c. late 1965
Probably filmed mid to late 1965.
Stills from the Mondo Hollywood Photo Album.
This piece of music was recorded at a party in Hollywood. It was the first time the Mothers Of Invention had appeared in the civilized world. We had made our emergence from the Pomona area into Hollywood, and we were the entertainment at a party that they were using in conjunction with the filming of a picture called Mondo Hollywood. The amplifier that the bass is playing through was lent to us by Jim Guercio, and meanwhile, over on the side watching the band, for some sort of future purpose, was Herbie Cohen, who eventually turned out to be our manager.
December 15, 1965
78 min. B&W
July 12, 1966
CKLW-TV, channel 9, Windsor, Ontario, Canada
Hosted by Robin Seymour
Tuesday afternoon the Mothers appeared on Robin Seymour's TV show. As Art Cervi, Swingin' Time talent coordinator said, "We've never had anyone on the show that brought anything near the controversy they caused. The switchboard was flooded with viewers either saying the Mothers were great or awful."
It was a low-budget promo tour, set up by MGM, taking us first to Washington, D.C., for a television show called Swingin' Time on channel 20--a TV dance show for the sons and daughters of our nation's leaders.
The show had put together a "Freak Out Dance Contest," and invited the contestants to dress "freakishly" for the event. How freakish were they? The weirdest guy in the room was wearing two different-colored socks.
On Tuesday 12 July, Zappa and The Mothers appeared on the afternoon TV show hosted by Robin Seymour in Los Angeles.
4-5pm, CKLW-TV, channel 9, Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Not Los Angeles. Sources: Loraine Alterman, "If You Get Headache...", Detroit Free Press, 7/15/66. (Reprinted in the Old Masters Volume 1 booklet.) Tim Kiska, "'Swingin' Time Again' captures the rocking '60s", Detroit News, 6/12/99, http://detnews.com/1999/entertainment/9906/12/06120047.htm. Rob Lindsay, "Stand By To Laugh", http://www.airfarce.com/info/pat.html.
Both Windsor and Southfield are suburbs of Detroit.
In the late 1960's, CKLW [located in Windsor, Ontario] started their long running musical series, "Robin Seymour's Swingin' Time". Between 4 and 5 p.m. every weekday, Robin Seymour (a popular radio DJ) hosted the live dance and music show from the Windsor studios.
July 23, 1966
WXYZ-TV, channel 7, ABC, Southfield, Michigan
Hosted by Dave Prince
If you missed them [The Mothers Of Invention] Tuesday, you can see them Saturday, July 23, on Dave Prince's "Club 1270" TV show. Pity the poor WXYZ switchboard operators!
In Detroit, we did a television show where we were asked to do something perverted: "lip-sync our hit." We didn't have a 'hit,' but the producer said, "Lip-sync your hit--or else." So I asked, "Do you have a prop department here?" Fortunately, there was one.
From it, I gathered an assortment of random objects and built a set. We had been asked to pretend to play either "How Could I Be Such a Fool?" or "Who Are the Brain Police?" so I suggested that each member of the group choose a repeatable physical action, not necessarily in sync with (or even related to) the lyrics, and do it over and over until our spot on the show was concluded--Detroit's first whiff of homemade prime-time Dada.
On Saturday 16 July, The Mothers again appeared on TV, this time on Dave Prince's Club 1270 show on WXYZ.
7/23/66. WXYZ-TV, channel 7, ABC, Southfield, Michigan. Not 7/12/66. Sources: Loraine Alterman, "If You Get Headache...", Detroit Free Press, 7/15/66. (Reprinted in the Old Masters Volume 1 booklet.) Bob Burnham, "A new slant on 'looking back'", http://www.brcradio.com/nonprofit/slant/slant2.html. Art Vuolo, "Talkradio 1270 WXYT History", http://www.wxyt.com/history.html.
Both Windsor and Southfield are suburbs of Detroit.
July 24, 1966
KTTV Channel 11
SUNDAY, July 24, 1966 -- 10:30 -- [Channel] 11 -- (Color) Louis E. Lomax Show, with vocal Lomax critic Rena Rogers, musician Frank Zappa, trader-with-Russia Romaine Fielding
The first time I ever saw the Mothers of Invention was like 1966-67 on the Louis Lomax show on KTLA. Zappa & Co. were introduced and proceeded to 'FREAK OUT' (which was there description of their musical style & the title of the 1st record).
Primary informant: Avo Raup
c. July, 1966
WFAA-TV, Channel 8, Dallas, TX
Hosted by Ron Chapman
Next stop: Dallas. We flew into Love Field and found ourselves walking down a long hall, full of soldiers and sailors--stopped dead in their tracks, staring in utter disbelief. They didn't say anything. They didn't throw anything at us. They didn't shoot us like Easy Rider--they just stood there.
We were then whisked off to a shopping mall, to some downstairs place where yet another TV teenage dance show was in progress. We played live on that one.
