For Friday April 16, Photo of the Week, More New Books, New Vintage Translated Article: Sharon Tate and the "Hollywood Star System", A Dedication Video to Sharon and her baby, A Look Back at the Year 1969, End Game For Roman Polanski?

Sorry I got back a little late tonight...

Here is our lovely photo of the week:

From Photoplay magazine.

Here are some items contributed by Sharon fan Micaela:


Two new Spanish books that mention Sharon:

Polanski: Un Genio Maldito (This one is translated: Polanski: An Evil Genius).

Sangre en el Paraiso by Manuel Penella (Title translated: Blood in Paradise).

If anyone has read these please let us know what you think?

And a new vintage translated article:

King Magazine Italy 1966

$500,000 for Sharon Tate

Now look at her, this is Sharon Tate, incredibly lovely, delightfully blonde and sure of herself.  Ready to front the paths of the glory of celluloid.

Well, we must reveal to ourselves the secret: she is the classic product of the rigid "Hollywood Star System."

Sharon was, two years before, a simple lovely girl but no more.

Its luck is due to one man alone: of the noted Martin Ranshohoff, director of Filmways, a mass-producer of TV series. 

Immediately Ransohoff put the young Tate under contract for seven years and spent $500,000 (that is 300 millions of lira--Italian money).  For such a young lady Sharon began very hard work: lessons of song, dance, diction and performance.

When the $500,000 had been spent, from their ashes was born Sharon Tate, the star of tomorrow.


This is a Sharon that is beautiful everywhere and not afraid to show herself undressed.
In little time, we will see her in a film with Tony Curtis and Claudia Cardinale called "Don't Make Waves," a film tease of the crazy life in Southern California.

Many the shots here, all of our Sharon, show her in a small, colored bikini. 

If you were to ask the young lady Tate today what was the thing that makes her laugh about her life, the sculptural girl answers without hesitation:  "It was when, after seeing he had spent the $500,000, that Mr. Ransohoff had me do parts in five or six different series on TV with a black wig on."  *Even though he had spent so much money on her she was still starring incognito.

After "Don't Make Waves", Sharon Tate is ready for the big producers.


At present, she just finished filming "The Fearless Vampire Killers," directed by the teacher of fear, Roman Polanski.

In the latest issue of Playboy and from the set of the film, Sharon Tate appears nude.
Thanks so much for these two items, Micaela!

Here is a lovely dedication to Sharon and her baby Paul:

http://inewmovie.com/11986/in-loving-memory-of-sharon-paul-richard/

Serge Gainsbourgh and Jane Birkin: One of the great 1960s couples.

A nice article on looking back at 1969:

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/1969-the-year-everything-changed-1752220.html

And an interesting new article on Roman Polanski:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/apr/15/roman-polanski-exile-ghost

Photo of the Week,

Here is the Photo of the Week:

Glamorous Sharon in "Valley of the Dolls."

Here is another fan of Sharon's showcasing a video from "Don't Make Waves":

Sharon with co-star Dave Draper.

http://www.80sforever.net/Sharon-Tate--Over-The-Pond__5UuJnVx57cE.html

I found an interesting blog that has a woman talking about knowing Sharon in the early 1960s:

Sharon in a photo taken by Walter Chappell.

Ayala at Friberfanatics (who is working on her autobiography):

The Sandpiper was being filmed up the coast, over the side of another cliff in a little cabin built there for the purpose. Locals snorted– it was badly located, and everyone predicted it would never survive the winter storms. An interminable stairway had been built to access it, and we’d watch two people haul Elizabeth Taylor back up after the day’s shooting– she had been dieting heavily for the film, and had absolutely no energy as result.

Big Sur where "The Sandpiper" was filmed.

Marty Ransohoff was directing, and had brought his protege Sharon Tate along so that Walter (Chappell) could shoot her portfolio. I have never met, before or since, such a beautiful woman. Once I saw her put on her shoes in front of those huge windows over the sea– the web of skin at her Achilles’ tendon was so fine, the sun shone right through. And her beauty was not just skin deep; she had a simplicity and a purity about her that floated ‘way above Hollywood and its trips, even past Marty and his baser designs. Once I had to bring her a towel when she was taking a shower– she seemed so delighted to be naked around another woman. The studio owned her body otherwise– I doubt they even noticed her soul.

Photo of the Week, "Eye of the Devil" Novel, Sharon's Style, and Roman talks about the light and love he still holds for Sharon

Here is the photo of the week:

I think this photo goes well with what Pierce Brosnan says about how Roman still feels about Sharon:
 

I looked for more of Odile in Philip Loraine's book, "Eye of the Devil."  However, there are only about three brief scenes she is in.  She is just mentioned really.  I am guessing that Ransohoff pushed the writers to make her part broader and more interesting, as I noticed that Philip Loraine--under the name of Robin Estridge-- along with Dennis Murphy wrote the screenplay.

Do you think Sharon would wear this?  Here is a style blog:

http://www.polyvore.com/sharon_tate_21_5o/set?id=16159876

And Pierce Brosnan talked about Polanski again in an interview for "The Ghost Writer" and he mentioned Sharon:

"I lost a wife, and this man lost his wife in the most barbaric fashion. He spoke tenderly and openly about the light and the love that he still carries for Sharon."

Read more: http://www.centredaily.com/2010/02/25/1817158/ghost-writers-real-life-parallels.html#ixzz0gg7TPkFM

Next Part of Translated Article: Things were not great with Ransohoff and Bronsan talks about Polanski and More

L'Europeo August 21, 1969


My meeting with Sharon Tate


by Adriano Botta

Continued from yesterday...


The contract she signed was for seven years. Sharon exacted a million pounds a week without shooting a meter of film. Martin was creating his character, he made her look like a diva, mobilized around her make-up experts, dietetics, riding, fencing, and tennis. They came up with slogans like these: "Nothing is more exhilarating for a 'tete-a-Tate'", "It's not the one you are admiring Sharon Tate, but the Tate Gallery: Only in the famous British Museum there is such beauty."


