Photo Comparison of the Week, Halloween Photo of Sharon, More on Tony Curtis, and a New Poem for Sharon

Here is our Photo Comparison of the Week:

Perhaps I should call this one a comparison of hair photo:

Madonna's hair is very "Valley of the Dolls" here.

Here is a lovely photo of Sharon to start the Halloween season off with:

http://snowce.tumblr.com/post/1216261640/sharon-tate

Here is a new article on Tony Curtis mentioning "Don't Make Waves" and Arthur Penn (who also passed away recently).  Sharon almost worked with Penn on "Bonnie and Clyde" but lost the part to Faye Dunaway in the end.:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/03/weekinreview/03dave.html

I found this poem today that reminds me of Sharon and all her beautiful clothes, her body, and even her disguises (like the black wig and clothes she wore on "The Beverly Hillbillies" or when she was so properly dressed and disguised as Freya in "The Wrecking Crew" :

Dressed By Brian Patten

Dressed you are a different creature.

Dressed you are polite, are discreet and full of friendships,

Dressed you are almost serious.

You talk of the world and of all its disasters

As if they really moved you.

Dressed you hold on to illusions.

The wardrobes are full of disguises,

The dress to be unbuttoned only in darkness,

The dress that seems always about to fall from you,

The touch-me-not dress, the how-expensive dress,

The dress slung on without caring.

Dressed you are a different creature.

You are indignant of the eyes upon you,

The eyes that crawl over you.

That feed on the bits you’ve allowed

To be naked.

Dressed you are imprisoned in labels,

You are cocooned in fashions,

Dressed you are a different creature.

As easily as in the bedrooms

In the fields littered with rubble

The dresses fall from you,

In the spare room the party never reaches

The dresses fall from you.

Aided or unaided, clumsily or easily,

The dresses fall from you and then

From you falls all the cheap blossom.

Undressed you are a different creature.

For Monday March 29, 2010: I am back on the internet! New Art of Sharon, Full Transcript of Wanted and Desired, Sharon and Roman and Life Magazine Archives, and Faye Dunaway

After a week I am back on the internet.  Thanks to everyone who has emailed and said how much they appreciate this blog.  I am proud to keep Sharon's great memory alive.


I am going to make it up to you on posts that I will date from the day I was not on... So we start with:

Monday March 29, 2010

New Art of Sharon on Deviant Art:

I found a link that has the entire transcript of the documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired.  It has a lot of wonderful quotes about Sharon:

http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/r/roman-polanki-wanted-and-desired-script.html

If you haven't seen the archives of Life Magazine please check out this page showcasing photos of Roman, Sharon, Mia Farrow and Debra Tate:

http://www.life.com/search/?q0=sharon+tate

Be sure to check out this month's Vogue with Model Gisele on the cover. It has an article on one of Sharon's favorite actresses, Faye Dunaway.

Sharon Tate Article Nouvelle Starlet and Kerstien Matondang's Coppertone Ad

Here is another article from my collection that I hope you enjoy:

From: Films of the Golden Age, Fall 1997

Sharon Tate - Nouvelle Starlet

By Eve Golden

In the late 1960s, she was one of the most promising starlets in Hollywood.  Breathtakingly beautiful, hard-working and genuinely well liked, Sharon Tate had a future easily as bright as other newcomers like Raquel Welch, Faye Dunaway and Candice Bergen.  But a handful of lunatics changed all that, and Sharon became better known as one of the decade's most famous murder victims.  She only made nine films, but Sharon had been on her way to becoming one of the industry's brightest stars as the 1970s dawned.

She was born in Dallas, Texas, on January 24, 1943, the daughter of Major Paul Tate and his wife, Doris.  Already a beauty at six months, she won the Miss Tiny Tot contest.  Sharon and her two younger sisters had adventurous childhoods: their father, working with Army Intelligence, spent much of the 1950s moving his family from Dallas to Tacoma, Houston, El Paso and San Francisco.  In 1959, when Sharon was 16, they moved to Verona, Italy, where she attended high school and quickly became multi-lingual.

