About Earl Leaf / LA Weekly Pick of the Week / Photo Extras / Events Home

Can you tell a little about yourself and what you do?
Lori: I'm a journalist and songwriter.  Earl got me my first job at age sixteen for Movie Teen Illustrated.  Later I went on to work for California Apparel News, Petersen Publishing and contributed to The Los Angeles Times food section.  Currently I am the Senior Editor of The Score for The Society of Composers and Lyricists which I have done for over eighteen years. I also am a full-time songwriter and have had many songs recorded word-wide by artists like Marta Sanchez, Girlfriend, Keb' Mo', and etcse.  My CD "Sensuel" is out on Rhombus Records and getting airplay across the US.

Kathryn: I grew up in the Valley in the 50's. My father was a film maker and my mom an aspiring singer and mother of five. My father later landed a job at Screen Gems as director of photography. I had four brothers.. My mother would say that I was the rose between four thorns.

I started working and traveling at an early age. I left home at eighteen to live in Hawaii where my father was born and raised. There I studied art and started my life as a full on Flower Child. Returning to the mainland I moved to Hollywood and worked for Chuck Barris with the Dating Game and Newlywed game. I was hired as a bandit(one of the recruiters for the show) and when I turned 21 I also chaperoned the winning couples. It was a wild time in my life. Late I moved to Paris and lived there for a year. After returning to LA I started working on film productions which I continued doing for several years until I moved again to Europe. This time Rome, Italy where my home is. I'm married to an Italian man named Gildo and we have two children, Matteo who is almost l7 years old and our daughter Giulia who is eleven. We live on the seaside outside of Rome.
I Paint and write in my spare time and I work for an Italian Opera Company.

 Jolene: I'm an Administrative Assistant at Barnett Cox & Associates, which is an Advertising, Graphic Arts, and Multi-Media Production agency. At 13 years of age, I worked for the Beach Boys doing fan mail and later public relations work. I was a Session Singer in the early 60's and was one of the first to be signed as a recording artist for Hanna Barbara Records. Danny Hutton of "Three Dog Night" fame was their talent scout and later my manager.


How did you and Earl Leaf meet?
Lori: One day after school one of my friends who was attending Hollywood Professional School asked me if I wanted to meet this interesting photographer that she had met from some of her school chums.  I said yes and the rest is history.  Earl became one of my closest friends and a mentor.  We talked everyday on the telephone and went so many places together.

Kathryn: My girl friend Lori Barth introduced us when we were in high school.

Jolene: Carl Wilson, David Marks, two of the Beach Boys and I all enrolled at Hollywood Professional School and through some friends we met there I was introduced to Earl. I remember the first time I went to his house on Alcyona in Hollywood. It was completely overgrown with shrubbery in front; it looked like there was a cave leading to the front door. That door had been signed by Marilyn Monroe, Natalie Wood, and Kim Novak to mention a few of the many girls that had been in Earl's life. Inside there were vines growing through the ceiling hanging down into the room and I remember having to push them away from me as I sat on the couch.


Earl Leaf compiled an enormous amount of negatives and photographs compulsively logging years of journals of each negative and session with the exact times and date. Can you give some sort of description of how he went about shooting his subjects and his work? What was he like with the camera?
Lori: Earl always had his camera with him.  His gift was getting candids and he seemed to be able to capture the perfect moment in time.  He always found a flattering look with his subjects. With the cheesecake photos, I think he really just liked to look at the beautiful women in his life.  His extreme admiration came through in his photos.  If you notice, all his female subjects were caught in a very seductive moment, something he was really good at bringing out of people. Even later on with the Beach Boys, the Yardbirds, Mamas and Papas, and all the big rock groups he shot for Teen Magazine and  Tiger Beat, you see life in the photos because he believed so much in candid shots.  Nobody every really looked "setup" because he would catch them before they settled into a stiff pose. I used to accompany Earl on the many press photo outings and everybody loved him.  He really had a way with people, very relaxed and he was very witty.  I also on occasion was photographed by him and those pictures remain some of my most cherished and most favorites. The camera never seemed to get in the way, it was natural.  He never fidgeted with it, he was a real pro.  He loved shooting black and white but he was great with color too.

