Gary Baum, at the Hollywood Reporter, broke the news last week. Angelyne, known in L.A. for decades her billboards and her bright pink Corvette, is really Renee Goldberg, a Polish immigrant and child of Holocaust survivors.
AirTalk spoke with the outed Angelino who said,
“I’m not a woman; I’m an icon…
There are a lot of inaccuracies When I became famous a lot of people just wanted to be part of it so they’ll say anything.”
She said that the technicalities of what was or was not accurate were
“too voluminous to address and take up too much time.”
In 2015 she also told Baum:
“It’s just a long story… I don’t want to get into it.”
According to THR, immigration records confirm that Goldberg came to L.A. around age eight with her family in 1959. Across the country, this post-war generation of Jewish immigrants was working hard to assimilate, anglicizing names and renouncing religious practice. By the early 1970s, Goldberg changed her name, at first distancing herself from her Polish roots, and eventually leaving behind any semblance of a Jewish past.
Angelyne was making appearances in several films under her new name, starting with a porno in 1974. Her first billboard went up on Sunset in ’84, declaring
“Angelyne Rocks”
In ’95, a documentary called Angelyne was released. By then, L.A. was home to more than 200 Angelyne billboards. How did she afford the billboards?
“Well, I slept with everybody in town!… just kidding.”
But she rejected the Hollywood association,
“I’m not an actress. I inspire people. Somebody could do me in a movie which I would hate because nobody has that kind of energy.”
Still very skimpy on the details, Angelyne is sure confident about one thing: she has an impact on people.
“I was born with mystique. And I still have it. Even at 4 years old, the whole neighborhood would follow me around… now, I inspire everybody in this city.“
(Photos, Pacific Coast News; via AirTalk)
