Paige Young in Los Angeles1963 Marriage & 1964 Divorce to Mark F. Segal. Meet Marvin M. Mitchelson, Beverly Hills Lawyer. Pamela & James Mason. Post Divorce Move To Beach. Updated 12/19/24
Posted on May 26, 2020
1963 October 1st Paige Young marries Mark Frederick Segal in Las Vegas, per impossible to read ledger records easily found on ancestry.com.
The record shows only the date and names.
It was likely an elopement in one of those 24-hour Las Vegas wedding chapels.
Paige’s mother Donna eloped for a Vegas wedding to marry her 2nd husband, Jack Holroyd, in 1958.
An old friend of Paige’s named Joan Edwards told me driving from LA to Las Vegas, getting married at one of several legal wedding chapels, “was a popular thing to do back then.”
Paige’s new husband was born in 1942, the son of WW2 veteran Harold Segal and his wife. Mark was a marine private who took combat training in 1961 at Camp Pendleton.
Mark F. Segal was also a car dealer at “Sea-Gull Motors,” a business started by his father, according to newspaper ads in the late 1950s, and Segal family friend Rex Ramsey.
Sea-Gull Motors either had several locations or moved locations several times in the Sherman Oaks/Van Nuys area in the 1950s and 1960s: 7211 Balboa Avenue, 4425 Van Nuys Blvd. and 6738 Sepulveda Blvd.
This is the only photo I’ve found of Mark F. Segal, Van Nuys News and Valley Green Sheet Aug. 17, 1961.
Rex Ramsey, a friend of Mark Segal’s, was a semi-successful race car designer and a Hollywood stunt driver in Herbie the Car.
He told me during our phone conversation that Mark’s father, Harold Segal, also owned the business Fox Auto Service, which “was like Triple A in the San Fernando Valley. Rex added that the Segal family had several brothers in addition to Mark and the family was “pretty well-off.”
1963-1964
Paige and Mark live together as husband and wife at 4133 Crisp Canyon Road in Sherman Oaks, “south of the boulevard.” Ramsey said that that the home was a cabin type, the kind that Hollywood stars would rent on the weekend “to get away from it all.”
This Crisp Canyon house was very close to the neighborhood where Diana Cotterell, as Paige was known back then, lived and attended elementary school: Dixie Canyon, and junior high school, Van Nuys Junior High.
From a notice in the Van Nuys News and Valley Green Sheet, Jun. 19, 1962.
After she married, Paige continues to board her horse Hamish at nearby Sepulveda Stables.
I corresponded with a woman who told me that when she was 12 years old, she met Paige at Sepulveda Stables where they both boarded a horse; Paige was about 19/20 years old and Paige drove her to the house on Crisp Canyon Rd., to hang out and drink lemonade, around 1962 and 1963. She is the one who tipped me off about the Paige living there.
August 28, 11 months after her Las Vegas marriage, Paige and her attorney file for divorce from Mark F. Segal.
Paige is represented by rising Beverly Hills attorney Marvin M. Mitchelson.
Below are just a few of the dozens of divorce documents I obtained from a records department located in Downtown LA. I picked out some key pages to post.
The filing states that Mark threatened Paige and her animals with bodily harm “on numerous occasions,” and on August 17, 1964, “brandished a knife in her presence,” and “Plaintiff’s profession is that of an artist and painter and on or about June 15, 1964, defendant maliciously and with intent to destroy plaintiff’s artwork drove nails through plaintiff’s prized paintings and further did mischievous damage by driving nails through plaintiff’s personal belongings including an expensive fur stole.”
Paige requests and is granted a temporary restraining order from the court.
Mark quickly countersues and denies all of Paige’s claims of abuse. He claims that she is the one who caused him mental anguish and suffering.
I do not find in the documents further explaining what Mark meant by that, no further details on what Paige did to him. With the exception of one complaint “She paid more attention to her animals than to me.”
