What was to become known as the Watts Rebellion, or Watts Uprising, lasted for six days. Lorewyn was right, people lost a lot. But in the midst of all the loss, there were a couple of noteworthy gains. The first was Reggie Moore. Lorewyn was determined to track him down and make sure he was properly thanked for saving her and Rhianyn’s lives. It wasn’t too difficult… she was an investigator, after all. A couple months later, she found him and sat down with him over lunch one day.
She and Reggie talked for a while. He was in his mid-20’s, very smart, and goal-oriented. He had a mind for criminal justice and wanted to pursue some kind of career in it, but he hated the police… which wasn’t very hard to understand. Lorewyn felt out his ambitions and natural talents, then proposed an idea.
“Have you thought about becoming a P.I.?” she asked him.
Los Angeles Southwest College was a small school close to the neighborhood where Reggie lived. It had been designed with the intent to help young Black men and women in particular receive better educational and job opportunities. Lorewyn spoke to Alan, and Madison-McKinley sponsored Reggie to enroll in the school’s Private Investigations Certificate Program. He started in 1966, completing the program and joining Madison-McKinley in 1968, making it the first interracial P.I. firm in the Los Angeles area. Rhianyn couldn’t resist.
“But didn’t you already break that barrier?” she mused to Lorewyn. “I mean, you already made it inter-species eight years ago, right?”
Within a few months of joining the firm, Reggie had worked on some good cases and presented Lorewyn with a token of his appreciation. He had insisted that Rhianyn be there as well. The unveiling was made at the firm’s office in Santa Monica.
He had saved up and bought for Lorewyn and Rhianyn a new 1968 Ford Mustang… a limited edition California Special!
“I figured that since you lost your Mustang three years ago in my ‘hood, it was only fair… right?” He handed Lorewyn the keys.
And although Lorewyn could never prove it, she was pretty convinced that the P.I. trio made up of herself, Alan, and Reggie had inspired the creation of the popular TV show The Mod Squad, starring Michael Cole, Peggy Lipton, and Clarence Williams.
***
The other “gain” that perhaps could be considered as coming as a result of what happened in Watts was Rhianyn’s next career move… and that made ripples that extended far and wide over a considerable period of time!
Lorewyn’s camera had been damaged during the incident, the photos she had taken lost. It could’ve provided some valuable insight as to how things got started. The recorder that Rhianyn had been holding and spoke into, however, survived and provided a verbal account from Rhianyn on what she was seeing and experiencing as it was unfolding. There were gaps, periods of poor sound, and some jostling of the recorder that had created some static and glitches. But overall it was a compelling documentary. Rhianyn had offered it to a news team in Los Angeles, to make sure it could be used in better revealing and understanding what happened that night in Watts. It was indeed helpful… but something else came from it as well.
“I heard the recording,” the station manager told her. “But what I heard just as much as the events and details unfolding was your voice documenting it in vivid and gripping detail! Have you considered working in radio, Miss Bancroft?”
Rhianyn just chuckled. “Radio? No. I mean, I’ve done some singing in the past, but no, I’ve never thought about radio. I really don’t think I’d make a very effective newscaster. However, I have a close friend with journalism experience who…”
“I’m not interested in you reading the news,” he clarified. “The station I manage, KBRD 1130AM, is undergoing a format change. We’re trying to get in and compete with the Top 40 market. Pop music. Rock n’ Roll. The stuff the kids like. That’s where the business is at! Stations like KRLA and KHJ have been wildly successful, but I think we can do more. I’m wanting a woman DJ… a lady like yourself to become our frontline on-air personality. I think it will create something incredible in the L.A. radio scene!”
Rhianyn was intrigued and agreed to an air-test. The programming director was sold, and as KBRD underwent their format change to Top 40 music, Julia Bancroft joined the team of DJ’s, taking the afternoon drive-time and early evening shift Monday through Friday beginning in April of 1966. Her work in the park service was history.
