Paige Young in Los AngelesPaige Young and Bill Cosby 1970 (and before). El Paso, Malibu, Sunset Strip. 10/5/2025
Posted on February 9, 2023
In this chapter, I have gathered all the accounts of witnesses to Bill Cosby and Paige Young’s relationship. Witnesses who either saw these events with their own eyes or Paige told them directly.
Tamara Green’s account was published in the Dailymail.com Dec. of 2014. She is quoted at length below. (This is the article that started my investigation into the life of, and people, times and events surrounding Paige Young.)
Article by Ryan Parry.
Modeling shot of Tamara Green, late 1960s. Dailymail.com
“One of Cosby’s victims, attorney Tamara Green, knew Paige from modeling circles and recalls seeing the pair together.
Tamara Green recalls that she ran into Paige while in El Paso, Texas around 1970.
‘I was there seeing my boyfriend. Paige called me and said Bill was on tour. She was traveling with him.
‘They picked me up at my friend’s house and I remember sitting in the back of a stretched black limo with them both and Bill wanted to score some drugs.
I called around and found a bag of pot some place on the edge of El Paso.’
El Paso Times Feb. 22, 1970.
Bill Cosby was in El Paso at the time Tamara said he was.
‘Paige was in to her drugs and Bill wanted to get her some, she was along on the trip like his pet dog, she was a very subdued person, more like moon on the water in terms of her personality.
El Paso Herald Feb. 21st. 1970. Cosby was in El Paso at the time Tamara Green recalls the encounter with him and Paige.
‘They were clearly well acquainted with each other, it didn’t seem like a new thing. As far as I know they dated for a while.
‘Paige always seemed in a stupor, a daze, like he was controlling her. All I remember is that their relationship wasn’t healthy.’
‘Paige was a young thing who was very much taken advantage of by the men of Hollywood, she was intelligent and talented, it’s a tragedy what happened to her.'”
Cosby – whom has recently become the subject of at least 17 sex attack allegations dating back to the late 60s and 70s – was obsessed with Young who had caught his eye during his many visits to the glitzy Playboy Club where she worked on Hollywood’s Sunset strip.
Cosby was also a regular at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles as he and Hugh Hefner began working on many projects together.”
END
A few years ago, I posted the image you see below, on a private Malibu Facebook group.
The members either lived or grew up in Malibu, generally from the 1940s-1990s.
They all seem to have had several experiences of celebrity encounters in the neighborhoods or beaches of Malibu. (People who worked at Malibu watering holes shared hair-raising stories about residents and heavy drinkers Jan-Michael Vincent and Gary Busey.)
I also notice that many members are from long-established families. Their parents, grandparents, or even great-grandparents moved to Malibu when it was undeveloped, located “away from it all.”
That’s how the movie stars felt when they settled in the Malibu Colony.
Google AI says:
Movie stars began living at the Malibu Colony in the mid-to-late 1920s, with development starting in earnest in 1926 when real estate developer Harold J. Ferguson began leasing parcels from May Rindge to build cottages for Hollywood’s elite. By 1929, the area was known as the Malibu Movie Colony and was attracting a number of famous actors, including Gloria Swanson, Dolores del Rio, and Bing Crosby. GOOGLE AI.
In those eras, Malibu was certainly not as internationally famous as it later became with Gidget, Beach Party movies, The Beach Boys and Malibu Barbie.
I asked the group if anyone remembered Paige Young from 1965-70, the estimated years she lived there.
Of course, many of the Facebook readers recognized the Malibu tile, but no one recognized Paige.
Peter Gowland was the Playboy photographer who produced Paige’s centerfold issue.
He used many locations in and around Malibu for his pinup shoots which was close to his own area of town by Will Rogers Beach and Rustic Canyon.
Until..
finally, one person who contacted me: Henry G.
.
Henry said he knew Paige from the Malibu art scene and used to hike with her, often in Topanga Canyon. Henry remembers Paige living in a cabin in Topanga. He indicated they were “just friends” and hiking buddies.
Again, it happened around 1970.
Henry told me about one time he was with Paige at her home in Topanga Canyon, when she began to “break down and cry.”
Henry asked her what was wrong and she told him that Bill Cosby had raped her.
Henry worked in the television industry and said to Paige that he “always thought Bill was a nice guy.” Paige replied that he is not nice. She told Henry that Cosby is “a piece of shit,” “scum,” “a bastard” and “don’t even get me started.”
