What’s new with your favorites from coast-to-coast!
FLASH! SAJID KHAN may soon be launched on a recording career. If he decides to start singing, he will probably record on the Colgems label. He is also appearing on four segments of Happening ’68, doing guest shots on other television shows—and a movie is in the works. Oh, yes! He’s also starring in the school play of Beverly Hills High, where he is now a regular student! . . . RASCALS will star in their own production of a movie called Groovin’. STEVE ALLEN will co-produce . . . Welcome back, BOB DYLAN. His new LP John Wesley Harding is non-rock, profound and deeply moving. There actually was a J.W. Harding and his real last name was Hardin—and he was a distant relative to the one and only TIM HARDIN. Featured on DYLAN’s LP cover are two Eastern Indian musicians, members of the Elektra recording group the BAULS OF BENGAL—and the cat in the background with the specs was a lumberman who happened to be passing by when the album cover was photographed . . . JIM MORRISON of the DOORS has been offered half a million dollars by Universal International to perform in a movie. UI will also finance the project, permitting the group to write, film and produce their own movie.
Congratulations to PAUL PETERSEN and BRENDA BENET on their recent marriage . . . Same to MARK SLADE, who wed publicist MELINDA RICCILLI last January 6 . . . Same to DEWEY MARTIN, one-fifth of the BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD, who married the former Miss United States, JANE NELSON . . . That’s not all: shortly after BARRY WHITWAM married his long-time steady DALE LECKEY, HERMIT KEITH HOPWOOD wed his sweetheart PENNY PAGNI in Scotland . . . Wow—that means the only two single HERMITS left are LEK and, of course, PETER NOONE himself . . . Also: SMALL FACE IAN MCLAGAN married Top of the Pops dancer ALTHEA SARJEANT . . . And final congrats to BOBBY RYDELL on his engagement to his long-time steady CAMILLE, and also on his top 40 Reprise hit, The Lovin’ Things . . . Oohhh—JANE ASHER didn’t get married, ’cept on TV. She played the bride to RICHARD WARWICK on a British TV drama called the Casting Session. Unless MISS ASHER and MR. McCARTNEY have gone and tied the knot!
MAMAS & PAPAS next Dunhill LP will be called Springboard. DENNY will sing four leads, CASS will sing four leads, and the group will harmonize on four tunes . . . MARIANNE FAITHFULL is the first artist to be signed to the STONES’ new recording company, Mother Earth . . . GeeGee recommended LP’s this month include: Lemon Pipers’ Green Tambourine on Buddah; The Union Gap on Columbia; Jimi Hendrix’s Axis; Jefferson Airplane’s After Bathing at Baxter’s; Something Else by the Kinks; Jeremy & The Satyrs—all on Warners-Reprise; The Best of Herman’s Hermits (Vol. III) on MGM; Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy on Dot; American Breed’s Bend Me, Shape Me on Acta; and Every Mother’s Son’s Back on MGM—which reminds me, EMS has a new member—DON KERR (first boy on the left) . . . DAVY JONES took ten people to lovely LULU’s opening at Hollywood’s Coconut Grove, which was a sensation.
Things you’ll never see: JIM MORRISON with a crew cut . . . SAJID without a string of girls following him . . . PETER NOONE without a smile . . . MICKY without SAMMY . . . DINO without a string of girls following him . . . MARK in a double-breasted business suit . . . JOHN PHILLIP LAW will never be out of work—he’s just finished Diabolik, Barbarella and The Sergeant—and he is now back in L.A. shooting Skidoo with JACKIE GLEASON and CAROL CHANNING! . . . Last month you met JOHNNY of the ILLUSION. Now take a look at adorable RICHIE. He’s 20 years old and plays lead guitar for the group—whose first single is Party . . . Looks like the TV companies are going to take over the movie business. NBC will shoot their first full-length film later this year—which will star the one and only ELVIS PRESLEY.
Hey, 1968 is the Chinese “Year Of The Monkey.” We already knew that, didn’t we?
