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To: alt.satanism
From: xeper@aol.com (Xeper)
Subject: MAQUINO: "Yankee Rose" & Ostriches
Date: 16 Aug 1998 01:19:07 GMT

In article <199808151855.UAA10565@replay.com>,
Anonymous ("Dr. Lao") wrote:

>Yankee Rose (Cassandra Clausen) was such an individual. A stripper at
>the Mayan theater where Anton worked as an organist, Yankee Rose wasn't
>much of a dancer, so the story goes, but no one who saw her performance
>ever forgot her. At half time,  while the strippers were taking a break, 
>Yankee Rose would take a select group of males out into the back parking 
>lot for an exhibition of her remarkable oral skills. She would 
>literally, and this is no exaggeration, suck the chrome off of a trailer 
>hitch then hand it to one of the lucky fellas as a souvenir. Anton used 
>to quip that she was the only female he was ever really frightened of. 
>Dr. Lao met Cassandra at the LaVey's when she visited San Francisco in 
>late '66. Unfortunately age had taken it toll, as it does us all, and 
>she was no longer able to perform her remarkable stunt. A pity. That is 
>something Dr. Lao would have liked to have seen. Should Michael Aquino 
>doubt this story he may dial up Diane LaVey and ask her. He should have 
>no trouble getting her number with his connections.

The above is a pretty classic example of the kind of prank Anton routinely
pulled on visitors: Tell a tall-tale and perhaps even have an accomplice
on hand to "verify" the story. The yarn would usually play to the fetish
of the visitor, strengthening his interest and of course "wish to believe".

The Mayan Theater came into LaVey lore because of Anton's yarn that it
had been a burlesque house where he had played the organ and met Marilyn
Monroe [and now "Yankee Rose the stripper"]. As it turned out, MM's
close friend Robert Slatzer and her agent at the time, Harry Lipton,
discredited all aspects of Anton's story with regard to MM personally,
while Mayan owner Paul Valentine verified that it had never been used
for burlesque, nor had either MM or Anton ever worked for it/him in
any capacity. This was further verified to me by LaVey publicity agent &
C/S cofounder Ed Webber, who said that Anton acknowledged to him
that he'd made the whole thing up and had never met MM at all. Diane
added that she herself had forged the inscription & signature on the MM
calendar photo that her husband showed to awed visitors as "proof".

It was Anton & Diane who introduced me to Slatzer ca. 1974, by the
way, when they were seeing a lot of him in L.A. He in turn introduced
me to Lipton. Valentine was interviewed by Lawrence Wright for his
article "Sympathy for the Devil" in _Rolling Stone_ 9/5/91.

So YR had nothing whatever to do with any "stripper at the Mayan".
You got your leg pulled, that's all.

Look: YR was the title of a 1926 song by Sidney Holden and Abe
Frankl. It was published by Irving Berlin, Inc. At the time when Anton
was [really!] working as an organist at the Lost Weekend Nightclub
in San Francisco, he habitually used it as his "closing number". When
he was going to have his first book (the _SB_) published, he thought
it would be fun [and magical] to "close it with the same number",
and *that's why YANKEE ROSE appears on the last page*!

My previous comment to you [and to bemused other-readers] was
to not just discover that it was the name of a song, or [now] why
that name appeared where it did in the _SB_, but what curiosities
might be found in its music/words, etc. Enjoy ...

And, as also previously mentioned, YR also turned up unexpectedly
in other contexts later on, which were good-humoredly added to the
"lore" of the Church of Satan as it rolled along. These too offer
amusing investigatory side-trips to the curious. Enjoy again ...

>And you know Dr. Lao too, Michael.

Then why are you dancing around with this silly "Dr. Lao" routine?
No one's going to bite you. It might well be that I'll recall you
as an interesting character, either from personal contact or from
Anton's or Diane's comments about you. As it stands now,
you're still just the latest in a parade of unverified-claim poseurs.

>Anton LaVey 
>was a student of history and knew that certain cycles repeat themselves. 
>He knew that witch hunts invariably collapse under their own weight when 
>the accusers become the accused. It was a waiting game and he was 
>absolutely right.  There was nothing to be gained by adding to the 
>spectacle. Real Satanic magicians have nothing to fear from witch hunts. 
>They never have.

Yes, one approach to any human conflict - whether World War II or the
witch hunts of the 1980s - is to hide, remain silent, and hope that you
won't be dragged into it before it is resolved one way or another. One
of Anton's less-inspiring traits [in my book] was not just this ostrich
philosophy - which he practiced throughout his life - but his self-serving
rationalizations about it which flood the pages of _TDA_ and _SLOAS_.

This is not to say that, like a good little _1984_ Party Member, one
should instantly sign up for any controversy or contest that society
presents to you. But the adventure of humanity is determined, for better
or worse, not by the ostriches but by those who do seize events and
bend them to their will [and some who try fail, and some succeed only
partly]. In his _Confessions_ Aleister Crowley put it this way:

"Adaptation to one's environment makes for a sort of survival; but,
after all, the supreme victory is only won by those who prove themselves
of so much harder stuff than the rest that no power on earth is able to
destroy them. The people who have really made history are the martyrs."

>>Anton didn't even have the guts to show up on that dangerous and
>>critical Geraldo 1988 special himself; at least Zeena stood up to 
>>carry the flag for him and join me in rebutting Rivera's witch-hunt 
>>theme every chance we got. 
>
>Anton wasn't much for duck shoots, particularly where he was to be
>made the duck.

But he didn't mind sending his daughter to be shot at in his place?

Zeena and I went there not because it was going to be fun or fair,
but because as officials of a religion which was seriously and dangerously
under attack, we felt a responsibility to stand up on behalf of it and
shove any lies about it right back in the face of the twisted little people
who were out to smear, threaten, and if possible destroy it and every
individual professing it.

That was just one battle in a years'-long war. Guess what? We won.
[You can come out from under the bed now.]

>>When he wasn't being a son of a bitch, he was
>>an authentic artist, a true genius, and an idealistic, deeply good 
>>man. One of the reasons I wrote _The Church of Satan_ was to 
>>record and preserve those three latter qualities for history; he's 
>>certainly done an adequate job of immortalizing the first one all 
>>by himself.
>
>Anton LaVey always treated Dr. Lao with respect and dignity. This
>may be because Dr. Lao treated Anton LaVey the same way.

Well, he evidently had a little joke at your expense about your evident
phobia of getting your dick sucked right off your body, but what the hey.

>Michael Aquino is seriously conflicted. Perhaps he would like to take
>this opportunity to say some more nice things about Anton LaVey
>without any zingers at the end. He may wish to express shame for his
>betrayal of his mentor and friend. He may wish to issue an apology for
>his dishonorable behavior.

Actually that inspires me to reprint the closing of my published 6/30/75
response to Anton's "Hoisted" paper of 1975, in which he proclaimed
that "umbrage would be taken" against those who resigned from the Church:

"And finally, Dr. LaVey - for you are getting a copy of this too - you
have some gall to say that you will nurture 'hard feelings' against those
who have trusted you and followed you for years, only to find their
achievements prostituted for a financial stunt. Rather you should count
yourself lucky that we are trying to approach the situation constructively,
set this incident to rest as gently as possible, and think of you in terms
of the many positive achievements you have authored. If you can't help
us, then I suggest you leave us alone until a future time when old wounds
will not seem so painful. Perhaps then we may work together once again,
as I believe the Prince of Darkness would prefer."

Michael A. Aquino, Ph.D.