I then asked Henry if Paige indicated that Cosby had drugged her before the rape. Henry said he remembers Paige saying she “came to” and “realized she had been raped.”
Henry said at one point in this conversation Paige “tilted her head in the direction of her dresser. I looked over and saw a check made out to Paige signed by Bill Cosby, it had several zeroes.”
In episode 8 of the 2020 documentary Secrets of Playboy, I am shown working in my home office. My voice over recounts the story Henry told me about the Bill Cosby rape.
I had sent some audio comments to the producers of Secrets of Playboy. It was too late to do another in-person interview after I spoke to Henry.
.
In the episode my comment was edited with a couple of different audios. It’s not completely clear what I am saying.
This may be due to legal issues.
I do hope the story is now comprehensible as to what I was told by Henry.
At some point, Henry knew Paige did not have much money. He offered her a place to stay in one of his rental rooms.
This was in Henry’s house located in the Trancas Beach area of Malibu. It was off of Broad Beach Rd., across from the Trancas Market. “Long since torn down.”
Paige stayed at Henry’s house for “only about 3 months” he said.
She had been complaining that the “isolation” in the area was making her “antsy” and “unable to paint.” (this is odd coming from a self-confessed Nature Lover.)
Paige’s cabin was at the southern end of Topanga Canyon Rd., close to the PCH and beach. She frequented Fernwood Market said her friend Veronica. Fernwood Market is the southern end of Topanga Canyon Rd. Paige moved further west along the coast to Trancas Beach, but she found this area too isolated from LA. (Apologies if the map doesn’t transfer.) Paige is featured in her Playboy issue as being a painter living on Malibu Beach with her dog Joshua. Truthful, but more precisely she was probably living closest to Topanga Beach part of Malibu, and her cabin was north of Hwy. 1
Henry also told me that he didn’t see Paige very much the last 2 or so years of her life. She had become “reclusive.” (Maybe, but she lived in Westwood by this time and another Malibu friend Veronica told me it was more difficult to get together with Paige after she moved.)
I asked Henry if Paige ever mentioned Hugh Hefner, or her Playboy experience. He said she didn’t but that he himself had a Playboy experience of his own.
One evening he found himself at the Playboy mansion. Because his companions were “beautiful, young Malibu girls, Henry and a few other males were allowed entrance the mansion.
Henry said at one moment during that evening he and Hefner locked eyes for a few seconds, enough time to exchange a mutual smile.
The next incident was told to me by Paige’s boyfriend and fellow artist Richard Sample.
I believe this happened before 1970. Paige and Richard were not seeing each so much other by then.
This story also appears in chapter Richard Sample Interview #1.
Richard Sample told me he would occasionally pick up Paige at the Playboy Club, after her shift.
She worked at the club “for about 3 months,” he thinks.
Bill Cosby was a frequent visitor and performer at many Playboy Clubs and a close friend of Hugh Hefner during this era.
“Bill Cosby was always trying to put the make on Paige. She didn’t want anything to do with him, she ignored him.”
Richard Sample
One time, when Richard was waiting in his car for Paige to get off her shift at the Playboy club one evening, he said he was close enough to
witness Bill Cosby acting angry at Paige.
Apparently, she had rebuffed yet another one of his advances.
Richard Sample gives an account of Paige at the Playboy Club in the 2014 Daily Mail article.
Richard said during our interview that Paige “went downhill when she started (her association) with the Hefner gang.”
Bill Cosby’s name was found in Paige’s phone book after she died, which I had access to part of.
Recently, I found even more proof.
I spoke with Darlene J. Valentine. She knew Paige as a casual acquaintance from 1970 until her death in 1974.
Mrs. Valentine mentioned that her ex-husband, artist DeWain Valentine, told her that Paige was “a mistress of Bill Cosby.” DeWain and Paige were dating at the time that she was also Cosby’s mistress. And DeWain was dating a lot of women too.
We know Cosby during this era was already dating while married, pursuing, grooming, drugging and raping women.
Some background on the accusations against Cosby.
Bill Cosby was first publicly accused of a drugging and rape in 2004/2005 by Andrea Constand.
Constand and Cosby met through her job at Temple University. They formed a friendship there. Cosby had been a supporter of the university and on the board of trustees for decades. Constand was director of operations for Temple’s women’s basketball team.
Andrea considered Cosby a mentor, and was not prepared for what occurred at Cosby’s family home in Connecticut.
Since Tamara Green, who knew Paige, has long said she was drugged and assaulted by Cosby testified about this behind closed doors in support of Andrea Constand in 2005.
