1967.07.28-30   Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, CA.

April 21,22,23, 1967 The Doors performed at the Kaleidoscope at Ciro's, West Hollywood, CA

Kim Fowley Remembers the Doors

“I first saw them at Ciro's in 1966 - I think I'd first heard about them from Billy James. I got to Ciro's before the Doors' set began, and the musicians were up on stage setting up. A heckler started yelling at the band: 'You guys are horrible. You can't play. You're crap. You can't drink, you can't think, you can't fight, you can't fuck.' He was in dirty clothes and looked dangerous. The band looked nervous and started playing - and this guy hopped up on stage and started singing. It was Morrison, who'd been heckling his own band. That was one of the best things I'd ever seen in a club. No introduction - just the singer yelling at the band and then the music. I thought, 'My God, these guys are going to be interesting to watch.'

By 1966, Guy Webster had established himself as a go-to guy for every record company in Hollywood, so it was hardly a surprise that fall when Jac Holzman of Elektra Records hired him to create the cover for the debut album by a new group Holzman had signed. What was a surprise, at least for Guy, was that when the band showed up at his studio for the shoot, the lead singer greeted him like an old friend. It turned out they had met years before when Guy was taking a philosophy class at UCLA. It was Jim Morrison, much thinner and with much longer hair than when Guy had last seen him in the classroom. The group, of course, was the Doors, and the album cover, dominated by Morrison’s handsome face, would earn Guy his second Grammy nomination.

1966,11.  Beverly Hills, CA. © Guy Webster

March 1968, NYC, NY.- NY Subway Session in Navy Blue Coat. ©️Paul Ferrara.

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

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. 

16 Magazine Photo Session, New York City, NY, Mid September,1967. 📷 Gloria Stavers

Floating through the water, with flowing moss beneath and a majestic waterfall in the background 😌

The Doors appear on television for the very first time on KHJ-TV's Boss City in February of 1967. Hosted by DJ Sam Riddle, this episode was broadcast on February 18th at 6:00pm.  During the month of February 1967, Break On Through is The Doors first  single release and is most likely the song performed. Interviews with the performing groups are known to have taken place with the host and likely followed the performance. For years, it was presumed that The Doors performance on SHEBANG was their first-ever appearance on tv, however a newly confirmed performance date for that show has at last revealed that this performance on Boss City was in fact The Doors very first. At the present date, no surviving copies of The Doors performances on Boss City have surfaced, however two photographs taken by Jasper Dailey during this filming are known. 

The Doors at Boss City on February 18, 1967,  photographs by Jasper Daly.

Jim Morrison - Photo by Edmund Teske,1969

Linda McCartney Remembers Jim Morrison

“I first photographed The Doors at a small New York club, close to the 59th Street Bridge, called Ondine’s, which was a favorite place for out of town bands to come and play residencies. It was the winter of 1966 and I was down there with some friends to see a Los Angeles band that Elektra Records had recently signed. I had my camera with me and started taking pictures of them as they played. No one in New York had heard of The Doors. They had never performed outside of Los Angeles and hadn’t released any records. Because they were unknown and the club was so intimate I had the unique opportunity of being able to get up really close as they played. It wasn’t Jim Morrison’s looks that struck me first about him. It was the poetry of his songs and the way he would get completely lost in the music. He had this habit of cupping his hand behind his ear so the he could hear his vocals the way the traditional folk singers did. I thought the whole band was great; Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger and John Densmore were all very creative musicans. They returned to Ondine’s in March 1967 by which time their debut album The Doors and their first single “Break On Through” had been released, and they were getting national attention. In May they played their last residency in New York – three weeks at Steve Paul’s Scene Club.