A Brief History of
 the

The Zappa-created GTOs, was a musical act, composed of a group of seven young groupies,
A few were living in the Log Cabin commune, when Frank, his family, and most of his band,
the Mothers of Invention, moved in during March, 1968.

"The GTO's (which stands for Girls Together Outrageously) were a loose collection of groupie-chicks that collected around the Frank Zappa/Mothers of Invention/L.A. Rock-N-Roll scene in the late 60's/early 70's. The point of this amalgamation of super-groupies was to attract as much attention as possible (which they did) from rock gods and other celebrities, via a combination of freaky makeup, clothes and behavior (which was often spurred by rampant drug use and abuse). In terms of originality and inventiveness, most of the GTO's looked pretty rad...".
- Extract from Pamela Des Barres' website (© 2002)

The seven girls who were the original (and only) members of
Frank Zappa's outrageous, female singing group:
the

THE SEVEN GTO'S WERE:
1. Miss Pamela - Pamela 'Miller' Des Barres
2. Miss Sparky - Linda Sue "Sparkie" Parker
3. Miss Christine - Christine Frka
4. Miss Sandra - Sandra Leano
5. Miss Mercy - Mercy Fontenot
6. Miss Lucy - Lucy Offerall
7. Miss Cynderella - Cindy Wells

"The GTO's were a collection of groupies from the late 60's L.A. music scene. The group started out as "the Cherry Sisters" and then became the Laurel Canyon Ballet Company, performing as an opening act for the Mothers of Invention, providing 'performance art' in a mix of theatrics, off-key singing, dance and spoken word. Their activities gained attention from a wider audience with the release of their album "Permanent Damage" 
 - From official Frank Zappa Website

Zappa christened his new female group,
 "Girls Together Outrageously" 

Christine, Mercy, Lucy, Sandra, Sparky, Pamela & Cynderella.
The

{the girls at Sunset Sound  studio}

Several of the girls were known by their 'freak' nicknames (Miss Cynderalla, Miss Sparky, etc.), but whichever name they used , all  were known by "Miss" (Miss Pamela, Miss Christine, etc.).
This tradition  came from "Freak Recording Artist", and a regular  Log Cabin visitor, TINY TIM, who addressed all females in this manner. .The oft bizarre recording artist became a national  sensation  with the release of his falsetto interpretation of the old classic: "Tiptoe Through the Tulips".
     The GTO's recording career failed to match Tiny Tim's success.

The  - The story of the group.

Basically, the group evolved from Vito Paulekas' early "freak", free-form dance troupe. The loosely formed group of youthful Hollywood misfits, came together at Szou & Vito's art studio/fashion boutique/crash pad, and was usually (unofficially) known as "Vito & his Freakers".
The wildly dressed group of 'Freaks' danced wherever they could find live music in the local clubs. The bizarre gang of freaks often numbered 35 dancers, the majority, scantily clad (often transparent), uninhibited, young teenaged girls.
It should be noted that Vito's Freaks were shocking the masses with more than their underage nymphets, wild sexy clothing, and general, overall appearance. At the time, the common dance style among American youth, as practiced at 'Sock Hops' and on television's 'American Bandstand', was the traditional male/female couple dancing together, embraced for slower songs, and utilizing traditional moves from the established styles of the past for the up tempo numbers.
Vito's dancers (later to be dubbed "The Laurel Canyon Ballet Company") originally employed Vito's "freeform-jazz" style of dance, which evolved into a more frantic, sexual, gyrating, "freer form", as the drugs flowed more freely, and the music began to rock with more intensity. "Vito & His Freakers"  were soon attracting more fans than the rock bands themselves. When San Francisco's 'Haight-Ashbury' & LA's Sunset Strip scenes began to attract national media attention, tourists began to flock to the new Sunset Strip clubs to witness the 'dancing freaks'

ENTER ZAPPA

When Frank Zappa moved to The Log Cabin in March of 1968, he found that Carl Franzoni & Vito had somewhat organized the troupe of freeform dancers into 'The Laurel Canyon Ballet Company", and most of the females were living at The Log Cabin, as well. Zappa, ever on the lookout for new, and often offbeat, talent, was establishing his own production company & record label at the time, and encouraged his new roommates to develop their talents and try writing some material which he could produce for his new Bizarre/Straight Records. Frank had set up a home recording studio in the cabin to capture all audio @ all times, as was his custom for the rest of his life. During the Album's extended, informal recording sessions, many of the era's famed rockers were persuaded to add their talents to the project. A few of the biggest names are Rod Stewart, Jeff Beck, & Nicky Hopkins; in fact, Little Feat's Lowell George produced a couple of the album's better tracks.