She wasn’t especially thrilled by it at first, as she told Lorewyn a few times. “It’s not a bad gig,” she explained, “but it’s kind of stale. I mean, I have a background in jazz standards from my singing career in New York, but that was four decades ago. Popular music has changed a lot since then. They want someone to be funny, spontaneous, liven things up, and all that. I’m just not sure I can do all that with just my voice.”
“Well, I think you’re funny and spontaneous,” Lorewyn offered, “and you sure know how to liven things up for me!”
“I’ll make you in charge of my ratings,” Rhianyn joked, but also considered the possibilities. “I’ll give it a couple months and see how it works out.”
KBRD had begun to take callers, again, trying to compete with what other radio stations in the Los Angeles area were doing at the time. The afternoon show had a request line, which had become popular with young listeners who were home from school and wanting to request their favorite songs.
Rhianyn had been using her alias on the air, of course, but was beginning to feel it didn’t have much of a DJ “flair.”
“This is Julia Bancroft in the afternoons, and you’re listening to KBRD 1130.” It just didn’t do much, at least she thought.
It was a Monday afternoon… May 16, 1966, to be precise. Rhianyn had been taking some calls from high school and college kids, playing their songs and starting to chat with them on the air, getting some comments about their upcoming summer plans, the end of the school year, and so on. It was rather fun! And the songs that were being requested were energizing Rhianyn a bit. She had just finished playing Surfin’ Bird by the Trashmen and gave her transition before going to Station ID and commercial.
“That was Su-u-u-u-u-u-u-rfin’ Bird by the Trashmen here on KBRD 1130!” She had an idea and just went for it. Why not? She thought.
“It’s 4:33, and this is your Rockin’ Raven, spinning your favorites and taking requests this afternoon on your number one station for hits in the Birdland Basin… KBRD 1130… the Bird!”
The Rockin’ Raven was born… and Top 40 Radio in Los Angeles would never be the same again.
By the end of the summer of 1966, KBRD’s ratings were top of the market in Southern California, with the Rockin’ Raven the station’s most popular DJ. Rhianyn’s voice quickly became very recognizable to radio listeners from Ventura to Orange County to the Inland Empire, and she dropped the name Julia Bancroft from her shtick immediately, making sure to distance her in-person alias from her on-air personality.
“I might have an identity crisis before long, Yellowfeather,” she mentioned to Lorewyn one day. “I’m trying to juggle being Rhianyn, Julia Bancroft, and the Rockin’ Raven all in one body!”
“And it’s one gorgeous body at that,” Lorewyn said to her, smiling. “Not to worry, I love all three of you.”
The fact that Rhianyn was not physically recognizable in public as the Rockin’ Raven was an advantage… for the time being. Her popularity and the ratings caused the station to change their time slots, and the Rockin’ Raven became KBRD’s morning show starting in the Fall of 1966… 8:00AM to noon, Monday thru Friday.
It was a great schedule for Rhianyn, but those four hours each morning were intense! She had brought in the ratings… now her job was to keep them going. Lorewyn was a creative partner in this, and with her help Rhianyn was able to design some features on her show that kept her at the top for quite some time.
First, there was the word play. Rhianyn had a lot of fun with this. Listeners would call into “the Nest,” and their cities of origin were often modified. Burbank became “Birdbank,” followed
by “San Bird-nardino,” “Owlhambra,” and one of her favorites, “Ravenside” instead of Riverside. Whenever someone called in from Eagle Rock, she just let it be and used an eagle squawking sound to signal her approval.
She started an on-air game called Who Gives a Hoot? She would get two callers on the line and she’d ask some trivia question related to what song was recently played. The first caller to hoot like an owl over the air would have the chance to answer first. If they got it right, they would win a prize. This proved to be a hugely popular game, and people would call in just to practice their owl imitations.
Through the late 1960’s, Rhianyn worked with charities and organizations, especially those that helped with birds in some way. She launched a partnership with the Los Angeles Zoo to help with their birds of prey exhibits, providing funding to keep and protect endangered species such as the California Condor. And Rhianyn didn’t forget the instrument that got her on the air to begin with… she insisted on using her position on the radio to advocate especially for groups that weren’t well-represented in public mainstream media.
