Thursday, September 10, 2015

Jay Sebring, Hair Stylist to the Stars

Jay Sebring made a pretty good reputation for himself in the arena of men's hair styling.  He really did have hair cutting down to a science and was quite emphatic about how hair should be treated.

Some of the stars that Jay was credited with cutting and styling hair for were Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, George Peppard, Robert Vaughn, James Garner , Cliff Robertson, Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brando, Henry Fonda and Kirk Douglas.  Jay was credited as the hair stylist for Chuck Connors in 48 episodes of The Rifleman from 1958 to 1963.

Jay himself was also in a handful of movies and television shows usually playing a barber.  Here is one episode with Jay in the opening scene of the western TV series The Virginian.  This TV series,  in part, was filmed at the Iverson Ranch in Chatsworth, very near Spahn Ranch.







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62 comments:

  1. SuzeSeptember 10, 2015 at 9:46 AM

    Thank you for this Deb. I'm too young to remember that show but I just googled it (on a government computer. Hillary as nothing on me!). I guess I didn't realize Sebring's popularity. He was on Batman once, too. He had star power just as Sharon did.

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  2. TrilbySeptember 10, 2015 at 10:56 AM

    He needed voice work, both tone & inflection re: the slight monotone voice pattern, & some work on timing; but he had some acting potential. Wonder if it's true that he had some acting ambitions? In the same way everyone says Sharon couldn't act - I disagree. On the "VOTD" DVD extras, they have her screen test for "VOTD". Alot of natural ability to work with. When you look at that test and compare it to her basically bad acting in the movie, it really shows Director Mark Robson as a total hack.

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  3. grimtravellerSeptember 10, 2015 at 11:40 AM

    "The Virginian" is one of the shows on telly that I actually remember from the 60s during the 60s. I haven't seen it since about '69 or '70 but I remember the music. I also remember a character in it called Trampas or something like that, which I always thought was a funny name. I think it was played by Doug McLure, whoever he may be.
    It's funny the unimportant things that stick in the mind.

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  4. MattSeptember 10, 2015 at 12:06 PM

    Well grimtraveller, since you were bold enough to hint at your age I'll admit too that I remember that TV show. I didn't really watch it but I remember it.


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  5. SuzeSeptember 10, 2015 at 1:03 PM

    Hi Trilby! I didn't mean to say he wanted to be an actor. I just meant that he was so well known in Hollywood that he was I guess invited to do cameos. Kind of impressive.

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  6. CarolMRSeptember 10, 2015 at 1:55 PM

    I'm old enough to remember "The Virginian" and I now watch it in reruns. James Drury, who played the Virginian, was a friend of Jay's.

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  7. orwhutSeptember 10, 2015 at 1:56 PM

    I think my wife has mentioned having a minor crush on Doug McClure when she was a kid.

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  8. MHNSeptember 10, 2015 at 2:59 PM

    As a kid I watched Doug Mcclure battling dinosaurs in The Land That Time Forgot whenever it was on television. It was one of the favourite films of my childhood.

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  9. liquorman885September 10, 2015 at 3:07 PM

    First time commenter long time lurker here. Odd to see Andrew Prine here as the robber. He was a suspect in the murder of Karen Kupcinet in1963. That murder was never solved.

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  10. Robert HendricksonSeptember 10, 2015 at 3:39 PM

    Is there ANYTHING that is NOT related to the MANSON case ?

    "We were brought-up on TV ... Have Gun Will Travel (a TV western show)"
    Brenda McCann

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  11. MrsMattSeptember 10, 2015 at 3:43 PM

    CarolMR, do you remember Randy-the Singing Cowboy, who was a regular on the Virginian? I know he didn't start on the series until at least 1961, because in 1960 he was a guitar-playing lifeguard at our club. He taught me how to swim all 4 strokes in 5 days! When he left to hitchhike across the country to try his hand in Hollywood, I was a completely devastated 6 year old!

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  12. MHNSeptember 10, 2015 at 4:24 PM

    MrsMatt that's a beautiful anecdote. I remember well just how painful it was to say goodbye to people at that age. Maybe he felt that having taught you all the swimming strokes there were to teach, his job there was complete, so he moved on, like Bruce Banner or the Littlest Hobo at the end of every episode.

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  13. CarolMRSeptember 10, 2015 at 4:30 PM

    MrsMatt, yes I do remember Randy! How cool that he was your lifeguard.

