THE BILLBOARD QUEEN

At last! Someone of significance has attempted to publicly explain the Angelyne enigma (“Angelyne and Me,” by Ajay Sahgal, April 23). The author did a great job of investigating, only to find out what most sensible, thinking L.A. residents suspected all along: that Angelyne is simply a self-made, typically-L.A. character seeking desperately to be a celebrity.

To consider her billboards as significant as the Hollywood sign, Mann’s Chinese Theatre, palm trees and the city skyline is to raise the question of whether this is how our growing metropolis wants to be viewed by the American public as a whole. I rather think not.

Dakota Sands

Los Angeles

*

Last October, while working on a documentary on Hollywood for German TV, I convinced the director that we should interview Angelyne. Her representative, Scott Hennig, and I went back and forth about money, something we didn’t have to offer. After giving up, and near the end of shooting, a call from Hennig came. Angelyne could squeeze us in between photo shoots in return for--something.

We arranged to to meet poolside at the Hollywood Roosevelt for the interview, then visit a few billboards, stop and wow the crowd in front of Mann’s Chinese Theatre and follow her driving about town. And that’s what we did.

Angelyne did pose for the crew photo, but only after I promised to buy her some $20 worth of candy. Mostly, she frustrated us by not getting real during the interview, so it was almost useless for our purposes. Depressed, we conjectured about her age and doubted Hennig’s story (“She first did the billboard thing in 1984, when she was in high school. It was to promote her rock band.”)

Angelyne is just Angelyne, and she and her management do a brilliant job of keeping her that way. I watched her work Hollywood. She’s a pro. We got no more information from her than she wanted us to have.

Sandra G. Medof

Granada Hills

*

When my 5-year-old son saw an Angelyne billboard across the street from his nursery school, he summed up her essence by saying: “Mommy, that lady needs a bigger bra.”

Angelyne’s people should either locate her billboards to places with an appropriate audience or put some clothes on her.

Dianne Kramer

Sherman Oaks

*

I first noticed Angelyne’s billboards in 1972, 23 years ago. At the time, she appeared to be between 25 and 30. If I’m somewhere in the ballpark, she would now be in her early 50s.

Gabe Mooradian

Burbank

*

How dare Sahgal insult a living Hollywood landmark!

Damon Devine

Hollywood

*

I recall a time I saw Angelyne driving through Modesto in a white T-Bird--followed by Richard Dreyfuss.

Scott Hemmelgarn

Pacific Palisades

*

A better title for Sahgal’s story might have been “I was a Jilted Journalist.” He seemed to be a man on a mission--to date Angelyne.

This literary Lothario’s cover was blown immediately. The more information I provided him with, the more annoyed he became. He was unable to accept that Angelyne was not interested in meeting him for a date. She can spot a wolf in writer’s clothing faster than anyone.

Hollywood’s problem is not its entertainers but the promoters and publicity people they have to deal with on a daily basis. There’s an Sahgal on every corner.

Scott A. Hennig

director of office administration

Angelyne, Inc.

*

In late 1989, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented an exhibition of my photographs on the subject of Hollywood and its architecture. At the time, there was a 50-foot image of Angelyne on a wall near Hollywood and Vine; I fell in love with it and put it in my show.

Through her agency, I invited her to the opening. She showed up on time in a pink fuzzy sweater, boots and a heavily powdered face and with an entourage of young men in red shoes, tight black pants and helmet hairdos. She demanded to be photographed immediately. After her “performance,” I told her how honored was to be with her. Her one response, spoken in the tiniest whisper, was: “We have to party.”

Eric D. Berkowitz

Los Angeles