Remembering Sharon in Italy, A Way to Get Sharon's Stylish Hair and an OMG Photo of Sharon!!!

This comes from an email sent to me by a contributor here, Andrea.  She originally sent this back in May but I am just now getting back to some of my emails from when I was away.  She actually found some people who knew Sharon back in Italy:

Verona, Italy around the time Sharon would have been there.

I have the neatest story to tell. Last evening I was having dinner with my mom, my son Donovan and 2 of  my mom's long time friends, Joan and Chuck Naegel.

In conversation, Sharon was brought up and Mrs Naegel looked at me and said "We knew her."  Joan is very ill right now, and is undergoing chemotherapy , so I thought maybe she just meant she knew who she was.

She and Chuck said...."No Andrea , we knew her family. In 1961-1963 we were stationed in Italy and so were her parents. We went to a lot of parties and Sharon was always there. We remember her at the time dating one of the local veterinarians. She was so sweet and kind."

Another photo of Verona, Italy.

Joan says then, "Also, me and some other ladies would go over and have coffee with her mother sometimes...we all did that for each other. I remember her having younger sisters. I remember her mother being a little on the heavy side. Her father, was quite handsome."

I was about to lose my mind at this point. I have known these people since I was 12 yrs old when I played competitive softball with their daughter. My parents have remained close friends with them ever since.


I said 'I can't believe you never told me this.' But when I really got into Sharon again , they were out in Texas so it just was never brought up.

Sharon with school mates in Verona, Italy.

I asked them, "So was she as beautiful in person as they all say?"

They both looked at me and at the same time, they said "Almost too beautiful."

Even my 7 yr old son couldn't believe it !  My mom was cracking up because I was shaking as I was writing all of this down !

How cool is that !


As a footnote to this, sadly Mrs. Naegel has since passed away.  May she rest in peace.  Thanks so much to Andrea for sharing this wonderful story!
 
I found these two photos of actresses Scarlett Johansson and Lauren Conrad.  It reminded me of Sharon's style for 12 + 1 Chairs.  And on one of the websites it said to do this to get this look:

Scarlett Johansson

Lauren Conrad

Sharon in "13 Chairs" or "12 + 1" as it is also known.

 
Get the Look: Once you've curled everything with a large-barrel curling iron, section out bangs from the rest of your hair. Use the curling iron to "wing" the ends out. Set with hairspray.



Hope that helps the ladies out there who want to achieve that look!
 
And look at this OMG B-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l photo of Sharon!!!
 

W-O-W-!-!-!

Another interview with Sharon at the beginning of her career & more

New York Sunday News December

December 18, 1966

Sharon Tate is on a crash program to get to the top

It's difficult to imagine Sharon Tate as having ever been shy.

Wearing an abbreviated miniskirt, she seems to enjoy the commotion she causes wherever she goes. Sharon also affects thick, black, false eyelashes, brown eye shadow around her lips, and long ash-blonde hair that falls freely about her shoulders. Her presence in a crowd is as insignificant as a floodlight in a blackout.

Yet just three years ago, Sharon was a "painfully shy girl of 20 with blonde pigtails," according to her own recollection. The Dallas-born youngster had never acted or had a smidgen of dramatic training. But that didn't faze Filmway's top executive, Martin Ransohoff. When he first glimpsed her in the reception room of his office, Ransohoff ordered that she be singed to a seven-year contract.

Today, Sharon Tate is an actress. Some even label her a star though she has yet to be seen in a movie. Her first two MGM films--"13" and "The Vampire Killers"--won't be released for at least two months, and Sharon's latest movie "Don't Make Waves," isn't scheduled for screening until next summer.

And so no one really knows whether Ransohoff's gamble to make an instant star with his crash program technique has succeeded. Sharon, naturally, is convinced that she has made the show business grade. "I'm sure the three years I spent in training to be an actress will pay off," she says.

