Broke 50 Years On

 

 

This being the 50th anniversary week of LET'S GO FOR BROKE’s only play date, I just discovered some new info! Apparently Christa and Stuart were in town longer than just for the premiere that weekend because THIS article’s photo caption  discusses there being a SNEAK PREVIEW showing at a DIFFERENT Theater a full 5 days earlier than the 20th Century opening night, with them both in attendance! The Ambassador Theater was nearby, in the same little village area of town.

Christa Helm After Dark 1973

Fellow Christa researcher Jamey Duvall ran across these three images of Christa Helm that appeared in 1973 in AFTER DARK, a New York-centric entertainment magazine with a largely gay readership. We ran the center one before but had never seen the other two. Jamey has also found some utterly amazing, previously unknown info about Christa's life. More to come! Keep up the great sleuthing, Jamey. 

 

R.I.P. Stuart Duncan

 

Looming large in Christa Helm's life story was Stuart Duncan, who financed and produced her only starring motion picture--the unreleased LET'S GO FOR BROKE aka LADY J. Mr. Duncan died on April 30th at the age of 93. I got to speak to him on the phone once for about half an hour back in 2008. I would have loved to speak to him longer but the whole incident was, he felt, best forgotten. 

Duncan's better-remembered achievement was being one of the men behind bringing the ever-popular musical, GODSPELL, to the stage. 

George Fisher's Photos

 

My colleague, Jamey Duvall, recently spoke with stuntman George Fisher. who was one of the bad guys in LET'S GO FOR BROKE, and Mr. Fisher kindly sent along these images.

"New" Christa Photos

These photos, discovered by Jamey Duvall, were all from the collection of famous '70s celebrity photographer Ron Galella. That's him in the bottom photo with Christa. The man with the glasses is Sid Luft, former husband of Judy Garland and probably a friend of Christa's BFF, Lennie, who had designed costumes for Judy's last shows. Judy's daughter Lorna Luft was also at this party, described as a "Go For Broke" party and held at Christa's NYC apartment in November of 1974, months after the final shooting on LET'S GO FOR BROKE, and a month prior to the film opening in Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Does anyone recognize either of the two men with facial hair?

 

Frank Raiter R.I.P.

We just last night confirmed that actor Frank Raiter, co-star of Christa Helm's LET'S GO FOR BROKE and in Broadway's CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG, has been dead since 2006, a year BEFORE I started investigating Christa's life and murder. This explains why he never responded to the several snail mail letters I wrote him between 2007 and 2016. R.I.P. 

Kathy Imrie in Black Stars-1974

Here's an early 1974 article about LET'S GO FOR BROKE co-star Kathy Imrie which not only features some early publicity for the picture but also a couple of stills of Kathy with Christa. Of particular interest is that based on the way magazine dating works, this magazine would have been on the stands while the film was still in production!