The high point of the performance was Carl Franzoni, our 'go-go boy.' He was wearing ballet tights, frugging violently. Carl has testicles which are bigger than a breadbox. Much bigger than a breadbox. The looks on the faces of the Baptist teens experiencing their grandeur is a treasured memory.
There was another brief television encounter on Sumpin Else--a teen go-go music and dance show shot in Dallas in the late 60's. In 1966 (first tour I think) FZ and the Mothers were between cities and had a few hours lay over in Dallas' Love Field airport. Some west coast promo man had set up a "suprise" visit of the band to the live show.
It was run by local DJ, Ron Chapman. During an "on air" music break,
Chapman looks up to see this band of renegade pirate-biker-ballerina freaks storming his studio to the tune of "Wowie Zowie". Collins, Black and Carl Frazoni jumped up on the go-go stage and started doing the Monkee (among other things). The go-go girls jumped off stage as Chapman attempted to interview FZ.FZ looked up to the viewing audience in the North Park Mall. They were on the other side of thick sound proof glass. "When are they going to fill that aquarium?" FZ asked.
When the boys left. Chapman talked to the show's go-go girls. "Why did you leave the stage?" he asked. The most debutante of the group pinched her nose with her left hand and, waving the air with her right, said, "They SMELLED!"
c. July, 1966
WDCA-TV, Washington, DC (Studios in Bethesda, MD)
Hosted by Kerby Scott (aka Kerby Confer)
After that [Club 1270], the band took a quick trip across the States to Washington DC, where they appeared on Scott Kerby's Dance Party on WDCA-TV and put in a surprise disruption visit to a Georgetown night club called the Roundtable.
Immediately after appearing on Swingin' Time, the band went on a brief promotional tour set up by MGM/Verve. The first date was in Washington, DC, where they appeared on the Kerby Scott Dance Party on WDCA and went on to make a surprise appearance at Georgetown's Roundtable nightclub.
Here is the definitive list of hosts [of WDCA's "Wing Ding"]... compiled by Fall Church's own Jack Maier, with refinements from materials found in the DC Public Library, Washingtoniana Room: === Kerby Scott (M-Sat) 4/21/66, WDCA's First Full Day On-The-Air, through 3/18/67 === === Cousin Duffy (Saturday Only) 3/25/67 through 5/13/67 === === Bill Miller, [not the same BM as WPGC's Bob Raleigh] (M-F) 4/3/67 through 9/15/67 === === Bill Miller (Sat) 5/20/67 through 8/26/67 [when Saturday show was cancelled] === === Scott Wallace (M-F) 9/2/67 through 5/10/68 === === Jack Alix (M-F) 5/13/68 through 11/29/68 === === "Wing Ding" renamed "The Jack Alix Show" (M-F) with same format 12/2/68 through 1/3/69 [when show was cancelled] === === "The Jack Alix Show" was retooled (without studio dancers) Saturdays-only from 1/18/69 through 4/20/69 as "Washington's only underground progressive rock TV show" === Newspaper listings don't indicate who filled-in as weekday host after Kerby's departure on 3/18/67 until Bill Miller arrived on 4/3/67.
c. September-October, 1966
Hosted by David Susskind
Frank employed me to perform with him on the David Susskind TV show featuring a "Freak Out" concert. I met with Frank a few years ago and he mentioned this show to me.
We also did a TV show called David Susskind Presents Freak Out. We filmed this at TTG studios in Hollywood.
These screenshots come from the documentary Frank Zappa. The Present Day Composer Refuses To Die. It's a Freak Out party, where we can see the Mothers, Carl Franzoni and Del Kacher (see further discussion about this on the FZ 1965-69 section).
October 22, 1966
KTTV-11
Hosted by Joe Pyne
[Channel] 11 -- (Color) Joe Pyne Show with sculptor Vito and his "freak-out" band, writer-producer Jerry Hopkins, Peace Corps official Ray Holland, "human physics" exponent Dr. Champion K. Teutsch, feminist Velma Menelkoch
I am a long time Zappaphile.
The first time I saw him was on a show in the LA area. It was called The Joe Pine show. He was this right wing wind bag who had on guests and would badger them with his right wing bull shit. Well, he mad the mistake of have Frank and MOI with the 3 Cherry Sister on, (who were I think some of the GTO's) Any way they brought a bunch of Freaks in with them, probably from Laurel Canyon or maybe some people from The United Mutations, and proceded to have a FREAK OUT all over the studio. I was pretty young and dumb then but it was the best thing I ever saw. If you can imagin the face of Joe Pine when his studio filled up with freaks dancing all over his furniture and the cameras it was probably one of the great moments in Los Angeles television. WOW I wish they had that on tape. Just thought you would like to hear the story. Sincerly John Titter.
It must have been 1965 as I was still pretty nieve!!!!!
The person writing about the Joe Pyne show had the wrong spelling. It is P-y-n-e.
An exchange between Joe and musician Frank Zappa went like this:
Pyne: "So I guess your long hair makes you a woman."
