Susanne Haines, Waxmate of the Month

Susanne Haines was a stripper and former Miss Nude Universe. "Nothing else seemed exciting at the time," she confessed. "I couldn't imagine anything else." Then Susanne, Register found the Lord and her life was transformed. . . . She was Susanne Haines in those days when "I thought I was free, but I wasn't. I really didn't know God." "I became an atheist when I was attending Sacramento State College. Before that I was a mormon," she said in an interview in Jacksonville, Fla. The next phase of her life, she recalled, just happened. When she was a college senior and married she decided she wanted to get away from her husband. "So when I saw an ad in the paper for a go-go waitress I quit college and began making $72.50 a week in a beer bar. Then I learned to strip-tease." In time she was making a salary of $450 a week as a ' stripper and this figure jumped to $1,000 a week when she danced as Miss Nude Universe after being named to the title in 1971 at a pageant in San Bernardino, Calif. Susanne was arrested some 25 times for indecent exposure, "But I didn't think I was doing anything wrong." Then in Oklahoma City she was arrested for grand larceny; a charge that haunted her afterwards. To this day she refuses to discuss it. "Although I never went to court, I knew that arrest would follow me through life," she said.

On June 30, 1977, the Santa Cruz Sentinel reported that the 1971 Miss Nude Universe will spend Saturday dressed and with her Bible at the nation's only government-operated nude beach.

"As Jesus walked among the sinners, I want to walk among the nudes to describe for them the better way of life that I have found," said Susanne Haines Register, a former nightclub stripper. Mrs. Register also is to conduct a weekend tent revival in the suburb of El Cajon. Meanwhile, the City Council on Wednesday decided to put the question of whether nude sunbathing will continue at Black's Beach before the voters in September. In recent weeks, the council has been under increasing pressure to reverse its three-year-old experiment in allowing the 900-foot strip of cliff-enclosed sand to be used as "swimsuit optional" area. Protests concerning the beach have been loud from residents of the $250,000 homes in La Jolla Farms, which overlooks Black's Beach, although some of the residents say they are more upset about parking problems created by the more than 30,000 people who use the beach on weekends than nudity. Robert Jacobs, chairman of the Nude Beaches Committee, told the council he was "distressed that a small group of totalitarian moralists" forced the council into its 5-3 vote to call the election. "We'll continue to fight in the council chambers. We'll continue to fight in the courts. And we'll fight on the beaches," said Jacobs, whose group seeks expansion of swimsuit optional beaches. He said if necessary, nude bathers would test the ability of the city to enforce clothing edicts by inviting mass arrests.

Her only waxing (spoken word) released on the Shade Tree label in 1976.
How she lived in sin (side 1) and how she found God (side 2)

If you don't want to be offended, do not follow this link

Waxmate of the month : Marva King

Born in Flint, Michigan, USA.  Marva King has been performing with major artists since the age of 13 with the Clarke Sisters and Andre Crouch. Marva was nurtured by a family of entertainers with gospel, classical, and secular music. Her mother, who is a vocal and piano teacher, between touring, nourished and influenced Marva's skills. Marva has taken audiences by storm in her stunning role as "Helen", the lead in the hit musical play "Diary Of A Mad Black Woman", which has been in theatres across the country since January, 2001.

In addition to her vast resume as a session singer—which also includes recordings by Lionel Richie, Whitney Houston, Jimmy Cliff and Chaka Khan—she co-wrote The Whispers’ single “Innocent,” which debuted at #4 on the Billboard Hot Singles Chart and sold more than one million units worldwide. King also wrote the lyrics & melody for ”A piece of Love” on Lionel Richie’s CD “Louder than words.” Over the years, she has performed live with Lenny Kravitz, Seal and William and toured with many affiliated hit makers.

King’s mesmerizing delivery inspired Larry Flick to write in Billboard, “Marva King is a supreme diva, and her name will go down in history as one of the best.” In 1997, Prince took her on the road, under his wing, and made her a member of his group, New Power Generation (NPG)—a stint that included recording on his New Power Soul album. In 2007, she reunited with Prince for another series of arena and intimate venue concerts, which included the record breaking “21 Nights Concerts” at the 02 Arena in the UK, as well as recording on his Lotus Flower recording in 2009; she also made several appearances in his bestselling coffee table book “21 Nights.” King managed 15 shows of her own in between the Prince dates. “Those two years were intense,” she says. “I was exhausted the entire time, yet it was so exciting. I learned a lot about performing from Prince.”
Other career highlights include Stevie Wonder hiring King as an eager teen; performing on “Natural Wonder,” a double album recorded live in Osaka and Tel Aviv in the mid 90’s.

