Tabe Slioor
Encyclopedia
Tabe Maria Ingeborg Slioor (21 November 1926 – 25 April 2006) was a Finnish socialite
, reporter, and photographer, living and working in Europe
and the USA.
father, a fruit shopkeeper, and a Finnish mother, a homemaker, in Finland in 1926, and had three older brothers. After her parents divorced, Slioor was raised in an orphanage for girls, seeing her parents sometimes. Her father died in 1936, and her mother lived in a hospital for mental issues. In 1947, The Salvation Army
's Family Tracing Service found out that Slioor's paternal grandfather was still living in Iran
and carried the title of Prince
.
and written by Mika Waltari
. The film was released in 1950.
Slioor was trained in a local modeling school in Finland, and then founded the Helsinki School for Models in 1951. The following year, she continued her training at the Ecole Parisienne de Mannequins modeling school in Paris
, and became the first Finn to earn a top diploma in modeling. To get more currency for her trip to Paris, Slioor needed a special permisson from the Bank of Finland
, where she met and befriended with Urho Kekkonen
, who later became arguably the most powerful and significant President of Finland
. The nature of their relationship has been a subject of speculation for decades.
Slioor's beauty, poise, charisma, and events of life allowed her to rise to importance in the eyes of the fledgling Finnish media, and she has been called one of the first Finnish celebrities along the 1952 Miss Universe
Armi Kuusela
. In addition to modeling and running her own modeling school, Slioor also took part in race rallying, and won three times the women's series of The Race of 1000 Kilometers organized by The Automobile and Touring Club of Finland. Slioor was also the first woman to be allowed to go to restaurants in Finland without a male company.
In 1953, Slioor met both Prince Bertil of Sweden
and Erik von Frenckell, a nobleman and married mayor of Helsinki, at a society event in Finland. While she reportedly befriended with Prince Bertil and kept in touch with him over the years, Slioor and von Frenckell became lovers, and several newspaper articles were written about them at the time. Slioor and von Frenckell openly attended various events in Finland, and they also travelled together around Europe, including Austria
, Switzerland
, and France
. At Brussels World's Fair, they attended a ball held to honour Princess Margaret of England
, and Slioor played piano four hands
with her. They also explored the fair in the same group with the Princess.
Slioor started to organize fashion shows for members of the Finnish upper class in the early 1950s. She held fashion shows not only in Finland, though, but also in Russia
, New York
, and even on the Queen Elizabeth
. In 1955, Slioor lived in New York
for a while, staying first at the Plaza Hotel
and then in Sonja Henie
's residence. She studied privately in a local modeling school, and held a successful fashion show for Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit
and the wives of some of the UN diplomat
s. Among other newspapers and radio and TV interviews, The New York Times
wrote an article about Slioor, "a buxom, flashing-eyed beauty", who is "Finland's leading model and the director of the Helsinki School for Models". In 1957, Slioor organized a major modeling and textile fair with great success in Saint Petersburg
with the Soviet Union
Chamber of Commerce
. Mayor Nikolay Smirnov served as the patron of the fair, which attracted thousands of visitors every day. By the time, Slioor had also held her own fashion show on Finnish television, which origin is in the mid-1950s.
From 1955 to 1965, Slioor lived in a grand apartment in Ullanlinna
, a wealthy district of Helsinki, and hosted various social events for artists, including actors, writers and poets, as well as diplomats, professors, royals, and other celebrities. She was good friends with Pentti Saarikoski
, George de Godzinsky
and others. From 1960 to 1962, Slioor was married to Kalevi Nietosvaara, a Finnish jurist and longtime friend. In 1962, she starred in Se alkoi omenasta (It Started with an Apple), a Teuvo Tulio
short film about Slioor herself.
During the early 1960s, Slioor published a serialized account of her life and relationships with men in the Finnish men's magazine Jallu (Finland's equivalent to Playboy
). The memoirs, completed with numerous photographs, letters, and other documents, were featured in 10 issues under the title of Miehet ja minä (Men And I), and Slioor was on the cover of each of those issues. As Slioor was very open about her relationship with von Frenckell, a nobleman and married mayor of Helsinki, there was an enormous interest in the subject, and Jallu broke records as around 280 000 copies of one issue were sold (Finland's population was 4.5 million at the time).
