Photo of the Week, Rare Sharon Tate Items on Ebay, Abigail Folger and Appraising Polanski

Here is the photo of the week,  a nice one from "Valley of the Dolls" publicity:



Worldwide, there are lots of interesting items on ebay now...

Anyone ever heard of this book?

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ALL-LOVE-Great-Love-Affairs-Great-Stories-Cook-/250581502872?pt=AU_Non_Fiction_Books_2&hash=item3a57d24b98

Or this one?

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Women-Then-New-York-Paris-London-1954-1969-NEW-/130429907095?pt=AU_Non_Fiction_Books_2&hash=item1e5e3a7097

Here is an extremely rare photo of Abigail Folger:

Here is a new article on Roman's career:

http://blog.cinemaautopsy.com/2010/09/09/appraising-polanski/

41 Years Ago Today We Lost Sharon, Her Baby and her friends...

Hello everyone,

I am going to try to be back now.  Sorry for being gone so long.  Thanks for everyone's patience.

For my first post back I would just like to say please say a prayer and light a candle for the victims of August 9, 1969: Sharon Tate, her baby, Paul Polanski, Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger, Voytek Frykowski, and Steven Parent.

For Thursday, April 1, 2010: Rare Footage of Sharon's Funeral, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls and a Great Review of "Valley of the Dolls"

Rare sad footage from Sharon's funeral.  You can see how Roman was destroyed emotionally by her death.  It also shows the funeral footage of Abigail Folger, Steve Parent and Jay Sebring:

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

Here is a web mention of the take off of "Valley of the Dolls," "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls":

http://www.crawdaddy.com/index.php/2010/04/02/celluloid-heroes-beyond-the-valley-of-the-dolls/

Recently I asked one of the stars of "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" Cynthia Myers, if she knew Sharon?

Myers: I lived just above her on Benedict Canyon back then. I heard the dogs barking in a very eerie way "that" night, almost in a frenzied way. I woke up my fiance and told him that something was wrong--I could feel it. That was the night of the murders. In addition, I left my ring at Jay Sebring's house a few weeks earlier--it was a gift from Eddie Fisher--his wedding ring from Liz Taylor. After I read the news of the murders I never tried to retrieve my ring...horrible. I never met Sharon in person, I just knew Jay.

I asked her about Jay as well but she said she really didn't want to talk about it.  Sad situation.

And here is a great review of "Valley of the Dolls" now on DVD.  It also reviews the special features included:

http://sterner5078558.ngeblogs.com/2010/03/30/download-valley-of-the-dolls-online/

Remembering Sharon Tate from a young age; One person who knew her and another who admired her from afar and Sharon as a Babe of Yore

Found some rare glimpses into Sharon on the net tonight that I thought I'd share...

 

Remembering Sharon:

Former Hollywood talent agent Chappy met Sharon when he was seven years old, and remembers her well. The following is Chappy's memories of Sharon Tate and the affect her murder had on him.

I met Sharon when I was little. I was 7 years old and recognized her with my mom at the market. She had on this tight bright yellow mini dress and that was shoulderless, but wrapped around the neck, with a big white vinyl belt she wore around it. Her hair was straight, perfectly combed straight and she had some sort of flower printed silk scarf around her head, that was wrapped around the hairline and underneath her hair. She wasn't wearing it like a bandana on the top of her head. She had big dark squarish-round sunglasses on. I had commented how pretty she was. How REALLY pretty she was, and I remember her saying to my mom, "Oh, isn't he the cutest!"

 

Then on occassions mom and I would bump into her again at the market. It got to be almost a random thing that she invited us to a cookout at her home.

Sharon was always friendly. You could never say a mean thing about her. She always made you feel comfortable around her.

 

I remember she had Christmas-type lights around the rail fence, that looked just beautiful at night. Sharon loved to decorate!

Roman was there and several of there friends on-and-off throughout the day would come to and fro there. I might have seen Voyteck and Gibby there, but I was to young to remember! If I bumped into Roman today, I don't think he'd remember me! Too many people came in and out of that place! I remember Cass Elliot from the Mamas & the Papas was there. She smoked alot! Sharon did too! Taryton cigarettes if I remember. She wasn't pregnant at the time! This was about the time her career started off!

