The DJ's

[TMinthePM]

I need some help here. (But then of course anyone who frequents this board...well, that's a whole 'nother story...never mind).

Anyway, having grown up in New York in the 60's, I'm well acquainted with the great DJ's of the era who were central to the Rock n Roll experience - Cousin Brucie, Murray the K, Scott Muni, et. al...

But other than Wolfman Jack I'm completely in the dark as to those who owned the airwaves on the West Coast then, and the role they played in bringing the Beach Boys, and Rock n Roll generally to the public.

[guitarfool2002]

This topic could run the length of a book! Seriously though, this is an area of rock and pop history I got into in the past 8-10 years after discovering the wonderful world of collecting broadcast airchecks, and though I have a small collection it literally changed the way I hear and perceive 60's rock...it was a game changer.

On to the answer, if you search this board's archives, try typing in a few station call-letters like KHJ and KRLA. If you're asking about the 60's era of AM top-40 pop radio, these two stations which served the market the Beach Boys existed in during the mid-60's were the two biggest players in the Los Angeles area. KHJ in particular was the new kid on the block, starting in 1965, where program director Ron Jacobs came to LA from Hawaii and hired a staff of incredible talent, some which he knew personally like Robert W. Morgan, others like Real Don Steele who already built a rep as one of the best fast-talking personalities in radio, and rounded it out by poaching established stars like Brian Wilson's collaborator Roger Christian, then rounding it off with others equally as talented.

KHJ was perhaps the most influential radio station of the mid 60's in the AM realm, whose "Boss Radio" format was studied and copied across the country, not to mention the Drake-Chenault group running that Boss format as perfected by Jacobs at KHJ into other markets where they owned stations. Everything from timing to playlists to jingles to bumpers to how the DJ's talked up records was copied and spread out from KHJ's Los Angeles base.

KHJ took the crown in the 60's LA market from KRLA, who was a powerhouse and who had a line on the current bands and fads. The Beatles being one notable example, you'll see KRLA banners and such behind LA-area concert stages in 60's rock photos. KRLA's staff was good as well, but as soon as KHJ streamlined their format into the "more music" setup, KRLA's more traditional long blocks of commercials didn't have the same flow. And KHJ's personalities were over the top and electric, not to mention their program director being absolutely hell-bent on destroying the competition, which he did for a time.

KHJ: Robert W. Morgan morning drive, Real Don Steele afternoon drive, a rotating list of DJ's in between that included in various times Roger Christian, Sam Riddle, Frank Terry, Humble Harve, Charlie Tuna, Gary Mack, and other notable names.

KRLA: Dave Hull, B. Mitchel Reed, Bob Eubanks, Casey Kasem, Dick Biondi, Wink Martindale, Dave Diamond, and others.

There was a lot of poaching and wooing of talent to jump ship and work for the competition, so at any point you may see a name from KRLA turn up on KHJ's daily schedule, only to leave again in a year or something. These two stations were fierce competitors.

KRLA was the first powerhouse, KHJ stole the crown around 1966, and another station called KFWB paid the biggest price, losing it all and changing formats in 1967 after being dominated in the ratings.

Again, this topic could be book-length, I just wanted to scratch the surface for a start. Search the board's archives here for the relationships between KHJ, KRLA, and the Beach Boys for that specific information, there is plenty of it. Then look up any number of radio sites found through Google, just search KHJ, KRLA, and KFWB and go from there.

The *best* resource, absolutely hands-down the best for classic AM radio and DJ's, is ReelRadio. Visit ReelRadio, and if you don't come back for a few weeks after checking out all of their incredible information and "exhibits", I won't be surprised!


Question: Did you have a "Good Guys" T-shirt back in the day?    Also, back in the 90's I got a VHS documentary called "Sweet Talkin' Guys" which was a history of New York top-40 DJ's that was excellent, I don't know if that doc is still in print. It's the guys you mentioned and the scene in general.

Another question: Did you listen to Dan Ingram on WABC? I have some great summer 1967 tapes of him, with his "Hern" character, lots of reverb, and long commercial breaks, but a pretty classic playlist and Ingram himself was a great personality on the air.

[BB Universe]

Sorry but a bit off topic - this reminded me that Alan Jardine was on Cousin Brucie's Sirius show last night (Sunday). I couldn't listen; did anyone catch it?

