Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Sharon Tate Influencing Wedding Dresses for 2010? Roman's "Milky Way" and Great Actresses of the 60s Includes Sharon

I think it is wonderful that Sharon is still influencing fashion after 40 some years after her passing:

http://www.luxist.com/tag/Bridal+fashion+2010/

The Fashion Statement: Brides, 2010!

by Kristin Young

In India, the color is red. In the West, the hue is white (off-white back in the day, if you were considered less than virginal). Even black is making a comeback. When it comes to bridal gowns these days, anything goes.

Historically, designers have created wedding gowns -- usually making their debut in the finale of their shows -- that are reflective of the cultural norms and political messages of the day. Coco Chanel caused a stir in the roaring '20s when she introduced a knee-length dress with a long veil, a look vastly different from the house's current collection.

In 1968, Yves Saint Laurent sent brides down the catwalk in bikinis made of actual flowers to celebrate the sexual revolution (the look resurfaced again in the '90s as a nod to history). Remember Sharon Tate's mini dress that same year in the much published photo with Roman Polanski? In 1969, Yoko Ono sported the same short hemline as she walked down the aisle with John Lennon. In the '70s, pantsuits had a moment, no doubt because it represented the day's feminist ideal.

These are all from the Azzaro Line:
So what's the message in 2010? It seems everything old is new again. Vivienne Westwood has picked up where YSL left off with a two-piece, toga-like number. Azzaro gives us plenty of short minis à la Tate and Ono. And Tuleh makes the statement that shorts are perfectly okay on the aisle as are corsets. Reem Acra and Donna Karan are all about elegance, draping and Greek goddesses while Charles Anastase has raised the empire waist to a new level, sitting just above the breast line.

I looked through the photos for wedding dresses for 2010 and in addition to Azzaro, Karl Lagerfeld, Channel, and Chloe are also showing off mini wedding dresses as well.

Here is a recent photo of Roman and photos of the place he is staying at called "The Milky Way" in Switzerland:



And here is a blogger who has some very nice big images of some great actresses in color.  He, of course, includes Sharon but also Brigitte Bardot, Audrey Hepburn, Anita Ekberg, Ursula Andress and many others:

http://community.livejournal.com/everyday_i_show/66276.html

Monday, April 26, 2010

Haircolorist for Sharon Tate Still Working Today and Swiss Take Their Time About Polanski Extradition

Here is a lovely article mentioning Sharon Tate as an A-lister according to her former colorist Jo Hansford:

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/fashion/Interview-Jo-Hansford-colourist.6252016.jp

Interview: Jo Hansford, colourist 
Published Date: 27 April 2010

By Ruth Walker

SCORES of A-listers, from models Elizabeth Hurley and Yasmin le Bon to domestic goddess Nigella Lawson and actress Natascha McElhone, wouldn't trust anyone else with their trademark tresses. Natalie Imbruglia is due an appointment any day now and Fearne Cotton was recently spotted with the stylist's products, having gone dramatically from blonde to brunette.

And though, as the First Lady of Colour, she commands a minimum of £400 for highlights – one woman even travels from Scotland every month rather than take her ahir elsewhere - Jo Hansford left school at 15 with no qualifications and even less idea about the world of hairdressing.

"I never intended to be a colourist," she says from her salon in Mayfair, pampered pooch Stella, a key member of the team, barking away in the background (she's been shut in another room to give her owner some peace but she's not very happy about it and is making her feelings known in no uncertain terms). "I'd never even been to a hairdresser because we had no money. I just wore my hair up in a ponytail."

In fact, the Londoner had set her heart on working as a make-up artist for television and had even won an apprenticeship at the BBC. But she needed to be 19, "and, as I left school at 15 because I hated it so much, I thought, 'What am I going to do for four years?'"

The BBC suggested she take up hairdressing, because she would need those skills for television as well, and the local careers office offered her a choice of two apprenticeships: one in Ealing, the other in Mayfair.

"I thought Mayfair sounded more interesting but I had no idea where it was," she laughs. "It was a massive salon next to Claridge's and my boss was this terrible old queen who made me cry every day. But he was a genius and he taught me so much. I hated the hairdressing – it was all backcombing and rollers in those days – but at one point I had to go into the back room and when I saw all the colours it was love at first sight. I never took up the apprenticeship with the BBC."

Still, there were no training courses so she had to teach herself as she went along. "My mother, bless her, lent me her front room and I used to get all the neighbours in. I had some terrible disasters. But it earned me pocket money and it taught me confidence."

When the salon closed in the late 1960s, she moved on to Vidal Sassoon, which is when her career really took off. "It was magic, working with the master. The energy, the adrenaline, it was amazing. I never wanted to leave. Everybody came to Sassoon: Vanessa Redgrave, Catherine Deneuve, Sharon Tate. I did a lot of film work too – David Hemmings and Richard Burton. And Tony Richardson – once he clocked on to me, he would always ask me to work on his films, which was a great compliment."

But with all those big heads in one room, didn't things ever get a bit – er – hair-raising? "Only the C-lists have demands," she insists.

"All the A-list are lovely – they're very professional, grounded, unpretentious. It's no big deal. It's all the Bs and Cs who think they're amazing. They're a pain in the bum, really. In fact, I've had to get rid of a couple of people. I just said, 'I'm sorry I cannot do this any more.' It's not worth it."

However, even after 40 years in the business, she still relishes a challenge. "I had a lovely girl who came in with very thick, long brown hair with a fringe and she said, 'I want to look like Bree from Desperate Housewives.' I was like, 'Yes! Fantastic!' I couldn't believe my luck."

But those who want to bring a touch of drama to their hair this year might be disappointed. "More solid colour is coming into force this year, rather than great chunks of streaks," says Hansford. "It's all about shine, condition, grooming. Cuts are as important as colour, but this season it's really nice, sharp haircuts – lots of bobs, and the fringe is back in again too."

