Few
people know that Sunrise Studios spends about as much time covering
up scandals as they do making movies. The 1970s were especially
sordid, when nobody was "square" and everybody was in a love triangle
or two. Everybody knows the stories of young women who arrived
in Hollywood with dreams as big as their breasts, determined to
do anything for a chance to be the next starlet. And of course,
producers and directors at all the major studios were happy to
exploit their naivete. But Sunrise was different: some of their
women disappeared.
The first incident occured in 1970 on the set of Is Somebody
There?. Beautiful young starlet Elaine Varsi had been cast
in the role of Pam, a sexy cheerleader who is stalked by a killer
in the woods. Strangely enough, Elaine disappeared during the
first week of shooting and was never seen again.
As
an actress, lovely Elaine had caught the eyes of many Hollywood
leading men, but her big break had really happened in the bedroom
of Don Crosby, head of Sunrise Studios. While Elaine's life at
the start of shooting the film seemed almost perfect, I have uncovered
a diary entry that tells an entirely different story. Click below
to read a caption from her journal- you'll find evidence of a
scared, vulnerable and shaken young woman who feared for her life.
More important, the entry provides credible evidence that Don
Crosby could very well have been involved in the starlet's mysterious
demise.
There
were no leads on her whereabouts and no signs of any wrongdoing,
but the Studio was quick to cover up the incident in the press.
It's no surprise that Don Crosby took charge of the situation
and gave strict orders to his employees
not to talk to anyone about the case. Even worse, the young woman
had only been missing two days before the studio replaced her
with a new actress. Click here to check out an internal memo containing
the Studio Chief's strict orders to keep silent.
An
even more mysterious incident occured in 1972 on the set of the
box-office disaster Shutout!, when another beautiful actress,
Loretta Fisher, vanished from the set in the middle of shooting
her scene!. Click here to read about her bizarre vanishing
act in an article from the Hollywood
Informer.
There were no suspects and no leads in the case, and Ms. Fisher
was never seen or heard from again. Her family, however, was determined
to hold Sunrise Studios responsible for their daughter's disappearance
(and rightly so) and sued Sunrise. The case took one year to resolve
but the sneaky Studio managed to escape the blame when their lawyer,
Henry Loomis, found a legal loophole. Click here for
the Hollywood Informer's report
on the end of the trial.
Most interesting to note, however, is that Sunrise lawyer Henry
Loomis parted ways with the Studio the very next day after the
case was closed. Rumor has it he left Hollywood for good and set
up his own private practice in a small Midwestern town: Woodsboro.
Is there a connection between Loomis' arrival and the legacy of
the ill-fated community that eventually spawned the Sunrise hit
Stab Series? More on that later....
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