|
 Not
to be confused with John Updike's Rabbit series from the 1960's.
"Down the Rabbit Hole - Redux" is a return to an unsolved
Cocktail Talk from 2015.
In
the February 2015 Cocktail Talk "Down the Rabbit Hole" we
discussed how similar the internet is to Alice's Adventures in
Wonderland.
At
an Estate Sale I had found 35mm slides of a woman holding a pair of
six-guns while wearing not much more than a cowboy hat and
boots.
The
nudes said "Finley's Color Laboratory" with an index
number on one side and "Bernard of Hollywood" on the
other, and we went down the internet rabbit hole together.
We
found that Billy Finley owned Finley's Color Laboratory which
operated in Hollywood from 1951 to 1963 when he went bankrupt. Our four slides labeled Finley's Color
Laboratory would have been developed between 1951 and 1963. He
opened Finley-Holiday Films in 1965 which has been providing
U.S. National Park Service videos ever since.
Bruno
Bernard operated as Bernard of Hollywood in California shooting
Pin-Ups while Finley's Color Laboratory was in operation. At least
from 1951 to the early 1960's when he moved back to Germany. His daughter Susan is still alive,
promoting his legacy through writing books and maintaining the
Bernard of Hollywood Museum.
Neither
Finley-Holiday Films or Susan Bernard chose to respond to my
requests for information at that time, or since.
Cocktail Talk ended without knowing who this
cowgirl was. So I'm back to tell you.
The
internet grows every day. Not just adding new information but also
adding historical information. A later search found an internet
picture of our cowgirl, it was transposed and enlarged but a
perfect match to Bernard of Hollywood's slide..
Her
name was Juanita Dale Slusher born July 6, 1935, in Edna Texas.
Juanita had it rough and in 1948, at 13, she ran away to Dallas
reporting sexual abuse from her neighbor and babysitter. She worked
in a hotel and soon became a prostitute.
Juanita
was married for the first time at 14, but her husband soon went to
jail and she became an exotic dancer. After work she often went to
a club across the street owned by Jack Ruby who nicknamed her Candy
Barr because she liked Snickers.
In
1951, at 16, Candy Barr performed in the first recognized porno
film "Smart Alec" after which she developed her trademark
cowgirl outfit and continued stripping
A
second marriage, Assault with a Deadly Weapon, and a marijuana bust
didn't make life any easier before she went to women's prison for
15 years in Huntsville Texas.
Candy
Barr was released from prison in July of 1963 after testifying
against her former boyfriend, mobster Mickey Cohen. She went into
business with Jack Ruby who in November of 1963, murdered Lee
Harvey Oswald on national television during coverage of President
Kennedy's assassination. Barr, having renamed herself Juanita Dale
Phillips after her second husband, whom she shot, was questioned by
the FBI.
In
1976, 41 year old grandmother Candy Barr was featured in Oui
Magazine. In 1982 the rights to her autobiography were purchased
and in 1984 Farrah Fawcett was cast to play Candy Barr with Ryan
O'Neil directing.
In
1992 she went into seclusion in Edna Texas and died in 2005 at 70
from pneumonia.
Finley's
Color Laboratory, Bernard of Hollywood, Candy Barr, Jack Ruby, JFK,
Farrah Fawcett, that's the rabbit hole, redux, and that's Cocktail
Talk.
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