HOLLYWOOD HAUTE HIPPIE - SHARON TATE

She’s Blowing Minds Forever....Swinging Sixties California It Girl

Born: January 24, 1943

Death: August 9, 1969 (at 26-year-old & 8.5 months pregnant)

Astrology: Aquarius

Nationality: American Residence: London / Los Angeles

Occupation: Actor, Model

Husband: Roman Polansky Style Signature: bold false eyelashes and liner, mini dresses, blonde locks.

Famous for: being a beautiful blond Hollywood starlet, her chic California flower child fashion style, her marriage to controversial director Polansky, part of the glamorous swinging 60s scene, but mostly as the victim from terribly tragic Manson murder.

How She's Remembered

"She traveled the world. She was talented. She became a film star. She met and married the man of her dreams. She experienced impending motherhood. She achieved so much in such a brief time, made a significant impact, and continues to fascinate and delight. It is important that her life be celebrated." "I always felt it was very unfair for her life to be remembered primarily for its final moments. Sharon had a magnificent life. " "Sharon was the sweetest, most gentle, most giving soul you could ever hope to meet—even more beautiful on the inside than she was on the outside. She had a special radiance, beyond the perfection of her features, that touched everyone she met. As her husband Roman Polanski said, “In those day, she was not just the love of my life, she was the love of everyone’s life.” And it’s true. "

Debra Tate - sister

“ There was the perfection of her face, of course. And a radiance more usually found in children. There was a capacity for delight... There was a kindness at the core. She somehow made her friends feel necessary and they loved her.” Mia Farrow - friend, actor

"Sharon Tate? Of course I knew her. I met her in France last year. Delicious and beguiling. Sharon had such style. I could tell she was splendid but, even more, intelligent. A rare girl, who read a lot. I wanted to meet her again in California."

Truman Capote- author


“ Sharon was more than just stunning to look at... What had impressed me most about her, quite apart from her exceptional beauty, was the sort of radiance that springs from a kind and gentle nature; she had obvious hang-ups yet seemed completely liberated. I’d never met anyone like her before.” 

ROMAN POLANSKI  - husband, director

"Ah, Sharon, it’s very hard to talk about her without getting a bit weepy. The word exquisite perfectly sums up this lady. Almost other-worldly, so beautiful and sensitive. But in no way wishy washy, she was smart and not taken in by the shallowness of the industry. Well grounded and natural, very much in tune with her life and very happy when I last saw her in London in 1969. A hideous tragedy her being killed and the grotesque speculation of the press. She was such an innocent and unspoilt by her success. I couldn’t recognize any of the Sharon I knew in the newspaper reports. An enormous loss. Too, too sad."

George Harrison - musician

“I met Sharon Tate in 1969 at the Malibu Colony cottage of Jane Fonda and Roger Vadim. Jane had phoned me while I was having a massage on the set of ‘Lions Love’ to tell me she had just seen Warhol’s 'Lonesome Cowboys’ and was a huge fan. This was the time when independent cinema was beginning to make a big impact in Hollywood.

She invited me and Michel Auder, whom I later married, to dinner. When we arrived everyone was already eating. The only other guests were Sharon and her husband, Roman Polanski. At the head of the table Jane was wearing a priest’s chasuble in green and gold, symbolizing hope and new growth. Sharon offered me a Coke out of the fridge and I took my place at the other end of the table. I marveled at the way the burning candles lit up the gold in Jane’s 'They Shoot Horses, Don’t They’ hairdo and the embroidery on the chasuble which glittered every time she made the slightest move. She was clearly the archbishop of the beach.

Sharon sat demurely to my left, hugely pregnant, breasts bursting from her decolletage, her skin luminously radiant, her eyes huge. She was extraordinarily beautiful, unearthly looking even—you just couldn’t take your eyes off her. She seemed happy singing along to Leonard Cohen’s 'Suzanne’ playing in the background."

Viva - Andy Warhol's superstar / actor

Quotes sourced from Debra Tate’s 2014 book called the "Sharon Tate Recollection." *view further book insight bellow

