Lorraine Belcher

Frank Zappa and Lorraine Belcher in embrace, a few seconds after being reunited after their arrest. This photograph was snapped by a journalist to use as the picture for an article about the police raid on Studio Z.

Frank Zappa and Lorraine Belcher in New York City, 31 October 1975. Photo credit: Allan Tannenbaum.

Lorraine Alice Belcher (born in Tacoma, Washington - 19 October 2026) was a girlfriend of Zappa between 1963 and 1964.

Early relationship and police bust

They lived together at Studio Z in 1963-1964. She and Zappa recorded a "sex party" tape at the request of a man, Jim Willis, who later turned out to be an undercover police officer. He arrested them on 26 March 1965 for the crime of obscenity. Belcher was 19 years old at the time. In the article "Vice Squad Raids Local Film Studio" (Ontario Daily Report, 1965, Ted Harp), they called her the "buxom red-haired companion" of FZ..." Once Zappa was bailed out of prison, he contacted Art Laboe to give him 1.500 dollar so he could bail out Lorraine as well, and buy an attorney.

Relationship during Zappa's career with the Mothers

Zappa mentioned her under her nickname, "Pete", in the sleeve of "Freak Out!" (1966), under the heading: "These People Have Contributed Materially In Many Ways To Make Our Music What It Is. Please Do Not Hold It Against Them". Belcher later explained that his nickname was derived from naming herself Peter Lorre, after the famous Hollywood movie actor.

According to Belcher, Zappa tried to record her singing voice in the studio, but she was too nervous whenever he was in the room. In the early 1970s, she did record backup vocals for a rendition of Mudshark, with Flo & Eddie, but didn't know whether this recording was ever used by Zappa afterwards for an album.

Belcher claimed that the album Lumpy Gravy was based on her nickname for Zappa. By posting his address in the sleeve, she contacted him and eventually divorced her husband, moved from Seattle to Los Angeles to live in Zappa's house at 7885 Woodrow Wilson Drive for a while, where she had her own room. After five years, during a tour out of Seattle, Belcher and Zappa committed adultery. Though when Belcher met Gail again during a Zappa film festival at the Castro Theater in San Francisco (2004), it was a happy reunion, though afterwards Gail never replied to her letters. Belcher did have contact with Moon Zappa for a while.

In 1972, Belcher moved to New York City, where she saw Zappa each time he toured there. If she was single at such occasions, they spent their nights together.

Later life

By the mid-1970s, Belcher married sculptor John Chamberlain, hence her name change to Lorraine Chamberlain. In 2000, she became the girlfriend and eventually in 2010 the legally married partner of underground comix artist S. Clay Wilson , who is best known as the creator of the comic strip "The Checkered Demon".

On 19 October 2026, it was announced that Lorraine Belcher had passed away.

External links

• Lennon and John Tabacco's interview with Lorraine Belcher
• Interviews with Lorraine Belcher, conducted by Andrew Greenaway.