Due to popular demand, she has launched her own range of hair products, the latest of which is a leave-in spray conditioner, which will be on the shelves next month. "If you put volumising shampoo on your hair then put conditioner on it, you're flattening it all down and destroying the effect," she says. "But with this, you just spray round the edges, comb it through and leave it."

The range has met with high praise indeed. "We had an e-mail saying Sienna Miller loves it. Hurley loves it, even Camilla loves it. That makes me feel confident."

Jo Hansford hair products are available at Harvey Nichols and John Lewis and online at

http://www.johansford.com/

I think it's great that--out of all the Hollywood people--she could have listed she listed Sharon among Deneuve and Redgrave!  True A-listers!

And more news on Polanski:

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=10476948

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Quote of the Week, Yuba Exhibit Shows Victims, and Sharon Tate as a Gift?

I found a quote today that I thought would make Sharon laugh:

If people never did silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done.
- Ludwig Wittgenstein

I was thinking of little things Sharon used to do like overwatering her plants and having the water come out of the bottoms all over.  On the contrary though, I do not thing this shows Sharon as being dumb. I think we all do silly things sometimes.  At least Sharon could laugh at herself.  But that doesn't mean she was not intelligent.  I think she was... I recall Deborah saying somewhere that Sharon was kind of like Goldie Hawn.  And even though Goldie could do silly and funny things too, that does not mean she was not a very savvy career woman. I think Sharon would have become more known this way if she had lived.  After all, she was still relatively young when she died and we all know that we change in our thirties in the way we think of things.

Yuba exhibit puts face on victims of violence

http://www.appeal-democrat.com/news/victims-94224-photographs-ended.html

Twenty-five photographs tell a story of lives ended — but never forgotten.

The Yuba County residents who were victims of homicides are displayed at the courthouse and county Government Center for National Crime Victims Rights Week.

Jason Roper, Victim Witness Program manager for the Yuba County Probation Department, said the photos put faces to people whom some may know only as names in a newspaper story.

"It's definitely created a huge emotional reaction," Roper said. "It's caused a lot of discussion."

Michelle Porter — stepmother to Crystal Porter, 19, who died with her 1-year-old daughter Katelynn in a suspicious Sept. 17, 2006, fire in Marysville — said her family members and all those shown in the photos shared a similar fate.

"They were all taken from us way too soon," Michelle Porter said.

The photographic project by Victim Witness, she said, follows extraordinary help from the county agency since the 2006 deaths. "Victim Witness has always been there for myself and my family," Porter said.

Such help had not always been available here or elsewhere.

Dan Levey, national president of Parents of Murdered Children, said a presidential task force started in 1982 by President Ronald Reagan was a key part of efforts to assist crime victims. Levey praised the Yuba County photo project.

"It gives meaning and honor to who they were," he said.

Bilenda Harris-Ritter, a Folsom attorney who is on the board of the national parents group, said that before the early 1980s, the criminal justice system often overlooked crime victims.

"People don't see the victims in a murder case," Harris-Ritter said. "They do see the defendant every day."

U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder, in a letter about the Crime Victims Week, noted the event evokes powerful memories of a time when victim support services were not available to those harmed by crime.

"In the not so distant past, victims were being routinely excluded from courtrooms," Holder wrote.
Sandy Fonley, who worked for Yuba County in victim assistance for more than two decades, said the 1969 murder of actress Sharon Tate and four others in Los Angeles by the Manson Family helped spur attention to crime victims.

Doris Tate, Sharon's mother, had said her daughter's celebrity status shouldn't have made her death more significant than others, recounted Fonley, who met Doris Tate.

Fonley recalled Tate saying, "My daughter happened to be beautiful," as she crusaded for the rights of all victims.

CONTACT Ryan McCarthy at749-4707 or rmccarthy@appealdemocrat.com
And I bet a lot of men would love to have Sharon as a gift. ;)  Here is a look back at one of the bits from the Beverly Hillbillies episodes.  Be sure and watch the whole thing to see what I am talking about. :)
 
http://www.wikio.com/video/sharon-tate-clampetts-culture-janet-trego-3130960

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Photo Comparison of the Week, The Famous Hollywood Studio Club for Actresses, and More Roman Polanski News

Here is the photo of the week:

This recent photo of Actress Chloe Sevigny for Chloe Perfume:

In addition, the girls in the TV ad look Sharonish with their long hair parted in the middle and very little makeup--more of a natural look like Sharon liked:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8KC9nUxuCA&feature=related

Sharon lived here for a short but fruitful time and I thought I'd see whatever happened to it.  What am I talking about?  The Hollywood Studio Club for Young Actresses. 
Many famous actresses stayed there at one time or another including Marilyn Monroe.  According to the Wikipedia site:

The Hollywood Studio Club was a chaperoned dormitory, sometimes referred to as a sorority, for young women involved in the motion picture business from 1916 to 1975. Located in the heart of Hollywood, California, the Studio Club was run by the YWCA and housed some 10,000 women during its 59-year existence. It was the home at various times to many Hollywood celebrities, including Marilyn Monroe, Ayn Rand, Donna Reed, Kim Novak, Maureen O'Sullivan, Rita Moreno, Barbara Eden, and Sharon Tate. The building was designed by noted California architect Julia Morgan, who also designed Hearst Castle. The Studio Club closed in 1975, and the building is currently used as a YMCA-run Job Corps dormitory. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

The Hollywood Studio Club was formed in 1916. It began with a group of young women trying to break into the movies who gathered in the basement of the Hollywood Public Library to read plays. A librarian, Mrs. Eleanor Jones, worried about the young women living in cheap hotels and rooming houses with no place to study or practice their craft. Mrs. Jones solicited help from the local YWCA, and a hall was established as a meeting place. Hollywood studios and businessmen donated money to rent an old house on Carlos Avenue with space for 20 women. Mrs. Cecil B. DeMille and Mary Pickford were active in the club's operations, and Pickford later recalled, "Mrs. DeMille spent every day doing something for the club. And the motion picture industry supported us." A newspaper article in 1919 described the club this way: "The club is more of a sorority, with delightful picture 'atmosphere,' than anything else, and the same happy atmosphere will pervade the new home. A dominant note is the refining touch of home life and sense of protection, with assurance of assistance, not only in material way when need arises, but in one's work, as well. Financially, many desperate cases among young women have been tided over by the Hollywood Studio Club."