Rhianyn avoided getting in front of a camera whenever possible, instead relying on her well-known voice as the means for promoting various projects. The handful of times she appeared on screen during her years in radio were in such a way that she was never visibly recognized as the Rockin’ Raven, nor easily identified as Julia Bancroft either. She had a very small uncredited role in the film Valley of the Dolls, thanks to a brief association with actress Sharon Tate as a result of a comic promotional stint she did for the film The Fearless Vampire Killers, and she and Lorewyn once appeared for a matter of seconds on an episode of Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In.
The most successful Rockin’ Raven promotion, however, was undoubtedly her partnership with the TV show Get Smart. Rhianyn had received an accidental phone call from actress Barbara Feldon who played Agent 99 on the show. Feldon had misdialed a number, trying to reach someone else. She ended up talking to Rhianyn for a few minutes, and agreed to speak on the air for part of that time.
This proved to be the most fortunate misdial imaginable, as Rhianyn worked to secure a deal with the show’s producers. Feldon appeared on the air in 1967 along with Don Adams, who played Agent 86 on the show. Listeners could call in and try to guess Agent 99’s real name, a name that she never gave on the show… only being called “99.” This promotion was a smash hit, getting tons of calls. Don Adams was there as well, and when someone offered a guess (which would inevitably be wrong), he would respond in his Maxwell Smart voice with “missed it by that much,” or in some cases, “sorry about that, Chief.” At one point, Rhianyn even jumped in and tried to offer a second guess with the intro, “would you believe…?” Rhianyn was offered the chance to be a guest star on an episode of Get Smart, but turned it down.
But perhaps her finest and most controversial moment on KBRD came when in the middle of a song, Rhianyn cut in as if making a sudden news announcement. She played a news-type beeping intro, then spoke, imitating a serious newscaster.
“We interrupt this program to bring you this important announcement… Flash! Ladies and gentlemen, we regret to inform you that Tina Delgado is in fact…”
She said nothing more, then continued to play the song that was in progress, which happened to be Daydream Believer by the Monkees. She never finished the statement. KBRD received calls for weeks after, demanding that the Rockin’ Raven finish what she started! But she never said another word about it.
Rhianyn and Don Steele remained friends for years after, though.
Lorewyn listened to Rhianyn’s show whenever she got the chance. She loved it, and would talk to her wife about it often. But she never got a true sense of just how prolific the social and cultural impression of Rhianyn’s influence was until the two of them were on the town one night in early 1968 seeing Planet of the Apes at the cinema.
“I have to see Kim in an ape suit,” was Lorewyn’s primary reason, of course.
But they were in the theater and the movie hadn’t quite started yet. Then, someone in the audience just randomly shouted “we regret to inform you that Tina Delgado is in fact…” And stopped. The reaction was incredible! People laughed at first, then one by one voices started shouting various adjectives to describe the possibilities of Tina Delgado’s condition… some using the Real Don Steele’s classic descriptor of “alive!” obviously.
Lorewyn and Rhianyn just looked at each other, giggling for several seconds. They watched the movie when it started. Rhianyn was awestruck by the end.
“The Statue of Liberty… oh my God… he was on Earth the whole time!”
CHAPTER 23
“You and Julia… you’re pretty close, aren’t you?”
Alan had asked Lorewyn this as they were making their move to a new and larger office space. Still in Santa Monica, but they were in a position now to rent a more desirable location. Alan was a bit sentimental about it. “Fifteen years in this space,” he said, holding the sign as if it was an old yearbook photo. “A lot of good memories.”
Lorewyn had looked at him somewhat curiously. “Yes… and…?” Alan had never once before hinted anything about the possibility of Lorewyn and Rhianyn being anything more than friends and roommates.