 "MISS CHRISTINE "

Christine Frka, like her best friend, Miss Sandra (Sandra Leano), was born to Yugoslav parents, in San Pedro, California.
The pair grew up together in the little Southern  California beach town, home to both the Los Angeles Harbor, and Terminal Island Federal Correction Institution. The small local sea town sits next to LA's naval center, the city of Long Beach,
Despite the fact that both cities are known for offering a vast selection of entertainment activities, the pubescent pair of rebellious schoolgirls, vowed to get out of their "hick town" and move to the glitter of Hollywood's Sunset Strip.
By the age of 14, the pair were regulars at all the radical coffee houses and music clubs throughout the area. Before they were 16, the girls had left home and ventured north to experience life on the Sunset Strip.
The girls were 'rescued' from their homeless situation by Carl Franzoni, and soon found themselves ensconced in their own cubicles (next to Franzoni's), in the basement of the Laurel Canyon Log Cabin. The pair were among the first to settle in the Cabin, and they remained within the group's inner core throughout the commune's Log Cabin stay. 
 
This was especially true when the Zappa family arrived in LA in March, 1968. Christine first met Zappa months earlier when Frank was in town for a concert appearance.
He visited his old friend, Carl Franzoni, at the Log Cabin, to discuss his move from New York to The Log Cabin.
Obviously, this meeting went well, because when the Zappa family moved in, Miss Christine became the governess for 'Moon Unit', the Zappa's baby, as well as the Zappa family's designated housekeeper at the Log Cabin.

Christine loved playing "Dress-Up" since childhood, and in her early San Pedro rebel years, she strived for a unique "look", a style totally different from the norm, yet it had to be one suited for her freakishly tall, lanky body.
Imagine her joy when she was first introduced to Vito's wife, Szou, and Szou's "FREAK BOUTIQUE", which would soon relocate from Vito's "Chez Clay" studio to the Laurel Canyon Log Cabin, both upstairs and in the Cabin basement.

      *From Pamela Des Barres website*
" She was a "sickly kid," she says, and had a "big complex about being skinny."
She was tall and lean, the type of girl who would have been called "beanpole"
by her schoolmates. She says she is the cold, cruel one in the group, but she's not. She's bright and quite outgoing."
  *From an intro to a magazine article*
      (Mojo? or Rolling Stone)
"Christine loves clothing and makes all her own, which can only be described as junkshop harlequin. In an interview she was wearing a knitted patchwork jump suit in a hundred colors, colored pipe cleaners....."

Like the rest of the girls,
Christine loved to dance,
she loved music,
and loved the young guys
who made the music.

And, like the others, she found Vito's 'free-form'
style of dance to be an exhilarating medium
in which to totally express herself.

AND DANCE THEY DID !

This free-form of dance was totally devoid of the established rules and methods (dance steps) that was common among the structured dance styles popular during & after WWII.
Gone were the loose, sometimes frantic, styles popularized in the 'Roaring 20's'.

NOTE: A review of history reveals that dance styles are usually an outgrowth of a society's cultural situation, and frame of mind during an era. Hence, the conservativism of American society after the War, through the 50's Cold War,
and into the early 60's (pre Kennedy), was expressed in the era's style of dance.

More importantly, just like jazz & ballet, this form of dance could be an artistic performance.

When the GTO's (& Vito's Freaks) danced, it was indeed a 'performance' (see above photo}. 

By the time the girls were 'rock stars' (author humor), AKA - the GTO's,
 their dance performances had become less common along the Sunset Strip.
 First, they were no longer the official "Byrds' Dancers",

When the Byrds went out for their first Midwest tour, their roadie, Carl Franzoni, assembled a minimal number of "touring Byrds Dancers"  to "get the party started", at the concerts, and to introduce genuine "LA Freaks"  to the curious Midwestern crowds of music fans.
The Byrds recognized the role played by "Vito's Freaks" at their early gigs, and wanted to ensure that their concert & club crowds would join into the festive occasion. Franzoni would leave the Byrds tour after several weeks on the road, and many of the dancers followed.

