Mrs. Robert Scott, Micky’s mother, tells us more intimate facts about Micky’s early years
What were some of the nice little things Micky did for you as a child?
Micky was a great one for drawing cards or bringing me flowers. Even when he could barely scribble a line or pick a flower out of the yard, it always made him feel so good to surprise me. And it had to be a surprise! I had to close my eyes. “Close your eyes, mother,” he would say and hand me the flower. “All right, mother, open your eyes.” For both him and me, even if it had been a gorgeous big bouquet of flowers it wouldn’t have been a more beautiful gift. We always preferred something that was personal.
Did Micky do well in school?
He always could have done better. He and Coco never had to study and they always got good grades. This is an interesting thing about Micky—he had a great desire to be average. He tried not to make as good grades as he could. He wanted to be the average all-American boy. I must have heard him say that phrase a hundred times. Even in high school he would go out of his way not to study. By that I don’t mean he deliberately put down wrong answers on a test, but he wouldn’t study and still he’d make good grades. All this was because he had a teacher on the “Circus Boy” set and he was so far ahead of himself that he didn’t have to study, he knew what was going on.
Was the money Micky made as “Circus Boy” important to him?
Micky was never concerned with money. He did have an allowance for taking out the trash and cleaning up the yard. If he didn’t do these things I could never say “you don’t get your allowance,” because he didn’t care. He is very aware of the value of money, but it doesn’t mean a great deal to him. He put his allowance away. He always saved it, so I could never hold that over his head.
When he did have money, did he spend it on gifts, or continue to make hand-made cards, etc.?
He still wrote his cards and even today he writes me letters. Micky is very generous, he loves to buy people gifts. On birthdays and things he’d always buy me candy or powder. I remember when he was in the ninth grade, he saved his money and bought me a skirt and blouse for my birthday. It never did fit, but I never took it back.
The Christmas before his father passed away he had a part time job and he always bought some little trinkets for everyone in the family, no matter how much it cost.
I remember the first Christmas after his dad passed away, he came in with a whole pillow case full of gifts with a whole set of dishes for me. Last Christmas he had more than he’s ever had before and he bought me a Baldwin organ. I always wanted one so it was quite a surprise. He bought his sister, Coco, a car.
Next Christmas it wouldn’t surprise me if we all make our own gifts. We’ve done that before and Micky is very good at that. I’ve always loved hand made things, myself.
He made me a plaque for my birthday and he couldn’t have been over seven or eight years old. He cut out a heart from a piece of wood and it said, “We love Our Home” from Micky and Coco to Mom. He painted it in water colors and it’s hanging in his room today.
Didn’t Micky and Coco once put on shows for you?
Yes, Mr. Dolenz and I were the audience. It was usually after dinner just when we’d want to sit down and relax. Suddenly those two would walk in in the oddest garb. Coco would have on an old evening dress of mine (they had to have costumes, you see). Naturally they had to have a lamp shining on them as a spotlight. They thought of everything.
They would have all sorts of little duets prepared and Micky was constantly whispering “now Coco, turn around… no, no, don’t you remember how we rehearsed it!” Then he’d say, wait just a minute, folks, we’ll be back in just a moment.” Then they would stoop, have a conference and come back and start again. This would go on until finally we’d drop little hints like, “It’s been kind of a long show, could we have this continued tomorrow night?”
For these shows they would sing songs and they’d say, “This is a scene of two people walking down the street”… writing it as they go type-of-thing. Coco always had to do the following because Micky was older and to this day that’s the reason she always sings the harmony parts. They just seemed to have a knack for doing these things. These would happen two or three nights a week.
Once, we were all in the den and they were singing the popular songs of the day and Micky decided he’d imitate Al Jolson, because he had heard all about Al Jolson. I remember him asking me once, “How does Al Jolson sound?” So I did my magnificent, real nothing imitation, so he got the swing of it. Then he imitated Al Jolson having never seen him. The two of them were always doing something, they were never short of material.
