A few points . . .
January 6, 1962
The guests on this evening's
Dance Party television show included the Four Cal-Quettes, Don Julian and the Meadowlarks, Vince Howard, the Bel Aires (most likely a misspelling of Belairs of "Mr. Moto" fame), and Johnny Burnette. Paul Johnson, who, along with fellow guitarist Eddie Bertrand, founded the Belairs, recalled appearing with the Beach Boys on
Dance Party, but was understandably unsure of the exact date. Johnson recalled it was the Belairs' first appearance on the show, his mother watched it live that night on television at home, and that it was also the Beach Boys' first appearance on the show. Of course, it is pretty well accepted, thanks to surviving documents from the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), that the Beach Boys' first appearance on
Dance Party was Saturday, December 30, 1961. It is unclear whether the Belairs appeared on the December 30, 1961, show as well. But this raises the tantalizing question if the Belairs' first appearance on
Dance Party was indeed January 6, 1962, did the Beach Boys also appear that night, just one week after their debut appearance? Did the Beach Boys appear on
Dance Party December 30, 1961, and January 6, 1962? It is possible as
Dance Party was a local television show that depended on booking local bands to fill out a schedule of nationally known artists.
February 3, 1962
Further complicating things, as if this needed any further complications, Johnson does not recall ever appearing on
Dance Party with the Four Cal-Quettes, Don Julian and the Meadowlarks, Vince Howard, or Johnny Burnette. He does, however, recall appearing on
Dance Party with Ketty Lester and the Lettermen. He also recalled that after the
Dance Party appearance with the Beach Boys he rode home with them and they treated him to a beautiful a cappella rendition of "Surfer Girl," which they mentioned they were "going into the studio next week to record." Well, that may place this
Dance Party appearance on Saturday, February 3, 1962, as the Boys first recorded "Surfer Girl" with Hite Morgan at World Pacific Studio on Thursday, February 8, 1962. On the KFWB Fabulous Forty Survey for the week ending Friday, February 9, 1962, the Beach Boys' "Surfin'" was #4, Ketty Lester's "Love Letters" was #15, the Lettermen's "When I Fall in Love" was #26, and the Belaires' (misspelled on the KFWB survey) "Mr. Moto was #24. So, each artist had a record out to promote and may have certainly been booked on
Dance Party on Saturday, February 3, 1962. [Note: I have found no corroborating documentation that Kitty Lester and the Lettermen appeared on
Dance Party on February 3, 1962.] Confused yet? I am.
February 10, 1962
In early 1962, James Darren was a very popular film and singing star having played the character Moondoggie in
Gidget (1959) and scoring a #3 hit with "Goodbye Cruel World " on Colpix in 1961. So, his appearances on television often warranted listings in the television columns of local newspapers such as the
Long Beach Independent and the
Long Beach Press-Telegram. He was also quite good looking and considered a teen idol much admired by the female teenage population who bought records in large numbers, especially if they had full-color picture sleeves which soon adorned their bedroom walls. [Note: We have young teenage girls to thank for color picture sleeves.]
The Surfmen were a surf quartet from the Garden Grove area of Southern California who recorded for Bob Brown's Titan Records and had just released "Paradise Cove" (b/w "Ghost Hop," Titan 1723) in January 1962. An interesting Beach Boys related footnote here is that Gary Usher recorded his second single for Titan Records ("You're the Girl" b/w "Driven Insane," Titan 1716) and Saundra Glantz, recording as "Ginger," recorded "Dry Tears" b/w "Spare Time" on Titan 1717 -- both in April 1961. They struck up a romance when Bob Brown sent them out together to play a few local gigs to promote their respective (back-to-back) records. It was Ginger's relationship with Usher that led to Brian meeting fifteen-year-old Marilyn Rovell at Pandora's Box in late summer 1962. Of course, another Beach Boys-Titan connection is that "Paradise Cove" is where the
Surfin' Safari front cover photograph would be taken by Kenneth Veeder, Capitol's in-house photographer, in late summer 1962. "Paradise Cove" by the Surfmen made enough local noise to warrant Herb Newman leasing it for his Era Records, much the same way he had just leased "Surfin'" on Candix 301. Newman had what all small record companies wanted. A distribution network to get the record into Mom & Pop record stores all across the United States.
