Samantha Juste

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Samantha Juste, born Sandra Slater on 31 May 1944, was a fashion model who became widely known on British television in the mid 1960s as the “disc girl” on BBC’s Top of the Pops. In 1968 she married Micky Dolenz of the Monkees.

Contents 1 Model and choice of name 2 Top of the Pops 2.1 Recording career 3 Micky Dolenz and the Summer of Love 3.1 London and California 4 Family and business 5 Notes

[edit] Model and choice of name

Sandra Slater was born in Manchester, Lancashire. Her mother Phyllis was an accomplished dressmaker and she herself studied textile and dress design at Rochdale College of Art ^[1].

As a “leggy” blonde, Slater became a teenage model, taking the name “Samantha Juste”. Her choice of first name was interesting because it had been rather uncommon in Britain in the 20th century until Grace Kelly played the part of Samantha Lord in the 1956 film High Society. Its increased popularity in the 1960s was greatly assisted by the American television series Bewitched (ABC 1964-72) ^[2], in which Elizabeth Montgomery portrayed the witch Samantha Stephens, and it is probable that Samantha Juste’s concurrent celebrity contributed to this trend. Not excepting the actress Samantha Eggar, Juste was arguably the best known British Samantha of the 1960s.

[edit] Top of the Pops

Top of The Pops was a weekly half-hour programme of current popular music, conceived and produced by Johnnie Stewart (1917-2005). It was first broadcast from a converted church in Manchester on 1 January 1964 and lasted until 2006. Samantha Juste was assistant to Cecil Korer, the programme's assistant producer ^[3].

After taking over from Denise Sampey, who performed the role for the first few programmes, Juste’s prominent function for 3½ years was to sit alongside the host (a role that initially rotated between disc jockeys Jimmy Savile, David Jacobs, Alan Freeman and Pete Murray), to place gramophone records on a turntable and to apply the needle just as the relevant artist or group was about to perform the song or tune in the studio ^[4]. Simon Dee, who first introduced the show in 1966, recalled that “I got my introduction right [and] didn’t get too distracted by the lucious Samantha Juste, my lovely co-host” ^[5].

Some viewers found Juste’s ritual, though obviously for effect, rather incongruous since the relevant artists were there to perform; however, since they were in fact mining, something about which the BBC made no secret ^[6], there was a certain honesty about the procedure. Indeed, on one occasion, a recording by the Swinging Blue Jeans was played at the wrong speed as they were about to perform ^[7].

[edit] Recording career

Juste made a few records of her own, including No One Needs My Love Today, which she performed on Top of the Pops on 24 November 1966, and If Trees Could Talk, both of which were available on compilation discs forty years later.

[edit] Micky Dolenz and the Summer of Love

During her time on Top of the Pops Juste met most of leading artists who contributed to the British rock boom of the mid 1960s, although the Beatles, who had been in its vanguard, only ever made filmed appearances on programme. In January 1967 an American group called the Monkees, which had been formed for an eponymous television series, reached the top of the British sales charts, the basis of the TOTP schedule, with a song by Neil Diamond, I'm a Believer. The Monkees' drummer Micky Dolenz ^[8] (b. 1945) recalled that, when the group first appeared on Top of the Pops, he spotted Juste - "the almost unbelievable sight" - as he passed a studio cafeteria:

She is tall, blond [sic], beautiful, and wearing an emerald green outfit that ends up in a short skirt (very short) which tops off her unbelievably gorgeous legs ... She hold his glance briefly then looks quickly away with that haughty sophistication that only the British can do so well ^[9].

[edit] London and California

Juste and and Dolenz began a whirlwind relationship, prompting such headlines in the press as "Samantha traps Monkee" and "Pops girl goes ape" ^[10]. Ric Klein, a friend of Dolenz, described a vacation with him in England a few months later, during which Juste acted as their "permanent guide", travelling with them to Shakespeare's birthplace, Stratford-upon-Avon, in a rented Triumph car. Then, a few days later, savouring the atmosphere of "Swinging" London:

Micky and I went to the Carlton Towers to see Samantha Juste in a fashion show and she looked outasite [sic]. After the show, we took off for Carnaby Street again and we went crazy buying clothes ... Micky really dug all the clothes at Biba's and Susan Lockes and practically bought out the stores. He also bought a dress for Samantha. It was the same dress that Sam wore in the fashion show and it looked fantastic on her ^[11].

Juste moved with Dolenz to California at the height of the hippie era. In June 1967 they attended the Monterey pop festival, which ushered in the so-called "Summer of Love", Dolenz being photographed in an Indian headdress ^[12]:

Peter Tork [of the Monkees] and Micky turned up at the pop fest in Monterey, Peter acting as one of the emcees [masters of ceremony], Micky wandering around the grounds dressed as an Indian with a lovely British bird, Samantha Juste, at his side ^[13].

[edit] Family and business

Juste and Dolenz were married in Laurel Canyon in June 1968 ^[14]. Their daughter Ami Bluebell Dolenz, who became a film actress, was born in Burbank in January 1969 ^[15]. The marriage was dissolved in 1975, though Juste and Dolenz were reconciled as friends in the 1990s. In 2002 Juste was photographed with Dolenz at their daughter's wedding in Beverley Hills to actor and martial artist Jerry Trimble ^[16] and, a few months later, attended Dolenz's own wedding in Calabasas to Donna Quilter ^[17].

While living in California, Juste began her own fashion business, which she moved to Acapulco, Mexico in 1976. She worked for a time in the Republic of Ireland, where she taught design, but later returned to California, where she and Ami Dolenz began an on-line jewellery business called Bluebell Boutique ^[18].

[edit] Notes

The Monkees
Micky Dolenz | Davy Jones | Michael Nesmith | Peter Tork
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