"I had great confidence in my own producer," Sharon says. "I loved him. And I put up all his nonsense. Practically lived in a prison. I was forbidden to go out at night, forbidden to go to the movies, forbidden to go to the theater, forbidden to be photographed. Forbidden everything. Martin said that the public should not see me before I was ready. I become the puppet that he wanted. Trained for three years. I recommended to him that I wanted to take acting seriously.  He said didn't like the idea of acting! I asked him to let me take a course at the Actors Studio in New York and you know what he answered? 'Wretch! You're just an accident! You have not yet realized that you're a force of nature. Acting as understood at the Actor's Studio will kill your beauty, take away any flavor.' Instead I realized that he had decided to make me a 'dumb blonde.'  And one day I had a screen test. I was in the anteroom of the principal. The door of his office was still open. Martin spoke on the phone. 'In a couple of months I can give you something great,' he said, 'now it is not yet possible. She needs to gain some weight, at least a couple of pounds: even her teeth need a little work and it will be necessary, but then how can you complain?  She is a niave and an inferior airhead and will do fine. She will be a hit, you'll see. We will make plenty of money on her.' Yes, this is the way he saw me. I loved him. I believed in him as a second father. In order not to disappoint him I had been made up to look like a prostitute who does tricks in Soho: layers of foundation, lipstick, big hair.  It made me feel dirty. I had agreed to wear ostentatious clothing, like corsets squeezed to show my breasts and jewelry that looked ridiculous. I would puff up my hair, and stick out my bottom lip and say invented idiotic jokes for advertising as an example of the Tate Gallery.  I was good, obedient. He always told me so. And he was still smiling when I felt like crying. Sure, I was paid handsomely. But money is not everything. I have my pride."

After she heard the call Ransohoff had made Sharon exploded. She told Martin "No, I will never be a whore moron!" To appease Sharon, Martin pulled in the reins and he sent her to study at the Actor's Studio for a while.  Sharon had to turn a blind eye on her romance with the prince of Hollywood hairdressering, Jay Sebring, and she was inserted into a movie with grim tones. The Eye of the Devil with David Niven and Deborah Kerr. It was a film about witches. The farmers are at a feud in the French Bordeaux region where they are mesmerized by a medium and try to kill the husband of the Marquise to remove the curse that weighs curse to their fields. Kerr played the Marchioness, Niven portrayed the Marquis, Sharon Tate was the visionary girl who unleashes fear and hatred from peasants, a modern witch who is mysterious, with a devilish charm. The film was not a particularly warm welcome to the film world but Sharon was pleased. It pleased her body, if not its soul.

More coming tomorrow....

Pierce Brosnan talked about Polanski in a interview saying: "There will be people who say he deserves everything he gets," Brosnan says. "I think forgiveness, compassion, some dignity — he hasn't murdered anyone. What he did was terribly wrong in a time that was terribly wrong in many ways. There's forgiveness on her side. You just hope there's closure for his family and her family. He's a brilliant fellow and a very fractured man in many ways."

For Brosnan, the reason for doing the film was simple: Polanski. Brosnan met Polanski in Paris over lunch during Mamma Mia!'s European promotional tour two years ago.

"We talked about this and that, lives, life lost, movies," Brosnan says. "We didn't talk about the motivation of my character or any of the politics."

For more on Brosnan and the rest of this interview:

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2010-02-18-Brosnan18_ST_N.htm

Also, the stars regreted that Polanski was absencent at Berlin premiere.  This article offers some great quotes from the cast of "The Ghost Writer" and some insights into Polanski as a director:

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/brosnan-regrets-polanski-absence-at-berlin-premiere-20100213-nxsy.html

More of the Translated Article: How Sharon's career got started, 'Macbeth' and Polanski and Polanski's First Wife

More of the Translated Article from Yesterday:

L'Europeo August 21, 1969



My meeting with Sharon Tate

by Adriano Botta

Continued...

The adventure of the body (if not the soul) for Sharon had begun very early in the second years of age. Sharon Tate is her real name. Her father, Paul Tate, was an officer of the American Army, department-- information. He lived in Dallas, making Sharon Texas-born. "In two years" her mother says, "I had her portrait taken with a bow on her head and her legs curled up on a round cushion. I sent the photos to a newspaper, for the Main Competition of Miss Baby and Sharon met her first triumph.  She was Miss Bebe. All the moms from Texas were full of envy."



Little was in Dallas. His father was transferred frequently. California, Washington, Omaha, Italy. And Sharon was a department mascot on a training airplane in California, she was Miss Richland in the federal capital and Miss Nebraska at Omaha. Her career in films was born in Verona. She was seventeen years old and spoke good Italian. She buttoned her blouse too low and waited for a secret audition in Technicolor in Venice before her father came home. Renzo Avanzo was a long-time public relations man for Technicolor's film lab in Rome and a cousin of Roberto Rossellini. Avanzo was to do the audition.  The audition and participation in a fleeting show of Pat Boone kindled her imagination. Returning to America for the new transfer of Paul Tate, who was now the rank of major, Sharon decided to try her luck in Hollywood. She was eighteen years old, her body was sometimes something of a spectacle. Major Tate was beginning to get tired of hearing the full regiments, the officers in his head, whistling to the passing of his daughter. Yes, it was time that she was on her own. The last time she buttoned her blouse too low her father said, "I recommend that you keep yourself covered in the best possible way. 'Now you're a woman.' "

Sharon debuted pouring wine to customers at a restaurant in Los Angeles, in an Irish costume, for twenty-five dollars a week.   She poured wine and seduction. A director from TV filled his glass up, got drunk and took Sharon to Filmways, the editor was his friend, Martin Ransohoff, and Martin cried when he saw Sharon and told his secretary to make up a contract for her. "She is the girl I always wanted. She could be another Marilyn Monroe to the seventies, I am willing to bet my reputation."

More tomorrow as Sharon decides she does not want to be the Next Marilyn Monore...

Here is an interesting theory on why Polanski chose Shakespeare 's "Macbeth" after the death of Sharon. 

http://ghettoraga.blogspot.com/2010/02/time-music-in-third-ear-bands_14.html

Paul Minns (Musician and was in the band, 'Third Ear Band', this band did the music for Polanski's Macbeth):

"Macbeth" was done at Air Studios playing live to black/white rushes. Often we repeatedly watched gory scenes. Polanski related quite a bit but was under pressure from the bankers as things dragged on. He had strong views about film music such as doing the complete opposite to that on the screen. This was contrasted with "cartoon" type sound for each action in the fight scenes. We spent a long time in the studio with very little material to show for it. The engineers didn't know what the hell was going on (I don't blame them). I was struggling and had to restrained from attending the last sessions. Buckmaster reminded us of his needing to protect his reputation and there was general jockeying for Polanski's favour. The Sharon Tate murder had happened not long before and I felt that by choosing "Macbeth" Polanski hoped to substitute one grisly act by another, so erasing his memory. My playing was very shaky on the record which I produced - everyone else having done a runner.