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  14. MrsMattSeptember 10, 2015 at 4:42 PM

    I went on to become a pretty serious competitive swimmer for many, many years after he left. All because of my crush on Randy Boone!

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  15. grimtravellerSeptember 10, 2015 at 4:57 PM

    Matt said...

    "Well grimtraveller, since you were bold enough to hint at your age I'll admit too that I remember that TV show. I didn't really watch it but I remember it"


    I don't mind who knows my age. I'm a bonny wee bouncing 52. Well, I creak, pull and rattle a little more than I bounce.
    Like you, I didn't really "watch" it. It was on and my eyes saw it for however long it was on. It used to come on on a friday. I never understood it. Come to think of it, I didn't understand most adult TV that I watched back then. I never got "Star Trek" back then. I didn't get into it big time until I was 21. Or "The Fugitive." I thought David Janssen just looked boring. Now, I'd fight the burglar that tries to nick my boxed set ! "The bold ones" confused me but I loved it. It got me emotionally.

    Robert Hendrickson said...

    "Is there ANYTHING that is NOT related to the MANSON case ?"


    I don't think there is that much that can be found in American history in the 20th century that is not in some way related to the Manson case. Not when you consider the scope and breadth of all the players, whether major, minor or middling.
    There are certain happenings from the 60s that you simply can't write about the 60s and not include them. The Manson case is one. There are plenty of events that were arguably much more important or let's say, significant, but the Manson case encompasses so much in a way that few events do, no matter how tenuous the link.

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  16. orwhutSeptember 10, 2015 at 6:10 PM

    Robert Hendrickson said... Is there ANYTHING that is NOT related to the MANSON case ?

    "We were brought-up on TV ... Have Gun Will Travel (a TV western show)" Brenda McCann

    I still think it was Snidley Whiplash, not Charley, who was the evil mastermind.

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  17. TrilbySeptember 10, 2015 at 6:20 PM

    Hi Suze!! No, I had read somewhere that he had originally harbored acting ambitions. This tape is the first I've ever heard his voice. Well, it wouldn't be TLB without the usual game of 6 Degrees of Separation or less. Sara Lane, who co-starred in "The Virginian", lived on Topanga Canyon Lane...

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  18. Ballarat BabeSeptember 10, 2015 at 8:13 PM

    Jay also styled Jim Morrison's hair and gave him his iconic look.

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  19. CarolMRSeptember 10, 2015 at 10:01 PM

    MrsMatt, you probably know this already, but Randy Boone was a cousin of both Pat Boone and Richard Boone.

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  20. DebSSeptember 11, 2015 at 12:32 AM

    Television westerns were a staple in our home when I was growing up. I was raised along with my brother by my father and what dad wanted to watch, that's what we watched. So this clip really took me back!

    And yes Robert, everything leads back to Manson!!!!

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  21. JennSeptember 11, 2015 at 4:55 AM

    Jay's appearance in that Batman episode was kind of a cameo. His character's name was Mr. Oceanbring, an obvious play on his real name.

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  22. TrilbySeptember 11, 2015 at 8:50 AM

    He also styled Scott McKenzie's hair during the height of the "If You're Going to San Francisco" era of his career. I think at the time of his death, he was focused on money and "becoming a millionaire", as one of his friends/ex-girlfriends phrased it to me. I wonder how much of that drive came from his belief in material things as being representative of status, & maybe thinking it would bring Sharon back eventually? (although I don't believe she was motivated by materialistic concerns). He has always intrigued me, very much so. He clearly was a visionary, yet such a complex man. Artistic, ambitious, intelligent, kind, funny (descriptors used by friends). The future for him was unlimited - except for two things. The coke. And the seedy connections. We all have those two sides to us - shadow and light; and I'd love to read a Sebring biography. I think in the fallout of the murders, he doesn't get the credit he deserves for his forging the way into a new era of men's hairstyling. Maybe because he never had the chance to see it to fruition.

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  23. MrsMattSeptember 11, 2015 at 9:35 AM

    I did know that, CarolMR, but had forgotten it until I saw your post. I'm in search of an episode that has both Randy and Jay in it - a Google search says possibly Season 5, Episode 18. Will look for it.

