We're two sisters who are craft book publishers and found ourselves in the midst of an avocado grove. We bought this house where we planned to conduct our publishing business and in the deal got 4 acres of avocado trees thrown in. Now we're not only publishers but ranchers as well! This blog is all about avocados and anything else that strikes my fancy.

Friday, March 9, 2012

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.

22 comments:

  1. This is way too cool; you sure did find out a lot in this one thing leads to another post. I have never seen a hairdo like hers before.

    Have a great weekend,

    Kathy M.

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  2. You know what they say—The taller the hair, the closer to God.

    Cindy
    great picture

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  3. The first King Baggot was very famous! The 'Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N.' movie has a poor 5.3 rating at the IMDb.

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  4. I have never seen a hairdo like Mimi's. It looks creepy to me and I imagine her with super long fingernails too.

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  5. Yes, Mimi has a very singular hairdo.

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  6. I think Don King got the idea from Mimi! What an interesting trail of stories from hair to there.

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  7. So how does that hair stay up? Is there something hidden in there to hold it up or is it all hairspray? Anyone who knows?

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  8. Mimi's hairdo is amazing she must have used cans of hairspray to keep her coiffure in place. The story too is very interesting, from Mimi to the golden silent film area and further plus tragedy.

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  9. What a hairdo! The King Baggot story is and the involvemnet with the Manson murders is all new to me.

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  10. What a hairdo! The backcombing must have taken ages and I dread to think how much hair lacquer was needed ;o)

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  11. The ultimate fascinating post. What a trail of revelations! You could dine out on this story alone for years. ...but then again you've already got so many. I've been chuckling about the hair-do all evening.

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  12. What a great post - I like the way you connected the dots. It makes for such an interesting story. Mimi's hair was something!Most have taken time and effort to have it styled like that.

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  13. So interesting the way you start with hair and lead us down many interesting detours. Very enjoyable post.

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  14. Ah that look from back in the day, is even coming somewhat back today. You can purchase these things to put under your hair so it stands up more! Did you hear that at 86 I think he is, Dick Van Dyke just remarried.

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  15. Those hairdo's used to be so popular back in the 60's or 70's - my mother used to wear something similar.

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  16. Mimi's hair is quite astonishing - it must have added a good 6 inches to her height, and imagine the cost of the hairspray!

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  17. Now, that is BIG hair!!
    And an interesting journey,
    with unexpected twists and turns.
    Good job!!
    :)~
    HUGZ

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  18. Wow, I didn't want that story to stop. I was hoping it would just continue to lead us from one interesting tidbit to the next. Amazing. I'm trying to imagine Mimi with different hair. She could totally change her look with a pageboy or a flip. And imagine being married to someone by the name of King Baggot. Good thing he wasn't gay; it could have led to some mean-spirited rhyming back in the day.

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  19. What an interesting thread all from that one woman's bad hair don't. Remember sitting in a dark movie theater and then you'd see a silhouette moving along the row in front of you with one of these beehives and all you'd be thinking was, "Oh please don't sit in front of me. Please!"

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  20. Wow! As I began reading this fascinating post, I never would have imagined that Mimi's oversized beehive hairdo would turn out to be the least compelling part of it. It was especially interesting that young King and his news team followed up on leads that the police ignored. Good for them!

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  21. Wow the hairdo has a life of its own. What a fascinating story you have told. King Baggot is not a name I'm going to forget now.

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  22. I Remember reading Helter Skelter. If I had Manson-connections my hair would look like that too!

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