- Copyright 'fair use' allowances and restrictions apply.    One of the few remaining color photographs of Lynne Seemayer's 'Pink Lady'.   Late October / early November, 1966.

In January, 1966, Lynne Seemayer, an unassuming 31-year old paralegal living in Northridge, California, became an anti-graffiti army of one - single-handedly and systematically removing "eyesore" graffiti from above the Malibu Canyon road tunnel entrance.   One of the more offensive graffitis was the ubiquitous "Valley Go Home" that we San Fernando Valley kids had seen virtually everywhere and had wondered about for years.   She worked diligently, suspended from ropes from the cliff-top above, meticulously removing graffito after graffito.

One night, while suspended by ropes high above the tunnel's entrance, she came to the realization that the huge flat cliff face she was scraping her knees on was indeed an ideal location for a piece of art - real art.   No one knows when the epiphany seized her - the one that told her she was the person to create that work - but from that point on, her midnight sorties, her 'mission', had morphed into something quite different.

- Copyright 'fair use' allowances and restrictions apply.    Lynne Seemayer - graffiti artist, amateur mountaineer.

But being a 'spare time only' undertaking, it wasn't until August of '66 that the cliff face above the tunnel was finally rid of most of the unsightly graffiti.   In her future midnite visits, she commenced outlining in chalk a huge nude figure on that selfsame surface.   Doing a little each spare night, and checking and making mental adjustments by day, she finally completed her sketching in October of that year   (.....after rejecting her earlier vision of a bird, as the wingspan precluded a good fit on the more vertical surface).

By 28 October 1966, her chalk outlining and sketching had been completed, and the cliff face was finally prepped, and all the materials were at the ready.   And in a marathon all-night assault on the cliff face, she took brilliant pink exterior house paint by the bucketsful down the face of the cliff to fill in her gigantic chalk outlines.   She then returned home to prepare breakfast for her family.   The result of the all-night assault on the Malibu cliff-side, visible for the first time only on the morning of 29 October, was the 60 foot high Pink Lady Of Malibu Canyon, or more generally known as "the Pink Lady".

- Copyright 'fair use' allowances and restrictions apply.    Sequential shots of County officials removing the Pink Lady..

But this is not the end of the Pink Lady story.   Rather, it is the beginning.   Morning traffic couldn't help but notice the gigantic nude running across the mountain face with a bouquet of flowers in her hand.   They would stop to gawk and gander.   Word spread quickly, and before long, the Malibu Canyon tunnel had become a perpetual traffic jam.   The news services got word of it, and news of the Pink Lady's miraculous overnight appearance quickly spread across the US.   Rumors coursed back and forth about her appearance, her significance and about whom the artist might be.   The consensus, of course, was that the artist must be a male.

This apparition of a Pink Lady, of course, was not acceptable to the straight-laced members of society, to include the local Sheriff's Department, who had to do something about the unending traffic jam.   They called in the fire department to hose off the cliff face with high pressure fire fighting equipment.   They succeeded in washing her down good, ridding her of any dust and dirt, and after her shower she shone more resplendently than ever.   They then tried a paint-removing solvent - also to no avail.   The gathered crowds were not amused - they began harassing and heckling County officials and firefighters at the scene, and passed around a petition to protect the Pink Lady from what they felt was "prudish, inartistic, inhuman and apathetic" attitudes and efforts.

Up to this time, Lynn Seemayer had kept quiet, but then she made a pivotal decision - she would prevent the officials from removing her Pink Lady.   She stepped forward, announcing that she was indeed the artist, and that the work should not be removed - and followed up by filing for a court injunction to that effect.   Of course, the newspapers had a field day - the mystery artist had at last been revealed - a woman (!)   Meanwhile, County officials refused her applications for a court injunction.

But Seemayer's life was just about to get interesting.....    Artistic acclaim and proposals of marriage poured in.   She also got invitations to join a nudist colony.   She also got a bill from the County for costs relating to the removal.   She was the recipient of hate and kook mail, and threatening telephone calls.   One pathetic woman persisted in calling Seemayer multiple times, claiming that her daughter had run away from home some time back, and that Seemayer had obviously used her as the model for the Pink Lady - as evidenced by the fact that the Pink Lady was an exact likeness of her missing daughter.   Another disgruntled kook sent her a letter threatening to tar and feather her and her children and dump them off on Sunset Boulevard - a letter that she turned over to the FBI.

To the din of a booing crowd, County officials finally succeeded in getting rid of the Pink Lady, painting over the entire work with 14 gallons of grey-tan paint (the rumors that followed claimed, without merit, that the Pink Lady finally had to be sand-blasted off).   The Pink Lady lasted exactly one week.   Seemayer's injunctions were never issued, so she sued the County for $1 million for destruction of her work and invasion of privacy.   They counter-sued for $26 thousand to recoup their obliteration efforts.   The Court threw both cases out - come to find out the Pink Lady was painted on private property; in the eyes of the Court, neither suit had legs.

She continued to receive offers of all kinds, even though she changed her telephone number.   One of these offers was to show her works at an art gallery.   Men sent her pictures of themselves masturbating.   Another woman accused her of all the rapes that had been committed in the LA-Orange County area, and advised Seemayer that the Pink Lady brought out the lust in men.   An arts group invited her to judge oil canvasses painted by gorillas.

Finally the strain became too much for Seemayer; she fell sick and was hospitalized with pneumonia.   On top of that, she lost her job as paralegal in Northridge.   But she wasn't safe from bother in the hospital, either.   While under treatment at the hospital, a staff member approached her with a handful of papers.   Seemayer thought the documents were for a medical procedure.   They were not, the lady staff member wanted her autograph.

Despite all the speculation, artistic and otherwise, on the significance of the Pink Lady painting, artist Seemayer, in her own words, said simply, "I felt the urge to create a piece of art, to do something that was my own."