 

I remember swimming in the pool alot and there were at least 4 or 5 dogs roaming about. I remember Sharon's [dog] Prudence...was always running around or in Sharon's lap, and how she'd lick my face all the time.

Prudence that is...not Sharon! Sharon always cradled Prudence like a baby! Hence the motherly instinct. I later learned through Debra Tate in a phone conversation, when I asked her "whatever became of Prudence?" Debra was quiet at first and told me when she learned to drive, she accidentally ran over Prudence when she was sleeping under the car! She felt really sad and guilty about it for the longest time and I told her that Prudence is with Sharon, and her Mom and Patti.

They [Sharon and Roman] had the grill in the driveway and I remember that I always thought it was so damn hot to have a grill there, with the sun beating down.

We went to 2 or 3 of these outings and then my dad was offered a new job and we moved [and] settled in Barrington, Rhode Island.

 

I didn't learn of the murders till after we moved! People don't realize how heinous the crime was! How violent it was!! People just figure it as another killing without so much knowing the details of it! Doris Tate always wanted people to see Sharon IN the crime & autopsy photos, so they knew how severe the crime was. And if people knew, then Watson, Atkins, Krenwinkle, and Van Houten wouldn't get out!!! Though Houten wasn't in the Tate killings, only LaBianca's!

I din't really mourn about it till years later when I understood about the crime itself, when I started getting back into Sharon memorabilia. I have about 700 some-odd photographs of her that I've collected over the years. In fact, I just won an Ebay item! It was a DVD of the tour of the Tate/Polanski home and the Spahn Ranch. It was suppossibly filmed by "Nine Inch Nails", Trent Reznor who lived there in '93 and '94! So I can't wait to see it and remember it more!


Thanks for this from Vanessa and Elizabeth.

 

And a blogger remembers Sharon as Janet Trego:

http://www.liketelevision.com/blog/2009/09/sharon-tate-as-janet-trego.html

Well, as a young boy (age 6-8 years old) - I loved the episodes with Miss Jane's assistant Janet Trego, played by Sharon Tate. She was really pretty and had a wonderful innocence about her that I found especially appealing. I was way too young to understand all the sexual innuendo jokes and I was a big fan of her white rain helmet hair, a style worn by many of the young women and mothers of the day. And though I did not really know what it meant, I always thought she was really cool. I had no idea who Roman Polanski was or anything, I was just a kid.

 

And I will never forget the news one day (August 9, 1969) - when I learned that a lady named Sharon Tate, the actress who played Janet Trego on the show, was murdered. And worse - she was very pregnant when it happened, so her soon to be born baby was also killed in the murder. It is hard to describe how awful such things are in the mind of a young boy, but I remember it to this day. And I was a huge fan of The Beatles too, but for a long time, The White Album, filled with songs like Helter Skelter and Little Piggies gave me the creeps for several years. Till I was a teenager - and had grown as creepy as the society I lived in. (for a sample of the times, check out Angels as Hard as They Come, Maybe I'll Come home in the Spring, or Born to Win) - Lots of people thought the "new age" of the 1960s with free love (see Harrad Experiment) and all the new way of thinking was really cool, but as a young kid, I am awful glad my parents were squares.

Anyway - Susan Atkins, the woman who killed Sharon Tate died today of cancer. She was 61. That is all the ink she is going to get from me today. Personally, I would rather remember Sharon Tate, and how I thought she was really pretty when I just a seven year old kid. Nothing nasty like so much of today's world. I just thought she was really pretty, and as one often does at that age, I imagined she was also quite a nice person. Of course I never knew her, but I am happy to remember her today.

Sharon Tate as one of the Babes of Yore:

 

http://theworldsbestever.com/2010/03/09/babes-of-yore-sharon-tate/

I certainly agree that she's one of the world's best ever!