Slioor soon founded her own magazine, Madame (1962 – 1965), which became the first gossip magazine
in Finland. Her daughter Aulikki worked for the magazine as well, travelling around Europe
and North Africa
. Within the magazine, Slioor also launched her own collection of Tabe perfumes, made in France, and had Timo Sarpaneva
design the bottles and packages.
in the mid-1960s and married Matti Kosonen, a Finnish American
pilot and Vietnam
veteran. The marriage lasted from 1965 to 1968.
During the years in the States, Slioor worked as a reporter and photographer, living in San Francisco. She met, interviewed, and photographed various public figures, including Ronald Reagan
, Robert Kennedy, Henry Miller
, Bing Crosby
, Harry Belafonte
, and Rita Hayworth
, and sent numerous reportages from the States to be published in Jallu magazine in Finland, appearing on the Jallu covers with the likes of Tom McCall
, Nelson Rockefeller
, and Spiro Agnew
. Slioor also reported from San Quentin Prison
, being the first reporter allowed to photograph the prison freely, and made work trips to other parts of the States, including Chicago
.
In San Francisco, Slioor befriended with Benny Bufano
, who taught her to do mosaics. Later on, Bufano stated he had sold two of Slioor's works for $1,000 per each. Slioor and Bufano started to work and attend social events together, including the wedding of Angela Alioto
, the daughter of Joseph Alioto
, then-mayor of San Francisco. Slioor also befriended with other high-profile people, including Melvin Belli
, Clinton Duffy
, Walt Baptiste, and Ching Wah Lee.
In 1969, The Bufano Society of the Arts started to claim back sculptures given or sold by Bufano to Slioor. She had pieces of art by Bufano worth around $250,000. Slioor refused, and the media started to report on the case, including especially both the San Francisco Chronicle
and The San Francisco Examiner
as well as TV and radio stations like KTVU
. The case was also followed by the Finnish press. Eventually, Slioor had to return most of the works as The Bufano Society was the legal owner of all of Bufano's art. Bufano had no right to give away any of his works to anyone as he did not own those personally, like stated in the San Francisco Chronicle on February 11, 1969. In the court, Slioor was represented by the law firm of Melvin Belli
, who had also handled her third divorce. Furthermore, Slioor had been working on Bufano's autobiography for months, but it was never finished as Bufano died in 1970.
While living in San Francisco, Slioor got married for the last time. Her fourth husband was photographer William Douglas Ganslen. The couple, however, divorced in 1976.
As for Slioor's daughter Aulikki, she started to work in the music business, working in sound engineering for Herbie Hancock
, Lydia Pense
and Cold Blood
, Santana
, The Pointer Sisters, and others, as well as jamming with Jorma Kaukonen
of Jefferson Airplane
and Jerry Garcia
of the Grateful Dead
at Kaukonen's. Aulikki also worked as a cowgirl in Tennessee Ernie Ford
's ranch in Nevada
. Later on, she moved to Alaska
, became a private pilot, got married, had a daughter, and worked as an artist and a writer. She also had her own art studio and gallery, and hosted her own radio shows on KBBI
and KDLL
. Nowadays, Aulikki Slioor Knight works for her husband's business, Commercial & Recreational Marine Services LLC.. In September 2010, she and her husband ended a long, successful journey as they sailed 2455 miles in three months, bringing their new boat, a 1959 wooden yacht, from Sausalito, California
, to Homer, Alaska
.
Slioor spent most of her later life in Turku
, where she lived in a small apartment with her cat. During the years, she kept in touch with her family and friends, including daughter Aulikki and granddaughter Sativa. In spring 2006, it was widely reported that Slioor had died.
In 2007, Slioor's life was portrayed in a play in a Helsinki theatre, and she was also named as one of Finland's 90 dignitaries since its independence in 1917 by authors of The National Biography of Finland
. Slioor also made front page headlines in 2009, when it was revealed that Urho Kekkonen, the longest-serving President of Finland
, had used the Finnish Security Police to keep an eye on her. In 2010, Slioor became a media subject again as her life was portrayed in a new play at the Alexander Theatre
in Helsinki. She also became one of the central figures in researcher Laura Saarenmaa's doctoral thesis Intiimit äänet (Voices of Intimacy).