[Mr. Wilson]

Yea I grew up in those times in 60's.. KHJ was so big in that time that they had TV dance shows with name artists..  9th street west with Sam Riddle..{ on at night..} Robert W Morgan had a TV show in the afternoon every day + when he left The real Don Steele took over.. 1st time I was on that show was summer 68 when " Do It Again " came out with that surfin video .. Im with my 1st girl friend and we are dancing to that song + watchin video on the monitors.... They also had a machine on there called the MORGANIZER.. It was a large wooden stand up box.. My girlfriend got morganized.. I suppose because she had a dress on..!! When you got morganized it was a AIRHOSE at the bottom of the box.. POOF + they scream.. .... Funny stuff.. good innocent times back then.. KHJ was a power house.. Also on another note.. Wolfman Jack was on the radio in 70"s + 80"s in Los Angeles at the other end of the dial.. He was on a hard core R+B station that would NEVER play anything by BB.. So it was kind of a surprise when it was well known he was a BB fan + ordained minister.. .. Back in the day the 2 TV stations here in LA that had lots of stuff for the new music were KHJ channel 9 + KTLA channel 5.. Now American Bandstand was on Saturdays and it was ABC I think but not positive.. Yea it was Fun growin up back in those days with all the great music comin from all  angles  at you.. Exciting times..!

[guitarfool2002]

Yea I grew up in those times in 60's.. KHJ was so big in that time that they had TV dance shows with name artists..  9th street west with Sam Riddle..{ on at night..} Robert W Morgan had a TV show in the afternoon every day + when he left The real Don Steele took over.. 1st time I was on that show was summer 68 when " Do It Again " came out with that surfin video .. Im with my 1st girl friend and we are dancing to that song + watchin video on the monitors.... They also had a machine on there called the MORGANIZER.. It was a large wooden stand up box.. My girlfriend got morganized.. I suppose because she had a dress on..!! When you got morganized it was a AIRHOSE at the bottom of the box.. POOF + they scream.. .... Funny stuff.. good innocent times back then.. KHJ was a power house.. Also on another note.. Wolfman Jack was on the radio in 70"s + 80"s in Los Angeles at the other end of the dial.. He was on a hard core R+B station that would NEVER play anything by BB.. So it was kind of a surprise when it was well known he was a BB fan + ordained minister..

Very, VERY cool that you were on KHJ! I have some information which might be a pleasant surprise, hopefully it holds true for the day you were on the Morgan show.

I'm shooting from the hip here, hopefully it's accurate. Robert W's TV show was called "Groovy", right? Steele had his own show too, but I think Morgan hosted "Groovy" in the late 60's, KHJ-TV.

Now, for years we've been trying to track down any surviving copies of Riddle's show, 9th Street West and all related shows because Brian Wilson with Michael Vosse in tow appeared on it in the fall of '66 with an exclusive premiere of "Good Vibrations". Brian wandered the set wearing a stethescope, of all things, and all that seems to have survived are still photos of him wearing it with Vosse at his side. Those tapes, most likely, do not exist even as kinescopes, and are probably lost...at least they haven't been found.

Anyway, someone who was involved in the research said that Morgan's shows actually DO exist, and tapes did survive. One of them featuring Henry Diltz once turned up on ReelRadio as a streaming video, in excellent quality.

So perhaps, if you seek the right sources, that appearance you and your girl made on Morgan's KHJ-TV show might still exist somewhere in an archive.

I wish I had more direct info, but that can be possible too. I just wanted to pass on that Morgan's show was one whose episode archive did survive beyond a precious few clips, and you may have a long-shot chance of seeing the episode where you appeared on air.

[Emdeeh]

Anybody listen to WLS in Chicago? That was my nighttime go-to station back in the day. You could listen to WLS pretty much anywhere in the Mid-South and Mid-West. I lived in Memphis, but listened to stations in Chicago, St. Louis, Philly, even Texas, in addition to the local stations. One night, I heard "Surfin' USA" played 4 times in 15 minutes, each time on a different radio station.

[guitarfool2002]

Anybody listen to WLS in Chicago? That was my nighttime go-to station back in the day. You could listen to WLS pretty much anywhere in the Mid-South and Mid-West. I lived in Memphis, but listened to stations in Chicago, St. Louis, Philly, even Texas, in addition to the local stations. One night, I heard "Surfin' USA" played 4 times in 15 minutes, each time on a different radio station.

I have an aircheck recording of WLS from late August '67, DJ Don Phillips working the overnight midnight-to-6 shift. Don sounds like an old-school broadcaster from the previous era working the rock-pop circuit, so it's a slower paced show. I searched out that recording specifically because he played the then-current single "Heroes And Villains" that night.