In the early 1920s, Hollywood became embroiled in scandals, including the 1921 case involving Fatty Arbuckle and his role in the death of young actress, Virginia Rappe. The image of the "extra girl", the pretty young girl who had traveled across the country to make it in the movies only to find herself the victim of exploitation, became a public relations problem for Hollywood. One industry observer wondered if extra work would ever be anything other than "an alibi for prostitution." In order to change this negative reputation, the Hollywood studios, led by Will Hays, enacted reforms including the formation of the Central Casting Bureau in 1925 and the construction of a large new home for the Hollywood Studio Club in 1926. By opening a large "chaperoned, elite dormitory" for Hollywood's young women, the studios hoped to replace the image of sad, bedraggled and exploited "extra girl" with the image of the new "studio girl" -- a smartly dressed, graceful, and genteel woman tutored in etiquette as well as the performing arts. Hays told The New York Times that he sought to "make the motion picture business ... a model industrial community, complete with recreation facilities, community centres, dormitories [and] matrons."

Between 1923 and 1925, a widely-publicized fundraising campaign was held to build the new Hollywood Studio Club. Contributions were received from Famous Players-Lasky ($10,000), Metro Goldwyn and Carl Laemmle ($5,000 each), Warner Bros. ($3,000), and Christie Comedies ($2,000). In March 1923, aviatrix and movie star Andree Peyre conducted an aerial acrobatic exhibition and airplane race over Hollywood to help raise funds for the new home. In February 1925, a final $5,000 donation from silent screen star Norma Talmadge allowed the group to begin construction. The organization hired noted architect Julia Morgan to design the new building, and a ground-breaking ceremony took place in June 1925 with Mary Pickford and Morgan in attendance.

The new Hollywood Studio Club opened in May 1926, having been built at a cost of $250,000. The building was opened at a ceremony attended by 2,500 people, "including many of the celebrities of the motion picture world," with dedication ceremonies in the afternoon and "dancing at midnight."

North wing of the Studio Club Julia Morgan designed the Studio Club in a Mediterranean style with interiors decorated in "pistache green, rose coral, and tan." The large building has three sections—a central section with connecting wings on each side. The entrance to the center section is marked by a loggia, three archways with decorative quoins. There is also a painted frieze above the main entrance. The building includes several recurring elements from Morgan's Mediterranean style buildings, including full-length arched windows, balconies with iron ballustrades, and decorative brackets. A writer in California Graphic said "this beautiful and spacious new building is but one more jewel in the crown of Achieved Results which this progressive and cultural little city is wearing so proudly and shows its ever increasing desire to give unstinted moral and financial support to every progressive endeavor."
The rooms at the Studio Club had nameplates on the doors identifying individuals who made subscriptions of at least $1000 to the building fund. There were rooms named for Douglas Fairbanks, Howard Hughes, Gloria Swanson, Jackie Coogan, and Harold Lloyd.

The only qualification needed for admittance to the Studio Club was that the applicant had to be seeking a career in the motion picture business, whether as an actress, singer, script girl, cutter, writer, designer, dancer or secretary. Some referred to it as a sorority, and the Studio Club also offered classes in various aspects of the performing arts, as well as hosting dances, teas, dinners and occasional plays, fashion shows and stunt nights. The club also provided residents with two meals a day, sewing machines, hair driers, laundry equipment, typewriters, theater literature, practice rooms, stage and sundeck. Former resident Rosemary Breckler recalled, "At the Studio Club, when we had a date, he waited anxiously and almost reverently downstairs, and then, dressed like princesses, we floated down those gorgeous stairs." A newspaper article in 1946 described the club this way: "The Hollywood Studio Club has been thought by the unknowing to be a house filled with glamour girls constantly receiving boxes of long-stemmed roses. On the other hand it has been classified as a rescue home for wayward girls. It is neither of these. The club is a comfortable sorority house possessing many of the freedoms and comforts of a man's club. It has grown in 24 years from the home for 22 girls and a white mouse into the home of 100 girls with another 100 servicewomen equally at home in the adjoining guest house." Another article in 1959 referred to the club as a "colony" of students and described the atmosphere this way: "You may hear the wail of a clarinet, the vocal exercise of a balladeer ... and seen in a quiet corner, the silent gestures of a rehearsing ingenue with a script. But most of all there are clustered groups recounting their day -- of pounding pavements, hearing of jobs, lamenting and blessing their luck and philosophizing." In 2000, Susan Spano wrote in the Los Angeles Times: "The handsome Italianate building, designed in 1926 by architect Julia Morgan (of Hearst Castle fame), still evokes the good old days when a mother could send her daughter to Hollywood to become a star without worrying that her offspring would go astray." However, the Studio Club was not free from scandal. Actress and former Studio Club resident Virginia Sale recalled, "One woman, older than the rest of us, was murdered in front of the club by a boyfriend. He was an ex-serviceman or something like that. And he then killed himself."

By the mid 1960s, times had changed, and the idea of a chaperoned dormitory had become dated. In 1964, the club expanded its membership to include studio secretaries, dancers, models and others working broadly in the talent field. The club was losing money, and the YWCA considered using it for executive offices or selling it until a petition drive by residents persuaded the YWCA to keep the facility open. By 1971, the club was forced to open its doors as a regular hotel for transient women and stopped serving meals, but it still lost money. Changes in the fire code also took a toll, as modifications needed to bring the structure up to fire code were estimated at $60,000. In 1975, the Studio Club closed its doors. At the time of the closure, the Los Angeles Times wrote:

"They are tales of happier times, when the Studio Club was a haven for all those young girls -- nearly 10,000 of them -- who had come to Hollywood from little towns across the country to seek fame in the motion picture business. Some of them made it. Most of them didn't. While they were here, though, the club tried to be what it said it was, a substitute home for the one each had left. Today, the Studio Club is gone. The building on Lodi Place just a few blocks from Sunset and Vine closed last week, a victim of changing times and new fire codes. 'It's out of vogue to live in a club atmosphere,' said actress Dorothy Malone, a Studio Club alumna from the mid-'40s. 'They never allowed men in the rooms and girls didn't live with their boyfriends then,' she explained."