She did an interview about it with Matt Lauer of the Today Show in 2005. (The interview seems to be gone from youtube.)
Tamara was one of a dozen “Jane Does” who testified on behalf of Constand in her suit. These women claimed that Bill Cosby drugged and raped them too. Therefore, Constand’s claims could be corroborated.
Cosby and Constand settled out of court.
Life went back to normal for Bill Cosby.
The sexual assault suit and discussion was quickly forgotten in the media and therefore forgotten amongst the general public.
Soon to recap the 2014 suit Constand filed against Cosby.
Then of course the Hannibal Burress video went viral in 2014 and the rest is history. (Please see my Start here/about page.)
Tamara Green’s reputation and character were disparaged by Cosby’s legal team in both 2005 and 2014/15.
I was lucky to find “Veronica,” friend of Paige’s from Malibu.
She told me via email that Paige was a financially struggling oil painter and Paige told her that Bill Cosby was acting as her “art patron.” He was giving some kind of financial assistance to Paige, possibly including rent on the Topanga Canyon cabin.
Veronica wrote that she thought nothing of it, only that it was very nice of Bill Cosby to help Paige, allowing her to pursue her goal of painting for a living.
Bill Cosby’s name was found in Paige’s phone book after her suicide in 1974, so they definitely knew each other.
Paige frequently shopped at the Fernwood Market, Veronica told me, which is located on the southern part of Topanga Canyon Rd. “Paige never took more than she could carry.”
UPDATE: I interviewed Darlene Valentine, ex-wife of prominent LA artist DeWain Valentine.
Mrs. Valentine was acquainted with Paige Young, Richard Sample and his father Charlie Sample.
She was told by her ex DeWain, that Paige was a “mistress” of Bill Cosby. DeWain himself dated Paige during this time she was Cosby’s mistress.
Darlene said she and Paige were friendly; Paige invited her to an all-female tea party at Paige’s house. (Please see related chapter.)
Darlene also told me she knew that Bill Cosby purchased pot from a friend of hers in Venice Beach. So she was long aware that Cosby was not as “squeaky clean,” as he appeared on TV.
PART 2: Richard Sample Interview
Posted on June 15, 2021
Close up of a small copy: Richard Sample as painted by Paige Young.
To open our interview, I promised Richard on our 2nd day interview, we would end after one hour. It end up being two.
I asked Richard if Paige ever used LSD, the drug that inspired the label “the Psychedelic Era.” Richard said no, not that he ever witnessed or heard.
(Melanie Myers, neighbor who found Paige dead, said on the documentary Secrets of Playboy, that she never witnessed Paige using drugs; she was more into “clean living.”)
I brought up the sex tape mentioned in the Daily Mail article, and I brought up David Shane, who was not mentioned in the article.
Richard said, “I think that that is something Dennis (from a Los Alamos, California art gallery) told me about Jonathan Winters. And that tape. I think Dennis knows something about that tape.”
Richard said this is all he can remember.
He has not heard of David Shane.
Richard again mentioned how he and Paige were regulars at Barney’s Beanery and added that they sometime socialized there with the Smothers Brothers.
Malibu Friends:
“In Malibu we hung out a lot with Don Dwiggens. He wrote the book ‘The Life and Loves of Frank Sinatra’. Another one was ‘The Bachelor.’ “Dwiggins took a lot of pictures of Paige.”
Richard does not know if these photos were were ever published. “His wife still lives in Malibu.”
“He was killed in a car accident.” (1988)
I had never heard of Don Dwiggins and neither have most people. It turns out he was a longtime LA reporter, prolific author, pilot, stunt pilot and aviation historian. And a man of numerous hobbies apparently.
Dwiggins lived in Malibu for decades where he was a legend. There is an in- depth tribute for Don Dwiggins that appeared in the LAT, at the bottom of this page. It is written by Jack Smith, one of Don’s good friends. Smith is a legendary Los Angeles columnist and writer who spotted Huston and Hefner playing backgammon, probably at Pips and possibly Paige Young.
More Malibu friends:
“I had my paintings in Jack Bailey’s (Queen for a Day host) gallery and many of my paintings sold when his gallery was shown on a TV show.”
Jack Bailey resided in Malibu during the mid-60s where he ran the Jack Bailey Gallery for about 2 years. There are articles in the Malibu newspapers to support this.
“He owned about 65 of my paintings.”
Vincent Price was another patron of Richard’s. Price is well-known for his art collection.
