The Smiley Smile Message Board

Brian said in Jaspers video, that he blew his money,

Is he rich again, or not

Why does it matter?

well for a man who has given us so much, i just hope he hasint blown his rewards

The number banded around the most is $80 million.

Because he's given so many people so much pleasure, he deserves to be filthy rich.

Bruce is filthy rich. Brian's just rich. Mike is somewhere in between Brian and Bruce.

I would call that filthy rich

How has Bruce become filthy rich?

Bruce came from family money...the specific product escapes me but I know his family was very wealthy.  Also, I believe he has made a killing from "I Write the Songs" over the years. 

Regarding Brian, remember that he would be far more wealthy if Murry hadn't screwed him by selling the publishing rights to his songs.  Had Brian retained those through the present day, he would probably have at least 5x however much he has now...just look at how much the Beatles' catalog is worth today.  He'd probably be worth around half a billion by now (just a random guess).  Damn that Murry!

Bruce's adoptive father was the president of a drugstore chain in LA.  To me it's a bit unfair to compare the monetary standing of someone raised in Bel-Air to somebody raised in Hawthorne.  Even if they're members of the same music group.

Thanks for clarifying about the drugstore chain...for some reason I thought it involved a patent on something.  Oh well...yea Bruce had it pretty good growing up relative to the rest of the boys. 

One has to remember that up until the 1990s, Brian's money went with everyone else's into one pot (BRI) which distributed the money's out evenly.  Today, each member controls his own monies.  Brian's money kept the group going during the lean   late 60s - early 70s.

Bob

One or two years ago, Melinda posted on the Blueboard that they were thinking about buying a private jet for trips to Hawaii. So I guess he has ENOUGH.

Yes, folks - so don't have nightmares about Brian and where his next private jet's coming from!  I'm sure he's going to muddle through somehow.

Maybe someone should set up a PayPal account for donations to Brian...

For reasons of obscenity I can't see PayPal allowing that one!

Bruce's dad was a VP of the Rexall drugstore company, a national chain. He was raised in Chicago until he was twelve or so. As for the royalties on "IWTS", he once posted on the BBB MB that his last check was for something like $200,000. He's not hurting.

Not sure if it's true, but I once read somewhere that if you write one US #1 hit, you never have to work again.

But Bruce was adopted, right? Does anyone know what the the circumstances of his adoption were?

His adoptive dad was president of the chain, I believe.

Now, Michael Nesmith -- his mom invented liquid paper. You wonder why he skips out on most Monkees reunions? Now you know.

Yea I knew about that one...funny too because in the VH1 Monkees movie they show someone using liquid paper to edit handwritten music in the studio during Headquarters. 

Liquid Paper..... isn't that for someone who makes mistakes? I've never had the need to use it.

By the way... I do have a photo of Brian's lake home at Lake Arrowhead. I'd post it here if I knew how.

Is Bruces birth name a no-no here?
Read it some where and don't know if it is right to comment.

Re: Bruce's birth name - I believe it was Billy Baldwin.  It's in the Gaines book, which is still packed in a box from our recent move from Houston to Las Vegas, but i think that's it.  On the BBB site a couple of weeks back, he was telling some friend of his to call him at his hotel.  "Ask for Bruce Johnston", he says, " that's the name I travel under", or something like that. I thought it was a clever comment.  As for comparing money from Bel Air or Hawthorne, I'm a banker by trade and let me tell you, it all spends the same.  And the fact that Bruce inherited a bunch shouldn't matter to anyone.  None of my business and takes nothing away from me.

Not quite.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Johnston