Marva King official website

Waxmate Of The Month : Apollonia Kotero

Apollonia Kotero (born Patricia Kotero; August 2, 1959) is an American actress, singer, former model and talent manager.  She is best known for co-starring in Prince's 1984 film Purple Rain and for having been the lead singer in the girl group Apollonia 6.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollonia_Kotero

Colleen Lovett, Waxmate of the Month

I Married An Oil Man Of 75 But His Pumping Days Are Over

(from her Laff album, 1979)

★

Texas-born Colleen Lovett  was known as one of the Lovett Sisters, a singing duo with her sister Charlotte.

When we were very young teenagers, we began singing on the W.F.A.A. Sat. Night Shindig radio and T.V. shows, and later on the W.R.R. Big 'D' Jamboree in Dallas. It was during this time period that we were signed by a major record label, Imperial Records. 

In 1957, Colleen married bandleader Teddy Phillips, 22 years her senior.

In 1984, Colleen, now Dr. Colleen Phillips, Ph.D., Diet Nutritionist, founded Diet Doctors Medical Mgmt, a successful medical weight loss center in Canoga Park, CA.  In 2003, Colleen and Char once again hit the recording studios as the Lovett Sisters and released their double album "Wheels of Time".

Lovett Sisters

54 Imperial 45-8228Time Out For Love / No More Teardrops
54 Imperial 45-8233 Until I Lost You / I Don’t Want To Set The World On Fire
54 Imperial 4X8262 Sometime, Somewhere / Behind My Back - 54
54 Imperial 4X8272 Bacon And Eggs / Little Dirty Face
55 Imperial X8286 Come Home To Me / Mexican Polka
57 Todd 1001 Won't Cha Squeeze Me? / Dear Daddy

Colleen Lovett (except when noted)

45s

58 Coral 62024 Colleen And Her Schoolmates
Mairzy Dotes / My Heart Is On A Merry-Go-Round

58 Brunswick 55099
Out For The Day / Blue Moon

59 Brunswick 55127
Goodnight Sweetheart / I'd've Baked A Cake

59 Stepheny 1836
Wishin' / Cla-Wence

62 Carlton 583 Cindy Rella And Her Stepsisters
He Don't Love Me Anymore / I Want Him To Come Back Home

63 Newport 1452 Colleen Lovett With Teddy Phillips Sextet
Teenage Blues / For The Birds

63 IRC 7919
Scubie-Dubie Scuba Diver / ?

64 Drum Boy 112
Bring Me A Beatle For Christmas / Cla-Wence

66 Dot 16832
Freckle-Faced Soldier / Go-Go Girl

66 Mira 226 Colleen And Teddy
Beachnut / Lonesome Blues

69 or later  P&L
Galveston / Omaha


LPs 


61 Teddy Phillips Quintet, Featuring Colleen Lovett                            
Five Men + 1 Girl   (Carlton 12131)

65 Teddy Phillips Orchestra, Featuring Colleen Lovett
Music You Want To Hear  (Drum Boy 1002)

68 Teddy Phillips /Colleen Lovett & Their Mexicali Brass
Tijuana Sounds (P&L 10357)

74 Colleen Lovett
Birds With Broken Wings (Era 605)

79 Colleen Lovett
Good Grief, It’s... Candy  (Laff A137)

More info here and here

Laya Raki, Waxmate Of The Month

Laya Raki (born Brunhilde Marie Alma Herta Jörns on July 27, 1927) is a former dancer and film actress popular in Germany in the 1950s and early 1960s.  She also became an international star for her roles in English films and TV productions.  She married Australian-born actor Ron Randell in a civil ceremony in London in 1957 until his death in 2005.

Her only commitment to music on wax was in 1962 when Dr. Gilbert Obermair reported "Carina Records signed film sex bomb Laya Raki to an exclusive contract. The gal has already waxed her first record in German and in English."   

"Oh, Johnny, hier nicht parken" was recorded during the dancer's stay in Munich in English as well as German.  Considered too pornographic and tasteless the song was banned on German radio.  See Andreas Michalke's blog here for some details.  (All songs can be heard on YT)

IMDb lists some 26 movies and TV series in which she played and danced.  Some videos can be seen at Youtube but, by far her most suggestive dance, in my opinion, was in Beat Girl, a 1960 British film about late-fifties youth-rebellion, later released in the United States under the title Wild for Kicks. See here (the dance start at 6:45)

From an article published at the time of the shooting of Crane, a TV series starring Patrick Allen.

