"Yes, and the Stones...the dream changes"

Meanwhile, back at the Gibson & Stromberg ranch, we had heard about a great new British band playing at the Whisky, and trouped over to our special booth to watch the L.A. club debut of YES. We were truly impressed, and sat on manager Brian Lane until he signed the band with us. The next day I was on a flight to Oklahoma City with YES, and, after the show, watching white lightening from the top of a Holiday Inn with the band after the show. Once again, I was in rock'n'roll heaven, involved with some music I was nuts about. I worked with YES for the next couple of years, and helped them become one of the world's hottest groups. Meanwhile, we continued to sign every great act around, and then Stromberg was invited to go on the Rolling Stones' 1972 U.S. tour. For an inside look at that tour, read Robert Greenfield's book ("STP"). We continued to enjoy the fun of working with a dazzling array of artists, and the guys reaped whatever profits there were, while us girls were paid a pittance. There was much grumbling...

Why, you may ask, would I leave such an idyllic situation? Times changed, purses tightened, attitudes changed, and we moved up the street on Sunset, to the penthouse of the Playboy building, for God's sake. Where Hef Had lived. And I decided it was time for me to have the experience of being inside a record company.

"BC and The Motown Way..."

Motown Records in 1974 was attempting to "broaden the base" of the label, by moving into more of a "mainstream" in the music business. This entailed hiring a management crew of seasoned, mostly non- African American executives. I was one of those, hired, named co-vice president of publicity, along with my old pal Bob Jones, who had moved to Motown, and was wholly in charge of the label's image worldwide. By then, the Jackson 5 was a full time job for him, as was the label's Diva, Diana (Miss) Ross, along with Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and the rest. I was given the task of breaking their new slate of artists, including Severin Browne (Jackson's brother), and alot of British bands, some of the "progressive" variety. One of these was PFM, from Italy, who were lovely guys, and who cooked a huge Italian dinner for the press at their own press party. We were like an island within Motown, because for all their experience in the business, their only strength with radio at that time was with R&B radio stations. This did not help our efforts with bands like the Italians PFM, who might have made it on FM radio with the hot progressive music formats, but didn't get attention from the Motown promo dept. In any event, there was much going on at Motown that I could get excited about, and I quickly became in-house champion of the young group The Commodores, who had made the promise that they would become bigger than the Beatles. I recalled that statement one night at the end of the 1984 Olympics, when I watched Lionel Ritchie sang "All Night Long," for the largest world audience ever.

Another project I fell instantly in love with was Smokey Robinson's first solo effort after he left the Miracles. "A Quiet Storm," was a gorgeous album, and I personally felt that it would go down in history as one of the great Make-Out albums of our time.I began pitching every national magazine and every female writer I could find, and Smokey started getting the kind of press attention he had long deserved. With this album, I felt that Smokey had certainly embodied the thought that Bob Dylan had eloquently expressed, that Smokey was rock's greatest poet. At some point, Someone Upstairs At Motown determined that I had become too Personally Involved with this project, and I was given my release. So much for my first brush with the Corporate Mindset. Heartbroken, I retreated to my rented house in the Valley and planted an organic vegetable garden. I vowed never again to succumb to the temptations of the corporate world. I wish I had listened to myself.

"Backyard Bar-b-q's and Organic Gardening..."

The country was experiencing an oil shortage, people were enduring long lines at the pump, prices climbed, and somehow, this all affected the record business. Somehow there wasn't enough oil to make vinyl, and there was a slump of gargantuan proportions. Giant conglomerates were gobbling up the mid-sized companies, and, no longer in the driver's seat at these companies, were people who knew anything about music. Lawyers and accountants took over, and the quality of the music suffered. Tiny independents popped up and thanks to some of these, I had projects which I worked on from an office in my backyard. There was a project in Chicago, in which a dynamic, creative guy named Paul B. opened a Fiorucci boutique. Paul had made quite a name for himself with his Paul B. boutiques in Chicago, as the first shop to bring in French jeans. The girls of Playboy were frequent customers, and he was considered tres' hip. Fiorucci was decidedly ahead of its time for the midwest, and its two beautiful brand-new floors of the Michigan Avenue Water Tower Shopping complex, could not sustain the massive recession that hit almost immediately after it opened.

Next came a band called Natural Gas, whose members had come from Badfinger and the Faces, Their first (and only) album was a joy, and thanks to Frank Barsalona of Premiere talent, they secured the opening spot on Peter Frampton's 1976 Summer tour. With this exposure, and a lot of great press on the tour, they nevertheless went not-so-quietly into the void, victims of the excesses of the mid-1970s, and the worst management I had ever witnessed. And, as Forrest Gump said, I don't have anymore to say about that.

"A Logo Is Born..."

It was time to open an office, and go into business on my own, and I needed a logo. I agonized over the "statement" that would define my approach to public relations...then, I had a dream...then, I had the dream again. When I ran into my old friend Dean Torrance, the very talented graphic artist who was creating album covers for Chicago, the Eagles, and other top artists, it was quite serendipitous. Dean had not yet reunited with his old partner Jan Berry for the life of touring and playing concerts, fairs and oldies shows that they enjoy today. He was very successful in his Kittyhawk Graphics business, and I was overjoyed that he agreed to create the Hollywood Sign silliness that became my "statement." And for those that have not received anything from me in these almost twenty years, the quote along the bottom of the letterhead endures: "Twelve press agent working overtime can do terrible things to the human spirit." This quote by Cecil B. DeMille is somewhere in the 1950 film "Sunset Boulevard".

I decided to get serious, and moved into a small office in Century City with my accountant. I was located on the Avenue of the Stars, and my first client became Linda Lovelace. We had problems immediately, as she wanted me to tell the press with a straight face that she never did "Deep Throat," that it was some other person. Very short-lived, that project. I was not heartbroken. I took on a beautiful coffee-table book on Tatooing as my next project, then, worked with the brilliant comedy writer Bruce Vilanch on his breakthrough comedy album "Out Of The Closet".Bruce eventually not only came "Out of the Closet" but has become a star, with an Oscar-nominated documentary ("Get Bruce") and a long-running gig on "Hollywood Squares". Then, William Shatner came to me with a spoken word album of a college tour he had done, and I was introduced to the world of Star Trek. As Paramount had not yet decided to do a feature film of the Star Trek series, except for the epic film "Kingdom of the Spiders," Shatner was "between acting projects". This double album is where Shatner's infamous "Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds" came from. I learned that Star Trek fans can take anything, as long as their heroes are involved. Bill, however, was a gentleman, and a lot of fun to work with. He allowed me to tie him inextricably to the fledgeling organization "Green Peace," and I learned many years later that it was this relationship that was behind the plotline of one of the Star Trek feature films that dealt with saving whales on Earth.

I had a small staff by this time, and we were working hard and developing a good rep. A&M Records gave us two of their hottest groups, Styx, and Supertramp. Styx's Seventh album, "The Grand Illusion" was released on the 7th of July, 1977, and we enjoyed grand success, except with the rock press. The press hated Styx with a vengeance, although they sold a ton of records. It was their first Gold album, and their manager, Derek Sutton (who had also managed Procol Harum and Robin Trower) made a lot of money for and with the band. Supertramp was another story, the press loved them, they were a lovely bunch of guys, they made wonderful, positive and happy music, and they were a joy to work with.