reiss-Engelhorn Museums curated “Peter Gowland’s Girls,” the first international exhibition of his lifework. “Peter Gowland’s Girls” showcases some 200 works selected from Peter Gowland’s estate, which comprises tens of thousands of superb prints and slides, including the most sensational, most elegant and most daring pictures from his unparalleled career as a pin-up photographer. The exhibition displays his portraits of stars like Joan Collins and Jayne Mansfield, his work for “Playboy” and “Rolling Stone”, and his pictures for innumerable calendars and magazines from the 1940s to the 1970s.
from petergowlandphotography.com
Photo below is from my copy of the book.
NSFW
I do not know if it was included in the German exhibit.
Paige Young had some photo shoots published and distributed in 1970. Like the Playboy Calendar shown above. Image coming soon.
One of the Gowlands long time employers, 1964-2002, was the Ohio-based Ridge Tool Company, a hand tool manufacturing company, using the “Ridgid” brand name.
Ridgid Tool Company became famous for its’ 2-year calendars featuring images of bikini-clad models holding various tools made by Ridgid. I’m guessing Ridge sent these calendars every year to their tool purchasing clients.
Paige appears in the 69/70 edition. Cover below.
Merci Montello when this was taken by Peter Gowland. Mercy Rooney in Playboy December 1972. Merci was a favorite of Peter Gowland and she appears in several of his books and on some of his branded merchandise.
Here she is seen here partying with Mick Jagger and unidentified woman in the Chicago Playboy Mansion.
LA author Duke Haney informed me that Mercy was in town for her Playboy shoot, soon to take place at the mansion, which is Hugh Hefner’s residence.
The Chicago mansion often served as a locale for centerfold photo sessions.
Duke says that Mercy got so bruised up during the party with Jagger and the many revelers that her photo shoot needed to be postponed;
the bruising was too bad even for the makeup artists to cover passably.
This party is recounted in the book Bunny by Miller and involves Hugh Hefner’s secretary Bobbie Arnstein and Mick Jagger. It’s not a sexual encounter either.
(I have written about Bobbie in other chapters.)
Official Rolling Stones app
Lancaster New Era. April 14, 1969.
<<<<<<< Her skills would come in handy later when switching careers.
Mercy “Montelco” took her husband’s last name for Playboy modeling and became Mercy Rooney. She worked as a Playboy Bunny in the LA Club.
April 1
Many more models, starlets and Playboy Playmates were unnamed models in these Ridgid Tool calendars over the decades.
One did go on to great fame: Raquel Welch.
From 1964 until 2002, Peter and Alice photographed models for the Ridgid Tool Calendar (Ridge Tool Company).
Some of the models who appeared in those calendars include Stephanie Drake, Kathy McCullen, Cindy Margolis, and several Playboy Playmates, including Renee Tenison, Nikki Schieler, Barbara Moore, Heidi Sorensen and Penny Baker.
Thanks to:
Michael at glamourphotographers.yolasite.com
I will add Cyndi Wood and Debra Jo Fondren, both Playmates of the Year, appeared in Ridgid calendars shot by Peter Gowland.
NSFW
This image seated in yellow chair was used on a Playboy collectible card. Interesting mid-century chair and brown shag carpet specific to the era.
From an ebay sale several years ago.
Probably a gift for special clients of Electro Chemical. There is an association with Ridgid the Tool Company who made the calendars for decades. Early 1970s.
Not identified as Paige Young. Again I recognized her looking through these photos for sale on ebay. I did a search of Peter Gowland.
The other model is a Gowland Favorite:Ann Cushing.
Both Paige and Ann are featured on sets of “sip and strip” glasses, none are identified by name or title of Playmate. I did not buy these I could afford one only.
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 Young.
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 Edmonton 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, not included in his published story about Lees.
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, it’s 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.
UPDATE: Nick Lees passed away on June 24, 2024 after a battle with cancer and dementia, per his obituary in the Edmonton Journal.
The following is an excerpt from the obit, published on June 28:
In 1968, (1969) Nick interviewed a Playboy bunny, but it turned out she had the question of the day — asking Nick if he would take her to see the Rocky Mountains.
Date night. Nick followed her to Banff and then motored with her to Malibu to get engaged. Not surprising, it didn’t work out.
Upon returning to Edmonton Nick was fired but went back to work for The Journal.
His antics in The Journal, far too many to mention, are legendary.
Paige Young by Peter Gowland.
Below is an entry from the website of the late Bob Sanders. He wrote 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 the true method of suicide 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 her father and Paige.
Because of the Nick Lees story, I don’t think Bob Sanders traveled with Paige to Edmonton, she was likely traveling 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.”
# # # #
1974 #1 Official Death Cert. Witness. LAPD Suicide Report. Sex Tapes? Cremation & Ocean Burial Records. David Shane & Family. Secrets of Playboy. Bobbie Arnstein. Joni Mattis. Long. Updated 10/6/25
Posted on August 7, 2020
I have made 2 chapters into 1 long chapter for now.
It includes critical context, documents and some of my theories/opinions.
March 16, 1974 is Paige Young’s 30th birthday.
On April 7th 1974, a Palm Sunday, Paige Young 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.”
“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. Melanie talked to Paige on the day of her suicide and shortly before she shot herself.
Below is the account neighbor Melanie Myers gave to reporter Ryan Parry of the DailyMail.com 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.”
END
Melanie Myers gives the same account in the Secrets of Playboy documentary first shown 2022.
Claim: “Paige [Young] told me that a person that was a member of this Playboy Mansion entourage, or whatever it was, had filmed her having sex. Paige was so over-the-top upset about that tape. This was the end of the world for her. She didn’t seem that shy, you know, about sex, and it made me wonder, What was on that tape? What I actually keep thinking is there’s more on that than just sex. … When I knew her, Paige was into clean living. I think more likely is that Bill [Cosby] drugged her.”
Who Said It: Melanie Myers, celebrity astrologer and neighbor of November 1968 Playmate of the Month, who found the 30-year-old dead under a collage of photos and news clippings which featured the words “HUGH HEFNER IS THE DEVIL”
People.com review of Secrets of Playboy
This person in the entourage sounds like David Shane.
Shane was not a celebrity but the brother of the woman married to John Huston in the 1970s, Paige’s friend CiCi Shane Huston.
David Shane was known on the Sunset Strip scene; he owned two businesses there from the 1950s to the 1980s. Alfie’s and Hav-A-Kar. This means he would have dealt with numerous clients in the Hollywood Industry.
Hav-A -Kar is captured in Ed Ruscha’s renowned photo series Every Building on the Sunset Strip, 1966 version.
And apparently, David Shane was a never-known or little-known Playboy mansion regular in that era.
David Shane is an ideal candidate for a person involved with a sex tape in the Hugh Hefner party scene as you will see.
Would he have any reason to blackmail Paige with this tape?
David Shane owned establishment. Los Angeles Times writer Jack Smith wrote a column about his visit to Alfie’s. He said the patio was perfect for people watching.