Her Fashion Sense

"Some of my most cherished memories of Sharon are the days we would spend together shopping for clothes. Sharon ADORED clothes, had impeccable taste, and of course looked fantastic in everything—as Truman Capote once said, “Delicious and beguiling. Sharon had such style!” The two of us loved to take our time walking and perusing the small boutiques on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles. This was where all the super-hip, up-and-coming designers were at the time—Twisted Sister, Rudi Gernreich, Grandpa Takes a Trip, etc. Betsey Johnson’s store “Betsey Bunky Nini” was definitely the place to shop. Sharon particularly liked her knit dresses, pantsuits and A-line minis. Sharon also loved Christian Dior, Pucci, and Ossie Clark. Her favorite designer was Thea Porter, whose ethnic- inspired and richly embellished caftans and gypsy skirts made from silks, brocades, and velvets, were largely responsible for the late ’60s revival in New Romanticism and the birth of the term “Hippie Chic.” During these shopping expeditions—the fruits of which can largely be seen in this auction—we would often venture into Beverly Hills to visit the trendy department store Jax, before making our way to Greenblatt’s deli on Sunset for a hot pastrami on rye. Such great times." Debra Tate- sister

Source - Julien's Auction Property of Sharon Tate Estate Catalogue 2018

FAVORITE LOOKS

The Jumpsuit

The Red Carpet

Her Birthday Party / Rosemary's Baby Premiere in London 196-

The Little Black Dress

White dress, White fishnets, Red wine

The hippy chick

haute hippy

A Shopping tour of Carnaby Street and Kings Road in London with Sharon on The Merv Grifit show in 1966

****

Speaking to American news program Inside Edition, Deborah Tate described her sister’s style as, “very eclectic, very free-spirited, and a combination of sexy and child-like innocence.” The archetypal Californian hippy-boheme, Sharon routinely weaved leather strings around her feet mimicking sandals so that she could go barefoot into restaurants and shops in Beverly Hills.

The New York Sunday News described her poetically in a 1966 article: “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.” (New York Sunday News December 18, 1966)

Source - Another Magazine

Starlet of Hollywood

Film Biography

Born in 1943 in Dallas, Texas as the daughter of a career military officer, Tate was destined for stardom, winning beauty contests before she was a year old which continued through her teens. After being noticed in the streets of Verona, Italy, she was cast in the epic film Barrabbas in 1961, as well as a Pat Boone television special. She was noticed by production staff in Italy for the filming of Hemingway’s Adventures of a Young Man (1962). Tate landed her first big acting role in 1963 as the bank secretary Janet Trego in the popular television series "The Beverly Hillbillies" (CBS 1963-1965). Tate was signed by Filmways and her first major starring role was in the 1966 occult classic Eye of the Devil.

Tate was then cast in director Roman Polanski’s film The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967) where the two fell in love. They married in London in January 1968 in a wedding ceremony that included a star-studded after party at The Playboy Club with guests that included John and Juliet Mills, Joan Collins, Candice Bergen, Michael Caine, Terry Downes and more. Her other prominent roles included the comedy beach farce Don’t Make Waves (1967) and the spy spoof The Wrecking Crew (1968) with Dean Martin and Elke Sommer.

Her most famous role and acclaimed performance came as Jennifer North in the 1967 cult classic film Valley of the Dolls, which earned her a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best New Actress. Her final film role was in The 13 Chairs, also known as 12+1, which was released posthumously in 1969.

Source - Julien's Auction Property of Sharon Tate Estate Press Release 2018

NEWSWEEK - March 04, 1968 The New American Beauties by

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."

INTERVIEWS WITH SHARON

Photo Screen - June 1968

Sharon Tate - Venus on a Treadmill

BY Johnny Columbus

She is the new Venus and she is trapped in a Dream Factory. She is the Princess of the World – yet it is a world she never made.

She is shimmering blonde over high-cheeked pale. She is a cascade of hair She is lakewater hazel eyes that sing of innocence.

She is Sharon Tate, “a name to remember,” a talent to be reckoned with,” “a goddess who’s got everything.”

She’s a cotton candy angel; a teddy bear’s sweetheart. She’s an aristocrat in mangy fox-skin, a muse in ermine.

She was 16 years old and the movie star came up to her and said something like “you oughta be in pitchers” and since she had always dreamed about Hollywood, she agreed.

And that's how a star is born...

She was 16 and a mess of blondeness and innocence and the hustler-producer took one look at her and said, “Put her under contract.”

And that's how a star is born...

Somebody told her to “stick out your boobs, Sharon” and she did. And somebody told her to take her clothes off for Playboy and she did that, too. And somebody told her to play “Jennifer” in Valley Of the Dolls.

And, suddenly, she didn't have to be born. She was a star!

It was all schemed, all planned to be so. But along the way something happened that wasn’t in the schedule-Sharon, the Success Machine, fell in love.

All of a sudden, it didn't seem so important to be a star anymore!

So she got married, to the trumpets of the stars, to the cheers of a world of her friends. And she went on a honeymoon to Paris and some wise guy grabbed her in the street. So her tiny, fragile husband defended her and the guy clobbered him but good and ran away.