Over the years of its operation, the Studio Club was home to many budding starlets and others trying to make it in show business. Those residing at the club included:

ZaSu Pitts - Pitts, the star of Erich von Stroheim's 1924 masterpiece, Greed, was one of the first stars to come out of the Studio Club. Von Stroheim called Pitts "the greatest dramatic actress." Pitts later noted that "without the club I should have been a village dressmaker all my days."

Ayn Rand - When Ayn Rand arrived in Hollywood in 1926 to become a screenwriter, she lived at the Studio Club. Though her heavy accent and plain Russian clothes made her an "odd apparition" to the pretty, fresh actresses of the Studio Club, Rand was welcomed into the sorority. She was hired initially as an extra, at a salary of $7.50 a day, leaving the Studio Club before dawn each day to arrive at the studio at 6 a.m. for makeup and dress. While staying at the Studio Club, she met both Cecil B. DeMille and her future husband, Frank. A club resident later recalled the following story about Rand:

"We all had money problems, but the funniest story I ever heard was about Ayn Rand, the author. She apparently had terrible financial problems and owed money to the club. Almost everybody did at one time or another. Anyhow, a woman was going to donate $50 to the neediest girl in the club, and Miss Williams (Marjorie Williams, the revered director of Studio Club from 1922 to 1945) picked out Ayn. Ayn thanked them for the money, went out and bought a set of black lingerie."

Maureen O'Sullivan - Actress Maureen O'Sullivan, who played Jane in the Tarzan movies of the 1930s and early 1940s and starred in The Devil Doll, took up residence at the Studio Club when her mother brought her to Hollywood from Ireland.

Virginia Sale - Sale, who went on to have more than 150 film and television credits, also started at the Studio Club. Years later, Sale recalled her friendship with Ayn Rand at the club in the 1920s. Though Rand largely kept to herself, Rand encouraged Sale in her writing of skits. "She (Rand) did the sound effects for me backstage and that was really where my one-woman show got started, right at the club. Over the years on tour I gave 3,000 performances." (Sale is one of the women in the picture above shown "cleaning house.")

Diana Dill - Diana Dill was an actress living at the Studio Club when she met Kirk Douglas, who she married in 1943.

Marie Windsor - Windsor, who found a niche in film noir and became known as "Queen of the B's", won two beauty pageants in Utah before driving to Hollywood to become a star. She lived at the Studio Club when she arrived in Hollywood, stayed for three years (the maximum stay period) and later returned for six more months after World War II.

Dorothy Malone - Malone, who later received an Academy Award for her role in Written on the Wind, lived in the Studio Club in the 1940s after moving to Hollywood from Texas. She later recalled that the Studio Club was already famous as a home for aspiring young actresses. She said, "You had to have references and a letter from your parents just to get in. There was a long waiting list from the beginning." She dated Mel Torme while living at the club and recalled being discovered by Alan Ladd while playing a Spanish girl in a showcase at the club; but when she reported to the studio without the black hair, they did not believe she was the same person.

Marilyn Monroe - Monroe lived at the Studio Club from 1948 to 1949. She later recalled that it was to raise $50 to pay rent at the Studio Club that she posed for the famous nude photographs. She said, "Funny how shocked people in Hollywood were when they learned I'd posed in the nude. At one time I'd always said no when photographers asked me. But you'll do it when you get hungry enough. It was at a time when I didn't seem to have much future. I had no job and no money for the rent. I was living in the Hollywood Studio Club for Girls. I told them I'd get the rent somwhow. So I phoned up Tom Kelley, and he took these two colour shots—one sitting up, the other lying down. ...I earned the fifty dollars that I needed."  Monroe stayed in Room 334.

Kim Novak - Kim Novak was the biggest star to live at the Studio Club in the 1950s. When Harry Cohn, president of Columbia Pictures, signed Novak to a studio contract, he required that she not date anyone during the week and posted a studio guard outside the Hollywood Studio Club, where he required her to live. Novak moved into the Studio Club in 1953 and stayed on at the club even after she became a movie star. Another resident at the time recalled, "She was very neat and clean. Nobody could look more glamorous in a man's white shirt and Levi's. I remember she just couldn't bear to leave. In those years we had raised the limit of time to five years."

Barbara Eden - In the 1950s, before landing her role on I Dream of Jeannie, Eden lived at the Studio Club. Other club residents later recalled that Eden would look at the club's bulletin board and apply for every show business job available, even those that she was advised would "ruin" her career.
Sharon Tate - Tate, who was murdered by the Manson Family in 1969, lived at the Studio Club when she began her career in Hollywood in 1963. When her aggressive roommate at the Club made lesbian advances, Tate requested a new room.

Joanne Worley - Worley, who went on to fame in Laugh In, lived at the Studio Club in the 1960s. She recalled, "I remember it was a wonderful place. ... It was inexpensive, had good food and 24-hour telephone service. And on Sundays the best coffee cake I ever ate."