When I first read the Daily Mail 2014 article, I was left with several questions.
Among them:
Why did Paige “blame” her suicide on Hugh Hefner by painstakingly creating an entire mural of his image and splashed with words of hatred. According to Melanie Myers. Who has never tried to go public with what she witnessed.
In one phone call with Melanie Myers, she emphasized to me how large the mural was, filling up a long hallway wall from top to bottom.
Melanie though about the many hours it would have taken, cutting out Hugh Hefner’s image and her own Playboy memorabilia. These items were then pinned to the wall. Melanie said the depiction of the wall in Episode 8 of Secrets of Playboy is an accurate representation of the scene she remembers in Paige’s apartment that fateful day.
I have questions about the suicide note. It mentioned Hugh Hefner, John Huston, and other Hollywood men Paige felt had used and abused her. The suicide note is mentioned in the LAPD report, but not in the records.
Other witnesses would have been the LAPD, the I.D. and the Coroner’s office.
Some critics say it was my motivation to prove Hugh Hefner was an evil abuser of women or that he was directly responsible for the suicide of a vulnerable young woman or that I want to avenge her suicide in the name of feminism or “Me Too.”
That was not and is not my motivation.
I always say “Let the facts speak for themselves.”
The reader or viewer can decide.
I believe certain (or most) celebrities got a “pass” to abuse women when they were on the grounds of the Playboy Mansion. And possibly elsewhere.)
If grooming, manipulation, brutality and rape happened to be what “turned them on,” Hef wasn’t going to forbid or judge his friends. I know that Hefner stated the opposite in his public statement after the accusations against Bill Cosby came out.
This series first aired in 2022. Paige Young’s story appears in Episode 8 entitled Predators Ball.
I’ve had a few viewers contact me to say they wanted to hear more about Paige Young.
In 2015, I began researching the answers to my questions with an open mind.
Perhaps Paige Young wrongly, mistakenly, or inappropriately blamed Hugh Hefner for her suicidal thoughts.
If so, it didn’t matter to me. It doesn’t matter to me now. Paige’s story is allegorical of time, place, people, and national and world events.
It makes a great story.
Paige did have other problems in her life.
Lack of a consistent income was a problem for Paige, one of her friend’s wrote to me. This was recently verified by Melanie.
Still, evidence points to at least one factor of Paige’s depression: the aforementioned sex tape and its connection to Hugh Hefner and his Mansion scene. There were witnesses of Paige at the Playboy mansion about 2 months before her suicide.
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. This contradicts what is stated in “The Playmate Book,” and several websites. Paige actually committed suicide from a gunshot wound to the head. This information is based on an autopsy report and death certificate, as one can clearly see.
This caught my attention when I first read the article because Paige Young is always listed as an overdose on internet lists and such.
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.
Scan of cremation record follows.
Math figures show Paige’s age on mortuary paperwork. 1974-1944 =30
It is unknown how the false story of Paige overdosing on drugs started on the internet. This has been written as the official cause of her early death.
Is the Playmate Book the original source?
A Playboy published book, it’s compendium of all the Playmates named in the magazine, beginning from the first issue of Playboy in 1953, continuing up to the date of publication.
The book was updated every 10 years or so.
Each entry tells us briefly what the woman did with her life after her Playboy experience. The entries are sometimes newsy, sometimes scant with information.
Marilyn Monroe, famously on the cover of the first issue of Playboy. December 1. 1953 and named “Sweetheart of the Month.”
Credit George Vreeland Hill.
There is a now well-known story about this first issue of Playboy and what was inside it. Marilyn from an old nude calendar photo shoot when she was broke.
It’s part of both Marilyn Monroe and Playboy Myth.
Marilyn is often cited in the “Playmate Curse” articles. (See Start Here chapter) Even though she was not technically a Playmate.
From an article in 2007 upon the death of PMOY Anna Nicole Smith, mentioning The Playmate Book which is updated about every 10 years.
The late Gretchen Edgren was the editor and is credited with another Playboy history book “If You Don’t Swing, Don’t Ring.”
Paige Young’s entry in the Playmate Book says she died of a drug overdose in 1974.
In the early days of the internet, people were compiling lists of famous people /celebrities, who experienced a tragically young death.
It’s probable that The Playmate Book was the original source for the first individuals who included it on their websites.
Can it be proven otherwise?
Of course many other websites picked this up and it became Paige’s “official” means of suicide for decades.
A question I had was:
Why would it serve Playboy editors or Hugh Hefner to choose “drug overdose” as her means of death? Why would they publish this in their own book of record?
It’s an odd choice.
Hugh Hefner had some legal and public pressure on him. There were charges of drug dealings or trafficking occurring at both his mansions, in the early 1970s. This involved his loyal Chicago secretary Bobbie Arnstein.
And most oddly, Bobbie Arnstein did commit suicide by a massive drug overdose in 1975 less than one year after Paige Young’s suicide.
I think drug overdose was chosen for the book because it sounds ambiguous. The reader won’t know if it was a purposeful or accidental overdose.
It seems the perception is that it was a purposeful suicide. But I may be wrong.
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.
UPDATE: 5/12/2023 I spoke with one friend of Paige’s. She told me she heard an announcement on a radio station about Paige’s death. She was driving to her home in Malibu. She doesn’t remember much more but that it was shocking and saddening. It caused her to pull over to stop by the side of the road.
In the weeks and months after the Daily Mail article was published in 2014, no one spoke out publicly or mentioned knowing or having met Paige Young.
It’s one reason I decided to pursue researching who she was.
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. And it goes way back.
A well known part of Hefner’s biography is his fascination with audio and video technology.
Hefner purchased and collected cutting edge home video, film cameras, projectors, and stereo equipment and owned these before they were available to the mass consumer.
In the early decades of the magazine, Playboy often featured an ideal “bachelor pad,” decked out with the finest stereo equipment and other electronic gadgets,sure to impress the ladies and men, like a Cadillac or Picasso painting might. In fact Playboy magazine in the 1950s formed the template for the influx of “Bachelor” magazines of the 1950s.
A shapely young woman would make a great companion or accessory to your lifestyle. Your bachelor pad will entice her.
Chicago newspaper in 1966. Hugh Hefner: tech nerd of his era.
One of the clips in the opening of Secrets of Playboy features an early 1970s Hugh Hefner, seen speaking to reporters at a press conference. He talks about his “electronic equipment in the mansion,””including cameras” and says that “sometimes stuff happens in the bedroom.”
Secrets…shows an interview with former head of Playmate Promotions Miki Garcia. At one point she is reading from work notes she had saved.
I am in episode 8 of this documentary talking about Paige Young. I received feedback from a few viewers who said they wanted more information about Paige than Secrets of Playboy presented. Available now on Amazon.
One note is about famous actor and Mansion regular Tony Curtis.