Zappa: "So I guess your wooden leg makes you a table!"
Additional informant: Avo Raup
October 28, 1966
93 min.
January 4 or 11, 1967
ABC-TV, NYC, NY
28 min.
FZ--guitar, vocals
Ray Collins--vocals
Del Kacher--guitar
Don Preston?--keyboards
Van Dyke Parks?--keyboards
Roy Estrada--bass, vocals
Billy Mundi--drums
Jimmy Carl Black--drums
Also appearing:
Carl Franzoni & some other freaks
Your mothers and fathers who are drinking beer, they're watching Roller Derby and then they change the channel, and then they see you guys on the floor. They say, "Oh, boy, they're really sick."
In an interview conducted at the Edgewater Inn on August 27, 1971, the interviewer and FZ mention a television appearance by the MOI circa Freak Out! It was about 30 seconds of concert footage in a show entitled "Sex in the Sixties" on ABC.
A web search yielded the CV of Ira L. Reiss, then Professor of Sociology at the University of Iowa, which listed the following under "Professional Talks":
October 3, 1966: "Sex in the Sixties," Extended Interview for use January 4 or 11, 1967 on Wednesday Dramatic Show, taped on Stage 67, ABC-TV. New York, NY.
The dates match up, so that must be it.
Another new Internet Movie Database entry for Frank! There's almost no information about "Sex in Today's World," except that it's a 28 minute USA film from 1968. Frank is the only listed cast member.
What could this be? A public service announcement? A documentary? A hygiene film? The kind of movie that would run one afoul of the San Berdoo Vice Squad?
Sex in Today's World (color), "an examination of sex in the 1960's," is a time capsule which neatly captures many of the conflicting attitudes of a cross section of people--doctor, psychologist, professors, students, and preachers--caught in the sexual turbulence of 1966. The so-called Sexual Revolution happened so quickly and with such across-the-board pervasiveness that this little film, like most of the people interviewed, seems not only dazed, but trying to catch its breath. It also includes some great glimpses of mid-sixties adult book stores, 42nd Street in its glorious grindhouse heyday, Bunnies doing a go-go at a Playboy Club and, most surprising of all, concert footage of FRANK ZAPPA and THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION! The inevitable conclusion: Yeah, there's sure a lot of sex out there!
The video is actually 27 min long (but something may be missing from this rip at both ends, so the information on your site is quite right).
The Mothers performance appears at begin of the video in three snippets (for a total of one minute the first two, and another half a minute the last one) and it is also used as Main title background. There is also some live music being performed, even if in the last snippet it's mostly covered by the voice of a psychologist saying something about youth and sex.
The mothers play some kind of jam while a crowd of young freaks (?) madly dance on the floor. The film editors seem more interested in showing the girls in the audience than the band members...
The line-up is quite the same of the 66 picture at the Whiskey, even if I can't swear the guitarist is the same.
I include some snapshots.
1967
9 min. 38 sec.
1967
April 25, 1967
CBS
45 min.
INSIDE POP: THE ROCK REVOLUTION (aired April 26, 1967) on CBS, with a 20 minute opening wherein Leonard Bernstein sits at the piano with a reel to reel player, giving examples of what he likes about current pop music (about 5%), including The Beatles, The Association's "Along Comes Mary" and introducing a performance of "Society's Child" by 15 year old Janis Ian. Zappa is shown three times in quick clips, the latter two featuring him talking about the youth revolution, how it may be messy and that the kids need to get organized and lay off the drugs. He seems out of place amidst the metaphysical "love everyone" talk featured through out. Also includes Brian Wilson singing "Surf's Up", The Hollies, Herman's Hermits, Tim Buckley, Canned Heat, etc. About 45 minutes without the commercials. The copy I have is a solid B.
the airing date is wrong - it was Tuesday, April 25th 1967 (not 26th). Several clippings all have airing date Tuesday, April 25th.
A contemporary press clip:
Study of pop music planned for Tuesday
"Inside Pop -- The Rock Revolution," a one-hour news special will be seen at 9 p.m. Tuesday on channel 13.The special explores the composition, beat and meaning of the pop music scene.
Leonard Bernstein, music director of the New York Philharmonic, and such contemporary pop stars as Herman's Hermits, Brian Wilson, leader of the Beach Boys, The Hollies, Janis Ian, and spokesmen of some of the new music world's leading groups are among the participants.
Bernstein, famed for his conducting of classical works and composing music for Broadway and ballet, takes a hard look at pop -- the music, lyrics and sound -- and describes what he thinks is and is not valuable in it.
He invites the viewer along to study pop music and pop musicians because "perhaps by learning about them, we can learn something about our own future."
Following Bernstein's segment, the broadcast looks at pop music and its musicians in terms of the people directly involved with this phenomenon of the 1960's.
In conversation, these people tell about the nature of their music and what it means to them an their contemporaries. They also talk about such subjects as universal love, personal freedom and drugs.
