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!

 

Jackie Mayro 2020

 

Last week, I was finally able to speak with Jacqueline Mayro, the retired Broadway actress who appears in a small but pivotal role in LET'S GO FOR BROKE. She told me that while she couldn't remember how she met Stuart Duncan, she and Lennie Barrin were partners in ODDITIES, essentially a casting agency for unusual performers. It was as such that she got involved with LET'S GO FOR BROKE, not as an actress. At least not originally. After no one could agree on who should play the part of the kidnapped feminist author in the movie, Stuart suggested she take the role herself...and she did. 

Ron Walsh and Alex Sheafe

A couple of trade ads here offer the info that Ron Walsh, before he replaced Alex Stevens as credited director, was Production Manager. Interesting to note that LADY J was here listed as a "big release" and yet remained completely unreleased. 

Also of note above is that the cast list includes Alex Sheafe. He went on to a long career in TV soaps starting the year LET'S GO FOR BROKE was made but he does not appear to be in the final cut. His name appears nowhere in the film's final credits.

Cold Case

Just found out that both of the detectives who had worked so long on the Christa Helm murder case have now retired and no new investigators are currently assigned to the Cold Case. 

Hollywoodland Unsolved with Ansley Gordon

Found a new, recent, Christa Podcast. Rather than just lifting it as others have, this one actually credits my blog research as well as my original online article with John O'Dowd and both the CBS and Oxygen documentaries. I even get namechecked in the podcast itself. Repeats some of the mistakes we made, though. Still, a good summation.

https://soundcloud.com/user-185163798/the-murder-of-christa-helm

The Unholy

I just found out that Christa's murder is referenced very briefly in bestselling author Heather Graham's 2012 novel, THE UNHOLY. Here's the passage. 

Unsolved Murders

Here's a new 2 part, 80+ minute podcast about Christa. Worth a listen if one is interested in the case but there's nothing new. In fact, large portions of it are lifted without any credit at all from this blog and from Jamey Duvall's podcasts of a couple years back.

The oddest part of this is that it features dramatized segments that have a ditzy blonde voice supposedly as Christa, with completely made up dialogue and speculation.

Repetitive, unoriginal, unethical, salacious, with lots of speculation, a whole bunch of stuff left out, a few mistakes, and a bizarre conclusion, but at least it keeps Christa's story circulating.

https://player.fm/series/unsolved-murders-true-crime-stories-2136394/e99-the-sex-diary-slaying-christa-helm

Christa in the Gossip Columns

Some newly discovered gossip column appearances about Christa including an early one from 1972, above.Interesting to note how often her picture made the papers even before she'd done anything!

The interesting revelations here include the fact that along with her new name, she was either claiming to be or just presumed to be Danish, she was preparing a nightclub act, and she was supposed to appear in the 1975 movie THE HAPPY HOOKER, which starred Lynn Redgrave. 

41 Years On

Today's the 41st anniversary of Christa Helm's vicious and still unsolved murder. 

If you missed the recent Oxygen documentary, you can now catch it free on Vimeo!

https://vimeo.com/255182460

New Christa Trailer

Here's the trailer for the new Christa Helm documentary that premieres on the Oxygen Channel on Friday, Feb 2, 2018 at 9 PM ET. 

http://www.oxygen.com/mysteries-scandals/season-1/videos/mysteries-scandals-102-master-self-promoter

"Krista" Lifts the Lid On Hollywood's Lovers-1975

Booksteve Meets Nicole Clements

After 11 years of looking into the life and death of Christa Helm, today I was able to finally meet her daughter Nicole. Things are happening. Stay tuned for more details.

Christa Warning

There is a new "book" out on Christa Helm, self-published in April via Createspace. It's overpriced at $7.99 for a mere 44 pages but it also STEALS most of its contents from the above online bio of the murdered actress that John O'Dowd and I co-wrote ten years ago. 

I'm not going to name the author but I am warning you now. No matter how interested you are in Christa's case, save your money, don't support thieves, and read almost the exact same thing online here:

http://www.john-odowd.com/portfolio/the-unsolved-murder-of-19970s-hollywood-starlet-christa-helm/

1974 Christa Article

Click on this to read a surprisingly detailed article about Christa from nearly a year before the BROKE premiere. In fact, it sounds like this interview/audience was conducted after the shooting in Haiti but before Ron Walsh was brought in to finish the film in the US.The article not only namechecks Joe Namath (she got that a lot) but also Nicole, Gary and even Lennie.