 

It was in Italy that she also began mulling over an acting career.  Richard Beymer was making a film near Sharon's school, and introduced the teenager to his agent.  Nothing came of this, but Beymer had put a flea in her ear.  She came back to the U. S. in 1963 and began seriously looking for work.  "I was shy and bashful when I reached Hollywood," she said in 1965.  "I only had enough money to get by and I hitch-hiked a ride on a truck to the office of an agent whose name I had."

 

An audition for the TV series 'Petticoat Junction' didn't pan out, but her test was seen by Martin Ransohoff of Filmways Productions.  Impressed, he put her under a seven-year contract and set out to "develop" her in the old-fashioned Hollywood manner.  Ransohoff sent Sharon to New York's Actor's Studio, and to classes in dancing, singing, body-building and modeling.  "I'm sure the three years I spent in training to be an actress will pay off," Sharon told The New York News in 1966.

 

By that time, she had also gotten her first few jobs.  She can be briefly glimpsed guesting on 'Mr. Ed' and as secretary Janet Trego, Mr. Drysdale's secretary, in a few episodes of 'The Beverly Hillbillies.'  She did commericials, including one for cigarettes which nearly did her in: "The commericial required many takes," Sharon recalled. "Just when they were ready fro the final one, I passed out from taking too many puffs on my first attempt at smoking."

 

Ransohoff helped get her small roles in 'Separate Beds' (1963), 'The Americanization of Emily' (1964), and 'The Sandpiper' (1965), to help her get accustomed to filming.  Her first major role was in the dreadful, pretentious British-made thriller from 1965, 'Eye of the Devil', also known as '13'.  The film starred David Niven and Deborah Kerr as a middle-aged couple living in a chateau.  Sharon was thrilled to be in such company, even in a less than sterling project.  She portrayed Odile, a spooky local girl who wanders about looking creepy and uttering ominous  lines.  No one got much of a chance to act in this film, and it made no real impact on the budding starlet's career.

Sharon Tate was an odd duck in the swinging Hollywood of the mid-1960s.  Strictly brought-up, she was sweet and innocent in a town that was neither.  One actor called her "one of the toughest lays in town.  Strictly a one-man woman."  She reportedly had an unhappy relationship with a French actor for two years, then was briefly engaged to her hairstylist, Jay Sebring. The two broke up, but remained friends.  Then, at a London party in 1966, she met Roman Polanski.

 

The 33-year-old director and actor was already famous for his dark films 'Knife in the Water' (1962), and 'Repulsion' (1965).  He also had quite a reputation: one ex-girlfriend described him as "the quintessential male chauvinist pig.  He treats women like objects, like toys, like his latest pet car.  It can be fun to share his limelight for a while, but ultimately it becomes boring."  Ransohoff loaned Sharon to Polanski for his horror comedy film 'The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967).  Sharon and Polanski became involved, despite their obvious cultural differences.  He himself later said, "It took the longest time for me to get her to go to bed with me.  She was not someone who went easily to bed with a man."  They moved in together in Belgravia, London, and Sharon learned to love London's Swinging '60s scene:  "There are so many talented young people with fantastic, original ideas here," she said in 1967.  "...The Mod Look, the long, straight hair for girls and long hair for boys, mini skirts...it all started here and eventually got to America.  Americans are too inhibited but they are slowly coming around to realizing what a swinging world we live in."  But the fast Polanski crowd was too swinging even for her.  According to Mia Farrow, Sharon experimented with pot and LSD, but never really got into drugs.

 

Sharon's only film with Polanski turned out to be something of a disappointment.  Visually, it was stunning, capturing a vision of 19th century Eastern Europe in the dead of winter.  But the performers were given little to do.  'Vampire Killers' veered between bad sitcom dialogue and gory thrills, and never seemed to quite settle on a style. Sharon, in a red wig, looked beautiful and somewhat detached.  The film did not do well in the U.S., and Polanski tried to help it along by shooting nudes of Sharon for the March 1967 issue of Playboy.  Aside from raising questions of taste, this did nothing.

