"Honoring Brian Epstein" Panel

This panel was particularly fabulous, featuring Pattie Boyd (married to George Harrison & Eric Clapton-at different times) who actually knew Brian and his influence on the Beatles. Billy J. Kramer was himself managed by Brian offered his perspective. Vivek Tiwary has control of the narrative in his lovingly produced graphic novel, "The Fifth Beatle"  (He's the one in the photos gazing adoringly at the others)

The conversation included mention (and re-affirmation) of Brian's gambling habit.  Pattie discussed how he was the one to teach her and "The Boys" about all the *poshest* things, she even used the word Svengali.  Once he took her and George on a trip to the South of France, where they expected a full tour.  Instead, it turned out that they were right near Monte Carlo, and Brian was more interested in "having a flutter" (the British term for gambling) than playing tourguide.

The entire room hushed as she began to discuss finding out about Brian's death.  She and George and John had just arrived in India when they heard the news.  The Maharishi was trying to explain to them about life being eternal, etc. But she said the real reaction was much more difficult, "That look on their faces, crumbled, ashen. 'We are done'"

L to R, Pattie Boyd, Martin Lewis, Billy J. Kramer, Vivek Tiwary

Billy J. Kramer & Vivek Tiwary

Billy told about being overweight as a young performer.  But he said how kind Brian was,  "the kind of Manager who could turn to a 300 lb kid like me", and encourage him to shape up. In a kind way.

Describing Brian as an agent, "There were 300 groups in Liverpool!" (slight exaggeration!) "The Beatles were together for 5 years before him. They were big in Liverpool & Hamburg!"  But Brian was unique.  Unlike Colonel Parker who was famously quoted as saying, "I don't get 50% of what Elvis makes; he gets 50% of what I make for him!"  Managers were sharks, that was the norm.  

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Aside from the panel, another issue comes up.  The question of comparison between Brian Epstein and RayBert (Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider) and their effects on their respective groups while they were "in control".  

As Pattie said, and everyone pretty much agreed, the Beatles saw their end in sight with Brian not around to mediate their disagreements.  And the main dividing line of quality, the TV special "33 1/3rd Revolutions Per Monkee" was the first (and sadly not the last) Monkee project of the 60's.  They had been dropped by RayBert in favor of their new pet project (and ultimate goal) "Easy Rider".  RayBert had the strategy of one of those "sharks" from the beginning; does the artistic quality of those later movies excuse their quick exit?

Both groups began to flounder without their manager, their "Fifth".  The Beatles coasted on quality for quite a while before they began to implode.  For the Monkees, the support system collapsed immediately.  

If RayBert were the "Fifth Monkee" (and "Sixth" if you see them as individuals), how would things look if they were still involved in the franchise to this day?

Licensing VS Love

Lots of fans have incredible artistic streaks, which naturally manifest into some kind of tribute.  A tangible object shares their vision with other fans.  A bracelet, necklace, bumper sticker, tshirt, oil painting, book or event bring us all together.  But where is the line that divides "tribute" from "licensing issue"?

The huge fear of the Licensing Monster rearing its ugly head is legitimate because it seems to strike arbitrarily and without notice.  And I think it STOPS fans from pursuing their ideas and HARMS the relationship they have with "The Monkees" brand/band/people/fans.   People who do this out of love do NOT plan to get rich, but to do channel all their Monkee energy.

Ironically, every fan arrives to the party FULLY aware of Raybert and Don Kirshner.  We all own various images of The Boys: on lunchboxes, in plastic, and in various magazines.  They didn't get any/enough royalties from the music and less from the merchandising royalties. And they get NOTHING from the sales of the memorabilia. With the standard $30 autographs and photos at the convention, they are working at making up the difference.

So what is a loyal fan to do?

The Monkees Convention 2014 was just announced for next March.  So maybe now would be a great time to iron out licensing issues.  At the convention last year, there were several tables selling Original Art (granted, I paint landscapes on the backs of mousetraps).  Some involved sketches of The Boys done on t-shirts or buttons, etc.  The vendors' contract included the phrase  "we suggest that Monkees & 60's merchandise (including British Invasion) dominate (or appear to dominate) your table space.  The only exception to this rule is obvious: absolutely no bootlegs or unauthorized merchandise" Do you have to get authorization for all your merchandise?  How do you even begin to do that?  And why would the lawyers even care about that sketch of Mike you did and put on a button that you are selling for $2?

There is a woman who had created a book about Micky, self-published it online, and later was contacted by Micky's lawyers who demanded it be taken down.  I don't know where this issue is right now, but she has made it public on FB, so I feel comfortable sharing this much.  She had also contacted Henry Diltz to use photos, but his people came back with a huge number for licensing which precludes her from using any of his photos.  I was told later that it was an issue of her using MD's name, rather than any issue involving pictures.  So are we allowed to use "Micky"?  Or "George Michael Dolenz"?  Can she use his name as a "search term" on something like Amazon?

And why is M----- D------ going after her in the first place?

There was a HUGE case involving Shepard Fairey and his portrait of Obama.  In the Monkeeworld, it is not likely that there will be a huge internet meme crossing over into the realm of profitability.  I would love if the rules be made public; what the official "Monkee Lawyers" would go after and why.