Also, some said that one of the articles on my blog said something about Sharon being Roman's first wife.  This is apparently a mistake as Barbara Lass-Kwiatkowska was his first wife and Sharon his second.  Hope that clears that up.  Here is a photo of Barbara and Polanski:

A closer view of Lass:

Speaking of Polanski, here is another interesting take on his current situation:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/the_big_picture/2010/02/is-roman-polanski-really-no-different-than-leni-riefenstahl.html

And a great review of "The Ghost Writer" by Rolling Stone Magazine's Peter Travers:

http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/movie/32254953/review/32254955/the_ghost_writer

Translated Article from Italian Magazine: 'No need to be embarrassed about being nude' and More on Polanski

L'Europeo August 21, 1969

My Meeting with Sharon

by Adriano Botta

Producer Martin Ransohoff wanted to make her another Marilyn Monroe, the 'sex symbol' of the seventies. But Sharon reacted and got to attend the Actor's Studio. The meeting with Roman Polanski, Sharon called it 'a drug', radically changed her life.

I was one of six hundred and forty invited to the wedding of Sharon Tate in London on 20 January 1968, which was performed in place less for married couples than any place in the world, the Playboy Club. Roman Polanski, the husband, called 'genius and profligacy' by British film critics, dashed down streams of whiskey and told stories that nobody seemed to listen to. The 'bunny' club had distributed rose petals that they knew had hashish. The lights were low, like from a cabaret. On the tables there was no shadow of dishes, so I buy food. Her husband, extolling her, the bride, who looked out of the modern novel of a masochist. She appeared sheathed by Elizabethan costume: lace, high collar and starched puffed sleeves of silk, and a skirt that barely covered her bottom. After alluding to the guests to smile, Sharon Tate sat at the center of the room, in a large bed with black sheets. On her legs that black shining white, long and thin, as in a framework designed for antolgia seduction. We all looked at those legs, our eyes were riveted.  We also watched Polanski--who appears to have a taste for suffering--together with a Raymond Chandler film style, the director who turns a cocktail of seduction-perversion-bloody cruelty in a commercial product with a large circulation. "A drop of blood at the spectacle of the wedding would have been in Polanski film fashion," said one of the critics present. Seduction and perversion were squandered, spurting from the contrast between the violent beauty of Sharon and her features delicate and innocent, like the Madonna of Siena, between his hard and sterile voice to hers an icy, sexy, girlish, rich, soft one.

Suddenly Sharon Tate picked up her white panty-hosed, long, and beautiful legs that bewitched so many of us, and came over to me and held a conversation with me for most of that extravagant banquet:

"I'm in love with Roman Polanski because he is beautiful and a genius to the bone and he has the unruliness of a man who is truly wise.  My father always told me to cover my legs and never to button my blouse too low.  And he scolded my mother since I was two years old when she sent my photographs to newspapers. With my husband, however, I was taught that nudity is not shameful but a way to be free, happy, full of life, and that we have only one duty, to be ourselves.  We do only what we want to do, ignoring the opinions of the world. We especially have fun. Roman has taught me that when women like me show themselves nude and beautiful that it is the most pure thing a woman can do. When we were going to shoot our first film together, The Fearless Vampire Killers, Polanski did not want me. The producer had to impose himself and put his foot down to get me the role. I had to shoot three sequences completely naked. I arrived on the set wrapped in a sheet like a ghost and when I opened it I was terribly embarrassed. I bent over and tried to cover my breasts and the rest.  Then Polanski told me: 'If you do that it attracts even more attention from the technicians and the matter becomes sordid and dirty. They are embarrassed if you yourself are embarrassed. You must learn to be naked in a natural sort of way, given that you're beautiful, with pride. This is the right attitude.'


"Roman was right. His talent subdues me. And the week after that he photographed me in color for Playboy, naked and natural. By this point I was already at ease. I had already forgotten the stupid complexity of modesty. The nude body has become the symbol of an era, or at least is becoming one. Like the sound of a new era and a new moral--morality naked--without the veil of hypocrisy. The morality of pleasure sought by the soul and the light of the sun. Body and soul: is that not the title of a popular ballad?"



To be continued tomorrow...

Polanski has some good news come his way:

Roman Polanski in Pole Position at Berlin Film Festival

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=9838779

By Mike Collett-White

BERLIN (Reuters) - Roman Polanski can enjoy a break from sensational headlines about his arrest and misdemeanors and bask in the glow of mostly positive reviews for his latest movie "The Ghost Writer."

The 76-year-old director, under house arrest in his chalet in Gstaad, is among the early frontrunners for prizes at the Berlin film festival this year, although the 10-day competition has yet to reach halfway.

The political thriller based on a novel by Robert Harris is one of 20 movies vying for the Golden Bear for best picture, which Polanski won in 1966 for "Cul-de-Sac."

The fact that it is among the favorites is remarkable given that post-production was completed while Polanski was in a Swiss prison and, later, under house arrest.

"With this immensely enjoyable, satisfyingly convoluted thriller he demonstrates exactly why he is still a force to be reckoned with," Wendy Ide wrote in the Times newspaper.

"From the opening scene it is clear Polanski had complete control, whether or not he was behind bars when he finished it."

The United States is seeking to extradite Polanski to face justice after he fled the country in 1978 on the eve of his formal sentencing for unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl.

Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian said: "This is his most purely enjoyable picture for years, a Hitchcockian nightmare with a persistent, stomach-turning sense of disquiet, brought off with confidence and dash."

Hollywood trade publications were more circumspect, however.

Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter described the film about a disgraced British prime minister loosely based on Tony Blair as "sleek" and "hypnotic," "but once the credit roll frees you from its grip, it doesn't bear close scrutiny."

Derek Elley of Variety was one of the few dissenting voices in Berlin:

"All the ingredients are here for a rip-roaring political thriller ... but ... Polanski simply transfers Harris' undistinguished prose direct to the screen and ... there's little wow factor in the revelations as they appear."

GRITTY DRAMAS ALSO SHINE

The Ghost Writer stars Ewan McGregor as a writer brought in to spice up the memoirs of an ex-premier (Pierce Brosnan).

The politician soon becomes embroiled in a bid to have him tried for war crimes, while the writer, who remains nameless, begins to uncover uncomfortable truths about the former leader and his wife, played by Olivia Williams.

Polanski is not alone in impressing critics in Berlin this year, with two other competition entries scoring strongly.

