sable starr | sighs & whispers

Style Icon: Lori Maddox

Posted on January 3, 2010 by laurakitty

Lori, on the left, modeling for Creem magazine, August 1974.

Several months ago I wrote a long post about Sable Starr, the unofficial queen of the LA scene in the early 70s. Her style and story were both so intriguing to me, and I have long meant to write a similar post on her best friend, Lori Maddox. Lori’s story will be well known to any Zeppelin aficionado, but it bears repeating here as a powerful example of the drawbacks of dating a rock god.

Lori and Sable.

“THE GIRL WHO READ STAR.
Her look is wild
She’s young but never shows it
She loves to live and lives to love
The ones know she’s the One
THE GIRL WHO READ STAR IS YOU”

Lori was born in Los Angeles in 1958, and when she was around 13 made her entry into the rock n roll scene with Sable. They were regulars at the Rainbow Bar & Grill, Rodney’s English Disco, the Continental Hyatt House (the notorious “Riot House”), and the Whisky A Go Go. She became a teen model and was included in several editorials in Creem and in Star magazine, the local bible of the scene. Her petite frame, large brown eyes and masses of chestnut curls drew her many admirers, and it has been reported that she lost her virginity to David and Angie Bowie at thirteen. Around the same time a photo of her was shown to Jimmy Page, who quickly became infatuated with her. He was still dating Miss Pamela of the GTO’s (later Pamela Des Barres) but when he was in LA in 1972 on the Zeppelin tour he went after Lori.

Lori and Queenie Glam at Rodney’s English Disco, 1973.

Sable and Lori with Iggy Pop.

Lori avoided his advances several times, later stating that she was frightened of him; finally Led Zeppelin’s tour manager “kidnapped” her and brought her to the Hyatt and to Jimmy’s room. Interviewed in Hammer of the Gods, a biography of Led Zeppelin, Lori said that the room “was dimly lit by candles… and Jimmy was just sitting there in a corner, wearing this hat slouched over his eyes and holding a cane. It was really mysterious and weird… He looked just like a gangster. It was magnificent.” They started an affair that night, which was kept secret since she was only 14 and he was still dating Pamela. His relationship with Pamela ended dramatically when he took her to a party for the band but left with Lori.

Jimmy and Lori, 1973/74.

By all accounts, Jimmy and Lori were very in love and for the next year and a half she traveled often with the band. When she was 16 he left her for Bebe Buell, the Playmate who had recently been living with Todd Rundgren. Bebe was Jimmy’s date for the Swan Song soiree, which Lori found incredibly upsetting since she was still in love with him. Out of her mind on Quaaludes, she stumbled around the party, bloodying her nose and soaking her white gown in blood. When Bebe and Jimmy were leaving the party, she cornered them, screaming at Jimmy, “Why are you doing this to me?” but he ignored her and went to the Rainbow Room where he had a huge fight with Bebe over his cruelty to Lori.

Lori and Jimmy arriving at John Bonham’s 24th birthday at The Rainbow Bar & Grill, 31 May 1972.

Lori with Jimmy Page, John Bonham, Rodney Bingenheimer, Sable Starr, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, Pamela des Barres, Morgana Welch, Peter Grant and other friends at John Bonham’s birthday.

The next day Lori went to the Hyatt where she found Jimmy and Bebe in bed together. She fled but came back later and knocked on the door. When Bebe opened the door with the chain on it, Lori reached through, grabbing Bebe’s hair and trying to drag her out. Jimmy watched his former and current girlfriends fight it out from the safety of his room, laughing hysterically. Lori drifted out of the groupie scene and briefly got back together with Jimmy in the early 80s; she supposedly never got over the pain of their first breakup but has gone on to a stable career as a buyer in LA and has a son.

Lori with Rodney Bingenheimer and a friend.

Lori Maddox and Shray Mecham partying at Rodney’s ‘English Disco’, from Star Magazine’s last published issue, June 1973.

Just like Sable, Lori’s style was an amalgamation of trash and full-on glamour. Often wearing hot pants with halter tops made from long, thin scarves that barely covered her pre-pubescent breasts, Lori was just as likely to wear a vintage 40s satin gown with a mink stole. Even in her trashiest outfits, her huge smile lights up the snapshots and she never appears as cheap as Sable sometimes did. More openly romantic than her good friend, it isn’t hard to see how she was so deeply affected by the events of her teenage years.

Lori Maddox and Shray Mecham from Star Magazine, June 1973.