Jim McGuinn, leader of The Byrds, Frank Zappa, leader of the Mothers, and the rock musicians on "the L.A. scene" talk about their participation inside pop.
Informant: Avo Raup
1967
Luden's Cough Drops TV Commercial
1 min.
Animation: Ed Seeman
Sound: Frank Zappa
19. The Big Squeeze
Music: FZ
Date: 1966 or '67
Location: Mayfair Studio, New York City
Original recording medium: 8-track analog
Recording engineer: Gary Kellgren
Remix engineer: Gary Kellgren
Remix facility: Mayfair Studio, New York City
Musicians: DICK BARBER (snorks); FZ (kazoo, percussion, celeste)FZ: "This is the actual track for a Luden's Cough Drop commercial that won a Clio Award in 1967 for Best Music for a Commercial. A freak in an ad agency who was an animator, Ed Seeman, who came to the Garrick Shows, did the pictures and recruited me to do the music. I went along with it. The commercial shows a squiggly white thing that's supposed to be the cough wriggling around. A box of Luden's appears on the left side of the screen, like a monolith, and squashed it." MOI road manager Dick Barber supplied the nasal embellishment.
I first met Frank when He was playing a steady gig at the Garrick Theater in Greenwich Village. I hired him to score a 30 second animated TV commercial I was animating and producing FOR LUDEN'S COUGH DROPS. He requested $2,000 plus a studio for a day with a wide variety of instruments plus a guy to do cough sounds.
Year: 1968
Award: Best
Entry Type: Television/Cinema
Category: Sound Design
Advertiser/Product/Service: Luden's Cough Drops
Title: Big Squeeze
Advertising Agency: Phila. Agency
Production Company: Gryphon
The guy Ed Seeman, whom FZ mentioned in his discussion of the cough drop commercial, gets mentioned in the opening credits of the film Burnt Weeny Sandwich.
Additional Informants:
Jon Naurin, Patrick Neve, John Henley
YouTube: The Big Squeeze (01:19 min.)
Spring-Summer, 1967
Garrick Theater, NYC, NY
Filmed by Ed Seeman, Ray Favata and Tom Mangravete
Attrocities on stage and shots of the audience from the stage. FZ is playing the Gibson Switchmaster ES-5.
c. Spring-Summer 1967
Garrick Theater, NYC, NY
Filmed by Ed Seeman, Ray Favata and Tom Mangravete
FZ (wearing the PIPCO T-Shirt and playing a Trini Lopez Standard Gibson E-335 guitar) & The Mothers Of Invention playing on stage at the Garrick Theater, ripping off their own albums covers and playing with dolls.
c. July 18, 1967
NYC, NY
Calvin creates a Zappa Dummy for the cover of We're Only In It For The Money, assisted by Gail and filmed by Ed Seeman.
July 18, 1967
NYC, NY
Filmed by Ed Seeman and Calvin Schenkel
Frank Zappa himself attended the Jimi Hendrix Experience recording session at the Mayfair Recording Studio on 701 Seventh Avenue, New York, on 18 July 1967. Although his presence is unconfirmed, Zappa may very well be one of the many people who made up "the Milky Way Express" for "The Stars That Play With Laughing Sam's Dice" [S020], contributing an assortment of voices, whistles, cheers, et cetera.
JHE roadie Neville Chesters remembered the day well . . . "Quite a few people dropped in on that session. It was a really shitty studio, it was about six or eight floors up . . . Midtown New York, a pretty dreadful place. It was just like offices and they converted it into a studio, most odd. I remember a photo session came out of that. It was the same day or later in the day of that session" (UniVibes #18, May 1995, p. 18).
Neville Chesters was referring to the photo session on 18 July that yielded the inside cover of We're Only In It For The Money--the Sergeant Pepper parody. Fortunately, this happening was also captured on 8mm film--a glimpse of Jimi during the photo call by Jerry Schatzberg can be seen in the TV documentary on Frank Zappa, entitled Biography (released in 1994--for more details refer to Michael Fairchild's feature 'Live Boa & Pigtails,' published in UniVibes #18, May 1995, p. 32).
c. July-August, 1967
Mayfair or Apostolic Studios, NYC, NY
Partly filmed by Ed Seeman
1967
Mayfair or Apostolic Studios, NYC, NY
Filmen by Ed Seeman
September, 1967
Garrick Theater, NYC, NY
Filmed by Ed Seeman
The Mothers Of Invention depart to Europe from outside the Garrick.
September, 1967
London, UK
Filmed by Ed Seeman
September 23, 1967
Royal Albert Hall, London, UK
Filmed by Ed Seeman
September 24, 1967
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Filmed by Ed Seeman
October 9, 1967
VPRO, Netherlands
B&W 5 min.
Complete program available here: Hoepla! 2e aflevering (56:14 min.), including performances by Soft Machine and Olga Lowina, an interview with Mick Jagger and some other interesting stuff.
YouTube: Mothers Of Invention On Hoepla 1967 (05:14 min.)
1967
The Bitter End, NYC, NY
WOR-TV
10 min.
