Sharon Tate: A Life

by Ed Sanders

  Sharon in early 1969, before the pregnancy began to show

  Around the same time, Sharon also had additional photos taken, some in the nude, by another photographer in Los Angeles.

  Polanski and Sharon hosted a house-warming party at their new house on March 15. There was a fight at the party involving uninvited friends of Wojtek Frykowski and Abigail Folger, friends whom they met through Cass Elliot, the well-known singer. Elliot lived near Folger and Frykowski on Woodstock Road.

  Someone named Pic Dawson stepped on Roman’s agent’s foot and jostling occurred. Tom Harrigan, Ben Carruthers, and Billy Doyle sided with Pic Dawson in the hassle. Roman Polanski got angry and threw Dawson and friends out of the party.

  The official homicide investigation report on the subsequent murders describes the party and altercation as follows: “In mid March of this year, the Polanskis had a large catered party which included over 100 invited guests. The persons invited included actors, actresses, film directors and producers, business agents for the above described people, and the Polanskis’ attorneys. Most of the people invited came to the party along with several people who were uninvited. The list of uninvited guests included William Doyle, Thomas Harrigan and Harrison Pickens Dawson. . . . During the party, a verbal altercation ensued involving William Tennant, Roman Polanski’s business agent, and William Doyle. Doyle apparently stepped on Tennant’s foot during this altercation. Dawson and Harrigan joined in the verbal altercation, siding with Doyle. Roman Polanski became very irritated and ordered Doyle, Harrigan and Dawson ejected from the property.”

  The homicide report continued: “The above-described party was held as a bon voyage party for the Polanskis, who were leaving for a film festival in Rio de Janeiro and then to Europe where Roman Polanski was to direct a film.”

  All through the following summer, however, the three mentioned above were frequent house guests at the Polanski residence, while Mr. and Mrs. Polanski were working in Europe.

  (At Polanski’s polygraph examination following the Manson murders, a LAPD lieutenant showed him a picture of Billy Doyle. Polanski said, “That’s Billy Doyle. . . . I remember him because he crashed a party that we gave. He came in, and he was trouble and I said, ‘Gibby [Abigail Folger], who is that little jerk?’ And she said, ‘Billy.’ And I said, ‘Get him out of the house.’ And they got him out of the house and he came back again because apparently his car broke, and I said ‘I want him out,’ and he was drunk, and they said, ‘He’s crazy, he’s an idiot, something’s wrong with his brain.’ So I remember him.”)

  During the murder trial of Manson and his disciples, reporters exchanged information. An NBC reporter told me an anecdote about the housewarming party, supposedly emanating from the producer of The Love Machine. Nancy Sinatra, the story went, grew incensed over the open dope-smoking at the party, so she demanded that her escort take her away forthwith. As they were walking past a white wrought-iron settee on the elegant lawn, they noticed Warren Beatty and Jane Fonda and Roger Vadim sitting together.

  After Miss Sinatra and escort began walking to their car, they came across a group of long-haired hippies who asked them, “Where’s the party?” They motioned back up the hill, and later wondered if the spores of Helter Skelter had been pointed into the Cielo Drive estate.

  John Phillips, the leader of the Mamas and the Papas, described a midsized orgy (only five people) he says occurred after the Polanski housewarming party (at another location) starring himself, his wife, a well-known movie director, and his extremely famous movie star wife, plus another single male movie star. (For the names see Papa John: An Autobiography, by John Phillips with Jim Jerome, p. 291.)

  In early 1969, Jane Fonda was making They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? at a studio in Burbank. She and Vadim and daughter Vanessa were living in Malibu.

  Years later, in A. E. Hotchner’s Doris Day: Her Own Story, Terry Melcher presented a startling quote, based on what he claims Michelle Phillips had told him. “I knew they had been making a lot of homemade sadomasochistic-porno movies there with quite a few recognizable Hollywood faces in them. The reason I knew was that I had gone out with a girl named Michelle Phillips, one of the Mamas and the Papas. . . . Michelle told me she and John had dinner one night, to discuss maybe getting back together and afterward he had taken her up to visit the Polanskis in my old house. Michelle said that when they arrived there, everyone in the house was busy filming an orgy and that Sharon Tate was part of it. That was just one of the stories I had heard about what went on in my former house.” Michelle later denied saying what Melcher alleged.

