the studio manderley
05-07-2011, 07:56 AM
...here's a little insight into the shocking and very sad end to the life if yvette vickers - several excerpts from the classic horror film board by noted historian and author TOM WEAVER (who interviewed YV many times and was regarded as a friend)... this first post is from monday (5/02/11), when the news still was not 'official':
Sexquisite in ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN and ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES. I don't want to post all the details that I just learned, because ... well, in a word, ugh. But here's "the short version": A few days ago [April 27th], her body was found in her house, dead so long that there wasn't a lot left of her -- the person who found the body was in the room with it a while before she finally realized what it was; it just looked like some fungus-sy clothes on the floor and a blonde wig. Yvette probably died around the middle of last year. A sweet lady, loved to meet her fans, loved to laugh. R.I.P.
...another post (5/02/11):
She was sweet and funny and outgoing if she trusted you ... but in recent years, she got pretty paranoid, and liked "pulling the cork" more and more, sad to say, and burned a lot of bridges. She never ever mentioned family members to me, except her dad and mom, both deceased. And she had two different homes, so in both places I guess the neighbors who didn't see her for months just assumed she was living in the other.
...later that same day (5/02/11):
Even though news of her death has not appeared in print anywhere that I can find, Wikipedia already lists her as dead, and says she died in October 2010. How someone figured out the month of death, I don't know; she was mummified, and I don't think the police have publicly said boo about it yet. It looks as though she stopped paying all her bills around June 2010 so that was my date-of-death guess; but the neighbor who found the body said the place was hot because a space heater had been on for months. Would a house in Beverly Hills need a space heater going in June?, can it still be that cool there in the summer?
...still later that same day (5/02/11), TW replies to posted comments (keeping in mind the news of YV's death is still not 'official'):
>> Maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part... but a lot of the elements to this story seem a little wonky. Are we sure of this? Or could this be one of those internet rumors, or exaggerations? <<
That'd be great ... but I don't think it's possible. The neighbor who found the body has been helping the police a lot; even though she hardly knew Yvette, she knew Yvette better than anybody ELSE the police could find. The neighbor ended up with Yvette's address book, and called everybody in it (including me) with the news. She knew a lot of details only a neighbor could know, she has the address book, nobody I know has heard from Yvette (or been able to reach Yvette) in months ... nothing in the story she told was amiss as far as I could tell. I've got a buddy at the LA TIMES obit dept. that I'm trying to reach; he's got today off, maybe I'll be able to reach him tomorrow.
<< Tom notes that in recent years she's been putting up walls. <<
Sad to say, she physically put up walls: Every time she'd see a car slow down as it passed her house, or a pedestrian turning his head to look at her house, she was sure it was a stalker, and toward the end she had herself practically barricaded in her house (according to the neighbor). Every time she'd answer the phone and the person hung up, she thought it was a stalker and changed her #. Any time any friend or fan looked at her the wrong way, or said something she didn't quite like or grasp, that person was out of her life. Between the paranoia and the wine (or whatever), I'm afraid she had a lot to deal with in her last few years.
...late in the day (5/02/11), l.a. times:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/05/early-playboy-playmate-and-b-movie-acress-yvette-vickers-found-dead-in-benedict-canyon.html
...reaction(s) from TW:
From the LA TIMES:<< The inside of the home was in disrepair and it was hard to move through the rooms because boxes containing what appeared to be clothes, junk mail and letters formed barriers <<
I was never in Yvette's house -- I don't think she ever let ANYbody come there -- but I saw it from the outside a couple times. Eeeek. Even though it was in Beverly Hills, it looked more like the place about which Jed Clampett's kinfolk advised him, "Jed, move away from there!" -- after a bomb went off in the yard. Like something out of GRAPES OF WRATH, just ... awful. And I saw it 25 years ago, when it mighta been a lot nicer than it is now.
The above description of the interior also perfectly describes Susan Cabot's house, which I visited a number of times. She, too, came to a weird, awful end.