Marvin Mitchelson, on behalf of client Paige, asks for alimony, lawyer’s fees and court costs: “Plaintiff is not employed and presently embarking on a career as a painter, therefore needs the money from Defendant who is able bodied and employed.”
Marks balks at this request and states he can’t afford it.
Paige sues Mark Segal for divorce after less than one year of marriage. She is represented by rising celebrity attorney Marvin M. Mitchelson.
The divorce filing was picked up by the wire service UPI and appeared in several newspapers across the country.
These headlines might be called “clickbait” today.
There is a high probability that Marvin M. Mitchelson was behind the above stories.
I found evidence for this in Mitchelson’s only biography which I will quote from extensively.
“Ladies Man, The Life and Trials of Marvin Mitchelson” by John A. Jenkins.
“Beginning early in his career, Marvin had a belief in the power of publicity and looked for ways to garner some for his cases.
No matter how trivial the cause of action, if he (M.M.M.) found an angle, he could turn it into a story. And in the early days when his client list was still thin, he could gin up publicity by filing an oddball lawsuit himself.”
…”But Mitchelson knew that Man Bites Dog was what sold papers…this was 1964 and he had to work with the material fate sent him.”
Patti Corman recalled that for her in 1976 divorce, Mitchelson “called AP, UPI and every other P there is!”
This is likely the reason Mitchelson took Paige’s case despite her lack of ability to pay him any upfront fees. Her case was unusual or “oddball” enough for it to be of use to him.
I would really like to know how Paige and Mitchelson may have met or who introduced them.
Hollywood History with Celebrity Connections
Only a few days after the articles about the Paige Young/Mark Segal divorce is published in several newspapers, more news breaks that Beverly Hills society matron and LA talk show host, Pamela Mason, has won an unprecedented amount of money in a divorce settlement from husband of 20 years: suave British-Hollywood actor, James Mason.
Mrs. Mason’s lawyer is Marvin M. Mitchelson.
Sept.1, 1964 Pasadena Independent, Pasadena, California. 1.5 millions stated here.
Author Jenkins discusses the 1 million plus dollar settlement Mason case:
“Afterward in the courthouse corridor, “James (Mason) called the settlement ‘a flea bite.’ After all, he was getting off the hook without giving her any alimony at all. But Pamela was ecstatic. Her settlement was one of the first to break the magic million-dollar mark, and Mitchelson had gotten her, and himself, a ton of publicity about it.”
“The Mason case set the tone for the Hollywood divorces to come. Pamela was so grateful she did everything she could to make Marvin Mitchelson a household name. Pamela introduced Mitchelson to her divorcing friends…she became his entrée to those rarefied upper brackets of Beverly Hills and Hollywood. Pamela hired him eight months later for a 138, 500 breach-of-contract suit against actress Loretta Young on behalf of Pamela’s sixteen-year-old daughter Portland.”
“Pamela Mason introduced Mitchelson to her divorcing friends, all of whom were wildly delighted with the results, she later said.”
END
The Mason case was a first as far as Hollywood divorces go, and a major breakthrough for Mitchelson’s career.
He seemed to be on a roll in 1964.
Michelson represented legendary lyricist Alan Lerner’s estranged wife, Micheline, in the couples’ contentious custody fight.
Roy Cohn was Micheline’s divorce attorney in NYC. Yes, that Roy Cohn, who had a great admirer in Mitchelson. And later Donald Trump, who ditched him when he lay dying of AIDS.
Mark F. Segal came from a fairly well off Sherman Oaks family according to Mark’s friend and stunt car driver Rex Ramsey, quoted above.
Still Mark Segal wasn’t anywhere near the league of My Fair Lady and Gigi composer Alan Lerner.
However, both men did have some things in common that most divorcing men that year did not, and that was estranged wives represented by rising lawyer Marvin M. Michelson.
The other is being found in contempt of court by failing to pay alimony to the estranged wives.