  A New Film Project for Roman

  The day after the housewarming party on Cielo Drive, March 16, Sharon’s photographer Shahrokh Hatami and Sharon drove Roman to the airport for a flight to Rio de Janeiro (for the Second International Film Festival, March 23–31), where Mia Farrow was given an award for her role in Rosemary’s Baby.

  Various factors had hindered Polanski from acquiring a big-time film project, among them the reorganization and financial difficulties of Paramount Pictures, which had financed Rosemary’s Baby. In early 1969 Simon and Schuster was about to publish a grim-toned, violent political thriller set in the Cold War by French author Robert Merle. The book, The Day of the Dolphin (Un animal doué de raison—A Sentient Animal), was translated by Helen Weaver. An executive for United Artists acquired the galleys before publication and sent them to Roman Polanski.

  When I saw on the Internet that Helen Weaver had translated The Day of the Dolphin, I called her. She’s a friend. Yes, she confirmed, she was the translator. She said she remembered, reciting it in French, when the dolphin finally understands what the military has in mind for him to do. The dolphin says, “Man is not good. He lies. He kills.” She did not have anything to do with sale of the movie rights. She said that Michael Korda, editor-in-chief for publisher Simon and Schuster, being a gentleman, might tell me about it. She suggested I call him.

  As for the offer to write and direct The Day of the Dolphin for United Artists, Polanski apparently was still miffed at Paramount for taking Downhill Racer from him, and he had no contract with Paramount, so he debated with himself what to do.

  In a way, The Day of the Dolphin was an excellent project for Roman Polanski. It featured a nuclear explosion set off by a conspiracy involving a US intelligence or military agency, which was done to start a war with China. The book featured gentle dolphins who were trained to talk but who were then seized from their trainers and used to affix a nuclear weapon on the side of a US ship near Haiphong Harbor, Vietnam.

  The book had plenty of dolphin slaughter and human slaughter; a presidential candidate who resembled Ronald Reagan; and it was set in the early months of 1973, just after a rancorous 1972 presidential struggle. When the bomb destroyed the ship, the new president prepared for a total war. The end of the book featured tension and fear galore, perfect for Polanski, who felt fear was very important in films, as elements of the military tried to kill the talking dolphins (who were supposed to die in the nuclear explosion but didn’t) before they had a chance to tell the world what their handlers had gotten them to do. Researching, writing, and directing The Day of the Dolphin would bring Mr. Polanski into the dangerous darkness of the Vietnam era.

  But, he wasn’t sure if he should take it on. He discussed this question in the plane on the way to the Rio film festival, sitting next to producer Andy Braunsberg, who was set to show his movie Wonderwall, with a soundtrack by Beatle George Harrison and written by Gérard Brach, at the festival. Polanski outlined The Day of the Dolphin, and Braunsberg urged him to go ahead and do it. Roman agreed and decided right then it was a go.

  The rule in Hollywood is that the Door Shuts Quickly, so the offer from United Artists was to be taken quickly, or blam! And so, after the Rio de Janeiro film festival, Roman Polanski was off to London to work on The Day of the Dolphin, which he was slated to produce as well as direct. Polanski later mentioned that his friend Wojtek Frykowski “wanted
very much to work in movies and was devoting lots of time to research on dolphins for me.”

  Dissolution of Cadre Films

  Cadre Films, the entity owned by Polanski and Gene Gutowski for the last four years, took a nosedive. Polanski’s movie on the Donner Party was shelved by Easter of 1969. Cadre invested in a farce, The Adventures of Gerard, directed by Jerzy Skolimowski, who had cowritten Knife in the Water. The movie could not find a distributor to release it, so Gutowski and Polanski put a close to Cadre in April of 1969. Polanski: “With Cadre Films going nowhere fast, I felt it was time to wind up my partnership with Gene Gutowski. My worries would be fewer as a straightforward director.”

  Asked about why his partnership with Polanski had ended, Gene Gutowski, in an interview in the 1990s, said, “What happened was that there was a young and hungry associate of ours who consciously worked on Roman to convince him he would be better than I.”