In the summer of 2011, the Finnish Broadcasting Company aired Se alkoi omenasta (It Started with an Apple), the 1962 short film on Slioor's life, starring Slioor as herself.
Socialite
A socialite is a person who participates in social activities and spends a significant amount of time entertaining and being entertained at fashionable upper-class events....
, reporter, and photographer, living and working in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and the USA.
Background
Slioor was born to an PersianPersian people
The Persian people are part of the Iranian peoples who speak the modern Persian language and closely akin Iranian dialects and languages. The origin of the ethnic Iranian/Persian peoples are traced to the Ancient Iranian peoples, who were part of the ancient Indo-Iranians and themselves part of...
father, a fruit shopkeeper, and a Finnish mother, a homemaker, in Finland in 1926, and had three older brothers. After her parents divorced, Slioor was raised in an orphanage for girls, seeing her parents sometimes. Her father died in 1936, and her mother lived in a hospital for mental issues. In 1947, The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....
's Family Tracing Service found out that Slioor's paternal grandfather was still living in Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
and carried the title of Prince
Prince
Prince is a general term for a ruler, monarch or member of a monarch's or former monarch's family, and is a hereditary title in the nobility of some European states. The feminine equivalent is a princess...
.
Life and career in Finland
Slioor married her first husband Sigurd Laesvirta, a Finnish painter, in 1944, and they had a daughter named Aulikki. Through the marriage, Slioor was involved in Finnish art circles and soon started to work as a model. After divorcing her first husband in 1948, Slioor became a single parent and continued working as a model and also appeared in the Finnish film Tanssi yli hautojen (Dancing on Graves), which was directed by Toivo SärkkäToivo Särkkä
Toivo Jalmari Särkkä , born Toivo Hjalmar Silén, was a Finnish film producer and director. He was CEO of the production company Suomen Filmiteollisuus....
and written by Mika Waltari
Mika Waltari
Mika Toimi Waltari was a Finnish writer, best known for his best-selling novel The Egyptian .- Early life :...
. The film was released in 1950.
Slioor was trained in a local modeling school in Finland, and then founded the Helsinki School for Models in 1951. The following year, she continued her training at the Ecole Parisienne de Mannequins modeling school in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, and became the first Finn to earn a top diploma in modeling. To get more currency for her trip to Paris, Slioor needed a special permisson from the Bank of Finland
Bank of Finland
The Bank of Finland is the central bank of Finland. It is the fourth oldest central bank in the world.-History:The Bank of Finland was established on 1 March in 1812 in the city of Turku by Alexander I of Russia. In 1819 it was relocated to Helsinki...
, where she met and befriended with Urho Kekkonen
Urho Kekkonen
Urho Kaleva Kekkonen , was a Finnish politician who served as Prime Minister of Finland and later as the eighth President of Finland . Kekkonen continued the “active neutrality” policy of his predecessor President Juho Kusti Paasikivi, a doctrine which came to be known as the “Paasikivi–Kekkonen...
, who later became arguably the most powerful and significant President of Finland
President of Finland
The President of the Republic of Finland is the nation's head of state. Under the Finnish constitution, executive power is vested in the President and the government, with the President possessing extensive powers. The President is elected directly by the people of Finland for a term of six years....
. The nature of their relationship has been a subject of speculation for decades.
Slioor's beauty, poise, charisma, and events of life allowed her to rise to importance in the eyes of the fledgling Finnish media, and she has been called one of the first Finnish celebrities along the 1952 Miss Universe
Miss Universe 1952
Miss Universe 1952, the very first Miss Universe pageant, was held on June 28, 1952 at the Long Beach Municipal Auditorium in Long Beach, California, USA. 30 contestants competed for the crown...
Armi Kuusela
Armi Kuusela
3. ; Victoria Advocate, 5 May, 19534. ; Owosso Argus-Press, 30, June 1952-External links:*...