What I need to get more of is the other WLS guys like Lujack and John "Records" Landecker, who I have to say I've heard great things about but haven't heard them in their element back in the day on WLS.

What Philly stations did you get? In the 60's we had Hy Lit, The Geator, WFIL and WIBG who had the "Good Guys" format (they called it 'wibbage' around here...) spinning top-40 in the 60's.

[Steve Latshaw]

We just lost Larry Lujack recently.  I've got airchecks of the Real Don Steele from 1966 and 1967, complete with music, commercials, news reports, and, Don, of course.  Listening to these things while driving down Sunset Blvd., or up PCH is the nearest thing to time travel I've found... hearing the Byrds and Roy Orbison do station IDs congratulating "Boss Radio" followed by weather reports, live commercials for acne medicine, a spot promoting The Loved One in theaters and an upcoming Andy Warhol show with the Velvet Underground, then Sloop John B from the Beach Boys.  The '67 show (one hour) has a wonderfully surreal moment showing how diverse music was back then... first up, a live promo for the upcoming Monkees show in town, followed by the new Monkees "single" an early mix of Valleri the station pulled (from the TV show?) and played.  Then a contest promo/commercial for Paul Revere & The Raiders Greatest Hits (send in your cards and get two albums!), followed by Frank and Nancy Sinatra singing Something Stupid.  And the occasional sound drop "Tina Delgado is alive, alive!"  That show also featured Come to the Sunshine by Harper's Bizarre, which I had never heard before.   I've got a show with Charle Tuna from 1968, as well.  He still sounds the same, still does weekends at K-RTH here in town.  And if you listen to his show, it still sounds like the old KHJ.

[Mr. Wilson]

Ya know that appearance DID happen with the premier of GV.. I forgot about that for years till I bought David Leafs book In 1978 and there is a pic in there.. But I don't remember the stethoscope  but I DO remember there were 3 people including BW.. There was a 3rd person with Brian .. Who I do not know.? In 1966 I didn't even know who the other people were.. Yea Groovy show.. .. Started on the beach in Santa Monica with host Michael Blodgett.. They had bands lip sync to songs on large sand dunes .. Saw many artists do that.. Including Allman Joys + Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.. If you can pinpoint when Buy For Me The Rain NGDB was released you got the time period.. Funny show.. You ever try to dance when your feet are stuck in sand..  That lasted awhile then they went inside a studio. Maybe 1 yr or 2 tops..  I posted this before on another thread.. Fall 1963.. Al Jardine was introduced as NEW BB and then they sang BTTYS + IMR.. That was on another tv show on KHJ Channel 9.. People of my age only remember Shindig + Hullabaloo..  Bandstand.. Here in southern California we had a number shows that are now on you tube.. Heck the Raiders had a couple of TV shows as the host.. WE got our fill of the NEW music of the time.. Probably cause we were near Hollywood..! Im gonna ponder this and see if I can come with more stuff..

[guitarfool2002]

That's ironic, I was watching the Grammys last night and they flashed Larry Lujack's photo during the "In Memory" segment for those who passed in 2013, I didn't know he had passed until last night.

[Mr. Wilson]

 The Real Don Steele replaced Robert W Morgan when he left to go to another station.. Same TV  show tho.. I could be mistaken but when Don was on show I think the show lasted till 1971 or so.. He was a big tall guy with a jaw like Jay Leno..

[guitarfool2002]

Ya know that appearance DID happen with the premier of GV.. I forgot about that for years till I bought David Leafs book In 1978 and there is a pic in there.. But I don't remember the stethoscope  but I DO remember there were 3 people including BW.. There was a 3rd person with Brian .. Who I do not know.? In 1966 I didn't even know who the other people were.. Yea Groovy show.. .. Started on the beach in Santa Monica with host Michael Blodgett.. They had bands lip sync to songs on large sand dunes .. Saw many artists do that.. Including Allman Joys + Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.. If you can pinpoint when Buy For Me The Rain NGDB was released you got the time period.. Funny show.. You ever try to dance when your feet are stuck in sand..  That lasted awhile then they went inside a studio. Maybe 1 yr or 2 tops..  I posted this before on another thread.. Fall 1963.. Al Jardine was introduced as NEW BB and then they sang BTTYS + IMR.. That was on another tv show on KHJ Channel 9.. People of my age only remember Shindig + Hullabaloo..  Bandstand.. Here in southern California we had a number shows that are now on you tube.. Heck the Raiders had a couple of TV shows as the host.. WE got our fill of the NEW music of the time.. Probably cause we were near Hollywood..! Im gonna ponder this and see if I can come with more stuff..