And Sharon Tate realized the painful reality that she could never stop being a star!

Sharon Tate was born in Dallas, Texas, on January 24, 1943, the oldest daughter of U.S. Army Major Paul J. Tate. She lived the typical gypsy existence of an army brat for 16 years, moving from Dallas to Houston, El Paso, Tacoma, Washington, D.C., and Verona, Italy.

It was in Italy in 1959 that she met a handsome American actor named Richard Beymer who was making a film called Adventures of a Young Man.

“Richard told me ‘you oughta be in pictures’ and I believed in him,” says Sharon. “I always had Hollywood on my mind.”

Beymer introduced her to his agent and Major Tate paid her fare to Hollywood and gave her $ 42 to see her through two weeks rent. So Sharon flew home to the U.S.

Her perfect photogenic face, quite breathtaking body and total lack of experience made her a prime candidate for TV commercials.

A cigarette manufacturer hired her. She told them she didn’t smoke but they didn’t care. They were more interested in showing her firm and fully packed dimensions.

She was inexperienced. They shot and re-shot. She puffed and re-puffed. Finally, she fainted from smoke inhalation. “I passed out from taking too many puffs,” she remembers.

She tested for all kinds of dramatic roles. One producer said, quote: “Honey, this is for a girl who’s been around. You look like a baby!”

She tested for the role of Marlon Brando’s mistress. They said, quote: “Honey, you don’t look old enough to even think of going to bed with a man.”

She tested for a part in Petticoat Junction. Super-hustler Marty Ransohoff, head of Filmways, saw her there. “Put that girl under contract,” he exclaimed. No tests, no interviews. Just like that, Sharon was on her way.

There was a top-level conference in the producer’s office. Sharon Tate, the little girl from Dallas via Rome, was going into hiding. Sharon Tate, Movie Star, was going to be manufactured.

“They said they had a plan for me. They would train me and prepare me,” she remembers. “I was immediately put into training-like a racehorse.”

Dramatics with Lee Strasberg. Singing. Dancing. Body-building. Walking. Talking. Three years went by. Sharon was completely under wraps. “I had a job to stay the way I was,” says Sharon. “They told me ‘Cream your face, Sharon…put on more eyeliner, Sharon…stick out your boobs, Sharon.’”

She moved to New York, then back to the Coast, taking a pad with actress Wende Wagner in San Pedro, Calif. Eventually, she got a regular role on The Beverly Hillbillies – as Janet Trego. But you wouldn’t have known by the scorecard “Whenever I did a role on TV, I used another name and wore a black wig,” says Sharon.

She got a role in a David Niven-Deborah Kerr picture. Then another in Tony Curtis’ Don’t Make Waves. The plan was working perfectly: train her to act, move her up slowly. She was, as one magazine put it, “the invention of wheeler-dealer Marty Ransohoff.”

Then the wheels fell out from under Ransohoff’s “Streetcar Named Success.” Sharon was signed to make a movie called (after numerous retitlings) The Fearless Vampire Killers.

The director of that movie was little Roman Polanski. The elfin, knife-nosed pole had gained international fame for his first movie, Knife in the Water, a careful intellectual study of a Polish James Dean. Later he moved to France, making an important horror movie, Repulsion, with Catherine Deneuve. From there he went to England to make Cul de Sac with Catherine’s sister, the late Françoise Dorleac. (Recently, he directed Rosemary’s Baby, with Mia Farrow, in New York)

Polanski, who was born in 1933, was the darling of the highbrow movie set, an intellectual, a powerful creative spirit. He was definitely not a “looker” like most of Saron’s co‘stars. But his spiritedly charm and unconventional looks are judged as beautiful by his friends.

The upshot of it all was that Sharon fell in love with Roman Polanski. And they began their affair.

“Roman is strong, and so true, so honest,” she said. “I don’t like glamour boys."

“I’ve learned a lot about me from being with Roman. My definition of love is being full. Complete. It makes everything lighter. Beauty is something you see. Love is something you feel.”And Love met Roman. “He’s wise and wonderful and brilliant and he knows everything.”

And love didn’t necessarily mean marriage: “When I love, I love…I won’t marry for a long time…I’ll give up acting the second I’m married…I believe a wife must immerse herself completely in her husband and family and that’s what I intend to do. Few women can handle marriage and a career successfully at the same time.”

Her frankness shocked Hollywood: “I would never marry just to be respectable…It’s just a legal piece of paper and a lovely financial set-up I’ve learned great happiness from being with Roman that I didn’t have before. Why would I want to ruin a perfect affair by turning it into a mediocre marriage for society’s sake.”

