the hep parade true cielo story

"The Doll was originally a nice girl, called Kathleen Grace. She came to Arcadia after trainhopping with the Lost Boys and was immediately taken under the wing of the popular people."
Jimmy Kiss, photographer; boyfriend

"Kathleen began as your typical poor little rich girl - spoiled and pampered her whole life. Then, one day, she opened her eyes and woke up."
Freddy the Freeloader, Lost Boy

"I couldn't believe my eyes - this well-to-do, classy broad turned into a railriding tramp who ran around with some of the most rotten characters I've ever come across. She told me that she wanted to change her name and asked me what I thought....thus, the Doll was born."
Joey Kiss

"Joey is Jimmy's younger brother by a couple years and was Kathleen's first love. He used to busk on the strip and that's how the two met."
Rocko J. Nasty, Lost Boy

"You know, I told my brother to keep his paws off, but it was no use."
Joey Kiss

"Before Jimmy, all she dabbled in was a little bit of psychedelics and heavy metal. With Kiss, came the heroin."
Eddie Spaghetti, Lost Boy

"I left home after school - got a job washing dishes."
Kathleen, the Doll

"The boys and I first met her in Mulholland, at a bikie bar called the Bear Club - but it's gone now, so don't bother looking for it. She had been washing dishes for a couple months, when the owner let her spin the records for a night - their usual kid hadn't show up. People liked her so much that she was given a regular spot. She was known for her music. She'd play all sorts of things - from new to old - but she absolutely hated requests."
Loyal, Lost Boy

"Now, one night at the bar, a girl kept nagging her about playing "I Want a Riot Grrrl, Not a Housewife." Kathleen loved that song - the Creepy-Crawlies were a local band - but the girl was pushy. Finally, Kat got out the LP and said, 'Is this what you want to hear?'
The girl says, "Yeah, spin that."
Kat goes, 'Spin this!' and cracks the record over her knee, busting it into a bunch of little pieces. That's the kind of jockey she was."
Rocko J. Nasty

"The first memory I have of the Lost Boys is not a pleasant one. At the time, I had heard the word on the streets - that they were a rowdy bunch..I heard they liked to drink and act like little pukes. Well, one night at the Bear Club, I went on stage and everything was going fine until I heard someone making a fuss in the audience. I stopped the music and then heard, "Cunt! Cunt! You're a cunt!" or something of that nature creeping out from the audience. I rolled my eyes and turned the music up over the voice.
Then, I started to hear the hateful slander again. So, I said, 'Who the fuck is that? what's it to you? why don't you come up here in the lights and say it so we can all you see, you little puke?' All of a sudden, up stomps this tall, ugly, horrible thing with greased back hair - Rocko J. Nasty. I started screaming at him - calling him a 'pig,' and a, 'woman beater.' Then, he jumped on stage. I don't think he was scared of me, but I was right scared of him. I thought he was going to hit me, so I picked up a bottle and threw it at him. It hit him right on the collarbone. He swaggered and lunged at me, so I got him on the floor and started hitting him in the face with my fists. People were screaming in the crowd, 'kill him!' When they broke it up, I had blood all over my pretty party dress and my makeup was ruined."
Kathleen, the Doll

"I was there. She kept taunting him, 'Hit me! Why can't you, chickenshit? A real man would hit me!' Later on, he was arrested and sent to jail. She refused to appear in court and the charges were dropped. The two have since made up and what's in the past is in the past."
Sodapop Cola, Kathleen's brother

"Mind you, when the Lost Boys were in the grips of becoming a real band, people referred to them as 'the Garbagepail Kids' and rightly so - Rocko J. Nasty isn't much of a prize, either - sort of a mother's nightmare."
Headlock, Kathleen's manager and wrangler

"The boys stunk and they were always spitting everywhere; they never had their own cigarettes. They were always drunk, always nicking things....because none of them have any money - though most of them busk during the day."
Jimmy Kiss

"I just remember their bandannas - they all wore bandannas. They never took them off, so they were absolutely filthy and you couldn't tell what the original color was. They also all had sheath knives...and bad attitudes."
Joey Kiss