So you remember the GV premiere on 9th Street West? That's amazing! I so wish something would turn up from that. I know at least one of the guys with Brian was Michael Vosse, as far as the third I'm not sure.

The Raiders hosted "Where The Action Is", it was a Dick Clark production, kind of a spin-off of Bandstand and you can ID the clips from that show because they're usually watermarked with a "DC" logo at the bottom of the screen. The coolest thing about seeing those clips is the outdoor settings, so you can get a taste of the LA area's theme-parks, beaches, etc. where they filmed the bands. Bandstand was most often in their own studio, where "Action" went on location to some long-lost attractions and teen spots. Very cool.

Speaking of Philly, it's also notable that until the mid-60's Bandstand was a Philly show. It's forgotten in history how much of a musical force Philly was in the late 50's and early 60's as far as teenagers and spreading the popularity of the music across the country.

The Bandstand dancers were all local kids from the Philly schools, they'd show up to the studio after getting out of school and were total amateurs, none of them pros like the Shindig or Hullaballoo dancers or those they got in LA from Gazzari's and other spots.

At least for a few years, these Philly kids were celebrities, and they became like a soap opera where they'd appear in teen fanzines, gossip columns, and they became household names to kids in the US. Who was dating who, why was she dancing with HIM, can you believe what she was wearing yesterday??? All of that teen drama...and they got fanmail, had fan clubs, all of it. None of them was anything more than a local kid, then here they were with Dick Clark doing dances which they learned in Philly at Legion halls and social clubs and church dances setting trends for millions of kids dancing in front of their TV's after school, and buying the records they heard on the show.

That element was lost after Clark moved Bandstand to LA, of course that was the shift in the 60's which eventually also saw New York replaced by LA as the epicenter of talk shows, variety shows, and other national TV shows that led to Carson packing up the Tonight Show in the early 70's for sunny Burbank instead of cold NYC. It all changed.

[Sheriff John Stone]

Speaking of American Bandstand and Where The Action Is, there used to be this TV show from the 1960's - Summertime At The Pier, later called The Steel Pier Show - hosted by local DJ Ed Hurst. My sisters and I used to tune in on a Saturday afternoon during the summer. It aired on a couple of different Philadelphia TV stations; we used to play around with the "rabbit ears" on our TV set just to be able to get it!

Compared to Bandstand and Where The Action Is (which I remember seeing), I don't think the production values were as sophisticated on The Steel Pier Show. It always appeared to be more local than national, but maybe that was part of its charm. For a young kid growing up in eastern Pennsylvania in the 1960's, it was a kick watching a TV show featuring the ocean, people on the beach, rock & roll bands, dancing, those airplanes flying over the ocean with advertisement banners, and people walking on the boardwalk. It made you want to be there!

[Mr. Wilson]

After Action there was another Raiders hosted show called Happening 68... I just found something that everyone here would be interested in.. Go to The Grassroots web site and click on TV shows.. It lists shows and dates and seems to apply you can watch + record these but im a dummy so I cant get it to work.. The last 2 shows feature live Raiders + last show has LIVE BEACH BOYS..!!  If any body gets this to work id LOVE a copy.. .. BB show is last show then the show is no more

[guitarfool2002]

Speaking of American Bandstand and Where The Action Is, there used to be this TV show from the 1960's - Summertime At The Pier, later called The Steel Pier Show - hosted by local DJ Ed Hurst. My sisters and I used to tune in on a Saturday afternoon during the summer. It aired on a couple of different Philadelphia TV stations; we used to play around with the "rabbit ears" on our TV set just to be able to get it!

Compared to Bandstand and Where The Action Is (which I remember seeing), I don't think the production values were as sophisticated on The Steel Pier Show. It always appeared to be more local than national, but maybe that was part of its charm. For a young kid growing up in eastern Pennsylvania in the 1960's, it was a kick watching a TV show featuring the ocean, people on the beach, rock & roll bands, dancing, those airplanes flying over the ocean with advertisement banners, and people walking on the boardwalk. It made you want to be there!

Sheriff, I had to go digging for this...and found one of my TV Guides from June 26 1965. The Hullabaloo dancers are on the cover.