Then Valley of the Dolls happened-and with it, the climax of Sharon’s misery. In the movie, Sharon played a Marilyn Monroe-type superstar whose tragedy-riddled life ends in suicide. “Jennifer North,” the character she played, was another of those magnificent “cuts of meat” who comes into Hollywood an innocent, fragile beauty – only to become a tortured, abused derelict.

Sharon had many things in common with Jennifer. Both were acutely conscious of the value their bodies held in the flesh commerce of Hollywood both were innocents both were involved with European “art” filmmakers.

“I am like Jennifer,” says Sharon, “because she is relatively simple, a victim of circumstances beyond her control. But I have more confidence in myself…”

“I’m so afraid of hurting other people’s feelings I don’t speak out when I should. I get into big messes that way,” she once said.

But beyond Jennifer, Sharon was also developing amazing similarities to Marilyn Monroe, the actress on whom the character of “Jennifer” is rumored to be based.

‘Both Marilyn and Jennifer were the “Beautiful Blondes” of their day. Both had astonishing figures. Both were treated very badly by those producers who exploited their sex appeal for the moviegoers. Both posed nude before they gained stardom. Both rejected their “dumb blonde” images to marry intellectuals.

“I will never be another Marilyn Monroe,” Sharon says now. “But I had to do what they wanted, at first.”

And they, meaning the money men, wanted her to be a well-trained sex symbol with a vacuum for a head. Sharon was tortured by their demeaning attitude towards her.

The facts are undeniable. She is 5’51/2”. She weighs 120 pounds. She measures 35-23-34. she has a face that is the most popular magazine cover decoration in Europe-where beauty abounds.

But that’s not enough for Sharon. “they see me as a dolly in a bikini, jumping up and down on a trampolin,” she said of her producers

“It’s not that I think I’m a sexpot …I don’t have voluptuous sips and I’m not heavy-chested,” she said.

She sought privacy and anonymity by the sea: “I love it on the beach-it gives me a kind of freedom. I don’t have to be a sex symbol or a movie star.

“Beauty is only a look. It has nothing to do with what I’m like inside…I won’t play any more dumb blondes,” she insisted

she began to pont up her physical flaws. She told friends about the scars on her face, especially the noticeable mark near her left eye. It was done by corrugated tin when she was very young. “I’m very proud of it, it’s me,” she said.

She began to speak out strongly, to display her mind: “All American men are neurotic. All they care about is having sex.” In Valley of the Dolls, she had been filmed while pretending to make love to a man in bed in a “dirty” foreign movie. “Why should I be ashamed?” she said. “You see people murdering each other every day on TV, but you never see them making love-and love is certainly more beautiful.”

During all this time, she was becoming a bigger and bigger star. Her pictures were being released one on top of the other. People were noticing her-and liking what they saw.

Meanwhile, Roman and Sharon continued on their silent, non-public ways. They hung out on beaches (away from the “Hollywood phoniness,” as Sharon puts it), in bars with “guys in jeans,” in Paris, and “London where “guys walk down King’s Road with cowboys hats and rhinestones.”

Just as Sharon was becoming deeply and inextricably a star, she was falling as deeply and inextricably in love.

“I can’t play games,” she said. “I have friends, older women, who tell me I’m foolish to let Roman know how deeply I care for him…Well, foolish I am!”

says Barbara Parkins: “I like Sharon and Roman… They do everything they want and don’t care what anybody says.”

An, all of a sudden, really not knowing why, Roman and Sharon decided to get married in London. They had a huge party and flew to Paris for their honeymoon.

Now she has to make the decision-and it really isn’t hers alone to make. She’s as much a part of the machinery of Hollywood now as she is Mrs. Roman Polanski. And all her pre-marital vows to quit the business when she married have to be reexamined.

If she needed a reminder that things were going to be different from now on in, she got a very unpleasant one in Paris during the honeymoon. A passerby made a grab for her mini-skirted little body and Roman threw his own into the breach. Result: the assailant got away and Roman’s face was bandaged for several days afterwards.

So that’s where Sharon Tate is today. A blonde Venus who has found both success and love…who really wants only the love but is committed to the success.

“Sometimes,” she says ruefully, “I think it would be better to be a sex symbol, because at least I would know where I was…But I’d lose my mind!”

She came to Hollywood wanting to be a “light comedienne like Carole Lombard.” That was all gaudy and fluffy. Today, she patterns herself around more unconventional women, like Greta Garbo and Faye Dunaway (”Dunaway! She’s a woman!”).