Other residents of the Studio Club included Donna Reed (star of It's A Wonderful Life and The Donna Reed Show and Oscar winner for From Here to Eternity), Rita Moreno (winner of an Academy Award in 1961 for West Side Story, a Grammy Award in 1972, a Tony Award in 1975, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004), Linda Darnell (star of Forever Amber, Unfaithfully Yours and A Letter to Three Wives in the late 1940s), *Nancy Kwan (star of The World of Suzie Wong and Flower Drum Song in the early 1960s), Barbara Rush (Golden Globe winner for It Came from Outer Space and star of The Young Philadelphians), Janet Blair (movie star in the 1940s in films including Three Girls About Town, Broadway, and Gallant Journey), Elvia Allman (voice of Clarabelle Cow in 28 Disney cartoons, the homely woman pursuing Bob Hope in Road to Singapore, Cora Dithers in the Blondie radio series, and the aggressive forelady in the chocolate candy conveyor belt episode of I Love Lucy who yells, "Speed'er up a little!"), Barbara Britton (star of Captain Kidd and The Virginian in the mid-1940s), Gale Storm (star of the 1950s television series My Little Margie and The Gale Storm Show and singer of the hit song Dark Moon), Evelyn Keyes (Scarlet O'Hara's younger sister in Gone with the Wind and real-life spouse of Charles Vidor, John Huston and Artie Shaw), Ann B. Davis (two-time Emmy Award winner as "Schultzy" in The Bob Cummings Show and housekeeper Alice in The Brady Bunch), and Sally Struthers (Gloria from All in the Family).

The Hollywood Studio Club has been recognized as a building of significant historic importance at both the local and national level. In 1977, the Studio Club was designated a Historic-Cultural Monument (No. 175) by the City of Los Angeles. And in 1980, it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Former Actress Shaynie Aero and friend.

*Interesting... I didn't know that Nancy Kwan, Sharon's co-star from "The Wrecking Crew" also stayed there.  In addition, Sharon lived with Mary Winters there and befriended Shaynie Aero.  Both Shaynie and Sharon shared a love of animals and hated to see any of them mistreated.

For more great photos of the club go to these sites:

http://bigorangelandmarks.blogspot.com/2008/08/no-175-ywca-hollywood-studio-club.html

http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/jmhollywoodyw/jmhollywoodyw.html

More News on Polanski here:
White House Denies Polanski Letter to Obama ?

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20003241-503544.html

Switzerland must free Polanski says lawyer:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jqn1DqqLhlL6dQiR5R-PLOlaO2rA

Polanski in "shackles?"

http://ca.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idCATRE63L68J20100424

Friday, April 23, 2010

Photo of the Week and More on the Polanski Case

Here is the lovely photo of the week from our contributor, Andrea!  Thanks so much!


And things are not looking good for Polanski, although he hasn't completely given up yet:

Polanski absentia bid dismissed by California court

Agence France-Presse April 23, 2010

LOS ANGELES – A California appeals court Thursday quashed a bid by Roman Polanski to be tried in absentia for his child sex case, clearing the way for the director to be extradited back to the United States.

California's 2nd District Court of Appeal tossed an appeal filed by Polanski's legal team following a hearing in January, where the film-maker's request to be sentenced without having to return from Europe was denied.

The appellate court panel found that Polanski had "failed to demonstrate" that Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Peter Espinoza had lacked the discretion to deny the director's earlier absentia request.

Dismissal of the appeal removes another obstacle from the path of Los Angeles prosecutors seeking sentencing of infamous Oscar-winning director Polanski, 76, in his decades-old child sex abuse case.

Polanski is under house arrest in Switzerland following his detention last September on a US arrest warrant for having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977.

Swiss officials said in February that a decision on whether to move forward with Polanski's extradition could not be made until the director had exhausted his US appeals.

Authorities in Switzerland have however emphasized that any extradition process could take about a year once likely appeals by Polanski against his return had been heard by Switzerland's highest courts.

Earlier Thursday, the same California appeals court dismissed a motion by the victim in the case who had sought to have the proceedings dismissed.

The petition, filed on behalf of Samantha Geimer, was "summarily denied by order," court documents showed.

Geimer's attorney, Lawrence Silver, filed court papers last month asking the court to intervene based on alleged judicial and prosecutorial misconduct.

"Samantha Geimer was first victimized by Polanski. Whatever harm was done to her 33 years ago by Polanski is now a memory," Silver wrote.

In a 12-page response, prosecutors countered that Geimer "has no right or authority to dictate the outcome of a criminal case, nor is she entitled to examine evidence possessed either by the prosecution or the defense."

In January, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Peter Espinoza denied requests by Polanski and Geimer to dismiss the case, along with a request by Geimer to order prosecutors to withdraw their extradition request for Polanski.

Polanski is alleged to have given Geimer champagne and drugs during a 1977 photo shoot at the Hollywood Hills home of actor friend Jack Nicholson before having sex with her despite her protests.

The director was initially charged with six felony counts, including rape and sodomy. The charge was later reduced to unlawful sexual intercourse after a plea deal agreed in part to spare his victim the ordeal of a trial.

Polanski later served 42 days at a secure unit undergoing psychiatric evaluation but fled the United States on the eve of his sentencing in 1978 amid fears that the trial judge planned to go back on a previously agreed plea deal.

Polanski's flight from justice came after a string of hit films including "Rosemary's Baby" and "Chinatown."

The director, whose wife Sharon Tate was horrifically murdered by Charles Manson's "family" in 1969, won an Oscar for his 2002 film "The Pianist" but was unable to collect the award because of his fugitive status.

Polanski has been confined at his ski chalet in the Swiss resort of Gstaad since being released from custody December 4.
Here is another article that says he will fight the extradition:

Polanski Will Fight Extradition, Lawyers Say

LA Weekly April 23, 2010

By Dennis Romero

Despite Thursday's setback in which a state appeals court turned down his request to be sentenced while he remains overseas, Roman Polanski said through his lawyers Friday that he will challenge attempts by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office to have him extradited from Switzerland.

Yesterday's ruling might have been the end of the line for the director's attempts to live a European life outside the reach of his 33-year-old sex-with-a-minor case: Swiss officials said they would not extradite him to L.A. until the sentencing matter was decided. Well, it's been decided. But attorney Douglas Dalton released a statement on behalf of Polanski that reads, in part, "The Court of Appeal decision yesterday did not decide the issue of extradition."

Besides bringing up an allegation of misconducted in the original 1977 trial, in which a prosecutor is accused of having inappropriately influenced the late judge in the case behind closed doors, Dalton did not say what further recourse Polanski's legal team would have in holding off extradition.