Curtis and his lawyer, were upset about Tony’s appearance in sex tapes filmed at the mansion.
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, Stefan Tetenbaum and others.)
The last paragraph is right out of a novel. Poignant.
In 1973, this would have been exceedingly rare! And quite impressive. Even amongst the seen-it-already Hollywood crowd.
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 to retrieve “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 read for the first time in 1985. The whole passage was explicit and embarrasing to read in front of an all male crew I had just met.
Melanie’s interview indicates that Paige was likely filmed at the Playboy mansion. She was fearful that this tape or film would be shown to an audience that would recognize her. She worried her reputation would be damaged or ruined.
“…..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, Hugh Hefner’s last wife.
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 became more paranoid when his friend, Playmate and actress Pamela Anderson, had her and husband Tommy Lee’s private sex tapes stolen.
And Crystal Hefner confirms this.
The stolen tapes were then released to the public through a video porn company.
Especially the David Shane angle in the tape.
Long 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 she had heard the ocean burial story and that she has reasons to believe it is true.
Paige Young’s case is an early example of a “sex tape scandal.”
Much like Pam and Tommy, Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton.
But Paige Young’s sex tape scandal is one that never went public through a formal media channel.
Perhaps Paige was blackmailed with this “sex tape.”
Or even what has become known as revenge porn.
I doubt we’ll ever know for sure.
The whole incident seems to have remained firmly swept under the rug by people at Playboy. Both at the time it happened and in subsequent decades.
“Masten is one of about 60 women who accused Cosby of sexual assault. She says Cosby drugged and raped her in a Chicago hotel in 1979, when she was a Playboy bunny. She says she was told she’d better keep quiet because no one would believe her, because Cosby was one of Hefner’s best friends. Cosby has denied her allegations.
“In the 10 years that I worked for Playboy, I would venture to say that there were probably 40 to 50 young women that were silenced by Playboy because of sexual abuse,” she says. Hefner knew about these episodes, Masten says, because he read the daily security reports.” Review of Secrets of Playboy USA TODAY Feb. 7, 2022
I suspect decades rolled by without the name Paige Young, ever coming up in the Playboy universe. And if it did, they told the “drug overdose” story.
Part 2
Female Fixer and the bobbie Arnstein Problem
During a phone conversation, an individual working on Secrets of Playboy mentioned to me that the researchers had learned of the existence of a “female fixer” who worked for Hugh Hefner in LA during Paige’s era the early and mid-1970s.
In the next sentence, this person named 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.
Joni’s name was found in Paige Young’s phone book (copied from) I obtained a part of. Link to chapter below.
And it so happens that Paige’s suicide scene with mural, and notes naming Hefner, his friends, and other Hollywood players/Mansion guests.
And there was was a chance it could go public….
Certainly this would have presented a problem that desperately needed to be “fixed.”
April of 1974 was an especiallyawful time for Unflattering publicity be tied to Hefner & Playboy.
San Francisco Examiner Mar. 22, 1974 Appeared all over US newspapers. Bobbie Arnstein photographed upon her arrest “on a charge of conspiracy to distribute cocaine.”
The arrest happened in front of her work place: Chicago Playboy Mansion.
Bobbie Arnstein was Hefner’s long time “Girl Friday” in Chicago.
The arrest happened only two weeks before Paige’s suicide. (Secrets of Playboy has an episode about Bobbie Arnstein.)
Background for 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. Filming took place at CBS Studio on Fairfax St.
Paige Young may or may not have appeared on the syndicated show.
Even if she did it was as background or set decoration.
Hugh Hefner was looking for a property in LA. A city he was destined to live.
One day in 1971, while driving around by herself, Barbi Benton spied an interesting looking mansion in Holmby Hills.
She scaled a fence to get a closer look and quickly knew it would be a perfect fit for a “Playboy Mansion West.”
Los Angeles Times 4/23/1971
Connie Kreski is mentioned as a guest with her date Leslie Bricusse.
Could this be the first Playboy Mansion LA party. Meaning large scale party, the kind they quickly became infamous for.
I have written an entire chapter on Connie Kreski. Another tragic Playmate.
Strange that Barbi did not come down to greet the guests. Something is off.
Macbeth directed by Polanski was a flop.
Could Paige Young been one of the former Playmates reported as present and sporting hot pants?
Back at the Chicago mansion, Bobbie Arnstein held down the fort during Hefner’s increasingly frequent times away.
Bobbie was feeling left out and let down by Hefner around this time.
She told a few friends that she was frustrated by not receiving more public credit or at least a higher salary, for her years of dedication to Playboy the corporation, and to her boss and mentor, father-figure and briefly lover, Hugh Hefner.
Bobbie was struggling with drug abuse and an eating disorder. She was suffering with unacknowledged grief from her boyfriend’s death in a car accident. The accident happened a few years previous and Bobbie was the driver. Bobbie’s boyfriend Tom, was the younger brother of Victor Lownes, head of Playboy Club and Casino in London.
Apparently she never drove after the fatal crash.
Bobbie was very loyal to Hef and despite any conflicted feelings, there was a plan for Bobbie to relocate to LA and continue as Hefner’s secretary.
I’ve read she was concerned about the inevitable need to drive in LA.
Unfortunately, Bobbie killed herself shortly before that scheduled date arrived.
What happened after Bobbie’s very public arrest 2 weeks before Paige’s suicide?
Months after Paige Young’s suicide in Los Angeles, in the fall of 1974, Bobbie was given a 15-year provisional jail sentence. She was accused of a drug trafficking crime that she did not commit. A witness provided false testimony after making a deal with prosecutors.
Chicago Tribune. Notice the judge “indicated he may significantly reduce the sentence after a psychiatric and medical problems, study of Bobbie.“
She would commit suicide about six weeks after this article appeared. Location was at the Maryland Hotel in Downtown Chicago.
The zealous prosecutors in Chicago wanted Bobbie to implicate Hugh Hefner in drug trafficking and she refused.
Bobbie was a drug user and abuser. She probably was involved in purchasing drugs from, and distributing drugs to friends, according to Secrets of Playboy.
See Adrienne Pollock‘s story of her fatal overdose, shown in the same episode.
It appears to me that Hefner was innocent, in this case, of formal and organized drug trafficking.
Hefner admitted to having a “laissez-faire” attitude about the behavior of his many guests at the mansion. He certainly wasn’t going to search their luggage or persons for drugs. He said this publicly at the time.
The whole case was dropped after Arnstein’s suicide.
Hefner’s press conference upon the death of close assistant Bobbie: coming soon.
END
More on Joni Mattis:
In 1974 Paige Young’s home was in Westwood. It was 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 in the area were on good terms with Hef. They were welcomed at the mansion. Several former employees of Playboy say this in the Secrets of Playboy.
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. Probably to the “female fixer,” before even Hefner himself.
Joni Mattis was a Playmate in November of 1960. A girlfriend around that time, of Hugh Hefner. She was an employee of Playboy nearly her entire life.
