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

The Doors perform at the KTLA SHEBANG show, which took place on February 25, 1967. The Doors are filmed lip synching to a playback of their debut single 'Break On Through'. Band looks very collegiate and the unusual set up places.  Densmore at centre stage on drums between Morrison (stage left) and Manzarek. Krieger stands behind them directly in front of some garden furnishings. The host is Casey Kasem.

“It was our first time doing a TV show and we really had no idea what we were doing. When the director started telling us what to do, we just looked at each other and said, ‘I guess that’s how it is’. We learned later that wasn’t the case, but it was a great initial experience.”(Ray Manzarek)

“This is one of our first TV performances. We were clearly nervous. I mean, Jim won’t even look at the camera or anything. I’m somehow positioned in the front. I’m the ‘lead drummer’. Ridiculous!” (John Densmore)

“We had no say what-so-ever. There was a director telling us exactly what to do, and we did it. We just felt lucky to be there. Shebang was a local TV show, so it wasn’t as big as Dick Clark, but it was great to be on there.”(Robby Krieger)

May 16-21, 1967, Whisky A Go-Go,  West Hollywood, California.  Photographs by Henry Diltz.

Jim Morrison, The Doors, "The American Poet", New York, 1966. This is the iconic "American Poet" photograph taken by Brodsky for the band's first album in 1966. Brodsky captured a young Jim Morrison shortly before The Doors became famous.

"Urge to come to terms with the "Outside", by absorbing, interiorizing it. I won't  come out, you must come in to me. Into my womb-garden where I peer out. Where I can construct a universe within the skull, to rival the real.".  (Jim Morrison, from “The Lords: Notes on Vision”)   

 Photo Session in Frankfurt, Germany, September 14th,1968

1967.07.28-30   Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, CA.

That was a great summer. I was hanging out at the film school and I was hanging out with friends in Venice. Ray had a house there, so I’d go and watch them rehearse sometimes because we were still hanging around that summer...A few years later, after we became friends, I told Jim about my first impression of him at that first show, and I said, “I thought you were terrible that night”. I remember he gave me a look that seemed to suggest that he didn’t like the word “terrible” [laughs]...

But then I told him he had improved tremendously and he was like a Frank Sinatra crooner who could also sing rock, and I asked him, “What changed?” He just said, “I just kept practicing and I kept practicing, practicing, practicing”. And obviously he had been doing something to improve. If you listen to their first demo and then their first album, there is such a difference and you can hear it. But they rehearsed a lot and they played a lot, too. I guess you can’t really help but improve if there’s the will and the talent, right?"-Frank Lisciandro

1966.08-09 Ray's Beach House Session ©Bill Harvey

Jim Morrison with model Donna Mitchell, VOGUE magazine session, New York, September 1967. Photo by Alexis Waldeck.  

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.

967.05.30 Hullabaloo, Hollywood, CA. Photographs by Barbara Gray

The Doors by Bobbi Klein. January- February, 1967.