The training consisted of intensive schooling (10 hours a day, five days a week) in dramatics, singing, dancing, body building, walking, talking--everything except breathing. Sharon soon began to lose her shyness and gain a sense of permanency in her surroundings.

Up to then, Sharon had led a tumbleweed type of existence. As an Army 'brat' (her father is Maj. Paul James Tate), she spent a great deal of her childhood packing and moving from one military base to another. Before Sharon was 15, she had lived in Tacoma, Houston, El Paso and San Francisco--just to name a few cities. When Maj. Tate was shipped overseas in 1959, he took his wife and Sharon with him. As a result, Sharon boasts a fluency in Italian and a diploma from a Vicenza, Italy, high school.

It was in Italy, too, that she met actor Richard Beymer, who was on location for the film, "The Adventures of a Young Man." Beymer gave her the old line that "she ought to be in pictures"--only he meant it. Sharon scoffed at the notion, but then came around to the idea when the actor introduced her to his agent.

On Sharon's return to this country, she tried out for a TV cigarette commercial at the agent's urging. She landed the job despite the fact that she had never smoked before. (Today, she goes through half a pack a day.) "The commercial required many takes," Sharon recalls. "Just when they were ready for the final one, I passed out from taking too many puffs on my first attempt at smoking."

Sharon was still a bit dazed at the enormity of breaking into show business when she stepped into Ransohoff's Filmways office. Ransohoff felt instinctively that she had movie star potential. However, it was only after she had several months of acting lessons that he placed her in CBS-TV's "Beverly Hillbillies". Sharon portrayed Janet Trego on the series, but wasn't given any TV credit. Ransohoff wanted to spring her on movie audiences as a "surprise."

Now that Sharon is an actress in the technical sense of the word, anyhow, she has set her goal on becoming "a light comedienne in the Carol Lombard style." But the 5'5 1/2, 117 pound newcomer does not care to hear that she resembles the late actress. "I don't think I look a bit like her," Sharon pouts. "It's not that I think I'm a sexpot, either. I don't have voluptuous hips and I'm not heavy-chested."

For the time being, Sharon isn't giving movies a thought. She left recently for London to continue her romance with Poland's famed, shaggy-haired director, Roman Polanski. "I've known him for nine months," says Sharon. "We have a wonderful relationship. I don't know if I'll marry him. He hasn't asked me yet." If Sharon does wed, her film career and Ransohoff's half a million dollar investment in her will go down the drain. "I'll give up acting the second I'm married," says Sharon, which leads many observers to believe it won't happen for some time.

Most actresses would rather shed a husband than a career, but Sharon is an unusual girl. What actress, for example, would go out her way to point up the scars on her face? Sharon has a noticeable diagonal scar under her left eye. She also has a small one to the side of the left eye, and another one--"caused by chicken pox"--on her forehead.

"I suffered the big scar," says Sharon, "when I fell on a piece of corrugated tin when I was five. I wouldn't dream of having the scar removed. I am very proud of it. It's me."

More news:

There are two movies that have been filmed on location in Italy that are coming out soon.  I mention this because Sharon graduated High School there and some of the locations may very well be places that she saw and visited when she was there.

1)  Is a movie called "Letters to Juliet".  An American girl on vacation in Italy finds an unanswered "letter to Juliet" -- one of thousands of missives left at the fictional lover's Verona courtyard, which are typically answered by a the "secretaries of Juliet" -- and she goes on a quest to find the lovers referenced in the letter.  It stars Vanessa Redgrave and Amanda Seyfried.

2)  Is a movie called "When In Rome".  Beth is a young, ambitious New Yorker who is completely unlucky in love. However, on a whirlwind trip to Rome, she impulsively steals some coins from a reputed fountain of love, and is then aggressively pursued by a band of suitors.  It stars Kristen Bell and Josh Duhamel.

Both will be released next year.

Tomorrow another special issue of Photo Comparison of the Week.