Kathryn: Earl's cameras were strung around his neck and in his carrying case. They were his second skin. He never seemed to think about it , in the sense of forgetting them or being weighed down by the responsibility of an extra load. Wherever he went, they went. Earl took shots freely without a lot of care about scenery or backdrops. He focused on his subject and shot. He wasn't critical when he photographed and he didn't give a lot of directions, or if he did he wasn't controlling.
Earl was an extremely patient man. A trait that I believe is crucial for a successful photographer. It was important for Earl to log and keep track of his work like any historian.

Jolene: Earl liked to shoot very candid shots whether he was working with musicians or movie stars. He liked to get them talking about their music, movies and what their goals were. He had this knack to be able to "capture the essence of their souls" in his shots. I went with Earl to many of these photo sessions or told him about a new group or starlet I thought he would want to feature in his articles for "Teen" or "Tiger Beat"? One band was "Love". I was dating Michael Stuart-Ware, the drummer at the time. I took him up to Michael's house and he really liked the band. So the next day, he took some shots of them at the club "The Hullabaloo" in Hollywood. You have one of those shots on your website. (Michael has written a behind-the-scenes profile of the legendary rock group Love called "Pegasus Carousel". If anyone is interested, you can go to his website at: http://www.pegasuscarousel.com.

The enormous amount he accomplished in his life is overwhelming and inspiring. He seemed to try everything at some point in his life. Can you tell me more about how he maintained his creativity and passionate lifestyle with such longevity?
Lori: Earl had an incredible spirit.  He had energy, a sense of humor, an insatiable appetite for knowledge.  He was a joker, a lover of women, of all people. Everyday he would get up and go to his glass-topped wooden desk in his converted garage house in the Hollywood Hills and type one of his columns. Above his desk hung those wonderful cheesecakes of Marilyn, Jane, Natalie and so many beauties with his two cherished photos; one of Mao-Tse-Tung and Cho En Lai right in the middle of the wall.  Ivy would vine through the roof and through the windows and cats would be sitting on everything, everywhere. This is the world he made up for himself and it was fabulous.  It was easy and Earl was an easygoing guy.  It was filled with a steady stream of friends.  I never really did ever see him get mad.

Kathryn: I think because Earl was not a fame seeker or money hungry he was therefore able to enjoy his successes and accept his failures gracefully. He was living the life he chose. Earl maintained his creativity and passionate lifestyle simply because he was a creative and passionate human being. Earl loved life. He loved music and he loved women.

Jolene: I really think every new day was a life experience for Earl. He couldn't wait to get out there into it. He never got bored. Every friend, male or female, had his interest. He liked hearing about what we were doing in our careers and our lives. I loved his stories about the people he met in his life. He had this picture above his desk of  Mao Tse-Tung, Chou En-Lai and himself taken in North China. He told me Mao Tse-Tung didn't learn to read or write till in his 80's, and one of the first letters he wrote was to Earl. He was living in New York then, and he framed it, and hung it on the wall. Well just to let you know the kind of man he was, this friend of his admired that letter, and Earl just took it off the wall, and gave it to him. He should have just made a copy, but not Earl. I do think he regretted doing that all his life though.


What kind of differentiation did he make between the celebrity shots he did and the cheesecake portraiture?  These two types seem to make up the bulk of his work. What I'm getting at is did he consider the celebrity shots his job / work and the cheesecake work his art?
Lori: Well, he did cheesecake early on during his trips to South America and to China.  Even though he was a photojournalist and chronicled stories he was doing, he couldn't pass up a pretty girl.  I think somehow the two were intertwined.  It wasn't until he returned to Hollywood from China that he really did the cheesecake photos for a living, contributing to magazines.   His early shots of Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Jane Mansfield, Natalie Wood and all the other starlets I'm sure had as much hobby in them for the beauty as they did for the sake of work.  I can't really say if he intentionally separated the two at that juncture.  Since photography was his life, work was art, always.  Earl didn't know any other way of doing it.

Kathryn: When I met Earl at the age of fifteen his reputation was long established and a major part of his important works were already history. He was working for Teen magazine and on his journal and covering and documenting the times of the sixties and early seventies. He invited me along with him to lots of appointments where he knew I'd get a kick out of it. We went to the love-ins at Griffith park and press parties etc. I can say that I watched him photograph on the job and at play and I experienced him work exactly the same at both, professionally and artistically. Earl didn't make a big deal about his job. He was never a braggadocio or arrogant.