Once Frank Zappa introduced a semblance of order and structure to the free-form, oft-zany, lifestyles shared by the Log Cabin Clan, the GTO's & dancers became fixtures at all local Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention performances. Contrary to popular belief, Frank Zappa (and family) 's input, while in residence at the Log Cabin (as well as His Output during those hectic months), was one of the most productive/artistic periods in the prolific artist's long & illustrious music career. Frank's recognition of the girls' innate talents, plus his encouragement of their future potential, gave the girls goals to work for. Most of the girls took their new assignments seriously, and the reformed group devoted endless hours in developing and refining the GTO's act.
  {Frank Zappa & four GTO's}
The date of the GTO's Permanent Damage album's release was just after the upcoming "Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention" big LA blowout Holiday concert series, set for The Los Angeles Shrine Exposition Hall on the weekend of Dec. 6th & 7th, 1968.
Frank Zappa was now popular enough to choose his favorite LA concert venue, the 6,500 seat Shrine Auditorium, in which to showcase his new record label's (Bizarre/Straight Records) artists' new releases, "LIVE - In Concert".
The GTO's were billed as the Mothers' opening act (to help promote their forthcoming album), so the girls would be under the spotlight solo, for the first time, solely as featured performers. Therefore, it's safe to assume that the ladies' Grande Performances, with the Mothers, at the Los Angeles Shrine Auditorium, was the pinnacle of the GTO's short-lived music/theatrical career. The Concert Bill for the 2 nights @ the Shrine also featured Bizarre/Straight Recording Artists, Wild Man Fischer, and Alice Cooper. Both of these Zappa recording artists were also preparing their first albums for Zappa to release.   {right-GTO's -"Peaches en Regalia")

Miss Christine earned a revered position in the "GROUPIE HALL OF FAME"
with her list of Rock Star 'Boyfriends',
and in the process, earned a list of Rock Star "Dear Friends". 

Actually, young Christine's "Rock Star Boyfriend" list began, not as a 'sexual conquest' of a famous rocker, but more like a teenage crush between two impoverished, music loving, weirdos.  She hooked up with a scrawny young, aspiring singer, from Phoenix, named Vince Furnier. Vince and his scraggly buddies were a band, NAZZ, and were living 'where they could find' around Sunset, in hopes of landing a recording contract. Like most of the era's LA groups (Love, the Seeds, the Doors), this ragtag bunch of unwashed freaks relied on female fans for their survival. Also, like the other groups, they would find refuge at
The NAZZ had a following in Phoenix, but no future. When they finally lined up a club gig on Sunset for the end of March, (28?) 1967 (Brave New World?), they arrived in Hollywood a few days early and did their first LA performance (a freebie) at the Griffith Park "LOVE IN" (next to merry-go-round 3/26).

Vince & his boys were hooked; they hung in LA, securing a couple gigs at The Hullabaloo where they discovered they were driving out more fans than they were attracting. Even the Sunset Strip wasn't ready for Miss Christine's boyfriend & his gang of freaks.
 But that would change when they were booked (Aug. 22) to open for the Watts 103rd Rhythm Band at the CHEETAH, an LA concert venue on the Pier in Venice Beach, which most closely matched  San Francisco's Fillmore Auditorium.

     AUTHOR'S NOTE:  I must point out that my very 1st LSD enhanced Concert experience was: 
    @ the CHEETAH
    {Saturday, January 5, 1968}      If you click on these thumbnails, view the print ad first. Iron Butterfly looks like the MONKEES, only lamer. And the Sunshine Company !
Singer Mary Nance (pictured) makes Linda Ronstadt look, and rock, like Courtney Love. Worse, their music made the Mommas and Pappas sound like Grace Slick & Jefferson Airplane. Surprisingly, I can't remember any more, other than their recently released debut album, "Happy Is the Sunshine Company", featured their lone Top 40 hit, "Back on the Street Again" and the weaker follow-up, "Happy".
Oh, My God !  
Fortunately, Iron Butterfly's just released debut album, was titled "Heavy", and they definitely were that !!! They had been opening for the Doors, Jefferson Airplane, and like California rockers. Whew!
Upon reflection, "Heavy" really wasn't, however, the band had changed  personal since it was recorded, and they were working on their new 'psychedelic' sound, featuring their classic "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" which they presented in a 30 minute psychedelic jam, complete with Ron Bushy's 12 minute drum solo. Their thundering performance was visually enhanced by an outrageous light show {see album cover above left}.      ENOUGH SAID !

Back to NAZZ-
Contrary to expectations, Nazz was not only well received, they were brought back 5 days later, to open for The DOORS (8/27). The pairing of the 2  Laurel Canyon bands was a huge success, and Vince & the boys were finally finding their audience. They decided to stick it out in Hollywood and returned to Arizona to pick up their final belongings, and pick up a couple gigs (and bucks) at Scottsdale's Mad Hatter's Club, bidding farewell to their Arizona friends & fans. The freaks were a natural act for the 1967 LA Halloween Ball/Fest (flesh feast/orgy), Better than that, after doing a 'killer' gig at the Cheetah on the 29th, they were asked to be the concert club's house band.  November & December found them sharing the stage with bands like: Clearlight, Mandala, & LA faves, the Chamber Bros. the Seeds, & Buffalo Springfield.