"So, OK, I am wearing this blouse for some new shots and I am walking past Patrick Allen, who is playing this great adventurer, Crane. I am walking past and suddenly he say with great shock: 'You cannot possibly wear that blouse! Your bust is showing!' I look at him and I say: "Really? Is perhaps why I am wearing the blouse.' Then he gets angry and he say: 'You are always showing too much the bust. My wife say that she is disgusted.'

"Oh ho, then he can see that I am angry, too, and he start to go back a little. He say: "But this programme, Crane, is not only seen by the adults. I seen by children as well.'

"Well, you know, I look at him then and I say: 'But children are more used to bosoms than anyone else, Patrick. They have grown up with them, you see.'

"Then he is quiet and I wear the blouse and I wear no bra and it all looks very nice, very natural because it is what Halima would wear.

Maila Nurmi, Waxmate of the month

“I remember the first time [Orson Welles] saw me in a boudoir,
in a negligee, he said in that wondrous voice of his,
‘Magnificent Carcass.’ ‘MAGNIFICENT CARCASS?’
I thought to myself. Whatever, I didn’t see that one coming.”

Born: Maila Elizabeth Syrjaniemi on December 11, 1922 in Petsamo, Finland
Died: January 10, 2008 (age 85) in Los Angeles, California, USA

Actress and  horror show hostess, Maila Nurmi appeared in Ed Wood's Plan Nine From Outer Space.   She created her Vampira character -- reminiscent of Charles Addams' spooky New Yorker cartoons -- to host horror movie broadcasts on KABC TV in Los Angeles in 1954.  With darkly mascaraed eyes and blood-red lipstick, Nurmi appeared each week in her revealing black dress and slinky fishnets to introduce such films as "Revenge of the Zombies" and "Devil Bat's Daughter."

"The Vampira Show" was canceled after about a year. Vampira disappeared. But she thrived in the cultural underground. 

By the 1960s, Nurmi supported herself as a tile contractor. Stories, patently untrue, circulated of roles in pornographic films. She became a figure of local legend in West Hollywood, part of a cast of peculiar characters who’d once been famous and now were not.

Maila Nurmi hung out with the punk/metal band the Misfits in the 80s at places like West Hollywood Vinyl Fetish. She also worked on a book she never finished, a memoir of underside of a 50s Hollywood that stayed up late nights at Googies Restaurant, popped pills, and lived off the warm glow of stardom it stalked.

In 1987, she recorded two seven-inch singles on Living Eye records with the band Satan's Cheerleaders. The singles, entitled "I Am Damned" and "Genocide Utopia," were both released on colored vinyl.

She died, alone, in 2008.

Vampira and Satan's Cheerleaders

I'm Damned

Further readings :

Her bio at IMDb
8 Things You May Not Know About Vampira
Wikipedia article
The Rise and Fall of Vampira

Zabethe Wilde (China Doll Dickerson)

Elizabeth Dickerson, Waxmate of the Month (not yet known as Zabethe Wilde)

Zabethe Wilde - What A Feeling

Capitol Records (1961)

Betty "China Doll" Dickerson, who possessed a rare knack for interpreting the blues with her body,  introduced a sparkling new brand of eurythmics to night-club audiences. 


China Doll Dickerson changed her name to Zabeth Wilde when she became a singer. She recorded at least two singles for Capitol Records in 1961

1952

 

 

 

 

 

 possesses a rare knack for interpreting the blues with her body

 

 1954

Covers her torse with balloons and lets male customers at ringside pop them . 

When the last ones burst , she runs offstage nude

1958

Zabethe mimicking Elvis

Nanette Fabray

 Nanette Fabray

Born Ruby Bernadette Nanette Theresa Fabares

in San Diego, Calif. in 1920
actress, dancer and singer

Nanette Fabray and Chorus performing "Louisiana Hayride"
 in the musical film “The Band Wagon (1953)”

Joyce Taylor, Waxmate of the Month

How Will I Know (If I Love You)
 Liberty 55090

(1957)

Born in Taylorville, Illinois as Joyce Crowder.  Most online sources indicates a year of birth in 1932, but 1936 is the most probable year.  Joyce looked and acted older than she was. A coal miner's daughter [or according to another source, her father was a singer with his own radio show in St. Louis]  she attended public schools in Taylorville and was the top baton twirler at Taylorville High School.  Her performance in a school talent show led to a recording contract with Mercury Records in 1953.  Roy Rodde, one-time manager of Joni James, was her personal agent.

Her first record, “You’ve Got Something” for Mercury Records, was written by Joyce while sitting at a table in her mother’s restaurant called Pauline’s Place on South Washington Street. 

