Thursday, March 3, 2011

Lots of News This Week: TV show 'Glee' to do a "Valley of the Dolls" tribute, New Memoir Talks About Sharon, New Message Board, Lots of Photos!, John Cale of the Velvet Underground and Sharon? Some Great Videos of Sharon, Photo Comparison of the Week, Sharon and Stevie Nicks Site Reopened, New Autographs of Sharon, and Nice Big Scan of Cover and Back Cover from "12 + 1"

According to Columnist Liz Smith there is tribute to Valley of the Dolls in the works for the TV show 'Glee':

http://www.wowowow.com/culture/liz-smith-lady-gaga-and-her-fans-will-they-alays-sustain-her/

“THEY DRUMMED you right out of Hollywood, so ya’ come crawlin’ back to Broadway. But Broadway don’t go for booze and dope!”

Any movie fan that knows his salt recognizes that bit of dialogue, snarled out by Susan Hayward to Patty Duke in the movie version of Jacqueline Susann’s “Valley of the Dolls.” (Miss Duke retaliates by snatching off Hayward’s wig and … well, you know the rest.)

There was a short-lived TV series based on the movie … a porny kind of sequel (“Beyond the Valley of the Dolls”) … and “readings” of the script are always a sell-out in West Hollywood.

But the story of three girls looking for love in all the wrong show biz places is still grist for the mill, and now there’s talk that the smash hit TV series “Glee” will mount a “Valley of the Dolls” show next season! Before you say it — no, there’s not much good music associated with “VOTD,” with the possible exception of Andre and Dory Previn’s “Theme From The Valley of the Dolls” sung over the credits by Dionne Warwick. (More recently, it was done by k.d. lang, who made it sound like a masterpiece.) The other stuff, also by the Previns and John Williams, is dreadful. That includes “I’ll Plant My Own Tree” written for Judy Garland (who was fired from the film) and eventually sung by Margaret Whiting, with Miss Hayward lip-syncing. Patty Duke as train-wreck star Neely O’Hara is forced to sing hilariously bad material. (Sharon Tate and Barbara Parkins were blessedly mute, musically.)

But — so I hear — there will be “original” music added to the mix for “Glee,” which is intended as a “tribute and a spoof.” I wouldn’t count this idea out as merely campy wishful thinking. “Glee” is a Fox show, and “VOTD” was a 20th Century Fox smash. They still own the rights.

New Autobiography mentions Sharon:

http://blog.libraryjournal.com/prepubalert/2011/02/28/nonfiction-17/

White, Carrie. Upper Cut: A Memoir. Atria. Sept. 2011. 400p. ISBN 9781439199091. $26; eISBN 9781439199114.

This isn’t just a memoir of White’s days as hairdresser to the stars, though she does talk about working with Richard Avedon on Vogue shoots, doing Sharon Tate’s hair for her wedding, and partying with Jim Morrison and Jimmy Hendrix. White also wants to examine how her alcoholic mother and sexually abusive stepfather damaged her life—she had five kids by three husbands before she was 28 and lost nearly everything to drink and drug addiction before sobering up definitively. A sad and familiar story, with Hollywood gilt that should interest many.

If you are interested in buying a copy, here is the Amazon link:

http://www.amazon.com/Upper-Cut-Highlights-Hollywood-Life/dp/1439199094

New Message Board for Sharon fans:

http://sharontateliveson.forumfree.it/

Lots of photos of Sharon on the net lately including some high resolution ones and some on ebay:

http://forums.superiorpics.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/3118621/Sharon_Tate_Tragic_Beauty_HQ_x




















I'd never heard of this until recently but apparently, there was a song written by John Cale and performed for his "Helen of Troy" album that mentioned Sharon:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~werksman/cale/lyrics/leaving.html

Here are some great videos of Sharon submitted to me by a wonderfully nice Polish Sharon fan, Alexa (Some of you may have already seen them but for those who have not):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE36L3FVEME&feature=related

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyXAU3-k78g&feature=related

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

Alexa also showed me some photos of a young Polish actress named Malgorzata Socha who resembles Sharon, so she is our Photo Comparison of the Week:



Also, Melanie from Germany has reopened her great site dedicated to Stevie Nicks and Sharon:

http://www.golddustwoman.de/

She is still working on it but she wanted me to warn Sharon fans that this magazine has an autopsy photo of Sharon, so just in case anyone is considering buying it on ebay be forwarned (of course, Melanie tastefully decided to edit the picture out but you can tell where it was):


Here is a new autograph up for bid of Sharon:

http://www.rrauction.com/bidtracker_detail.cfm?IN=1161

And here is one from the collection of Alfred Brooks of Chicago that recently sold on ebay for 104.01:


http://cgi.ebay.com/C1969-AUTOGRAPH-ACTRESS-MODEL-SHARON-TATE-/160552970889?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2561b3ea89

And finally, here is a treat for Sharon fans... a nice big scan of the front and back cover of "12 + 1" video:
(Please no copying to other websites without permission, sorry but I have to state this.  Thank you in advance for your respect).

2 comments:

  1. Stevie Nicks and Sharon Tate... two of my favorite celebrities in the entire world! I don't know why I never saw this site before, but thanks for sharing! I'm loving it! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I noticed the company for the "12+1" video left Vittorio Gassman's name off the cover. Strange as he was listed second in the credits for the film!???

    ReplyDelete