Credit: 20th Century Man
Apparently Joni was as devoted to Hef and Playboy as Bobbie Arnstein. She was likely Hef/Playboy’s “female fixer” at the time of Paige’s suicide, and probably the fixer of Paige’s case.
.
1974 Part 2 More on David Shane
Melanie Myers from the Daily Mail article told me in 2015 that the “brother of Cici Huston” had Paige’s “sex tape” in his possession. He would not hand it over to Paige, despite her repeated requests.
And that Paige often expressed the serious mental anguish and anger 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 highly likely the one holding on to Paige’s sex tape. He was very active on the Sunset Strip social scene at the time. He owned businesses there. He was considered attractive to women during the 1950s-1960-1970s.
The Daily Mail wasn’t really interested in writing about him as “wasn’t a big enough name,” Melanie said to me.
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 at some point. 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. He lived further north in California. He married, divorced and died young in the 1970s.
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 Shane started Hav-A-Kar in 1959 per newspaper articles and apparently signed it over to his son David L. Shane. Below shows a public record easily found online.
David Shane owned Alife’s on the Strip, popular hang out. Jack Smith article
The Shane brothers and sister came from a family of money and social standing.
Their 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.
Melanie told the Daily Mail, and me personally, that Paige “went out with” several men. I imagine that David Shane is one of those men. Celeste Shane in a message to me several years ago, said as much.
Paige told Melanie that some of her boyfriends paid her living expenses. These included kitchen appliances and a dog run for her Akitas.
( Don’t know what happened to Joshua the Weimaraner (?) or Hamish the horse)
As much as Paige expressed her distress over David Shane’s refusal to hand over the sex tape, ultimately she made a mural of 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.” Daily Mail 2014
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 suicide in Chicago.
LAPD Report Paige Young suicide
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 and 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. 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 can’t decipher.
EDI (PDI?) is witness and neighbor Melanie. I/D is the Investigating Detective.
Police Report 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. The note mentioned powerful men in Hollywood who used and abused her. These men included Huston and Hefner.
(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, 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. Veronica suggested that DeWitt may be the individual who supplied Paige with Akita breed dogs. Paige was planning to breed Akitas (for income) in the yard of her Westwood home. She was arranging for him to take the dogs because of her plan to kill herself. I’ve tried to find any leads on this individual with no luck yet.
We can see what is not described in the report by Reddish. The suicide note and mural were created by Paige Young about hatred towards Hugh Hefner. Melanie described this to the Daily Mail in Dec. 2014 and it was dramatized in Secrets of Playboy.
Why not?
And there was a photographer on the scene.
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?
During my interview with the Secrets of Playboy directors, I was asked what I thought about this. The director must have asked me at least three times.
I answered “I’d really like to know!” This was not included in the finished documentary.
The answer is that this photographed evidence was destroyed. The LAPD would say “lost” I’m sure.
Of course, I should have said that to the director.
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. I asked exactly what s/he remembers about the Sargent’s words. H/she responded, “the (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.
Part or most of that indifference is undoubtedly is the “tabloid taint” of the Daily Mail.
During 2014 and 2015 dozens of women were coming forward with stories of being drugged and raped or assaulted by Bill Cosby.
Hefner and Cosby were close friends for decades.
From the Daily Mail, Dec. 2014.
1969 January. Playboy Magazine. Playmate of the Year Contest. Winner: Connie Kreski. Anthony Newley. Roman Polanski. Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe…..? 1970s James Caan. Under Construction. NSFW. 6-9-25
Posted on July 15, 2020
NSFW
PMOM = Playmate of the Month. PMOY = Playmate of the Year.
This photo of Paige Young appears in the January 1969 issue of Playboy magazine.
A brief update about her life is included, which was truthful I learned, if incomplete.
Update on Paige Young shown with her photo. Jan. 1969 Playboy Magazine.
More specifically Paige lived in Topanga Canyon/ Topanga Beach. An area at the time, of artists, musicians, hippies and Hollywood celebrities.
The January 1969 Playboy magazine issue shows all 12 Playmates of 1968.
A brief update accompanies each one, as we read in Paige Young’s.
Standard protocol for this annual issue.
It means the PMOY title will be announced soon.
1969 is also the 15th anniversary issue of the influential and wildly successful magazine.
Hugh Hefner became famous for his publishing and business empire.
Besides the magazine, the trendy Playboy Clubs with their instantly iconic Playboy Bunny cocktail waitresses.
And successful enough to have created scores of imitators in the magazine publishing world during the 1950s and early 1960s.
Titles like Escapade, Nugget, Modern Man, Adam, Dude and Rogue, to name only a few. An easy Google image search.
The imitators experienced varying degrees of success.
The Playmate of the Year
has a higher status than Playmate of the Month (PMOM) obviously.
Kind of like, the “elite of the elite.“
Or the “creme de la creme.“
A PMOY title is akin to winning a beauty contest, much like Miss America or Miss USA.
The 12 finalists are the 12 PMOMs.
The yearly 12 have already cleared a major hurdle by winning over many other young women for the coveted monthly spot.
Round 2: the 12 finalists compete for the PMOY title.
PMOY means more of everything you have already experienced as a regular PMOM: public appearances, photo sessions, media interviews, a modeling fee, career opportunities.
However, a pink car is reserved exclusively for the PMOY.)
PMOY 1970 Claudia Jennings with her prize of a “Playmate Pink” color Mercury Capri.
Claudia Jennings, an aspiring actress, is seen here being interviewed on the Tonight show. She is sitting on Johnny’s famous couch around the time she was given the title PMOY 1970.
More about Jennings in my Start Here page.
A big party is thrown in your honor, often at Hef’s Chicago mansion, later LA, which will be attended by the press and various celebrities, including good looking film actors, Playboy and Hollywood big-wigs and assorted VIPs.
You would meet 100s of men in particular I imagine.
How was PMOY chosen?
I wonder if reader feedback influenced the decision, was it up to Hugh Hefner alone, or decided by committee?
Paige Young did not win and I doubt if she was even in the top 3.
The winner was Connie Kreski seen here on the cover of her PMOY issue
June 1969
Winner Connie was the girlfriend of Victor Lownes, head of the London Playboy Club & Casino, Chicago friend of Hugh Hefner.
Both are forgotten figures of the 1960s.
More on Victor Lownes coming up.
By the time of her title in 1969, Connie had already filmed a movie directed by English singer, actor, composer Anthony Newley.
Newley wrote many classic songs like Goldfinger, What Kind of Fool and I?, Feeling Good and Candy Man!
Connie Kreski
born Constance Joanne Kornacki in Wyandotte, Michigan.
Connie said in several press interviews that she grew up in a “strict Polish Catholic family.”
Constance Kornacki was studying for a degree in psychiatric nursing at Mercy College in Detroit when Playboy came calling in the form of a man at a University of Michigan football game.
He worked for Playboy and told Connie he thought she had the ideal youthful face and figure required for Playmate candidates.
