The Pandoras
Of the over 1,500 “girl groups” that cut singles in the 1960s, only about 25 had national hits, according to musicologist Jacqueline C. Warwick in her 2013 book Girl Groups, Girl Culture; The Pandoras weren’t one of them. Of the total 378 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees, only five are all-female acts; The Pandoras aren’t one of them. But that lack of sweeping success and industry recognition doesn’t mean that the group was insignificant; the band mattered a lot, in fact, but for reasons that weekly charts and annual induction ceremonies simply don’t measure.
Specifically, The Pandoras were equal-opportunity pioneers since they were among the first all-female rock ‘n’ roll bands, meaning they weren’t backed by male musicians like every all-female vocal group and female vocalist in the ‘60s, making them a social-cultural force, not just a musical one. And though they never recorded a massive hit like The Crystals, who sent “He’s a Rebel” to #1 in ’62, and aren’t in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame like The Supremes, Martha & The Vandellas, The Shirelles and The Ronettes, they were on the scene more than a decade before Hall of Famer Joan Jett co-formed The Runaways in ‘75 and Hall of Famers The Go-Go’s first “got the beat” in ‘78. In a nutshell, The Pandoras were trailblazers in an era when those without willies were always welcome in the audience at rock concerts but never together on stage playing instruments.
Formation, Arnie Ginsburg connection
The group formed as a trio in August 1964 in Hyannis on Cape Cod with the lineup of Pinky Keehner (née Temple, lead guitar, vocals), Kathy Kinsella (rhythm guitarist, vocals) and Sally Levy (drums, vocals), all of whom were between their sophomore and junior year at Simmons College in Boston and were novices on their respective instruments. Inspired by The Beatles, who’d commandeered the US charts early that year, Keehner and Kinsella bought their first guitars in early March (at Boston’s E.U. Wurlitzer), thinking that being in a band might give them with a chance to meet the Fab Four one day. In May, when Levy heard that they wanted to form a group, she pledged to learn how to play the drums during summer vacation so that she could join. “At first, the adventure was not about being musicians; it was strictly about meeting The Beatles,” Kinsella says. “Like other girls, Pinky and I were crazy about the band and we wanted to meet them somehow. We decided that the best way to do that was being on their level, meaning in their milieu. The issue in starting the band was that neither of us played guitar.”
Later in March ’64, Keehner and Kinsella met with WMEX deejay (and frequent emcee at The Surf on Nantasket Beach) Arnie ‘Woo Woo” Ginsburg to get feedback on how an “all-girl” rock group might be received. Ginsburg, who was known to embrace new acts that he thought were unique, was so taken with the idea that he offered them a slot at The Surf the very next weekend. “We almost fainted but demurred, saying we had no equipment,” Kinsella says. “He told us that The Rockin’ Ramrods [the house band at The Surf] would let us use their amps. We didn’t let on that we weren’t really a band yet – we had no drummer and we could barely play – but said that we’d be happy to accept the engagement after the summer.” During the two months before The Pandoras began rehearsing in a rented cottage, Keehner and Kinsella performed as the vocal duo Pinky & Blue while learning basic guitar chords from Jeff Calhoun, a 15-year old six-string wunderkind they’d met in a Hyannis music store, and Levy practiced her time-keeping chops on her new kit.
Early performances, Audience/friends/family reaction
The Pandoras played their debut gig in October 1964 at The Surf, performing a total of 11 songs including four originals and covers of “Money (That’s What I Want)” and “Good Golly, Miss Molly.” “The place was packed and we were terrified,” Kinsella says. “I had to have two shots of Jack Daniels just to leave the dressing room.” The band opened for Screamin’ Jay Hawkins at MIT’s Kresge Auditorium the following night and played mostly covers in later shows. “Kathy and I liked the creative process, but we quickly learned that songwriting was not our forte,” Keehner says, citing “Long Tall Sally,” “Johnny B. Goode, “Roll Over Beethoven,” “Route 66” and “Kansas City” as Pandoras staples.
“From our first date and for our entire performance life, kids in the audience just stood rows deep in front of the stage to stare and gawk,” Kinsella recalls. “People couldn’t believe that they were seeing an all-female rock band.” As for the reaction from friends and family to the concept, it was mixed. “Some of our college friends were a bit incredulous and skeptical but others really liked the idea, including one of our classmates who posed as our manager when we met Arnie Ginsburg the first time,” says Kinsella. “Our parents were surprised, even shocked by the entire idea – they never saw it coming – but they were also intrigued with the notion. After our parents realized that we were serious, they admired our determination, but our grades had to stay up.”
During the rest of ’64 and early ’65, The Pandoras appeared at Simmons, Tufts, Harvard, Merrimack College, the University of Connecticut, Blinstrub’s Village and high schools, and in January ’65, when they were the subject of a profile in The Boston Daily Advertiser’s Sunday edition, they began playing every Thursday night at The Rathskeller in Boston, where The Remains and Teddy & The Pandas were also regular acts.
