Actresses: Bettie Page

Bettie blossomed under the tutelage of former pin-up model and current photographer Bunny Yeager.

Bettie Page, born 1923 in Nashville and died on December 11^th of 2008 in LA just three days after I originally sat down to write this article on her.

To me, and to many people, Bettie was a unique icon of raw sexuality. She became a definitive staple of underground culture for many genres including rock-a-billy, acting and modeling. Her voluptuous figure and baby doll mug created an image of a brunette bombshell.

In her photos she appears free of the traditional inhibitions/hang-ups that dominate popular culture and were even more repressive in post-WWII America. Bettie was internationally loved for her sex appeal, sweetness as well as her striking beauty.

A great deal, some fictional and some factual, has been written about her. Accounts describe her as a very physically gifted model and a talented seamstress, who made or altered her own wardrobe, who was originally raised in abject poverty while looking after her younger siblings.

During her career, she worked in San Francisco, New York and Florida and performed in plays and movies including Varietease (1954) co-starring the curvaceous Tempest Storm and of course, Strip-O-Rama (1955).

Bettie worked extensively in the 1950's with Irving Klaw in NY photo clubs and was featured in Playboy in January of 1955. In 1957, she was called to testify before Congress in an obscenity hearing that destroyed her career. Afterward, Bettie Page married and then re-married (including Billy Neal twice), joined the Church and did missionary work in Haiti - all in a guarded secrecy and out of the public eye. Rumors flew that Bettie was kidnapped or dead as the decades w/out any public appearances dragged on.

Fifty years after her career as a model ended in 2008 85-year-old Bettie Page died at an L.A. hospital where she was admitted as a patient for for heart trouble which she succumbed to, in her sleep, on December 11^th 2008.

Bettie Page | Bettie on Blogspot | Bettie on Vampress| Pop Subculture

References::
Wikipedia, Bettie Page
Biography.com, Bettie Page
Bettie Page: Life of the Pin-Up Legend Karen Essex and James Swanson, General Publishing Group Los Angeles 1996

Actresses: Kelly Hu

Sexy Chinese Actress Kelly Hu has been in 77 films and counting.

In a category set at a high bar, actress Kelly Hu is seriously close to perfection. An actress and a model w/V.O. credits and roles on many hit TV shows Kelly Hu began working in TV as far back as Growing Pains and Night Court in the 1980's.

Hu, like many Chinese actresses in American movies, appear almost perfect and poised with classically chiseled porcelain features, such as the flawless Ziyi Zhang. She reflects the best of the Middle Kingdom's culture such as devotion, intelligence and presence-of-mind but is highly feminine and sensitive in a way many American women are not.

The Sleaze-A-Saurus strongly insists that is the fault of Western culture to de-valuate grace and beauty in favor of brutishness and boorishness. Actresses like Kelly Hu will always serve as an interesting comparison to Lady Doo Doo (Gaga) and Britney Spears as the peaks of two rival cultures!

References:
IMDB, Kelly Hu
Asian-Americans.com, Actresses

Actresses: Tura Satana

And on the eighth day, The Lord made Tura. Amen.

Tura Satana was born in 1935 as Tura Luna Pascual Yamaguchi in Hokkaido, Japan to a Japanese silent film star father and a Cherokee circus performer mother. Today, she is known chiefly for her role of Varla the wild female gang leader in Russ Meyer's cult classic Faster Pussycat, Kill, Kill (1965).

Her infamous "bad girl" role often obscured the sweet, wise and beautiful person that her friends and fans adored. Sadly, Tura passed away in the biggest little town on Earth, Reno Nevada, on February 11^th of 2011 of heart failure.

In her acting and modeling career, Tura was known for her feisty stand-out performances in a lackluster B genre. Tura as Varla defined all similar roles portrayed in films such as H.G. Lewis's Gore Gore Girls (1968) to Michelle Pfeifer's Cat Woman in Bat Man Returns (1992). Arguably, Varla was the role that Tura was born to play.

Tura's childhood shaped her into a self-reliant, sexy and talented actress. She lived a difficult and arduous life that too often defined by bad luck, racism, vicious attacks and car crashes.

As part of US WWII policy towards Japanese-Americans, her entire family was forcibly relocated from Chicago to Manzanar Detention Center outside the desert town of Lone Pine, California when Tura was in elementary school. The Yamaguchi family re-settled in Chicago after the war ended in late 1945.

