Paige Young in Los Angeles.Paige Young Images Used In Art and Merchandise. Paintings By Paige Young. (Updated 10/12/22) Previously Unseen Images. (Some Are NSFW)
Posted on December 19, 2020
Outtake from Playmate photo shoot by Peter Gowland. The stone pattern by Gowland’s pool was seen in numerous of his photo shoots over the decades.
LA writer Duke Haney told me about the history of Playmate puzzles, one of them included the centerfold image of Paige Young.
“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 for speaking with me, I appreciate it!
*NOTE* Almost all of images of Paige’s paintings that follow, were publicly posted on Pinterest and/or Facebook.
PETER GOWLAND’S GIRLS exhibit and book curated by Thom Schrimbock 2016
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 the book “Peter Gowland’s Girls.” Labeled “Unknown”
Family History#2. 1930s &1940s. Great Depression. Peoria, Move To LA. Frank & Rose. the Marinellos. Radio City. Sunset and Vine. KNX. CBS. Tom Breneman. Jane Harker. Warner Brothers. Updated 11/27/2022
Posted on May 6, 2020
Frank LaRocca, brother of Diana’s grandfather and defacto father Ned, was a violinist and music director in Decatur, Illinois in the 1920s.
Peoria, Ill.
Mildred Marinello.
was a first cousin of Donna LaRocca, Diana/Paige’s mother.
Mildred and Donna lived next door to each other both in Peoria, Ill. and later in Sherman Oaks, Ca. in the 1950s. Mildred was also listed as living with Donna her cousin and her parents home in Los Feliz in the late 1930s. She is listed as a witness at the wedding of Donna to Robert M. Cotterell in 1940 in Los Angeles.
Early 1930s phone directories list a Frank LaRocca and wife Rose in Los Angeles. The couple reside at 2303 Gatewood.
Ned, his wife Virginia LaRocca and their 9-year-old daughter Donna, join Frank and Rose in Los Angeles by 1934. The family moved into a house located at 2234 Shoredale Ave. It’s located about two blocks away from Frank and Rose on Gatewood.
Ned and Virginia had performed their vaudeville acts in the Los Angeles area many times in the teens and 20s, so they had familiarity with the area.
The Shoredale and Gatewood houses were in a neighborhood very close to Elysian Park, the LA River and Riverside Drive, well before “the 5” freeway was built.
Brothers Frank and Ned LaRocca are listed as “music teachers” in the LA phone directory in the mid–1930s.
1937: According to his death certificate, Frank is admitted to Methodist Hospital with peritonitis/perforated duodena. After one week in the hospital, Frank dies, having contracted pneumonia two day previous.
Frank is buried in his home town of Peoria, Illinois.
His find-a-grave page includes an obituary from the Peoria newspaper. It states that brother Ned LaRocca lives in LA and is a harpist in a Hollywood radio orchestra.
The LAT obituary is below.
In the late 1930s, A “Radio Row,” was forming along the section of Vine Street between Hollywood Blvd. and Sunset Blvd.
A sensational Streamline Moderne building was the new west coast headquarters of NBC radio and opened in 1938. Architect was John C. Austin. Austin was also architect of the Griffith Park Observatory along with Frederick M. Ashley.
*I’m attributing radiocityhollywood.com below for several clear historic descriptions and explanations.
The National Broadcasting Company originally used the phrase Radio City to describe their studios at Rockefeller Center in New York City. When NBC opened their new Hollywood studios at Sunset and Vine in 1938, they placed the words Radio City prominently on the front of their new building. However, the area between Hollywood Boulevard and Sunset Boulevard on Vine Street became known as Radio City for tourists and locals alike who visited the many radio studios and radio themed cocktail lounges and businesses in the area.
radiocityhollywood.com
Veteran performing artist Ned LaRocca found a steady paycheck at both NBC and CBS as seen on this document found on ancestry, dated 1942.
CBS radio aka “Columbia Square” opens just down the street from NBC, also opened in 1938.
The website radiocityhollywood.com describes vividly what must have been a fascinating “scene,”overflowing with human activity; all the types of people who had a requirement, a desire, or both, to be there, from the employees, their friend and families, tickets holders which includes tourists from near and far, big wigs in the industry, interns, janitorial staff. Professional Radio performers including musicians like Ned LaRocca.
