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Mods And Rockers Festival: Lana Clarkson -- The Blonde Dahlia

Posted July 27, 2007 | 10:52 AM (EST)

Read More: Lana Clarkson, Hollywood, Phil Spector , Breaking Entertainment News

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The Mods & Rockers Film Festival is presenting the 25th anniversary screening of the film Fast Times At Ridgemont High -- a film with a stellar rock 'n' roll soundtrack. The film also marked the big-screen debut of the late Lana Clarkson. Her friend -- respected publicist and former White House aide Edward Lozzi -- takes the occasion of this screening of her film debut as an opportunity to remember her as an actress and pal

Lana Clarkson - Actress

When the phone rang in my office Monday morning February 3rd 2003, it was consistent with the sounds of so many other calls that light up our PR company at the start of the week. "Court TV is on the phone and they want an interview about the murder of Lana Clarkson", said my secretary with no emotion whatsoever. It's as though she thought it was a gag from one of my celebrity comedian friends.

"Who is this!" I demanded. I was in a grumpy mood to begin with and this call didn't seem quite right. The voice on the other end confirmed the worst -- and my life changed from then on for these past long four years. "An obscure eccentric and has-been by the name of Phil Spector, was just out on $1 million bail by famed OJ lawyer Bob Shapiro, (a friend of mine), and he is being processed for a murder charge." The reporter had known I was at one time a publicist for Lana back in the 80s and she wanted an opinion and some information about who she was. I told Court TV who she was alright and later that evening the camera crew came to my residence and got the first interview about the beautiful blonde found shot in the face with a handgun at Phil Spector's mansion out in the middle of nowhere.

Earlier I had turned to the monitors in the office always tuned to CNN, Court TV, FOX News and K-CAL 9 as well as the radio news stations KFWB and KNX. Sure enough, the first reports were coming in, including the disgusting photos of a drugged up, tasered, and cursing, sweatball named Phil Spector. I won't bore you any further with more "Wall of Sound" background on Spector. You have all heard it before and I don't care.

What you haven't heard enough of is the life and times of one beautiful angel of a person on this planet, actress, producer, comedian Lana Clarkson. I predicted right then and there that Lana Clarkson, mystery blonde would in fact someday be as popular in death as one of her favorite Hollywood characters, the Black Dahlia. I had already predicted that Lana would become our Blonde Dahlia. And so she has ...

I first met Lana Clarkson at an excellent Hollywood party in Westwood, California in the late fall of 1982. The producer who hosted the party was a money guy that knew more about old film classics than he did about making new movies. That's why I liked him. I was to learn later that this was the attraction Lana Clarkson had for him as well. Like Hugh Hefner, this guy liked to have 'old film' parties, not to mention casting his guests like the characters in the films. One of those characters was famed Hollywood hair stylist Eric Root, infamous for his 20-year relationship with Lana Turner. In fact Eric was already cutting Lana Clarkson's hair. He introduced me to Lana Clarkson that night. Here's how it went:

Lana walked into the party late. The men and the women in the room were spellbound. Think of the first time that a new generation saw Charlize Theron walk into a room. You get the picture? Like the song, she was -- "tall and tan and young and lovely, the girl from Ipanema goes walking, and when she passes, each one she passes goes ... ahhh". I'm serious. The 20ish Lana Clarkson was pushing 6 feet without heels -- with a body like Sheena Queen of the Jungle and was simply stunning. She was so good-looking that it hurt! I became one of many trying not to stare. But I had to. Her voice was vibrant and friendly and almost innocent as she informed the host for all to hear that she'd just met Santa Claus at the Hollywood Christmas Parade after sitting in an open car as a guest of one of the celebrities (whose name escapes me now.) How endearing I thought.

The film my producer friend was showing that night was Sunset Boulevard, the Billy Wilder classic, starring William Holden and Gloria Swanson. It's a favorite in my collection both VHS and of course now on DVD. Karma of the best kind had Lana sitting right next to me. I didn't know till later that Eric Root had arranged that. I had a crush on her from that point on -- until the day she died. Lana loved classic films and had the same films as I did on my favorite list. She was as obsessed with those classic films as I was. Just, hours before her death, she had watched a DVD of Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (starring James Cagney) in that limo ride that took her to the place of her tragic death.