I wasn't giving the name of the neighbor in my posts, but now that I see it in the LA TIMES online story, yes, it was Susan Savage, an actress. On the phone, she sounds like a very nice, bright, caring lady: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0767386/
...later that evening (5/02/11), TW responds to thanx (given by another poster) for his enjoyable interviews with YV (along with the usual condolences):
Thanks so much. I liked Yvette a LOT but I couldn't understand her. She had property in Beverly Hills, she had ANOTHER house in Pinon Hills (probably in the same condition, but STILL, it was on Southern California land), and according to her, she owned lots and lots of land in Malibu, undeveloped. That's gotta be worth millions -- or tens of millions, no? And yet I knew she lived in that weird house that was like one-step-up from a tar paper shack. And every time she'd call me, she'd be coughing like crazy. Well, now I know why -- the neighbor told me the house is the Black Mold capital of the world. The whole place is boarded over now, and if anybody wants a gander at it, you probably ought to do it soon -- I bet it's bulldozed for public safety reasons in the very near future. Actually, I don't even know if it has to be bulldozed; one good kick and I'm sure it'd all come down like the MAD MAD WORLD service station.
And yet, at conventions, etc., she was full of fun and a great gal and somebody you'd think you'd love to have as a neighbor.
...l.a. times obituary (dated 5/03/11): http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-yvette-vickers-20110503,0,3344719.story
...abc news story: http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=13515750
...daily mail story (w/ pics of YV's house): http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1382937/Yvette-Vickers-Ex-Playboy-model-mummified-Beverly-Hills-home.html
...wednesday (5/04/11):
In an e-mail, I mentioned to Susan Savage (the neighbor who bravely broke into the house and found Yvette) that it's too bad this had to happen at the same time as Osama, because it caused Yvette to get short shrift in the news. She wrote back,
"I too felt that way about Osama & Yvette. Kind of like Farrah getting forgotten when Michael Jackson died. But the LA Times reporter said that Yvette's story has been tweeted/liked on Facebook over 10,000 times. That truly is a testament to Yvette. I don't think she will be forgotten."
...(5/04/11) in response to a posted comment re: YV's 'real age' (some reports list her as 82; but YV always claimed to be younger; and imdb lists her age as 73):
She would fib that she was born in the mid-1930s and that she was about 14 when she played her (obviously grown-up) role in SUNSET BLVD. If I'm remembering right, when I first got to know her in the 1980s, she used to deny that she was even in SUNSET BLVD. -- but it's so obviously her, and so many fans asked about it, that eventually she had to make up the "Yes, but I was 13 or 14" yarn.
An article about Yvette's age -- and, below, a cousin posting that she (the cousin) had to provide a DNA swab so that authorities can be positive the body is Yvette's: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/afterword/2011/05/yvette-vickers-.html
What kind of shape can a body BE in, that authorities can't even figure out if it's male or female? I read in the newspapers about crimes where a speck of DNA is found at the crime scene, and testers can determine male/female, age, ethnicity, diet, hat size and 150 other things. Here they've got the BODY and they can't figure out if it's male or female?? Susan (the neighbor) did tell me that the body was just horrible. So awful, she couldn't tell from looking at it if it was face-up or -down.
...(5/04/11):
An ABC writeup that I helped out with; the reporter also talked to a former husband of Yvette's: http://abcnews.go.com/US/playmate-found-mummified-friends-portrait-yvette-vickers/story?id=13522253
Some mildly "good" news, not that there's any "good news" in any of this: I just learned of someone who phoned Yvette in August 2010 and wished her a happy birthday. So seven or six months, or maybe even less, is how long she laid dead in the house. The space heater in operation makes me hope "even less."
...n.y. times (5/05/11): http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/05/us/05vickers.html?_r=2&ref=todayspaper
...yvette vickers, quoted in 1996:
"I would like to continue to meet the fans, because they support my ego [laughs]! Lately they're becoming more and more aware of all the other stuff I've done [besides the two sci-fi pics], and I do like to mention a lot of leading men that I've worked with--and some of the men that I was in love with and influenced me a lot, like Ralph Meeker and Jim Hutton. Those things make a difference; they were part of a happy time, a romantic time. It was a glamorous life, and a lot of people probably don't realize that I was very, very involved in a 'happy Hollywood experience.'"