 

Sharon's first real U. S. exposure came with MGM's big-budget beach comedy 'Don't Make Waves' (1967), starring Tony Curtis.  Sharon had a small but showy role as Malibu, a sky-diving beach bunny whom Curtis steals from her body-building boyfriend.  The film wasn't up to much, but critics noted Sharon's combination of beauty and deadpan humor.  She, however, did not share their enthusiasm.

"It's a terrible movie," she accuarately noted before it had even been released, then admitted that "sometimes I say things I shouldn't.  I guess I'm too outspoken."

To be continued tomorrow...

I don't think Sharon's films were that bad.  At least she showed potential especially in comedic roles.

Her venture into the 'Valley of the Dolls' and more will be discussed in the article tomorrow.

 

I noted Kerstien Matondang's great video site yesterday and today she told me she has added another.  This time it is with Sharon's voice and images doing a Coppertone ad for when she made 'Don't Make Waves.'  Please be sure to comment on it and tell Kerstien what you think?  Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLf-HaeuVqo

Another Translated Sharon Tate Article and Interview: Spain thought her to be the next great star along with Faye Dunaway!

From Diez Minutos 12-21-1968 Number 904

Sharon Tate, the greatest revelation in Hollywood along with Faye Dunaway.

Each year there appears in Hollywood film studios in all the world, dozens of girls who dream of success. All, or at least most, have sexy bodies and many of them splendid talent.  But the majority of them shine only some solitary evenings.
 
Sharon Tate speaks slowly with a sweet and sophisticated voice.  She looks like she gets what she wants but she says she is still fighting for good roles and will keep on fighting for them.
 
The current wife of Roman Polanski, like many other dozens of girls, came to Hollywood to become a star.  But within weeks she was disappointed...
 
Question: What was your first big break?
 
Sharon:  In "The Valley of the Dolls." 
 
This movie has shot to fame, then another important role in "The Wrecking Crew" with Dean Martin is expected to do well. 
 
Hollywood has been in need of some beauties for their films as many of the great divas of the past have been disappearing.  Last year we had the revelation of two big names: Faye Dunaway and Sharon Tate.
 
Question:  Sharon, are you enthusiastic about becoming a Hollywood star?

Sharon:  "I would be lying if I said no.  I like the fame that my name and face are known everywhere. Hollywood is in need of major actresses to meet the fierce competition of European cinema. Of course I also like being a good actress and I think I am as I have shown."
 
Sharon knows how to move well before the camera.  She is sophisticated and gives all her extraordinary beauty to the camera, as she is shown to be very photogenic.
 
She is also an outdoorsy girl who likes to listen to modern music.

The photo captions read:  "There are many who could be genuinely talented and not come to anything because they lack the proper launch for their careers."  Sharon says this, thinking of her start in films.

Sharon Tate, along with Faye Dunaway -- the famous protagonist in 'Bonnie and Clyde' - has been the great revelation of the year in Hollywood. Her physical beauty has helped her gain 'stardom.'
 
I found this link mentioning many Famous Polish Celebrities including Roman Polanski. They also mention Pola Negri, Stefanie Powers, Loretta Swit, Pat Benetar, Bobby Vinton and Richie Sambora among others:
 
http://goretro.blogspot.com/2010/01/polish-people-of-pop-culture.html

Photo of the Week, Woman who claims people tell her she looks like Sharon??? & more

Here is a photo I found of Sharon were she looks very 1960s 'mod'!

Also, there is a woman claiming people tell her she looks like Sharon Tate among a few others? 

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/quinn-219139-alvarado-says.html

No offense but I don't see it?  Do you?

Here is a short article I found on Sharon:

Newsweek March 4, 1968

The New American Beauties

Every year another British lovely marches on screen, swings her purse, tosses her mane or hugs the camera, and becomes the star of the year. Before the British were the Italians - sexy, shapely and abandoned. Always there are the French, who come in all styles from the life-loving to the world-weary. But when was the last American actress to electrify the world's moviegoers? Probably you would have to go all the way back to Marilyn to find an answer - that is, until Faye Dunaway came along...

