Ronnie Haran

Ronnie Haran, born August 9, 1939, is an American actress, photographer, publicist, and booking manager whose career spanned performance, music industry management, and visual arts across several decades. The daughter of Gertrude and Harry Rosenthal, Haran demonstrated an early instinct for public engagement when, at age ten, she raised $180 for the March of Dimes by selling baked goods door to door, an effort that attracted newspaper coverage and interview requests after the organization publicized her contribution.

Haran entered the entertainment industry in the mid-1950s after being signed by the William Schuller Agency, taking on acting roles in episodic television and traveling regularly between New York and Los Angeles. She was represented first by Bill Kelley of MCA and subsequently by Bob Shapiro of the William Morris Agency. Her television work included appearances in Ben Casey, Cheyenne, and The Fugitive, and she appeared in the film Come September alongside Rock Hudson, Gina Lollobrigida, Bobby Darin, and Sandra Dee. In 1962, Haran made her Broadway debut when she replaced Joey Heatherton as Little Margaret in Step on a Crack.

In 1966, Elmer Valentine offered Haran a position at the Whisky a Go Go in West Hollywood, initially assisting his publicist at $50 per week. She proposed that the club begin serving food, which would allow it to lower its minimum age requirement from 21 to 18. After presenting the idea to the West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, she received a raise to $75 per week within three weeks and subsequently became the venue's house booker, a period that coincided with the Whisky's transition from a discotheque into a live music club.

That same year, Haran visited the London Fog with her friend Peter Asher to see a group called The Doors. The band was dismissed from the venue that night and faced dissolution when Haran offered them a residency as the house band at the Whisky. She booked the Doors from May 23 to August 21, 1966, during which they regularly opened for headlining acts and frequently performed two sets per night. On their final night at the venue, the Doors opened for Them, resulting in both Jim Morrison and Van Morrison performing "Gloria" together. John Densmore later discussed Haran's role in shaping the band's direction during this residency in his book. Haran also introduced Jim Morrison to Elektra Records, connecting him with producer Paul Rothchild and Bruce Botnick, and is credited with writing the liner notes for the 1966 London Fog album. During this period she cohabitated with Morrison for two months in Los Angeles.

Also in 1966, when Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey's Exploding Plastic Inevitable visited Los Angeles for a stop at The Trip, Haran photographed Warhol, Morrissey, and others in their circle. At that event she was introduced to Herb Cohen, who was then managing the band Love. Cohen had mentioned to Valentine that he needed someone to run Love's fan club, which led to Haran meeting the group at Bido Lito's. During her first phone call with lead singer Arthur Lee, he asked her to dismiss Cohen and appointed her as Love's manager. A photograph Haran took of the band was selected for the back cover of Love's 1967 album Forever Changes, and she also submitted images to Crawdaddy magazine. She additionally supported the career of Van Morrison during the latter half of the 1960s, and contributed photographs to the California underground publication World Countdown, a biweekly music newspaper founded by Charles Royal that ran from August 1966 to July 1969.

By the early 1970s, Haran had shifted her professional focus to photography, working on television and film sets and contributing album photography to labels including Epic, Elektra, and Columbia. She also served as a West Coast editor for Show Magazine. She married Chase Mellen on February 14, 1970. Haran later became a location scout and producer in Santa Barbara, operating her own company for three decades. Throughout her career she photographed a wide range of subjects, including actors Stuart Whitman, Tuesday Weld, and Dudley Moore; musicians Donovan, Moby Grape, The Doors, Michelle Phillips, The Byrds, David Bowie, a young Michael Jackson, and James Brown; and visual artists and filmmakers including Andy Warhol, Paul Morrissey, Alfred Hitchcock, and Roman Polanski. Haran currently resides in Montecito, California.