Hollywood Sauna Confidential

Hollywood Sauna

Confidential

Jeanne Rejaunier

Copyright © 2016 Jeanne Rejaunier

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 9781311113276

Published by Jeanne Rejaunier at Smashwords

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

DEDICATION

To my beautiful friend Katie Keegan, who left us much too soon, but whose spirit will always be with us.

And to the memory of Carole Tyler and Lisa Howard. Hopefully, this book may invite readers to think more about the circumstances surrounding their fate.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The names of the Sauna Girls have been changed to protect their privacy. Thanks to the Weisberg Collection, Hood College, Frederick, Maryland. Thanks to cover designer par excellence Brett Meske for another great cover.

Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see, but it is impossible. Humans hide their secrets too well. - René Magritte

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

About the Author

The Beauty Trap - Critics' Reviews

Other Books by Jeanne Rejaunier

Chapter 1

This book is about my own and four of my women friends' adventures taking weekend saunas with a handful of individuals who are frequently cited in Kennedy assassination research, as well as my experiences with two persons who, while they did not take saunas with us, had connections with those who did, and whose activities had significant impact in the lives of Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Baines Johnson.

Hollywood Producer/ writer Sy Bartlett’s Saturday and Sunday sauna, sun and swim parties were legendary, as were the delicious peanut encrusted hamburgers soaked in soy sauce Sy traditionally served up for lunch from his poolside barbecue pit, around which gathered scintillating guests from the who’s who of Hollywood, big oil, sports, upper echelon military, local law enforcement, organized crime, and Washington politics. For five years, beginning in 1964, I was a guest at Sy’s ongoing get togethers held at his home on Sunset Plaza Drive in the Hollywood hills. Initially, I had no idea that some of my fellow guests were as notorious as they subsequently proved to be. But it didn't take long to start hearing gossip about the infamous group I was socializing with.

Regulars at the gatherings included persons whose names will be familiar to followers of Kennedy assassination literature: Washington insider, President Lyndon Johnson’s protégé Bobby Baker and his devoted but doomed lady love, toothsome Tennessean Carole Tyler, who would die under questionable circumstances; cocaine addicted, mafia connected Dallas Cowboys owner Clint Murchison; communications pioneer Gordon McLendon, with ties to the CIA; air conditioning magnate/ sex toy manufacturer Roy B. Lofton; and military cold warrior General Curtis Le May of the Joint Chiefs, who made no attempt to disguise his intense hatred of JFK – all of whom have been cited in countless books, articles and online forums as close to the source possible co-conspirators in the assassination, persons of interest, and/or as having had foreknowledge of the events of November 22, 1963.

Also aboard as regular attendees at these weekend gatherings were former Chicago organized crime figure turned Las Vegas casino bigwig Charlie Babe Baron, who frequently appears in assassination reports; Baron’s tall, curvaceous, dark haired girlfriend Barbara Barrett, an exotic dancer at Hollywood’s burlesque palace the Pink Pussycat; Hollywood leading man Glenn Ford, whom I was dating; Acting Los Angeles Chief of Police Thaddeus (Thad) Brown and Chief of Detectives Rudy Diaz; popular broadcasting figure Arthur Godfrey and JFK-LBJ Press Secretary Pierre Salinger; as well as an assortment of recognizable Hollywood entertainment figures. Carl Wallace, business associate of Roy Lofton’s, an occasional visitor to Sy’s, has also been mentioned in assassination lore, via his family’s air conditioning company truck that was parked in Dealey Plaza at the time of the assassination.

In regular attendance at the Hollywood sauna get togethers were five bikini clad young ladies, of whom I was one, who interacted with the largely male principals.

The two individuals who didn’t frequent the Hollywood Sauna but had ties with others who did, are persons with whom I appeared on television in my acting career: fabled attorney/ lobbyist Tommy the Cork Corcoran, intimate of LBJ and Bobby Baker who played an incredible role in our nation's history; and the ill fated back channel to Cuban leader Fidel Castro, TV journalist Lisa Howard, who died mysteriously after her groundbreaking interviews with Castro, whose relationships with Castro and Kennedy surely contributed to her untimely end, and whose key role, when reanalyzed in light of facts that emerged years later, can shed new understanding not only on her own death but, I believe, on Kennedy's as well. Although Howard’s death was ruled probable suicide, I challenge this verdict, as much as I challenge the official ruling that Carole Tyler being killed in a small private plane crash was an accident.

Although I am not an assassination expert, I am an assassination aficionado. Further, I am someone who spent many hours with persons about whom other authors have written a great deal, but never met. I did meet these individuals and mingled with them socially over a considerable period of time.

