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A rare shot of mature Sabrina. Date unknown.

19 May 2002- turns 66

The Mail on Sunday reported that Sabrina is living a hermit-like existence in "semi-squalour in a grubby Californian suburb at the intersections of three ten-lane motorways and right underneath the flightpath of Los Angeles' Burbank Airport." and that she spends most of her time in a wheelchair.

Read Sabrina's rebuttal .

19 August 2002

Twenty-five years after their divorce, Sabrina's ex-husband, Harold L.Melsheimer brings 'Real Property' legal action against Sabrina and her mother - and apparently 50 other "Does"

[Does this mean 'unknown people'? I'm not a lawyer. Lawyers - please educate me ]

The case continued for 3 years until 25 August 2005.

I have no knowledge of the nature of the lawsuit or its outcome. See details on the Sabrina In Court page .

(added 27 August 2018)

20 April, 2003 - Sabrina rings the Sabrina Site's Melbourne Headquarters and dispels some of the Mail On Sunday's conclusions. Listen to and read the interview .

The Mail On Sunday apologises for their silly article.

19 May 2006 - Sabrina turns sixty-ten (a more genteel way of saying it).

Sabrina breaks her leg. She phones the Sabrinastuff site and sends some great pictures from her scrapbook .

2006 or early 2007 - Sabrina and Steve Page were driving down Sunset Boulevard when a tree fell on the car, crushing the front of it. She put another disk out in her back.

10 July 2008 - Sabrina sends her first scrapbook covering her theatrical days onstage in 1965-1966, doing

• Pajama Tops (25 Dec 1965- 30 Jan 1966)
• The Loving Couch ( at least April 11 to July 6, 1966)
• Rattle of a Simple Man (Aug 1966)

19 May 2015

Sabrina's 79th birthday.

May 2015

Sabrina appears on page 8 of Classic Bus magazine (with a picture of Queen Sabrina contributed by the Sabrina Site.)
It had something to do with VRLLH motorway coaches, apparently.

May 2015

Ex-husband Dr Harold Ludwig Melsheimer dies.

19 May 2016

Sabrina's 80th - and last - birthday.

15 August 2016

Sabrina's songs featured in a BBC radio 4 show ' Sabrina and the Fish of No Return ' - the first of the series 'The River".
This site is pleased to have provided the recordings of Sabrina's songs to the BBC.

24 November 2016

The Age of Sabrina is over.

Norma Ann Sykes passed away peacefully in Los Angeles at the age of 80.

My tribute to her is on the Tributes Page .

10 September 2017 - from Stockport Plaza

Stockport celebrates the life of its own Hollywood Starlet / Screen Icon / Blonde Bombshell Sabrina at both The Vintage Village at Stockport Market and The Plaza Super Cinema and Variety Theatre.

SABRINA real name Norma Ann Sykes who grew up in Stockport passed away peacefully at hospital in Los Angeles on Nov 24th 2016. She was 80 years old.

The events have been organised by Ted Doan of The Plaza Cinema, Alan Lowe of The Vintage Village and Sabrina's close friend Stephen Page.

Events will include
At The Vintage Village: Up to 70 stalls of authentic vintage goods, screening of Sabrina's cult movie 'Satan in High Heels', and never before seen film footage of Sabrina on tour, plus a gallery of her own favourite photos, personal artifacts and items of clothing from her own personal wardrobe.
Her close friend Stephen Page will talk about her life and career and share her stories about her visits to Stockport, her superstar pals – Frank Sinatra, Liberace, her date with Elvis, The Hollywood 'Rat-Pack' and more!
The sensational Bexi Owen sings live throughout the day, plus a 'Best Dressed' competition with prizes. The suggested dress code for the day is – of course! – full-on, high-wattage 1950s glamour and pizazz! Dress to impress and you may snag yourself a nice little treat to take home!

At The Plaza: Screenings of Pathé Newsreels featuring Sabrina which played to thousands of fans at the height of her popularity in British Cinemas across the Nation alongside a special presentation about the life and career of Sabrina during the Heritage Open Day which will this year be hosted in honour of her memory as a Patron of The Plaza and Stockport's own glamorous star.