About the ending of his relationship with Paige: “I had moved out of the studio in Venice and moved to Solvang, and Paige stayed there. (Venice) She was supposed to pay me rent, but she never did. I went and asked her to leave.”
Paige had moved out and and at some point moved onto a houseboat in Marina Del Rey. (See chapter: Paige’s Most Public Year 1969)
“I only talked to her on her houseboat for about 10 minutes. I don’t know who owned it.”
I got the feeling it was an uncomfortable and sad conversation.
We again discussed Rex Ramsey, who tried to steal Richard’s Corvette and Paige’s Mustang.
The Corvette that Rex Ramsey tried to steal: His wife got a flat tire in the Corvette and was on the side of the freeway, when a semi-truck flattened it.
I have spoken to Rex Ramsey briefly on the phone. He said he does not remember Paige, but does remember her husband of one year, Mark F. Segal, his long time friend from high school.
Ramsey hasn’t answered or returned any of my phone calls since that first one.
Richard brought up Hugh Hefner.
“Paige told me she overheard a conversation, with Hefner, about selling women to business men from a foreign country. They were talking about the money.”
Richard Sample
I responded “For what, like, sex or types of sexual favors, or….?”
Yes, he nodded without elaborating.
I prompted with “When Paige told you this, did she seem shocked, upset or…?”
“She said ‘I hope that doesn’t happen to me.'”
He added, “If I could, I would shoot Hugh Hefner and probably get away with it.”
I pressed but he didn’t answer.
Sample just said “Hefner ruined a lot of good women.”
Anything else you can recall that Paige said about Hugh Hefner or anyone connected to him? “Not that I can remember.”
Richard said he never met Hefner nor hung out with any of his crowd. Richard expressed to me and reporter Ryan Parry that he had a distaste for Hefner and “that crowd.” And he let that be known to Paige.
In my opinion, Paige took this into consideration when sharing things about Hefner and “that crowd.” She avoided telling Richard about it. I think she must have been very distressed to share the particular incidents that she did.
Paige personality:
Did Paige have an opinion about the Vietnam war?
“She said ‘ They should just bomb it and get it over with.'”
Did Paige attend any anti-war demonstrations?
Richard shook his head no and kept shaking his head no as I asked, “So that wouldn’t have been something she would have ever done?
Because I have not found any voter registration records for Paige, but I have found many records for her family members, I asked if he ever knew Paige to have voted for President.
Several minutes long pause.
“Who is the president that had a brother who let that girl drown in Chappaquiddick?“
“Teddy, brother of President John Kennedy.“
“Well, we had a picture of Teddy Kennedy hanging up that we would throw darts at, Paige was there (visiting) and she said ‘I hope he gets what he deserves.'”
I looked around at Richard Sample’s art work. He showed me some of his paintings that are “copies” of famous artists like Picasso, Miro, Kandinsky. He said he paints these because it pays well.
I apologized to Richard if I told him any information about Paige that was upsetting. He said it didn’t.
For example, Richard did not know that Paige was born Diana Cotterell or anything at all about her childhood. (Everyone I have talked to was unaware that Paige was ever Diana Cotterell who grew up in the San Fernando Valley.)
Richard misses Idaho and wishes he were still living there.
He mentions John Chapman, President of the NEA.? “I worked for him. And he bought many of my paintings, He owned a mansion in Sun Valley.”
Info: Don Dwiggins. Paige and Richard’s Malibu friend. Richard says Paige modeled for him several times. It was hard to choose which article about Dwiggins to include, there were so many of them. Lots of reviews of his Hollywood aviation stunt pilot books.
Lower article by legendary LA writer Jack Smith.
Eagle Rock Sentinel OCT.31, 1968
The timing of his accident is chilling….
LAT March 29. 1989.
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 in the head.
Below is the account neighbor Melanie Myers gave to reporter Ryan Parry of the Daily Mail Dec. 2014 issue.
“Paige had the whole thing planned down to the last detail… It was a Palm Sunday and she came to tell me she was going to kill herself. She stayed in the back of the house where we (B.J.) lived and I was at the bathroom window. She comes up to the window and calls out to me “I want to show you something.” I couldn’t be bothered by any more of her drama. But she was like, “No, you’ve gotta come and see it.” So I go to her apartment and she gave me a guided tour …of her suicide scene in her bedroom….It was chilling..there was a large American flag draped across her bed and there was a pentagram laid out on the wooden floor…I remember her showing me around it because it was somehow important, but I didn’t know what it meant.”
