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):