Mark’s attorney is Bernard Echt from Sherman Oaks. Echt, a few years down the road, would represent the milkman who was being sued by Vincent Bugliosi for suspected impregnation of his wife. Strange yet true.
An initial agreement is reached quickly: Sept. 18, 1964. Mark is required to pay Paige alimony, but only for six months.
This would be about $1000 in 2017, so the equivalent of $6000 in 2017.
1964 November 24: Paige and her grandmother Virginia LaRocca are sworn-in for testimony in a Los Angeles courthouse, probably 111 Hill Street, for the divorce trial; Mark is a no-show.
Virginia LaRocca testifies for the plaintiff, her granddaughter Paige. An interlocutory decree of divorce is granted to Paige on grounds of extreme cruelty. But it was never finalized according to the clerk who helped me in DTLA, in a building across the street from Hill St, in a basement where they keep old hard copy records.
Paige waives her right to any further alimony payments beyond the six months. Mark is also ordered to pay Marvin Mitchelson $300 (about $2072 in 2017 dollars) and $15.00 in court costs around $100 today.
Paige is awarded a 1953 MG Roadster; Mark is ordered to sign the title over to her. Paige gets to keep certain antiques and wedding gifts. Mark gets to keep his home at 4133 Crisp Canyon Rd. in Sherman Oaks.
Both parties are ordered to not annoy, molest or harass the other.
1965
This year shows Mark has not been making his required alimony and lawyer’s fees since 1964.
Marvin M. Michelson puts the hammer down on Mark Segal this year. For every month Mark fails to make his monthly alimony payment to Paige and the lawyer’s fees, Michelson goes to court files a suit for contempt.
It turned out to be all 12 months.
Paige’s cousin Chris told me about the last time he saw Paige.
She had a brand new yellow Mustang outside her apartment in Sherman Oaks. I told Chris about the 1953 MG that Paige had won in the divorce. Chris thinks she sold the MG to buy the yellow Mustang.
Paige moves to Malibu in late 1964/early 1965.
Months before this conversation with Chris Young, Richard Sample told me he remembers Paige owning a yellow Mustang.
When she was living in her “chicken coop” house near the beach from 1964/5 to about 1968.
Richard and Chris Young never met.
By default Paige would have owned a 1964 or 1965 Ford Mustang in yellow. There were 2 yellows if it was 1964.
“Since 1964 the Ford Mustang has utilized a multitude of shades of yellow to adorn their famous pony car. Below is a year-to-year breakdown of the yellow shades (with paint code in parentheses, if available) we all have come to love so much.
1964: Ford unveils a couple different shades for the inaugural release of the Mustang, a pale hue called Phoenician Yellow (7) and a brighter hue of Sunlight Yellow (V).
1965: Phoenician Yellow (7) is kept while the Sunlight Yellow (V) is replaced with a lighter hue called Springtime Yellow (8, only available in the Spring of 1965.”) From the website Yellow Mustang Registry.
A 1964 Ford Mustang in Sunlight Yellow. yellowmustangregistry
Approx. 1968 is when Paige moved to a cabin-studio in Topanga Canyon, with financial help from Bill Cosby. According to Paige’s friend Veronika from Malibu beach and Topanga. On the topic of cars Veronika said Paige did not own one, she hitchhiked or asked friends for rides.
I will be publishing a chapter on this soon. Published and appears at the bottom of the main menu.
1950s #1 Updated 11/4/25: 1950 Census. Gardena. Move to San Fernando Valley. Ned & Virginia LaRocca. The Marinello/Bartletts. Recording Industry LA. Leith Stevens.
Posted on May 12, 2020
San Fernando Valley abbreviated SFV.
The 1950 census
gives more information about the LaRocca/Cotterell family unit.
We seem the family listed at a residence in Gardena at 1830 W. 147th.
