Occult author/publisher/filmmaker etc. Carl Abahamasson was recently interview in the UK’s wonderfully trash Daily Mail regarding the book California Infernal: Anton LaVey and Jayne Mansfield as portrayed by Walter Fischer which he’s published. The article begins:
“Jayne Mansfield was a fame-obsessed bombshell blonde whose star was on the wane. Anton LaVey was a publicity-courting Satanist eager to attract new members to his fledgling Church of Satan. In 1966, they met for the first time in San Francisco. They found in each other a kindred spirit with a desire to be famous and a daring to be different. The pair developed a friendship – that some say was sexual in nature – and continued to meet frequently until Mansfield’s death in 1967.
“They met at the height of the liberating 60s, when attitudes about gender, sexuality and nudity were in flux. Satanism – considered as the pursuit of a pleasurable and successful life – found a receptive audience in the thousands who flocked to California with a desire to become famous. A popular legend that might have been spread by LaVey himself asserts that he portrayed the devil who rapes Mia Farrow’s character in the 1968 film Rosemary’s Baby.
“On hand to document the budding friendship between the blonde and the Satanist was German paparazzo Walter Fischer, who arrived in the United States in 1956 with a parrot on his shoulder and a desire to photograph larger-than-life American stars.
“Little is known about Fischer. Many of his photographs were lost or only appeared in blurry newspaper archives. A Swedish collector named Alf Wahlgren began gradually acquiring Fischer’s photographic archive and connected with fellow Swede Carl Abrahamsson, a book publisher and ‘American trash culture’ aficionado.
“And now, the pair is releasing a book of Fischer’s photographs called California Infernal: Anton LaVey and Jayne Mansfield as portrayed by Walter Fischer. The book is being released by Trapart Books and JD Holmes.” Read the whole article here:
