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.
The first day the band arrived in the studio, Botnick recalls, “they had pretty much the first two albums ready to go. The thought that Paul had was that we were to be invisible – to allow them to capture the magic of The Doors as you went to hear them.” He adds: “They were totally different than anything else I was recording. I was recording the Beach Boys, The Turtles, The Ventures… and The Doors were totally different, it was the beginning of that era of American sixties music.”. 1966.11 First photo session group ©Joel Brodsky
1967.05.29. Grover Cleveland High School, Reseda, CA. Photo by Don Johnson
___________________________________________. "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.
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
Jim Morrison, Dorothy Manzarek, Ray's mother Helen Manzarek, and Thor (Jim Manzarek's dog). Palos Verdes, California, 1965. 📷From the archive of Ray Manzarek
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
Van Nuys CA. Birmingham High School Stadium. May 20th 1967 © Joe Klein.
🔻The Doors join the bill for a fundraiser for the local High School. This concert is notable as it is the bands first major outdoor concert with more than 15,000 attending. A third of the crowd leaves after The Doors set. They are 2nd billing to Jefferson Airplane but that will be turned on it's head once Light My Fire, released the previous month, takes off and hits #1.