The only thing that was unfortunate about getting the chance to meet Davy Jones at the July 18, 2009, Hollywood Collectors show, was that I didn’t find out that he was going to be present until after I had already arrived in California. So even though I had just acquired a nice color photo of The Monkees that I had had Mickey Dolenz sign in October 2008, I hadn’t brought it along with me. But despite that annoying fact, I was thrilled to be meeting yet another Monkee – and the most popular one at that!
As a young actor and singer, he appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show with the cast of Oliver! the very same night that Beatles made their American television debut. His desire to get “a piece of that” would later manifest itself when he was cast in the TV show The Monkees. Although expressly created for series, The Monkees would end up producing chart-topping albums and remained a viable act from 1965-71.
Still, my favorite Davy Jones appearance was of course the one in which he played himself meeting Marcia Brady on The Brady Bunch, performing the hit single Girl.
It was clear that Davy Jones was quite a nice guy, and not just out for a quick buck. In fact, he was signing items that fans brought for just $10 each. Photos that he was selling were $20, and there was no charge for posing for photos with him. He did seem a little put off when Bob asked him to move out of the backlight for my picture though. I’ll have to write about him in my diary, just like Marcia did.
UPDATE: Everyone was saddened by the unexpected and premature death of Davy Jones on February 29, 2012. What everyone doesn’t know was that just 18 days earlier, Davy was a guest at the Hollywood Show on February 11. As I lamented above, I had been annoyed that I had not known to being along my partially-signed Monkees photo when I met him previously. Since my first encounter with Davy, I had also added Peter Tork to the photo. This show turned out to be my last chance to get it signed…and I did!
He was now charging $25 per signature, but thankfully that didn’t deter me in the slightest. But sadly, he was also now charging for photos with him, so I passed on that, content with the one that I had already gotten. Naturally with his passing later that month, I rather wish that I had posed one last time with him.
Nevertheless, I am eternally grateful for this one last opportunity to meet this true legend of the music industry, and that I was able to add his signature to my group shot just in the nick of time.
Celebrities of the 2009 Hollywood Show will continue…
A legend! He did the “snake dance” way before that hack Axl Rose did.
Eric Hubble
December 17th, 2009