Vince & his band of freaks were feeling much better about their move to LA, after getting established on that pier jutting out over the ocean between the beaches of Venice & Santa Monica.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009 01:57 AM

Wednesday, July 15, 2009 01:57 AM

Coincidently, Miss Christine was also romantically involved with musician
Todd Rundgren, who fronted the other band named NAZZ which required Vince's band to change their name to ALICE COOPER.
The name was intended to be that of the Band's, like England's Jethro Tull. However, unlike Ian Anderson's fans, Alice Cooper's fans assigned lead singer Vince Furnier the name, and the bizarre, cartoonish character of "ALICE" began to take on a life of his own. Vince disappeared, and the macabre ALICE COOPER took center stage thereafter.

And that is how Miss Christine (with help from the girls) transformed a peculiar looking kid from Arizona, into the  "Billion Dollar Baby",
peculiar looking, Rock Star, Alice Cooper.

After the GTO's disbanded, Christine moved to New York, where she would soon undergo surgery to correct her deformed spinal column, and related irregularities in her body. The painful procedure required her to remain in a full body cast, and immobile, for over a year.  It wasn't long after removal of the body cast (Nov.5, 1972), that she was found dead in a hotel room,  the victim of an alleged drug overdose, though her friends have long suspected foul play.

Christine was the inspiration for the song, "Christine's Tune: (Devil in Disguise)" 
 by  Gram Parsons & the Flying Burrito Brothers.

After her untimely (11/72) demise  -  Jackson Browne
wrote/dedicated his 1974 song "For a Dancer" 
 to his longtime friend & ex...

Miss Christine's closest friend & confidant, "Miss Sandra"  has also passed away.

"Miss Sandra"

Sandra grew up with her lifelong best friend, Miss Christine, in San Pedro, California, Sandra eschewed conventional teen hangouts, choosing instead to join Christine "cruisin"  the alternate lifestyle coffeehouses scattered among the many Southern California beach communities. At the time, there were no Rock Clubs, and the rebellious teens were drawn to the alternate lifestyle of the waning "Hipsters"  who frequented such joints. One place where the duo spent many hours was called the Intangible Tangerine. She also frequented (with Miss Christine) a similar hangout, Insomniac, a soon defunct coffee shop situated further north, in the little seaside town of Hermosa Beach. The pair continued their coastal exodus north to Santa Monica, where Christine met a struggling young artist/sculptor, Tony Melendy. Sandra went to New York when Miss Christine moved there with Melendy, and, for a while,  she attended a local art school.

The pair of best friends would eventually reunite in Hollywood, where they would live together in a vault, located in the basement of the Laurel Canyon Log Cabin, Their little shared  room was adjacent to the makeshift psychedelic 'studio' of the Cabin Commune's co-leader, Carl Franzoni, AKA "Capt. Fuck".

Miss Sandra was infatuated with Cal Schenkel, Frank Zappa's creative-graphic artist,  and the man behind the majority of Frank's bizarre album covers (over 60) beginning with the early classic,  "We're Only In It For The Money".

Calvin Schenkel (DOB: Jan. 27, 1947 in Willow Grove, Philadelphia, Penn.) dropped out of Philadelphia College of Art, and went to California where he encountered Zappa several times, often visiting the studio when Freak Out! was recorded, before returning to his home in Philadelphia in Summer, 1966, The following spring, Frank and The Mothers arrived in New York, where they would settle for their 6 month gig at the Garrick Theater. Schenkel had met Sandy Hurvitz when she was also a student at Philadelphia College of Art. After Sandy joined The Mothers, she suggested Schenkel to Zappa to work on promotional artwork and cover designs. Zappa followed the suggestion, and the two began working together at Cal's N.Y. apartment/art studio. Frank persuaded Cal to join his entourage moving to the Laurel Canyon Log Cabin in early '68, and Cal sublet a wing of the Cabin for his living quarters & art studio.
The result of Cal and Miss Sandra's Cabin Cohabitation is "Raven", their beautiful daughter.

After the Cabin Commune split, Miss Sandra returned to her old San Pedro family hometown for a period, before her marriage and their subsequent relocation to Italy. Sadly, Sandra would succumb to Cancer in 1991, age of just 42, leaving behind a family of four, her dear husband, and three children.

PERMANENT DAMAGE

The following review is copied from the best music site on the internet.