Lori with Keith Moon on his birthday, date unknown.

Lori and Keith Moon.

Lori, Leee Black Childers, Sable and friends.

Lori Maddox, around 1973.

Lori, laying on the ground, with the New York Dolls in Creem magazine, August 1974.

Lori, 1973.

Lori with Sylvain Sylvain of the New York Dolls upstairs at the Whisky A Go Go, August 1973.

Style Icon: Sable Starr

Posted on August 5, 2009 by laurakitty

Sable, on the right, outside the English Disco in 1972.

I’ve been meaning to write this post for awhile- I started it several months ago, but had trouble finishing it when I heard Sable Starr had died of cancer in April. Somehow it seemed distasteful to discuss someone who had just passed solely in terms of the clothes they had worn as a teenager. This post is going to be longer than what I had originally planned, but I feel that she deserves some greater detail.

Lori Maddox, Dave Hill from Slade and Sable Starr in 1973.

For those who don’t know, Sable Starr was pretty much the Super Groupie of the 1970s LA scene. Pamela Des Barres and Bebe Buell might be more famous, but Sable was the real deal. Born Sable Shields in Palos Verdes in 1958, she started going out on the scene as a 12 year old and lost her virginity to Iggy Pop at 13. Sable instantly became the queen of the new scene that sprang out of Rodney Bingenheimer’s English Disco and the Whiskey A Go Go with every visiting rock star eager to meet her. She had affairs with everyone- Led Zeppelin, T-Rex, David Bowie and many more.

Queenie, Shray Mecham (‘Star Magazine’ model) and Sable at Rodney’s ‘English Disco’, from “Star” Magazine last issue, July 1973.

When she learned that the New York Dolls were coming to town in 1973 Sable got all of her friends together to buy them gifts to surprise them. She bought Johnny Thunders Frederick’s of Hollywood silver lingerie, and when they met they quickly fell in love. Renouncing her groupiedom (at 15!), she moved to New York to be with him and they got an apartment together. Their happiness did not last too long due to his jealous rages and increasing heroin use. His psychotic moods led Sable to slit her wrists, but was found in time and then sent back to her parents. Thunders and Starr continued their dysfunctional relationship, causing her to run away to Atlanta where she met Keith Richards. Johnny continued to pursue her so she went back to live with him in New York until their relationship ended in 1974. Of him, she said, “We didn’t work it out, but we planned to marry. I even got pregnant, but had an abortion. He wanted to change me: Johnny is Italian, he wanted me to stay at home all the time. He made me feel bad, ’cause I was a hot girl and suddenly I was the lady of the house”.

After this she began to split her time between LA, living with her parents or her sister (who was dating Iggy), and NY, where she stayed with Debbie Harry or Nancy Spungen (her best friend and a notorious Sable-wannabe). Sable stayed friends with Johnny, who introduced her to his band mate Richard Hell- the two fell in love and she moved full time to New York. After they broke up she moved home and gave up the scene forever, at age 17. For the last few years she has lived in Nevada as a croupier with her two kids, until she succumbed to brain cancer this spring.

Debbie Harry and Sable at the Whisky A Go Go in 1980.

Her story is quite something when you consider that it all happened over such a short time period and to someone so young. From the later interviews I read with her she came out remarkably well-adjusted, and from what I know of her at the time Sable was like a ray of sunshine in the scene. In all of the photos of her she glows with youth and excitement, all the time wearing amazing outfits. Fashion for her was all about attention grabbing outfits, lots of glamour so she wore tons of bootie shorts, sequins, 1940s furs and hats, metallic platforms and leotards all topped off with her mane of blonde curls.

“The crowd at the club ranged in age from twelve to fifteen… nymphet groupies were stars in their tight little world. Some dressed like shirley temple; others wore dominatrix outfits or ‘hollywood underwear,’ a knee-length shirt, nylon stockings, and garter belts. These stargirls streaked their hair chartreuse and like to lift their skirts to display their bare crotches.” David Bowie

Sable and Lori Maddox in 1973.

Johnny Thunders and Sable in 1973.

Sable and Iggy Pop in 1973.

Sable at John Bonham’s 24th birthday with Lori Maddox, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page, John Bonham, Morgana Welch, Tyla, Rodney Binghenheimer, Peter Grant and Queenie Glam at Rodney’s “Rainbow Bar and Grill” in April 1972.

Sable and Johnny at the Whisky in 1973.

I have many more pictures- it was hard just to choose a few!