Connie appeared to look much younger than her 21 years.
This is why Newley cast her as Mercy in his 1969 released film “Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?”
Anthony Newley had married a beautiful Hollywood starlet in 1963.
She was a native of England named Joan Collins.
Anthony Newley plays himself in the title role of Heironymus, wife Joan Collins plays his wife in the film, named Polyester Poontang.
It was pretty much a flop and skewered by the critics.
Anthony and Joan were married in 1963. This photo was taken around that time. Credit Vintage Everyday Pinterest
The article below was written before the disappointing reviews that followed the debut of the film in 1969.
It’s an interesting look at late-1960s popular culture by way of Newley’s film, filmed on the island of Malta in 1968.
The Newley’s small children Alexander and Tara were in the film as well as and several starlets, models and dancers.
More likely, she met Lownes in Chicago and was invited by him.
Or perhaps, she followed him to London.
Note the part that Connie “plays a temptress of 14.” Paragraph 4.
Connie, just like Paige Young, had publicity all year long in 1969.
More than the 2 young women would ever have the rest of their short lives.
Connie had her picture in newspapers across the USA, England and Canada in ‘69
Connie appeared in many newspaper articles for her title role in Heironymus Merkin.
One issue of Playboy magazine featured a nine page photo spread, serving as a promo for Heironymus. And for Connie as their Playboy Star.
Newley was a great friend and appeared on Hugh Hefner’s show of 1968-1970 Playboy After Dark.
Connie has several nude shots in the issue and a nearly nude Joan Collins has one.
Victor Lownes
is a colorful and forgotten 1960s character.
Lownes was a close Chicago friend of Hugh Hefner.
New York Daily News. Nov. 8, 1964.
People said that Lownes, who moved to London to run the Playboy Club & Casino, embodied the“Playboy man” even more than Hugh Hefner.
He was also known to sexually harass Bunnies at the clubs.
Victor and Connie are seen together in the much viewed film footage of the Tate (and maybe Sebring?) funerals on youtube. However, they are never identified.
Little Known connection to Charles manson killings
Victor Lownes, Hefner and directorRoman Polanski, Anthony Newley, were close friends in the late 1960s and 1970s.
Polanski and actress Sharon Tate lived together in London for a time and had their wedding reception at the London Playboy Club in 1968. A party hosted by Victor Lownes.
Connie and Victor appear together with several mourners at Sharon Tate’s funeral in Los Angeles, on film footage seen on youtube.
Roman and Sharon also appeared together on an episode of Playboy After Dark, a show Connie appears on several times.
The couple was interviewed by host Hef; Roman does most of the talking. (Available on youtube and tiktok.)
Paige Young promoted the show in 1969 and may or may not have appeared on the show.
Victoria Vetri, PMOY 1968, and starlet is mentioned in left column. Her reign of ‘68 was honored at the party. The opening of her film, now a cult classic, When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, was also celebrated. Victoria Vetri had a small part in the Roman Polanski-directed hit film “Rosemary’s Baby.” Victoria was known as Angela Dorian when she was the September Playmate of the Month in 1967. and Playmate of the Year 1968 as Victoria Vetri. Roman Polanski convinced her to use her real name. of Victoria Vetri, where she had a bit part in Rosemary’s Baby.
The Manson murders would occur just a few months after this article appeared.
Connie holds photo of herself and Victor, who would dump her in about 2 years for the force of nature that was Marilyn Cole. Connie claims there is nothing romantic going on between her and Roman Polanski. This article is only months after the horrific murders.
Victor dumped Connie after he fell hard for a new Bunny at the London Club.
The aforementioned Marilyn Cole.
She has her own story to tell and has done so in interviews. But she’s never been asked about her love triangle involving Connie and Victor, other than the book Bunny by Russell Miller.
Marilyn Cole appears briefly in Secrets of Playboy.
This Bunny was quickly promoted PMOM in 1972 and PMOY in 1973.
Marilyn Cole’sPlayboy centerfold is famous/infamous for being the first obvious straight-on view of a PMOM with full frontal nudity. Not subtle or hidden as in earlier photos.
Cole’s issue came at a time when Playboy magazine experienced a drop in readership, due to competition from the new and more explicit Penthouse magazine.
The Marilyn Cole issue provided a huge sales boost for Playboy which she talks about in Secrets of Playboy documentary.
Penthouse magazine feature more explicit and forward photography of their centerfold called a “Penthouse Pet.” In particular full-frontal nudity.
The viewer is more of a voyeur to the private bedroom of the “Pet,” than he may have seen in the Playboy centerfold.
Playboy was “forced” or pressured into publishing the centerfolds in the Penthouse style. This was to keep up with the new standards in Society, the more open nudity standards they helped bring in.
Marilyn in the Daily Mirror 1974. Photo by The now infamous Terry O’Neill. This was around the time Terry and Anjelica Huston met and became an item. Anjelica was an in-demand model.
Connie Kreski has about 10 TV and film appearances after “Hieronymus.“
April 6, 1969. Long Beach Press Telegraph
From 1969
Connie appeared as a guest on the Merv Griffin and Joey Bishop talk shows.
From the Fremont Tribune, June 21, 1973
In a 1969 episode of Playboy After Dark, Connie is introduced by Hugh Hefner as “Connie Kreski, our Playmate of the Year.” Connie does not say one word the entire show.
She does have more lines on other episodes of PAD, mostly the ones from 1970, the last year of the program.
The People, London. Aug. 23, 1970 A little over a year since Sharon Tate and the others were murdered, Connie remains friends with widower Roman Polanski. Sorry for poor quality.
Kreski’s newspaper press indicates she was signed to a contract with Universal Studios.
Universal signed an extraordinary number of pinup models, beauty contest winners and starlets in the 1950s and 60s.
Detroit Free Press April 27, 1969 The hometown/homestate paper covered their homegrown Hollywood star.
It seems Connie had about 15 minutes of fame as an actress.
She appeared on a memorable 1970 episode of Love American Style starring Kaye Ballard, playing a topless waitress: Love and the V.I.P. Restaurant.
After a few years Connie’s contract with Universal was dropped which merited one sentence in a Hollywood gossip column I read.
Her last credit is a TV mini-series Aspen in 1976.
James CaaN
Connie had a high profile romance with actor James Caan beginning in the early 1970s and lasting around 4 years.
She was identified in Hollywood news articles as his “girlfriend” and “ex-Playmate.”
The two got together soon after Caan’s star making turn in The Godfather; he was much in demand by directors and studios.
And by many beautiful young women, according to several interviews at the time.
Playboy Mansion regular James Caan speaks about girlfriend Connie Kreski in NY Daily News Oct. 8, 1972
Below image is from 1970s Playboy feature on men’s jewelry with Connie and boyfriend James Caan.
It was determined that Connie Kreski died of cirrhosis of the liver at age 48 in 1995. Laennec’s is a cirrhosis most associated with alcohol abuse over time.