COMMENTS
Stephen Page: Over the many years I knew Sabrina she often shared her fond memories of Stockport. Especially of visits with her mother Annie to Bramhall Hall and Bluebell Valley. She was a most remarkable brave lady and special friend who suffered many years of illness with great dignity.

She was previously honoured as both a patron of the Plaza Super Cinema & Variety Theatre and by The Vintage Village who paid tribute to her with a special 'Sabrina Day' back in 2012.
It is only natural and appropriate that her life celebration be hosted here in Stockport.
Ted, Alan and myself are hoping to work towards creating a future annual 'Sabrina Day' for Stockport which would both celebrate her life and benefit local charities.

Ted Doan: Having been a fan of Sabrina's since I was a child it came as a wonderful surprise to discover she was a proud Stopfordian and an absolute personal highlight was talking to our icon of femininity when she called The Plaza to kindly agree to be a patron. Her support of The Plaza, saved by our community just over 17 short years ago and her care for the youth theatres that use the venue displayed a passion for the town where she was born and the people who saved, restored and now use Stockport's 1932 Super Cinema and Variety Theatre, a glamourous venue supported by one of the nation's most glamorous stars.

Alan Lowe: We feel this remarkable lady who was a 'Stockport girl' should be remembered in a fashion she would have approved of, and where better to do this but in Stockport itself, at an event which will be true to the fashions of her time. We are proud to be involved with this 'Life Celebration' of our own Hollywood Starlet, Sabrina.

An official Life Celebration has been set for May 2018 At The Plaza Super Cinema with a day of screenings and events with a celebration concert.

15 October 2017 - Sunday Times (London), p.30.

Britain's 'first sex symbol', who insured her breasts for £100,000 Norma Sykes, who has died aged 80, claimed to be Britain's first sex symbol. She achieved unprecedented fame in the 1950s, under the name Sabrina, as a glamour model with a 41in bust, which she insured for £100,000.

As Britain's first post-austerity media construct, Stockport-born Sabrina was suddenly famous for being famous. She landed a part as Arthur Askey's sidekick in Before Your Very Eyes. Endearingly unprofessional, she was chosen, according to Askey, because "she had a lovely face and figure but could not act, sing, dance or even walk properly".

Asked in later life about her fame, she said: "It made me a sex symbol, which I'm not. And it made me a household name, like Tide [a laundry detergent], which I am - a clean girl from the sticks." The Daily Telegraph

16 October 2017 - The Independent on Sunday (London) [mostly ripped of from this site]

Cheshire teenager Norma Sykes came to London in1953, determined to become a successful model. Before long her image was on the cover of Blighty, a men’s magazine that offered cartoons and short fiction, along with its photographs of scantily clad women.

Liverpool comedian Arthur Askey invited her into BBC television series Before Your Very Eyes. The “dumb blonde” was a cliché of 1950s popular culture and Askey decided that Sykes would be the literal personification of this stereotype. In June 1954 Askey was ending a run of the farce The Love Match at the Palace Theatre in London, where the next attraction would be the Broadway hit Sabrina Fair.

This inspired Sykes to ditch the name Norma. On 18 February 1955, billed as the “a glamorous new playmate for Big-Hearted Arthur”, Sykes shimmered into the Britain’s living rooms to become an overnight sensation. Within a month she had accumulated more than 500 press cuttings.

She invested her BBC salary in elocution and singing lessons, while a variety tour was arranged to meet the overwhelming demand to see “television’s newest personality” in the flesh.

Monday 4 July at the Chiswick Empire should have been “independence from Askey” day for her, but her inexperience showed. Four changes of costume – pink, blue, black, silver – ensured that she was seen to advantage but when it came to singing “Do It Again” she was inaudible.

Nevertheless, business was solid at the provincial theatres where she appeared. In Manchester the emergency services were summoned to control the crowds.

That October, cinemagoers were introduced to Sabrina, film actress, in Stock Car. Playing Trixie, the decorative companion of a minor villain, this was a chance for her voice to be heard, literally. However, before the picture was released her character was revoiced in a coarse East End accent that was not her own.

Sabrina returned to Before Your Very Eyes, where she continued to distract male guests like bodybuilder Joe Robinson, and she was also seen to effect as the hostess in Hughie Green’s quiz show Double Your Money.