Roman Polanski Still Scarred by Press After Sharon Tate's Death

Roman Polanski's lawyer for his most recent case against the press for invasion of privacy, Marion Gregoire says that he is still scarred by how the press treated the victims of the murders that took place in his home (when he was away in London).  That night, his lovely wife Sharon Tate--who was carrying their child--Jay Sebring, Voyteck Frykowski, Abigail Folger and Steven Parent were murdered.   The press spread many vicious rumors and flat out lies about the victims and some even tried to say that they brought it on themselves.

I found two articles on this, the first one is the best:

http://ktar.com/?nid=37&sid=1251609

Polanski sues French media for invasion of privacy

By ANGELA DOLAND - Associated Press Writer

PARIS (AP) - The news snapshot shows Roman Polanski standing at a window, a thin slice of his face visible amid an opening in the curtains. The French paper that printed the photo saw it as a newsworthy depiction of the director's life under house arrest in his Swiss Alpine chalet.

Lawyers for the "Chinatown" director say that the December 2009 photo and many others invaded his privacy as well as his family's, and he and his wife are suing four French publications, two newspapers and two magazines for a total of about euro150,000 ($217,215).

In a hearing Tuesday, Polanski lawyer Marion Gregoire said the suits were an attempt "to put an urgent stop to the media spotlight" on the filmmaker and his family that has intensified in the months since a 32-year-old sex case against him was revived.

Several of the photos at issue depict Polanski's children, Elvis and Morgane- who, as minors, are especially protected by French media law.

"The legal case against Polanski in no way justifies the paparazzi's stalking of his wife and children," Gregoire said.

Invasion of privacy suits by celebrities are common in France, Polanski's permanent residence and the country where he had lived for three decades before he was arrested in September while en route to a Swiss film festival.

Polanski, arrested on a U.S. warrant, spent more than 60 days in detention in a Swiss jail before being transferred to house arrest in his Swiss vacation home on Dec. 4.

Authorities in Switzerland have not yet ruled on whether to extradite Polanski to Los Angeles. He had fled the U.S. in 1978 on the eve of sentencing after pleading guilty to having unlawful sex with a minor in 1977.

In hearings Tuesday, Polanski's lawyer said he has a deeply rooted fear of the media, which she traced back to the stabbing death of his pregnant second wife, Sharon Tate. The actress and four others were murdered by followers of cult figure Charles Manson in 1969.

Polanski has said he was horrified by rumors that swirled in the press before the killers were tracked down- rumors suggesting the victims had bizarre lifestyles and somehow brought the violence upon themselves.

Since then, Gregoire said, "Polanski has feared the media like the plague" and always sought to maintain his privacy.

Gregoire argued that Le Journal du Dimanche weekly newspaper should pay damages of euro10,000 for the photo of Polanski at his window.

The paper's lawyer, Christophe Bigot, held up a photo of a mass of photographers outside Polanski's chalet soon after his house arrest started.

"Can you seriously claim in this context that if you stand at the window you won't get your picture taken?" Bigot retorted. Arguing that the photo was a legitimate depiction of a major international news story, Bigot called the suit unwarranted and asked the judge to order Polanski to pay the newspaper's legal fees.

"The press can and should cover this type of case," Bigot said.

The press surrounding Polanski's chalet.

Polanski's lawyer asked for another euro10,000 in damages from Voici magazine for a photo of Polanski's wife, actress-singer Emmanuelle Seigner, walking down a street in Switzerland- a photo that the celebrity-oriented publication called "harmless."

Polanski and his wife are also targeting magazine VSD for a spread that included photos of their children at an airport, demanding a total of euro 55,000. VSD's lawyer noted that the photos were taken in public and that the publication blurred the children's faces so they could not be recognized- a common practice in France. Decisions are expected Jan. 19.

A judge also heard a suit against Le Parisien newspaper last week, and that ruling is expected Friday.

Here is the other article I found which basically says the same thing with a different photo of Roman:

http://www.okmagazine.com/2010/01/roman-polanksi-sues-the-french-media-for-invasion-of-privacy/