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  24. Robert HendricksonSeptember 11, 2015 at 10:11 AM

    Notice how WE are having a very normal, nostolgic, triva related, people conversation about folks living in a "positive" time zone - BEFORE the Vietnam WAR. And then, with the WAR, men started growing their hair longer and THUS the need for men's hair "stylists" was born. Enter - Jay Sebring.

    So let me add: ALL things seem to be related back to the MANSON case and = the Vietnam WAR.

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  25. MattSeptember 11, 2015 at 11:08 AM

    How about that? I'm 3 degrees from Jay Sebring...

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  26. MHNSeptember 11, 2015 at 11:31 AM

    Robert, Roman Emperors were clean shaven until Hadrian. Hadrian adopted a beard as a mark of his devotion to Greek culture. His successors almost all wore beards, and during the era of the beard the Roman Empire fell into decline and collapse, including being split into two separate Empires - Rome and Byzantium.

    The era of beards and long hair coincided with the beginning of post-Vietnam American decline also.

    Beards are a badge of decline, of effete foreign ways, of vanity, of posturing, of narcissism. All the creative people in Europe wear beards. They're devoted to welfare entitlements and multiculturalism and mass immigration. They are happy we are declining.

    That's not why I wear a beard. I wear a beard to remind the world of the fall of Rome and by extension the impermanence of all worldly powers. Nobody gets it. I don't mind. I look awesome.

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  27. MattSeptember 11, 2015 at 12:21 PM

    MHN, if I were a member of some orthodox religion that requires a beard I'd be an outcast.


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  28. MHNSeptember 11, 2015 at 12:36 PM

    Matt, I'd make a terrible Emperor, so we both have our crosses to carry.

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  29. AnonymousSeptember 11, 2015 at 2:24 PM

    Matt said:

    "How about that? I'm 3 degrees from Jay Sebring..."

    Does that mean we're all 4 degrees then Matt? lol - I knew there was a valid reason why I feel connected to this case!

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  30. AnonymousSeptember 11, 2015 at 5:06 PM


    “Maybe Charlie will let me grow a Hitler moustache someday.”





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  31. Chris BSeptember 11, 2015 at 5:16 PM

    Re. Everything being Manson related. My last revelation was the wife of Bruce Davis used to be engaged to the son of the President squeaky aimed a gun at.

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  32. AnonymousSeptember 11, 2015 at 5:23 PM


    @christopher butche - The son that was on the Y&R? The actor?

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  33. Chris BSeptember 11, 2015 at 5:51 PM

    Stephen Ford. Wikipedia says he is an actor. Check out the Davis biog on this blog. Around 1984 Beth dumps him for Bruce.

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  34. AnonymousSeptember 11, 2015 at 6:49 PM


    @christopher butche - Thanks for that info. I skimmed through most of those bios, because they were soooooooo long. Totally missed that. That's just crazy. Beth is obviously a kook.


    @Matt - Thank you for the free Roku stick offer, but I'd prefer the new Apple TV if you've got one. Or maybe something that I can put Kodi on like Amazon Fire TV or the Nexus Player. But, keep the offers of free stuff coming, Big Boy.

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  35. AnonymousSeptember 11, 2015 at 7:05 PM


    @Matt - Yes I am interested in a penis enhancement. How did you know?

    ReplyDelete
  36. Six Miles From CieloSeptember 12, 2015 at 2:22 AM

    In a round about way of degrees I have a couple. The childhood house I grew up in in Cheviot Hills was used in a 20 min.silent film of Laurel and Hardy called Bacon Grabbers.The last scene is a Very young Jean Harlow standing in front of our house. Jay Sebring bought Harlows home. Kinda a connection. The other slight one is the vet office I worked at Brian Wilson is a client, he was always nice to the staff. Another one is my cousin was producer of As Good As It Gets with Jack Nicholson, course his connection to Polanski.

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  37. Chris BSeptember 12, 2015 at 5:08 AM

    Today's degree of separation: Patty McCormack who played child murderess Rhoda Penmark in The Bad Seed once took a college ethics class with Susan Atkins. Antioch College ran it and it was held in prison.

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  38. Robert HendricksonSeptember 12, 2015 at 5:45 AM

    So here's one for you conspiracy buffs. I hit a TV station playing an old Sal Mineo movie and of course it brought back memories.

    Sal's last TV appearance was a spot on S.W.A.T in 1975. He played a "cult leader similar to Charles Manson."

    He was then stabbed to death (supposedly by a pizza delivery man) in 1976.