Architect is Swiss-born William Lescase. CBS Columbia Square is the name. The legendary Brittingham’s Restaurant existed in Columbia Square. This building and NBC were major tourist attractions in 1938 on through the 1940s In Los Angeles.
This building is the new home to KNX Radio, where Ned LaRocca performed.
A block away, the Columbia Broadcasting System opened it’s new modern studios at Columbia Square. Across the street, on December 26, Earl Carroll opened his premier nightclub and restaurant, with the glamorous neon sign proclaiming, “Through these portals pass the most beautiful girls in the world.”
The National Broadcasting Company, after moving from New York to San Francisco, opened its’ new Moderne studios at the intersection of Sunset and Vine in Hollywood, California.
The Hollywood Palladium opened two years later between NBC and CBS, with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, featuring band singer Frank Sinatra. Across Vine Street, on the northwest corner of Sunset and Vine, sat Music City and Capitol Records, operated by bothers Glenn and Clyde Wallich.
radiocityhollywood.com
The radio industry in Los Angeles, and the world I imagine, was at its’ zenith from the late 30s through the 1940s. This era was short lived. Television would soon replace radio as the mass entertainment medium of choice. (1950s)
Film-noirish look at Sunset & Vine. found on the internet. NBC on the right. 1940s. Capitol Records on the left, before the iconic new location, the “Stack of Records” building, was built at 1750 Vine St. by Welton Becket and Assoc. (Opened in 1956)
The American Broadcasting Corporation set up shop a few doors north on Vine Street. Up the street was the Radio Room, Club Morocco, Mike Lyman’s and the famous Tom Breneman’s Breakfast in Hollywood restaurant. Even further up Vine, just before Hollywood Boulevard, Clara Bow operated her restaurant, the It Cafe. Across the street, south of the Boulevard, was the world famous Vine Street Brown Derby, more restaurants and bars, and at Selma Avenue, the RCA building. Further south, at the end of the block, at the intersection of Vine Street and Sunset Boulevard stood the radio flagship studio, NBC Radio City.
It was a glorious year, 1938, for Hollywood and for radio. And, while NBC called their new studios Radio City, the entire area became famous across America and around the world.
Radio City Hollywood website.
Tom Breneman broadcast his popular show “Breakfast In Hollywood” from his restaurant on Vine off Sunset Blvd. I’ve listened to a few radio broadcasts and Breneman asks the audience members”where are you from?” It seems like the are a combination of locals and out of town visitors.
1940s.
Ned LaRocca continued to work at NBC and CBS throughout the 1940s and made an important contact with Leith Stevens, conductor and composer.
1938, 1939 & 1941 LA phone directory, Joseph LaRocca is listed as a musician and living at 3834 Evans.
Donna LaRocca had yet another female cousin another. two years younger. Born Mary Jane Harker two years after Donna, she had short lived famed in the 1940s.
Salt Lake City Tribune July 19, 1945. Paige Young’s 2nd cousin. Name would eventually get shortened to Jane
.Jane Harker was the daughter of Josephine and George Truman Harker. I write more about them in Family History Part #1.
The information about Jane Harker that you see on websites like imdb is incorrect. I’m attempting to correct it.
I have a lot of material collected about Jane Harker if anyone would like to collaborate on this project contact me.
.
| Name: | Mildred Marinello |
|---|---|
| Birth Year: | abt 1913 |
| Gender: | Female |
| Rac | White |
| Age in 1930: | 17 |
| Birthplace: | Illinois |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Relation to Head of House: | Daughter |
| Home in 1930: | Peoria, Peoria, Illinois, USA |
| Map of Home: | Peoria, Peoria, Illinois |
| Street Address: | Martin Street |
| Ward of City: | Pt of 6 |
| House Number: | 208 |
| Dwelling Number: | 161 |
| Family Number: | 165 |
| Attended School: | Yes |
| Able to Read and Write: | Yes |
| Father’s Birthplace | Italy |
| Mother’s Birthplace: | Italy |
| Yes | |
| Household MembersAgeRelationshipAnthony Marinello42HeadKathryn Marinello39WifeMildred Marinello17Daughter |
Paige Young in Los Angeles. 