What happened in her life that caused it to end this way at the age of 45?
What happened to her friendships with Hefner and Polanski and that crowd? And James Caan?
Connie Kreski is rarely mentioned in any pop culture forum.
I find that strange, given the people that she was seen hanging out with: Roman Polanski, Sharon Tate, Hugh Hefner, Anthony Newley and James Caan.
Many of these people continue to generate attention and conversation. Some are still alive, many dead.
Most recently, Connie’s ex and Playboy mansion regular and good friend of Hefner, James Caan passed away on July 6, 2022. His death drew numerous accolades and a film festival is in the works.
Unusually, Caan lacks a dedicated biography.
This will likely be forthcoming.
Caan hadn’t been asked about Connie since the 1970s, that I have ever seen.
Like Fellow 1968 Playboy Playmate Paige Young, Connie’s cause of death is incorrectly identified on the internet. It usually says “blocked carotid artery” or “cancer.” Connie’s entry in The Playmate Book, mentions her death in Beverly Hills, 1995, but doesn’t state a cause. I have included closeups of her death certificate.
Connie died in March of 1995 at the young age of 49. She died before her about 10 years older husband, Louis Edelman.
I had long wondered what happened to Connie so I ordered her death certificate.
And after seeing it, of course I wondered how she had become an alcoholic with all her seeming advantages in life. Beauty and a budding career in movies and TV, money.
Cirrhosis of Liver is clearly stated as the cause of Connie’s premature death. Interval between onset and death says years.
Connie and a man named Louis Edelman were married in New York in 1986 per records seen on ancestry.com.
They set up a marital home in Beverly Hills. Connie was pregnant at the time but unfortunately lost the baby the same year.
I was fortunate enough to get some answers by correspondence with Connie’s stepdaughter Barbara Cooper. Her father was Louis Edelman.
Barbara Cooper told me that after the loss, Connie began an obsession with calorie counting and losing weight. On top of that she abused alcohol and her husband Louis felt compelled to hide liquor bottles from his wife.
With those two illnesses, it’s no wonder that Connie died so young and before her older husband.
Barbara’s daughters spent vacations with “Grandpa and Connie in California.” Barbara told me how consistently kind and sweet Connie was to her daughters and to everybody.
She said that Connie did not talk about Playboy, Hefner, any of the Playmates, or her days in Hollywood.
More on Connie Kreski and her brief time in the spotlight
Telegraph Journal New Brunswick. July 10, 1969
Still a couple years away from meeting Marilyn Cole and giving Connie the heave-ho.
Another famous gossip columnist of the era: Marilyn Beck. Here, she dispels any truth to the rumors of a romance with Connie and Sammy Davis Jr.
She was Sammy’s type in that era given the physical qualities of Sammy’s women mentioned here.
I doubt that Victor Lownes remained faithful to Connie. She was in LA working on her new career as an actress.
Connie had a fair amount of press on and off, for about 6 years. Press for projects and Hollywood gossip due to her relationships with Victor Lownes, Roman Polanski (denied as a relationship) and later James Caan.
I’ll be posting several of all kinds.
She was wafer thin with proportions of being tall; she could have been a perfect commercial model, if not a high fashion one. There are many fashion shots of Connie that I haven’t yet published.
Patriot News 9/12/1975
BACK TO 1969
“Miss November 1968” 1969: Most Public Year, Playboy Tour. Queen of the Fleet. Marina del Rey. Playmate LIsa Baker. Jonathan Winters Show. High School Info. Many Images, May take a while to appear Updated 9/2/25 LONG!
Posted on July 12, 2020
1968 November
Paige Young appears as Playboy Magazine’s Playmate of the Month.
This year, the media was focused on the increasingly unpopular Vietnam war. Unpopular, especially among college and university students who demonstrated against the war both in the streets and on campus. It was a nation-wide phenomenon reported on the nightly news and read in daily newspapers.
Issues of Playboy magazine were donated to the troops in Vietnam, including the November 1968 issue featuring Paige Young.
2 history altering assassinations occurred earlier in 1968.
April 4th
Nobel Peace Prize winner Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, at the Lorraine Motel.
This atrocious act was followed by days of racial rioting, resulting in at least 40 deaths nationwide.
I remember when it happened.
I was in 1st grade and living in El Paso, Texas.
I recall the American flag at my elementary school lowered to half-mast.
When I asked why, someone said “Martin Luther King was killed.”
Image from National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, showing the wreath placed in front of the room where Dr. King was staying at the Lorraine Motel.
King was assassinated by James Earl Ray while on the balcony outside this room.
Martin Luther King Jr. was in Memphis on April 4, 1968, to support striking African-American sanitation workers who were protesting low pay, poor working conditions, and lack of recognition. From google AI.
June 6
Presumptive Democratic Nominee for President, Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles at the world famous Ambassador Hotel. Specifically, the Embassy Room, after his campaign speech.
The assassin was Sirhan Sirhan from nearby Pasadena.
I remember watching the TV coverage of the RFK funeral and seeing my mother cry over the young ages of the pall bearers.
Recently I found out 14-year old RFK Jr. was the youngest pall bearer for his father.
When the globally famous Cocoanut Grove Nightclub on the grounds, the hotel was connected with Hollywood glamour.
It’s where the stars dined, danced, drank and often performed.
All the major singing legends have performed there.: Garland, Streisand, Crosby, Darin, Sinatra, Sammy, Liza.
“where stars of the motion picture world mingle with Southern California’s smart set nightly.”
This is another in my post card collection.
It looks like a high school prom couple
1955 hollywoodhistoricphotos.com
1968-69 continued
This title of Playmate will be Paige Young’s primary “claim to fame” in mass media popular culture.
1964/65 was the time Paige moved to Malibu beach at age 20-21. She met Sample around this time.
See Chapters on Richard Sample.
The description in the November 1968 issue of Playboy magazine, says Paige Young is a full-time painter. Paige admits to the financial difficulty of this effort but she loves the fact that “my time is my own.”
Paige lives in Malibu, enjoys scuba diving, gourmet cooking and loves to host beach cookouts for friends. She can often be seen running on the beach with her Weimaraner named Joshua.
Paige hates the “9-5 doldrums,” and “working for an impersonal corporation.” (As Playboy turned out to be.)
Promo published in newspapers November 1968.
Peter and Alice Gowland were the photographers behind Paige’s Playmate photographs. The married couple with two daughters lived in Santa Monica. They were responsible for several Playmate features for Playboy in the 1950s and 1960s.
The Gowlands also contributed to many of the Playboy copycat “Bachelor” magazines of the 1950s and early 1960s. (See my chapter on The Gowlands and pinups of the 1950s.)
Image taken on Peter Gowland’s property, a rural looking setting with a home studio built by Peter, where he photographed 100s of models over at least 4 decades.
Santa Monica near Rustic Canyon and Will Rogers State Park.
The Gowlands’ product was photographs of young, pretty, shapely and mostly white women.