“Just that I’ve been working with you for almost a dozen years now,” he explained. “You’re both still single, you live together… and I’ve seen how you interact with each other. Don’t get me wrong, you’re both very practiced… but it doesn’t take a P.I. to see that you two are a couple. I think it’s great. I’m jealous, to be honest. How many people in this world can say that they found their soulmate? I sure as hell can’t. I was married for a while, you know. I got a great kid out of it. Now, Nancy is 25 and about to get married. I’m happy for her too. Some people aren’t meant for it, I suppose. The lucky ones are. And whether it’s with someone of the same sex, or different… doesn’t matter. You’re still lucky. That’s the way I see it.”
Lorewyn just looked at her friend and business partner. Alan Madison was close to 60 now. This was the way it was, she had to remind herself.
“Yes, I am lucky,” she agreed, without affirming anything else one way or the other. “You could be lucky too. You’re a good man. You just need to quit smoking!” She yanked the cigarette out of his mouth as she occasionally had in the past. “There’s a reason why it’s illegal to advertise these things on TV now, you know.”
It was 1972. Nixon and Watergate were in the news night and day. The change in location for the firm had been an opportunity to upgrade the sign again. When the trio opened up their new digs a few blocks away, an addition to the sign greeted prospective clients on the marquee.
Madison, McKinley, and Moore – A Private Investigators Group.
“It still sounds a bit like a law firm, doesn’t it?” Reggie said, continuing the joke that Lorewyn had put into place several years earlier.
Rhianyn had received tickets for the Pink Floyd concert at the Hollywood Bowl on September 22nd. Perks of being a radio DJ. It was supposed to be quite a spectacular event, with fireworks, and the band playing songs from their upcoming album Dark Side of the Moon, which hadn’t officially been released yet.
“It’s definitely not Top 40,” Rhianyn had explained, “but it’s good. I’m still acquiring a taste for this new style of rock. So far, both Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin have impressed me. This concert should be amazing!”
“I think I’m getting old, Blackbird,” Lorewyn chuckled. “I’m still enjoying the swing and big band era… I guess my ears haven’t caught up yet.”
But it gave her a chance to talk to Rhianyn about what Alan had said. “Do you think maybe it’s time for us to come out publicly as a couple? I mean, Alan knows and he accepts it. I’m sure Reggie knows as well, although he hasn’t said anything. We’ve met a handful of people in our lives here in America who have figured it out to some degree, right? Maybe American society is ready?”
“Just so we’re clear
, we’re talking about us coming out as lesbians and not as Elves, correct?” Rhianyn clarified.
“Yes, silly,” Lorewyn laughed. “No, I don’t think these people are ready to accept two beings from another realm who aren’t Human and who have been living among them in disguise since the 5th century. Not yet. Not for a while still I imagine. But as far as us living together as a joined couple, in love… I don’t know… what do you think?”
Rhianyn considered it. “We have a double burden of concealment, don’t we? We have to conceal our identity as Children of Wind because of the hysteria it would cause among this xenophobic species. We also have to conceal the true nature of our relationship because of this society’s large-scale homophobia. But if we could shed one of those concealments… I agree, it would make things simpler. I know we still live among intolerance, but is it reaching a point where we could come out and avoid a significant backlash? You remember Stonewall in New York three years ago, right? That was pretty big. It woke a lot of people up.”
“Yes, it was big,” Lorewyn agreed. “These past few years have been filled with some big events like that. I know what I said several years ago when Kennedy died, how disillusioned I was at the time, but I will say that these past few years have been a real shake-up in America. This younger generation in particular… they’re not standing by quietly. The striving for racial equality, the position that the indigenous people of this land have taken recently, the opposition to the war in Vietnam… it’s both tumultuous and inspiring. Stonewall was another part of the tapestry. I see more visibility now with members of the gay and lesbian communities than ever before! I know in our home realm of Cordysia, and amongst our kindred, we didn’t classify love in that way. But here, living as Humans, being part of Human society for so long, we would identify as lesbians, Blackbird. We’re two women who are attracted to and love someone of the same sex. We’re part of that community. There are others who are beginning to come out… perhaps it’s our time as well, to join them, to add our voice.”
Two Birds, One Feather: The Lives and Times of Lorewyn & Rhianyn in America Page 23