That night at the party, I learned that she had played the character of the blonde bombshell wife (Mrs.Vargas) of Vincent Sciavelli in the recently-released, soon-to-be-classic Fast Times at Ridgemont High starring Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Forest Whitaker -- all unknowns at that time. Amy Heckerling directed and Cameron Crowe had written the screenplay. It seems that everyone in that picture became a superstar in the years to follow, including an uncredited Nicolas Cage. Lana didn't make that cut as a superstar. However, she developed a long career as a SAG and AFTRA actress. She loved the craft. Stardom would have been icing on the cake. She had also appeared in walk-ons on Happy Days, CHiPs, Laverne & Shirley, and Fantasy Island. She was hot as a pistol and every casting director and production office in town was calling her in. If you look at her credits on the Internet Movie Data Base, you will be quite impressed. Oh, by the way ... The SAG card-getting one word line of Lana's character in the movie was a breathy, "Hi"!

Lana was inspirational and highly motivated and wanted those around her to enjoy the same. She wanted to know everything about publicity and the entertainment world. Of course I fell into the trap and provided her with answers to any questions! We both started our careers at the same time and we had a couple of years of the Hollywood experience under our belts. I was working with newcomer clients and icons including Tina Louise, Rudy Vallee, Vanna White, George Barris, Persis Khambatta from Star Trek, and the comedic actress from Second City TV, Teresa Ganzel (The Toy). Lana worked with Teresa on the motion picture My Favorite Year. I was also providing unit publicity work on motion pictures and TV shows -- which I still do. Barris and Tina Louise are still with me.

Lana and I learned from each other. I became her publicist. But there was more between us than just that. Sometimes it's difficult not to get involved with clients. Actresses are for the most part predatory and career-obsessed. Relationships are not planned with actors. You go for the moment ... day-to-day. Love and expectations kill relationships with actors. Lana felt good with me. Our short time in the sun will always be remembered.

Later her career expanded with Roger Corman and Lana became a cult figure. She had a career. But it was still check to check ... audition after audition, and rejections and castings that became an emotional stomach -- churning roller-coaster ride. I don't know how she stayed in the game for 25 years ... She was just out of her thirties when she was murdered.

I will always be impressed with her acting, her comedy, and her producer mindset. In fact, she was developing a motion picture and a comedy road series when she was murdered. She had called me during her last Christmas holidays in this life to talk about the possibility of providing publicity for her amazing one-woman comedy show Lana Unleashed. Prosthetic makeup, special effects and the most amazing mimicry I have ever seen. Her portrayal of Little Richard, Cher, an insane nun, and others were over the top.

Unfortunately a bullet severed her brain. A brain that was so witty and refreshingly irreverent -- without the trash. And oh yea! She had style. I remember her wearing elbow-length black gloves even at daytime events. She was wearing them on that fateful night. It was her trademark. The first promotional photo we took of her back then shows her wearing gloves.

At first, Lana considered her role in Fast Times at Ridgemont High unimportant. But compared to her large body of work, and the fact that it was her first speaking role in a motion picture. And it got her her SAG card; well, she grew to cherish the experience, especially with the huge talent pool she was exposed to.

Lana's trial is tedious for those who knew and loved her. Phil Spector, her accused murderer is facing life in prison, which I think he well deserves. The horrible things I believe he did to our angel Lana Clarkson are frightening. I sit in that courtroom and listen to these horrors of what he has done. The throngs of others he has harassed, abused and assaulted know what kind of a creature he is. Lana did not commit suicide with a stranger in a strange house with a strange gun. The real evidence, the logic, the common sense, and the experiences of those who knew and loved her (and can't testify) prove to me, and I hope this jury, that a beautiful woman who cared more for others than herself, died because she only wanted to leave the house she was in.

Dominick Dunne quoted me in his recent Vanity Fair journal covering the trial. It has become my own ethereal epitaph for her. "Her publicist Edward Lozzi described her to me in this way: 'She was an astounding beauty who could impress the ladies who lunch at Spago and at the same time she could ride a saddle-less horse in a loincloth at full gallop while shooting a crossbow with uncanny precision'" They don't make them like that anymore. Lana is my Blonde Dahlia...