What about artists who do pictures of pictures?  Or karaoke?  Or . . .

ESPECIALLY in the internet age, the traditional policy might evolve.  What if a major concession includes the idea of linking back to the "copyright owner's" website?  Aren't we all on the same side?

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Ongoing questions I'd like you (readers) to chime in on.  Either in the comments below or in person.  It seems like a conversation we should all have publicly.  (Maybe get the lawyers up onstage and answer questions directly)

1) In what context are fans allowed to use the names of The Boys or "The Monkees" or song titles or song lyrics?

2)Is there any kind of blanket agreement/declaration that would allow fans to creatively express their love without calling upon the wrath of The Monster?  A standard percentage?  Contacting someone in particular?  What if you don't expect to make more than $100 in profits, or none at all??

3) What are the basic guidelines that any fan should consider when creating any tribute?

4) How much info needs to be made public, especially in terms of transparency?  Contact info for lawyers? How much of a percentage goes to the charity? (Does the consumer need to know?)

5)What issues have you heard of?  Have you ever bought anything that you felt guilty about?

Winning 2 Emmys in One Night

Here's a clip of the Monkees winning the Emmys (plural!) from the 1967 TV Broadcast.  Best Director for "Royal Flush", James Frawley and also Best Comedy Series.

Notable cameos include other nominees, Don Adams (Get Smart) and also, Jim Frawley gets accosted by Milton Berle (?), who seems to shrug and say that everyone seems to be hugging the winner.  And everyone is.  Also the amazing Jimmy Durante.    He's got a great moment reading the names with a little girl (youngest/oldest thing).  And you can tell when he ad-libs.  Terrific.

Note who gets thanked at the final moments, "To the Monkees, who really won the award," says Bob Rafelson.  Giving credit where credit is due.

Bob Rafelson: The Bad Guy

Happy Birthday!  Born in 1933 (Feb 21), he's the first half of RayBert and one of the B's in BBS.

Born in NYC to a Hat Manufacturer.

Interesting to note: Bob's uncle Sam, (Samson Raphaelson 3/30/1894-7/16/84) was a short story writer.  And playwright.  And Screenwriter. He wrote on "Shop Around the Corner" for Ernst Lubitsch and "Suspicion" for Hitchcock.  He also came up with a little story called, "The Jazz Singer".  He wrote the short story and play behind what would be the first talking movie in 1927.  A rabbi's kid wants to sing popular music, is renounced by his father and it all works out when he's a success.  Note the difference in spelling between Bob and Uncle Sam; it is simplified from "ph" to "f" and the "ae" becomes "e".  This Anglicizing shows that he had taken the lesson of "Jazz Singer" to heart.

Producer of the Monkees (with Mr. Bert Schneider) and collaborator with Nicholson and The Boys (uncredited) on "Head". Essentially, he took the money & prestige from the TV Show and used it to finance "Easy Rider" and the critical success of "5 Easy Pieces".        

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Even though it's his birthday, I will take this opportunity to insert a major question into this grand biography. Hollywood is a city of angles, and I believe that he entered and exited the entire TV Show project with the most cynicism and holds the most responsibility for any and all negative publicity and bad feelings arising from the narrative arc of our story.

In short, he is the Bad Guy of our story. The Bad Father, who eagerly seeded the PR and helped craft the contracts which only gave The Boys $400 a week and little to no profits from the residuals or merchandising.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but it seems that he deserted the project around the time of "Head", not fighting to capitalize on publicity or narrative accessibility.  Mel Brooks did a movie called "The Producers" which centered on crazy and evil producers getting a Broadway show to flop, to their financial benefit.  That's what RayBert did with "Head"; they wanted to kill the Monkee project and that movie was essentially received as a public funeral.  (Never mind that today it can be seen as a fascinating experimental film and a lynchpin in the Monkee narrative).

#25, Alias Micky Dolenz

"I was a Has Been. Now I'm an Am-Is!"

First aired: March 6, 1967

Premise: Micky looks just like a gangster, "Babyface".  The bad guys mistake him for the gangster. The cops want him to impersonate the gangster to catch the rest of the gang.  Hilarity ensues.

Teaser: Micky is parking the Monkeemobile when a member of Babyface's gang spots him.  He gets beat up.

Mike convinces him to go to the police & yet not help them when they suggest he stand in for the killer.  The episode is a light version of the cop show, Dragnet, without the classic narration.

Micky leaves and there is the standard drive-by shooting scene (See Jimmy Cagney movies of the 1930's)  Note speeded-up sequence (allusion to silent movie comedy), in which he runs back into the police station, terrified and ready to help.  As Mike leaves the police station with his guitar case, everyone ducks b/c in the Hollywood Chicago gangster idiom of the 1930's, the instrument cases all held tommy guns. (Gun invented by some guy named Thompson, used in WW1 & during Prohibition. Classic image of what Al Capone's guys would carry).

In the jail cell scene, note that the bars of the jail never actually appear.  A clever lighting technique is used,  called a GOBO ("Go Between"/"GOes Before Optics"), which is a small round silver cutout which gives the illusion of a certain shadow. In this case, jail bars.

