Fact #89884
When:
Short story:
An advertisement appears in the Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles, California, USA, reading, "Madness! Auditions. Folk and Rock Musicians-Singers For Acting Roles in New TV Series. Running Parts for 4 Insane Boys Age 17-21. Want Spirited Ben Frank's Types. Have Courage to Work. Must Come Down for Interview." The show will turn out to be The Monkees.
Full article:
Dean Torrence (Jan And Dean] : We shot an untitled comedy tv pilot for 20th CenturyFox. If Jan's accident hadn't occurred, it would have debuted in the same fall season as The Monkees. Since we were established artists we would have had a head start.
(Source : Steve Kolanjian's sleve notes to the 1990 CD compilation Surf City – The Best Of Jan And Dean]
Mike Nesmith (The Monkees] : I thought, ugh! That'll be the worst kind of show business... the kind of clowns who'd put an ad like that in the paper.
(Source : not known)
Mike Nesmith : They were deliberately putting me on... just to see if I could improvise my way out of it. They were pretty ruthless, I'll say that for them. After I mumbled some pretty sarcastic reply about being there 'cos of some crazy and badly written advertisement, they just left me completely alone for awhile. I was supposed to stand there and shuffle my feet around or something. It was a test and it was up to me to do something about it. So I fooled around with some things they had on the desk and I started asking questions of them. This fooled them and a couple of them actually started answering me. Then they realised I had switched the roles around. I saw them start to relax, then join in the spirit of the thing. I realised that these weren't bad guys. So I got the part. They cast me in the role of Mike Nesmith, which was a part I did pretty well. But being married and a father, I guess I felt older than other guys my age. I went down to try out because I didn't think anything would come out of it.
(Source : not known)
Peter Tork : He (Steven Stills) recommended The Monkees' auditions to me. I went to Hollywood thinking I had an in and found myself in a cattle call (as they're called) without the slightest leg up, so I don't know whether Stephen actually recommended me to them or whether he did and they just didn't connect me with his recommendation.
(Source : not known)
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(Source : Steve Kolanjian's sleve notes to the 1990 CD compilation Surf City – The Best Of Jan And Dean]
Mike Nesmith (The Monkees] : I thought, ugh! That'll be the worst kind of show business... the kind of clowns who'd put an ad like that in the paper.
(Source : not known)
Mike Nesmith : They were deliberately putting me on... just to see if I could improvise my way out of it. They were pretty ruthless, I'll say that for them. After I mumbled some pretty sarcastic reply about being there 'cos of some crazy and badly written advertisement, they just left me completely alone for awhile. I was supposed to stand there and shuffle my feet around or something. It was a test and it was up to me to do something about it. So I fooled around with some things they had on the desk and I started asking questions of them. This fooled them and a couple of them actually started answering me. Then they realised I had switched the roles around. I saw them start to relax, then join in the spirit of the thing. I realised that these weren't bad guys. So I got the part. They cast me in the role of Mike Nesmith, which was a part I did pretty well. But being married and a father, I guess I felt older than other guys my age. I went down to try out because I didn't think anything would come out of it.
(Source : not known)
Peter Tork : He (Steven Stills) recommended The Monkees' auditions to me. I went to Hollywood thinking I had an in and found myself in a cattle call (as they're called) without the slightest leg up, so I don't know whether Stephen actually recommended me to them or whether he did and they just didn't connect me with his recommendation.
(Source : not known)