Hosted by Fred Weintraub
FZ--guitar
Don Preston--keyboards, electronics
Jimmy Carl Black--trumpet
Ian Underwood--alto sax
Bunk Gardner--tenor sax
Motorhead Sherwood--tambourine,
trumpet, etc.
Roy Estrada--bass
Billy Mundi--drums
MOI performs Suzy Creamcheese (lipsynched!) and an improvisation.
Instrumental audio: Apochrypa, In Memoriam Hieronymus Bosch
This footage is included in the first volume of "Live From Greenwich Village". Venue is also listed as "Bottom Line", but I have doubts. Confirm/deny?
The "Granny's Gossip" column in the February issue [of Hit Parader, 1968] mentions Moon's birth, and also has this nugget about the Bitter End TV appearance, during which FZ repeatedly mouthed the word "motherfucker" while the band mimed to "Son Of Suzy Creamcheese":
"The Mothers made a rare TV appearance on Fred Weintraub's new show, 'From The Bitter End.' The minute the camera focused on Frank Zappa the picture went off, a 'Please Stand By' sign appeared and it occupied the screen during most of their first song, 'Son Of Suzy Creamcheese.' Later, the Mothers performed 'In Memoriam, Heironymus Bosch' from their new 'We're Only In It For The Money' album."
[Note that WOIIFTM was not yet out at the time. Bonus point to Granny for spelling that title correctly.]
Late 1967-Early 1968
Charles St., NYC, NY
Filmed by Ed Seeman
This adventure took me to many more nights at the Garrick Theater; in his apartment on Charles Street shooting baby MOON UNIT and barefoot "hippie" wife GAIL.
c. 1967-68
Prob. Apostolic Studios, NY
4 min.
Filmed by Ed Seeman
Studio recording session, including appearances of FZ, Herb Cohen, an unidentified girl, Ray Collins, Roy Estrada, Ruth Komanoff playing percussion, Ian Underwood, FZ hands playing acoustic guitar, with Uncle Meat's "King Kong" as background music.
I shot Zappa and the original Mothers in a recording session and rehearsal in 1967 while filming the original footage for Uncle Meat. Using a 16mm camera that can shoot two frames a second I produced this section with no editing.
YouTube: Ed Seeman's "Zappa In Rehearsal" (08:45 min.)
1968
Short version: B&W/Color 3 min.
Long version: B&W 42 min.
Complete version: Color 14 hours.
1968
NYC
Ther's an old TV show that I have never seen anyone mention - I do not know if anyone filmed or taped it...
Around 1968, FZ was a guest on a NY talk show, the Allan Berg show. Or maybe it was Allan Berk...
Anyway, I was young and uninterested, but a guy at my bus stop talked about Zappa being on the show, and giving Allan a hard time, at least twice...
The talk show host was actually named Allan Burke.
March 11, 1968
NBC-TV
July 24, 1968
Filmways
Hosted by Steve Allen
[Channel] 9 -- STEVE ALLEN -- Variety -- COLOR -- Guests: Godfrey Cambridge, Oscar-winning actor Ed Begley, singer Jaye P. Morgan and the rocking Mothers of Invention, led by Frank Zappa. (90 min.)
The Steve Allen Show (March 5, 1968 - November 6, 1969): This was a syndicated (by Filmways, Inc.) comedy talk show that ran five days a week.
There was a 67 or 68 appearance with THE MOTHERS on the STEVE ALLEN SHOW. They played two songs america drinks and goes home and hungry freaks daddy and zappa was interviewed by Mr. Allen.
Allen had a syndicated afternoon talk show circa 1967-69. The Mothers of Invention performed on that show--I remember they sang "America Drinks & Goes Home", and there was another piece that I don't recall. When they were done with the first piece, Allen invited Frank to come and sit in one of the "guest chat" chairs, where they discussed politics and "the youth movement." Steve asked Frank what he thought "today's young people" wanted and Frank replied, "I'll tell you what they NEED--they need representation in government." Another guest on that show was old Ed Begley Sr., who seemed fascinated by Frank and peppered him with questions of his own. Later in the show, after a commercial break, Frank wasn't in his chair and Steve said something like "We'll resume our chat after Frank Zappa returns," at which Frank came strolling in from off camera with a cup of coffee. As he sat down, he made an unheard remark to Ed Begley Sr., which made the old guy chuckle.
I remember that Allen series well because he had all kinds of rock bands of that time, good and bad, on the show. I've not seen one second of it rebroadcast at any time since those ewsyears. It may not even exist any more.
I have a very fond memory of watching Steve Allen's mid-sixties show, which I assume was syndicated since I got it on a UHF channel from Charlotte, NC, and one of the best I saw was when the Mothers appeared. I do remember that they played "Hungry Freaks, Daddy" and I think "America Drinks..." and Steve announced the first song with quite a bit of surprise and good-natured humor in his voice. I don't remember enough to state who was actually on stage; I assume it was the 67-68 original Mothers line up. Absolutely Free must have been the most recent LP at that time. Anyway, having owned Freak Out at the time, I was already familiar with HFD and it made quite an impression when they appeared. FZ sat down at talked for a minute; unfortunately time has eroded my recollections. Is this anywhere on tape???
