Gail Zappa

Gail Zappa (born Adelaide Gail Sloatman; January 1, 1945) is the widow of musician and composer Frank Zappa and the Trustee of the Zappa Family Trust. They met in 1966 when she was working at the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles, and they were married on September 21, 1967, while she was pregnant with her first child, Moon Zappa. The marriage also produced children Dweezil Zappa, Ahmet Zappa, and Diva Zappa. She is an aunt to model/actress Lala Sloatman.

Gail made a very brief appearance with musician boyfriend Bobby Jameson in the 1967 documentary film Mondo Hollywood. The scene was filmed in 1965 or 1966 before she met Frank.

In 1993, Frank Zappa died of cancer at his home in Los Angeles, California at the age of 52. He was surrounded by Gail and his children.

Management of the Zappa Family Trust

Since Frank Zappa's death in 1993, she has overseen the release of his recordings, including multiple previously unavailable works, under the Zappa Family Trust. The trust holds title and copyright to Frank Zappa's musical and artistic products, as well as his commercial image.^[1][2]

Lawsuits

In 2008, the Zappa Family Trust sued the organizers of the Zappanale Festival, held just outside Bad Doberan, Germany, demanding that they change the name of the festival, remove their promotional posters (which contained an allegedly trademarked moustache similar to Frank Zappa's) and remove the statue of him that has stood in the city center since 2002. In January 2009 the court found in Zappanale's favor after their defense argued that since the Zappa Family Trust only sells products on the Internet and accepts only U.S. dollars they had not effectively exercised their trademarks in Germany for over five years. Similarly, the use of the moustache was sufficiently different in Zappanale's merchandise so as not to cause confusion between the two.^[3]

Sources

• Zappa, Frank; Occhiogrosso, Peter (1989), The Real Frank Zappa Book, New York: Poseidon Press, ISBN 0-671-63870-X 

References