They did use several Black models beginning in the late 1960s.
These images were sold to various magazines, calendar companies, and photo agencies.
Also sold to publishing houses for book covers, record albums, and mainstream ads.
“Pinup” images published in print media along with beauty contests, became a trope or an archetype in mass media culture during WW 2. “Pinup” became mainstream in media publishing during and after the war.
Peter and Alice Gowland were part of a group of mostly male photographers based in the Los Angeles area.
The published images, mainly of the Southern California beach girl, often an aspiring starlet, were exported to the world. The Gowlands helped set a prototype for this archetype.
Solana-Napa News Chronicle.
Maybe you already know that Paige Young’s other claim to fame is appearing on internet lists. These lists feature articles about Playboy Playmates who tragically died before their time. (See “About” page.)
1969
is clearly Paige’s most documented year.
I read many newspaper articles from the US, Canada and Japan.
I couldn’t include them all.
From the articles I learned that Paige traveled widely this year working as a paid-per-appearance ambassador for Playboy Magazine.
These nation wide tours presented an opportunity for the Playmates to get paid for traveling, representing and promoting Playboy the Brand as well as their own centerfold issue.
Paige appeared at TV stations carrying “Playboy After Dark,” a Hugh Hefner hosted TV show that ran from 1968 – 1970.
She signed autographs at music festivals, car and snowmobile shows..
What follows are several articles I found from 1968 and 1969 on a newspaper archive website.
Take the time to read the articles, if you want a little insight into the person self-named Paige Young.
At least read the first 4 paragraphs to give you a general idea.
I apologize for the quality of some, it’s hit or miss with these newsprint archives.
It’s a fascinating time capsule when newspapers were a major source of News. Some papers published a morning and an evening edition.
And a time when a recently published Playboy Playmate appearing at an event in the US was newsworthy enough to be covered by local media.
As you will see.
Paige gives a few contradictory answers to journalists on the topic of weight gain/loss for centerfold approval.
But most answers I’ve confirmed as truthful and correct.
A trip to the Boston Auto Show was likely the first stop of the tour: Oct. 26-Nov. 2, 1968.
Paige was the Playmate of the current issue of Playboy during this event.
There were many visits of Playmates over the decades to this Auto show in Boston which apparently started in 1903!
One man contacted me to share this memory of visiting the Boston Auto Show.
“I vividly remember Paige. She was beautiful and intelligent.”
” I was 14 years old. My friend had dared me to ask her to sign the centerfold, but she politely demurred and signed the first page of her pictorial which was a headshot. She also gave me an autographed photo. Unfortunately, my grandmother was horrified and it was all confiscated and thrown away.I told her that I admired her portrait of Truman Capote and she immediately brightened. She said art was what she “really wanted to do.”
I would love to find paintings by her to buy. But I imagine that not many survived.
“I met Paige when I was 14. She was signing autographs at the Boston car show in late 1968. We talked about art. She was intelligent, beautiful, and kind. I’m looking to find original art by her as I think she was a great artist who was hobbled by her beauty. “
Feedback left by a reader Daniel
Daniel- Thank you for sharing your memory of the Boston Auto Show with Paige, it’s very much appreciated!
1969
On the personal front
Paige continued to battle ex-husband Mark F. Segal.
He had yet to pay for 5 of the 6 months of alimony he owed her. He also owed lawyers fees to Marvin M. Mitchelson. Segal had made one payment to each in 1964 and that was it. (See related chapters.)
By now Paige’s law firm was Silverton, Ruderman and Graf of Studio City, not Marvin M. Mitchelson as when she filed for divorce.
Paige visits NYC in June of 1969
On the Vintage Los Angeles Instagram page I asked and was answered, “the Joe Franklin TV shows from 1969 were not saved.” So there is no record of the interview.
Also, there is another reference to weight compatibility and photos for Playboy. Here, she says it took 2 1/2 years for the Playmate photos, because of weight gain. Paige talks about how easily she gains weight and has been “dieting for weeks.” In another interview she said she was glad of the weight gain because she needed a “bigger bosom” and that is where she “gains weight first.” She said, “I really needed it for those pictures.”
Queen of the Fleet is mentioned. More on that coming up.
Bob Sanders states Paige had not appeared on the Playboy After Dark TV show after “having been asked and politely turning it down.”
Several newspaper articles in 1969 state Paige was an extra on Jonathan Winters Show. She may also have had a small part on Playboy After Dark as decoration. I’ve yet to see an episode of Playboy After Dark that shows Paige Young. I’ve never found any TV or movie credit for Paige Young. She is not in any imdb listings.
Minneapolis cont.
Lake Havasu City, Arizona
1969 continued
March and April primarily, images of Paige Young wearing a polka dot bikini appeared in dozens of USA newspapers.
Paige was named “Queen of the Fleet” for the first annual Desert Sailboat Regatta. The event was to take place in the fairly new city of Lake Havasu City, Arizona. (LHC)
Some context is important, so briefly...
“Lake Havasu City is in western Arizona. It’s known as a base for trails in the nearby desert and water sports on Lake Havasu. London Bridge, relocated from England, links the mainland to marinas and a looped path in an area known as the Island.”
wikipedia definition
Lake Havasu City, Arizona was established in 1963 after businessman Robert McCulloch purchased the land in 1958.
McCulloch bought a London Bridge in 1968 when the City of London placed it for auction. He had an idea that it might be a successful lure for tourists and potential home buyers including retirees.
McCulloch bought 100s of ads in different newspapers across the US. From LA to Davenport, he promoted a vacation to Lake Havasu City.
He also advertised it as a land investment.
Just two examples below.
LHC placed the London Bridge about 1 year after Paige appeared as “Queen of the Fleet.” McCulloch was advertising it way before.
Queen Paige Young and the Regatta Sailing event were designed by McColloch to advertise the marvelous boating and water recreation activities available in LHC.
And hopefully you will enjoy yourself so much you will want to live in there year round!
Media Blitz!
Santa Ana Register Mar. 27, 1969
As you can see, this particular photograph of Paige as “Queen of the Fleet” was a popular one.
Paige acted as a promotional ambassador for the event and the town and the marvelous boating experiences on the lake.
This next article (April 16, 1969) is one of the few to mention Robert McCulloch as regatta chairman. It details information about the boats entered.
With the exception of the last, this next set of Regatta Queen promotion clippings refer to Paige as “graduating from Van Nuys High School.“
I have researched classmates.com for many hours, in the years she would have attended and/or graduated: 1959-1962.
I have been unable to find any Paige Young or Diana Cotterell in the VNHS yearbook. I cannot find her class photo in yearbooks of Grant High School, North Hollywood High School, or Birmingham High School. These are all high schools near VNHS.
Diana/Paige had a friend and fellow horse lover at Van Nuys Junior High.
Her name is Joan Edwards and she attended and graduated from Van Nuys High School in 1962. I was able to speak with her one time.
