From the Monkee Spectacular Archives, June 1968
There’s nothing quite as much fun as being in the same hotel as the Monkees. Seeing them on the set is one thing, but spending day and night with them is such an outlandish experience that you’d have to be there to understand. So, why not come along with us and be right across the hall from Davy’s room… go swimming with Peter and Micky… and have lunch with Mike.
The Monkees were spending three days in Palm Springs filming their full-length movie, “Untitled.” For those of you who don’t know about Palm Springs, it’s a beautiful desert resort about two hours away from Hollywood. Most of the movie stars have homes there, so the Palm Springs kids are used to seeing celebrities, but when the Monkees hit town, it was a different story. More about this later.
Anyway, we arrived at the Erawan Gardens Hotel in Palm Desert about 5 o’clock on Monday evening. The Monkees had been there since Sunday, but only one scene of the movie had been shot because the tank that Micky was supposed to drive across the desert had broken down. The first Monkee we saw was Mike. He was having some tomato juice in the coffee shop with Bruce Barbour, Phyllis’s brother.
MIKE’S NEWS
Mike was tired and explained why. “We were out on the desert almost all day and it was really hot. The treads on the tank had broken, so new ones had to be flown in from Hollywood. By the time they arrived, it was too late in the afternoon to shoot any more scenes.”
Mike was wearing his usual blue jeans and boots, but his hair was especially well-groomed for being in the desert in the sun. His career is branching out because he just sold his first album, one he produced himself, to MGM-Verve Records. It will be out in a few months. He said we’d have to hear it but admitted it was a “different kind of music than you’d expect.”
Bruce, Phyllis’s brother, told us Phyllis had been down with Mike the day before but had to return to Hollywood because of little Jonathan. She loved the Palm Springs sun, though, and hoped to come back soon. Lucky Bruce gets to be Mike’s stand-in for the whole movie.
After sympathizing with Mike about the day’s bad luck, we headed for our rooms, which were directly across the lawn from Davy’s. Davy took time out from playing lawn soccer with Neko Chohlis to say “Hi.” He was in great spirits because he hadn’t worked at all that day. Neko and Davy had spent the whole time just swimming and lying in the sun with Peter, who also had the day off.
DAVY AND NEKO
Davy was wearing white slacks and his favorite Indian rajah coat, which you’ve seen many times in Monkee Spec. He told us all about what he’d done since he arrived.
“Neko and I got here early yesterday and didn’t miss a minute of sun. We went driving across the desert in a four-wheel drive jeep. Man, you should have been with us. It knocked down everything in its way…just like a tank. Pretty rough riding, though.
Then we came back to the hotel and played water polo with Ric Klein and David Pearl. Next, some tennis and then lawn soccer. Micky was out flying around in a one-man glider all day. He’s really got the flying bug.”
Davy told us everyone was scheduled to shoot the next day at 6:30 in the morning, so all the Monkees planned to have an early dinner and get some sleep.
That night, Micky came back to the hotel so tired that he fell asleep without watching the Monkees TV show. He was the only one who worked the whole day, but he smiled and said, “I really had fun. That tank is groovy!”
THE NEXT MORNING
Bright and early the next A.M., we all hit the dining room for a big breakfast. Micky arrived at 6:30 and claimed he was really hungry. He was wearing beige cords and a slip-on white knit shirt with brown stripes. He filled his plate twice, eating a huge helping of corned beef hash, bacon, rolls, orange juice, and cereal. He saw us zeroing in on his plate and admitted, “I’m still trying to gain weight.”
But when you spend some time with Micky, you’ll have to see why he’s so thin. Micky never sits still. He’s always moving, looking over someone’s shoulder, or working on a project that requires energy. He’s full of pep, but this keeps him so thin that sometimes it’s a worry.
After breakfast, we all headed out to the filming location, which was only about a mile from the hotel. The crew, complete with cameras, wind machines, extras, wardrobe trucks, and dressing room trailers, were parked on a dead-end street. There were regular houses on the street that looked right across to the sand dunes where they were filming the movie. Fans from ages 2 to 13 stood in front of their own homes and watched the Monkees walk back and forth on their way to the shooting site.
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