"If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle" is part of the "new wave" of Romanian film-making that has wowed festivals around the world in recent years.

It follows an 18-year-old young offender who is days away from being released from a correction facility. He discovers his mother, who abandoned him as a child, plans to take his brother to Italy, forcing him to take dramatic measures to break free.

Screen International wrote of its "outstanding quality," and the same publication was even more positive about "Submarino," a tough Danish drama which contains scenes of domestic abuse.

"Rarely has there been such a downbeat feel-good movie, but feel-good it is: Submarino works like an emotional massage, leaving the viewer pummeled but invigorated," Screen wrote.

The Berlin film festival awards ceremony is held on February 20.

More of the Translated Article Discussing Sharon's Career and a Great Article on Actor Ferdy Mayne Who Remembers Sharon Fondly

Novella 2000 August 21, 1969

The terrible death of Sharon Tate, the most beautiful of Hollywood (part III)

By Paolo Pietroni

Sharon Tate was born in Dallas, Texas, twenty-six years ago. Her father was in the U.S. Army and attended the service of safety signs (counter, then a sort of 007) when Sharon was only six months away, her mother sent some pictures to a beauty pageant and to baby foods. Sharon won the proclaimed Miss Baby of Texas.

She was pretty young, beautiful and she was to become great. At sixteen, she was elected to Miss Richland of Washington, and then "Miss Autorama."   A year after that her father was elemental in the technology in Italy, at the NATO base in Vicenza: Sharon was proclaimed High School Homecoming Queen.

In Verona one day she saw a film crew from Fox shooting a film. The director was occasionally impressed by the beauty of Sharon. Two years later, when the Tate family returned home, the director remembered her. And one fine day Sharon was taken almost bodily into the office of Martin Ransohoff, director of Filmways, who sealed a deal and made her sign a contract for seven years.

Sharon early in her career.

The first three years (so stated in the contract) Sharon was studying. Forbidden to do photography, film making prohibited except some minor bit part with wig, and fake name. The 'system' of Hollywood was once again put into motion to build, piece by piece.  She was to take the place of Marilyn Monroe, whose presence had been too long empty now.

What they said about her
 
Singing lessons, acting lessons, diction, carry oneself, exercise, nutrition, classical ballet. These three years of 'school' cost the producer Ransohoff the beauty of three hundred million.  But he was sure to have them invested in a fertile soil. They had coined slogans to launch the young actress. Here's one: "Nothing is more exhilarating for a tete-a-Tate."
 
At the end of three years of study the "doll-blonde-sexy-all" was ready to begin her first film, starting as the female lead. The first film is titled "Thirteen" (the same title of the last film!). Sharon personifies a fragile country girl with psychic powers and witchcraft. And she was so good as a witch that director Roman Polanski put her in his film writing about vampires (Italian title: Please do not bite on the neck) with Christopher Lee.* During the making of the film (even between Polanski and interpreters), Sharon and Roman fell in love.
 
Third movie: Plan, Do not Make Waves with Tony Curtis and Claudia Cardinale. The fourth movie: The Valley of the Dolls.  Fifth and final film, as we have said was Thirteen with Gassman. But the title was changed : we will call it One out of thirteen, or 12 + 1. Sharon embodies a rich heiress. But her montary legacy has been hidden by her grandmother inside one of thirteen chairs that were unfortunately sold. Gassman helps Tate helps to find them one by one--the thirteen chairs--through a thousand vicissitudes.** One becomes yellow-pink, in fact.

Sharon with Ferdy Mayne in The Fearless Vampire Killers.

*There must have been a goof in this article as it was Ferdy Mayne and not Christopher Lee that appeared in the film, "The Fearless Vampire Killers."

Sharon's final film, "12 + 1"

**I thought it was Gassman who was to inherit the money in the chairs and that Sharon helped him.  Sorry, I have still not seen the film "12 + 1".

Speaking of Ferdy Mayne I found a great interesting article on him where he mentions Sharon.

Mayne says of Tate: “Sharon was a very kind and sweet person in life and of course Roman adored her and that was obvious from the first day of filming.”

He talks more about Roman and Sharon in the article here:

http://www.filmsinreview.com/2009/04/02/camp-david-april-2009-ferdy-mayne/

Quote of the Week, Another Translated Article: Sharon Tate Knew Her Child Was a Boy and More on the Polanski Case

I thought I would start a quote of the week.  It will be by someone who knew Sharon, or by Sharon herself, or a quote that makes you think of her.

First one:  "She was nineteen years old, she was absolutely beautiful. I mean Sharon was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen."--Martin Ransohoff

Part of the translated article I referred to earlier:

Novella 2000 August 21, 1969


The terrible death of Sharon Tate, the most beautiful of Hollywood (Part I)


They killed the baby she was carrying


Bel Air, among the most elegant neighborhoods of the "Mecca of cinema," was the scene of a crime unprecedented five people were brutally killed, their bodies were desecrated. Among the victims, the actress Sharon Tate, who was to be a mother within the month.

 

By Paolo Pietroni
 
She spoke often of her child. Two months ago, Sharon Tate was at the sixth month of pregnancy. She was in London filming the latest scenes of her fifth film, Thirteen, and the 'belly' was so obvious that the director Lucignani was forced to devise special optical tricks to hide it.
 
And so she showed. "It will be a male, I know, I feel it," she told Vittorio Gassman, to Orson Welles, Terry Thomas, to all friends of the crew. And she said the usual things that mothers say. That the child must look like her in looks but as for the brain it had to be just like his father--as smart as his father. And sometimes, during pauses in work, it was easy to see Sharon in a corner talking to herself. It seemed that she spoke to her baby. Instead she spoke to her son as if he was already born. And she spoke as if he were already large and needed her advice. Once they heard her say, "You can be fat as Orson Welles, my friend. But only if you're talented like him. Otherwise, you will not eat much."
 
"She always spoke to him in the masculine," recalls the director Luciano Lucignani. "She was one hundred percent sure it was a male. She also accepted bets on it."
 
Sunday Aug. 10 in Los Angeles, the morgue, the coroner Thomas Noguchi has done the autopsy on the body of Sharon Tate, assassinanted the night between Friday 8 and Saturday 9 August. Thomas Noguchi announced that the baby that the actress had carried was that of a male.

More coming...

 
Polanski appeal may take a year?

