Seats for the Oscars and Goodbye to a Day Dream Believer.

Peter Tork and Davy Jones.

It's been a week since the Oscars and in that week we've lost Davy Jones who died of a heart attack; there were a few initial stories as to where he died: one version said he died in his sleep another said he was found in his car complaining of chest pains and experiencing breathing difficulties and after being rushed to hospital in Florida he was pronounced dead on arrival and the latest is that he died in his horse riding stable with his horses; the bottom line is he died.

Not a lot of people know this (to paraphrase Michael Caine) but he was the original Monkee – he was cast first and the others had to audition.

Peter Tork said he kind of resented him when he came in to the auditions and swanned straight in to see the producers; then when they had to go in for their auditions they were 'paired' with him.

Of course they got on well later.

And how did they know about him? The producers, I mean.

On the night The Beatles were on the Ed Sullivan Show, when street crime and burglaries stopped for an hour in New York, Davy Jones was in the show with them.
He was playing The Artful Dodger on Broadway in Oliver and sang a song, with Georgia Brown, from the show and the producers saw him.

So he was already contracted to the film company who produced The Monkees but had to meet the producers first.

Before that he was in Coronation Street playing Ena Sharples' grandson and various other British TV appearances and then he trained as a jockey before going into The West End in Oliver and then to Broadway.
I don't think any of the Monkees made money from the re-runs of the show, so when he finished with it he started a street market in New York and then, after losing a lot of money, resumed his career as a jockey.
In tribute to Jones, Lingfield Park Race Track announced that the first two races on the card for 3 March 2012 would be renamed the Hey Hey We're The Monkees Handicap and the In Memory of Davy Jones Selling Stakes with successful horses in those races accompanied into the Winners' Enclosure by some of The Monkees' biggest hits. Plans were also announced to erect a plaque to commemorate Jones next to a Monkee Puzzle tree on the course.
Of course he died in a leap year on February 29^th – a date they will only remember every four years which coincides each year with the Olympic Games and the American Presidential Election.
Changing the subject a lot of people have asked me, as I lived around the corner from The Kodak Theatre, if I ever went to the Academy Awards show or even waited outside to see the stars coming and going; well not necessarily going just coming.

Well no, I never went; it is possible to get an invitation to the actual show if you are a prominent business owner but you'll end up in the gods. My landlady went the first year I was there and it might have been possible to go in those days and stand in the crowd outside.

The Oscars were held at a different place each year; one year it would be the Shrine Auditorium and the next it would be in The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in The Music Center. Since they have been held at The Kodak Theatre in Hollywood all has changed.

As I mentioned before, you can't even walk along Hollywood Blvd without going through security checks, so who are those people outside that greet the stars?

Well you could be one of those if you wanted to be – all you have to do is write to the Academy, tell them you would like to be in the Bleachers Seats– which is what those seats are called – and they will choose so many out of the hat, so to speak, and then you can go.

They will, of course, put you through a very strict security check and, if you are successful, you can go and they will wine and dine you for the day – they even have wheel chair access for those needing it.

They have elevators to get you to your seats, food service and when the show starts they take you across to El Capitan Theatre, opposite, and you see the show on the big screen; there you get hot dogs as opposed to the Wolfgang Puck menu the stars will eat.

So give it a go for next year but don't ask me for any addresses.