But it was the bedroom was that shocked Myers the most.
“It was covered floor to ceiling with photos of Hugh Hefner, there were news clippings, magazine articles, everything you could think of. Written across it was something like “Hugh Hefner is the devil.” The whole wall was a shrine saying, ‘I hate Hugh Hefner,’ the crux of her anger was against him. That was the message she wanted to get across to me. She was pointing up at things, showing me around it. She’s put a lot of work into this, it must have taken her days.
Myers said that Young then calmly explained that she planned to kill herself.
She produced a gun and put it into her mouth…lay back on her bed and said, ‘this is how I’m going to do it.’
“It was chilling. We were friends but not the best of friends, I was always bitching about her and her dog, so I was scared. I thought maybe she could shoot me, you know, take me with her, it was all so weird. I thought, I’ve got to get out of here.”
“Myers quickly retreated to her apartment and called the police. LAPD officers arrived soon afterwards and cordoned of the whole of Eastbourne Ave.”
Myers said, “The cops didn’t want to go in her apartment first, so they asked me to go check on her, so I did.”
“I walked into her apartment and they were behind me. I walked into her bedroom and she was lying dead on the bed. She had shot herself in the head as she told me she would. There was a huge mass of blood, her whole bed was soaked red, it was shocking. But she looked happy and very peaceful, she didn’t look in distress.”
“The cops had Paige’s suicide note and read some of it to me…the whole thing was about her anger towards the men who she believed had chewed her up and spat her out. The two men who got the most attention were Hugh Hefner and the director John Huston. I know she dated Huston for a while and had just gotten back from a trip to Ireland with him.”
Paige expressed anger to other Hollywood stars who had used her.
“I believe Paige was making a huge statement in a bid to get at the elite of Hollywood…She thought the story of her death would spark a big scandal, but it didn’t. Sadly no one cared.”
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.
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 seems 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. 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.
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 thought of how 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 greatly resembles the scene she remembers in Paige’s apartment the day of her suicide.
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 will 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 equality or feminism.
That was not and is not my motivation.
I always say “Let the facts speak for themselves.”
The reader or viewer can decide. I do believe the stories the women who have had experiences of abuse and manipulative behavior (and more serious accusations) on the part of Hugh Hefner.
I believe certain (or most) celebrities got a “pass” to abuse women when they were on the grounds of the Playboy Mansion. (And maybe elsewhere.)If abuse or grooming or manipulation or brutality and rape happened to be what “turned them on,” Hef wasn’t going to forbid or judge his friends.
This series first aired in 2022. Paige Young’s story appears in Episode 8 entitled Predators Ball.
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 and doesn’t matter to me; Paige’s story is allegorical of time, place, people and national and world events.
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 post-Playboy. 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’s and Playboy Magazine’s Myth.
Marilyn is often cited in the “Playmate Curse” articles. (See Start Here chapter)
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 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.
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. 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 a nerd of his era.
One of the clips in the opening of Secrets of Playboy features an early 1970s Hugh Hefner. He is 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.
One note is about famous actor and Mansion regular Tony Curtis.
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.
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 jaded 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 g 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
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.
Paige Young would have been an early victim of what later became a sex tape scandal or even revenge porn.
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.
My opinion is that 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.”
I don’t imagine 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 following 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 Paige’s name ever coming up in the Playboy universe. And if it did, they were told the “drug overdose” story.
Female Fixer and the bobbie Arnstein Problem
During a phone conversation, an individual working on Secrets of Playboy mentioned to me that he/she 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.
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 especially awful time for Unflattering publicity to come out about Hefner and 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.
Hugh Hefner was looking for a property in LA.
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.”
Back at the Chicago mansion, Bobbie Arnstein held down the fort during Hefner’s increasingly frequent times away.
Los Angeles Times 4/23/1971
Connie Kreski is mentioned as a guest with her date Leslie Bricusse.
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.
Could Paige Young been one of the former Playmates reported as present?
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 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.
1970/1 Paige At Pasadena Art Museum With Warhol Wearing A Rudi Gernreich Dress. Meet Paige’s Date Bill Gardner & Artist DeWain Valentine. Venice Beach Studio. Art Scene LA.(Long) *Updated* 3/8/25
Posted on July 21, 2020
Around May 15, 1970, An appearance by Paige Young at the Pasadena Art Museum (PAM) was recorded by Marvene Jones of the Los Angeles Evening News, and her photographer. Jones’ column, The Social Butterfly, Focused on hip happenings of the LA social set.