Jolene: I think he definitely enjoyed the cheesecake shots more, but you have to understand, Earl loved women. Not only because they had beautiful bodies, he wanted to know what they were like inside as well. He did have a fondness for young starlets. So I'd have to say the celebrity shots were his work / job and the cheesecake work his art. I believe I have the only copies left of his celebrity shots of the Rolling Stones? I was told the negatives were stolen. The pictures I have were taken at a television show "Hollywood a Go Go" and one taken of Brian Jones at the "Monterey POP Festival". His favorite cheesecake shot's hung in his bedroom. He called it "The Gallery". He kept them there so it was the last thing he saw before he went to bed. You could say they were Earl's favorite girls. I'm proud to have been one of those girls in the gallery, for I know I was truly loved by a very special human being.


How did Earl influence what you do?
Lori: I was always a writer.  I made up poems and songs when I was small. When I saw how interesting Earl's life was, I guess that impression made me really want to become a journalist.
Earl used to go over my early writing.  He wasn't that easy on me and was quick to point out what I was doing incorrectly.  His journalistic flair rubbed off on me and to this day I approach a story and the way I flood the page with words from those early days of criticism.

Kathryn: I believe Earl had a strong influence on how I am as an individual
more than what I do. Earl loved to talk and to have long conversations on the phone, in the car, or at his place, or in the garden. We talked about everything under the sun. I still love a good chat. Earl was a good person. He was intelligent and fun loving. He was always a gentleman who respected others no matter how different they were from his way of life. He was an individualist who had his own ideas, his own look, and he let others be free to do their own thing as well. He did have a soft spot for the outrageous and his own nonconformist lifestyle fit in perfectly with the times. Earl was in his element living in the moment in a most explosive time in history. If I was sure Earl would join me I'd go back and relive those times in a heartbeat.
And so I try not to take life too seriously. I try not to judge too harshly. I like spontaneity and I love good company. My friends and family are extremely important to me. I still love the Beatles and appreciate the outrageous in all its forms.

Jolene: He had an influence on the person I am today and almost everything I do. He always believed I could be or do anything. He encouraged me every step of the way. He helped me through the good and bad times. He taught me about art films, good books, compassion for others and being the best human being I could be. I could be a "free spirit" when I went anywhere with Earl. We dressed the way we felt and I really never knew what he would show up wearing. Sometimes he looked like the "Great White Hunter" in safari hat and shorts, with love beads around his neck, or he'd show up wearing an ascot and smoking jacket looking like Cary Grant.


Where did you hang out in Hollywood? (and Los Angeles at large)
Lori: Mostly we hung out at Earl's house because everybody would congregate there.  But he had his favorite places to eat like the little coffee shop on Franklin Ave. near Ivar or Canter's on Fairfax.  We went to press parties, many at Villa Capri (on Franklin Ave. but no longer there) and Martoni's on Cahuenga. During the time of the Love-In's, we'd go to Griffith Park or where ever they were and hang out with Vito and all those strange hippies.  Sometimes I'd go with him to the Hullabaloo or the Whiskey and watch him shoot pictures of the bands.  Oh, and there was this yearly event all of us would go to, The Artists and Models Ball at the Hollywood Palladium. That was the wildest of all the events.

Kathryn: I was an integral part of the "cruising" generation .. First on Van Nuys Blvd. With interval stops to Bob's Big Boy, and later graduating to Hollywood Blvd. and the Sunset Strip. We frequented restaurants a lot with my family so when I left home I preferred hanging out where there was good food. Like Lori, I was eclectic in my choice of friends and past times. I could be at the theater one evening and hanging out at Barneys Beanery another. My older brother Rick Cunha ran the Hootenanny at Doug Weston's Troubadour so that place was like home to me for years. I spent a lot of time at Figaro's drinking coffee, writing poetry and falling in love. Hollywood was my backyard. I had a large family and group of friends who were musicians, artists and in the film industry and there was always something going on. My favorite restaurants were Lucy's El Adode, Nicodells, and Musso Franks.