“I’d like to be an American Catherine Deneuve. She plays beautiful, sensitive, deep parts with a little bit of intelligence behind them,” she says.

Maybe that’s the happy medium. If Sharon can get off the Hollywood treadmill, if she and Roman can work together professionally to produce quality films, if she can prove to others what she has proved to herself-that there is a head above her body-then she will have achieved true happiness and satisfaction-without escaping from her responsibilities.

Sharon puts it very beautifully: “I still have this teddy bear I’ve had since I was three…and all my old boxes-valentine boxes, cigar boxes, all kinds of boxes. I just won’t give them up it’s like if I give them up, I’ve given in to being a movie star.”

full article/ or edit to extracts sourced

https://web.archive.org/web/20091023211133/http://geocities.com/cean2/photoscreen.htm

Cine Revue Magazine -

Brusels, 1968

Daily News - New York December 18, 1966 Reaching for Instant Stardom :Sharon Tate is on a Crash Program to get to the top by Bob Lardine

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.

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.

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.

Extracts from source- Daily News Achieve also available on Sharon fan club blog - sensationalsharontate.blogspot.com

The New Cinema 1968 - directed by Gary short documentary about disruptiong Hollywood system

including uncensored interviews with Roman Polanski, Andy Warhol, Dustin Hoffman, Francis Ford Coppola....

THE FILMS

Eye of the Devil ( 1966)

-wican as consultant

her break through role

The All Eyes on Sharon Tate documentary was used to publicize the film. Its 14 minutes consisted of a number of scenes depicting Tate filming Eye of the Devil, dancing in nightclubs, and sightseeing around London, and also contained a brief interview with her.

The Wrecking Crew Learned to fight from bruce lee

The Fearless Vampire Killers

-on one condition: she could wear a red wig.

-began dating in 1966 after meeting on the set of The Fearless Vampire Killers.

Dont Make Waves (1967)

12+ 1

Valley of the Dolls (1967)

-based on Jacqueline Susann's best-selling 1966 novel

-most notable and earned her a Golden Globe nomination in 1967

-“a dirty soap opera”

Interview on Red Carpet of Valley of the Doll Premiere Cruise ( 1967 ) Looking her most radiant!!!

HER ROMANCES

Tate and Polanski were the embodiment of the Swinging Sixties at their wedding; while Tate was dressed in the mini with an intricate coiled hairdo with scattered flowers and bows placed in her golden locks, Polanski wore a stylish Mod suit. The wedding ceremony was held at Chelsea Registry and followed by a star-studded after party at the Playboy Club with guests that included John and Juliet Mills, Laurence Harvey, Joan Collins, Anthony Newley, Barbara Parkins, Candice Bergen, Michael Caine, James Fox, and Terry Downes.

Her wedding dress was auctioned for $56,250 in 2018

Source - Julien's Auction Property of Sharon Tate Estate Catalogue 2018

The Times -Sunday News London July 24, 2005

Sufferings of the great seducer

He may have been an obsessive womaniser, but morality drove Polanski into a libel suit, says Peter Evans

"Deep down I regard myself as a moral man,” the film director Roman Polanski once told me. “But morality is too boring unless you also have a capacity for recklessness in your makeup; morality is only bearable if people believe that it could fly out of the window at any moment. Perhaps that is why I always sleep with the windows open.”

It is this deliberate sense of provocation, this risqué, self-incriminating humour, that has got the diminutive 71-year-old into so much trouble down the years — and led him to the High Court in London last week to sue Vanity Fair, the glossy US magazine, for libel. In July 2002 it had printed a “quite monstrous” allegation about how he had attempted to seduce the Scandinavian model Beatte Telle on his way to the funeral of Sharon Tate, his eight-month-pregnant wife who was murdered by the Charles Manson “family” in 1969.

Tate wanted to know what I had written; I told her that she would have to wait until the book was published that December. Bailey had photographed them in a fond embrace, both naked to the waist. It was a daring picture for its time, and Polanski’s idea.

There was an honesty that was almost naive about them. Together they believed they were challenging the citadels of censorship and cant. From Poland — his mother had died in Auschwitz — Polanski was especially sensitive about a person’s right to freedom. Tate wanted to be like him. “I wish I had the tolerance to let everybody have complete freedom,” she said. “To be able to take a man home and make love and enjoy it without some lurking puritanical guilt interrupting the pleasure . . . Mentally it’s what I want, but emotionally it is more difficult to take.”

If she was under her husband’s spell, it was where she wanted to be. It was also plain that Polanski was totally in love with his wife.