In Chicago, after being raped as a young girl by a group of five men Tura, learned martial arts as a coping mechanism. Her attackers were never prosecuted. Over the next 15 years, she claims to have tracked down each rapist and enacted revenge.

"I made a vow to myself that I would someday, somehow get even with all of them," she said years later. "They never knew who I was until I told them."

Because of the rape she was sent to reform school. There, she fought against a group of girls that attacked her because of her Asian heritage. The bullying stopped when she beat up a group of 5 girls up. She was expelled from the reform school and returned to parents in the west side of Chicago.

In 1948, when she was 13, Tura married 17-year-old John Satana. The arranged marriage would last less than a year. She would bounce across the country for the next two decades as a burlesque dancer until meeting Russ Meyer who was casting for his next film.


Tura Satana as the wicked Varla in Russ Meyer's cult classic Faster Pussycat, Kill, Kill! (1965).

Several factors in this film would make Tura a star. The movie was shot in the Sonoran desert. Much like Lone Pine, it was a barren and lonely landscape. This had to have stirred up nothing but bad memories for her to work with. She had a dynamite body, dance experience and martial arts training which meant not only could she do her own stunts but Tura looked like a million bucks doing them.

After making The Doll Squad in 1973 Satana was shot by a former lover. The shooting would effectively end her career in film. She worked at an LA hospital and as a 911 dispatcher until in 1981 her back was broken in a car accident. She spent the next two years in and out of hospitals, having two major operations and approximately 15 others.

In 1980, Tura married a retired L.A. police officer and had two daughter together. They remained married for 20 years until her husband died in October 2000. Tura Satana was still extremely active on the convention circuit where she enjoyed being deeply loved and respected by her fans.

In 2010, TURA!, a documentary by Varla Films/Me and Ben Productions about Tura's life and work is scheduled to be released.

References:
Wikipedia, Tura Satana
The Official: Tura Satana
Mad Mad Movies, Faster Pussycat, Kill, Kill! (1965)

Collections: Bettie Page Zines

Most of the collection shown here represents Men's cheesecake mags mostly from the mid-1950's to 1960. Bettie Page's image has been used for the five decades since as a sex symbol without her permission or royalties paid.

After being drummed outta modeling in 1958, modeling that is extremely tame by today's standards, Bettie disappeared from public life until she passed away in late December of 2008 in LA.

For more on Page, read the Sleaze Blender article here.

Actresses: Valerie Leon

Valerie Leon, born November 12^th 1945, is a cult movie actress known for her roles in a number of high profile British films as well as a near perfect hour-glass figure.

Valerie Leon's mother, who was trained at Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London stopped acting to become a full-time mother. Leon is the eldest of four privately-educated children. After leaving college, she became a trainee fashion buyer at Harrods before going to an audition which led to her becoming a chorus girl then going on tour with Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl.

Leon has been both an official and unofficial Bond girl playing the role of "hotel receptionist" in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and the "Lady in Bahamas" in the non-canon Never Say Never Again (1983). Other supporting appearances included Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978), another hotel receptionist in The Italian Job (1969), and a call girl in No Sex Please, We're British (1973). The 1971 Hammer horror film Blood from the Mummy's Tomb offered Leon a rare lead role, as a reincarnated Egyptian queen.

Leon was married to BBC's Head Of Comedy, Michael Mills from 1974 until his death in 1986. The had two children, a boy named Leon born in 1975 and a girl Merope born in 1977.

Gallery I. Gallery II. Gallery III.

References:
Wikipedia, Valerie Leon
Official Site, Valerie Leon.com

Actresses: Nikki Fritz, The Queen of Softcore

This manling device called "television" came into wide spread usage in the Earth year of 1948. A small, strange device that transmitted photographs at high speed directly into the weak, manling brain.

Thirty-two years later, with the advent of CNN in 1980, the boob tube eventually decimated the theatrical box office and the stag film market as an unintended consequence. Along with new "A" film production being cut back the old beaver reels and the smoky theaters full of fat and suspicious looking men in rumpled raincoats were most thankfully phased out.

The era of softcore on cable television gradually eclipsed hardcore in the form of late night cable programming starting in the early 1980's arena of home theater.

Now, jizz-soaked theaters that featured back to back 11 am to 3 AM Swedish beaver reels and black-and-white jackfilms were censored, edited and then condensed into blocks of television programming or boxed into home videos.