Mercury Records issued four singles on Joyce Taylor in 1953-1954 :

53 Mercury 70243 : If I Cry / You've Got Something  
54 Mercury 70317 : Babe In The Woods / Take My Love
54 Mercury 70345 : Sealed With A Kiss / If You Only Knew
54 Mercury 70461 : Your Mind, Your Lips, Your Heart /No Happiness For Me

She is also rumored to have recorded as Joyce Bradley (not confirmed)

55 Mercury 70769 : A Dangerous Age / Take Your Time With Me Lover (as Joyce Bradley)
55 Mercury 70716 : Why Don't You Write Me / Love Is A Many Splendored Thing as Joyce Bradley)

 

 
Under contract to Howard Hughes' RKO Pictures in the 1950s  she was only allowed by the eccentric and enigmatic tycoon to act in one picture, a small part in "Beyond a Reasonable Doubt" in 1956.  After seven frustrating years being “bottled up” by the eccentric and enigmatic Howard Hughes, she became a regular on the TV sci-fi/adventure series, “Men into Space” (1959) and acted in many other TV shows in the late fifties and early sixties including “Sea Hunt,” “Bonanza,” “Ozzie and Harriet,” “77 Sunset Strip” and “The Untouchables.”   Joyce’s movie titles include: “Atlantis the Lost Continent,” “Ring of Fire,” “Thirteen Frightened Girls,” “F.B.I. Story,” “Windsplitter,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “Rappacinni’s Daughter.”   In addition, she made numerous television commercials, some of which were for VO5 hair spray and cream, Rambler, Ford, Coke, Spic and Span, and Folgers Coffee.

She later married a stockbroker and left the business. Now makes her home in Colorado where she writes poetry.

Several paragraphs in "Howard Hughes: The Untold Story" book by Peter Harry Brown and Pat H. Broeske describes the Joyce Taylor's RKO years:

Diana Darrin, Waxmate of the Month

Diana, as Theila Darin, on the cover of Frolic (1954)

Diana Darrin (born April 15, 1933 in New Haven, Connecticut) is an American film actress and singer. She has made over 35 film and television appearances in her career. 

She spent the early years of her career appearing in several later Three Stooges films such as He Cooked His Goose, Shot in the Frontier and A Merry Mix Up.

Later appearances include a starring role in The Broken Land with Jack Nicholson, High School Confidential, Reform School Girls and Slither. She appeared on several television series including Bonanza and McHale's Navy.

Carbine Williams, the inventor of the M1 carbine rifle, brought her to Hollywood.

I first met Carbine, he was 50 at the time.  I used to stop by his 28-room mansion in New Haven (Conn.) on my way home from school to do my homework.  It was a pecaliar relationship. 

We fell deeply in love and I loved him because he made me feel secure.  He'd listen to me and I could relate to him.   He was married but separated from his wife the entire time I knew him.

When I decided to become an actress, Carbine brought me to Hollywood. 

After a 10 year affair with Carbine Williams, their relationship ended when Williams fell ill and returned to his family in North Carolina.

★

Discography

Magnet
1001 : Freedom Riders (1960 Pony Express) / All Accordin (1960) *

Virgo
1004 : Gimme A Little Kiss / I Love The Way (1961)
1005 : Little Gun, Little Me / Lost Love (1962)
1007 : Frankie Ace / He's Gonna Be Mine (1962)

________________

* A gold copy pf the Freedom Riders was presented to Pres. Eisenhower on December 2, 1960

According to Cash Box (Feb. , 1961), "Actress-singer Diana Darrin, pacted by Magnet Records topper, Jay Colonna, to wax an album tagged “Pink Mink,” which combines some new material as
well as old standards. . . . "  But no evidence of an actual recording or release has be found


  

Mama Spiegleman, Waxmate of the month

Mama Spiegleman

Jewish mother of eight and topless performer, she recorded just one single for Accent Records in 1965 with Bob Mullan and Gene Tam (Bob and Gene) : Mama Wants To Be A Go Go Girl / When You Gotta Go You Gotta Go Go. 

If anyone has the record, feel free to post the tracks on YouTube or send it to me.

Mama Spiegleman lone record

Accent REcords publicity shot

Gaye Marcia Spiegelman was born in 1932 daughter of Jack Seigel and Sylvia Siegel.  At 18, she married Aaron "Jack" Spiegelman, a businessman.  She wanted to give birth to as many children possible. But after the sixth child was born, Mr.. Spiegelman didn't want no more children and had a vasectomy, then Gaye adopted twins without his consent. 