It is also true that he was, and would always be, as unfaithful to her as she would never be unfaithful to him. Yet it was a happy marriage. “We have a good arrangement,” Tate once told me solemnly. “Roman lies to me and I pretend to believe him.”

The truth was, Polanski loved seducing women — air stewardesses, actresses, models, pretty waitresses — but he loved Tate. He loved her beauty, her American style, her sense of fun and enthusiasm for life and her eagerness to follow his lead. His power over women was something others had noticed

There is no doubt that Polanski, a puckish-looking man with a quick smile and a quicker mind, has always known how to get a woman into bed — and never regretted doing so. It is a trait that many people condemn although their criticism never bothered him. “I do what I do, I don’t have time for what others think,” he said. “If my honesty upsets some people, that is their problem, not mine.”

Yet I was not surprised when he decided, against all apparent odds and all rational reason, to sue Vanity Fair for suggesting that he had tried to seduce a woman en route to Tate’s funeral. For according to his own curious code of honour, it was not his reputation that he was defending: it was the integrity of his memory of Tate.

In 1978, nine years after her death and at the peak of his success following the acclaim of Chinatown, he jumped bail and fled abroad from the charge of having seduced a 13-year-old girl. He has never returned. Now living in Paris and remarried, he won the right to give evidence via video link because of his fear that setting foot in London could result in extradition to the United States. They have not always been happy years or even successful ones. But it is hard to feel pity for a man who has no self-pity, a man who is as cynical and driven as Polanski.

And he did. “This law knows of no rules — only violations of civilised conduct which, it appears, can be readily excused,” Shields told the court. “As to whether Mr Polanski’s reputation is capable of being damaged, sadly, we would say, it is beyond repair.” Moreover, Polanski should not receive damages because his reputation had been ruined by his promiscuous past. It must have been painful even for Polanski to hear the truth about his promiscuous past expressed so brutally and frankly. But he did not flinch, at least not outwardly. For this, he knew, was the story of his life. A life he had always lived by his own rules.

He has won his case and he is walking away with £50,000, but the money was never the point. As he said in a statement after Friday’s verdict, “The memory of my late wife Sharon Tate was at the forefront of my mind in bringing this action.” Cynics may doubt this. Those who know him know that he was speaking nothing but the truth.

Extracts from article in The Sunday Times

Also available on sharon fan club blog - sensationalsharontate.blogspot.com

THE HORRIBLE NEWS

Aug. 9, 1969, when Tate, 26 years old and eight months pregnant with her husband Roman Polanski’s child, was murdered by Charles Manson’s followers in her Benedict Canyon home.

The worlds of Hollywood glamor and the counterculture underbelly converged on August 8, 1969, when Manson declared that Helter Skelter was imminent and instructed several followers to kill everyone on the premises of 10050 Cielo Drive, the former home of a record producer who had rejected him.

With Polanski in London for work on another film, an 8 1/2-month pregnant Tate was being entertained at home by three friends: hairstylist Jay Sebring, longtime Polanski buddy Voytek Frykowski and Frykowski's girlfriend, Abigail Folger.

After rounding up Tate, Sebring, Frykowski, and Folger, the threesome engaged in the brutal act of hacking them to bits. Tate begged for the life of her unborn son, only to have Atkins stab her 16 times. Afterward, Tate's blood was used to write "Pig" – likely a reference to another White Album track, "Piggies" – on the front door.

Manson and his followers were arrested, but because they were driving stolen vehicles

Manson and several followers were arrested shortly afterward for being in possession of stolen vehicles, but this was before authorities knew the extent of their crimes, and they were released. However, police soon zeroed in on them again, with more stolen vehicles found at their Barker Ranch hideout in Death Valley, and by mid-October, many Family members were in custody.

Police still didn't realize they had the Tate-LaBianca killers, but things came together after Atkins spilled the beans to other inmates. She agreed to cooperate before abruptly changing course, though authorities got another lifeline when Kasabian emerged from hiding and received immunity as the star witness.

Extracts from source- Biography.com

Many people I know in Los Angeles believe that the Sixties ended abruptly on August 9, 1969,” Joan Didion has written. “Ended at the exact moment when word of the murders on Cielo Drive traveled like brushfire through the community, and in a sense this is true.”

Joan Didion (writer, in her book The White Album):

“I was sitting in the shallow end of my sister-in-law’s swimming pool in Beverly Hills when she received a telephone call from a friend who had just heard about the murders at Sharon Tate Polanski’s house on Cielo Drive. The phone rang many times during the next hour.”