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gGv7Eto9BYbJ3i-BvAxEBtlKtOzQ

http://www.theimproper.com/?p=3303

Sharon Defies Ransohoff in Translated Article and More

I found this interesting article on The Brazilian Sharon Tate Site and thought I'd share it here.

http://sharontate.bravehost.com/index.html

"CAPRICHO" - March 1968 - Brazil

HOLLYWOOD IS HELL'S GATE

SHARON TATE, ONE OF THE MOST PROMISING AMERICAN STARS OF THE NEW GENERATION, ACCUSES HOLLYWOOD OF BEING FALSELY MORALIST AND SAYS THAT THE OLD CINEMA MECA IS VERY DEPRAVED. SHE RESISTED A LOT OF PRESSURE TO GET HER STARDOM AND ENDURED ALL KINDS OF THREATS, EVEN FROM THE PRODUCER WHO DISCOVERED HER, JUST BECAUSE SHE DIDN’T WANT TO BREAK UP OR BETRAY HER GREAT LOVE.

"I’m completely psychedelic. And not in Julie Christie ’s way, please! I know there are people who think that I imitate her! Can you believe that? I want much more freedom than she has. Julie became a slave of her ambition. I think she’s frustrated. Now she says she’s neurotic. I’m not inhibited at all. I just do what I want. If I feel like it, I flirt with a cab driver. I like new things, try new sensations. Why not?"

Sharon likes to speak. And explosively. In her luxurious apartment she didn’t think for a moment: ask the maid to serve something serious from the bar, took her shoes and the stockings off, and loved chatting.

"I got tired of being nobody. I’ve been pretty since I was a little girl. Everybody kept telling me: Why don’t you make movies, Sharon? One day I decide to take the advice. I was very lucky. On the same day I went to an agent’s office from New York, a very strange man came in and said: 'It’s you. I’m gonna make you a movie star.' It looks like a fairytale, I know, but it isn’t."

The man was Martin Ransohoff, a producer who took 30 months and spent more than 500.000 dollars to prepare Sharon for stardom. The first movie Sharon did was Eye of the Devil. The impact she created was such that when Polish director Roman Polanski saw it in a private exhibition in London, he took a plane and went to Hollywood to take a look at that sensational girl. He had been looking for a face like hers for a long time: pure and depraved at the same time, to act in a movie about vampires he was preparing. The meeting of Sharon and Polanski became love at first sight. Much to Ransohoff’s anger, she had no doubts, went along with the young Polish director when he went back to London.

"And why not? I never promised Martin I would give up the right to live my own life the way I want. And then, it’s funny when one falls in love. It happens suddenly. Contracts, plans, everything changes at that moment. The notion I was in love with Roman overwhelmed me. Nothing else mattered. It’s wonderful and horrible at the same time. I stayed in London with Roman. I made Fearless Vampire Killers for him. Martin wouldn’t accept it. He even threatened me. I told him to go to hell. And what annoyed him the most was that I was living with Roman. 'At least, get married' he would shout. It’s funny; Hollywood is a very depraved place, the hell’s door, but knows how to be Victorian when it’s about beginners like me. The pressure was such that Roman understood. He married me. He’s an angel. He realized it was necessary. Hollywood offered me something wonderful though Martin Ransohoff: the role of Jennifer, in Valley of the Dolls, America’s number one best seller, the depraved and pill addicted vamp was coveted by people such as Candice Bergen, Anna Karina, Anouk Aimee, Anne Bancroft. They wanted to give me the role if I married Roman. And that happened. The worst, now, is that Martin doesn’t know that when I love I don’t give a damn to career and fame. When I love and get married, I want children, a home, a quiet life. He says Valley of the Dolls put Hollywood at my feet. And so what? Women who can handle marriage and career are very rare. When you want both things tragedy happens: the husband is jealous of his wife’s success, the wife gets tired of the husband’s jealousy, just because she wants the husband as much as her career. And what’s more important? A magazine cover to look for one whole day, or the love of a husband to have your whole life?"

Caption below photo reads:

30 MONTHS TO BE PREPARED – "Martin just wanted to prove that he could make anybody a movie star. I was very luck but then came the worst: 30 months of super intensive preparation. Diction, walking, singing, acting classes and some small parts in television. I learned how to be an actress."

Here is another great recommendation for "The Fearless Vampire Killers" :

http://zombiesaremagic.blogspot.com/2009/12/fearless-vampire-killers-1967.html

Micaela has uploaded many great videos of Sharon including the Hatami ones here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSLTWdLY2Co

Sharon Tate: New Sex Goddess Handle with Love

Here is an article I found among clippings.  It is probably around 1967-68.  It looks like it was in one those Screen Stories magazines or that type of magazine.

New Sex-Goddess Handle with Love by Bill Marks

Sharon Marie Tate was born in Dallas, Texas, and since both her parents are natives of Houston, she claims to be a Texan. Her father was (and still is) an officer in the U. S. Army, and the Tates, like most Army families, never remained in one place for very long.

When Sharon was six months old and already a beauty, she was chosen Miss Tiny Tot of Dallas. When she reached her teens, she was elected Miss Richland, Washington. Later she was named Miss Autorama in a beauty contest there. At the time, she had no aspirations for a career in films, and no one could have guessed that a few short years later she would become Hollywood's newest sex-goddess and most talked-about overnight movie star.

She attended high school in Verona, Italy--her father was stationed there for four years. She was a cheerleader and a baton twirler and--of course--Homecoming Queen and Queen of the Senior Prom.

"When I was in school," she recalls, "I dreamed about becoming a psychiatrist or a ballerina. Like most girls I would dream about being a movie star too. But those dreams are the impossible kind, the kind you don't really set your heart on.

"I guess you could say that I was somewhat withdrawn from my classmates. I spent a good deal of time being a loner. I suppose that had something to do with the way we lived--always on the move, never living in one town very long. It's very hard to make lasting friendships that way. And my father was rather strict with me and my two younger sisters. He insisted on proper behavior and very often vetoed our choices of boyfriends. There was always a curfew whenever my sisters or I would go out on a date--we had to be home on time or else. But I never resented his authority. In fact, I'm thankful for my strict upbringing; I feel it has helped me learn discipline--and that's very important in this business."

But how did the pretty Texas girl become Sharon Tate, ready-made star? It all started just two and-a-half years ago. Sharon returned to California with her parents. Then 18, she felt it was time to be on her own, to be independent. She took an apartment and any job that would help pay the rent.

Her newfound friends persuaded her to try to break into modeling. And Sharon did do a few commercials for Chevrolet and a cigar company. She worked for a wine company by dressing up in Irish costume to serve free samples to patrons of Los Angeles restaurants.

