Bess Motta was born and raised right outside Los Angeles, and began acting in school plays at a young age. After high school, she went on to star in “The Great American Backstage Musical” on stage in San Francisco and London—arriving back from her British sojourn thirty pounds heavier. Needing to lose weight for auditions led her to join a gym and try aerobics; within months she had lost the weight and was leading sixteen classes a week. She was elevated to fitness fame as one of the instructors of “20 Minute Workout,” and began traveling the country to lead workouts and host fitness competitions in malls nationwide. In addition to teaching fitness for forty years, Bess has continued to act—her most famous role being Ginger, Sarah Connor’s roommate in “The Terminator.” In 2016, Bess returned to the stage to star as Judy Garland in the west coast theatre premier of “The Boy from Oz,” for which she won the LA Stage Alliance Ovation Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical and Best Featured Performance from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle.

Edina Ronay is a fashion designer, actress and model. Born in Budapest to a family of successful restaurateurs, Edina fled to London with her parents after the war. There her father opened a restaurant and then founded what became a very successful and influential series of guidebooks, starting with Egon Ronay's Guide to British Eateries in 1957. As a teen Edina became an actress, appearing in a number of cult British films. She was a key member of the hip London scene and dated Michael Caine before she met her husband, photographer Dick Polak. With him, she lived in Morocco and Formentera, until they returned to London to act, model and have children. In the early 1970s, Edina began selling vintage clothes. When she discovered a cache of 30s and 40s vintage knitting patterns in 1978, a new business was born. Highly successful from the start, Edina & Lena sold their hand knits in stores all over the world. In the 1980s Edina took over full control of the company—renamed Edina Ronay, it expanded into dresses and separates.

This week on Sighs & Whispers, fashion and cultural historian Laura McLaws Helms meets with fashion designer, actress, writer and all-around creative Tere Tereba. As a teenager Tereba began designing for Arpeja, the largest LA-based multi-brand fashion company who owned Young Edwardian, Young Innocent and many others. Quickly making a name for herself, over the next twenty years Tereba designed for all of the major Los Angeles fashion companies (including Malibu Media and Jody T.), before starting her own eponymous high-end line in the late 1980s. Alongside her high-powered fashion design career, Tere maintained a very busy social life among the upper echelons of the film and art worlds—good friends with the likes of Andy Warhol, she also spent a lot of time in Paris and Rome in the 1970s with the crème de la crème of the European movie world. After many years of friendship she acted in Andy Warhol’s Bad in 1977. After ten years of research, her book on a notorious gangster (Mickey Cohen: The Life and Crimes of L.A.'s Notorious Mobster) was published in 2012.

While in London I met with legendary make-up artist Barbara Daly. Barbara’s long and illustrious career includes working with such photographic greats as Helmut Newton, Barry Lategan and Norman Parkinson, in addition to designing the makeup looks for two of Stanley Kubrick’s films, ‘A Clockwork Orange’ and ‘Barry Lyndon.’ She then went on to found her own beauty school and launch two cosmetics brands, but her most famous work was doing Princess Diana’s make-up on her wedding day in 1981.

Though you might not recognize Sandy Dvore’s name, you would know his work. As a titles designer, he created the opening credits for television shows that helped shape American culture—The Partridge Family (1970 - 1974), The Waltons (1972-1981), The Young & the Restless (1973-1988 drawings and 1984-1999 logo). By developing the visual language of TV and film credits in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, Sandy’s work helped create the lens through which we see America in those decades. This conversation centers not just on the highs of achieving career success but also the sadness of what comes after—a meditation on the creative process, the ups and downs of success, and, I think, also a worthwhile antidote to our culture’s obsession with youth and newness.

For this episode I sat down with Ingrid Boulting, best known as the ‘Biba girl’ of early ‘70s fashion and Robert DeNiro’s paramour in The Last Tycoon (1976). A ballerina, a model, an actress, a mother, a yoga teacher, a business owner, a painter, an animal lover, a trauma survivor—Ingrid truly exemplifies the type of person I have sought to talk with in this series—someone who molds and creates the life they desire in the face of ups and downs and veers off the path.

This conversation is with renowned photographer and film director, Jerry Schatzberg, who at 90 years old is still creating and working hard. We discussed his path from the Bronx to Vogue fashion photographer, to celebrity photographer and nightclub owner, to acclaimed director.