...Unless you're Marilyn Monroe - she had it, and all the bad movies in the world couldn't obscure it - the star needs the right movie at the right time. "Bonnie and Clyde" was that kind of movie for Faye Dunaway, and she was ready for it. All over Hollywood are other girls who are waiting, and looking for their Bonnie, and in the meantime seeking alternate roads to stardom. The ways are many.

...Candice Bergen, Mia Farrow, Raquel Welch, Katharine Ross, Leigh Taylor-Young, Gayle Hunnicutt...

Astoundingly photogenic, infinitely curvaceous, Sharon Tate is one of the most smashing young things to hit Hollywood in a long time. She began as the invention of wheeler-dealer Martin Ransohoff and in her five years on the Hollywood treadmill, she has, surprisingly, made progress. In fact, in her last film, "Valley of the Dolls," she managed to be the only living doll. Now married to the brilliant and volatile Polish director Roman Polanski, perhaps she will begin to fulfill her tremendous potential.

Remembering her husband's "Repulsion", she dreams: "I'd like to be an American Catherine Deneuve. She plays beautiful, sensitive, deep parts with a little bit of intelligence behind them." And then about her past, "They see me as a dolly on a trampoline." Her gorgeous hazel eyes open wide at the thought of Faye Dunaway. "Dunaway!" she sighs. "Oooooooohhhh! She's a woman. She's there, you know it, and there's no way around it." But Sharon Tate is still looking for Sharon Tate. "Sometimes," she sighs, "I think it would be better to be a sex symbol, because at least I would know where I was. But," she adds quickly, "I'd lose my mind."

With all the articles on Polanski lately I found this one on how he felt about Sharon

I found more on Polanski today as the story continues.  One was called the Haunting of Polanski, in Three Acts.  The first dealing with his mother dying and living through the Nazi occupation, his wife Sharon being murdered by the Manson family and the now--brought back to the forefront-- the case of raping a underage girl.

Here is the link:  http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/film-cinema/haunting-of-polanski-in-three-acts-1903758.html

Another article by Suzanne Moore recounted how she interviewed him for publicity purposes for "Bitter Moon."  She says she was told not to ask him about Sharon Tate.  However, after they spoke for awhile, he did mention Sharon's murder saying: "The only sense that I can make out of it is that it doesn't make any sense."

Many have said lately that they think Polanski was never the same after Sharon's death.  That the murder had to have had an effect in many ways on him.  Some even go so far as to say that it started interferring with his judgement, pacifically when it came to younger women.  Whatever the reason, it must have been a very difficult time.  But, sometimes in life, it seems that the old saying 'Time heals all wounds' is not always true. I do not think Polanski has ever gotten over Sharon's death and I don't think he will.

I am reminded of a quote by the late Rose Kennedy: "It has been said, 'time heals all wounds.' I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone."


A friend recently sent me this article that talks about how Polanski felt after Sharon's death.

Telecran January 25, 1970

"This is the way I remember you, my dear Sharon.

The Sadness of Roman Polanski

The widower of the beautiful Sharon Tate discusses the actress he knew as a great woman. After loosing her to the tragically absurd massacre that happened on August 9, 1969 in his home. The pain still lays in his spirit and his heart.

Sharon Tate has achieved worldwide fame now that the media of the whole world has been repeating her name with a nervous insistance.

But Sharon has payed a high price for this. Higher than the price that Martin Ransohoff "payed for her" years before.

The most paradoxical thing of this case is that fame came to her in a moment when she just wished for calmness and when she was completely uninterested in publicity; the truth is that she never cared too much about it anyway.

But sadly, in life, there are fates like hers.

SADNESS

Its difficult to find out Roman Polanski's current whereabouts. This poor prodigy man, who lost at the same time his wife and his unborn child, slips in among the crowd, and has settled in Mexico for the time being. He's still like a gypsy, but a gypsy with the heart crossed by the grief.