  Quicksand.

  Tate in a Positive Mood

  Sharon’s good friend Sheilah Wells had a baby in March of 1969, and Sharon visited in the hospital, giving her baby clothes she brought from Europe. Sharon was the godmother for baby Amanda Tate Beir, with her middle name for Sharon. At the baby shower Joanna Pettet and Sharon gave Sheilah a Victorian baby carriage.

  Sheilah recalls Sharon telling her that she herself was pregnant.

  Pregnant or not, Sharon was encouraged by positive reviews of her comedic performances, and chose the comedy The Thirteen Chairs (released as 12 + 1) as her next project—as she later explained, largely for the opportunity to costar with Orson Welles.

  Waiting for Melcher in a Miffed Mode

  Charles Manson had spent a good part of the winter of 1968–1969 in the Panamint Mountains above Death Valley at a ranch house in a very remote place called Goler Wash.

  Then, early in 1969, Manson returned to the Los Angeles area, renting a house and small guest house at 21019 Gresham in Canoga Park, California, in the San Fernando Valley, not too far from the Spahn Ranch. This house was dubbed the Yellow Submarine because of its color. Gresham had a red roof, and to the side were some horse stalls or stables behind a double garage. It was there that Manson lunged toward his bifurcated goals—becoming a star and putting together the proper equipment so that he could return with his followers to the desert. For this he needed things like electric generators, oodles of dune buggies, and money.

  Money he decided to acquire through drugs, theft, and mooching. “Within three or four weeks of moving into the Yellow Submarine,” he writes in his autobiography, “it had become a concert hall for musicians, a porno studio for kinky producers, a dope pad, a thieves lair, a place to dismantle stolen cars and just about everything but a whorehouse.”

  The thieves’ lair/stolen dune buggy aspect of it he tried to keep from Terry Melcher and Beach Boy Dennis Wilson, from either or both of whom he was expecting a record deal.

  Down the dirt road toward Devonshire Street were the Island Village apartments where various associates of Manson lived. Cutting down San Fernando Valley from the hills to the north is Brown Canyon wash, more like a huge paved storm sewer. This wash ran just to the west of the house on Gresham, and Manson used to drive his dune buggy down the wash to the Gresham house from the Devil’s Canyon area, the future home of Manson’s vision of Helter Skelter.

  Because Manson allegedly was living in the Death Valley Hills, his federal parole supervision was shifted from Los Angeles to San Bernardino. On January 17, 1969, Manson’s new federal parole officer attempted to pay him a visit in Death Valley. He got as far as the Ballarat General Store, and there he learned from an old miner that he would have to walk seven miles up the waterfalls if he wanted to visit the Family camp. No thanks.

  After a week or so at the Canoga Park house on Gresham Street, Manson sent a squad up to the Barker Ranch to remove the rest of the Family. Three people were left behind at the Barker Ranch to take care of things: longtime follower Brooks Poston, a woman named Juanita, and Gypsy the violinist.

  Specific information on the Manson Family is scant about this time period, but there is info on the famous “Death Mockup Party” that happened at the Yellow Submarine house on Gresham Street the day that a bunch of followers returned from living in the desert, dressed in leather, trim, and tanned. They gathered together, practicing what could be described as “mocking up snuff,” each describing the details of their own deaths, for the purpose of really experiencing it.

  Some were stoned, sitting together in the room. Charlie was there, and he commanded “Die,” so they all lay down and pretended they were dead. A young woman named Bo started screaming “Charlie!!!”—and then groaned. Paul Watkins later recounted: “I was listening to Charlie say die.” Watkins tried to think of a way to die but he couldn’t, so he lay down and “acted like I was dead.” So did the rest of them, as Charlie was twiddling his fingers, exclaiming how fine the confusion in the air was.

  Brooks Poston was able to go into a trance on command, and when Charlie commanded him to die, he sank into a profound unconsciousness that lasted three or five days. As he wasted on a couch in the living room, the girls would cleanse him, and even Charlie couldn’t pull him out of it. The fifth day, Charlie commanded that his very own sacred embroidered gray witchy vest be placed beneath Brooks as a symbolic diaper. Overwhelmed with the prospect of Jesus’ very own vest being used as a diaper, Brooks flung himself from the trance and came awake.

