Paige Young in Los Angeles1969 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.
1976. Looks like Connie Kreski was discarded.
Caan and Playboy cover girl Sheila Ryan were married after Caan eschewed marriage to Connie during their time together.
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.
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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?
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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 