Sharon Tate talks about it being creepy to live at Jean Harlow 's former home and how she got started

Here is another article I have had translated.  I am not sure what magazine it came from as I got it along with a group of clippings.  It looks to be from around 1965-66:

Two faces of this lady appear here, both the property of Sharon Tate.  Hollywood has bet $1 million on this face and is trying to make a star out of her.  On the right side photo she is pictured with her real hair, freshly washed and natural, the very important style that she is wearing is long like the new wave started by the top models of England.  (For instance, the leader, Jean Shrimpton).  On the left hand side photo she appears wearing a monocle wig made especially for her by Joshua--from Vidal Sassoon, the big London specialist of the geometric cut.  This style has also been copied by Brigitte Bardot, Catherine Denueve, and Jane Fonda.

There is something fascinating yet shameful that I must ask this pretty girl with two faces: Sharon Tate.  Remember that name, Sharon Tate because $1 million dollars are being invested on this 22 year old blond American born actress.  Born in Dallas (where the men are crazy and the women are gorgeous).  Who is this totally unknown lady?  Go to the Elstree Studios and go to the stage where they are filming "Eye of the Devil" and approach the reserved seats of the stars of the movie.  On the first one you'll read Kim Novak.  On the second one you will see David Niven and on the third one--written in the same big letters--it says: Miss Tate.  Sharon is the new star that Hollywood is trying to push.  That is why I have the right to ask this one question while I am driving in her very rich neighborhood of Belgravia to get to her home for the interview.  And that question is: What is left of the real Sharon Tate after her Hollywood transformation?  Read on.

In 1962, Colonel Tate from the US Army was based in Verona, Italy.  Tate is miraculously still alive.  He was in Pearl Harbor and was burned under the bombs of the Japanese.  "The surgeons saved my father's life by throwing just about anything on his skin," she says.  The only remaining sign of this: the black eyeglasses that the Colonel never removes from his face.  In Verona, that summer some people were making a movie.  Sharon was watching them and it wasn't long before they too, were watching her.  If destiny had it then Sharon would have gotten a small part in that movie.  But the movie was eventually released in 1963 and it was a flop.  Who would have noticed the young beginner anyway?

Her destiny improved.  When the young girl came back to California (where her father got transferred), she called a number she got from one of the actor's on the set of that movie in Verona.  She was hired immediately for a 15 second commercial ad.  She only needs to look pretty and to smile as she takes a puff from a Cool cigarette and then say in a soft voice, these are the best cigarettes in the world.  That was the first major step.  Nothing big but still a first step.

"I never had money at that time," explains Sharon.  "It was always my mother who had to buy my clothes."

When her big day came, Sharon smiled to the camera and lit a cigarette but didn't say a word.  The poor girl had never smoked a cigarette and was now coughing non-stop.  Ashamed, Sharon left the studio and went to the hallway crying.  At this point, she was frustrated and she hated herself, she hated the orange dress she was wearing, she hated television, Cool Cigarettes and even America--everything.  She was now only a sore throat and two wet eyes.  She was very upset and humiliated.  At that moment a man saw her, looked at her for a few moments and told his assistant: I want her.

That man was 33 year old Martin Ransohoff and, of course, he is a movie producer. 

Sharon still wearing her orange dress and wet eyes is now with Ransohoff.  He is a proud man and promises her glory, fame and fortune.  He says he is going to make a star of her.  She is shocked.

In her contract she must take some courses: diction, dramatic art, dance, singing, gymnastics, equitation, ect.  That's the price to pay to become a star.  She is not allowed to go out for the next 1000 days.  No galas and no parties with friends.  Nothing.  During her years as 19, 20 and 21 year old she is not to be seen.  Even if only one photo is shown in a newspaper of her during this time the contract will be canceled. Did Sharon accept these conditions?  Yes, she did.

"Actually," Sharon says, "I didn't have anymore liberty at home."

