Cleo Odzer ( Sheila Lynne Odzer, April 6, 1950 – March 26, 2001) was an American writer who authored books on
prostitution in Thailand
Prostitution in Thailand is not in itself illegal, but many of the activities associated with it are illegal. Because of police corruption and an economic reliance on prostitution dating back to the Vietnam War, it remains a significant presence ...
, the
hippie culture
A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...
of
Goa
Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...
, India, and
cybersex
Cybersex, also called computer sex, Internet sex, netsex and, colloquially, cyber or cybering, is a virtual sex encounter in which two or more people have long distance sex via electronic video communication (webcams, VR headsets, etc) and other e ...
.
Childhood and time as a groupie
Cleo Odzer grew up in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, the daughter of Rena Abelson Odzer and Harry Odzer. Her father, president of a textile company, died when she was 16 years old. She attended Franklin School (now
Dwight School) and
Quintano's School for Young Professionals, graduating from the latter in 1968. At about that time, she began writing about the music scene for a small Greenwich Village newspaper. Odzer met
Keith Emerson
Keith Noel Emerson (2 November 1944 – 11 March 2016) was an English keyboardist, songwriter, and record producer. He played keyboards in a number of bands before finding his first commercial success with the Nice in the late 1960s. He became ...
, then member of the rock band
the Nice
The Nice were an English progressive rock band active in the late 1960s. They blended rock, jazz and classical music and were keyboardist Keith Emerson's first commercially successful band.
The group was formed in 1967 by Emerson, Lee Jack ...
and later of
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Emerson, Lake & Palmer (informally known as ELP) were an English progressive rock supergroup formed in London in 1970. The band consisted of Keith Emerson (keyboards), Greg Lake (vocals, bass, guitar, producer) and Carl Palmer (drums, percus ...
, at
The Scene nightclub. After receiving a Christmas gift from Emerson in 1968, she reported to the press that they were engaged. According to Keith Emerson's account in his 2003 autobiography ''Pictures of an Exhibitionist,'' there was no actual engagement and Emerson learned about the "engagement" from the same February 1969 ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' magazine article that published her photo and described her as a "Super
Groupie
The term groupie is a slang word that refers to a fan of a particular musical group who follows the band around while they are on tour or who attends as many of their public appearances as possible, with the hope of meeting them. The term is usu ...
". Odzer later claimed that the article was the reason for breaking off the "engagement".
Shortly thereafter in 1969, Odzer recorded an album called ''The Groupies'', produced by
Alan Lorber
Alan Lorber is an American music arranger, record producer, and composer.
References
Record producers from New York (state)
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
Place of birth missing (living people)
American music arra ...
, which essentially consisted of interviews with Cleo and some friends describing their adventures meeting (and sleeping with) rock musicians.
Hippie years in Goa
In the early 1970s, Odzer traveled in Europe and the Middle East and worked as a model. She spent the late 1970s in the hippie culture of
Anjuna
Anjuna () is a village located on the coast of North Goa, India. It is a Census Town, one of the twelve Brahmin comunidades of Bardez. It is mostly a tourist destination.
Its church, St. Michael's Church, Anjuna, founded in 1595, is dedicated ...
,
Goa
Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...
in
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
. Her experiences there, including heavy use of
cocaine
Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly recreational drug use, used recreationally for its euphoria, euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from t ...
and
heroin
Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a potent opioid mainly used as a recreational drug for its euphoric effects. Medical grade diamorphine is used as a pure hydrochloride salt. Various white and brow ...
, the international drug smuggling used to finance the stay, and her subsequent two-week incarceration, would later form the basis of her second book, ''Goa Freaks: My Hippie Years in India'' (1995, ). For a time she followed the teachings of
Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
Rajneesh (born Chandra Mohan Jain; 11 December 193119 January 1990), also known as Acharya Rajneesh, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, and later as Osho (), was an Indian godman, mystic, and founder of the Rajneesh movement. He was viewed as a controv ...
in India.
Return to U.S.; research in Thailand
After her return to the United States in the late 1970s, Odzer underwent drug treatment at
Daytop
Daytop, or Daytop Village, is a drug addiction treatment organization with facilities in New York City. It was founded in 1963 in Tottenville, Staten Island by Daniel Harold Casriel along with Monsignor William B. O'Brien, a Roman Catholic pri ...
in New York. She entered college, then graduate school, and in 1990 obtained a
Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
in
anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...
from
the New School for Social Research
The New School for Social Research (NSSR) is a graduate-level educational institution that is one of the divisions of The New School in New York City, United States. The university was founded in 1919 as a home for progressive era thinkers. NSSR ...
in New York City with a thesis on
prostitution in Thailand
Prostitution in Thailand is not in itself illegal, but many of the activities associated with it are illegal. Because of police corruption and an economic reliance on prostitution dating back to the Vietnam War, it remains a significant presence ...
. Beginning in 1987, she had spent three years in Thailand to research this topic. In her dissertation, she describes case studies of 17 people connected to the sex industry in
Patpong
Patpong ( th, พัฒน์พงศ์, , ) is an entertainment district in Bangkok's Bang Rak District, Thailand, catering mainly, though not exclusively, to foreign tourists and expatriates. While Patpong is internationally known as a red lig ...