A true moment in the history of rockaroo. There sits Steverino reading the lyrics from "Hungry Freaks Daddy" tinkling his bell, tooting his horn, all the while espousing the musical completeness of Zappa and the Mothers. Zappa comes out and talks, real smart, very intelligent, a true spokesman for the race of hippydom. Then the Mothers play and blow away the entire studio. They scared a lot of people that night.
The other guests were comedian Godfrey Cambridge and actor Ed Begley [Sr.].
Audio recordings of two fragments are in circulation. See FZShows.
To the Steve Allen Show in 1968 I would like to add only one guest more in this show - singer Jaye P. Morgan
Informant: Charles Ulrich, Avo Raup
May 5, 1968 (taping date)
Airings:
July 17, 1968 -- WKBS, Channel 48
July 24, 1968 -- WKBF, Channel 61
[Channel] 48 -- Les Crane Show (C) -- "Rock Rhythm and Blues" Lalo Schifrin; Johnny Otis, leader of "Mothers of Invention"; Frank Zappa and Joseph Byrd
11:00 p.m. Ch. 61 -- Les Crane Show. "Rock, Rhythm & Blues" Jazz, and its relationship to the new music of our times, is discussid by award-winning composer Lalo Shifrin, legendary rhythm and blues leader Johnny Otis, Frank Zappa and Joseph Byrd.
It was about 10:30 p.m. on a Sunday, May 5, when I phoned Los Angeles to see if my brother, Frank had arrived from New York. [...] I asked Frank if the Mothers were going to be doing any shows in the near future, and if he had any plans to do some guest spots on television. He said that the Mothers were scheduled to do concerts in Los Angeles, Fresno, and Miami, and that, as a matter of fact, he was going to tape the Les Crane Show that evening.
In the mid-1960s, he hosted late-night talk shows on ABC-TV in the network's attempt to compete with Johnny Carson's program. As a talk show host, he occasionally intersected with rock'n'roll history: the Rolling Stones made their first American TV appearance on Crane's show in June 1964, and Bob Dylan did a rare TV spot with Crane in early 1965.
The gigs he refers to are presumably 5/10-11/68 Los Angeles, 5/18/68 Hallandale, and 5/25/68 Fresno.
By all accounts, the Les Crane Show that Unterberger is talking about above (also known as Nightlife) went off the air in November 1965. In 1968, ABC's late-night talk show was hosted by Joey Bishop.
Perhaps Les Crane was hosting a local TV show.
Informants: Charles Ulrich, Avo Raup (press clippings)
May 18, 1968
Gulfstream Park, Hallandale, FL
Entitled the "Underground Pop Festival", this was an important show for several reasons. For one, it would produce the version of King Kong that appears on the Uncle Meat album as: "King Kong (live on a flatbed diesel in the middle of a race track at a Miami Pop Festival... the Underwood ramifications)" Add to this that Hendrix was on the bill, and after burning a strat gave it to Zappa. Zappa would rebuild it and play it for years to come, and the word is that Dweezil plays that guitar to this day. Now throw into the equation that the whole mess was filmed. Would you like to see such a film? Read on:
I recently saw concert footage from a festival in Miami at a race track in what I think was 68. Along with the Mothers - great shots of Frank, was the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Best damn footage of Hendrix I have ever seen. He's in prime form. The best shot was a slow mo of Jimi humping his guitar during a solo. Pure power in the shot. But to the question, I guess, has there been a legit or bootleg of the Mothers from this show? The woman who owns the footage (her late husband promoted the festival) also has four track tapes of the show. Eddie Kramer engineered Hendrix's set. Not sure who twiddled the nobs for the Mothers.
Update: Not sure what is going to happen to the Mothers film, but I found out the Hendrix people cracked and cut the "proper amount" check. The footage and soundtrack will probably be hitting the stores in a year or perhaps Christmas. It'll be worth the pennies.
Further update: The woman who owns the film is going to approach the ZFT about the footage. Not sure if they'll want the board tape since they've probably already got their own mix - as shown by using a live take of King Kong on Uncle Meat. I've talked to the woman's entertainment lawyer. He said they were approaching the ZFT.
Some pictures of the festival here: NOVAPALOOZA
c. 1968
Black & White scenes of Calvin Schenkel, Ray Collins, FZ, Gail Zappa and a table.
September 9, 1968
ABC-TV
Hosted by Shelley Winters
[Channel] 7 -- (C) Joey Bishop Show. Shelley Winters is hostess to Tammy Grimes, the Pair Extraordinaire, Alejandro Rey, Rip Taylor
Joey Bishop had one week vacation starting from Monday, September 9. Every day the show had a different substitute host. On Monday, September 9 it was Shelley Winters' turn.
