Sepia Saturday #116 Amazing Hairdo

This is some hairdo, isn't it? The lady with the super teased hair was a friend of my late mother-in-law. I looked and looked through old family photos and when I found this one, I knew I had to use it. But I didn't know where it was going to lead - Disney, Cheech and Chong, The Manson murders, Silent Screen star. All of this from just one amazing hairdo.

The woman's name is Mimi. She and my mother-in-law, Virginia were best friends in Los Angeles and their sons were also best friends.

That's my mother-in-law, Virginia on the left with a not so weird hairdo and my ex-husband. I don't know the lady on the right. Are they all laughing because of Mimi's hairdo? I wonder.


But the interesting thing about her is her husband's history. His name was King Baggot,  a cinematographer who died while working on a Disney film in Hawaii. They were filming a scene on a ship out on the ocean and warned not to film that day because of bad weather. I don't know if it was the director or producer or what, but they went ahead and filmed against all the advice. King was swept overboard and died later of the injuries. Mimi was awarded a nice settlement from Disney. This is the movie:

And here's King Baggot himself discussing lenses with Debbie Reynolds:

Their son, also named King, went on to become a cinematographer as well (it was in his genes!). He worked on several movies including Cheech and Chong's Next Movie, Revenge of the Nerds, etc. etc. But the thing I didn't know about him was that when he was a cameraman for KABC-TV in Los Angeles, he covered the Manson murders.

An L.A. Times article featured the confession of Manson family member, Susan Adkins. She told where they had changed clothes during their getaway and dumped the bloody clothes in a roadside ravine. The L.A. Police Dept. ignored this part of her confession, while Baggot and his team did not. They recreated the getaway drive and found the bloody clothes. Baggot had to testify at the trial and when Manson testified, he tried to implicate Baggot in the murders. This story was featured in the book Helter Skelter.

I found while researching this interesting family, the real star of the clan, King Baggot the first. He was an internationally famous film star of the silent era. He was the first individually publicized leading man and was referred to as "King of the Movies".

It's amazing what this one hair style led me to. Thanks, Alan, for coming up with this week's theme.
To see other Sepia Saturday stories click here Sepia Saturday.