Sexquisite in ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN and ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES. I don't want to post all the details that I just learned, because ... well, in a word, ugh. But here's "the short version": A few days ago [April 27th], her body was found in her house, dead so long that there wasn't a lot left of her -- the person who found the body was in the room with it a while before she finally realized what it was; it just looked like some fungus-sy clothes on the floor and a blonde wig. Yvette probably died around the middle of last year. A sweet lady, loved to meet her fans, loved to laugh. R.I.P.
...another post (5/02/11):
She was sweet and funny and outgoing if she trusted you ... but in recent years, she got pretty paranoid, and liked "pulling the cork" more and more, sad to say, and burned a lot of bridges. She never ever mentioned family members to me, except her dad and mom, both deceased. And she had two different homes, so in both places I guess the neighbors who didn't see her for months just assumed she was living in the other.
...later that same day (5/02/11):
Even though news of her death has not appeared in print anywhere that I can find, Wikipedia already lists her as dead, and says she died in October 2010. How someone figured out the month of death, I don't know; she was mummified, and I don't think the police have publicly said boo about it yet. It looks as though she stopped paying all her bills around June 2010 so that was my date-of-death guess; but the neighbor who found the body said the place was hot because a space heater had been on for months. Would a house in Beverly Hills need a space heater going in June?, can it still be that cool there in the summer?
...still later that same day (5/02/11), TW replies to posted comments (keeping in mind the news of YV's death is still not 'official'):
>> Maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part... but a lot of the elements to this story seem a little wonky. Are we sure of this? Or could this be one of those internet rumors, or exaggerations? <<
That'd be great ... but I don't think it's possible. The neighbor who found the body has been helping the police a lot; even though she hardly knew Yvette, she knew Yvette better than anybody ELSE the police could find. The neighbor ended up with Yvette's address book, and called everybody in it (including me) with the news. She knew a lot of details only a neighbor could know, she has the address book, nobody I know has heard from Yvette (or been able to reach Yvette) in months ... nothing in the story she told was amiss as far as I could tell. I've got a buddy at the LA TIMES obit dept. that I'm trying to reach; he's got today off, maybe I'll be able to reach him tomorrow.
<< Tom notes that in recent years she's been putting up walls. <<
Sad to say, she physically put up walls: Every time she'd see a car slow down as it passed her house, or a pedestrian turning his head to look at her house, she was sure it was a stalker, and toward the end she had herself practically barricaded in her house (according to the neighbor). Every time she'd answer the phone and the person hung up, she thought it was a stalker and changed her #. Any time any friend or fan looked at her the wrong way, or said something she didn't quite like or grasp, that person was out of her life. Between the paranoia and the wine (or whatever), I'm afraid she had a lot to deal with in her last few years.
...late in the day (5/02/11), l.a. times:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/05/early-playboy-playmate-and-b-movie-acress-yvette-vickers-found-dead-in-benedict-canyon.html
...reaction(s) from TW:
From the LA TIMES:<< The inside of the home was in disrepair and it was hard to move through the rooms because boxes containing what appeared to be clothes, junk mail and letters formed barriers <<
I was never in Yvette's house -- I don't think she ever let ANYbody come there -- but I saw it from the outside a couple times. Eeeek. Even though it was in Beverly Hills, it looked more like the place about which Jed Clampett's kinfolk advised him, "Jed, move away from there!" -- after a bomb went off in the yard. Like something out of GRAPES OF WRATH, just ... awful. And I saw it 25 years ago, when it mighta been a lot nicer than it is now.
The above description of the interior also perfectly describes Susan Cabot's house, which I visited a number of times. She, too, came to a weird, awful end.
