When The Doors Came Together, “a Diamond Was Formed. And It Was Clear And Hard And Luminous.” –

Jim and Thor (Ray's brother's doberman) hunt abalone with Ray, Dorothy and Ray's mother. At that time, Jim was living in Ray and Dorothy's house, where he was given the master bedroom. Photo courtesy of Ray Manzarek, 1965.

Amy and Ozzy by Ross Halfin

___________________________________________. "In The Mirror" – The Doors during a public photo shoot "Elektra Records", New York City, NY.  March 1967 - ©  Joel Brodsky

On March 3 and 4, 1967, The Doors performed at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco. It's their first time performing at this concert hall, but they'll be back in April.

📌I don't know the photographer. If anyone has information, please share it.

"Cheetah, Santa Monica,  California,  April 9, 1967. © Chuck Boyd

"Everybody was waiting for us. 'Break On Through' was out and people were turning onto the album. It was our first really large crowd. Over two thousand."-Robbie Krieger.

The Doors appear for two shows with The Jefferson Airplane playing to their largest crowd to date of over 2,000. This new Cheetah patterned itself after the one in NYC and just opened on March 21st sporting a 7,000 sq. ft. dance floor surrounded by stainless steel walls. Riding the upward swing of success their new album is producing, The Doors, for the first time, top billing over the biggest bands from rival San Francisco. Jim is highly delighted tonight and falls off the stage in a wild rage, some 8 feet, for the first time during a performance. This is obviously a big night for the band.

The Doors shot an early morning photo session with Bobby Klein atop a billboard on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood, California. Photo Credit: Bobby Klein © January 1967.

The first Doors album – simply titled The Doors – took just five days to make. Yet it took five months for Elektra to finally release it.  Jim and Ray had pushed at that point for the album to be released immediately, in time for Christmas. But Jac, the wise old label head, knew better and talked them into allowing Elektra to hold back its release until the new year. Jim threw a tantrum and again needed to be talked down.Jac painted Jim a picture of the kind of campaign Elektra would build around the album when it was finally released in January 1967: “I said: ‘We’ll have more time to prepare for you and I’ll release no other album that month, which means you’ve got Elektra working a hundred per cent on your album for the first month. And by the way, I have this idea about putting a billboard up on Sunset Strip…’ Well, that caught Jim. He loved that idea. He said: ‘Where’d you come up with that?’”

Photo shoot by Paul Ferrara, San Francisco, July 28-30, 1967.

On February 22, 1967, The Doors' performed at the Valley Music Theater in Woodland Hills, California George Washington's Birthday Bash. This event takes place as a fundraiser & awareness concert for teenagers and the public following the Sunset Strip riots. The doors played first.  🔻February 22, 1967, Woodland Hills, California, photo by Jean Trindl

Photographs by Linda Eastman, in June 1967,  Stage, New York, NY.