Where is Patty Sullivan? The Doors

[design]

Where is '60s LA bass player Patty Sullivan aka Patricia/Pat/Patty Hansen?

Before they changed their name to The Doors, the earlier line-ups were called Rick & the Ravens. Here's a quote from Wikipedia:
"The band that recorded the demo was not the Doors, however, but Rick & the Ravens. The 1965 demo features Jim Morrison on vocals, Ray Manzarek on piano and background vocals, John Densmore on drums, Rick Manzarek on guitar, Jim Manzarek on harmonica and Patricia "Pat" Hansen (née Sullivan) from Patty and the Esquires—the band she had with Chuck Oakes, whom she later married - on bass guitar."
Rick & the Ravens - Wikipedia

 

[design]

Bump

 

[Thuddy Waters]

I don't know. Have you talked to her family? When and where was she last seen? What was she wearing?

 

[JefCrew]

Just to fill in the dots on the Doors bass-less music. They started out with a fine bass player. Well... she looked fine. But who knows how they ended up losing her?

 

[Michedelic]

Just to fill in the dots on the Doors bass-less music. They started out with a fine bass player. Well... she looked fine. But who knows how they ended up losing her?

From what I’ve read in the past, and what I can glean from that video, my educated guess is…because “Patty and the Esquires” looked like a straight-laced, loungey show band, and the fact that they were playing gin mills up in the Valley(it’s hard to explain, but I know exactly where that club would have been, and I used to live in the area…it’s far from the hip, happening Sunset Strip, not only in distance but culturally), that tells me that she might have thought she was getting into some sort of clean-cut teen beat A-go-go Dick Clark style rock’n’roll band, but as Ray and Jim’s music got darker and weirder, she bailed. This would have been right on the verge of any boho counterculture, just as the notion of anything psychedelic would be trickling in.
Ray had stated that they looked for a replacement, they hadn’t found anyone suitable, and then he came across the then-newly issued Fender-Rhodes Piano Bass(plus another proto-hippie Strip band, The Seeds, had ditched the bass guitar, with their keyboard player covering the low end). Problem solved.

 

[Smartsoul72]

This is very interesting to me, as I’m a huge Doors fan! Yea, I heard they had a female bass player on an early demo, but when I heard about it she was “unknown”.
Thanks for sharing!

 

[Lance Bunyon]

Jim likely scared her to death with his proustian vampire kink schtick...

 

[JefCrew]

From what I’ve read in the past, and what I can glean from that video, my educated guess is…because “Patty and the Esquires” looked like a straight-laced, loungey show band, and the fact that they were playing gin mills up in the Valley(it’s hard to explain, but I know exactly where that club would have been, and I used to live in the area…it’s far from the hip, happening Sunset Strip, not only in distance but culturally), that tells me that she might have thought she was getting into some sort of clean-cut teen beat A-go-go Dick Clark style rock’n’roll band, but as Ray and Jim’s music got darker and weirder, she bailed. This would have been right on the verge of any boho counterculture, just as the notion of anything psychedelic would be trickling in.
Ray had stated that they looked for a replacement, they hadn’t found anyone suitable, and then he came across the then-newly issued Fender-Rhodes Piano Bass(plus another proto-hippie Strip band, The Seeds, had ditched the bass guitar, with their keyboard player covering the low end). Problem solved.

Thanks for the follow-up, Michedelic. Years ago, I had an organ bass foot pedal when I transitioned from bass to guitar. It was... different. Maybe I am missing something with Manzarak's setup? As in, doesn't a keyboard already have the same bass notes as the Fender Bass keyboard that he replaced a bass player with? I suppose I can Google it, but it is nice to exchange in real time chatter.

 

[Michedelic]

Jim likely scared her to death with his proustian vampire kink schtick...

Can you imagine that she might have thought they going to do R&B covers,“Gloria”, or whatever, and it ends up being this gothic raga drone about Jim’s Oedipus Complex.

 

[Lance Bunyon]

Thanks for the follow-up, Michedelic. Years ago, I had an organ bass foot pedal when I transitioned from bass to guitar. It was... different. Maybe I am missing something with Manzarak's setup? As in, doesn't a keyboard already have the same bass notes as the Fender Bass keyboard that he replaced a bass player with? I suppose I can Google it, but it is nice to exchange in real time chatter.

As far as I understand it, it was engineered for "a bass sound". Keep in mind that electric keyboards were in their infancy..I think it was a few years later that the Rhoades was produced.
Can we even imagine a world without a Fender Rhoades?

 

[Michedelic]

Thanks for the follow-up, Michedelic. Years ago, I had an organ bass foot pedal when I transitioned from bass to guitar. It was... different. Maybe I am missing something with Manzarak's setup? As in, doesn't a keyboard already have the same bass notes as the Fender Bass keyboard that he replaced a bass player with? I suppose I can Google it, but it is nice to exchange in real time chatter.

Ray started out with the go-to Vox Continental, which has lower notes(I owned one once)…

…but they’re not really resonant like classic organ foot pedals. He moved on to what may look like a Farfisa….

…but was actually a Gibson/Kalamazoo branded Lowery. Same story with the low notes. The F/R Piano Bass, while not having the sharpest attack, is still a piano(although hammers hit tines, not strings), with those kinds of dynamics(not on/off like the organs) plus a thicker sound, so I guess that just appealed to Ray…

 

[Michedelic]

I did a little more digging, and found this thread on the Steve Hoffman forum, which I can usually take seriously(with a grain of salt), except that it too can drift off topic, as well as be subject to a certain level of unsubstantiated conjecture and hoo-ha. Interesting Densmore interview link(plus immediate criticism of his remembrances). Apparently, if one is to believe the story, she was dismissed from the band, but reasons vary…

What if The Doors had kept Patty Sullivan on bass? And why didn't they?