"I remember all the day's misinformation very clearly, and I also remember this, and wish I did not : I remember that no one was surprised. " Joan Didion, The White Album

The Los Angeles Times - August 10, 1969

Ritualistic Slayings’: Sharon Tate, Four Others Murdered

By Dial Togerson

Film star Sharon Tate, another woman and three men were found slain Saturday, their bodies scattered around a Benedict Canyon estate in what police said resembled a ritualistic mass murder

The victims were shot, stabbed or throttled. On the front door of the home, written in blood, was one word: “Pig.”

Police arrested the only one left alive on the property — a 19-year-old houseboy. He was booked on suspicion of murder.

Killed were: — Miss Tate, 26, a star of “Valley of the Dolls” and wife of Roman Polanski, director of “Rosemary’s Baby.” She was eight months pregnant. He is in England.

— Abigail Folger, 26, heiress to the Folger’s Coffee family.

— Jay Sebring, 35, once Miss Tate’s fiance, a Hollywood hair stylist credited with launching the trend to hair styling for men.

— Voityck Frokowski, 37, who worked with Polanski in Polish films before they came to Hollywood.

— Steven Parent, 18, of El Monte, who left his home Friday morning after telling his family he was going to “go to Beverly Hills.”

A maid, Mrs. Winifred Chapman, went to the sprawling home at the end of Cielo Drive at 8:30 a.m. to begin her day’s work. What she found sent her running to a neighbor’s home in a state of shock:

Police Theory

At the scene of the crime Police Lt. Robert Madlock gave newsmen the reason:

“He was taken into custody because he was on the premises where five people were murdered.”

Madlock gave few other details. Among information police did release:

Exact causes of death were not immediately determined. Autopsies were pending.

Telephone lines into the home had been cut, apparently by the murderer. No weapon was found at the scene, although officers found pieces of what were believed to be a pistol grip inside the home.

No narcotics were found in the home. There were evidences of a struggle. There was apparently nothing missing. No motive could be immediately determined.

Identifies Four Bodies

William Tenant, Miss Tate’s agent, came to the home at noon — still wearing tennis clothes — and identified the bodies of Miss Tate, Miss Folger, Sebring and Frokowski.

He left, sobbing, without speaking to reporters waiting at the gate. Later he phoned Polanski at his apartment in London to inform him of Miss Tate’s death.

“He broke down and cried,” said a friend in London. “He made arrangements to catch the first available flight to Los Angeles.”

Miss Tate and Polanski were married at a London registry office in January, 1968. They had been separated frequently because of film commitments in various parts of the world and there had been rumors in Hollywood recently that the couple were having marital trouble.

The time of the killings wasn’t immediately determined. Police told a neighbor that Miss Tate had been dead too long when the bodies were discovered for anything to be done about saving the life of her unborn child.

Extracts from original article in Los Angeles Times Achieve August 10 1969

The New York Times - August 10, 1969

Actress Is Among 5 Slain At Home in Beverly Hills; Sharon Tate, 2d Woman and 3 Men Victims -Suspect Is Seized

By Steven V. Roberts

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 9 — Five persons, including the actress Sharon Tate, were found this morning brutally murdered in a home in a secluded area of Beverly Hills.

The home, perched on a wooded hillside overlooking the city of los Angeles was being rented by Miss Tate and her husband, roman Polanski, the movie director, who was in London at the time writing a script for a new movie.

The other victims were identified as Jay Sebring , a men’s hair stylist well known in Hollywood social circles; Voyteck Frykowski, a polish film director said to be a close friend of Mr. Polanski ; Mr. Frykowski girl friend, Abigail Folger, a member of the Folger coffee family, and a fifth man who remained unidentified. The police arrested William Garretson, a 19 year old care-taker, and charged him with suspected murder. Mr. Garretson was asleep in small cottage near the main house of the property when the police when the police arrived this morning.

The Los Angeles coroner, Thomas Noguchi, told a news conference that there was no evidence that a party had taken place or that narcotics had been used. He said that no murder was found. He also said that there were no firm evidence linking Mr. Garretson to the killings but that he was being held on because he was in the area.

The police were alerted by a call at about 9 am from Winifred chapman, a maid who had come to clean up the house.

When they arrived they found a scene that one policeman described as a “bloody mess.”

The victims had been stabbed and possibly also shot. Mrs. Seymour Knott, a neighbour, said she had herd several shots at about midnight.

Miss Tate, who was 8 months pregnant, was found in the living room of the house with a lylon rope tied around her neck. The rope was also tied around Mr. Sebring ‘s neck and then looped over a beam “as if someone was going to hang them” the police said. Mr. Sebring wore a hood over his head.