. In addition to modeling and running her own modeling school, Slioor also took part in race rallying, and won three times the women's series of The Race of 1000 Kilometers organized by The Automobile and Touring Club of Finland. Slioor was also the first woman to be allowed to go to restaurants in Finland without a male company.
In 1953, Slioor met both Prince Bertil of Sweden
Prince Bertil, Duke of Halland
Prince Bertil of Sweden , Duke of Halland, was the third son of King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden and his first wife, Princess Margaret of Connaught.The prince was born at Stockholm...
and Erik von Frenckell, a nobleman and married mayor of Helsinki, at a society event in Finland. While she reportedly befriended with Prince Bertil and kept in touch with him over the years, Slioor and von Frenckell became lovers, and several newspaper articles were written about them at the time. Slioor and von Frenckell openly attended various events in Finland, and they also travelled together around Europe, including Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, and France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. At Brussels World's Fair, they attended a ball held to honour Princess Margaret of England
Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon
Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon was the younger sister of Queen Elizabeth II and the younger daughter of King George VI....
, and Slioor played piano four hands
Piano four-hands
Piano four hands is a specific form of duet for a single piano with two players. A duet with the players playing separate instruments is a piano duo....
with her. They also explored the fair in the same group with the Princess.
Slioor started to organize fashion shows for members of the Finnish upper class in the early 1950s. She held fashion shows not only in Finland, though, but also in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, and even on the Queen Elizabeth
RMS Queen Elizabeth
RMS Queen Elizabeth was an ocean liner operated by the Cunard Line. Plying with her running mate Queen Mary as a luxury liner between Southampton, UK and New York City, USA via Cherbourg, France, she was also contracted for over twenty years to carry the Royal Mail as the second half of the two...
. In 1955, Slioor lived in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
for a while, staying first at the Plaza Hotel
Plaza Hotel
The Plaza Hotel in New York City is a landmark 20-story luxury hotel with a height of and length of that occupies the west side of Grand Army Plaza, from which it derives its name, and extends along Central Park South in Manhattan. Fifth Avenue extends along the east side of Grand Army Plaza...
and then in Sonja Henie
Sonja Henie
Sonja Henie was a Norwegian figure skater and film star. She was a three-time Olympic Champion in Ladies Singles, a ten-time World Champion and a six-time European Champion . Henie won more Olympic and World titles than any other ladies figure skater...
's residence. She studied privately in a local modeling school, and held a successful fashion show for Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit
Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit
Vijaya Lakshmi Nehru Pandit was an Indian diplomat and politician, the sister of Jawaharlal Nehru, the aunt of Indira Gandhi and the great-aunt of Rajiv Gandhi, all of whom served as Prime Minister of India.In 1921 she married Ranjit Sitaram Pandit, who died on 14 January 1944...
and the wives of some of the UN diplomat
Diplomat
A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...
s. Among other newspapers and radio and TV interviews, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
wrote an article about Slioor, "a buxom, flashing-eyed beauty", who is "Finland's leading model and the director of the Helsinki School for Models". In 1957, Slioor organized a major modeling and textile fair with great success in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
with the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
Chamber of Commerce
Chamber of commerce
A chamber of commerce is a form of business network, e.g., a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to advocate on behalf of the business community...
. Mayor Nikolay Smirnov served as the patron of the fair, which attracted thousands of visitors every day. By the time, Slioor had also held her own fashion show on Finnish television, which origin is in the mid-1950s.
From 1955 to 1965, Slioor lived in a grand apartment in Ullanlinna
Ullanlinna
' is the southern-most city district of Helsinki, in Finland. The name Ullanlinna refers to the fortification line that was built at the southern edge of the area during the 18th century , as part of the town fortifications, which also included the fortress of . The name refers to the Swedish...
, a wealthy district of Helsinki, and hosted various social events for artists, including actors, writers and poets, as well as diplomats, professors, royals, and other celebrities. She was good friends with Pentti Saarikoski
Pentti Saarikoski
Pentti Saarikoski was one of the most important poets in the literary scene of Finland during the 60's and 70's...