Sharon keeps her composure and patience in this inhuman and majestic mechanism that is suppose to make a star of her.  Is it patience or laziness?

"I was raised very Catholic and then I started doubting things like everybody does at some point.  I read some books on Hinduism.  I don't read them anymore but I have learned from them how to stay calm in front of whatever is thrown at you in life."

So I finally ask her the shameful question: if she realizes she is an object?  A very nice and expensive object that is manipulated very carefully but still an object.  "Yes, I know," she said. "Just a thing."  She says this without any sadness or bitterness.

What are your feelings for being reduced to an object only existing for others?

"I'm confident.  These people selected me.  If they invested so much on me it must be because I have a human quality that justifies their risk.  It's up to me to keep that quality."

Aren't you afraid to loose what you are by acting the way they want you to act?

"I have to admit that I lost my calm and got upset many times.  There were times I couldn't continue.  I ran to the phone a few times and called Marty.  I told him this was inhuman.  He answered that I was free to break the contract if I wanted but that it would be a big mistake."  She hung up and continued to resist. 

It was probably the old trick that consists of hiding the merchandise as long as you can.  When it's the right time, you show your merchandise to the whole world with a maximum of intensity and impact.

Sharon has a lot of self confidence.  If Ransohoff asks her to do something that she doesn't want to what would be her reaction?  Would she follow the instructions or throw the contract in the garbage? 

"None of the above," she answers.  "I would explain to him that I think it's a bad idea for me to do that and I would convince him."

And if Marty doesn't understand?

"I would explain it differently until he understands."

She definitely has some interior power. She uses it quietly but efficiently.  Maybe Ransohoff uses her but perhaps she is also using Ransohoff to get where she wants to be: At the top.

The scenarist Jerry Lee Thompson says that she is very talented.  A talent she developed at the Actor's Studio and in some Tv sitcoms where she appeared with brown wigs and eyeglasses in order to hide her beauty.

"I haven't really changed," she continues, "I have improved my makeup and I feel more comfortable with my body.  But I am still the same little Sharon who, at five years of age, jumped from a garage roof to land on my dog like it was a horse.  The problem was my dog left while I was still jumping in the air..."

After she finishes the movie, she is going back to Hollywood.  When I asked her if she has a nice villa with a pool she started laughing.  She then described the house she stays in that was formly owned by Jean Harlow and then husband, Paul Bern.

"At night in the area, people swear they see and hear Paul Bern's ghost."  He ended up committing suicide there.  "It's a house where you get scared."

In her very nice styled British apartment that the production is renting for her she goes to the kitchen and comes back with a bottle of bourgogne that she purchased in the afternoon.  She makes me a glass and gives it to me.  She continues in her soft voice:

"The Harlow house is lugubrious but the day I brought over my little sisters they had so much fun.  Life was back to normal," she laughs.

Sharon's Friend Actress Ingrid Pitt

According to Hal Erickson from All Movie Guide:

Ingrid Pitt was born in 1937 in Poland. She survived the war to become a leading actress on the East Berlin stage. She made her film debut in a Spanish bullfighting film, then spent many years playing decorative roles in international productions filmed on location in Spain: Doctor Zhivago (1965), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966), Chimes at Midnight (1967), and Where Eagles Dare (1969), among others. Pitt did not attain her "cult" status in films of that nature; instead, she won the hearts of gothic horror fans for her sensuous, stylish work in such films as The Vampire Lovers (1971) -- in which, as lesbian vampire Carmilla, she literally loses her head to Peter Cushing --The House That Dripped Blood (1971), Countess Dracula (1973), and The Wicker Man (1977). Ingrid Pitt is most familiar to televiewers for her performance as Elvira in the 1982 British miniseries Smiley's People.

Pitt has fond memories of Sharon Tate as well:

A photograph which was particularly poignant was a small picture of me with Sharon Tate, standing in a hotel lobby, making a telephone call. I remember the evening well.

