BY CAROL DECK—FLIP’S GIRL WITH THE MONKEES
Every day, I get questions about the Monkees. “What are they really like?” “Is it true that…?” “How can I get to meet them?”
Many questions I’m asked about them are unanswerable, at least by me. I can’t tell you what they are really like because every person sees every other person differently.
I might tell you that Davy is a very outgoing, fun loving gentleman and then you might get to meet him one day when he’s feeling down or sad or mad or something terrible like that and then you’d write terrible letters saying I’d lied and my boss would fire me and I’d no longer have an excuse to get on the Monkee set and I’d go raving batty. Now you wouldn’t want to do that to me, would you? (Probably only if you wanted my job, right?).
Anyway, back to questions; there are some I can answer.
The first thing people usually ask me is which is your favorite Monkee, which is a horrible thing to ask a person. I usually try to avoid answering it unless I happen to be standing next to one of them, then of course he is my fave.
But if you trapped me in a corner and threatened to cut my bangs if I didn’t tell you, I guess I’d have to confess to a certain preference in the direction of Peter. Tracy Thomas, the girl who used to write this column, has also confessed to favoring Peter. Do you suppose we’re both bats or is it just that Peter’s such a refreshing, thinking, intelligent, opinionated, male human being?
After people get over that one they usually hit me next with how have they changed?
Well, I haven’t really known them all my life (drat!). But in the short time I’ve known them there have been some changes. Being plopped into something as gigantic as the Monkees is difficult for anyone to cope with, but I think Davy, Micky, Peter and Mike have certainly coped with it to the best of their ability and probably far better than most others could have.
When I first met Mike he didn’t talk. Now he talks, but as little as possible. He doesn’t bother with small talk. When he has something to say, he says it and that’s that.
Micky has always been and still is very much a happy fellow, who likes to have fun and wants to be liked. He’s just a little surer of himself now.
Davy has probably changed the least. He’s still very much a professional entertainer and a very polite young Englishman. He has to work harder at attaining any privacy now, but he can handle it.
I guess the one who had the roughest time coping with the Monkees was Peter. Suddenly he was forced to have opinions on things that never used to matter to him. But he’s sorting it all out and becoming a real thinker. He has political opinions and is not afraid to express them. There are things going on in Peter’s head that may one day become clear to him and, eventually, all of us.
So anyhow, keep the questions coming and I’ll try to answer as many of them as possible in future columns. After all, that’s what I’m here for.
See ya next month.