The late 1980's and early 1990's fast became the era of Skin-a-max and a plastic woman that called herself Shannon Tweed. This dubious genre was known as the "Erotic Thriller". And to it's dubious credit, the genre had it's own stable of mostly forgettable softcore stars starring in titles ripped off of noir detective novels in films that simulated sex without filming the actual act.

Nikki Fritz, born in April 7^th 1964 in Pittsburgh, PA, was an B-movie actress symbolic of direct-to-cable "softcore" film. Nikki has bikini models curves, sweet brown eyes and the unique ability in her chosen genre to remember and deliver her lines. She proved to be one of the most memorable actresses of her genre who regularly gives thoughtful interviews that are filled with an insight into her industry.

Starting out in pictures was tough for her. Regardless of her acting abilities and education, Nikki only found bit roles in A films such as Smokey and The Bandit 3 (1983) where she played a role credited as "S+M Hooker".

Sometimes she worked as a body double, as in New Kids (1985), but mostly in the eighties Nikki worked as dancer in Hollywood both on and off screen. It wasn't until the mid-nineties that she really broke into movies with a Roger Corman produced stinker called Where Evil Lies (1995). After which, Nikki began to find steady lead or supporting roles in another 50 films that were mostly made-for-cable or direct-to-video movies.

In 2002, Nikki gave this interview to the now defunct Video Quarterly:

Video Quarterly: You have worked with a man people consider a low-budget genius of sorts: Roger Corman. What do you think is the most valuable thing you learned while working on a Corman film?

Nikki Fritz: Roger gave me my first starring role on Where Evil Lies. It was the turning point in my career. He was the first one to take a chance on me. I think the most important thing I learned working for him is that he is very loved and highly respected! Roger is the most amazing person you'll ever meet. He has a way of seeing things that is different from the average person. I guess that's why he's king of the "B's" - I don't think anyone could appreciate this genre like Roger has. He's pushed the boundaries of this kind of filming making and made it the wonderful world that I'm proud to be a part of. Look at his track record. Roger started some of the top directors and movie stars , such as -- Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Ron Howard, Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro, ...and of course...me!

VQ: This is one of my typical questions but I always love the varying answers I get. In the B-Movie realm nothing is normal. What is the most bizarre thing you have had to do on film?


Nikki Fritz in The Bare Wench Project (1999) perplexingly subtitled: No Map, No Food, No Clothes.

Nikki: Well, the most bizarre...ummm...let me see...climbing out of an ice cold lake after a horrendous plane crash (Strip for Action) or getting my whole body painted blue and sacrificing a virgin to a Dinosaur god (Dinosaur Island)....no, how about, doing a strip tease for the cast of Beverly Hills 90210 or, dancing around topless for Keenan Ivory Wayans (Low Down Dirty Shame) or, maybe having a kissing scene with Robert Hedgyes (Epstein from Welcome Back Kotter) Pandora Project or, shooting several different endings to the same love scene (Fast Lane to Malibu High) or, Running terrified through the Los Angeles National Forest in the middle of the night (Bare Wench Project) or maybe playing a stripper who's breasts are covered in blood after the bouncer who's standing next to me gets shot (Go) ...boy.....there are so many, I can't make up my mind.

VQ: Going through your filmography, more than 50 movies to your credit, can you spotlight a favorite?

Nikki: It's really hard to pick a favorite. I suppose the Bare Wench Project was the most fun to shoot, but my series Night Cap was my favorite as far as acting goes. I was able to play such a wide range of emotions on that show. I think it really showcased my abilities. Working on a film is great, but doing a series and being able to do several episodes as the same character is very rewarding. It gives you a chance bond with the other actors and the crew and that shows in the final cut.

VQ: With those 50 movies, you have worked on both a B-movie set and an A-list....any noticeable differences in attitiude, etc?

Nikki: I think the only difference that I notice jumping in and out of the two worlds is the conveniences. It's really great to take time developing a scene, which is a luxury low budget films don't have. As far as the cast...people are people. You can't change the way a person is by their surroundings. If they are high maintenance and hard to work with, it won't matter if it's a $10 movie or a $10,000,000 movie -- and the same is true for the professional. I've seen $10,000/ day actors stop to pick up trash from the set so it wouldn't ruin the shot, and I've seen big actors giving small actors a much needed hug of encouragement in a difficult scene. It is the person. Not what they are working on or getting paid. The love of the craft runs deep to actors with a heart.

VQ: Now you also run a website which seems to be a growing trend in the industry. What got you so involved with the format?