I was in Rome to audition for Frederico Fellini. Very exciting! Get a Fellini film and the world was your crustacean. The meeting didn't go well. He said I was too thin and wanted me to fatten up if he was to consider me for a part. It didn't appeal.

Back at the hotel I was introduced to Sharon Tate by the manager. She was so fragile and beautiful it brought out the mothering instinct in me. She had been invited to dinner that evening by a friend of her husband. She asked me if I would like to join her. It suited me. Her husband, film director Roman Polanski, was hot at the time. When we got to the restaurant there was half a dozen blokes with attitude, ready and waiting. Typical macho Italians. They instantly went into mating mode and made a lot of noise and swilled back the wine like storm drains. Very wearisome. By about eleven Sharon and I had had enough. On the pretext of 'powdering ' our nose, we grabbed our coats and rang for a taxi. We were spotted by a journalist who grabbed a picture.

For the next couple of days we 'did' Rome. Sharon was enthusiastic but didn't have a lot of stamina. It was an enjoyable few days. When Sharon left she made me promise that next time I was in Los Angeles I'd call her. The opportunity came sooner that expected. A couple of weeks later I rang Sharon to tell her that I had been invited to a sportscar race in Laguna Seca in Monterey and I asked her if she would like to join me. She didn't fancy it but suggested that I should spend a few days at her home in Benedict Canyon.

That suited me. It would give me another chance to meet her husband.

I had met Roman a year or so earlier at Brand Hatch during a testing session. It hadn't been a good time to button hole him and parade the highlights of my practically non-existent career but he might be more susceptible in a relaxed mood at home. So two days later I dumped my bags in the cool dark entrance hall of her beautiful home and prepared to settle in.

Sharon was her usual beautiful, spaced out self. As she showed me to my room she apologised for the fact that Roman had to go away for a few days. Ah well! You can't have everything. When we were in Rome I had noticed Sharon was in the habit of leaving the door to her room open. I warned her against it but she wasn't interested. She suffered from claustrophobia and couldn't stand having the doors shut. This was carried over to her house. I never saw a shut door all the time I was there. Not even to the bathroom.

The end of the week came and I thought I had better head for home. Sharon and I promised undying friendship and I never saw her again.

About six weeks later the Manson gang turned up at her house and murdered her and her unborn child as well as some of her friends who happened to be there at the time. It was awful. I couldn't bear to think of the suffering of that beautiful woman at the hands of the beasts who attacked her. Sharon really was a paid up member of the 'Beautiful People'. Generous and not an ounce of spite in her.

When I look at that picture of the two of us crammed into a phone box together I want to cry.

On the Official Sharon Tate Web page she tells it a little differently:

Roman was away somewhere and I stayed for about a week with Sharon. She had a touch of claustrophobia and hated shutting doors. Even in hotels. She was a lovely lady. I remember exactly when that photograph was taken. We had been invited to a charity in, I think, Fresno. It was pretty boring so we decided to leave and called a hired car to take us to the airport. Naturally the act of somebody doing something as exciting as phoning for a cab could not be passed up by the paparazzi so......


For it being so many years ago anyone can forgive a few mixed up details.



Even though you may not know it, Pitt and Tate share a few things in common:

Ingrid appeared as a vampire in a few films, Sharon in one, "The Fearless Vampire Killers." Ingrid appeared in Hammer films and Sharon played in a comedy spoof of them.

Ingrid appeared in "The Wicker Man," while Sharon was in what is now known as a precursor to that film, "Eye of the Devil." Both deal with human sacrifice in a supernatural way.

Pitt survived the Holocaust as did Sharon's husband, Roman Polanski.

Most who know her and even her fans say that Pitt is "one of the nicest people." This is something many also say about Sharon.

Both Pitt and Tate enjoyed traveling to Italy and spending time there.

If there are any other similarities please feel free to share them.

Please be sure to check out: http://www.pittofhorror.com/

It lists a new film festival she will be appearing at this October!