Ruby his girlfriend, recognizes him.  "Aren't you gonna kiss your Ruby?" (he kisses his ruby pinkie ring, not the girl named Ruby). The actress is doing a scratchy-voiced version of a gangster's moll.  Her look reminds me a bit of Mia Farrow (although not waif-like), but I can't place her voice.

In the fight scene, during the romp, there is another woman dressed exactly like Ruby.  Probably the actress' stand-in.  Here is where it gets kooky: the stand-ins never usually appear ON CAMERA.  But since they are playing with the whole notion of twins with the Micky/Babyface thing, they include a shot where the girls walk by each other, realize they are dressed alike, and fight!  (Maybe they realized there weren't many other women in the scene, especially after they do a gag where all the other women run into the Ladies' room).

Mansion sequence: gang members attempt to reclaim stolen jewels.  Best unacknowledged gag: they had hidden them in the very room from which they stole them.  And years later, it just so happens to be empty b/c the owners are out of town. Mike puts dynamite in the fireplace, but blows up the piano instead (the absurdity of defying the laws of physics and reason).  Cop comes by and sells tickets to the Policeman's Ball (a euphemism for a thinly disguised bribe. Not sure of the actual prevalence of the practice among real life cops, but consistent with ongoing mistrust of authority figures throughout the series and the sixties).

Note the inexpensive effects of shooting a double for MD, someone who supposedly has the same hair and build facing the actual MD. (Although the stand in's hair has a bit of curl to it) Use of split screen when they appear side by side in the doorway and in the final scene in the jailhouse.  Their sightlines seem to be slightly off in the scene when they are confronting each other in the doorway.  It works pretty well for a quick effect, especially since they probably had to cut & match the film by hand, frame for frame!

Steve Blauner is mentioned as driving the getaway car and hitting a cop.  As the Simpsons would later learn, use every advantage when mentioning a full name.  It's a reference to a guy who has quite a history.  He was Bert Schneider's best friend (from cradle to grave).  He was a huge fan of Al Jolson and Sammy Davis Jr., and was actually Bobby Darin's agent.  He helped work behind the scenes, to get the Monkees on the air when RayBert came to him with an idea.  To quote him quoting (from Wikipedia), "Right after we showed the pilot, the director of NBC, Mort Warner, stood up and said "I don't know what the hell we've just seen but I think we should put it on the air!"  (Note that this is an alternate creation story, as most mention the test audience giving the poorest ratings ever to the pilot)
He later went on to form BBS (RayBert= Bob Raphaelson & Bert Schneider upgrading to Bert, Bob and Steve); they did a few tiny movies including "Easy Rider".  In the 1980's, he was the Executive Producer of the "New Monkees" (no further discussion will be made here of THAT show).

Reward is splitting up the jewelry among the boys.  Which is weird on lots of levels (but is exactly what you would do if it were a child's game-which is a viable premise).  If you accept the conceit that the series was envisioned for the tween and pre-tween age bracket (before the concept was even coined),then the plot lines in Season One can easily be seen as modeling child's play.  Especially when you consider that the father of Bert Schneider (the producer & creator) was the president of Columbia Pictures.  They had his daddy's backlot, sets and costumes to start from.  Most of the scripts were a mashup of old vaudeville routines, plotlines from other shows, and cameos of familiar acting faces and extras from central casting.

The title is a vague reference to gangsters having odd nicknames. "Alias Boston Blackie" (1942), "Alias Jesse James" (1959, Bob Hope movie), "Alias Smith and Jones" (1971-which is what I had mistakenly thought they had taken the title from).  The "Babyface" gangster nickname was actually used by George "Babyface" Nelson (enemy of Al Capone).  There was a movie in 1957, "Baby Face Nelson" starring Mickey Rooney.  His kid, Mickey Jr., auditioned for the Monkees.  Personally, I think it's just a great excuse to get Micky to call himself "goo-goo eyes".

Davy doesn't act in this one, but appears in the end interview (on the DVD) talking about visiting England for his sister's wedding.  He throws a fake- and uncharacteristic to the character "Davy Jones"- hissy fit at the end, kicking a chair, but mostly as a way to end the segment.

Songs
"The Kind of Girl I Could Love", "Mary, Mary"

The first romp is essentially a bar brawl.  The classic Hollywood Western includes the idea is that once people begin fighting, everyone gets into the act.  Usually there is some attempt to develop this organically, i.e. someone hits an innocent bystander, who retaliates.  This segment quickly devolves into a fighting orgy of extras eager to smash up the sugar-glass liquor bottles and breakaway furniture.

The "Mary, Mary" segment reveals a very early concept of what the "music video" was.  Why don't they just have the guys play their instruments and sing? Close up of Micky, the drummer, singing lead.  (Dullsville)  They are in their blue Monkee uniforms.  Watch for them in every shade.

Memorize these bits of dialogue to amaze your friends!
IMDB Quotes from "Alias Micky Dolenz"

Detailed notes & trivia used for the DVD:Monkees TV on Tripod (formerly Aaron Handy III's TV Web Shrine)