Nikki: Wow, computers....my second love! I've always had a knack for electronics. I was a terrible tom boy growing up, so getting a computer and learning what makes it tick seemed natural for me. It's come in handy now that owning a web site is a fact of life. I developed nikkifritz.com back in 1996, and it's been a labor of love. I do everything on it - from answering email to coding the javascript. I'm to much of a control freak to have anyone touch it......so I've acquired all the skills I need to run it......Photoshop, HTML, JavaScript, Linux, Premiere, etc......and it sure keeps me busy. With the new video download rage, I now have an editing system in my house...right next to my live web cam!

In 2005, Nikki retired from acting to focus on web ventures.

References:
Nikki Fritz.com, Film Credits
Wikipedia, Nikki Fritz
IMDB, Nikki Fritz
Video Quarterly, Nikki Fritz Interview

The Sleaze-A-Saurus Rates It:	This Flick Is Available At:

Actresses: Reiko Ike

The mysterious Reiko Ike walked away from acting forever in 1979.

Reiko Ike, born in 1953 in Toyko, became an international sensation every bit as big as Angela Jolie for her film roles as Ocho a female Yakuza with unparalleled fighting skills. Reiko, a very beautiful woman even among the high standards set by Japanese film actresses, was known for her amazing choreography in elaborate fight scenes and her stunt work in films such as The Sex and The Fury (1973), Female Yakuza Tale (1973) and in Sonny Chiba's The Street Fighter's Last Revenge (1974).

After drug and gambling arrests in the late 1970's she quit acting. Reiko made her last film at age 26. Little else is known about her private life, or her life in general, since she walked away from Toei Studios in 1979.


References:
Wikipedia, Reiko Ike
IMDB, Reiko Ike
Pinky Violence, Reiko Ike

Flicks: Dead People (1973) (aka Messiah of Evil)

Beautiful Marianna Hill also appeared in Medium Cool (1969) with Robert Forster and Schizoid (1980) w/Klaus Kinksi.

By today's standards, Dead People can very clearly be seen a very early precursor for Resident Evil and survival horror in general. Society has effectively collapsed. Population has imploded leaving only a handful of survivors. Beautiful babies are endangered by decaying creeps. The only way out is to fight.

Among several taglines for this film includes this marketing gem: "Meet Albert. Albert likes good music, motor trips by moonlight, and... eating human flesh." What is not to like?

To really enjoy this film: forget the first 10 minutes. Wade through the badly edited and scored credit sequence action. All you will miss are random clips. Yep, that includes a confusing straight razor murder (?) and a long and deranged V.O. in a blurry booby hatch. The first ten minutes are a bad decision in order to set up a strange, well-acted movie for American audiences who wanted mediocrity.

Although these early shots keep the shock factor kind of high, this sequence looks like the distributor re-cut in random pieces of additional footage with actors who don't appear anywhere else in the flick. Brilliant!

But, after this first scene FF and STOP where the red head Marianna Hill pulls into Shucky's All-Night Gas Station in her bright red Fiat. Now, we're firing up a movie that earns it's chills.

Marianna Hill (left) appeared as Dr. Helen Noel in "Dagger of the Mind" a Star Trek episode. Anitra Ford (right) starred in Invasion of the Bee Girls (1973) and the Price Is Right.

The lead actresses, Marianna Hill and Anitra Ford are drop dead gorgeous kittens. They start the film wandering through the eerie and nearly deserted town of Point Dunne. Peter Falk's lackey from the Bloody Brood (1958) Michael Greer^[0] and Joy Bang also tag along as the thrill-seekers, Thom and Toni.

A small and isolated coastal community is brutally consumed with a form of zombie-ism that has consumed nearly all of it's residents. In the traditional method in which zombies eat - they hunt down individuals and scarf on their fleshy parts. That also includes a snuff scene at the local grocery Meat Counter that has a "Lost in the Supermarket" themed attack written all over it. In this scene, the luckless and adorable Anitra Ford is devoured by unhappy shoppers.

The movie adds a mysterious serial killer that is lurking through out the plot and the perpetually creepy albino giant, Bennie Robinson). Now, we've got ourselves a movie.


Anitra Ford is lost in the supermarket... A supermarket full of hungry zombies!

There are a series of amazing paintings in the spacious interior shots of the isolated lighthouse where Marinna Hill's character has come searching for her estranged father. The movie features these trompe l'oeil ("to fool the eye") prints as life-sized or larger pictures of dour old men in immaculate jet black suits. Some of these images are of huge bridges and escalators leading nowhere. All of them begin to loom in the background as Marinna and friends make their stand in Point Dunne.

