I’m the last one standing. Today I recall The Love we owned. Siblings, from the same womb. What a blessing.

John

Christine’s Birthday

Posted on October 24, 2018 by Royal Rosamond Press

Marilyn came over and picked up Christin’s biography. We have been exchanging stories about my later sister. Marilyn has done some sewing for Rosamond who is wearing her Train Dress like the one Debbie Boone has on. M was invited to the opening of the second gallery. Christine gave her two paintings ‘The Song of the Dragon’ and ‘Beach’ that is a painting of my niece, Drew. Her cousin Cian is ‘Garden Child’ and on Christine’s right, is our mother, Rosemary. Rosamond painted her family.

The rival, Sue Hafner family, and her anti-Art Gang made threats in order oppress the gifted children in my family.

Marilyn made the coat the actor, Rick Partlow, is wearing for their wedding. Christine models a Train Dress.

John Presco

Copyright 2018

John Presco 

Marilyn at Moonfire Ranch

Posted on July 28, 2014by Royal Rosamond Press

When Marilyn told me her portfolia got burned up in a fire, I grieved, for she told me within were photographs of her friend, Maggie Thrett. She is posing in the dresses and outfits M made for this actress who was in ‘Mudd’s Women’ a Star Trek eposode.

M had gone to Paris when she was seventeen to study fashoin design. Like the Rosamond Women, she made her own clothes. M&M used to go to parties togethers, and the Reneisance Fair, with their mutual friend, Jane Marie Mandsfield, the daughter of the famous actress who was the other Blonde Hollywood Bobmshell. Mother and daughter both appeared in Playboy magazine that did a centerfold shoot at Moonfire last year.

When I reminded M she has one photo of just her and Jane in it, she asked me;

“Who do you think took the photo?”

I blushed!

When Maggie was invted to the Moonfire Ranch, she got M an invite. At this famous Bohemian house that overlooks the Paccific Ocean, M met McDonald who married Ertha Kitt. He took a liking to Marilyn who made it on the A list. Perhaps it was the modeling she did in this artist’s retreat that was in the movie Mondo Hollywood that starred Jane Mansfield. M said she posed against this mural an artist rendered in a out-of-this world home that Captain Kirk might dwell in on his days off.

Here again is that architectural theme that we find in the Big Sur, and the house designed by for Allan Fox. This is why I was shocked to learn Allan sold that home shortly after Christine drowned, it the kind of home you keep in the family for generations to come. Julie Lynch sold a movie script about Rosamond to the director who did ‘Scent of a Woman’. Will Hollywood be going out to Rocky Point?

At Mooonfire the rich and famous came to partake of the creative ambience and behold other beautiful people. George Harris and Andy Warhol have been guests. Manson and his women did a walk-on.

This Spot of Venus was the best America had to offer, at least on the West Coast. There was a need to say you were there. Here is The Supreme Stage where long white curtain like the hems of giant Greek Angels wave like flags in the ocean breeze. Here the Lost Angels are found keeping their secrets. Here, beautiful souls can have it all, all that was denied since the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock and unleashed a broadside on the naked native, a bombardment of prudishness, a hatred of pagans and heathens. From these heights, there came a grand

Oly! Oly Ocean. Free!”

Marilyn lived in Latico Canyon up the coast. She and her boyfriend were going to raise Russian Wolf Hounds on a ranch they rented. M would walk on Santa Monica and Venice Beach with her two hounds wearing the scarves and dresses she made. The famous fashion photographer, Steven Silverstein did a shoot of M on Malibu Beach. The movie ‘Harper’ was shot at Moonfire. Consider Pynchon’s book ‘Inherent Vice’ that is being made into a movie. The Manson Murders lurk in the background. Marilyn walks out of a Icart on to the sands of Venice with her hounds, she hot on the trail of the Great Mystery of Life.

When Mary Ann Tharaldsen and I flew down to LA to get married, we slept in Marilyn’s bed. Mary Ann had a aversion to motels and hotels that I assumed was a hangover from her marriage to Thomas Pynchon. M let M wear one of her Train Dresses that was inspired by a pattern that Maggie found, she wanting M to make her a house robe. We got married in Topanga Canyon by a minister who went to Hollywood Boulevard in order to convert lost Hippie street urchins. Bryan MacLean sang ‘Amazing Grace’ at our wedding. He was converted to Christianity by the same minister that converted Bob Dylan.

The biography ‘Forever Changes’ says my friend, Bryan McLean lived at Vito Paulekas’ warehouse and practiced with the band that was once called ‘The Grass Roots’. There is a Laurel Canyon connection. Vito was a sculpture who surrounded himself with wild chicks and nude dancers, some who became the GTOs. Vito is in Mondo Hollywood, as is Lewis Mark, the owner of Moonfire.

In Forever Changes, Arthur Lee talk about the first time they saw Bryan and the Whiskey a Go-Go. He was surrounded by beautiful young women, his followers. It is alleged Arthur invited Bryan to join his band because these girls were Groupies of the Bryds, whom Bryan was a roadie for. But, Bryan was a Chick magnet in High School. He would take me on his rounds, usually on Friday night. He made dates with three girls. When we came thru the door, it was as if he was celebrity. The mothers swooned, and did all they could to get my Bryan to stay. While Bryan is at Vito’s warehouse, Andy Walhol is doing a similar scene in New York.

Cue the Beautiful Gypsy Bandit who with her gang of Bohemian Ragamuffins, the next generation Hippie-chic that tried to hijack this blog, that may contain a Murder Mystery.

Jon Presco

Copyright 2014

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