Beat Playmate 

we find a beautnik in a coffee house 

When our team of researchers and photographers descended upon Los Angeles to gather material for the L.A. portion of this issue's feature, The Coffee Houses of America, they saw many beauteous bohemiennes sipping espresso. Being thoroughly indoctrinated company men, the question "Playmate?" flashed through their minds more than once. But when they spied Yvette Vickers at a small table in Hollywood's Cosmo Alley, that question became an affirmative, exclamatory statement. Yvette -- though possibly a mite more attractive than most -- is representative of the girls who inhabit the beat coffee houses of Hollywood. She's a movie hopeful, having appeared in a number of films and TV shows. She's interested in serious acting, ballet, the poetry of Dylan Thomas, classical music ("Prokofiev drives me out of my skull!"). She has strong opinions and is more than a bit of a rebel, frowning prettily on conformity. She is also reckless and uninhibited enough to race a Jag in the desert for kicks. And she confesses to being "somewhat of a nut" about health food: she's often to be seen stowing away vitamins and minerals at an "organic food restaurant" called The Aware Inn. That is, when she's not digging the Scythian Suite in the dim light of a coffee house.