While the name Roy Loftin isn’t as widely known as others cited above, nevertheless, at the same time we were enjoying saunas, the shadowy Mr. Loftin was a person of interest being investigated by New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison via hired sleuth Stephen Jaffe, with strategic reports being issued, aided by young lady spies who were Loftin’s secretaries. A propos, Stephen Jaffe wrote to Jim Garrison: In reference to our continuing investigation ... I would like to refer you to the attached materials which should be examined for further value to Mr. Loftin’s relationship to the case... This entire investigation should be handled with the highest security, as we do not want to endanger Mr. Loftin’s privacy unnecessarily.

********

It was my friend and neighbor, beautiful convent bred French Canadian actress/nurse Marianne d’Anjou, who originally brought me to Sy Bartlett’s. The extroverted and loquacious Marianne was never at a loss for words, expressed in her delightfully accented English; she was always ready with a quick comeback, often a smart ass one. Despite an outwardly flirtatious nature, Marianne was a one man woman cohabiting with a partner she loved and loved to pamper. An old fashioned girl at heart, Marianne was a fabulous cook and homemaker who enthusiastically hand washed, starched and ironed her lover’s shirts.

When Marianne asked if I’d be interested in taking a sauna, lounging around a pool and meeting some interesting people, I jumped at the chance. I soon discerned that at Sy Bartlett’s, formal introductions were seldom made. You were left to your own devices to figure out who was who, what they did and how they happened to be there. But since guests were a friendly lot, this lack of introductions wasn’t a problem. After seeing the same people a few times, everybody became a familiar face and increasingly seemed more of an old friend. Daytime conversations sometimes went on into evening meals either around the dinner table at Sy’s home or at his favorite Chinese restaurant in downtown Hollywood located near Vermont Avenue.

As newbies to the Bartlett sauna group, Marianne and I were curious about our gracious host. Who was this man Sy Bartlett? We knew he was a successful producer and writer with numerous screen credits and friends both in the industry and allied fields, but what was his backstory? Soon, we were able to get a handle on Sy (né Sacha Baraniev).

Sy’s family emigrated to the United States when Sy was four and settled in Chicago, having come from a part of the Russian Empire that later became southern Ukraine. After attending Northwestern, Sy went out to Hollywood and started writing screenplays for RKO. Early in his career, he was connected by the yellow journalism of the day to more than a few sensational scandals: Sy Bartlett was a man with a past.

Sy had already been wed to three Hollywood actresses. He later married a non pro and divorced a fourth time. Rumors existed about Sy’s first wife, diminutive boop-de-boop type actress Alice White, in that blond, marcel-waved Alice had slept her way to success, while more talented starlets languished. Alice starred with leading man James Cagney in Jimmy the Gent, and played leads in Show Girl in Hollywood and Employees' Entrance. One night after a Beverly Hills party Alice was so badly beaten by British actor John Warburton that she had to have a nose job. Sy Bartlett, romantically linked to Alice, sought revenge on Warburton by hiring two men to attempt to disfigure him. Sy was indicted for robbery and assault, beat the rap, and right afterwards, embarked with Alice on a Mexican honeymoon. The marriage didn’t last too long, and Sy became a single gadabout again.

A few years later, he again took the plunge, when at Lake Tahoe, Nevada, he wed spouse number two, actress Ellen Drew. Her leading men included Bing Crosby, George Raft, Ronald Colman, William Holden, Basil Rathbone, Vincent Price, Dick Powell, and Robert Preston, and her main films were Sing, You Sinners, Christmas in July, Isle of the Dead, Johnny O'Clock, The Lady's from Kentucky, The Man from Colorado, The Baron of Arizona, The Monster and the Girl, and Isle of the Dead.

Sy’s third wife was British subject Patricia Owens, whose father, Arthur Owens, was an MI5 double agent. Pat appeared in Island in the Sun, followed by No Down Payment, Seven Women from Hell, Black Spurs, The Destructors, in Sayonara opposite Marlon Brando, and in her major film triumph, The Fly.

During the time we knew him, Sy was single again. Later on, he took a 4th wife, name unknown, a woman who wore a big picture hat to their divorce hearing in Santa Monica and for reasons unknown, is never listed in his official bios nor in his obituary.

Like the multitudes of his generation in World War II, Bartlett enlisted in the military, joining the United States Army as a captain. He became aide-de-camp to Maj. Gen. Carl Spaatz. Bartlett was transferred to the Eighth Air Force in England, joining the staff of the Eighth's Bomber Command as an Intelligence assistant. As Major Bartlett, he became the Wing Intelligence Officer for the B-29 315th Bomb Wing and served on Guam.