"When I was in Rome," Sharon says, "I met Richard Beymer. He was there shooting a picture. He told me that if I ever wanted to be an actress, that I should contact his agent in California. That's how I came to meet Harold Gefsky. Harold introduced me to Herb Brower, who was connected with the television show, 'Petticoat Junction'...

"At the time, I was hoping that I might be able to get a bit part on the show--I would have been greatful even for a walk-on, anything to tide me over till my next job. But he just looked at me and then he grabbed my hand and the three of us went running off to Martin Ransohoff's office."

During that first meeting with movie maker Ransohoff, Lady Luck must have been standing next to the beautiful but frightened and bewildered Sharon. Ransohoff sat at his mamouth desk, studying the young girl who till then only dreamed about being a movie star. Then the silence broke like thunder.

"Draw up a contract," he shouted. "Get her mother. Get my lawyer. This is the girl I want." Later Ransohoff said, "I have this dream where I'll discover a beautiful girl who's a nobody and turn her into a star everybody wants."

Sharon Tate walked into that dream. There was no delay for a screen test, not even a still photograph was taken. She immediately signed a seven-year contract and Ransohoff personally took charge of his dream-girl. Sharon's impossible dream became a reality.

When Sharon wasn't filming bit parts for various TV shows, she studied acting with the best coaches, including the master himself, Lee Strasberg.

In very short order, Ransohoff sent her off to France for her first movie, '13', which stars Deborah Kerr and David Niven. In the film, she plays a chillingly beautiful, expressionless girl who has a witchy talent for putting the hex on people. (Completed last year, the film should be released soon--the delay possibly due to the Ransohoff strategy and sales pitch.)

Next came 'Don't Make Waves' with Tony Curtis--the first of her four completed movies to date which has already been seen by the public. She has also completed 'Your Teeth in My Neck' and 'Valley of the Dolls'.

But even before the public saw one foot of screen film, they saw her face on a dozen magazine covers across the country and in Europe. (All part and parcel of the Ransohoff ready-made star image.)

During the filming of 'Your Teeth In My Neck' (previously called 'The Vampire Killers'--a spoof of horror films) Sharon fell in love with the film's director, Roman Polanski. He also stars in the picture with her.

"Marty Ransohoff had to sell Roman on the idea of even considering me for the film," Sharon said. "He arranged for the two of us to have dinner. Roman never said a word to me--we just sat there and ate and he just looked at me. Then we had a second dinner meeting and the same thing happened. Later he took me to his apartment. He lit some candles and then excused himself and left me standing there alone. A short while later he came storming into the room like a madman and he was wearing a Frankenstein mask. I let out a blood-curdling scream and while I was still crying from the scare, he was calling Ransohoff to tell him that the part in the film was mine."

Since then, Sharon and Roman have been inseparable and close friends say that the two will marry. "She's very much in love with Polanski," confides a close friend. "He's the first man she has ever loved. People have always done things for her--ever since she was a child, someone always took charge of her. It's been her life's pattern. She's miserable when she has to come to Hollywood and Polanski can't be with her. She prefers London--or anywhere else as long as they are together.

"I think Sharon is a little embarrassed by her beauty--she feels that the public won't accept her simply because she has been turned into a Hollywood sex-goddess. She wants to be able to prove herself as an actress, too.

"Most of all she needs love--the love that only Roman can offer. I think she would give up her career--even though stardom is in her reach--if it meant losing the man she loves."

Sharon Tate's success as Hollywood's newest golden girl could very well depend on whether or not she gets that happiness in her private life.

Note: I apologize as for the last few months my scanner has not been working and I haven't had time or money to fix it. Anyway, a friend let me borrow his digital camera so I took a couple of shots of the photos that were in the article.  Hopefully, soon I can get things taken care of to show off better photos.

Sharon Tate... A Woman Deeply In Love

Here is another article from Melissa in Canada.  Thanks again, Melissa!

New Castle News, Saturday, December 9, 1967

Sharon is a Woman Deeply in Love by Dorothy Manners

HOLLYWOOD--The waiter in the Polo Lounge asked her after she ordered wine, "Are you 21?"

"I'm 25," said Sharon Tate seriously, oblivious of the compliment implied.  She looked about 16 in a white two-piece mini dress, black sweater, bare thighs and white boots up to the knee.  

But don't be fooled by the outward appearence of the sex bomb out of 'Valley of the Dolls.'  She's a woman--more importantly, a woman deeply in love--and she doesn't care if Roman Polanski knows it.

"I can't play games," she said.  "I have friends, older women, who tell me I'm foolish to let Roman know how deeply I care about him. They tell me all sorts of things like 'keep a man guessing,' 'men become bored with too much devotion.'  They tell me I am being foolish, well," she shrugged.  "Foolish I am."

The object of this refreshing affection is the 34 year-old director who has created an enormous vogue with his European pictures before coming to Hollywood to direct 'Rosemary's Baby.'  He and Sharon met a little over two years ago. 

Since then, where Roman is, there is Sharon.  When I first met her a year ago when she was making 'Don't Make Waves' with Tony Curtis, she could hardly wait for the picture to be finished so she could join Polanski in Europe.  She had the offer of another picture in Hollywood which she turned down because he couldn't join her.

"But 'Valley of the Dolls' was good timing.  When I started work, Roman had arrived to begin preparation on 'Rosemary's Baby' which worked out beautifully."

"When will the wedding be," I asked.

She looked surprised--as if it mattered.  "Oh, around the end of the year," she reported.

"That's practically here," I reminded her.

"Oh, is it?" she laughed.  I tell you, the girl doesn't know what time or month it is. 

It was high time we got off the love of her life and to something less unsettling--like the work in her life. This, she also loves.

She is quite something to look at as any cameraman in town will tell you.  Her 5' 5" 118 pound figure is almost flawless, her hair is its own ash blonde shade, her eyes hazel and enormous.  Sharon looks so much like a movie star it is not surprising that producer Marty Ransohoff took one look at her two years ago and said to his casting director, "Put that girl under contract."  No test, no nothing.

"It was an easy and yet most difficult way to get started," remembers Sharon.  "I was immediately put into training--rather like a Race horse with no Public exposure on tv or in little theatres, the ususal step - up to a career.  I began a strenuous routine of being coached in singing, dancing, speech, physical culture and, of course, dramatics.  It was very hard work without the rewards of audiences or applause or knowing how the paying customer is reacting to me."  Turns out the reaction is okay.