Gaye came in one day to announce to her husband that she had had it with the world of housewifery and decided to go dancing topless in clubs.  (One of her uncles was a burlesque drummer and another a character actor. A cousin was a belly dancer)

Every mother has to get out of the house a little bit and I don't play cards or anything.

I had done some Polynesian dancing in the local clubs in our home town, Santa Rosa.  But when I decided to go topless, I asked Jack if it was okay.  And he said, no.  But, after a while, he get used to it.

After I had the silicone treatments, I used a phony name, Miss Exodus, and I could only move my hips for six months because of thre surgery.  But when the word went out that I had eight children, the crowds came in just to watch my hips.

For several months she appeared as the mysterious "Miss Exodus" at a place called El Rancho Rafaele in Encino, California. One day the celebrated San Francisco columnist Herb Caen came in to watch her and discovered her real identity.  From that moment on Gaye Spiegelman was in demand as a topless dancer. Eventually she replaced the equally celebrated Carol Doda at El Cid, one of the major landmarks of San Francisco's North Beach amusement area, variously billed as "Mama Spiegelman" and "The Topless Mother of Eight".

In her contract with the club management was a rather' unique clause in show business circles where "the show must go on" is the unwritten law.   ' If :any of the Spieglman "children.are sick or other domestic needs arise, Gaye may be excused from work. until the matter is settled.. '

'My .home and children come first and my career ls.second.  I love my children and I love to cook and sew for them: Otherwise,  I have - no time for any sort of social life  

In 1967, Gaye Spiegelman filed for divorce, charging her husband with extreme cruelty and "wrongfully inflicted grievous mental suffering."  He didn't deny.

In 1968, no longer topless, she was still performing, singing and doing a comedy routine, "something in the nature or a shapely Phyllis Diller. "

Tragically, she died in November 1968 in a car accident while en route to a nightclub engagement in southern California.  She was beheaded, three of her children were killed and the other four injured.  For the media, “Mama” Spiegelman’s death somewhat mirrored the 1967 accident that killed Hollywood actress Jayne Mansfield while en route from Biloxi, Mississippi, to New Orleans. 

Mrs. Gaye was killed Friday in an auto accident with three of her children. The 36-year-old topless dancer and seven of her children were passengers in a station wagon that overturned after hitting a center divider on interstate 15 two miles north of Victorviile [Calif.]. During the accident the Los Angeles-bound station wagon was hit by a pickup truck traveling in the opposite direction. Mrs. Spiegelman was en route from her home in Las Vegas, Nev., to a nightclub engagement in southern California. The accident took the lives of Mrs. Spiegelman's sons Mark, 15, and Davjd, 5, and a five- year-old adopted daughter, Sylvia.  Four other children escaped serious injury and were taken to the Victor Valley Hospital, Among them was Sylvia's twin sister, Nancy. The driver of the station wagon, Marvin P. Brody, of Hollywood, was not seriously injured.    Clovis News-Journal, December 1, 1968

But that's not the end of her story.  According to Hans Holzer, an expert in psychic phenomena,  the most striking case of possession was how Gaye Spiegelman, our topless mother of eight, took control of her babysitter after dying in the auto crash.  Spiegelman's intention was wholly benevolent. She wanted to guide the babysitter to another job, [See The Two Lives of Gaye Spiegelman, Topless Mother of Eight, chapter from Holzer's book "Star Ghosts "

Waxmate of the month : Mitzi Mason

Mitzi Mason

According to a trade paper, Mitzi Mason, a lass from a Bronx bakery, [was] the newest MGM recording "find"  was "discovered" by composer Larry Douglas, who heard her humming as she wrapped a dozen rolls for him and felt she had "a sound."   He asked her to sing, and the result was a disc contract with MGM Records, with her first release scheduled for June 1954. 

M-G-M
06 54 — K11760 : So Much More/Who Can Say?
09 54 — K11823 : Don't Drop It/I Don't Want Your Pity
04 55 — K11978 :  Me! /  You All You
10 55 — K12097 : Bring Me A Bluebird/But I Was Wrong

ABC-PARAMOUNT
03 56 — 45-9696 : The World Is Mine  / Hearts Weren't Made For Breaking 

M-O-S-S
12 56 — 001 : You Can't Come Back / I'll Go Way Up On A Mountain

VIK
05 57 — 4X-0278 : Hickory Dickory Dock  / For The Last Time
10 57 — 4X-0301 : Fair Winds And Full Sails  /Autumn On The Campus 

EMBER
04 60 —1062 : My Heart Belongs To You / Dance, Dance, Dance

STRAND ?
Mitzi Mason has signed with Strand Records in April 1961, but no records were issued as far as I know