Enlarge the document and you see that Joseph’s occupation is Radio Orchestra Manager, Virginia, a Christian Science Practitioner.
Donna has an empty box for occupation, her daughters Constance S. is listed as 7 years and Diana L. as 5 years.
Constance would have been in the second grade and Diana, kindergarten, if she went.
See the listing for Virginia LaRocca, CSP, at this same address but no Joseph is listed.
It’s unusual that Joseph and Virginia weren’t listed together. The married couple had been listed together every other year for decades, both in directories and voter registrations.
I first connected the family to 13055 Moorpark St. address by a city building permit dated Dec. of 1952.
Christian Young, a relative of Paige Young’s, told me in a phone conversation about a memory from his childhood.
“The house on Moorpark had a cabinet you could crawl through and get to their grandparents’ side (of the house).”
It seems reconstruction was made into a duplex, Ned and Virginia are on one side, Donna and the girls are on the other.
More specifically, off of the intersection of Coldwater Canyon and Ventura Blvd.
The duplex on Moorpark & Ethel, is located on the west side of Studio City, close to the eastern border with Sherman Oaks.
The Los Angeles River is nearby the house, as is Sportsman’s Lodge; a classic Hollywood and SFV landmark.
It’s recently been totally or partially demolished.
Ned & family were aware of this part of the SFV area for some time before their move.
Joseph’s only sister of many brothers was named Kathryn Marinello.
She and her husband Anthony, opened a food store at 13251 Moorpark in 1947, seen below.
“New Business Filings in the Valley” Van Nuys News
There is a 1947 City document I have been unable to download; indicating a “food store” at 13251 Moorpark St. The building was not owned by the Marinellos but a business announced, as seen here.
Mildred and Clifton’s first child James is recorded as 1 year old.
Their daughter Donna Lee was born only a few years later. Looks like she was named for Donna LaRocca Cotterell, and Diana Lee Cotterell.
Meanwhile……Diana’s father Robert Morgan Cotterell also moved to the SFV around this time, but further west of his daughters and ex-wife.
His new wife (1949) Patricia/Pat Frick and their two children born in 1950 and 1951, started out in the Canoga Park/Winnetka area.
Robert’s daughters by Donna V., were living in Gardena when “Bob and Pat” were parenting 2 toddlers on Lurline Ave.
I can’t imagine they saw each other that often but who knows?
It’s the first of many moves around LA for the Cotterell family due to Bob Cotterell Sr.’s career at Douglas Aircraft.
We do not know exactly why the LaRocca family moved to the SFV.
However, we know they were part of a massive migration to the area after World War 2, from both inside and outside California.
“The end of WW2 transformed the Valley and vastly accelerated its growth
with: vast tracts of suburban housing, shopping centers and industrial parks where chicken ranches, orchards and cattle ranches and wheat fields once existed. The 1940s and 50s, when I was growing up, the Valley was full of movie cowboys, beautiful ranches and fine horses.”
Jerry England at cowboyup.com
“In the five years after the war, the population (of SFV) more than doubled to 402,538 residents-the pastoral San Fernando Valley was suddenly the ninth-busiest urban area in the nation. Valley society was a mix of young suburbanites, older families who had come west to try their luck as engineers, animators, or pioneers in the new field of television, and ranchers trying to hang on in the face of the new hordes.”
The San Fernando Valley: America’s Suburb by Kevin Roderick
I discovered that Ned LaRocca spent most of the 1950s working as an “orchestra manager.”
He worked for composer/conductor Leith Stevens.
I saw this information through Ned’s death certificate, seen below.
I can confirm two Leith Stevens projects that have a credit as “contractor” for Ned LaRocca: A Doris Day album recorded in 1951 at 1032 Sycamore Street.
It was a studio known at that time as “The Annex.”
The website careerexplorer.com defines an orchestra contractor is: “He or she has the job of finding the appropriate musicians for Broadway shows, television episodes and commercials.”
Ned had experience adapting to a new mass medium.
