TMS Muse of the Week: Ann Moses

(via coolcherrycream.com)

Very rarely do I read about someone’s life story and feel like it could be about myself. But this happened about five years ago when I discovered a former magazine writer and editor named Ann Moses. A local SoCal celebrity in the mid-1960s to early 1970s, Ann was born in Long Beach, CA on February 3rd, 1947 [the same month and location where I was also born 42 years later], grew up in Anaheim, CA [a part of Orange County like my hometown] and studied journalism before going into entertainment publications. Though I didn’t become a music reporter like Ann, I think if I had been young during the prime of the British Invasion and classic rock, this is probably what my life could have been like. In fact, while reading Ann’s 2017 memoir, Meow! My Groovy Life, the part that I related to the least was, hilariously enough, when she explained how she chose to begin her career early and not graduate college because her first newspaper paycheck was good enough for a fulltime job. Whereas I chose to take my time completing school then started writing professionally. Back to Ann, if her name sounds familiar, you might have actually read her articles if you grew up familiar with magazines like Tiger Beat, NME, Fave and Monkee Spectacular in the mid-20th century; all of which included columns by Ann when she was in her late teens and early 20s. I learned about her as I was researching the Monkees back in 2019, and was suddenly fascinated by how much I saw myself in the blonde.

Ann isn’t as invested in film as I am, but being able to meet, interview and socialize with nearly every popular young musician and group at the time sounds like a blast. What I find most relatable about her bio is how she lived in Los Angeles as a young adult, went to many events, parties and concerts; but was mainly a witness to the crazy antics and shenanigans the popstars and other celebs were getting up to. She talks about smoking weed only twice when she was young, turning down LSD and not having any interest in experimenting with harder substances. As for relationships, there were a few dates with Karl Green of Herman’s Hermits and Dick Dodd of the Standells, both in 1966. But her one famous boyfriend ended up being Maurice Gibb of the Bee-Gees throughout 1968. The couple spent a chunk of their relationship long distance since the Gibb brothers primarily lived in London, while Ann was in Hollywood. This is how Ann unfortunately realized their relationship was over when pop singer Lulu waltzed up to the journalist at a house party and bluntly informed her that Maurice “arrived with you, but will be leaving with me.” Less than a year later in early 1969, Ann would be one of the many reporters to announce Maurice and Lulu’s marriage.

(via annmoses.com)

The unique thing about Ann’s book is how the most interesting parts aren’t about Maurice or the few other musicians she dated, but actually her friendships. Particularly with Davy Jones and Peter Tork of the Monkees and fashion designer Genie Franklyn. Unlike some other memoirs which focus a lot on past romance, it’s great to hear Ann also share what it was like just hanging out with associates and colleagues who were also celebs. Her bond with Peter in particular almost sounds like a will-they-or-won’t-they romcom. We also get confirmation that fellow Monkee Mike Nesmith was one of the most mercurial artists to exist, and details on how she and other teen mag editors had to sugarcoat the personal lives of idols like Davy, Elvis Presley and David Cassidy to make them more appealing to the tween demographic. Ann is one of the few famous people from the ‘60s keeping Genie’s memory alive as well, which I think is great because Genie is such an overlooked, yet important figure of the Hollywood scene and hasn’t been with us since 1969. Even though she impressively became head editor of Tiger Beat at age 21, a series of events led to Ann leaving journalism only four years later in 1972 [including feeling pressure to prioritize her first marriage over her career]. For roughly the next four decades, Ann’s public presence faded into complete obscurity. In 1980, she married her second husband to much better success, happiness and two children raised in Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. It wasn’t until a co-worker at a dentist’s office Ann was working at informed her in 2012 that her old articles were starting to pop up on the Google search engine, and the former writer decided to resurface with her own website, on social media and in interviews. Eventually this led to Ann chronicling her early life as a book and appearing on podcasts and TV specials related to the history of classic rock and bubblegum pop.

Ann’s story is almost like a real-life equivalent of Robert Zemeckis’ Forrest Gump (1994) and Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous (2000), but with a female protagonist. She got to cover the legendary Monterey Pop Music Festival in June 1967. She was interviewed for Denis Sanders’ Elvis doc That’s the Way It Is (1970). She mingled with the likes of the Monkees, the Who, the Byrds, the Cowsills, Jefferson Airplane, the Rolling Stones, and “The Partridge Family” cast. Ann lived to tell the tales and remains the same ordinary girl the whole way through.