She was born in Dallas, Texas, the eldest daughter of three girls born to an army intelligence officer.  She barely remembers her birth city because her father was shifted from post to post in the U.S.A.

I wonder what movie Sharon turned down to be able to be with Roman? 

Tribute to Martin Ransohoff Earlier This Year and Another Take on the Polanski Case

I didn't know that Ransohoff was being honored this year?  I found this article from May 15, 2009:

A recent photo of Ransohoff

A Tribute to Producer Martin Ransohoff  May 3, 2009

This is an Egyptian Theatre Exclusive

Producer Martin Ransohoff started out in television and, after an incredible success story with the original "The Beverly Hillbillies" beginning in 1962, graduated to producing hit motion pictures the same year with BOYS’ NIGHT OUT and THE WHEELER DEALERS. A string of critically acclaimed and successful movies came in their wake, including THE AMERICANIZATION OF EMILY, THE SANDPIPER, THE CINCINNATI KID, THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS, DON’T MAKE WAVES, ICE STATION ZEBRA, CATCH-22, 10 RILLINGTON PLACE, SAVE THE TIGER, SILVER STREAK, THE WANDERERS and JAGGED EDGE, to name just a few of his many hits! He was also partly responsible for helping to launch the careers of such actresses as Tuesday Weld, Ann-Margret and Sharon Tate. Join us for some of producer Martin Ransohoff’s favorite films. He’ll be here in-person for two out of the three evenings!  

Here are the highlights of the films they showed:

http://www.egyptiantheatre.com/archive1999/2009/Egyptian/Martin_Ransohoff_ET2009.htm

Another mention announces it this way:

Director Arthur Hiller & Producer Martin Ransohoff In Person at the Egyptian

Producer Martin Ransohoff is the subject of a tribute this weekend at the Egyptian Theatre. Though himself, not a household name, his films are quite famous. He got his start in television producing "The Beverly Hillbillies" and went on to produce THE AMERICANIZATION OF EMILY (starring Julie Andrews & James Garner (forever Jim Rockford of "The Rockford Files" to TV fans), helmed by LOVE STORY director Arthur Hiller. Hiller, a former president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, will appear in person with Ransohoff to reminisce about making 'EMILY' in 1964. MARY POPPINS starring Andrews was also released in 1964.

Director Arthur Hiller today

Ransohoff will be joined by Robert Loggia for a look at JAGGED EDGE on Sunday, May 3rd. Loggia was Oscar-nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role as investigator Sam Ransom. Another highlight is ICE STATION ZEBRA on May 2nd, the film that eccentric, compulsive billionaire Howard Hughes watched repeatedly in his private screening room (remember the days before video let alone DVD???) Join us for some big screen action. Also screening are, SAVE THE TIGER and THE CINCINNATI KID with Steve McQueen.

For more on the films they showed go to the 2nd article here:

http://americancinematheque.blogspot.com/2009_04_01_archive.html

Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything about if anyone present asked about Sharon.  But here is a summary of the events from a fan that was there:

Mister, we could use a producer like Martin Ransohoff again. And again and again.

Sunday the Egyptian played host to the final night of the Martin Ransohoff tribute. Joining Mr. Ransohoff on stage were the evening’s host, Alan Rode and one of the truly great veteran Hollywood actors, ROBERT LOGGIA.

Much of Friday’s bloggery was taken up with war’s ugliness. Sunday’s double bill encompassed far less grave subject matter, namely murder, betrayal, gambling, small-fry in comparison. All encased in a pair of classic films that continue to mature, recruit new fans to the table, and send the rest of us reeling back in timed-release-capsules.

How such a diverse career? A filmography from which any handful of titles will yield the same results: stories seemingly world’s apart – polar opposites (ICE STATION ZEBRA was Saturday). If anything holds true in an overview, it is this extreme diversity of thematic commitment. And a handling of the material that was –don’t say it, don’t say it – edgy! A producer who exhibited more than just a token willingness to take chances, but real desire and as we heard Friday, one that was willing to go up against studio bosses, to fight for an artistic choice, despite the box office impaction. It is testament to Ransohoff’s guiding hand and diligence that the films are both timelessly entertaining and revelatory of their respective “times.”

The “knife with the jags” certainly holds up, clearly if tonight’s audience was any indication. Collective gasps and a “yeah” when the killer gets “his,” same as the day it was made. Pure 80s gold, prototypical of an entire subgenre, sporting a razor sharp script by the screenwriter who virtually defined the era’s potboiler, Joe Eszterhas, very quickly into the Q&A one begins to realize, that this is one more movie whose story belongs to the man who first conceived of the basic idea, none other than Martin Ransohoff. Not stated in some vanity mirror-moment-of-reflection, rather matter-of-factly in the first moments of discussing the project. “Basically the original idea for the movie was mine.”

Much like the way Mr. Ransohoff refers to himself as a “creative producer,” completely lacking in pretense. He is in fact un-credited on EDGE as he was, we learn, on much of his earlier work.

He mentions it in passing, like the CINNCINNATI KID’s locale being shifted from St. Louis where Richard Jessup’s novel is set, to New Orleans and a more bygone era. Ransohoff: “I’m from New Orleans.” If you’ve seen KID you know how pivotal the Big Easy’s setting is to the movie. If you haven’t seen it, than where the heck were you Sunday Night?

Between films, Mr. Ransohoff took a seat on stage between Robert Loggia and Alan Rode, the Q& A having commenced while he was returning from the lobby and Mr. Loggia recounting a dinner at Spago’s and nearly begging for the role of Sam Ransom. A performance which would land him an Oscar nom., the part had originally been set for Jason Robards, a much older actor. It was Loggia’s input that led to the character’s incorporation of the “F” carpet-bombing, and other major changes that were eventually embraced by both the director, Richard Marquand and Ransohoff.

Repeatedly, as audience, we bear witness to producer Ransohoff’s openness to the collective give and take of the creative process. Loggia said, “Marquand listened and was a gentleman.” The same holds true in spades for Ransohoff.

Ransohoff stated that as a producer, “after my first five or six pictures, I spent very little time on the set. My bonus to a director was not to have to see me.” To the “director who was doing his job… if dailies looked good, if we were on budget, my gift was to stay away… Plus, sitting around on a film set, watching films being made is like watching paint dry.”

Watching a Ransohoff movie is nothing like latex. Also, make note, “director doing his job.”

