Reel Politique: Links of Interest, Tuesday Weld Sunday
At Dennis Cooper’s blog, the novelist has posted a long and detailed “oral history” of the cult actress Tuesday Weld, who is also a favorite of our colleague Kim Morgan, the TW of film critics. Perhaps the most interesting revelation of the oral history is the comment on Miss Weld’s hidden life as a Satanist. Someone named Douglas Hawes is quoted as saying that, “Over the years I have met a number of people who were aware of the remarkable behind the scene aspects of Tuesday Weld’s life and influence. A friend of mine in Santa Cruz talked at length with Kenneth Anger at the Silver Screen years ago about Tuesday Weld’s hidden influence in the realm of underground occult activities … The hidden life of Tuesday Weld has largely been undisclosed in the media, and remains one of the great undisclosed stories of the sixties and seventies. The only major reference to her that discloses her occult connections, but only in a discreet way, is a long forgotten book, Popular Witchcraft, which was published by Bowling Green University Press in 1972. In it, Anton LaVey, in an interview, says that his book The Satanic Bible was partially dedicated to Tuesday because ’she was the embodiment of the goddess,’ and was ‘part of the ritual.’ LaVey’s remarks reflect a close personal acquaintanceship with Weld, and hints heavily on her involvement in his ritual activities.” Now, if only someone will do an equally detailed oral history of Mimsy Farmer!
May 28th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Tuesday Weld is a Satanist? Why, it must be true because I read it on the internet!
It’s become apparent LaVey was hardly a source of credible information (http://www.usminc.org/satanism.html), and the Weld/Satanism claim is probably yet another fable. LaVey was, in fact, a notorious liar and fraud. LaVey also claimed Jayne Mansfield, Marilyn Monroe, and Mia Farrow were all Satanists, which of course has proven to be nonsense. Mansfield thought he was a joke and used him for publicity, & Lavey never even met or knew either Monroe or Farrow. There’s been a rumor that Tina Louise was a member of the Church of Satan stemming from an urban legend that she appeared in a girlie magazine dressed in a devil suit. She not only is not a Satanist, she never appeared in said girlie magazine, either. Lavey’s incredible tale of being an Oboist for the non-existent San Fransisco Ballet Orchestra has been debunked, along with his non-existent degree in criminology (he was a high school drop-out!), the lie that he was a police photographer, and the bogus “circus lion tamer” claim…along with dozens of others.
In fact, LaVey turned out not to be a colorful “junk yard philosopher” millionaire swinger, but rather just a lying, wife beating pimp who (self-admittedly)engaged in canibalism on at least one occasion, and who died broke. As for his claim that Tuesday Weld was a Satanist, I find it rather doubtful. To put it bluntly, Tuesday Weld had a life, and she didn’t need Satanism.
The dedication to Tuesday Weld and others in the first edition of the Satanic Bible had to be removed when some of the people threatened lawsuits against Avon Books for using their names. I would imagine Weld was one of those individuals.
Why Tuesday Weld? Because LaVey had started the lie that he played the part of the Devil in the horror film Rosemary’s Baby. Weld actually had a part in the film, and LaVey probabaly chose to make Weld a target for his inuendos due to this. It wouldn’t be the first time the Church of Satan has tried to hijack a celebrity, not being satisfied with Marylin Manson.