The director fled to France in 1978 after he says prosecutors reneged on a plea deal and the judge indicated he would serve more time than the more than 40 days he spent in psychiatric evaluation for having sex with a 13-year-old girl. He hasn't been back to L.A. since, but the D.A.'s office caught wind of a trip he had planned to Switzerland last summer to pick up an award and had him picked up. Polanski has been under house arrest at his Swiss chalet since December.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

New Vintage Translated Article/Interview with Sharon and Roman from Germany, A Blogger Shows Off Her Sharon Items, and A Big Photo of Sharon in a Bikini

Here is an interview done with Sharon shortly before she died. It is supposedly one of her last interviews, if not her very last (?)  Thanks to Kerstien Matondang for translating and sending this! ;)

Brigitte German Magazine 1969
A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN - A TALENTED MAN

Intro: The woman we are talking about is no longer among us.
Soon after Helga Leeb interviewed Sharon in London, the script was already in print, Sharon was murdered. We had second thoughts whether we should should publish the interview or not. We decided to do it, since all Sharon said about herself is more informative than anything that has been written after her passing.

Sharon Tate seems to be the most beautiful and incerdible human being that has ever been created in the Hollywood factory. Sharon is 26 and so beautiful you can't take your eyes off of her.

She just finished her part in 12+1 with Vittorio Gassman.
About hiding her pregnancy during the making, Sharon said: "I use to wear scarfs around my neck, so no one would notice!"

The director was lucky, the baby will probably be a small baby, a real Roman baby!

When asked about her husband, Sharon said: "Roman is sitting at home, working on a new film, I'm not allowed to disturb, but tonight I don't care. Look what I bought for him!" Sharon showed two plastic red fish. "There are batteries inside, so they'll swim in circles and throw water in the air! When I get home I will put them into the bathtub and switch them on, then I'll call for Roman, I'm sure he will laugh out loud!"
Question: Do you usually buy small gifts for your husband?

"Oh yes! And he does the same for me! Roman bought me a Rolls Royce lately! It's quite an old car, but it's in very good shape, I LOVE that car!"

Besides the plastic fish, Sharon also bought a Humpty Dumpty toy from the exclusive store Fortnom & Mason in London.

"Don't you know what it is?" Suddenly Sharon began to sing: "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall..."
"I already bought it for the baby, isn't it cute?"

Sharon showed off baby clothes and said, "All of these are so tiny and soft! I just can't wait to have my baby! It doesn't matter at all if it's a boy or a girl, the important thing is that the baby is healthy!"

Question: Have you already made plans how to raise the baby?

"No, I never make plans, I read in a book if you don't allow a child to break porcelain, you will stop the mental evolution! I also read that children will have nasty periods when they use nasty words. You see, my child is supposed to do all of that, and more!

"I don't intend to dress my child in boring clothes either. I want my child to be a very happy Hippie-child with funny clothes like fringed pants and moccasins!

"I have decided to stay with my baby for 6 months. We are living in a wonderful house in Los Angeles, a former farmhouse. Later I will take my baby with me everywhere."

Question: Do you believe in marriage?

"Yes, as long as marriage does not put you in chains. You have to give your partner enough space to breathe and don't start to push and pull."

Question: You met your husband during the making of The Fearless Vampire Killers....

Sharon: "I met him at a party. And I thought, well, a party where I'm going to meet the film director of The Fearless Vampire Killers. He'll probably be one of those old, baldheaded men that I can't stand. Seeing Roman the first time, I did not find him attractive at all. He had lots of hair and looked very young, like 25. Our first meetings did not go so well."

Question: Would you like to play a part on one of your husband's movies again?

Sharon: "I'm not sure. When living together you can easily get on each others nerves. And I will not push Roman either. His films are so wonderful and super-intelligent. He would have to come up with that idea when he finds a part for me.  Besides, Roman is so clever, no one can come close to him."

Question: How do you handle this as his wife?

Sharon: "I'm just feminine. Women who are too intelligent and too busy to be successful tend to loose quite a lot of femininity and sexual attraction. Sexuality is a kind of energy. When women put too much energy to their private fame some of their sexual attraction gets lost. Roman is full of energy. I am the calm one in our marriage. I don't care much for activities and I don't have ambitions at all. It happens that a movie director stands in front of me, explaining things to me but my thoughts are elsewhere! Sometimes, I think I'm a little bit weird (Sharon laughing) does it show?"

The reporter denies...

Sharon: "Oh, that's good!"

Sharon said she has little hobbies....."I'm doing many different things though. But I don't care for politics and I don't read newspapers. For me it seems a waste of time. Roman becomes a little irritated of these behaviours sometimes. He has too much energy himself. He loves doing car races, he likes to fence, etc. I tried to fence once...but, the outfit you have to wear is pretty tight. I hate to wear tight clothes."

Sharon answered the question how she feels about nude scenes: "Nudity is aesthetical!"

Reporter: Only for beautiful people.

Sharon: "Maybe. I don't know if I'm really beautiful either. I don't want to spend too much time thinking about it. My mother use to say, it's the inner beauty that counts."

Question: Do you believe you are a good actress?

Sharon: "No, I'm sure not. I've just got a unique personality and I've learned to express that in front of the camera. That's all. Sir Laurence Olivier or John Gielgud or Alec Guiness, those are actors who have the ability to completely live up to every character they're playing."

Question: Do you find it fascinating to be a movie star?

Sharon: "Oh yes, very much so! But I could quit tomorrow with out crying a single tear. As I said I'm not ambitious. If there is a good part for me, I'll play it. When Roman works on a film I would not accept one, for me it's much more important for me to be with him when he travels."

When asked where she would like to settle down for the rest of her life, Sharon answered, "Settle down for good? Forever? Nowhere...."

Three days later, Sharon moved to the country for shootings, the reporter arrived at the house in Chelsea to meet Roman.

Roman: "I'm sorry, I have only a few minutes for an interview. I have to go."

Question: When you married Sharon two years ago, you told the press that a marriage has to be an eternal love affair. Have you been able to manage that in your own marriage?

