Tonight is the anniversary of a brutal mass murder. Here's the story of one who got away (and what it did to him). Also, 7 other things worth knowing today.
Thanks for this post on this very grisly anniversary. I grew up in Glendale, about 30 mins from the Hollywood hills canyon where Tate’s house was. I remember the crime splashed on the LA Times for days, followed by the murders of the LaBianca couple a few nights later. Another Manson job. Crazy times for a 13 year old…
McQueen quite possibly could’ve kicked their tails, but the Manson clan’s element of surprise was key. Vivid memories of those crazy days, and a grisly reference to the Beatles’ song “Helter Skelter” scrawled on the living room wall in Sharon Tate’s blood. You can’t make this stuff up…
I saw an interview many years ago that Doris Day’s son and Candace Bergen almost bought that house, but gave it up to Pulanski. They’d heard that the Manson gang went to the house to get them (not Tate). Now THAT’s scary!!!
“Writing history or biography, you must remember that nothing was ever on track,” Mr. McCullough told the Times in 1992. “Things could have gone any way at any point. As soon as you say ‘was,’ it seems to fix an event in the past. But nobody ever lived in the past, only in the present.
�“The difference is that it was their present,” he continued. “They were just as alive and full of ambition, fear, hope, all the emotions of life. And just like us, they didn’t know how it would all turn out. The challenge is to get the reader beyond thinking that things had to be the way they turned out and to see the range of possibilities of how things could have been otherwise.”
McQueen was a hell-bent for leather rounder who’s reputation for the ladies followed in his wake. Loved his movies and sad when he died. He seemed to keep his death wish perched on his shoulder where it was handy.
Those weren’t belly flops. No bellies and tucks not flops.
The FBI executed a search warrant upon trump/MaL. Republicans go batshit crazy. Trump wasn’t arrested right then but he did start fund raising right then. Rubes responded. They never seem to learn. Oh well……….
I was on vacation so I’m catching up on my newsletters. (We went to Florida where the temperature was actually cooler than it was back here in Massachusetts!) The comment where Steve McQueen said his mother and father died at age 50 and he’s gonna die at age 50 so he’s gonna live like he has 10 years left, really rings a bell with me. My parents died 10 months apart at age 62 and 63. I’m 52 and for the past five years I have been trying to live my life like my birth certificate has an expiration date! Not in the ‘wild-going to test boundaries-run with the bulls-tempting death’ kinda thing. More like, I am trying to do all of the things I’ve always wanted to do but always made excuses as to why I couldn’t. I’m trying to enjoy all the little things, experience the big things, and look at the world from different perspectives whenever I can. It’s been pretty amazing!
I didn't see any bellyflops. Everyone tucked. Any I'm happy for them that they did.
Really enjoyed the story. Thank you
Belly flops jave sure changed since I was a kid. The ones in tbe video are far less painful than a real bellyflop. And none of them had bellies!
And sad to say, but I bet more people knew Olivia Newton John than David McCullough. I have read thousands of books and the name does not ring a bell.
Thanks for this post on this very grisly anniversary. I grew up in Glendale, about 30 mins from the Hollywood hills canyon where Tate’s house was. I remember the crime splashed on the LA Times for days, followed by the murders of the LaBianca couple a few nights later. Another Manson job. Crazy times for a 13 year old…
McQueen quite possibly could’ve kicked their tails, but the Manson clan’s element of surprise was key. Vivid memories of those crazy days, and a grisly reference to the Beatles’ song “Helter Skelter” scrawled on the living room wall in Sharon Tate’s blood. You can’t make this stuff up…
Thanks Jay, great story! Had no idea McQueen could have been at Polanski's house that night (or that he was such a philanderer).
I saw an interview many years ago that Doris Day’s son and Candace Bergen almost bought that house, but gave it up to Pulanski. They’d heard that the Manson gang went to the house to get them (not Tate). Now THAT’s scary!!!
Here’s a quote from McCullough.
“Writing history or biography, you must remember that nothing was ever on track,” Mr. McCullough told the Times in 1992. “Things could have gone any way at any point. As soon as you say ‘was,’ it seems to fix an event in the past. But nobody ever lived in the past, only in the present.
�“The difference is that it was their present,” he continued. “They were just as alive and full of ambition, fear, hope, all the emotions of life. And just like us, they didn’t know how it would all turn out. The challenge is to get the reader beyond thinking that things had to be the way they turned out and to see the range of possibilities of how things could have been otherwise.”
McQueen was a hell-bent for leather rounder who’s reputation for the ladies followed in his wake. Loved his movies and sad when he died. He seemed to keep his death wish perched on his shoulder where it was handy.
Those weren’t belly flops. No bellies and tucks not flops.
The FBI executed a search warrant upon trump/MaL. Republicans go batshit crazy. Trump wasn’t arrested right then but he did start fund raising right then. Rubes responded. They never seem to learn. Oh well……….
I was on vacation so I’m catching up on my newsletters. (We went to Florida where the temperature was actually cooler than it was back here in Massachusetts!) The comment where Steve McQueen said his mother and father died at age 50 and he’s gonna die at age 50 so he’s gonna live like he has 10 years left, really rings a bell with me. My parents died 10 months apart at age 62 and 63. I’m 52 and for the past five years I have been trying to live my life like my birth certificate has an expiration date! Not in the ‘wild-going to test boundaries-run with the bulls-tempting death’ kinda thing. More like, I am trying to do all of the things I’ve always wanted to do but always made excuses as to why I couldn’t. I’m trying to enjoy all the little things, experience the big things, and look at the world from different perspectives whenever I can. It’s been pretty amazing!