We did our first national television show about a month ago--by accident. See, they have a show there called the Joey Bishop show. And it's a very dull program that comes on late at night, and it's largest audience is in the South. And . . . he went on a vacation, so they had these other people come in to be the host of the show. It's a variety show. So, ah, you know the American actress Shelley Winters? You know? Well, she was the hostess on the program. And she requested that we come on and play--and there was a lot of problems when she asked to do that, the producer of the program didn't want us to come on, so she said she would not do the show unless we went on. And she forced them to put us on television. And so we played. That was our--that was our first national television program. (...) She wanted to help us, she wanted to put us on television; she liked our music . . . y'know, which I thought was strange. (...) I'd never met her before either, it came as a surprise.
I saw his Joey Bishop TV Show appearance (Sept 68) and as I recall he wore a tee shirt that said "Kill The Boy Scouts" on the front.
My favorite Joey Bishop Show moment was when Shelley Winters guest- hosted, and Frank Zappa was among her guests. Throughout the segment, Shelley was reduced to crying plaintively, "Joey! Where's Joey!"
Additional informant: Avo Raup
September, 1968
75 min.
c. September 28, 1968
probably Essen, Germany
Snapshots from "Schöner Poesie Is Krampf..." - Internationale Essener Songtage 1968 (1989)
Informant: Oscar Bianco
c. September, 1988
Unknown place (Essen?)
Snapshots from "Schöner Poesie Is Krampf..." - Internationale Essener Songtage 1968 (1989)
Informant: Oscar Bianco
September 28, 1968
Grugahalle, Essen, Germany
Screenshot from Zappateers
There is an about 50' long documentary about the Songfestival in Essen, Germany, September 1968 in which Zappa appears. One can see a few short snippets of an interview with him and there is a short excerpt of his performance - though certainly not more than 30 seconds. As far as I understand the whole concert there was film but seems to have been lost over the years.
To settle the long-standing uncertainty about the spelling of this venue, I found their own website. It's "Grugahalle".
I have a short segment of that video that I believe it is the whole part regarding Zappa. It's long 5:42. It includes a live audio/video performance of O In The Sky nested in an interview with ZF.
October 6, 1968
Beat Club, Radio Bremen TV, Bremen, Germany
B&W (colored)
35 min.
FZ--guitar, piano, vocals
Don Preston--keyboards, electronics,
vocals
Ian Underwood--alto sax, clarinet
Bunk Gardner--tenor sax, soprano
sax
Motorhead Sherwood--tambourine,
percussion, snorks
Roy Estrada--bass, vocals, gas
mask
Jimmy Carl Black--drums
Arthur Dyer Tripp III--drums
Beat-Club premiered September 25, 1965. (...) Around 1967, the series switched from live performances to lip-synching. (...) "Beat Club" switched from black & white to color on December 31, 1969 (episode #50). Also around this time, the music guests started performing live again.
c. October 12, 1968
Vienna, Austria
B&W
Photography by Hermann Jauk
October 16, 1968
SportPalast, Berlin, Germany
B&W
The Mothers were playing in W. Berlin in 1968. During afternoon soundcheck, FZ was approached by a group of German youths, who paid him compliments, described themselves as activists and asked for his assistance in a project. He asked them What project? They said, tonight we are marching to the American Center in order to burn it down, and we want you to lead the parade. FZ said, in so many words, get lost.
At the concert that night, these same "activists," with reinforcements, disrupted the concert, chanting anti American slogans and piling onto the stage while the band was playing, and you know how pissed FZ got whenever a concert was interrupted for no "good" reason. There's film footage of the incident.
Additional informant:
Jillis Stada
c. October 16, 1968
Hotel Room, Berlin, Germany
The Cast: Manfred Lerch, Jimmy Carl Black & Motorhead Sherwood
October 23, 1968 (Broadcast date)
TV Studio, Paris, France
B&W
10 min.
FZ--guitar
Don Preston--keyboards
Ian Underwood--clarinet
Bunk Gardner--soprano sax
Motorhead Sherwood--tambourine
Roy Estrada--bass, vocals
Jimmy Carl Black--drums
Arthur Dyer Tripp III--drums
The Mothers Of Invention performance is included as a bonus on the DVD Hair, Let The Sunshine In released by Ina on July 24, 2007.
As it is written in the book "Zappa In France 1968/1988" (published in 2003) with photos (225! mainly from different Paris concerts) by Christian Rose and text (in french) by Philippe Thieyre, the October 26, 1968 Olympia Concert was the first venue in Paris by Zappa and The Mothers. They also participated a TV program called "Forum Musiques" (...). The show was broadcasted on October 23, 1968. In the same program there was mainly the french singer Michel Polnareff and the jazz saxophone player Phil Woods and Joe Cocker.
Additional informants:
Graham Connah, Jon Naurin, Jillis Stada, Charles Ulrich
YouTube: Mothers Of Invention -- Paris, October, 1968 -- Part 1 (08:17 min.) · Part 2 (02:26 min.)