, George de Godzinsky
George de Godzinsky
George de Godzinsky was a Russian-born Finnish composer and conductor. Godzinsky is known from his Schlager music although he composed music for movies and operettas....
and others. From 1960 to 1962, Slioor was married to Kalevi Nietosvaara, a Finnish jurist and longtime friend. In 1962, she starred in Se alkoi omenasta (It Started with an Apple), a Teuvo Tulio
Teuvo Tulio
Theodor Antonius Tugai , better known as Teuvo Tulio, was a Finnish film director and actor. Beginning his career as an actor at the end of the silent era, Tulio turned to directing and producing in the 1930s...
short film about Slioor herself.
During the early 1960s, Slioor published a serialized account of her life and relationships with men in the Finnish men's magazine Jallu (Finland's equivalent to Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
). The memoirs, completed with numerous photographs, letters, and other documents, were featured in 10 issues under the title of Miehet ja minä (Men And I), and Slioor was on the cover of each of those issues. As Slioor was very open about her relationship with von Frenckell, a nobleman and married mayor of Helsinki, there was an enormous interest in the subject, and Jallu broke records as around 280 000 copies of one issue were sold (Finland's population was 4.5 million at the time).
Slioor soon founded her own magazine, Madame (1962 – 1965), which became the first gossip magazine
Gossip magazine
Gossip magazines feature scandalous stories about the personal lives of celebrities. This genre of magazine flourished in North America in the 1950s and early 1960s. The title Confidential alone boasted a monthly circulation in excess of ten million, and it had many competitors, with names like...
in Finland. Her daughter Aulikki worked for the magazine as well, travelling around Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and North Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
. Within the magazine, Slioor also launched her own collection of Tabe perfumes, made in France, and had Timo Sarpaneva
Timo Sarpaneva
Timo Sarpaneva was an influential Finnish designer, sculptor, and educator best known in the art world for innovative work in glass, which often merged attributes of display art objects with utilitarian designations. While glass remained his most commonly addressed medium, he worked with metal,...
design the bottles and packages.
Years in the United States
Slioor moved to the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in the mid-1960s and married Matti Kosonen, a Finnish American
Finnish American
Finnish Americans are Americans of Finnish descent, who currently number about 700,000.-History:Some Finns, like the ancestors of John Morton, came to the Swedish colony of New Sweden, that existed in mid-17th century....
pilot and Vietnam
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
veteran. The marriage lasted from 1965 to 1968.
During the years in the States, Slioor worked as a reporter and photographer, living in San Francisco. She met, interviewed, and photographed various public figures, including Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
, Robert Kennedy, Henry Miller
Henry Miller
Henry Valentine Miller was an American novelist and painter. He was known for breaking with existing literary forms and developing a new sort of 'novel' that is a mixture of novel, autobiography, social criticism, philosophical reflection, surrealist free association, and mysticism, one that is...
, Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
, Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte
Harold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, actor and social activist. He was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s...
, and Rita Hayworth
Rita Hayworth
Rita Hayworth was an American film actress and dancer who attained fame during the 1940s as one of the era's top stars...
, and sent numerous reportages from the States to be published in Jallu magazine in Finland, appearing on the Jallu covers with the likes of Tom McCall
Tom McCall
Thomas Lawson McCall was an American politician and journalist in the state of Oregon. A Republican, he was the 30th Governor of Oregon from 1967 to 1975. A native of Massachusetts, he grew up there and in Central Oregon before attending the University of Oregon...
, Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller was the 41st Vice President of the United States , serving under President Gerald Ford, and the 49th Governor of New York , as well as serving the Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower administrations in a variety of positions...
, and Spiro Agnew
Spiro Agnew
Spiro Theodore Agnew was the 39th Vice President of the United States , serving under President Richard Nixon, and the 55th Governor of Maryland...
. Slioor also reported from San Quentin Prison
San Quentin State Prison
San Quentin State Prison is a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison for men in unincorporated San Quentin, Marin County, California, United States. Opened in July 1852, it is the oldest prison in the state. California's only death row for male inmates, the largest...
, being the first reporter allowed to photograph the prison freely, and made work trips to other parts of the States, including Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
.
In San Francisco, Slioor befriended with Benny Bufano
Benny Bufano
Beniamino Benvenuto Bufano was a California-based Italian American sculptor, best known for his large-scale monuments, usually of granite. His modernist work often featured smoothly rounded animals and relatively simple shapes.-Biography:Bufano was born in San Fele, Italy. He moved with his...
