Mini Skirts and Music

I met Abe when I was working at a bank and his law firm was in the same building.  I had some interesting adventures with him.  He had just set up A&M Records with Herb Alpert and was also the attorney for Mick Jagger and the Mamas and the Papas.

I remember crying at the bank because I had just had my hair cut so short by the man who would next give the cut to Twiggy.  He practiced on me.  I wore mini-skirts and patent leather knee-high boots then.

There were a lot of meetings of industry people at his apartment in West Hollywood.  At one time I remember they were trying to decide on what single to release (back in the days of 45 rpm record releases) for the Fifth Dimension.  They had another song in mind but I kept insisting on “Up, Up and Away.”   Finally, I got my way.   The song was a big hit!

Occasionally we went to dinner in Benedict Canyon at Terry Melcher’s house (Doris Day’s Son).  One of the guys from Three Dog Night lived in the guest house in the back.  There were lots of wild cats around the property.

A year or so later I saw a picture of the house on the front page of the newspaper.  It was the house where the Charles Manson murders occurred!

Abe and I did a lot of promo work for the Monterey Pop Festival as the Mamas and the Papas were the main act.  They had an office in a house on Sunset Boulevard.  We would go there to pick up 45 rpm records of Scott McKenzie’s “If You’re Going to San Francisco.”  We passed out the records and flyers to a lot of people.

Just before the concert, Abe and I got into a verbose fight and broke up and so I didn’t go.  Too bad.  I enjoyed watching the Pennybaker film. 

Eventually I married the band leader from the Mamas and the Papas, but that’s another story.