The occasion at PAM was a gala opening for the new Andy Warhol exhibit.
Warhol himself makes an appearance, obviously a big deal.
Los Angeles Evening Citizen 5/16/1970
Rudi Gernreich is famous for his aesthetic contributions to fashion in the 1960s.
Did Paige get the dress directly from Rudi? I think so. Paige Young and Rudi Gernreich lived or hung around Venice Beach at the time. Both were guests at Venice Beach artists’ openings. Rudi Gernreich was and is known for his innovative, modern, risque and gender-bending clothing. He is celebrated to this day for his impact on 1960s fashion and way beyond..
At the end of the article, Marvene Jones gossips that Paige removed her Gernreich dress in the VIP area, later in the evening.
Who is Bill Gardner? pictured with Paige.
From his own website:
William Louis Gardner
William Louis Gardner was born in Minnesota and finished school there. He
Bill Gardner’s website
joined the US Air Force and worked at the Pentagon in the Target Library of the world. Went on to the Pasadena Playhouse to learn television and movie making. He got a job with actress Marion Davies at her home. There He met a movie agent and started a career in Hollywood. William Louis Gardner has worked in Hollywood as the agent, personal secretary, PR advisor and manager for for Mickey Rooney, Jonathan Winters, Jill St.John, Bobby Van and director, John Huston. William Gardner is the author of two books, “Confessions of a Hollywood Agent,” and “The Games End.”
According to the Jones article column 2, Paige Young and Andy Warhol discuss a role for Paige in an upcoming Andy Warhol film.
It’s not something that ever happened. I think the two were making flirty small talk. Ironically, Paige mentions Warhol and the Pop Art scene in an interview with Playboy magazine.
She said about Pop Art “it gives me a headache.” And
“I wouldn’t waste my paint on it.”
Marvene Jones also says that Mr. and Mrs. DeWain Valentine made up a foursome that evening with Paige and Bill Gardner. Valentine had an exhibit showing some of his large cast polyester resin pieces at the Pasadena Art Museum. It was being shown along with the Warhol exhibit.
PAM has been called the Norton Simon Museum since October 1975. (An interesting LA story itself.) Classic Hollywood actress and widow of producer David Selznick, Jennifer Jones married Norton Simon, a very wealthy man. He took over the museum in the mid-1970s.
DeWain Valentine, sculptor from Colorado, was a young and rising artist in the 1960s Venice Beach art scene.
Los Angeles Time March 10, 1968.
Valentine is considered one of the innovators of the “Light and Space” art movement. The others include Larry Bell, Robert Irwin, Helen Pashgian, James Turrell, John McCracken, Fred Eversley, and Doug Wheeler.
Many of these artists lived or rented a studio in Venice Beach due to the cheap rent. This was continuing a practice already established by this point in time.
brief Background of the Venice Beach Art scene:
Before the
Light and Space artists emerged in the 1960s, there was the Ferus Group. Named so because they exhibited at the Ferus Gallery, which opened in 1957.
The Ferus Group includes California based artists: Ed Keinholz (original part-owner of the Gallery), Wally Berman, Billy Al Bengston, Ed Ruscha, Larry Bell, Robert Irwin, Ed Moses, Craig Kauffman, Ken Price and John Altoon.
Artists Jay DeFeo and Sonia Gechtoff from San Francisco.
Ferus Gallery included New York artists in their exhibits: Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Frank Stella.
The curators and owners of the Ferus Gallery who helped bring them to renown are Walter Hopps and Irving Blum.
Hopps had the eye for cutting edge art. Irving Blum was good at selling it.
Many of southern California artists lived in Venice Beach.
The Ferus Gallery gang interacted with Andy Warhol during his well documented stay in Los Angeles in the early 1960s. Warhol drove with actor Taylor Mead, assistant Gerard Malanga and painter Wynn Chamberlain from NYC to LA.
It was Warhol’s very first trip to LA.
The trip plan was to catch opening night for Warhol’s 2nd exhibit at Ferus. His Campbell’s soup can collection has already shown there to jeers and laughter.
The Southern California artists were allowed to live and create far away from the competitive and critical Art world.
They found freedom to creativity outside of New York City.
Ed Moses once said “No one cared what we were doing.”
Alongside this growing art scene in Venice Beach in the 1950s and early 1960s, the “Beatnik Scene” was happening.
Author Lawrence Lipton documented and helped popularize Beats and Beatniks into a popular culture trope.