Listed Saturday June 26, 1 PM on what was NBC channel 3 in Philly...the "Return" of Ed Hurst and "Summertime On The Pier"! The listing is for a two-hour live show, hosted by Hurst, from the Steel Pier in AC, just as you remember. And it aired live both Saturday and Sunday at 1, on channel 3.

Another one I forgot to mention was Lloyd Thaxton every afternoon during the week. In Philly his dance/music show was on after school, on channel 3.

And Saturdays also had Bandstand going up against Ed Hurst's show Saturday afternoons on channel 6, and "The Geator" had his own music show Saturday afternoon on channel 10, CBS at that time in Philly.

So in Philly, mid 60's, at this time you had three music shows on three different networks to watch Saturday afternoons. Then factor in the weekday shows, and the evening variety shows, and for the limited three VHF networks plus UHF you could at least get several hours worth of new music and artists during the week in the mid 60's.

"Shivaree" was another teen music show along the same lines, forgot that one too..

[Mr. Wilson]

Ah we had Loyd Thaxton's hop here in California.. Short guy with curly hair.. We also had a show in 62-63-64 called Surfs Up.. It showed surf films + shorts.. With  bands on the show for back ground music.. Most of the time it was The Challengers w/Richard Delvy.. ..

[Emdeeh]

What Philly stations did you get? In the 60's we had Hy Lit, The Geator, WFIL and WIBG who had the "Good Guys" format (they called it 'wibbage' around here...) spinning top-40 in the 60's.

I don't remember the call letters exactly, but it may have been WFIL -- whoever it was had to have a strong signal. I do remember one night in '64 or '65 where Carl and Mike showed up late at night after a BB show and cracked jokes about playing handball in the broadcast booth. Does that help nail down the station?

Edit: Now that I think of it, the station I'm thinking about may have been in Pittsburgh, not Philly.

[Sheriff John Stone]

Speaking of American Bandstand and Where The Action Is, there used to be this TV show from the 1960's - Summertime At The Pier, later called The Steel Pier Show - hosted by local DJ Ed Hurst. My sisters and I used to tune in on a Saturday afternoon during the summer. It aired on a couple of different Philadelphia TV stations; we used to play around with the "rabbit ears" on our TV set just to be able to get it!

Compared to Bandstand and Where The Action Is (which I remember seeing), I don't think the production values were as sophisticated on The Steel Pier Show. It always appeared to be more local than national, but maybe that was part of its charm. For a young kid growing up in eastern Pennsylvania in the 1960's, it was a kick watching a TV show featuring the ocean, people on the beach, rock & roll bands, dancing, those airplanes flying over the ocean with advertisement banners, and people walking on the boardwalk. It made you want to be there!

Sheriff, I had to go digging for this...and found one of my TV Guides from June 26 1965. The Hullabaloo dancers are on the cover.

Listed Saturday June 26, 1 PM on what was NBC channel 3 in Philly...the "Return" of Ed Hurst and "Summertime On The Pier"! The listing is for a two-hour live show, hosted by Hurst, from the Steel Pier in AC, just as you remember. And it aired live both Saturday and Sunday at 1, on channel 3.

That's great! Thanks for researching it. I had forgotten that Summertime On The Pier was also on Sunday afternoons. That might be because Phillies baseball took precedent in our household on Sunday afternoons. Back in those days, not all of the games were televised like today, just weekend games, and not always Saturday's games!

[joe_blow]

In Vancouver, red Robinson was pretty impressive in bringing Rock n Roll to the west coast of Canada.

http://redrobinson.com/blog/?page_id=2

[Mr. Wilson]

Yea B. Mitchell Reed In Southern California.. He went from AM to FM and went to KPPC Pasadena ca.. The 1st rock station on FM dial out here.. Then he went to KMET and his knick name was The Beamer on radio.. He was one of those jocks that got REAL close to the musicians and hung out + partied with them.. CSNY in particular.. He used to play LONG cuts on the radio..!! But he died young like in his late 50's I think.. He was famous out here.!

[TMinthePM]

Wow!!!

I Love You Guys!!!

Thanks for all the GREAT info!!!

[SurfRiderHawaii]

Yea B. Mitchell Reed In Southern California.. He went from AM to FM and went to KPPC Pasadena ca.. The 1st rock station on FM dial out here.. Then he went to KMET and his knick name was The Beamer on radio.. He was one of those jocks that got REAL close to the musicians and hung out + partied with them.. CSNY in particular.. He used to play LONG cuts on the radio..!! But he died young like in his late 50's I think.. He was famous out here.!