Mr. Frykowski and Miss Folger, who had been house guest of the Polanski’s, were found sprawled on the lawn about 50 feet apart.

The word “pig” was scrawled in blood on the door of the main house. The police also found telephone lines to the house neatly cut by a pliers near a pole just outside the gate. Telephone repairmen suggested that anyone not familiar with electrical circuit could have easily electrocuted himself in cutting the connection.

The section of Beverly Hills in which the house is located contains the homes of many movie and television personalities.

Mr. Polanski was reported to be in London writing a screen play for the movie “Day of the dolphins “ for united artists. Officials of the company said he was due back in the country next week to deliver the script of the movie which he was also going to produce and direct.

Friends said that Miss Tate had been in London with Mr. Polanski several weeks ago and had retuned mainly to prepare for the birth of her baby.

Polanski breaks down

London Aug. 9 (AP) – Mr. Polanski “broke down and cried” when he heard about the slaying of his wife and four friends, close friends reported today. Mr. Polanski, 35 years old, has been here for 2 months on movie negotiations. A friend said “ I understand he’s going to catch the first available flight to Los Angeles tomorrow”

Extracts from original article New York Times achieve

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The Daily News August 10, 1969

Sharon Tate and four others were killed in 1969 by Kay Gardella

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 9 - Beautiful, blonde actress Sharon Tate and four others, including coffee heiress Abigail Folger and three men in mod dress, were found slain today at the lavish, hilltop estate of Miss Tate and her Polish movie-disaster husband, Roman Polanski.

Police held a 19-year-old houseboy identified as William Garretson for questioning. He was charged with five counts of suspicion of murder.

The grisly scene, with overtones of a weird religious rite, was reminiscent of movies directed by Polanski, a master of the macabre who gave the world the witchcraft film "Rosemary's Baby." Polanski was in Europe working on a new movie, "A Day at the Beach."

She was dressed in a pink and white polka dot bikini nightgown and was lying on her left side. She had been stabbed and may have been shot. A white nylon rope was tied around her neck, tossed over a ceiling beam and tied to the neck of a man identified as Jay Sebring, a hairdresser who was engaged to Sharon before she met Polanski.

Covered by White Hood

A white hood was over Sebring's head. He had been shot.

"It seemed kind of ritualistic," said one investigator.

"It didn't appear as if the two had been hanged," said Lt. James Shannon of the West Los Angeles Police Department.

Sharon's body was badly disfigured, and blood and hair were over her face.

The 26-year-old actress was eight months pregnant. Police said they were unable to save the baby.

Outside the two-story house, sprawled on the front lawn, were the bodies of Miss Folger, about 26, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Folger of Woodside, near Palo Alto, Calif., and a man tentatively identified as Voityck Frokowski, 37, a writer and photographer.

A police sergeant, who asked not to be identified said that he was convinced that more than one person was responsible for the slayings.

"You just have to take a look at the murder scene to know that one man alone couldn't do this," he said.

Terror was etched on the lifeless faces of the five victims, according to the police. They said that Miss Folger, Frokowski and the man found in the car apparently were trying to escape.

The telephone line had been cut at a pole outside the main gate. Whoever cut the wire had to climb at least 18 feet up the pole with clippers.

The macabre scene was discovered by a maid, Winifred Chapman, when she arrived for work at 9:15 a.m. She ran screaming to a neighbor in the remote section a block outside the luxurious Bel Air section in the Hollywood Hills.

She was engaged to Sebring when she met Polanski, who directed her in a movie called "The Vampire Killers." They were married on Jan. 20, 1968.

Polanski has been the subject of recent Hollywood gossip-column reports that he had been dating another girl in Europe, and that his marriage to Sharon might be on the rocks.

Of late, Sharon had been traveling in a Hollywood group of "rich hippies," and one of her close friends was Mia Farrow. They often sat around a table in seace-like sessions to meditate on Hindu philosophy. Sharon wore hippie clothes and spoke of "universal love" and "the cosmos." She liked sitar music.

Sharon was quoted in a Look magazine interview once as saying: "People look at me and all they see is a sex thing. I mean, people see sexy. When I was put under contract I thought, oh, how nice, but it was just another piece of merchandise. Nobody cared about me.

"People expect so much of an attractive person. I mean people are very critical of me. It makes me tense; even when I lie down I'm tense. I think sometimes people don't want me around. I don't like to be alone, though. When I'm alone my imagination gets all creepy."

Extracts from article The Daily News