"The Lost Boys were all a bunch of freaks. They got a kick out of scaring people. Rocko liked to put out ciggies on his hands and arms - Eddie Spaghetti used to walk in front of moving traffic. You had to constantly be watching them, like children. Some of them were just your run-of-the-mill dopers - sleepy all the time, but, for the most part, they caused trouble everywhere they went."
Headlock

"The Lost Boys wanted to go on the road, but didn't have any money. Until, of course, Kathleen came into the picture. They tuned her in to their trainhopping tour and within a week, the pack was bound for Arcadia."
Sodapop Cola

"She rode trains for the summer with the boys - their last stop being Arcadia. As soon as stepped foot in the city - that was it. She disappeared within and didn't come out, for a very long time."
Joey Kiss

"She was green. She would still be really excited, even when everyone else was scared shitless."
Rocko J. Nasty

"I was really broke then. I landed my first gig with Grrrl Riot, writing horoscopes and I thought I had hit the big time, even though I wasn't making much money. I remember only allowing myself one treat a day. I would get candy....or a 40."
Kathleen

"She used to leave copies of her first book, 1doll1 all around town - in grocery stores, book shops and café - knowing someone would eventually pick it up. She had a bunch of them made up, you know, because she'd go down to the copy shop and make goo-goo eyes with the boys who worked there. She had about a hundred copies of her book in the car and she'd give them out to just about damn near anyone who was interested. One day, the editor from Hep Parade called up and offered her an internship. Just like that, she went from sailing in the gutter with the serfs to running with the big dogs."
Loyal

"...before long, Kathleen was dead, the Doll having killed her..."
Kathleen in 1doll1

"Arcadia chewed her up and spit her out."
Jimmy Kiss

"We eventually became so accustomed to the constant visits of the drug squad, that at one point, we knew them all by name."
Headlock

"I got a reputation for drug-taking, but then again - I did take a lot of drugs."
Kathleen

"I'm too beautiful to get rid of."
Kathleen

"Arcadia was a circus and good while it lasted. Right around 2012, everyone was on edge and Cielo seemed like the still point of it all. So, Kathleen and her fleet of followers packed up and moved ship."
Sodapop Cola

"Everyone went to see the pretty people in Cielo and expected to hear about flowers and beads and love and grooving, but Kathleen had them singing about leather boots and people being beaten and Satan and shooting heroin."
Jimmy Kiss

"Her art is for the pretty people - all the beautiful people."
Maynard B. Alberkraut, Riot House waiter

"I told the kids to burn their money, to smoke reefers, to riot in the streets."
Kathleen

"Once she opened the Riot House, there was no stopping her. The papers say that you have to rent a room a year in advance now, can you believe that? Well, I'll tell you something - most of those rooms are rented to your usual Cielo hood out of Kathleen's own pocket and that's the truth."
Sodapop Cola

"I love her, but she can make some very nasty choices. I will say here and now that nothing good has come of the Riot House. Many a night have I walked into a room and seen a couple of lawsuits waiting to happen."
Headlock

"One time, I saw Kathleen take a pair of pliers and grab the fingers of this gent that she thought had ripped her off for some money. She brought him to his knees and, in tears, he confessed to her his hiding spot. She let go and he took off for the hospital - she had broken two of his fingers. That gent was none others than Johnny Headlock...and don't let him fool you, he's just as scared of her today as he's always been."
Rocko J. Nasty

"Her backers thought that all the kids running around the Riot House was making a mess of their reputation, so she moved them all to the 10050. I haven't had a decent night's sleep since."
Trotsky, Kathleen's housekeeper

"The Love Shack is now a living zoo - tents set up all over the yard, motorbikes by the dozen lying in a heap by the front gates; if the kids get hungry, she feeds them and if their clothes fall apart, she lets them raid her closet. Anyone who blows into this town and is worth a damn will end up there at some point."
Ludo Ludovic, Riot House waiter

"I am terrified of her. I am always trying to think of things to say to her that would be sharp."
Joey Kiss

"Everybody is in love with Kathleen."
Jimmy Kiss

"...such as there was none like this Doll, nor shall be like her any more..."
Kathleen in 1doll1