Lineup changes, The New Pandoras, Recordings
The first of several lineup changes came in February ’65, when Levy left and was replaced by 15-year-old Nanci DiMuro, who (like Levy) had never played drums until agreeing to come on board: in the three months between Levy’s departure and DiMuro learning how to play, the band hired a professional drummer for several gigs. Keehner also left in the spring of ’65 and two high school seniors, Michelle Marquis and Elyse Thierry, joined on lead guitar and bass respectively, turning the band into a quartet with a fresh name: The New Pandoras. That iteration of the group – Kinsella, Marquis, Thierry, DiMuro – quickly developed into an extremely popular act, with critics noting both their strong musicianship and exceptional harmonies.
Their repertoire included covers of songs by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Motown artists, Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, The Animals, The Mamas & the Papas and other top-40 forty hit-makers of the day. “We loved to open with ‘Come On Up’ by The Rascals, ‘Hold On, I’m Coming’ by Sam and Dave or ‘Give Me Some Loving’ by The Spencer Davis Group to immediately establish that we weren’t just a girls singing group accompanying ourselves on guitars,” Kinsella says. As for why The New Pandoras came to be in such high demand so soon after forming, it’s because “they delivered the goods,” according to Dave LaCamera, formerly of the band’s booking agency, Lordly & Dame. “People wanted to dance and wanted a show and that’s what The Pandoras provided,” he says, noting that the band earned the 2025 equivalent of between $2,500 and $7,000 per night in their heyday.
Before Thierry left in 1967 (when Kinsella replaced her on bass and 17-year-old Michele “Kelly“ Gifford joined on rhythm guitar), the band recorded two singles for Liberty Records at the Brill Building in New York City: the Bob Stone-penned “About My Baby (I Could Write a Book)” b/w Paul Toner’s “New Day” and Stone’s “Games” b/w Toner’s “Don’t Bother.” None charted nationally, but “About My Baby (I Could Write a Book)” reached #15 on Boston’s WRKO, #3 on Maine’s WLOB and was included in Cashbox’s “Best Bets” section. “Truthfully, we really didn’t like the Stone songs because they didn’t reflect our musical taste and sound,” Kinsella says. “They were too teeny-bopperish, like early girl groups from the Brill Building, and we never played ‘girl group’ music. We ended up recording them because Liberty owned the songs and wanted to get them recorded. We much preferred the B sides by Paul Toner because we sang harmony very well and ‘Don’t Bother’ was a beautiful ballad with complicated harmonies.”
Notable opening spots, Press, TV Appearances, Reunions
Between mid-1965 and breaking up in the spring of 1968, The New Pandoras were one of the busiest rock bands in New England, headlining shows in every state of the region including ones at the Unicorn Coffee House and the Back Bay Theatre in Boston, the Commodore Ballroom in Lowell and many of the area’s colleges and universities. They opened for a number of acclaimed acts across the Northeast – Paul Anka (at The Waldorf Astoria in New York City), The Byrds, The Kingsman, Dionne Warwick (at Darien High School in Connecticut), Gary Lewis & The Playboys (at Boston Garden), Neil Diamond (in Halifax, Nova Scotia), Astrid Gilberto & Charlie Byrd, The Vogues – and played for troops at Naval Station Argentia in Newfoundland and Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in Puerto Rico. In the summer of 1966, they spent six weeks performing at The Sahara Hotel in Lake Tahoe.
In addition to being featured in a variety of publications around New England, the band received write ups in several national ones, among them Ladies Home Journal and Women’s Wear Daily, and appeared on television shows including Here Comes Tomorrow on Boston’s WBZ, Talk of the Town on Providence’s WJAR, Wing Ding on Providence’s WPRO, New Hampshire Bandstand on Manchester’s WMUR and Upbeat on Cleveland’s WEWS. While there haven’t been any official reunion shows since the group disbanded, there have been two informal get-togethers between the former Pandoras, the first at Kinsella’s home in West Virginia in 2006 and the second at Marquis’ home in Florida in 2007.
Post-Pandoras activity, Reflections
Original Pandora Keehner went on to be vice president of Randall’s Island Park in New York City for 20 years, working to create a state-of-the-art sports facility for kids, and is the author of The Discus Thrower Meets Peter Pan (Abbeville Press, 2024). “I am very proud of the initial success we had as a start-up band with zero experience,” she says of group’s early days. “It was a tall order and only our complete determination on ‘making it’ and focus on our goals got us past first base.” Marquis continued to sing and play for another six years in the group Two’s Company, then completed an MBA at Syracuse University and worked for General Electric, RCA and Thompson SA. Thierry became quite an accomplished bass player, studying at Berklee College of Music and playing with a number of groups, and DiMuro was a community activist in Winthrop, Massachusetts until her death in July 2017, working as the director of the Robert A. DeLeo Senior Center and president of Community Action for Safe Alternatives.
Kinsella, the only constant presence in The Pandoras during their roughly three-and-a-half-year existence, went on to work for the American Program Bureau and Lordly & Dame before moving to Washington, DC and eventually founding Kinsella Media, which developed campaigns for class-action suits and mass tort bankruptcies. Looking back, she says being in the group laid the foundation for everything she’s done in her professional life. “For years, I was reticent to talk about the experience because a rock band didn’t seem like something serious,” she says. “But now I’m so proud of what we accomplished literally from scratch. I loved playing in the band, all the hard work, long drives, late nights, rehearsals and the sheer enjoyment of coming together to do something so unique and pioneering. All my skills – promotion, presentation, publicity, leadership – came from my years with The Pandoras. The band has been the bedrock of all my later work.”
(by D.S. Monahan)