I wasn't giving the name of the neighbor in my posts, but now that I see it in the LA TIMES online story, yes, it was Susan Savage, an actress. On the phone, she sounds like a very nice, bright, caring lady: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0767386/
...later that evening (5/02/11), TW responds to thanx (given by another poster) for his enjoyable interviews with YV (along with the usual condolences):
Thanks so much. I liked Yvette a LOT but I couldn't understand her. She had property in Beverly Hills, she had ANOTHER house in Pinon Hills (probably in the same condition, but STILL, it was on Southern California land), and according to her, she owned lots and lots of land in Malibu, undeveloped. That's gotta be worth millions -- or tens of millions, no? And yet I knew she lived in that weird house that was like one-step-up from a tar paper shack. And every time she'd call me, she'd be coughing like crazy. Well, now I know why -- the neighbor told me the house is the Black Mold capital of the world. The whole place is boarded over now, and if anybody wants a gander at it, you probably ought to do it soon -- I bet it's bulldozed for public safety reasons in the very near future. Actually, I don't even know if it has to be bulldozed; one good kick and I'm sure it'd all come down like the MAD MAD WORLD service station.
And yet, at conventions, etc., she was full of fun and a great gal and somebody you'd think you'd love to have as a neighbor.
...l.a. times obituary (dated 5/03/11): http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-yvette-vickers-20110503,0,3344719.story
...abc news story: http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=13515750
...daily mail story (w/ pics of YV's house): http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1382937/Yvette-Vickers-Ex-Playboy-model-mummified-Beverly-Hills-home.html
...wednesday (5/04/11):
In an e-mail, I mentioned to Susan Savage (the neighbor who bravely broke into the house and found Yvette) that it's too bad this had to happen at the same time as Osama, because it caused Yvette to get short shrift in the news. She wrote back,
"I too felt that way about Osama & Yvette. Kind of like Farrah getting forgotten when Michael Jackson died. But the LA Times reporter said that Yvette's story has been tweeted/liked on Facebook over 10,000 times. That truly is a testament to Yvette. I don't think she will be forgotten."
...(5/04/11) in response to a posted comment re: YV's 'real age' (some reports list her as 82; but YV always claimed to be younger; and imdb lists her age as 73):
She would fib that she was born in the mid-1930s and that she was about 14 when she played her (obviously grown-up) role in SUNSET BLVD. If I'm remembering right, when I first got to know her in the 1980s, she used to deny that she was even in SUNSET BLVD. -- but it's so obviously her, and so many fans asked about it, that eventually she had to make up the "Yes, but I was 13 or 14" yarn.
An article about Yvette's age -- and, below, a cousin posting that she (the cousin) had to provide a DNA swab so that authorities can be positive the body is Yvette's: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/afterword/2011/05/yvette-vickers-.html
What kind of shape can a body BE in, that authorities can't even figure out if it's male or female? I read in the newspapers about crimes where a speck of DNA is found at the crime scene, and testers can determine male/female, age, ethnicity, diet, hat size and 150 other things. Here they've got the BODY and they can't figure out if it's male or female?? Susan (the neighbor) did tell me that the body was just horrible. So awful, she couldn't tell from looking at it if it was face-up or -down.
...(5/04/11):
An ABC writeup that I helped out with; the reporter also talked to a former husband of Yvette's: http://abcnews.go.com/US/playmate-found-mummified-friends-portrait-yvette-vickers/story?id=13522253
Some mildly "good" news, not that there's any "good news" in any of this: I just learned of someone who phoned Yvette in August 2010 and wished her a happy birthday. So seven or six months, or maybe even less, is how long she laid dead in the house. The space heater in operation makes me hope "even less."
...n.y. times (5/05/11): http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/05/us/05vickers.html?_r=2&ref=todayspaper
...yvette vickers, quoted in 1996:
"I would like to continue to meet the fans, because they support my ego [laughs]! Lately they're becoming more and more aware of all the other stuff I've done [besides the two sci-fi pics], and I do like to mention a lot of leading men that I've worked with--and some of the men that I was in love with and influenced me a lot, like Ralph Meeker and Jim Hutton. Those things make a difference; they were part of a happy time, a romantic time. It was a glamorous life, and a lot of people probably don't realize that I was very, very involved in a 'happy Hollywood experience.'"