GME Remembers Mary Weiss, Lead Singer of The Shangri-Las

HUGH BELL’S COVER PHOTO FOR THE SHANGRI-LAS’ DEBUT ALBUM, LEADER OF THE PACK (1964). SOURCE: GARTENBERG MEDIA ENTERPRISES.

GME remembers singer Mary Weiss, best known as the frontwoman of the 1960s girl group The Shangri-Las, who passed away on January 19th, 2024, at the age of 75. Weiss and her bandmates — Elizabeth "Betty" Weiss, Marguerite "Marge" Ganser, and Mary Ann Ganser — were known for their “tough girl” image and songs about teenage woes. The title track of their debut album Leader of the Pack became a No. 1 hit in late 1964 and established The Shangri-Las as one of the leading pop acts of the decade. After the band broke up in 1968, Weiss began a second career in architecture, before briefly returning to music and releasing her first (and only) solo album in 2007. The cover photo for The Shangri-Las’ first album (pictured above) was taken by photographer Hugh Bell, whose vast collection GME represents. Notably, GME licensed Bell’s Leader of the Pack cover art for the 2022 film Call Jane, a 1970s-set abortion drama directed by Phyllis Nagy and starring Elizabeth Banks, which features the LP in one of its scenes.

Bell was a renowned art and commercial photographer, who worked in New York City over the course of his entire professional career. GME has been engaged on an exclusive basis by the Bell Estate to manage the collection of Bell’s photographs and to further the artist’s legacy. We are committed to resurrecting the career of this overlooked photographer through licensing his photographs, republishing his out-of-print books, mounting curated exhibitions, and identifying a long-term repository for his significant body of work.

For additional information about our photography collections, please contact Fine Arts Curator David Deitch at david@gartenbergmedia.com.