Lipton lived and observed the culture of people dropping out of the work-a-day world of post-war affluence.
They were moving away from the promotion of the so-called American Dream culture. This shift was noticeable in places like Venice West, California, North Beach, San Francisco, and Greenwich Village, NYC.
Lawrence Lipton wrote about the real life characters of the beatnik culture in his book Holy Barbarians.
Valley Times. November 7, 1959. The year that Holy Barbarians was published. Beatniks became a fad into the early 1960s and permanently after that..
The hotspots for Beats and Beatnik culture:
Venice Beach and Hermosa Beach communities in LA, North Beach in San Francisco and Greenwich Village in NYC.
Carolyn Keith on Pinterest.
Trope of a Beatnik Girl from the 1950s.
Here is an image of a Beatnik girl with many the cliches of Beatnik images in popular culture.
She has wine, cigarettes, a black beret, and black clothing.
Movies:
1959 Mr. Tucker, proprietor of a Los Angeles coffee house, hires three down-on-their-luck classic beatnik patrons. They are out-of-work actor John Mapes, struggling writer Ray Miller, and George Leland. George is the wayward son of movie star Rita Leland. They agree to participate in an armored car robbery. This occurs during a four-hour stopover in Chicago on the trio’s train trip from Los Angeles to New York. Mapes’ worried wife Jeanne joins him on the train, concerned about his not having had a job in more than a year. (wikipedia)
Disappointingly, The Rebel Set is not about Beatnik culture.
The film begins in a Beatnik coffeehouse with Beatnik patrons. Two of the patrons are struggling actors. They are recruited to join in an armored car heist in Chicago.
The group of Ferus artists were organizing as a Cultural force at the same time the Beatniks were becoming a pop culture force.
Over the next couple of years, Ruscha fell in with the artists orbiting the Ferus Gallery, which opened in 1957 on La Cienega Boulevard in West Hollywood. Founded by the curator Walter Hopps, his wife Shirley Hopps, and the artist Edward Kienholz, Ferus quickly became the ground zero of Los Angeles art, hosting exhibitions by Kienholz and a roster of talents that included John Altoon, Larry Bell, Billy Al Bengston, Robert Irwin, John McCracken, and Ed Moses, as well as Ruscha. Stylistically they were a diverse lot whose efforts ranged across figuration, Expressionism and Minimalist abstraction and this was no less true of Ruscha’s output, which ran the gamut from Pop Art to conceptualism. ART NEWS Nov. 2, 2023. Article about Ed Ruscha by Howard Halle.
The Ferus ‘Studs’ the new generation of artists, young abstract painters, ceramicists and assemblage makers who had been flying under the wire now were the featured artists at the Ferus Gallery. The Gallery was ripe for the adventurous artists who would set the new bar in contemporary styles. The Ferus Gallery had belief in the performance of their work and was one of the first galleries to support it.
Ferusgallery.com
END
The Light and Space or Finish Fetish art movement was born in the mid-1960s.
DeWain Valentine was a key player along with Larry Bell, Doug Wheeler and Robert Irwin, Helen Pashigan, Peter Alexander and more.
Originally from Ft. Collins, Colorado, Valentine developed a type of polyester resin material. This material allowed him to make large scale pieces like the one shown below.
Previously, the material would crack when making a piece this size: approx: 17 1/4x 17/4 x 7/8.
Valentine was a newcomer to Venice Beach compared to the others artists, he arrived with his wife Darlene and sons in 1965.
He had been hired to teach a course on plastics at the UCLA Extension program.
From my reading, he experienced a rapid success on the West Coast.
For much more detail on these art movements which established the Los Angeles art scene as one on par with New York City or even Europe, watch the documentary “The Cool School, ” available on Netflix.
Richard Sample
Told me that after he moved to a studio-home in Venice (late 1960s), he invited Paige to live with him.
Richard’s father is artist and western jewelry maker, Charlie Sample. He was able to get Richard the studio space in Venice Beach.
I asked Richard the location and he said he could not remember it, but that it was quite close to the ocean and his artist neighbors and friends were, DeWain Valentine and Larry Bell. (See chapter: Interview with Richard Sample)
Paige refers to her “new Venice art studio” and discusses the art scene there in several interviews with Playboy magazine and US newspapers in 1969 and 1970. (See chapter: Most Public Year 1969)
Richard Sample and Paige Young joined the community of Venice artists. They were “not working with the new materials,” to quote Paige in an interview. She was referring to her neighbors and friends, Valentine, Bell, Irwin, etc.