October 23, 1968
BBC2 TV
31 min.
FZ--guitar
Don Preston--keyboards, Dom DeWild
Ian Underwood--alto sax
Bunk Gardner--tenor sax
Motorhead Sherwood--tambourine,
baritone sax, snorks
Roy Estrada--bass, vocals
Jimmy Carl Black--drums
Arthur Dyer Tripp III--drums
I love this version of King Kong. Motorhead blows a mean, mean solo. There is at least one listing for this video as being 31 minutes long, but I don't know if that's a mistake or not:
From: Brian Lagerman
1968 BBC RAW FOOTAGE (KING KONG SESSION) BBC 31M 2
The raw footage version includes "King Kong" (23 min., with a Dom DeWild transformation and a snorks solo), "O, In The Sky" (2 min.), and two different versions of the spoken intro.
Additional informants:
Jillis Stada, Charles Ulrich
c. October 24, 1968
Seven Sisters Road, London, UK
The rehearsal at the Festival Hall which is pixilated footage that was out at this pub on Seven Sisters Road when we were rehear[s]ing. It was great. We had fifteen members of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Mothers in the back room of this pub - it was the only place we could find to rehearse. We wheeled in a baby grand piano. Really great.
October 25, 1968
Royal Festival Hall, London, UK
This concert was recorded at Royal Festival Hall, London, England on 28 October 1968, using a rented 4-track remote system (a single 3M one-inch 4-track machine, 8 microphones, and an 8-channel mixer). There are no over-dubs. It was also filmed by a semi-professional 16mm camera crew. (For those of you who might wonder what everybody is doing while the audience is cracking up, an edited version of the 'dramatic' portion of the show can be seen in the HONKER HOME VIDEO release of "UNCLE MEAT".) (...)
Throughout the tour, I had been writing chamber music pieces in airports & hotels. Somewhere in the middle of the tour, when asked about an opening act for the London show, I opted to hire 14 members of the BBC symphony to play these pieces, and build a cheesy little psycho-drama around them, featuring the band doing something other than our usual stuff.
Additional informants:
Jillis Stada
c. 1968-69
November 3, 1968
BBC 1, UK
55 min.
Directed by Tony Palmer
Re-broadcasted by BBC-4 on June 5, 2004
WITH HIDEOUS, clamorous force, Tony Palmer's film about the pop world, All My Loving, burst out of the TV screen last night.
Other artists included are The Beatles, Frank Zappa, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, and many others, across a 55 minute film by Tony Palmer. First broadcast in November 1968 in black and white, the following year saw a colour broadcast, and one destined to put strain on the red guns of television tubes!
Studio: Mvd Visual
DVD Release Date: September 18, 2007
Run Time: 52 minutes
Aditional informants:
Brian Lagerman, Jillis Stada, Ken Langford
November 6, 1968
Directed by Bob Rafelson
c. November-December, 1968
Los Angeles, CA
Filmed by Cal Schenkel
c. 1968-69
(December 6-7, 1968,
Shrine Exposition Hall, LA, CA?)
(July 23, 1968, Whisky à Go-Go, LA, CA?)
B&W footage of the GTOs dancing on stage with The Mothers Of Invention.
Frank and the Mothers were going to play the Whiskey, and glory of glories, he asked us girls to work up our theme song, "Getting to Know You," to perform on Saturday night! (...)
August 31 ... (...) We saw the films of our Whiskey show, and they made me realize we're going to make it!
Early 1969
Solarized scenes of Captain Beefheart, probably some members of The Magic Band, and a mannequin, probably at FZ home.
c. 1968-69
Early 1969
Filmed by Motorhead Sherwood
April 30, 1969
The Dilexi Series
KQED TV, San Francisco, CA
18 min. B&W and color
1969
TVE 2, Spain
2 min.
1969: "El último grito" directed by Iván Zulueta, TVE ( Spanish tv series) . Compilation of five episodes. Original broadcast 1969. 2nd channel. Time:1':58'' "Photomontage of the American underground group " The Mothers of Invention" leaded by Frank Zappa".
August 3, 1969
Atlantic City Race Track, Atlantic City, NJ
8 mm audience film, 4 min., no sound
August 16, 1969
CJOH-TV
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
"The last live Mothers performance was in Montreal. The last 'otherwise' performance was a television show in Ottawa the following night"--August 18th and 19th.
I suspect he was incorrectly quoted or just remembered wrong...
See...
http://www.guertin.com/zappa/1969.html
I saw the CJOH broadcast and it was either on the 15th itself, or the 16th (next day)...not any later than that...
I'm pretty sure they performed "Afternoon of a Sexually Aroused Gas Mask" with a lot of Ray Estrada falsetto...(I think...something off WRMF...)
At any rate, I can't see them travelling from Ottawa to Montreal, then back to Ottawa just for that short recording...
August 27, 1969
107 min, color
October 24-28, 1969
Actuel Festival Mont de I'Enclus in Amougies, Belgium
