Biography

In the late 1970s, Odzer underwent drug treatment at Daytop in New York. She worked there as a drug counselor ca. 1994/1995.

In 1990 obtained a Ph.D. in anthropology from the New School for Social Research in New York City with a thesis on prostitution in Thailand.

She attended Franklin School (now Dwight School) and Quintano's School for Young Professionals, graduating from the latter in 1968.

In 1968 she began writing a column about the music scene for a small Greenwich Village newspaper. She met musician Keith Emerson, of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, at The Scene nightclub. After receiving a Christmas gift from Emerson in 1968, she reported to the press that they were engaged. According to him, he learned about it on the February 1969 "Time" magazine article that published her photo and described her as a "Super Groupie". Shortly thereafter in 1969, Odzer recorded an album called The Groupies, produced by Alan Lorber, which essentially consisted of interviews with Cleo and some friends describing their adventures meeting (and sleeping with) rock musicians.

For 3 years, since 1987, she had spent three years in Thailand to research about prostitution in Thailand. Her experiences in Thailand were described in her first book, "Patpong Sisters: An American Woman's View of the Bangkok Sex World", published in 1994. She also relates her own problematic affair with a Thai pimp boyfriend.