In his first industry performing on the Vaudeville stage performing the harp. (See related chapters)
Vaudeville died in the early 1930s during the Great Depression and Radio programming became a mass entertainment form.
One significant factor that changed the popularity of radio programming was the rise of TV in the 1950s.
Drama, comedy and musical variety and interview shows moved to TV.
In the 1950s Los Angeles had a burgeoning music recording industry scene.
Ned worked in each of these mediums. Performing on radio broadcasts and orchestra managing for films.
In 1950, just under 20 percent of American homes contained a TV set. Ten years later, nearly 90 percent of homes contained a TV—and some even had color TVs. The number of TV stations, channels, and programs all grew to meet this surging demand.
encyclopedia.com
Ned LaRocca has a credit on Leith Steven’s 1953 score to the Marlon Brando movie “The Wild One.”
This record was a hit, released by Decca records, it remains Stevens’ most widely known work. J. Ned LaRocca is credited as “Contractor” on the project: Per Discogs.com.
As I understand, the Wild One was the first soundtrack entirely made up of Jazz music.
I recently watched The Wild One and noticed there are long stretches where there is an notable absence of music.
Besides composing and conducting “The Wild One” soundtrack, Leith Stevens composed scores for radio shows, movies and T.V. from the 1930s until his death in 1970.
This includes Film Noir classic Private Hell 36, co-written by and starred Ida Lupino.
Another Stevens credit was for The Bigamist, directed by and starring Lupino. So there was a relationship there with the pioneer female director, Lupino. Or maybe he was just assigned to the project.
A minuscule list of Leith Stevens credits includes both credited and uncredited work.
Just a very few: It’s a Wonderful Life, 1946, Ma & Pa Kettle Back on the Farm, 1951, 1954, Earth Vs. Flying Saucers in 1956, The Ann Sothern Show, 1960, Twilight Zone, early 1960s.
He composed 100s of stock music pieces for Hollywood media.
Virginia Young LaRocca in the 1950s.
Diana’s grandmother. She started out life as a Mormon in Utah, but somewhere along the way became a Christian Scientist.
She is listed as “Chr. Sci.pr.” (Christian Science Practitioner) in Los Angeles telephone directories in the 1940 and 1950s. Virginia was listed with her own telephone line.
(Read more about Virginia and her sister Josephine’s early years as a Vaudeville performer in the family history chapters.)
A Christian Science practitioner is an individual who prays for others according to the teachings of Christian Science. Treatment is non-medical, rather it is based on the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (1875) by Mary Baker Eddy (1821–1910), who said she discovered Christian Science in 1866 and founded the Christian Science church in 1879. According to the church, Christian Science practitioners address physical conditions, as well as relationship or financial difficulties and any other problem or crisis.
wikipedia
At some point, the Christian Science Church won the right to accept insurance for their practitioners. However, I have been unable to find exactly what year.
So, I can’t tell how much income Virginia might have earned from her vocation as a CSP.
In 1955, an LA telephone directory lists a Ned J. LaRocca at 4414 N. Ethel and a Virginia Young LaRocca with the same address.
Donna Cotterell is listed with the 13055 Moorpark address. 13055 Moorpark is on a corner with Ethel St.
4114 Ethel St. doesn’t seem to be an “real” address; I don’t find a record of it anywhere besides the phone directory.
1957 Virginia Young LaRocca is listed in the phone directory at 4414 N. Ethel State 4-7052 North Hollywood. Cr. Sci. Pr.
This could be a result of the house modification for Donna, Diana and Constance Cotterell, it was made into a duplex.
I’m sure Donna received child support from her ex-husband Robert Cotterell. And likely alimony until Donna remarried in 1958 to Jack Holroyd in a Las Vegas wedding.
It is probable that grandfather Ned LaRocca was the primary breadwinner of this household.
This would have been normal for the times.
Paige Young in Los Angeles 