The Surfmen were mentioned along with James Darren in several newspaper advertisements and television listings prior to their February 10, 1962, appearance at the Long Beach Municipal Auditorium (LBMA). Although no other artists were mentioned in the ads or listings, many appeared as the show that night was a three-hour event with multiple artists on the bill. The first hour was taped and broadcast the following Saturday evening (February 17, 1962) on local television as the
Bob Eubanks Dance Party. After the first hour of the February 10, 1962 show (the portion that would be televised the following week), attendees, who paid about $1.75 admission, were then entertained by a two-hour stage show featuring the other artists, many (all?) of whom had not been part of the first hour that had been taped for later broadcast. The show has been mistakenly referred to as the
Wink Martindale Dance Party because Martindale started it in 1960 shortly after arriving in LA from a sister radio station in Memphis, where he had hosted a similar show and snagged Elvis as a guest July 16, 1955. The error was further promulgated when the Beach Boys joined AFTRA on December 29, 1961, and the show they were to appear on was listed as "Wink Martindale Dance Party." But Wink had left the show in early October 1961 to concentrate on his singing career as a recording artist on Randy Woods' Dot Records. When Martindale left KRLA and
Dance Party, he handed the reins of the show over to his good friend and fellow KRLA disc jockey Bob Eubanks. At the request of the Long Beach Junior Chamber of Commerce, Eubanks moved
Dance Party from the Aragon Ballroom at Pacific Ocean Park (P.O.P) [It had started at P.O.P.'s Sea Circus marine mammal pavilion] to the LBMA to give local authorities a wholesome activity to keep teenagers busy Saturday evenings, off the streets, and out of trouble. Juvenile delinquency was a concern at the time and in the newspapers on a fairly regular basis.
Ray Hunt, guitarist and driving force of the Surfmen, told Bob Dalley in
Surfin' Guitars, Instrumental Surf Bands of the Sixties [by the way, don't pay the exorbitant prices for the long out-of-print second edition as Bob will soon publish an updated third edition] that he recalled playing this show along with James Darren, Frankie Avalon, Della Reese, Gene McDaniels, Bobby Rydell, and the Beach Boys. Hunt recalled the show was in "late 1961," but it was most likely February 10, 1962. There are however, a few problems with Hunt's recollections. From Dalley's seminal surf resource, "What I really remember about the Beach Boys at that time was they were only an instrumental group. They didn't sing a lick that night." But that doesn't ring true to me. If the Boys performed during the first televised hour, they would most certainly have played "Surfin'," their current and only hit at the time, which had just moved from #4 to #3 on the KFWB Fabulous Forty Survey out that day (February 10, 1962). And if the Boys played sometime during the following non-televised two hours, they still would have sung "Surfin'" and, perhaps, one or two others. Songs that have been mentioned as possible candidates in their limited live repertoire at that time were "Johnny B. Goode," "The Twist," "Bermuda Shorts, " and "What'd I Say." Hunt's recollection that they were "only an instrumental group" and "didn't sing a lick that night" is problematic. Another interesting thing, and not necessarily a problem, is his recollection that Frankie Avalon and Bobby Rydell also appeared that night. These two singers were quite popular at the time and it is rather curious they did not make it into the advertisement or television listings for the show. Avalon was a much bigger star at the time than Darren and certainly the Surfmen. So, assuming Hunt's recollection of playing with the Boys at this show is correct, and there is no strong case that he is incorrect, they may have played in the first hour that was televised or they may have played sometime during the following two hours that were not televised. But it would seem likely that one or more of their songs that night featured their vocals.
The Beach Boys in San Bernardino, CA
March 24, 1962
Hi-Teen Easter Fashion Show
Saturday, March 24, 1962, at 1:30 p.m.
Harris Department Store
4th Floor Auditorium
West 3rd and North E Streets
San Bernardino, California
[Source:
San Bernardino County Sun, March 24, 1962, page B8]
and/or
May 12, 1962
Campus Deb Jamboree
Saturday, May 12, 1962, at 9:00 a.m.