Great info guys! Super!

I think Mr. Wilson should write a book. So many stories, being a huge fan interacting with the 60's Southern California music scene and the Beach Boys.

[Quincy]

WBZ AM Boston had some great Jocks in the mid to late 60's..Bruce"Juicey" Bradley, Dick Summers. Jefferson Kay, Dave Maynard..

[guitarfool2002]

First of a few posts for Mr. Wilson and everyone else: It's easier to just copy and paste these from a previous post I did, but these are photos showing some of the KHJ personalities including the beautiful Kam Nelson...damn...attending the KHJ premiere party for the Yellow Submarine film with the Beach Boys among their guests.

More KHJ to follow very soon...

I'm 100% sure where the photo was taken after some research and hunting:

Here is a more full series of photos from the event:








The last one clinched it.

These were taken at an event for a showing of the film Yellow Submarine sponsored and hosted by KHJ radio. This was held in November 1968, and the specific date I saw was November 14, 1968. The survey showing Real Don Steele and Peter Fonda at the event is from that week. Notice Steele is dressed in the same suit and tie in both the Fonda and Brian photos.

The photo of the girl being interviewed at this same event is Kam Nelson, who was a dancer and sometime co-host on various KHJ TV dance shows, including 9th Street West and Hollywood A Go Go, hosted by Sam Riddle, shown standing behind Brian in the first photo. She is being interviewed by Charlie Tuna, who hosted KHJ shows and was covering the premiere of Yellow Submarine for KHJ-TV.

November 1968 - KHJ sponsored this Yellow Submarine screening. Some dates say November 14, 1968 and some locations and ads say Westwood. That's where the photos would appear to be from.

[guitarfool2002]

Here are some KHJ items I got from various sources, or clipped from film and videos that have appeared.

First, this is Sam Riddle, Real Don Steele, and KHJ's mascot and brainchild of PD Ron Jacobs "The Big Kahuna". It was a total put-on, the guy did other things for various KHJ staff which you'll have to read about elsewhere (  ), but he was a popular character who would appear at various events and on KHJ TV shows like this still photo which may be 9th Street West:


Next, a rare photo of a KHJ billboard that was installed at Sunset and Crescent Heights showing the 1966 KHJ DJ lineup. This photo showed up on Facebook in the past month, I had never seen this before. The lineup on the billboard, from 1966: Robert W. Morgan 6-9, Frank Terry 9-12, Gary Mack 12-3, Real Don Steele 3-6, Johnny Mitchell 6-9, Sam Riddle 9-12, Johnny Williams midnight.


A still photo of the Groovy TV show after it moved inside for taping, and after Robert W. Morgan took over as host. The photo was very small, I tried to fix it a bit and enlarge but the quality is still rough:


Specifically for "Mr. Wilson": This is the KHJ weekly survey when the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band record you mentioned was a "Boss Hitbound", premiering on the charts March 22, 1967. It only made one more KHJ survey appearance the next week, March 29 1967, then was gone.



Finally, three screen captures I did from an 8mm silent film that appeared on YouTube showing behind-the-scenes activities from a taping of Groovy in the summer of 1967.





This film was grainy and rough, but really an amazing document. Notice the psychedelic paint job on the KHJ Ford equipment truck, which doubled as one of the camera towers.

This version of Groovy aired on KHJ-TV in the summer of 1967, from what I can find it was either always or most often filmed in Santa Monica and featured bands lip-synching in the sand, bikini contests, dancing, other fun/wacky contests, and various other things similar to all dance shows. Domenic Priore has a great still photo of this show with Michael Blodgett hosting in his Sunset Strip book, along with a few paragraphs.

The host at this time was Michael Blodgett, I included still frame of him (wearing a bib) in front of the "Jerry Lewis" eating contest sign, apparently one of the wacky contests on the show that day. He was an actor/writer/all-around scenester who would also appear in films like "The Trip" and "Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls". He hosted Groovy for the summer of '67 when it was on-location at the beach, then Morgan took over when it moved into KHJ-TV studios as shown in the photo above.

The bands captured on this reel that day were The Standells, Brenton Wood, and Thee Midniters, lip-synching and dancing in the sand as the kids danced around them.

The full 5 minutes or so of the silent film is on YouTube.

Mr. Wilson: I'm curious to hear what you think of these shots, if you have any specific memories or comments about the people and scenery shown in them.