It is not strange that he finds it hard to know happiness for very long periods. What makes him think like this is the tragedy of his youth:

"Its weird," he says. "I always had the premonition that Sharon belonged to me just for a little while.

First I tried to liberate her from Ransohoff, who had her tied down by a contract which contained medieval clauses; later it was a visit to the doctor who alerted me about a heart murmur she had.

"However, when I travelled to Europe, on a business trip, I was full of optimism. Why should I be afraid of anything?

"During the last months of her pregnancy, Sharon had became lazier and more docile. She had promised me that she would visit the doctor every week and that she wouldn't drive. I'd be away only for two weeks.

"That fateful night I was having dinner at Nathalie Delon's apartment; we spent a great time, with friends of the cinema industry.

"When a friend told me what had happened, I couldn't believe it; sixteen hours ago I had phoned Sharon, she was optimistic, she had decided to change the baby's nursery, to change the color...I went mad, I was grief stricken... the question that was hammering in my brain was: Why would anybody want to kill her?

"Sharon was full of life , without any malice...

"When Faye Dunaway took the part of Bonnie in "Bonnie and Clyde"* Sharon was sulking for a few hours and suddenly she burst out laughing:

" 'Imagine how I'd look with Bonnie's long skirts!' she said. (Referring to how she loved wearing only mini skirts.)

"Maybe some people think that Sharon was a simple woman, I mean, she didn' talk about politics, she didnt care about joining committes to defend anything.

"I met her in one of those Ransohoff lunchs. This guy was hateful, tough, insensitive...Because of that stupid contract my wife had to sign, he used her as if she was his slave.

"Once a week Sharon had the questionable pleasure of having dinner in his company... I looked at her, without loving her yet, seduced by the bend of her forehead, and the languor of her eyelids. I think that our contempt for Ransohoff united us.

"I remember that once he took Sharon to Jean Harlow's house, but Sharon, maybe having the feeling that Jean's tragic fate would be like hers, just felt disgust and displeasure."

THE WOMAN SHE WAS

"Sharon used to say that only by being by my side she had noticed what happiness was.

"She wasn't the 'leader kind'; her only resort in case of contradictions was to take refuge in herself, but when she made any decision she made it seriously.

"I wasn't ready to get married at all when she decided to live with me, she settled in my apartment; she came with me in spite of all the spiteful words.

"I remember a funny day, when I saw her in my apartment, cutting onions and pork fat, trying to prepare for me a polish dish.

"She was the least hypocritical woman you could ever meet: once, when an executive told her that we should ask for single cabins in the transatlantic that brought us to the United States, she simply said;

'Why? Everybody knows that we live together.'

"I had been raised in the bosom of a polish family, first in Paris and later in Varsovia, and for me, her company was just so refreshing...

"Sharon never was any trouble with anything, never ever, even with clothes. If she was invited to a party you could be sure that she would look just stunning that night; but at the same time, she looked stunning too wearing jeans or old shirts.

"However, when she noticed she was pregnant she became more conventional and she spent all her free time choosing furniture for the baby's nursery.
 
"I'm forced to mix with people of this industry and I can swear that is really difficult to meet people with her nature and her spirit.
 
"Generally, everybody is oportunistic here. Sharon had grace and charm; she knew how to make anybody's life easier. When somebody was busy, she was there in a discreet manner to serve you a drink or a coffee."

"A lot of people say to me that I must forget. I think that it bothers them to see a man grief stricken by this irreparable loss.

"Without her I feel lost, I can't explain this in words. However there are things that I just can't stand thinking of; the way she and our son died.

"People say those swines are hippies. My wife and I... we were always surrounded by hippies.

"I have tons of questions but no answers; the only thing I have now is my work. I'll devote the rest of my life to my work."

*Note: Warren Beatty originally wanted Sharon to play Bonnie in "Bonnie and Clyde" but the director had other ideas and hired Faye Dunaway instead.  I have heard that Sharon admired Dunaway's performance and that she admired her as an actress as well.