Bobby Klein : "I was the first official photographer of the Doors, and this shot was taken early on. It was 1967 and we were heading to Venice Beach to take some publicity shots but got hungry, so Jim recommended stopping off at Lucky U Cafe, his favourite place in Los Angeles to grab breakfast. It was a tiny Mexican restaurant owned by a Chinese man, pretty much just a counter with no tables. Jim ordered a beer and a menudo – a beef and chilli soup – to line his stomach. It wasn’t uncommon to see him sink six beers in an hour. I’ve always enjoyed shooting people when they’re eating because it creates an intimacy. So I got behind the counter and started snapping away. Jim was beautiful. He looked like Michelangelo’s David. He was checking me out: “Who the hell is this guy?” He didn’t suffer fools, and this was early on in our relationship. There’s an intensity in his eyes: he was totally serious about being seen as a credible poet."
January 1967, Lucky U Café, Venice Beach, photo by Bobby Klein
May 20th 1967: Boss City KHJ-TV Los Angeles.
The band return to Boss City on KJH-TV for a second time and the show now has a 90 minute format due to its popularity. It is not certain but it is believed the band play an album version of Light My Fire. Whether they mime or play live is unknown. It is likely the band did an interview with host Sam Riddle.
"The biographers seem to have lost Jim's sense of humor. I can't impress upon you enough that it was always there....He was the funniest human being I ever met. Simply that, the funniest human being I ever met." – Fud Ford New York's Central Park, spring 1968. Photo by Paul Ferrara
KARLA opens the Doors.
The Doors very first appearance on the radio takes place in February of 1967 on KRLA 1110 during a 15 minute news broadcast by Lew Irwin. The subject of this news segment on The Doors is the newly erected Elektra billboard on the Sunset Strip, where Lew Irwin of KRLA is present with a tape recorder on the same day The Doors are photographed by Bobby Klein. A photograph of the band taken by a staff member of Foster & Kleiser, who erected the billboard, shows Lew interviewing the band with microphone in hand. Tape recordings made for KRLA news segments are known to have been continually reused and a copy of this news segment has never been found.
10/24/1966 The Doors give their first performance in New York. Billie Winters— a friend of Jim Morrison and Ondine club owner Brad Pierce, is hosting this concert for The Doors. Apparently, this performance is the first audition in residence in Ondine. After the first performance, Brad Pierce hired The Doors to perform throughout November. The Doors stay at the Henry Hudson Hotel during their stay in New York. The owner of the club, Brad Pierce, takes The Doors shopping during this period in search of new stage clothes. The Doors record their first album in Elektra Studio during the day and perform at night. During this period, Hit Parader editor and photographer Don Paulsen interviewed The Doors for the first official interview. On November 24, The Doors take a day off, they were invited to Paul Rothschild's house for Thanksgiving dinner.
📷1966.11 The Doors on the stage of the Ondine nightclub. Photo by Don Paulsen
MORE THAN just a good rock group, The Doors represent two things to their millions of followers. Either they project the music-plus-sensuality that is The Doors musical sense combined with Morrison's presence, or they can project the strange drama and rock that comes from Morrison's head.” -Pop Scene Service, April 6, 1968
© Joel Brodsky, November 1966, New York
On July 13, 1967, The Doors performed at Oakland Civic Auditorium, Oakland, California. Photos by Edward Halley.