Ethlie Ann Vare

Family friend and KPFK DJ

She was still Ruth Hirschman when I worked at Pacifica Radio’s KPFK in Los Angeles as a…we didn’t call them “interns” at the time, more like “unpaid starter DJs.” I had the midnight-to-6 shift once a week and I loved it. Got to play whatever I wanted because no one in authority bothered to stay up and listen. That is, until Ruth came in as Program Director.

The other thing I did, besides playing 20-minute-long Iron Butterfly tracks, was I did the show naked. Well, topless at any rate. There was no a/c to speak of in the studio over on Cahuenga Avenue and it got really warm in the booth, so I got in the habit of taking my shirt off. I was maybe 19 years old, no one wore a bra back then, and I was a brat. So there I was in a glass booth with my boobs out and somehow all the men on staff suddenly had an urgent need to come to the studio in the middle of the night for something they had forgotten to do the previous work week.

Until Ruth. She hadn’t been in the job very long before she called me into her office. “I hear you’ve been doing your shift topless,” she said. The incredulous look on her face made it a question, but her voice — that deep, raspy, New York-inflected voice — was not questioning at all. It was very firm and a little angry. I probably shrugged and said something like, “It gets hot in there, and no one’s around.” And she just looked back down at the paperwork on her desk and said “Well, stop it.” 

She didn’t say why it was necessary or list the consequences of disobeying. She just said “stop it” with every expectation that she would be obeyed because…because she was Ruth.

Everyone speaks of Ruth’s formidable intellect and her quick wit and her commanding presence… she wasn’t actually tall, she just felt tall. But to me what Ruth had was “intimidating elegance.” You knew from taking one look at those glass-cutter cheekbones that she had better taste than you did, and collected better art than you did, and looked better in a leather coat than you ever could. And you would be right. Ruth was a leader because people wanted to go where she was. 

So when Ruth Hirschman Seymour said “Stop it,” I stopped it. And I’ve worn a shirt and bra to work ever since.