, who taught her to do mosaics. Later on, Bufano stated he had sold two of Slioor's works for $1,000 per each. Slioor and Bufano started to work and attend social events together, including the wedding of Angela Alioto
Angela Alioto
Angela Alioto is an attorney, a politician, and a member of the Secular Franciscan order and Democratic Party. She is a member of one of the best known political families in San Francisco, and her family is generally associated with the liberal democratic side of the city's...
, the daughter of Joseph Alioto
Joseph Alioto
Joseph Lawrence Alioto was the 36th mayor of San Francisco, California, from 1968 to 1976.-Biography:...
, then-mayor of San Francisco. Slioor also befriended with other high-profile people, including Melvin Belli
Melvin Belli
Melvin Mouron Belli was a prominent American lawyer known as "The King of Torts" and by detractors as 'Melvin Bellicose'. He had many celebrity clients, including Zsa Zsa Gabor, Errol Flynn, Chuck Berry, Muhammad Ali, Sirhan Sirhan, the Rolling Stones, Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye Bakker, Martha...
, Clinton Duffy
Clinton Duffy
Clinton Duffy is a New Zealand marine scientist, who works in the Marine Conservation Unit of the Department of Conservation. Duffy is a shark expert, whose work includes the taxonomy and conservation status of New Zealand’s deepwater dogfishes, attaching GPS wildlife tracking devices to great...
, Walt Baptiste, and Ching Wah Lee.
In 1969, The Bufano Society of the Arts started to claim back sculptures given or sold by Bufano to Slioor. She had pieces of art by Bufano worth around $250,000. Slioor refused, and the media started to report on the case, including especially both the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
and The San Francisco Examiner
The San Francisco Examiner
The San Francisco Examiner is a U.S. daily newspaper. It has been published continuously in San Francisco, California, since the late 19th century.-19th century:...
as well as TV and radio stations like KTVU
KTVU
KTVU, virtual channel 2 , is the Fox-affiliated television station serving the San Francisco Bay Area. Licensed to Oakland, California, the station has been owned by Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises since 1964, making it the largest Fox affiliate by market size that is not owned and operated by the...
. The case was also followed by the Finnish press. Eventually, Slioor had to return most of the works as The Bufano Society was the legal owner of all of Bufano's art. Bufano had no right to give away any of his works to anyone as he did not own those personally, like stated in the San Francisco Chronicle on February 11, 1969. In the court, Slioor was represented by the law firm of Melvin Belli
Melvin Belli
Melvin Mouron Belli was a prominent American lawyer known as "The King of Torts" and by detractors as 'Melvin Bellicose'. He had many celebrity clients, including Zsa Zsa Gabor, Errol Flynn, Chuck Berry, Muhammad Ali, Sirhan Sirhan, the Rolling Stones, Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye Bakker, Martha...
, who had also handled her third divorce. Furthermore, Slioor had been working on Bufano's autobiography for months, but it was never finished as Bufano died in 1970.
While living in San Francisco, Slioor got married for the last time. Her fourth husband was photographer William Douglas Ganslen. The couple, however, divorced in 1976.
As for Slioor's daughter Aulikki, she started to work in the music business, working in sound engineering for Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
, Lydia Pense
Lydia Pense
Lydia Pense is an American rock-soul-jazz singer who since 1969 has performed with the band Cold Blood...
and Cold Blood
Cold Blood
Cold Blood is a long-standing soul-rock-jazz band founded by Larry Field in 1968 and originally based in the San Francisco East Bay area. They have also gone by the name Lydia Pense and Cold Blood due to the popularity of their lead singer, Lydia Pense....
, Santana
Santana (band)
Santana is a rock band based around guitarist Carlos Santana and founded in the late 1960s. It first came to public attention after their performing the song "Soul Sacrifice" at the Woodstock Festival in 1969, when their Latin rock provided a contrast to other acts on the bill...