De Wain Valentine, Concave Circle Blue Green, 1968–2017. Cast polyester resin, 23 1/2 x 23 1/2 x 9 7/8 inches. © De Wain Valentine. Courtesy of the artist and Almine Rech. Photo: Melissa Castro Duarte. Brooklyn Rail.
A female friend does remember Paige talking about her Venice art studio. For the most part, I have confirmed that Paige’s Playboy publicity about her personal life mostly aligned with the truth of her real life.
She did live in Malibu as her Playmate feature and interviews state. However, technically it was the southern end of Topanga Canyon near the beach across the Pacific Coast Highway. So Topanga Beach?
Paige mentions Venice Beach as an “art colony,” where she now lives.
Philadelphia Inquirer Jun. 27, 1969
I found the location of this Venice studio:62-68 Market St.
Research and interviews show that artist Robert Irwin lived across the street from Valentine. His name was not mentioned by Richard Sample.
At one point I asked Richard if he “knew Ed Ruscha or Robert Irwin” and some others. He did not recognize those names, he was certain about Larry Bell and DeWain Valentine.
Richard Sample’s niece Ellen Sample remembers visiting her uncle and grandfather Charles Sample at the art studio/home in Venice Beach. Charles Sample was a jewelry maker and had a retail storefront in addition to his studio.
Ellen, a child at the time, remembers hearing frequent talk about a man named “Valentine.”
Richard and Ellen both recalled being able to see the beach from the studio. 62-68 Market St., a block from the ocean, is a large structure. Many artists rented their own studios according to Ellie. This is why the address lists a range of numbers.
Richard Sample is listed with an address of 63 Market St. Venice, in a newspaper marriage announcement, 1968.
Ellen texted me a story: she thinks her Uncle Richard sublet the Venice studio to Paige at one point.
Ellen recalls “tensions” about Paige among Ellen’s aunts.
These women were the wives of Charles Sample and his sons.
Ellen said her own mother was not bothered by Paige living at the studio. However, her mother did “go with her sister-in-laws to see what was going on at the studio.” Ellen says the most tense time was when Paige’s Playboy issue was current and shortly after. (This would have been November of 1968 and 1969. In 1969 Paige was frequently traveling all over the US to promote her photos published in a”current” issue of the magazine.
Richard Sample told me he was forced to ask Paige to leave the Venice studio because she never paid him rent. (See chapter Richard Sample interview)
I have learned that Paige was not a good manager of money.
I asked Ellen if it was a possibility that Richard felt pressured to ask Paige to leave due to the tension with the women in the family.
Ellen said she thought it was possible, but just didn’t know for certain.
DeWain Valentine has spoken about his Venice studio in several art magazine interviews and the influence it had on his art.
Mrs. Darlene Valentine told me in a telephone conversation that Paige was one of many women Valentine “slept with” or “dated” during those days.
She remembered the night at the Pasadena Art Museum, but not specifically that she double dated with Paige. She does remember that Warhol superstar Ultra Violet was along with Warhol.
She does not recall meeting Bill Gardner, Paige’s date of the evening.
DeWain Valentine fondly remembers the friendships with his many fellow artists. He had a special connection with Larry Bell and Robert Irwin. This was particularly true during the 1960s and early 70s.
DeWain Valentine above states that he lived in and eventually purchased the 62 -65 Market St.
61-65 is the address listed here.
And indeed, several records with his signature and name can be seen in public building archives from LA County. They are now available online.
DeWayne Valentine spent many years living and creating art in Hawaii after the 1970s.
When he moved back to LA from Hawaii, it was to a large studio and home in Gardena.
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From the Documentary “The Cool School.” Market St, where Valentine, Bell and Irwin, probably others, had art studios. Richard Sample and Paige Young made art and lived, briefly. Paige lived or rented the studio space for about one year. When she could not pay the rent for several months, Richard Sample “had no choice but to ask her to leave.” When he went to tell her this, Sample found her living on a houseboat in Marina del Rey.
From an 800-page + biography of Andy Warhol.
I have uploaded these paragraphs from the Warhol Biography describing the night Paige attended the Warhol opening at PAM, written up in the Social Butterfly column.
Notice the sentence “Specimen Days, a comedy about Walt Whitman’s time as a Civil War Nurse.”
<<<<<<<<<From the Marvene Jones column above. Andy’s new movie idea, Specimens of Man.
Paige Young in Los Angeles 