. She concludes that the economic opportunities provided by sex work do not translate into a higher status of women, because of persistent stigma and ideas about
gender inequality in Thai society. Her experiences in Thailand were described in her first book, ''Patpong Sisters: An American Woman's View of the Bangkok Sex World'' (1994, ). In this work she describes the Thai prostitutes she got to know as quick-witted entrepreneurs rather than exploited victims, sometimes revered in their poor home villages. She also relates her own problematic affair with a Thai pimp boyfriend.
Following publication of the book, Odzer worked at
Daytop
Daytop, or Daytop Village, is a drug addiction treatment organization with facilities in New York City. It was founded in 1963 in Tottenville, Staten Island by Daniel Harold Casriel along with Monsignor William B. O'Brien, a Roman Catholic pri ...
in New York, the drug rehabilitation organization she herself had attended earlier.
From 1995 to 1998, Odzer produced several dozen episodes of her show ''Cleo's Adventures'' for
Manhattan Neighborhood Network
Manhattan Neighborhood Network (MNN) is an American non-profit organization that broadcasts programming on five public-access television cable TV stations in Manhattan, New York City. The country’s largest community media center, MNN operates tw ...
public-access television
Public-access television is traditionally a form of non-commercial mass media where the general public can create content television programming which is narrowcast through cable television specialty channels. Public-access television was creat ...
. Her third book, ''Virtual Spaces: Sex and the Cyber Citizen'' (1997, ), deals with
cybersex
Cybersex, also called computer sex, Internet sex, netsex and, colloquially, cyber or cybering, is a virtual sex encounter in which two or more people have long distance sex via electronic video communication (webcams, VR headsets, etc) and other e ...
. She appeared in episode 1.21 of
SexTV
''SexTV'' is a Canadian documentary television series which explores many issues about human sexuality. The show premiered in 1998 which aired on Citytv and channels owned by CHUM Limited, and spun off a television channel called '' SexTV: The Cha ...
in 1999, with a segment on cybersex.
Return to Goa, and death
In 1999, disappointed with life in New York, Odzer returned to Goa, where some of the remaining old-time hippies disliked her because of the publicity her book had brought to the scene. She died there in 2001. A good friend of hers who had been corresponding with Odzer during her final stay in India, "Cookie" (with whom she had recorded ''The Groupies''), reports that Odzer's doctor (who had been away when she died) said she probably died of a stroke related to very high cholesterol and serious circulatory problems that she was being treated for during her final year, and that her body had been cremated after a small service. But a researcher, Arun Saldanha, who interviewed members of the Goa community about Odzer, reports being told by a psychiatrist at the
Goa Medical College
Goa Medical College (GMC) is a government medical college and hospital in Goa, India. It is one of the oldest medical colleges in Asia.
It is currently an organic institution of the Goa University (GU), being its oldest unit.
History
Since ...
some ten months after her death that her body had lain unclaimed in a morgue in
Mapusa
Mapusa (म्हापशें) is a town in North Goa, India. It is situated 13 km north of the capital Panaji. The town is the headquarters of Bardez Taluka. It is located on the main highway NH-17, linking Mumbai to Kochi.
In Portugue ...
for more than a month until finally she had been buried in Mapusa without a funeral, and that she had had AIDS. Saldanha also reports having seen Odzer use cocaine during an interview he had with her sometime before her death.
[Arun Sladanha, ]
Psychedelic White: Goa Trance and the Viscosity of Race
', p. 86. University of Minnesota Press, 2007.
The 2002 documentary ''
Last Hippie Standing'' by
Marcus Robbin Marcus, Markus, Márkus or Mărcuș may refer to:
* Marcus (name), a masculine given name
* Marcus (praenomen), a Roman personal name
Places
* Marcus, a main belt asteroid, also known as (369088) Marcus 2008 GG44
* Mărcuş, a village in Dobâr ...
covered the Goa scene and featured some of Cleo Odzer's old
super-8 footage from the 1970s. She was interviewed by Robbins for the film in Goa shortly before her death, and said:
The film was dedicated to her memory.
References
External links
Cleo Odzer's websiteYahoo discussion group about Cleo Odzer* Marcus Robbin, Interview with Cleo Odzer, January 2000, Goa, India
OverviewPart 1Part 2Part 3Part 4Part 5Part 6Part 7Part 8Part 9 ''Urban Desires'', Volume 1, Issue 1, December 1994
''Urban Desires'', Volume 2, Issue 2, June/July 1996. Interview about infidelity, especially in Thai society.
*
Last Hippie Standing', complete documentary with interviews with Cleo
Her album ''The Groupies''* Episodes from Odzer's TV show "Cleo's Adventures": , ,
Cleo Odzer's 50th birthday party in Anjuna/ Goa
{{DEFAULTSORT:Odzer, Cleo
1950 births
2001 deaths
20th-century American women writers
Groupies
Hippies
The New School alumni
20th-century American anthropologists