Roman: "It's a little too early to ask me that. If I have reached the age of Bertrand Russell you can ask me again. Then I'll probably know!"

Question: Sharon told me that you both allow each other total space and freedom. Isn't that a bit dangerous, you could fall in love with someone else when you feel free too....

Roman: "For me a marriage means a total loyality towards your partner. When you are honest and loyal a small love affair could not harm your marriage fundamentally."
Question: Isn't it a danger zone anyways, thinking like you do?

Roman: "I can only speak for myself, I don't see any danger, as long as you are determined not to hurt your partner's feelings."

Question: Your wife describes you as full of energy and plans. She said that she is the passive one--a little careless about the future sometimes and sailing on cloud nine most of the time. Do you agree with that?
Roman: "That's correct. And that is the attraction between us, being so different. That makes our marriage successful. As long as we keep our identity, I think nothing can tear us apart."

Question: Sharon also told me, that women who care too much about intellectualism are suffering from feminity? What's your opinion?

Roman: "I agree 100% with Sharon. Besides this kind of woman bores me to death."

Question: Have you ever met a woman who is both sexy and intelligent?

Roman: "Never. And I don't want to. When I'm with a girl I want to make love and not discuss Shopenhauer."
Question: Let's talk about Rosemary's Baby.

Roman: "No, I don't want to. I'm so tired of talking about that movie. I worked on that film for two long years, gave interviews, etc. I have nothing more to say about it."

Question: Your wife is having a baby. She said she would give up her career tomorrow...

Roman: "Sharon is serious about that. You can believe her when she tells you that. If she has to make a choice between being an actress or having a happy family life she would choose a happy family life!"

Question: What would you suggest?

Roman: "I think no one should make other's choices. If Sharon wants to quit, I would not change her mind. If she continues to act, I want her to be a good actress. Until now she was not given the chance to really show off her talent. So far she only made one movie with a good director. And that was me..."

Only time would have told what could have happened... Sigh!

Thanks for that, Kerstien!!! :)

Here is another blogger Lauren who shows us her rare Sharon items:

http://www.laurenxlondon.blogspot.com/

And if you click on the photo it becomes larger--here is a big bikini pic of Sharon. :)

http://gilmoure.tumblr.com/post/537134069/blueruins-mariposima-sharon-tate

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Sharon Tate: Aquarius, Rosemary's Baby Remembered and No, This Art is Definitely Not Sharon!

I recall an interview I reprinted here awhile ago where Sharon said, "I'm an Aquarius and Aquarians get along with everyone."


So what type of person is an Aquarian?

http://www.astrology-online.com/aquarius.htm

Aquarians basically possess strong and attractive personalities. They fall into two principle types: one shy, sensitive, gentle and patient; the other exuberant, lively and exhibitionist, sometimes hiding the considerable depths of their character under a cloak of frivolity. Both types are strong willed and forceful in their different ways and have strong convictions, though as they seek truth above all things, they are usually honest enough to change their opinions, however firmly held, if evidence comes to light which persuades them that they have been mistaken. They have a breadth of vision that brings diverse factors into a whole, and can see both sides of an argument without shilly-shallying as to which side to take. Consequently they are unprejudiced and tolerant of other points of view. This is because they can see the validity of the argument, even if they do not accept it themselves. They obey the Quaker exhortation to "Be open to truth, from whatever source it comes," and are prepared to learn from everyone.


Both types are humane, frank, serious minded, genial, refined, sometimes ethereal, and idealistic, though this last quality is tempered with a sensible practicality. They are quick, active and persevering without being self-assertive, and express themselves with reason, moderation and sometimes, a dry humor.


They are nearly always intelligent, concise, clear and logical. Many are strongly imaginative and psychically intuitive, so that the Age of Aquarius, which is about to begin, is much anticipated by psychic circles as an age in which mankind will experience a great spiritual awakening. The Aquarian philosophical and spiritual bent may be dangerous in that it can drive the subjects into an ivory-tower existence where they meditate on abstractions that bear little relevance to life. On the other hand it can help the many who have scientific leanings to combine these with the Aquarian yearning for the universal recognition of the brotherhood of man, and to embark on scientific research to fulfill their philanthropic ideals of benefiting mankind. When some cause or work of this nature inspires them, they are capable of such devotion to it that they may drive themselves to the point of exhaustion and even risk injuring their health.


Both types need to retire from the world at times and to become temporary loners. They appreciate opportunities for meditation or, if they are religious, of retreats. Even in company they are fiercely independent, refusing to follow the crowd. They dislike interference by others, however helpfully intended, and will accept it only on their own terms. Normally they have good taste in drama, music and art, and are also gifted in the arts, especially drama.


In spite of the often intensely magnetic, forthcoming and open personality of the more extrovert kind of Aquarian, and of their desire to help humanity, neither type makes friends easily. They sometimes appear to condescend to others and take too little trouble to cultivate the acquaintance of people who do not particularly appeal to them.


They do not give themselves easily - perhaps their judgment of human nature is too good for that - and are sometimes accounted cold. But once they decide that someone is worthy of their friendship or love, they can exert an almost hypnotic and irresistible mental attraction on them and will themselves become tenacious friends or lovers, ready to sacrifice everything for their partners and be faithful to them for life. However, they are sometimes disappointed emotionally because their own high personal ideals cause them to demand more of others than is reasonable. And if they are deceived their anger is terrible. If disillusioned, they do not forgive.


Aquarians work best in group projects, provided that they are recognized as having a leading part in them. They have a feeling of unity with nature and a desire for knowledge and truth that makes them admirable scientists, especially astronomers and natural historians. They may excel in photography, radiography, electronics - anything connected with the electrical and radio industries - aviation and everything technical. On the arts and humanities side their progressive tendencies can be expressed in writing, especially poetry, and broadcasting, or as welfare workers and teachers. Some have gifts as entertainers and make good character actors (having an ability to mimic) and musicians. The more psychic among them possess healing gifts, especially in curing the mentally sick.


