The Woman Who Put the Whisky a Go Go on the Map

You've heard the names: The Doors, Otis Redding, Frank Zappa, The Byrds. But have you heard of Ronnie Haran, the five-foot-tall, camera-wielding fire-starter who helped bring them all into the spotlight?

Ronnie Haran didn't just witness the rise of rock and roll in Los Angeles—she made it happen.

Ronnie with Donovan, c. 1966

Long before Spotify algorithms and TikTok trends, Ronnie was the original tastemaker. She was the woman behind the velvet curtain at the legendary Whisky a Go Go, pulling strings and making magic happen. In a scene overrun by men in suits taking credit for "discovering" bands, Ronnie was the real deal: part talent scout, part publicist, part manager, full-on visionary.

Only in her early 20s, Ronnie was the first female manager of a rock group, beginning with the band Love, as well as The Doors, Van Morrison, Moby Grape, and Taj Mahal.

Hi, this is Ray Manzarek of The Doors. I’m the keyboard player of The Doors and I am here to tell you that Ronnie Haran is the person who discovered The Doors.

She was the booker at the Whisky a Go Go; discfovered The Doors down the street at the London Fog. Came in one night and said, “Hey, you guys, I need a band to be the House Band at the Whisky a Go Go.” Jim Morrison in his coolness said, “Well, why don’t you come back tomorrow or a day from now or maybe even two days from now, and we’ll give you an answer.” We of course pummeled Jim Morrison on the shoulder and arms and hit him above the head, kicked him in the shin, and said, “Are you crazy, man?” We’d just gotten fired from the London Fog. A dive. A sleazy little bar. “We need this gig!” And Ronnie was, of course, our savior. She was an angel. She was an angel sent by our better nature, the spirits of our better nature to come to the London Fog and discover us. 

She came back the next night and Jim said, “We’ll take the gig.” She was the one who was there. She was there at the beginning of the psychedelic revolution of the Sunset Strip.

Originally the Whisky a Go Go had Johnny whatever his name is, Johnny Rivers, and that “long distance information, give me Memphis, Tennessee”—the Go Go Girls and all of kind of swinging kind of stuff. It went psychedelic The Doors and Arthur Lee and Love. Ronnie was the one who was behind the whole thing. She is a good friend, was a good friend of Arthur Lee’s. He’s gone. Jim Morrison is gone. She was just phenomenal. She started… she was in charge of the whole thing. We were all the psychedelic players, but she was the one who organized the whole thing.

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