Japophile Lite: it’s all About the Sublime
by Pasadena Adjacent
Not another series you ask? what do ya want to do, kill the lovelys? (Funny Girl). Instead, gather round as we at Pasadena Adjacent lead you on yet “another tour” of our Japophile tendencies. By lite we’re not talking authenticity but more of a hybrid form of thinking. Nothing new here; think Green and Green, Frank Lloyd Wright, Astro Boy. And lets not forget the art of Van Gogh and Matisse, who took to heart those Japanese block prints once used as a yesteryear form of packing peanuts. For team Pasadena Adjacent, it’s more about kitche. A kind of mix and match, low brow collision that takes place on a budget.
Which brings us to the memorialization of late cultist great, Tura Satana. She of Japanese birth to a silent film actor named Yamaguchi, and a contortionist circus performing mother whose heritage was Scots-Irish and native Cheyenne. Her early years included a stint at Manzanar. Later in Chicago, after supposedly being gang raped in her tweens, she studied the martial arts, picking up where the law left off. Next an underage Tura, having been sprung with the aid of her father from a juvenal delinquent camp, headed to Los Angeles where she became a photo model similar to cult queen Betty Page. She even posed nude for Harold Lloyd whom she credits for planting the idea of a future on the silver screen.
Photo Credit: Harold Loyde at the now feral John McDermott Estate
After a failed foray into modeling and nightclub singing, Tura returned to Chicago where she had people. She studied dance, ultimately becoming a stripper on a popular circuit with greats Tempest Storm and Candy Barr. This led to being voted one of the 10 Best Undressed Burlesque Dancers of the 20th Century by Bill Hanna of Hanna-Barbera.
Kudos Tura!
Although Tura Satana may have turned down a proposal of marriage from Elvis, what she’s best known for is playing dark and dangerous “Varla.” The leader of a gang of go-go dancers in [this] Russ Meyer cult classic Faster Pussycat! Kill Kill
Tura Luna Pascual Yamaguchi (and Kitten Natividad) in their later years making the ephemera rounds
July 10, 1938 – February 4, 2011
Pasadena Adjacent 
The sweetest kittens have the sharpest claws.
btw: “Japophile is “PC” so put away your claws
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“A film so totally satisfying…” Heh!
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Gorgeous bod on this woman. I can easily turn it into a painting, in my imagination.
We do rely on our models and value a truly inspiring one.
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I thought she fell in love with Sam the Sham.
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Harold Loyde took a bunch of 3-D photos of nude women. After Loydes death, his granddaughter put them together and had them published. I found this out on the International Movie data base.
Also John down the street did an interview with Russ Meyer. Maybe you should go and talk to him
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Best film ever made. Best film that will EVER be made
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Thank you for that “rabbit hole,” or spider web as the case may be. I love a mystery, and I love secrets. I feel like going exploring tomorrow.
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Well yabba dabba doo, Yogi.
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Quite a story.
I missed that classic film but I did see Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.
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I have no claws. I am clawless.
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The great mammophile films of the late 20th century are as follows
Faster Pussycat, Kill Kill
Valley of the Dolls
Showgirls
Here lies Russ Meyer’s (epitaph)
Meyer realized that sex — as one of the few common interests among most humans — was a natural vehicle for satirizing values and conventions held by the Greatest Generation. According to Roger Ebert, Meyer continually reiterated that this irreverence was the true secret to his artistic success. Film critic Jimmy McDonough argues that despite portraying women as sex objects, Meyer nonetheless depicts them as more powerful than men and is therefore an inadvertent feminist filmmaker (think Madonna). Still, for others, his films were considered nothing more then a “tit transportation device”
In “the world of big bosoms, square jaws, and the Mojave desert” Tura Satana and Kitten Natividad, both women of color, were Russ Meyer discoveries.
Here are the gorgeous gals in their later years making the autograph and ephemera rounds
and for Petrea here is another Loyd photo of Tura standing in front of the spider wall on the John McDermott estate
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“Are you girls a bunch of nudists, or are you just short of clothes?” Can’t top that line!!!
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It’s strange the way women’s bodies are portrayed now compared to 30 or 40 years ago; soft and real then, hard and surreal now. I think when we read stories written some time ago beauty was truly elusive. Today, just about everyone has some or is expected to have some, one way or another. I think she’s a hoot, and to think she could have been Mrs Presley! Do you think Priscilla looks anything like her? Then I mean, not now.
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Interesting thought about Priscilla…
Way too bad about Priscilla’s horrid plastic surgery results…you’d think celebs would look at others and say no, not me!!!
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Yowza! Nothing subtle about that film. Did she really fall in love with Sam the Sham? They’d have made a dynamite couple. Another fantastic tour, PA.
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And I thought my life was interesting . . . . (not really).
This is fun stuff and not entirely fluff, IMHO. Care to share what led you to the topic?
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New trend prediction: Women tie sandwich inside the bun of an updo.
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That is, what led you to the topic in addition to her recent death?
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what a beauty and what a name–love the trailer, especially the watusi dancing…seems so oddly innocent & sweet by today’s standards. Gaga and Beyonce in Telephone video might be a modern version…
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The great discovery for team Pasadena Adjacent was the John McDermott estate. The stuff Taschen publishers takes on (if you didn’t check out the links, it’s only because you don’t possess a curious mind). Thats what Danny Shavari PHd thinks. Read his comment and catch up
Gramaphone: Are you pulling my leg? I want to put her with Bukowski. btw: You’re the only one to show appreciation for the geisha wigs. I think they make fabulous lunch pails
Shanna: found all these great references to nudie pics up on the hill. It appears to be the budding era of light bondage publications
Mr V: I wanted to know exactly what 3-d photography looked like. This photo may not have been taken at the “estate” but it is 3-d and of Betty Page by Lloyd
John: how divine to have you drop by
Petrea: I can always count on you to check out the links. It makes the team very happy. I try to make them reveal another layer to the story
AH: I blame Ursus spelaeus.
Chieftess: Ha! we thought we did (top that). In the “top” comment
PJ: Yours is an interesting spin. “Today, just about everyone has some or is expected to have some, one way or another” …. or expected to “pay for it” one way or another.
Susan C: I think Ms Gramophone wishes so. I think Bukowski would have been a more suite match.
Banjo 52: Los Angeles is the land of hybrids. I happen to favor the Japanese model. More on that to come….
You may remember the story of “Ruth”? Roommate Ruth was a practicing dominitrix. My first introduction to Pussy Cat Kill Kill and poet Bob Flanngan 1952-1996 of “Slave Sonnets” fame; and our frequent guest
Mary: I like the name also. I imagine that Lady Gaga is a big fan
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