In March1956, Askey invited her to his daughter Anthea’s wedding. When Sabrina emerged from her taxi, a dozen photographers zoomed in on the famous cleavage, temporarily ignoring star guests like Norman Wisdom.

Between 1956 and 1958 the cinema newsreels and press cameramen followed Sabrina around as she judged beauty contests, posed with exotic birds, visited disabled people, attended film premieres and negotiated the London streets in her enormous American saloon with the S41 personalised number plate.

After Stock Car there had been occasional gag shots in comedies like Blue Murder at StTrinian’s, and in Make Mine A Million, Askey’s 1959 spoof of the BBC, she looked absolutely gorgeous, revealing – in her one proper dialogue scene – a light, attractive voice. But if there was to be no film stardom, her face and figure were nonetheless known to everyone in Britain.

An extensive portfolio of “cheesecake” photographic sessions generally depicted Sabrina taking her ease in basque and negligee. Nudity was not necessary: it was enough for her 18in waist to contrast with her spectacular bosom. This decorous level of titillation was as suitable for mainstream journals like Photoplay and Picturegoer as it was for the pocket-sized booklets like Spick and Span available from certain newsagents.

Fans with 8mm projectors could obtain short colour movies for private viewing. The short film At Home With Sabrina exposed her daily routine, which apparently included hoovering and some light gardening with a trowel, after which she relaxed in swimsuit and sunglassses.

Goodnight With Sabrina concentrated on her disrobing for a bubble bath, the soapy froth covering her modesty, before retiring to bed.

From the start, comedians had only to mention Sabrina to raise a laugh: she was immortalised on canvas, parodied in the West End revue For Amusement Only, a Sabrina bar and grill opened in Wardour Street, and a samba incorporating her name was composed by the bandleader at the Orchid Ballroom, Purley.

In late 1956 she made a record herself: “Persuade Me” was put across with a breathless intimacy guaranteed to arouse the interest of the male population. Hollywood tough guy Steve Cochran was Sabrina’s regular escort during this period, and for a while the couple appeared inseparable, whether holidaying on the French Riviera or enjoying a romantic rendezvous in Santa Monica.

In late 1957 Sabrina made another stage foray, in a Robert Nesbitt revue at the Prince of Wales theatre. Plaisirs de Paris starring Dickie Henderson. Sabrina played gamely enough in the comedy interludes (for a sketch entitled “Are You Fully Covered?” she was aptly cast as “the Risk” opposite Henderson as “the Insurance Broker”), and genuinely dazzled as Helen of Troy in “The Realms of Venus”, one of the extravagant chorus numbers.

When this show was presented at the Tivoli in Sydney the following year, she was promoted to leading lady. Australian reactions to “the talk of two hemispheres” – as the theatre’s programme described her – were enthusiastic. Before a polar expedition sailed from Melbourne for the Antarctic, one of the amphibious craft was named after her; then she travelled north to a thousand-acre sheep station, to model dresses from the local wool.

Sabrina entered America in late 1958, making her debut with a 40-minute cabaret act in Manhattan’s Latin Quarter, and subsequently toured most of the United States. In 1961 she was invited to feature “as herself ” in Satan In High Heels , a sexploitation melodrama involving junkies, burlesque dancers, murderand seduction, but her participation was mainly confined to a night club sequence in which she performed a couple of blues numbers.

In 1964 there was a last professional appearance on British television. ABC’s network arts programme Tempo had, in order to analyse the genre, commissioned an original farce entitled You Mitre Guessed. The standard ingredients of unworldly vicar, deaf housekeeper, suspicious policeman and inconvenient blonde were assembled, with Sabrina primarily required to scamper around in a diaphanous night-dress and sit on laps.

From 1965 she was based on the West Coast, and in late summer of 1966 was on the legitimate theatre stage in a Los Angeles production of the West End success Rattle of a Simple Man – essentially a play for two actors concerning the unexpected rapport between a Soho prostitute and her girl-shy client. For once, Sabrina was taken seriously.

