It was off-to-England for DAVY and MICKY in June. MICKY flew to London to vacation with SAMMY who had been visiting her parents for several weeks. After spending a couple of days doing interviews, MICKY and SAM took off for a ten-day holiday in Scotland. His birthday present to her was a return ticket to Los Angeles!
Some of the things MICKY commented to the British press were that he would like to become a research scientist. He said about the MONKEES’ TV series: “The TV was the greatest thing that ever happened to us, but it’s like taking snapshots of me now that somebody could still be using in ten years. People could still see it was me, but I’d be different.
“I’m not particularly distressed at the ending of our TV series as it stood… we ended it ourselves, because we wanted to. DAVY was still in love with the same little girl… it wasn’t changing. We wanted the show to be different every week. It was a question of format.”
MICKY was followed a week later by DAVY JONES who spent two days meeting with the press before visiting his relatives in the North of England. His first night in town he was LULU’s guest at a dinner party in his honor at her new home in St. John’s Wood. The next night DAVY escorted LU to the opening of “Golden Boy’ starring SAMMY DAVIS, JR.
Everyone in London had begun to wonder just when DAVY was going to appear in London since he was due for arrival days before he actually showed up. It seems he had taken off by himself for ten days to clear his mind.
Said DAVY, “I just decided to go away. I drove into the country, and I met an old lady with a German Shephard dog. I stopped at places and met ordinary people and drank tea. I stayed on a houseboat for five days… oh, I did a lotta weird things. One day I stopped at a place called Oakdale and I just walked into the local school and said hello to the kids. It was nice. It was just something I wanted to do. They’d never meet me or see me any other way. It was, well… nice to see their faces.
“I met 15 kids who were mentally disturbed; I went to a place with hippies who move around the country in old vans. I drove along the coast at 30 miles an hour, just drifting along. I stopped and I talked, mostly with adults. It was beautiful. Beautiful. I went away on my own because I had to. There are so many people around me normally that it’s almost like I could get my teeth brushed if I wanted. But I don’t want that and I’m not going to let it get that way.”
SAJID has spent many of his “free” hours lately recording his first album. He mentioned to me the other day that the songs would have a definite East Indian flavor, but that they would still be pop songs.
Other SAJ news: he plans to buy a Porsche or an MGB-GT even though he hates to drive . . . he’s taken up painting and after painting a portrait of a man in a park, he gave the man the painting . . . he’s just started fiction writing and writing poetry, which he says he enjoys very much.
One last humorous note on SAJID: he’s planning to take a bus tour of the stars’ homes in Beverly Hills. Those are the tours which are narrated by the bus driver and stop in front of SAJ’s and DESI’s house, among many others, every day. The reason is SAJ wants to find out what they say when they stop in front of his house!
For those of you who still wonder—TINY TIM is for real! He says, “I’m not a sissy and I don’t understand all this talk about my being so innocent.” He also admits, “I sing for the ladies. I like to imagine that I am alone with them in moonlit gardens, and that I can express for them the kinds of inner thoughts few men understand.”
MARK has moved again, but this time only three floors down into a much groovier apartment in the same building in Hollywood. When I went up to hear the new RAIDER album, which is a gas, I got the full LINDSAY hospitality treatment—a glass of apple juice and a frozen Milky Way candy bar. As we sat and struggled through our candy bars, MARK filled me in on what’s been happening in his busy life.
First of all, I had to know about the bandage covering his right arm from his wrist all the way up to his elbow. “I took the mini out to the desert and the long ride made the engine overheat,” he said. “Most cars have a safety valve on the radiator cap, but not my mini. When I went to take it off a great gust of hot steam hit my arm and I’ve got pretty bad burns. I’ll probably have another scar, but I think each one adds to a person’s character.”
MARK also said that his housekeeper LESLIE, who has been on vacation at her home in England, would be returning soon. He admitted he hadn’t been eating much and really missed LESLIE’s great cooking.
I received a letter not long ago from LESLIE that I’d like to share with you. I think it really gives you an idea of her bubbly personality. She wrote: “Dear Annie, Hi, greetings from Merry Olde England. Hope all is well with you. Not working too hard and able to plan another visit to the “rain country”… well, really, the weather has been quite good. Although, I nearly froze to death the first two weeks “home.” Today I received a copy of your article about MR. LINDSAY and myself. I really wanted to say “Thanks, Annie, you did a beautiful job.” You know, Annie, I’m really sorry that we couldn’t get together to make Indian Curry, hope the offer still holds when I return. Sincere best wishes, LESLIE PETTIT, Housekeeper to MARK LINDSAY.”
Some nice words from NANCY SINATRA about her co-star in “Speedway”, ELVIS: “ELVIS is more aware than any person I know. No, I take that back, because my father is really more aware than any person I know, but ELVIS is very much like my father. I don’t mean aware of facts so much as I mean aware of people and feelings and thoughts.”
When I saw NANCY last she asked me if I’d met EL’s wife PRISCILLA, which I regrettably said I hadn’t. Then she told me, “PRISCILLA is really a groove! They are so great those two… they look like something off a wedding cake. She’s so tiny, just five feet one and he’s like six feet, but they’re so marvelous together!”