  During this time at the Gresham house the famous Manson fellatio-miracle also occurred. Manson was on acid and being blown by the disciple named Bo, a small masochistic girl with thyroid eyes and long black hair, one of Charlie’s favorite pain-receivers.

  Family legend has it that during the gobble Bo went bonkers and bit Manson’s virility in two. Then, through his direct occult power, Manson was able to heal his tragic amputation and continued talking. Another miracle from M.

  Manson follower Paul Watkins had come from the desert to the Yellow Submarine house to help with the music. Manson was eager to have Byrds producer Terry Melcher hear the Family singing, and Melcher had promised, sometime around the end of February or into March of 1969, to come one evening to the Submarine to listen. The Family, starring Manson, set up their instruments ready to sing, but Melcher didn’t show up. Uh oh.

  A Visit from Manson, Looking for Terry Melcher

  Manson showed up at the front door of the Polanski residence at 10050 Cielo Drive on March 23 in the afternoon. Sharon’s friend Shahrokh Hatami answered the door. Hatami was working that day filming Tate with an 16-millimeter camera as she packed for her trip to Rome the following day. Hatami told me he was filming for a documentary on what he described as “four rising-up actresses.” They were Sharon Tate, Jacqueline Bisset, Ryan O’Neal’s wife, Leigh Taylor-Young, and Mia Farrow.

  The question is why was the short, hairy-chested man, Charles Manson, whose arms bore tattoos of women, knocking at Sharon Tate’s front door.

  Hatami testified at the trial that Manson wanted to know where “somebody” lived—referring to Terry Melcher. Hatami directed him to the caretaker’s guest house on the other side of the pool, where Rudy Altobelli lived. While Manson was near the porch, Sharon Tate came to the door to ask who it was, and saw Manson.

  (For his part, in an interview with Mr. Hatami while researching this book, Hatami told me he has no memory at all of Manson coming to the front door of Cielo Drive, but that the memory was suggested to him by an investigator named Reeve Whitson, who worked for both Colonel Paul Tate and the prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi. Under this pressure, recalled Hatami, he went ahead and testified at the trial that Manson had in fact come to the front door that March day—something he continues not to recall.)

  Manson took the path back to the guest cottage, but Mr. Altobelli was not there. He returned that evening and knocked on Mr. Altobelli’s door, while at that moment, in the big house, Sharon, Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger, and Wojtek Frykowski—were having dinner.

  Rudy
Altobelli was packing to fly to Rome the next day with Sharon Tate. Altobelli was in the shower when Manson came to the screened porch. He came to the door, clad in a towel. Altobelli testified that the purpose of Manson’s visit was to find out where Terry Melcher was living, even though Melcher had been gone from Cielo Drive for almost four months.

  Manson began to introduce himself, but Altobelli said to him, “I know who you are, Charlie.” Altobelli supposedly told Manson that he did not know the whereabouts of Mr. Melcher.

  Since Gregg Jakobson, a close friend of Melcher, testified at Manson’s trial that they were recording Manson while the Family was still at the house on Gresham Street, it is difficult to believe that Manson didn’t know that Melcher had moved out to his mother’s beach house. The Manson Family was living at the house on Gresham, where Melcher had promised to come to a recording session, up till right around the time that Manson visited the Polanski residence March 23.

  The visit of Manson to Cielo Drive is still mysterious.

  The next day on the plane to Rome, Altobelli and Sharon had a conversation about Manson. According to prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, Altobelli said that during the flight to Rome Sharon had asked, “Did that creepy-looking guy come back there yesterday?”

  Warren Beatty Offered Cielo Drive

  Around the time that Polanski and Tate were leaving for Europe, according to the book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls (p. 78), Roman had attempted to lure Warren Beatty, as Beatty later recalled, to “take over his lease—I went up to look at the house, and thought, Yeah, I’ll stay here for a while, because I wanted to get out of the hotel, but then Abigail and Wojtek walked out from another part of the house, and said that Roman had told them to take the house. They said, ‘There’s plenty of room for everyone, but I thought, no, I don’t want to be in a house with other people.’”