California Theater
562 West 4th Street
San Bernardino, California
[Source:
San Bernardino County Sun, May 12, 1962, page B6]
William F. Williams, then a disc jockey on KMEN covering the San Bernardino and Riverside area, recalled in David Leaf's
The Beach Boys and the California Myth (1978, page 32), "We at KMEN were one of the first stations to play the Beach Boys records, and San Bernardino was a big Beach Boys town. Harris department store had a 'Deb-Teens' department and the girls at the area high schools who bought their clothes there became members of a 'club.' Harris had a fashion show/concert each year for the girls who were members. KMEN was in charge of putting together the talent for Harris's concert, and I remember Murry Wilson came to us and literally begged us to let the Beach Boys be the opening act. As I recall, they barely knew which end of the guitar case was up. They looked very badly, played very badly, and sang very badly."
"Surfin'" had done pretty well on KMEN and KFWM in the Inland Empire of San Bernardino and Riverside. Somewhat comparable to how it did in Los Angeles on KFWB, KRLA, and KDAY.
By March 24, 1962, "Surfin'" had just recently dropped off the charts, the all-important follow-up single was no where in sight, and Murry would soon send Hite and Dorinda Morgan a one-page "Letter of Intent and Agreement" dated March 29, 1962, in which he practically begged the Morgans to manage the group and help them secure a recording contract with a major record label. Murry was desperately trying to keep the Beach Boys from being another one-hit wonder.
By May 12, 1962 -- a mere forty-nine days later -- the scenario had changed remarkably and the Beach Boys' future was looking quite a bit rosier. On the strength of the two early to mid-April 1962 demo sessions at Western, engineered by Chuck Britz, which yielded, among other songs, "409," "Lonely Sea," and a newly recorded "Surfin' Safari," Murry hired LA music attorney Averill C. Pasarow in an effort to extricate the band from the March 29, 1962, agreement with the Morgans. That demo reel, on which Murry spliced an a cappella "Their Hearts Were Full of Spring," as we all know, and that's a story in itself, was purchased by Capitol Records, via A&R producer Nick Venet, with authorization from his boss Voyle Gilmore, for $300 on or about May 8, 1962. The Beach Boys then signed an interim recording contract May 24, 1962, that enabled Capitol to rush release "Surfin' Safari" b/w "409" as a summer single. A seven-year recording contract was signed July 16, 1962, and that contract was ratified November 8, 1962, by the Los Angeles Superior Court, in compliance with prevailing child labor laws, the so-called Jackie Coogan law, since four of the five members of the Beach Boys were still minors, and only Mike, born March 15, 1941, had reached the age of twenty-one before the band signed with Capitol.
So, the question of when the Beach Boys played the Harris Department Store is another "riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma" to paraphrase Sir Winston Churchill
Ahh, we are learning organisms, indeed.
The Beach Boys are not mentioned in any newspaper advertisements for the March 24, 1962, Hi-Teen Easter Fashion Show, or the May 12, 1962, Campus Deb Jamboree. Unfortunately, there are no follow-up articles or reviews of either event. It seems the Campus Deb Jamboree was not yet an annual event in 1962, and there is no mention of a "concert" for either the May 12 or March 24, 1962, event. Disc jockey William F. Williams, as quoted in Leaf's book, provided frustratingly few clues. However, since Williams recalled Murry "literally begged us to let the Beach Boys be the opening act," one could possibly make a case for the March 24, 1962, date as "Surfin'" had just dropped off the charts and without a follow-up single things were looking a tad bleak. However, although the Beach Boys were no longer "desperate" by May 12, 1962, that potential appearance at Harris would have been arranged well before May 12 (how far in advance is unclear). But it likely Murry contacted Harris or Williams at KMEN in March, April or early May, before his meeting with Nick Venet at the Capitol Tower that first week in May which then led to the Capitol contract.
And finally, and I must break as there is a cup of coffee calling my name right about now . . .
One Man's ChallengeDale Smallin's documentary film
Azusa Recreation Center
320 North Orange Avenue
Azusa, California
Friday, July 27, 1962 (not Saturday, July 28, 1962)
. . . Absolutely a planned event, no serendipity involved whatsoever, but that will have to wait until summer. Suffice it to say, and, yeah, I know this is a teaser, there are some great, great rehearsal photos.
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