, The Pointer Sisters, and others, as well as jamming with Jorma Kaukonen
Jorma Kaukonen
Jorma Ludwik Kaukonen Jr. is an American blues, folk, and rock guitarist, best known for his work with Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna.-Biography:...
of Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1965. A pioneer of the psychedelic rock movement, Jefferson Airplane was the first band from the San Francisco scene to achieve mainstream commercial and critical success....
and Jerry Garcia
Jerry Garcia
Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia was an American musician best known for his lead guitar work, singing and songwriting with the band the Grateful Dead...
of the Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...
at Kaukonen's. Aulikki also worked as a cowgirl in Tennessee Ernie Ford
Tennessee Ernie Ford
Ernest Jennings Ford , better known as Tennessee Ernie Ford, was an American recording artist and television host who enjoyed success in the country and Western, pop, and gospel musical genres...
's ranch in Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
. Later on, she moved to Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
, became a private pilot, got married, had a daughter, and worked as an artist and a writer. She also had her own art studio and gallery, and hosted her own radio shows on KBBI
KBBI
KBBI , is a National Public Radio member radio station in Homer, Alaska.-External links:*...
and KDLL
KDLL
KDLL is a non-commercial radio station in Kenai, Alaska, broadcasting on 91.9 FM. The station airs public radio programming from the National Public Radio network and the BBC World Service. KDLL also airs some locally originated programming....
. Nowadays, Aulikki Slioor Knight works for her husband's business, Commercial & Recreational Marine Services LLC.. In September 2010, she and her husband ended a long, successful journey as they sailed 2455 miles in three months, bringing their new boat, a 1959 wooden yacht, from Sausalito, California
Sausalito, California
Sausalito is a San Francisco Bay Area city, in Marin County, California, United States. Sausalito is south-southeast of San Rafael, at an elevation of 13 feet . The population was 7,061 as of the 2010 census. The community is situated near the northern end of the Golden Gate Bridge, and prior to...
, to Homer, Alaska
Homer, Alaska
Homer is a city located in Kenai Peninsula Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population was 5,364. One of Homer's nicknames is "the cosmic hamlet by the sea"; another is "the end of the road"...
.
Later life in Finland
After 16 years in the United States, Slioor moved back to Finland and disappeared from the public spotlight. In 1997, WSOY published her autobiography Tabe, and she gave interviews for Finnish TV, radio, and print media about her life. After the launch of the book, she disappeared again.Slioor spent most of her later life in Turku
Turku
Turku is a city situated on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River. It is located in the region of Finland Proper. It is believed that Turku came into existence during the end of the 13th century which makes it the oldest city in Finland...
, where she lived in a small apartment with her cat. During the years, she kept in touch with her family and friends, including daughter Aulikki and granddaughter Sativa. In spring 2006, it was widely reported that Slioor had died.
In 2007, Slioor's life was portrayed in a play in a Helsinki theatre, and she was also named as one of Finland's 90 dignitaries since its independence in 1917 by authors of The National Biography of Finland
Kansallisbiografia
Suomen Kansallisbiografia is a collection of 6,000 biographies of individuals and families who have made important contributions to the development of Finnish society.- From the time of the Swedish era :Adlercreutz, ,Aeimelaeus,...
. Slioor also made front page headlines in 2009, when it was revealed that Urho Kekkonen, the longest-serving President of Finland
Urho Kekkonen
Urho Kaleva Kekkonen , was a Finnish politician who served as Prime Minister of Finland and later as the eighth President of Finland . Kekkonen continued the “active neutrality” policy of his predecessor President Juho Kusti Paasikivi, a doctrine which came to be known as the “Paasikivi–Kekkonen...
, had used the Finnish Security Police to keep an eye on her. In 2010, Slioor became a media subject again as her life was portrayed in a new play at the Alexander Theatre
Aleksanterin Teatteri
Aleksanterin teatteri , Alexandersteatern is a Finnish theatre in the city of Helsinki at Bulevardi 23-27, also known as Russian Theater and Alexander Theatre.-History:...
in Helsinki. She also became one of the central figures in researcher Laura Saarenmaa's doctoral thesis Intiimit äänet (Voices of Intimacy).
In the summer of 2011, the Finnish Broadcasting Company aired Se alkoi omenasta (It Started with an Apple), the 1962 short film on Slioor's life, starring Slioor as herself.