"Hey, hey, we're the Monkees and people say we monkey around" - from "Theme from The Monkees" by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart...
Inspired by the Beatle's "A Hard Days Night", "The Monkees" made its debut on this date 40 years ago today, September 12th, 1966 but where are the individual members of the group that had 13 Top 40 hits including 7 Top 10's and 3 chart toppers, today??? I'm glad you asked...
In case you're a former New Yorker now living in Dubuque under a federal witness program, you're aware that Micky Dolenz's attempt at being a radio star went down in flames at mother-ship CBS-FM. In this case it was "radio killed the radio star". Dolenz barely made it to his 100th show, was given a party and new luggage. When last seen, Micky played Charlemagne in a revival of the musical "Pippin" in Connecticut...
Peter Tork travels the country with his own band (The Peter Tork Project) and occasionally as a solo act. Davy Jones (both he and Micky believe that too many vowels spoil the first name) races horses in his native England but resides in Beavertown (PA) and has appeared in several productions of "Oliver!" as Fagin. Davy has a famous namesake, the other "Davy Jones" who changed his last name to Bowie. Yes it's true. Finally there's the most creative of all the former Monkees, Michael Nesmith...
Nesmith shares the same December birthday as Davy Jones but is 3 years older than Jones, at 64. Nesmith inherited about half of his mother's $50+ million estate, which turned "Liquid Paper" into lots of green paper for Michael. Nesmith had one of my favorite records of the 70's, "Joanne", has won a Grammy for his video work, created "Pop Clips" for Nickelodeon and won $46.8 million from PBS over licensing rights and payments. After PBS appealed the ruling, a confidential settlement was reached. He's also executive produced movies including "Repo Man". Since 1990, Nesmith has hosted the Council on Ideas, a gathering of intellectuals from various fields who are asked to brainstorm solutions to world problems. And I'm wondering, why doesn't this guy run for President ? He's got plenty of money and lots of ideas. Nesmith for President...
"The Monkees" only ran for 2 years but came back for several seasons of reruns. In those 2 years, the group would sell over $50 million singles and LP's worldwide, a remarkable run for a group that was assembled from an ad in Variety...
Ten Timeline Memories...
- [1948] 13-year old Elvis Presley, moves with his parents from Tupelo (MIss) to Memphis...
- [1953] Carl Erskine defeats the Braves (5-2) as the Brooklyn Dodgers clinch the pennant earlier than any other team in history...
- [1963] The final episode of "Leave it to Beaver" is aired on ABC-TV after a run of 6 years...
- [1964] The Beatles play Boston for the 1st time, selling out The Boston Garden...
- [1964] The 1st football game is played at Shea Stadium with the Jets beating Denver 30-6 (a good football trivia question for all you Jet fans)...
- [1979] Future Hall of Famer, Carl Yastrzemski collects his 3,000th hit off of the Yankees Jim Beattie during a 9-2 Red Sox win. Yaz becomes the 1st American League player to reach 3,000 hits and 400 home runs in his career...
- [1980] ABC-TV's "20/20" presents an in-depth report on the death of Elvis Presley, raising unanswered questions about his death. The official case is re-opened...
- [1983] Arnold Schwarzenegger becomes a U.S. citizen...
- [1984] The Mets' Dwight "Doc" Gooden sets a rookie and major league strike out record with his 251st strike out...
- [2002] 3 former Tyco executives are charged with bilking hundreds of millions from employees and investors...
"Happy Trails": 1992] Anthony Perkins dies due to complications from AIDS at 60...2003] Johnny Cash, from complications resulting from diabetes, at 71...
"Wedding Bells": 1953] Jacqueline Bouvier and Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy walk down the aisle at Hammersmith Farm in Newport (RI)...
Premiered on this date: 1954] "Lassie" on CBS-TV (Lassie comes to the rescue for 17 years)...1959] "Bonanza" on NBC-TV (The Ponderosa survives until January, 1973)...1966] "Family Affair" on CBS-TV (runs until September, 1971)...1966] "The Monkees" on NBC-TV (for 2 years and then in reruns)...
Released on this date: 1970] "Fire and Rain" - James Taylor...
"Gold Standard": 1966] "Yellow Submarine" - Beatles...
[To ensure accuracy of dates and content, multiple reference sources are used in the timeline]...
"Happy Birthday...happy birthday"...
Yao (Yo) Ming (26), "American Idol" Ruben Studdard (28), Amy Yasbeck (44), Rachel Ward (49), America's Gerry Beckley (54), Dire Straits Mark Knopfler (57), Maria Muldaur (63), Linda Gray (66), George Jones (75) and "Our Gang's" Dickie Moore (81)...
Timeline Countdown: 22 days until MLB playoffs, 110 days until 2007 and The Mets Magic Number is stalled at: 4...