    A short time later I was doing a TV interview in Florida in promotion of the MANSON film playing there.

    AFTER the interview, a TV producer approached me in the hallway and introduced herself as a long time personal friend of Sal Mineo. Because my wife also knew him via her Laural Canyon days, we all found ourselves in a 6 degrees of separation situation.

    BUT here's the rub: She said she talked to Sal just days before he was murdered and he told her about HIS "assassination of Robbert F. Kennedy" project. AND that because He had acquired a writing that revealed who else was involved in Kennedy's murder, HE was being 'stalked.' She said HE was really scared, but could do nothing, because she was 3000 miles away.

    So she wanted to know if I could check around when i got back to LA and see it there was anything to Sal's story.

    I did check with a senior F.B.I. official I knew and he said there was no record of the F.B.I. ever being contacted by LAPD in connection with the Mineo case.

    The Pizza man was convicted and sentenced to over 50 years, but paroled in 1990, after just 13 years - for murdering a very famous movie star.

    What makes this case even more related for me is the fact that I had met with Mary Sirhan, (Sirhan Sirhan's mother) in confidence about her son's life of circumstances. The outcome was that IF anyone would ever get the Sirhan Sirhan true story for a movie, it would be ME.

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  39. MamaPoohBearSeptember 12, 2015 at 8:56 AM

    what was Patty McCormack doing in jail?

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  40. Mr. HumphratSeptember 12, 2015 at 2:21 PM

    Very cool RH. I thought Mineo's murderer had been robbing him.
    don't know if it's true but I thought SS could have been a
    Manchurian Candidate.

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  41. Chris BSeptember 12, 2015 at 3:24 PM

    Antioch College felt it was a good idea for prisoners to mix with civilians. Obviously the courses had to be delieved in jail. It was part of a psychology course. MacCormack recalled that no one knew her but everyone knew who Atkins was.

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  42. MattSeptember 12, 2015 at 6:41 PM

    Thanks Chris, that is an interesting bit of trivia that I was unaware of.


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  43. TomGSeptember 12, 2015 at 8:08 PM

    Here's a social experiment for you.......
    Take the best 1500 people you can find and incarcerate them in State Prison for a year. To be watched over by $50k state employee CO's.

    At the end of the year, are they still fine people? Or are they broken and mean?

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  44. Patty is DeadSeptember 12, 2015 at 9:10 PM

    TomG there's a good movie called The Experiment about that have you seen it?

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  45. TomGSeptember 12, 2015 at 9:44 PM

    I have not Ms. Patty. My whole philosophy of life is that sometimes the good guys aren't so good and the bad guys aren't so bad. Sometimes we are what the situation says we have to be.,

    But I will look up The Experiment and get back to you.

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  46. CarolMRSeptember 13, 2015 at 1:18 AM

    Didn't Mineo's murderer also murder the actress Christa Helm?

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  47. Max FrostSeptember 13, 2015 at 2:08 AM

    Humphrat,

    Sirhan Sirhan was most definitely a Manchurian Candidate. Even better, he wasn't one of the actual shooters.

    Robert,

    Interesting claim you make...and I can back it up. Roughly 10 years ago I was associating with a former LAPD investigator who had compiled a huge file on the RFK assassination. I dug into the file and read some amazing stuff. Everything in the file came FROM the LAPD. One of the more memorable things I read was a letter to RFK's wife warning her that there were people close to her (closer than she thought) who were directly involved in a plot to kill her husband.

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  48. Chris BSeptember 13, 2015 at 8:59 AM

    There was a famous psychology experiment about how people react to being a guard or an inmate known as the Stanford Prison Experiement. Link to official website below:WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU PUT GOOD PEOPLE IN AN EVIL PLACE? DOES HUMANITY WIN OVER EVIL, OR DOES EVIL TRIUMPH? THESE ARE SOME OF THE QUESTIONS WE POSED IN THIS DRAMATIC SIMULATION OF PRISON LIFE CONDUCTED IN 1971 AT STANFORD UNIVERSITY.
    http://www.prisonexp.org/

    The Milgram psychology experiment is also of interest:
    https://explorable.com/stanley-milgram-experiment

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  49. SuzeSeptember 13, 2015 at 9:13 AM

    christopher butche, based on an infinitely smaller sample size I can see how jail could change a good person. I mentioned here fairly recently that in college I volunteered to spend a weekend in jail for a college course. My professor arranged for several of us to go in on a Friday night and be released 48 hours later. The guards were not aware of the fact that we had not been arrested. Only the people who booked us in knew and were expected to remain silent so that we wouldn't get special treatment.