Returning to Hollywood in peacetime, Bartlett joined 20th Century Fox on the writing staff. With Beirne Lay, whom he had met in the service, he penned the novel Twelve O'Clock High (Harper & Brothers), and wrote and produced the film based on the book. Together with his good friend film star Gregory Peck, he founded Melville Productions, for which he wrote and they jointly produced several films. Sy’s major Hollywood credits include: Che! A Gathering of Eagles, Cape Fear, Beloved Infidel, Pork Chop Hill, The Big Country, Down to the Sea in Ships, 13 Rue Madeleine, and The Road to Zanzibar. Several of these starred and/or were produced with Gregory Peck.

Two strains that ran through Sy Bartlett’s social life are the military, in particular, camaraderie of World War II veterans, and the White Russian connection. Both were well represented at Sy’s gatherings.

Sy was proud of his Russian heritage and cultivated those of similar background. His group of White Russian friends, many of whom often came to the weekend parties, included, among others, the Gurdin family and their three daughters, the most well known of whom was actress Natalie Wood; Veronique Peck, wife of actor Gregory Peck; Veronique’s mother, Mme. Alexandra Passani; actress Jocelyn (Jackie) Lane; and screenwriter Abby Mann, Academy Award winner for Judgment at Nuremburg, who also wrote Kojak, and whose stepson was former Israeli Special Forces operative Aaron Cohen. Like Sy Bartlett, Abby Mann was the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants.

Most all of the male guests with whom we socialized had served in the military; they were of that greatest generation where men of all backgrounds from all walks of life gladly enlisted and gave their all to the cause for freedom. Sy Bartlett’s own military experience, including military intelligence, was a very important part of his life. He had long shared this military background with Chief of the Air Force, General Curtis Le May of the Joint Chiefs, with whom he initially bonded on the island of Guam at the tail end of World War II.

Some of Sy’s other sauna friends who had proudly served in the military include: his producing partner Gregory Peck; actor Glenn Ford; Producer Sy Weintraub; Texans Gordon McLendon, Clint Murchison and Owen Baggett; casino and crime figure Charlie Baron; LAPD detective Rudy Diaz; political insider Pierre Salinger; and entertainer Arthur Godfrey.

White haired Sy Bartlett was a colorful character and generous host who was usually bare chested and clad in swim trunks, although he seldom swam. I have vivid memories of him cooking those delicious hamburgers on his poolside grille. Bartlett, who was over 60, repeatedly advertised to all within hearing distance that he would never date any woman over 28. He was currently dating twenty-something Sandra Horn.

Sandra, slender, reddish-sandy haired, had grown up on a farm in South Dakota as one of eight children, two sisters and five brothers. Two brothers were identical twins who, both facially and in wiry body type, resembled Sandra uncannily, looking absolutely identical with her. The old saying you can take the girl out of the farm but you can’t take the farm out of the girl could be said about Sandra, in that she was a no nonsense person, amazingly capable and resourceful, her many practical skills having been part of growing up where such abilities were prized necessities. It seemed there was nothing Sandra couldn’t do exceedingly well and on the cheap. If she hadn’t been such a talented singer/ songwriter/ actress / dancer/ writer/ film and off Broadway writer/ producer/ director, she could have been a professional house painter, plumber, electrician, carpenter, wall paperer, cook, roofer, plasterer, and more. Sandra had recently returned from a stint as a go go dancer in Henderson, Nevada.

Katie Keegan, a part native American, dark haired exotic beauty from Oklahoma, also became a great friend. Like Sandra, Katie came from a large family, albeit one not quite as large as Sandra’s. She had a brother and two sisters, one of whom was tragically murdered. Despite all sorrows and downturns, Katie was always in a happy, uplifted mood, always smiling, laughing, joking, eyes twinkling. She had a rare gift for not taking life too seriously, at least not outwardly. She loved to sing and dance, and often would go into the pool house with Sandra to create new dance moves and sing along with recorded music. She had a great voice and real style as a dancer. Everybody loved Katie for her lovely manner, her kindness and good nature.

Kiva, whose surname I don’t recall and may not have known even then, was a sweet, petite, tow headed blond, a close friend of my Norwegian dressmaker, Tordis Strong. During fittings, Tordis would always tell me about Kiva’s doings outside of Sy’s parties, which I never would have known about otherwise, for Kiva never spoke in any depth about her personal life, which apparently was fraught with attempts at finding Mr. Right unfortunately gone wrong. But Kiva was on our team and readily joined in with Marianne, Sandra, Katie and me to form a strong female force, the strongest