References:
Wikipedia, Messiah of Evil
Beyond Hollywood, “Lynchian” Messiah of Evil Review
Braineater, Dead People
Cool Cinema, Messiah Of Evil 1973
Alpha Memory, Marianna Schwarzkopf
Amazon, Buy It and Devil's Nightmare for four bucks

[0]= "Murder was on the Menu!" was the tagline for the wild-for-kicks world of The Bloody Brood (1958). In the picture, Greer plays a TV executive who conspires in a thrill-killing with a youngish Peter Falk.

Actresses: Rosalba Neri

Rosalba Neri, born 1939 in Northeastern Italy, was a stand out horror actress often credited as "Sarah Bey". Rosalba played steamy sophisticated redheads. This the role she played as Joe Cotten's daughter, Tania Frankenstein, in the B-movie classic Lady Frankenstein (aka Frankenstein's Daughter) from 1971.

Neri worked in very provocative roles in controversial films like: 99 Women(1969), Asylum Erotica (1973), The Devil's Wedding Night (1973), The Seducers (1969), and the psychosexual thriller Amuck (1978).

Rosalba was a contemporary of Barbara Steele and Mario Brava. She had a distinguished career starring with Gothic horror legends Chris Lee and Peter Cushing in Horror Express (1974) and co-starring with Pam Grier, in Grier's first film role after working as a secretary for Roger Corman: The Arena (1974).

Gallery I. | Gallery II.
Resources:
Wikipedia, Rosalba Neri
IMDB, Rosalba Neri
Horror-Wood, Lady Frankenstein
Cult Sirens, Rosalba Neri
B-Cult, Neri Movie Posters

Actresses: Barbara Steele

They're coming to get you Barb-ber-ra! And for good reason, too. YOW-ZA!

The enchanting Barbara Steele was born 1937 in England. She became an astounding and elegant emblem of the Gothic horror flicks that were ground out of Italy and Spain in the sixties and early seventies. Her cerebral, serene, erie, and sometimes bloodthirsty performances were better examples of the Gothic genre. This included her roles in Roger Corman's The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), The Horrible Dr. Hitchcock (1962) and it's sequel The Ghost (1963).

Barbara Steele also appeared in Felini's 8 1/2 (1960), Johnathon Demme's Caged Heat (1974) and in Joe Dante's Jaw's clone, the infamous Piranha! (1978).

Her legions of adoring fans include Tim Burton and also the late Vincent Price who, according to my own sources, accidentally stabbed her with a prop sword the during production of the Pit and the Pendulum in 1961. Since the late 1970's she's enjoyed a cult icon status.

Gallery I. | Gallery II. | Gallery III. | Gallery IV.

References:
IMDB, Barbara Steele
The Official: BarbaraSteele.com
My Trash, The Female Face of Gothic Cinema

Actresses: Patricia Barrington

Patricia Barrington, aka Camille Grant or Vivian Gregg, born 1941, was an extremely physically gifted actress who appeared in Russ Meyer's radioactive ode to big bosoms Mondo Topless (1961), back-alley Bunuel production of Harry Novak's Agony of Love (1966), and as a hypnotized red head in Ed Wood Jr.'s titular and over-rated production of Orgy of the Dead (1965).

Her natural talents aside, Patricia was an engaging actress whose wild performances in (Rostler's) dream sequences and running frantically to her death (in a giant fright wig) down the dark New York streets in grainy black and white were brighter spots in the usually lackluster trashcore genre.

References:
Something Weird Video, The Agony of Love
DVD Drive-In, The Agony of Love
DVD Drive-In, Orgy of the Dead
Youtube, Orgy of the Dead

Actresses: Evelyn West - The Gal WIth The $50,000 Treasure Chest

Evelyn West, born 1921 in Southern Kentucky and died in Hollywood Florida in 2004, she was a rare mixture of brunette dynamite and classy bombshell. Eve was a petite knock-out at 5' 4" with a 39 1/2" rack that Lloyd's of London briefly insured for $50,000 in the 1950's.

A burlesque dancer (mostly reads as stripper) turned actress, her credits ranged from popular men's magazines, such as Fever ("Where there's a fire there's a filly!") and Playboy in August of 1954. She also appeared in photo journals and classic beaver/stag loops that played from the late 1940's to 1950's.

Gallery I. | Gallery II.
References:
Pin-ups, Evelyn West Gallery
Operagloves, Evelyn West