"Anton gave me the extra determination I needed when I was facing the height of my opposition," Manson says. "If you look at the outrage he engendered at the time, it's not unlike what I've seen over the past two years."

LaVey played the Devil in the 1968 film Rosemary's Baby, but is best know for the cult bestseller The Satanic Bible, which he published to instant notoriety in 1969. He had secluded himself in his black Victorian mansion in San Francisco since the early 80's, but his youth was marked by such disparate résumé builders as lion trainer, police photographer, & paranormal investigator. Throughout his life he was a consummate musician, adept at everything from the violin to the calliope. LaVey became an oboist with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra at the age of 16, & later played organ for circuses, burlesque shows, silent movies, traveling tent revivals, & official civic functions. "He really was a musical genius," says his daughter Karla LaVey, 45. "He could play almost any instrument you put in front of him."

In recent years, the San Francisco- based Amarillo Records released Satan Takes a Holiday & several other recordings of LaVey's reditions of the music he truly loved: the bombastic, melodramatic tunes of yesteryear. "He was a warm & witty guy who was really into the old novelties & pranks you see in the back of comic books," says Amarillo owner Gregg Turkington. "He had a remote control whoopie cushion that he'd hide in his couch when people came over."

The owner of a massive record collection, LaVey was dedicated to documenting pop culture's ephemera, not unlike his late comtemporary Tiny Tim. Asked how her father would have wanted to be remembered, Karla LaVey says simply, "for providing an alternative for people who feel different." "He lived a full life & should be proud of all the people he's enraged," adds Manson. "I'm sure he's sitting in hell right now & laughing."

In any case, LaVey's lifelong fight against what he considered mind-numbing Judeo-Christian indoctrination had had a profound impact on alienatied youth. Then, of course, there's his contribution to hipster fashion: the shaved-head-with-goatee look. "I took my father out for a ride recently," Karla says, "and as we're driving down Castro Street, he looked out the window & said, 'What is this? All these guys look like me!'"

taken, as is, from Spin magazine, Feb. 1998, pg. 64