This should have been Diana/Paige’s graduation year also. Joan told me that she doesn’t remember seeing or talking to Diana after the end of their VNJH years and she only remembers her with the name Diana Cotterell.
I think Paige dropped out of high school after the 9th grade, 1959. Her grandfather, Ned LaRocca, died in November of that same year. She would have been only 15 or 16 years old. Many of the interviews from 1969 state she began painting professionally at age 16.
Could it be related? I don’t know. But possibly. Her mother remarried in 1958 and had a child with her 2nd husband in 1960 when Paige was 16.
If Paige did attend or graduate from a high school, it definitely wasn’t Van Nuys High School.
This is one of the few “lies” about Paige that were told for the publicity tour.
The wire service photos you have been looking at never mention Paige’s title of Playboy Playmate, but the local Lake Havasu City paper does.
Rare image, not publicly available.
The individual at the record department of LHC learned about the connection of Paige to Bill Cosby. After that, he ceased communication with me.
I’m relieved he sent the images first.
Note: the information of Paige’s appearance on the Jonathan Winters Show in the Lake Havasu article.
Jonathan Winters
The terms Playmate and Bunny became interchangeable in the media very quickly. Here is another example; ad from a Fresno mall appearance with Paige and Lisa Baker.
Playmate of the Year 1967, Lisa Baker, was also (I have read) on the Winters show according to some of her press.
Jonathan Winters Show connection
I’ve been unable to find any credits for Paige or Lisa on the Jonathan Winters Show 1967-1969. The show was filmed at CBS Television City on Fairfax, as was Playboy After Dark. PAD ran from 68-70.
Paige and Lisa’s roles may have been as extras or “background décor.” I viewed several episodes of the show at the Paley Center for Media (now closed) in Los Angeles and I could not spot Paige Young.
I haven’t yet been able to find Paige as an extra on Playboy After Dark; I have not viewed every episode though.
(I did find images of a dancer on the Winters show that looked strikingly like Paige. It was eerie. The choreographer of the show was Robert Banas.)
Please see chapter Richard Sample interview for more on Jonathan Winters and a possible connection to Paige Young.
1969 travels continued…
Marina Del Rey
In the summer of 69, Paige is interviewed for an article in “West,” an LAT magazine. It tell us about a few young people who live in the “geographically desirable” community of Marina Del Rey.
Article tells about hip Marina Del Rey, considered “G.D.” which stands for “geographically desirable.”
As opposed to the SFV or Pasadena?
Paige lives on a houseboat in Marina Del Rey.
Wait, doesn’t she live in Malibu!?
This is the only reference to Paige living in Marina Del Rey that I found, so far.
Update: May 19, 2021: Paige’s friend Richard Sample told me that this is when he last saw Paige.
She was living in her houseboat on the Marina. 69 or 70. He was there to ask her for rent she had not paid on the Venice Beach art studio.
Akron, Ohio
Dick Shippy was a long-time columnist. He has a conversation with the chaperone and Playboy PR man accompanying Paige Young. We know it is Bob Sanders. Shippy derisively refers to Sanders as a “flack.” Not to his face I presume.
Last sentence of article reads: “safe to assume she knew she was on a fools errand. One might also assume that puts her one up on the man from Playboy.”
Article says Paige met Hefner only once briefly at a stop at the Chicago mansion.
(By the end of her life Paige knew Hefner better in her own hometown of Los Angeles. Hefner bought a second mansion residence there in 1971.)
During their conversation Shippey notices Paige “sitting there looking lovely and trying not to fall asleep. ” The attention goes back to Paige.
She says she is a self taught artist turned actress. She has an art studio in Venice Beach. She also took drama lessons with Jeff Corey. So far though, she has only had a non-speaking role on the Jonathan Winters show, and as an audience member on the set of PAD. (perhaps Paige is way in the background of both shows.)
Atlanta
August of 1969.
This photo below appeared one week after the infamous and tragic Tate-LaBianca murders happened.
Sharon Tate and the others were murdered overnight on the 8th, the newspapers published the first stories the 9th.
Paige visited the Playboy Club in Atlanta as she did in NYC and New Orleans. Playboy Club Atlanta threw a party in honor of this new TV station Channel 36 which carried Playboy After Dark.
Infamously committed by the Manson “family,” in Paige’s hometown of Los Angeles.
Romemary and Leno LaBianca were then murdered overnight on the 10th in their home in Los Feliz.
This murder was headlines the next day on the 11th.
Paige may have been on the road when it happened August 9-11, 1969. There is no press on those dates, that I’ve seen.
It was truly a shocking news item to read and hear on the evening news shows.
Much has been written about the impact the murders had on Hollywood celebrities and the wealthy of Los Angeles. The palpable fear that ensued. Sales of guns, watchdogs and alarm systems soared.
Coincidentally, when Paige was a toddler in the mid–1940s, she lived with her family in a house very close to the LaBianca home on Waverly. (See chapter on Family History in Los Feliz).
September 1969: Japan
“Hunting season may not have opened Friday, but our photographer still jumped at the chance to ‘shoot’ Playboy Bunny Paige Young as she sat on a bridge in a Japanese Garden…..”
Stars and Stripes. Japan tour.
In late September, several local newspaper ads announce the first annual “Winter Fun and Snowmobile” show in Edmonton.
.
As you will see by the next news articles, the scheduled appearance by November 1968 Playmate Paige Young was heavily publicized.
“From Malibou” The reporter was thinking Caribou? Richard Sample mentioned Eros Gallery to me and so does this article! So does Playboy Magazine.
But when it gets to the big day……
Devin Sheedy, women’s snowmobile speed record holder, steps in for an ailing Paige Young.
*For more information a possible reason for Paige’s illness in Edmonton, see the chapter on Nick Lees”*
1969 continued
The articles show us that most of Paige’s year is taken up with Playboy promotional traveling and appearances. She autographs Playboy headshots at car shows and Battle of the Bands contests. She visits Playboy Clubs, TV stations, and newspaper, radio and TV interviews.
The Edmonton Winter Sports show in late September of 69 is the latest date I’ve have found for her promotional appearances. (So far.)
Boston Auto Show: late Oct. 1968 to the Edmonton show: late Sept. 1969, is just under one full year. Perhaps Paige completed the contracted one-year to Playboy? There was an option for 2 years.
Seems like she had really “had it” by the end.
Or was it just a ruse to run off with Nick Lees?
.
I don’t know how many people know that Sirhan-Sirhan’s hometown was Pasadena.
RFK, of cou
Latest articles to come up on the archive:
(New articles found after 9/2/25 will be placed at the end of this chapter below.)
P
Cleveland Press 4/3/69 More talk about weight and the centerfold. Excuses eating that “Mr Hefner doesn’t want us thin. Which turned out to be false.” Talk of long relationship with the Gowlands. Contradictory answers again on Paige’s weight for the Playmate feature. Fabulous information.
Paige Young in Los Angeles 