Among the faults to which they are liable are fanatical eccentricity, wayward egotism, excessive detachment and an inclination to retreat from life and society, and a tendency to be extremely dogmatic in their opinions. Aquarians can be a threat to all they survey or a great boon for humanity in general. Circumstances - for example, continuous opposition to a cause they hold dear - may cause the atrophy of the openness of mind that is one of the Aquarian's most attractive traits. They may express a lack of integrity in broken promises, secretiveness or cunning. Simmering anger and resentment, rudeness or, worse, a tense, threatening silence which may suddenly burst out in eruptions of extreme temper, these are all part of the negative side of the Aquarian. This can also reveal itself in a sustained hatred for enemies that is capable of enlarging itself into a misanthropy toward the whole of mankind.


Traits:


Friendly and humanitarian


Honest and loyal


Original and inventive


Independent and intellectual


LIKES


Fighting for Causes


Dreaming and Planning for the Future


Thinking of the Past


Good Companions


Having Fun


What problems can arise for Aquarians?


Problem: You always seem to miss the boat when it comes to love.


Solution: Try letting down the mental guard that you keep on your emotions that stops you from being the self you long to be.


Problem: You always seem to miss out on the better jobs or big promotions at work.


Solution: Learn to use your positive side in teamwork and group effort, the lone wolf approach will get you nowhere.


Funny, I also do recall one of Sharon's quotes that she said about herself in high school that she "was a lone wolf."
Mia Farrow, Sharon and Roman's great friend.

Here is a site where "Rosemary's Baby" is remembered with a trailer for the film along with some interesting facts:

http://goremaster.com/blog/2010/04/20/rosemarys-baby-released-june-12-1968/

And if this person is asking if this is Sharon, it is clearly not! Don't you agree? :

http://fineartbuyer.org/original-oil-painting-sharon-tate-signed-inscribed/3235

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Sharon Discusses her Career and FVK, Connie Kresci and Sharon and Roman, and More Adorable Art of Sharon from FVK

Here is a nice short newspaper article from 1966:

Sharon's Secret
By Earl Wilson

LONDON--Sharon Tate had to keep a secret and the secret was Sharon Tate.

Nobody was to know that Sharon Tate was to be lauched as a secret sex missile.  And keeping it a secret wasn't easy for Sharon Tate, because she's an All-American girl not given to secrecy.

When I asked her where she is from in America, she answered, "Everywhere!"

Born in Dallas, as city she remembers but slightly, Sharon naturally went along when her father, an Army Officer, was transferred to ... San Francisco, to the state of Washington, to the city of Washington ... eventually to Verona, Italy.  She didn't go along when he went to Vietnam where he's now stationed, a year away from retirement. 

"By then, I was already signed and under wraps, as they say," Sharon told me at breakfast at the Savoy.

She'd become one of the beautiful people trying to make it in Hollywood.  She'd gone to test for a cigarette commerical, taken one deep puff, and fallen on her face.

"Then they sent me for an interview for a movie part.  They said, 'Honey, this is for a girl who's been around.  You look like a baby.'

"That afternoon I had to go to Metro for another interview.  Marty Ransohoff, the producer, sat in a chair near me.  When I came in they just sat and looked at me.

"They said they had a plan for me.  They would train me and prepare me.

"I would live quietly and study until I was ready.  I would not take any jobs and I would not be seen.

"I studied in New York with Lee Strasberg.  I lived at 42nd Street and 2nd Avenue.  At times I was wondering if it was really going to happen.  But generally I did not have time to have doubts."

Somehow she learned she should remain what she had been ... "to retain those things the producer saw in me the first time he saw me ... I had a job to stay the way I was ...

"The big mistake some girls make is to change themselves into somebody else."
So Sharon kept Sharon's secret.  Finally, she was ready.  They launched her in 'Thirteen', playing the lead (the star is Deborah Kerr), then gave her stardom of her own in 'The Vampire Killers,' another spoof of vampires.

"I'm a sweet innocent little girl who's stolen by the vampires--out of a bathtub," she explained.  "I am a Jewish girl named Sarah.

"I'm taking a bath when they decided to send me to school to make me a lady.  My father has decided to keep my room full of garlic to keep people away from finding me.  So when they open the door and find me in the bath ... but I mustn't give away the plot ... "

Sounds like to me it might be keeping Sharon Tate in a bathtub... but that's how Paulette Goddard started.

As you know I have been trying to get in touch with various people who knew Sharon.  Recently, I came across another name of a girl who knew her.  But unfortunately, I found she has since passed.  She also dated Sebring and tried to console Polanski after Sharon's death.  Her name was Connie Kreski and here is a brief summary of her life:

Connie Kreski (September 19, 1946, Wyandotte, Michigan – March 21, 1995, Beverly Hills, California) was Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month for January 1968 and was Playmate of the Year for 1969. Kreski had long taffy-colored hair and blue eyes.

In April 1969 Kreski was signed by Newley to play the feminine title role of Mercy Humppe in the Universal Pictures film Can Hieronymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness? The movie was shot in Malta and starred Milton Berle, Joan Collins, and George Jessel.

Los Angeles Times writer Joyce Haber mentioned Kreski in a newspaper column just days after the murder of Sharon Tate by followers of Charles Manson. Kreski was a member of the murdered actress' social circle along with John Phillips, Michelle Phillips, Tina Sinatra, Jacqueline Bisset, Michael Sarrazin, and Andrew Prine. Kreski was among those invited to the mansion Tate shared with her husband, director Roman Polanski. The home was on Cielo Drive, Los Angeles, California. Haber said that some of those invited declined to attend on the fatal night of August 9, 1969.

Kreski died of a blocked carotid artery on March 21, 1995 in Beverly Hills, California.

---from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connie_Kreski

Here are some photos (from Getty Images) of her with Roman taken in late 1969 or 1970 sometime.  Not sure who the men are with them?  One looks alike Bill Tenant but not sure about the other?  Does anyone know?

 And look at this adorable new cartoon art of Sharon and Roman from "The Fearless Vampire Killers" (from Deviant Art):