Jolene:  You have to understand; Hollywood, West Hollywood and the little piece of Sunset that was a part of LA had so many clubs then. Earl shot most of his pictures in those clubs and in the hotels as well. To name a few there was The Trip, The Whiskey, Ciro's, Bedo Lito's, Brave New World, The Hullabaloo, The Daisy, The Beverly Wilshire Hotel, the Beverly Hills Hotel, the Bel-Air Hotel, The Ambassador and The Roosevelt Hotels.  I could go on and on.    

How has it changed?
Lori: First, without Earl around, it's not as much fun.  In general, Hollywood and the music scene has changed.  Record companies don't spend so much on lavishing the press and all those weird people have sort of disappeared or just grew up.  Many of the old haunts in Hollywood also disappeared as the Old Hollywood guard died, like the old Ontra Cafeteria where all the silent screen stars would go get early bird dinners, or the old Tick Tock Restaurant. The Sunset Strip's the same but the clubs always change.  I think the sense of innocence is gone, the music has been recycled and copied, not always for the best.  With Earl passed the end of the grand ol' glory days of Hollywood.

Kathryn: Many of the places don't exist any more. The long hair, the free flowing dress attire and the smell of patchouli is definitely passé. There was a grand uprising of spirit and a genuine trust among peers. The times were full of controversy and new ideas. It was organic and psychedelic, back to basics and a grand step into the future. Many of the people I still know have maintained much of the values that the hippie movement stood for but are also caught up in the rat race of money, power and manipulation that succeeded that short lived time in history.

Jolene: I still think "Show-Casing" of bands still goes on in these clubs and hotels, but not like it was then. Not as many press conferences either. Most of the clubs are gone now and music has changed as well. We use to hang-out on the Sunset strip. Now it's Melrose.


Did you have any favorite photo or photos in the show?
Lori: I love all the photos but I do love to see how sweet and fresh Elizabeth Taylor looks. 
She's almost velvet.

Kathryn: Unfortunately I didn't have the pleasure of seeing the show but if there were photos of the Love-ins and of Vito and his dancers then those would be my favorites.

Jolene:  Yes, I liked the one of Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys. He caught Denny with one of his first loves besides surfing, and that was his love of cars. You can just see it all over his face in that picture. "Essence of his soul".


What is one of your most vivid or favorite recollections about him?
Lori: Earl had an extensive hat collection.  He had a few dozen which hung on nails all around the inside of his front door. When leaving the house, Earl would always pick a hat, pop it on his head and off he went.  I never saw him in public without one of his hats.

Kathryn: The night of my Grad Dance from high school I ditched my date and went to see Earl. It was late and he was already in bed. I climbed in the open window and woke him up. My dress was of flowing white lace and he always would say of that night that he awoke to a vision of an angel. He got up and I danced around his living room until dawn. I love this memory because it reminds how Earl really was, uncomplicated and mischievous, loving surprises and never letting down his loved ones. Earl was a Prince and that night I was a princess because that's how Earl made me feel.

Jolene: Earl's stories of how Natalie Wood liked to open beer bottles with her teeth, and how Marilyn Monroe would crawl out the window in stead of answering the front door when Earl picked her up for a date. Later in Earl's life he fell in love with a little boy named Alfie Jason Vann. He was the son of one of Earl's girls and schoolmate of mine at HPS. His mother was diagnosed with schizophrenia and unable to care for him anymore. He was put in foster care and Earl or I would take him for the weekends. As Earl's emphysema progressed, Earl's fondest wish was for that boy to have a family and be adopted. When we thought that would happen, some guy from Texas came out of the blue and claimed to be his Dad. By then, Earl was broke, so my husband Duff and I and Marlon Brando paid for a lawyer to help the boy. The man from Texas dropped his claim and Alfie got adopted by a very nice family. The only bittersweet ending of this story was that it was stipulated that we could have no future contact with Alfie. It broke my heart for Earl, but he felt good that the boy would have a loving home for the first time in his life. I'll miss the compassion he always had for those less fortunate than us and the courage he always displayed by helping them.

What do you miss most about him?
Lori: His laugh.

Kathryn: All the good times!

Jolene:  His Mustang with the license plate "Whammy", black licorice he loved to eat at our movie outings, the cups with our names on it at the bar by the kitchen in his house, that he always called his cats "Elvis" or "Baby Jill", the answering service who would answer, "Earl Leaf's French Maid" when he was locked down with last minute deadlines, his favorite song that said it for him by the Beatles, "The long and Winding Road", but most of all, I miss him.