What might stand out the most in reviewing Ransohoff’s credits (he made the number at 41) is the sheer span of time – the post war 50s, the 60s, and on into the 80s – Mega eras of cultural and social upheaval, shifting norms and taboos, all reflected in shades of nuanced entertainment, engaging and more often than not, challenging, work. Culled from some of the greatest literary sources of the day, “I bought the rights to the book,” and so it would start.

Loggia remarked that he had recently turned 79 years of age, and with Ransohoff at somewhere in the low 80s, both gentlemen were still “ambling,” as Loggia put it, albeit at a somewhat leisurely pace. And this here is one darn glad moviegoer – I’m thinking next month for another six of the 41!

Wonder who I can ask about that?

Wish I could have asked Hiller if Sharon was really in "The Wheeler Dealers" and "The Americanization of Emily" like I have heard?  And there would endless questions to ask Ransohoff.

Another Take on the Polanski Case now that Roman is on house arrest.  It also talks about when Roman lost Sharon:

http://www.pamil-visions.net/polanski-flees-chalet-can-he-escape-conviction/28643/

Another Reporter Remembers Sharon and Roman Plus Vampires and Beautiful Women

CAD Magazine February 1970

Our Life is our Jungle by Bruce Harper

When I encountered vibrant and intense Roman Polanski at Paramount Studios he was in the midst of editing Rosemary’s Baby, the brilliant film on satanism and witchcraft in our time that was to bring worldwide acclaim.

It was the spring of 1968 and the slight, intense, lean, young man who sat next to me at the small table was as happy as he possibly would be in his life.

He was thirty-four and looked ten years younger. He was already a world renowned festival prize winning film director, of Polish origin but now very mobile in the far-flung film world – Paris, London, Rome and now the heart of the industry, Hollywood.

But above all Roman Polanski had just wooed, won and married the unbelievably beautiful and talented young film star, Sharon Tate. If there was one young couple among the beautiful people who had everything going for them – love, immensely successful talent, exciting careers and the unlimited admiration of their peers – it was Sharon and Roman.

At this point a reddish-haired movie-star handsome, turtleneck-sweatered young fellow stopped to say hello to Roman. “Krysztof Komeda,” Roman said, “my composer. He is also a doctor. I told him he better leave the hospital, always rushing for an operation or something, and really stay in music. So he abandoned, of course, the study of medicine.” Polanski pointed to a mark on his upper lip. “I had a cut here,” he said. “He pulled my stitches out. I had a fight in Paris a few days ago, I came back with the stitches and I said, ‘I must have it pulled.’ Kris said ‘All right, I’ll pull it.’ He sat down and cooked the scissors and pulled it out. ‘You can do it so fast,’ I said, ‘I’m going to start being in doubt about the music!’”

I wanted to know about the fight. Did it have anything to do with moviemaking? “The fight?” Polanski responded dryly. “No, I just had a fight on the street. I got married, you know, I was in Paris on my honeymoon with my wife Sharon Tate. We were just going to the cinema. On the street there were three guys going in the opposite direction, and one stuck his hand under my wife’s skirt, so I punched him. And he had the stupid idea to punch me back. He had a little ring on his finger and he cut my lip.” This was instantly more than I expected, this insight into the contrasts shadowing Roman Polanski’s life. He was newly rich, famous, ensconced in that room at the top of his profession, just happily wed to fabulous Sharon Tate – and he had to fight with his fists against three toughs on the streets of Paris!

In Hollywood and London Polanski met Sharon Tate, and his life took on a new radiance. She was five-foot-five, a stunning ash-blonde--so glamorous that producers and directors kept discovering her. First it was director Martin Ritt who met her as a sixteen-year-old nymphet in Venice, where her father was then posted as a colonel in Army Intelligence. “You ought to be in pictures!” Ritt told Sharon, but Papa was against it. But later on a visit to Hollywood she remembered Ritt’s advice and went to agent Hal Gefsky. “All I know is,” he has said of that encounter, “when she walked into the my office she was the most beautiful girl in the world.”

She began making her own way, appearing in TV commercials, trying to break in the hard way. “I was just a piece of merchandise,” she said of that difficult period. “No one cared about me, Sharon.” The producer Martin Ransohoff saw her, signed her and groomed her for a superstar.

Now fate twisted together the bright-and-dark strands of Roman and Sharon’s lives. He was bewitched by the stunning, hypnotic witch (she played one in Eye of the Devil) on the screen and cast Sharon in a film he was then about to make that spoofed the vampire films, titled The Fearless Vampire Killers, or Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are In My Neck! She romped through this wild satire in a red wig –and nothing else in a fantastic nude scene! This is how Cynan Jones saw her at that buoyant time of her life:

Sharon is the eternal woman, yet paradoxically she twists and turns her lithe body in the eager coltish manner of a careless tomboy. She affects the no-make-up Italian look, except for black eyeliner which serves to emphasize her wide hazel eyes and thick natural eyelashes. She has high cheekbones in an oval pre-Raphaelite face and her coloring is fresh and vivid with natural glowing cheeks. Her usual attire when not working is a huge oatmeal-colored sweater and skin tight jeans… She apparently cares little for clothes – and why should she with such an exquisite healthy body?

Sharon herself once said, “I’m really different underneath. All my life I’ve been told that I’m beautiful. But beauty has nothing to do with me – the real me. Anyway, you can stay covered up to your neck and still be sexy, you know. I would like my image to be somewhat secretive, simple and down-to-earth. I adore the little girl look." But when Roman Polanski entered her life he had still a different idea of her potential. “I’m trying to make her a little meaner,” he said. “She’s too nice and everyone walks all over her. She’s embarrassed by her own beauty.”

For her part, Sharon was fascinated by her brilliant young husband. “When I first met Roman,” she said, “I couldn’t believe he was a director because he looked so young. He’s the youngest looking man for his age I’ve ever seen. But he really isn’t as young as he looks. He’s thirty-five.” Her luminous eyes glowed as she rhapsodized about Roman. “He is wise, wonderful, brilliant and he knows everything! Above all, Roman is an artist.”

An interviewer found that she had “an aura, a magic, a curious mystique . . . a face of extraordinary beauty and a body that won’t quit,” and predicted that Sharon Tate would be with us a long time. It was a just prophesy, if some perverted destiny had not interfered with the right course of things…

Here is another article mentioning the recent vampire craze and it includes Roman and Sharon in The Fearless Vampire Killers:

http://www.whitefieldconsulting.com/wordpress/?p=1695

And another blog includes Sharon as one of the most beautiful women of the 1960s:

http://www.retrokimmer.com/2009/11/retrokimmer-favorite-1960s-beautiful.html