Ki Longfellow - Children, Marriages, and Career

Children, Marriages, and Career

On June 21, 1963, at age eighteen, Longfellow gave birth to her first child, Sydney Longfellow (who became a painter as an adult). In 1964 she acted in her only movie, Once a Thief (starring Alain Delon and directed by Ralph Nelson) in a part written for her by the film's screenwriter, Zekial Marko. In 1967 she moved with her daughter to New York City where she worked briefly as a fashion model and then as a writer for CARE. For one year she moved to Montana where she lived and worked on a ranch on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation as a member of VISTA. For another year, she sailed to Europe, living for a time in Nice and Paris.

Back in New York City, Longfellow worked for the promoter Bill Graham in his Millard Booking Agency. There, in 1972, she met Robin Gee, the manager of the English folk band Fairport Convention. Together for five years, during these years Longfellow wrote occasionally for English music magazines.

Longfellow returned to California in 1975. In 1977, she flew back to England to retain her English residency. There she met and married Vivian Stanshall. In 1977, she and the ex-frontman for the Bonzo Dog Band moved into a houseboat moored on the River Thames between Chertsey and Shepperton. On August 16, 1979, they had a daughter, Longfellow's second, Silky Longfellow-Stanshall.

Longfellow devoted her skills to Stanshall in the belief that his work was more important than her own. They wrote radio plays and songs together. In 1980, Longfellow edited Stanshall's only book, Sir Henry at Rawlinson End & Other Spots, published by Pete Townshend, of Eel Pie Publishing. She also helped Stanshall on the script for the film version of Sir Henry at Rawlinson End, which starred Trevor Howard.

In late 1982, Longfellow discovered the Thekla, a ship she rescued from a shipyard in Sunderland. She sailed it to Bristol, where she established it as a theater and restaurant and, she hoped, as a refuge for her hard-drinking, valium-addicted, husband. The restaurant failed, but the theater thrived and also built a reputation as a music venue. In early 1983, Stanshall joined her on the Old Profanity Showboat.

In 1985, Stanshall and Longfellow wrote, produced, and staged their comic opera Stinkfoot, a Comic Opera aboard the Thekla. Vivian's friend and musical director, Peter Moss made a flying visit to whip the orchestra of local musicians and street buskers into shape. The show received excellent reviews. Stinkfoot was a surrealistic melding of Longfellow's allegorical tale of New York City alley cats and the internal turmoil of Stanshall's intense struggle as an artist. Intending to be a painter, he had turned instead to the "easier" world of popular entertainment. Later the opera was transferred to London's West End, where it was partly financed by Stephen Fry. Lacking the active participation of either Longfellow or Stanshall, it was not a financial success. In 2004, Ben Schot's Sea Urchin Editions published the script of the original Stinkfoot, with an introduction by Longfellow.

In 1986, Longfellow and Stanshall closed the door on the Old Profanity and moved into the Bristol home of their friend, actor David Rappaport. There Longfellow began writing in earnest.

Her first two books were China Blues, a historical thriller set in San Francisco's Chinatown in 1923, the year President Warren G. Harding died mysteriously in the Palace Hotel; and Chasing Women, a screwball comedy murder mystery set in New York City just after the Great Crash of 1929. Both novels were successful, in particular China Blues. It was the object of an auction which Harper Collins won, and first published in England in 1989. Doubleday, New York published an American edition in 1990. China Blues was subsequently translated into Spanish, Swedish, Hebrew, Czech, German, and optioned by the producing team of Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown. Longfellow's second book Chasing Women, also published by Harper Collins, was optioned by an Australian team of female writer/producers. Pursuing the concept of a film through Hollywood was an experience that taught Longfellow a great deal about the mainstream movie business.