In 1967 there were a couple more film assignments: a Z-grade western shot in Mexico, The Phantom Gunslinger , starring opposite Troy Donahue; and Mountains of the Moon , a double-episode adventure in Ron Ely’s Tarzan television series. As this latter aired in November, Norma Sykes married wealthy Hollywood gynaecologist Dr Harold Melsheimer, and set up home in a Spanish-style villa at West Toluca Lake, Encino, California.

Showbusiness receded into the background, although her husband’s professional standing in Hollywood maintained her in a life of luxury. Ten years later they divorced, leaving Sabrina with a spacious Los Angeles residence in the million-dollar price bracket, and her own Mercedes. She died of blood poisoning last year aged 80, but her death was only announced this month.

Sabrina (Norma Ann Sykes), model and TV personality, born 1936, died 24 November 2016

7 October 2023 - Shocking news

Today I received information from Bryce W that was shocking. It told of the aftermath of Sabrina's death, and what happened to her legacy.

Bryce said:

Hello,

I came across your website some time ago & am quite impressed with the great length you’ve obviously gone to, to build & create a repository for all things Sabrina, & to undoubtedly preserve & honor her memory.
I’m contacting you today with some images of Sabrina that I’d like you to have & I have attached them for you to this email.

I have to admit that I had never heard of Sabrina & only learned of her after her death in a rather roundabout way.

Long ‘backstory’ story short, I recovered a handful of original photographs & one framed political cartoon that were the only things that survived a house fire, that destroyed my brother’s house last summer. Unfortunately, the fire consumed two storage totes, which contained what remained of Sabrina’s personal memorabilia: photo albums, scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, & so on.

I’ll try to be as brief as possible, but my brother’s girlfriend’s father was Bruce Cram, who was Sabrina’s confidant, friend, & caretaker for the last few years of her life.

After she passed away & the situation at her house in Toluca Lake unraveled, Bruce came out to stay at my brother’s house in Desert Hot Springs. This is when I first met him, & became acquainted with who Sabrina was. She clearly had been in decline for some time & entrusted Bruce with this collection of her items, which he brought along with him to the desert.

There were a couple of news articles written at the time portraying him as some kind of grifter, or just one of many deranged ‘house guests’ that were in & out of her house at that time, that were supposedly somehow taking advantage of Sabrina.

Although I didn’t know him at that time, I saw no evidence of that being the case. He spoke very highly of Sabrina & appeared to have cared very deeply about her. Bruce although a very unconventional character, was in my opinion, very honest & forthright, & I came to appreciate & respect him.

He insisted that he wanted to donate her things to a museum in the United Kingdom that he believed featured some kind of exhibit dedicated to her, but subsequent research revealed that no such museum existed. Your website is the closest thing to that, & so we intended at that time to reach out to you in order to inquire if you were interested in that stuff.

Unfortunately, in the interim, Bruce had a falling out with his daughter & left the desert. Things deteriorated from there. My brother & his girlfriend had a very toxic, destructive relationship & were IV drug users, addicted to heroin. He, somewhat unexpectedly, very soon there after, passed away due to complications related to his drug use & we were forced to formally evict his girlfriend, which took months to obtain a court order & have the police come to forcibly remove her.

She practically wrecked the property & not even a week after being evicted, she returned to the house & burned it to the ground.

Bruce, last I heard, was homeless & living back in the North Hollywood area, which had been his home for his whole life. Then, last month, I discovered that he contracted pneumonia in June of this year, & after refusing treatment at the hospital, he unfortunately also passed away.

His daughter’s whereabouts are unknown, but she is wanted on arson charges & is apparently still on the run.

So it pains me on one hand to have to tell you that this is what became of what presumably was an irreplaceable treasure trove of priceless photos, & such — but it is what it is. It’s a crazy story, but it’s all true. I thought I should at least give you the honest context.

All that was left after all that fiasco were these photographs, which are themselves somewhat damaged, but I have digitized them for you. I am not sure if you have seen them before, but I am curious to hear what you think about them.

I would be pleased to donate the original images to you if you are interested in them in any way. I’d be more than happy to mail them to you straightaway. I personally have no use for them.

Thanks in advance for your time, I appreciate it.
Best regards,

Sincerely,
Bryce W.

As if Sabrina's life were not already jam-packed with excitement and, it seems the aftermath has been equally dramatic.

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