    It was only two days but it seemed like an eternity. There was absolutely nothing to do but watch a TV. The food wasn't fit for human consumption and these girls fought over seemingly trivial things. It was humans at their basest behavior, including the deputies! I was hit on the entire time by both inmates AND the deputies. It was hell. Pure.Unadulterated.Hell.

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  50. Robert HendricksonSeptember 13, 2015 at 10:52 AM

    Hey folks - it's getting REAL interesting !

    MAX: the Sisrhan Sirhan case has got to be the ONE that separates the "thinkers" from the "nimrods." He was NOT an elected official, BUT he was a "huge" RISING star in the political arena.

    NOT even the Kennedy Family believed the LAPD's "public" story - they hired their own private detectives - who even went to Mary Sirhan for help.

    "TWO" famous brothers - both assassinated RE: the subject presidency - and IF you THINK that is just a coincidence, then seriously consider EVERYTHING in YOUR like is merely a coincidence. AND that makes YOUR life TOTALLY meaningless.

    In other words, IF you think "shit just happens" then are YOU not just "shit."

    Look into the James Earl Ray / King assassination case and YOU should begin to realize HOW someone can be "programmed" to KILL without ANY direct contact with the people who want someone killed.

    The Manson Case stinks of CIA involvement so bad, it either has to be merely a coincident OR ....... "incompetant" people are smarter than WE think.

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  51. Shorty's pistolsSeptember 13, 2015 at 12:23 PM

    Max, who wrote the letter to Ethel Kennedy? The investigator for LAPD or another party?

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  52. Patty is DeadSeptember 13, 2015 at 12:45 PM

    Suze that's an amazing experience! Patty is dumbfounded.

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  53. MHNSeptember 13, 2015 at 3:46 PM

    Patty, I'm not dumbfounded that anyone would hit on Suze!

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  54. Patty is DeadSeptember 13, 2015 at 5:22 PM

    MHN lol

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  55. Robert HendricksonSeptember 14, 2015 at 6:36 AM

    SUZE: IF you would be so kind as to "write" about YOUR experience in some depth, WE would all appreciate that.

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  56. Guida DiehlSeptember 14, 2015 at 8:08 AM

    Bet it kept you on the straight and narrow though, didn't it Suze? Scared straight (and scared silly?)!

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  57. Max FrostSeptember 14, 2015 at 9:33 AM

    Shorty,

    No it wasn't written by the investigator. It was an anonymous letter sent to Ethel, who then turned it in to LAPD. The entire file I saw was LAPD reports and evidence.

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  58. SuzeSeptember 14, 2015 at 9:38 AM

    It was 12 years ago. Enough to make me be extra careful spitting on the sidewalk jogging. I was frightened and sorry that I had volunteered. Once I was booked in I wasn't allowed to change my mind, though. So, I kept my mouth shut and endured it. Afterwards I reflected on how I felt (and what a wuss I am) and decided to take up krav maga as a self-defense discipline. I've been doing that ever since. Now, I pity anyone who messes with me. :)

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  59. Shorty's pistolsSeptember 14, 2015 at 9:48 AM

    RH, RFK was not an elected official? He was elected US Senator from New York and held that office when he was murdered in LA.

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  60. CrisPOASeptember 14, 2015 at 10:18 AM

    Totally off topic, but maybe Sandra Good was right.
    Islam is rising...
    ISIS Flag Among Refugees in Germany Fighting the Police - a new picture:
    http://conservativepost.com/and-so-it-beginsisis-flag.../

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  61. TrilbySeptember 16, 2015 at 9:00 AM

    To join you off-topic Cris, I think we're witnessing the beginning of the destruction of European society and stability, unfortunately. Coupled with the batshit-crazy Trump running for office in the U.S., I have to wonder if end-of-the-world believers are sane, after all...

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    Replies
    1. TrilbySeptember 16, 2015 at 9:03 AM

      Just realized how that read... NOT implying Ms. Good isn't sane; my remark was directed at the whole fundamentalist Christian school of thought about "end of times prophecies". I'm not a fan of "organized religion".

      Delete