“By far the best American film of the year”—that’s what the New York Times raves about Wild In The Streets, and well it may for Wild’s fabulous leading star CHRIS JONES—as a result of his fantastic performance—is now getting $250,000 per movie!! And he’s just finished Three In The Attic, is about to shoot The Looking Glass War, and in December will do the sequel to Wild In The Streets—We Outnumber you. Now, let’s see, if my adding is right—that’s almost a million dollars. And it ain’t even 1969 yet! (And that doesn’t include what CHRIS will get for his network one-hour spec called Now, which has the highest production budget ever allotted a spec!) / Congrats, CHRIS! . . . Also congrats to PAUL REVERE and MARK LINDSAY on having Happening ’68 turn into a daily show. It’s Happening is on ABC-TV Monday through Friday at 1:30 P.M. EDT and, of course, Happening ’68 is on your TV set each Saturday at 1:30 P.M. EDT. This means, alas, that poor PAULIE—who was all set to settle down in Boise—will have to move his family back to L.A. Meanwhile, back in the recording studio, lovely and lucky MERRILEE RUSH, who travels with her own backing group the TURNABOUTS, posed prettily with one of her managers, namely marvelous MARK LINDSAY . . . Didja know that: DAVY JONES has a rabbit named “Jonathan”, a miniature collie named “Simon”, a German shepherd named “Susie”, two cats named “Harry” and “Ralph”, and an aquarium?; that both BRENDON BOONE and JIM WEBB are sons of ministers?; that JIM WEBB is scoring the movie Peter Pan?; and that RICHARD HARRIS no longer has his Phantom V Rolls Royce—he had to give it to JIM when he lost the bet that his L.P. A Tramp Shining would not get into the Top Ten??? . . . Lovely LUKE HALPIN will do his first adult role in UA’s movie If It’s Tuesday This Must Be Belgium . . . DAVID MCCALLUM will make his stage debut in The Flip Side on Broadway in October . . . SAJID KHAN and JAY NORTH-luvvers were rather startled to see a Maya segment on NBC-TV on July 5. Nope, the show is not going into reruns. There was one unshown segment left and the network decided to show it. That’s all . . . WILLIAM SHATNER has taped an All American College Show segment for syndication this fall . . . Don’t miss BILL MUMY’s NBC-TV double entry, September 1 and 8, on The Wonderful World Of Color. It’s called Sammy The Seal and BILL made it when he was nine years old! Right now BILL is shooting Rascal for Disney. It will be released in ’69.
BOYCE & HART met two of their idols, FRANKIE VALLI and BOB GAUDIO of the FOUR SEASONS, at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub show in Hollywood . . . The cute little girl snuggled behind a copy of 16 in Yours, Mine & Ours was SUZANNE CUPITO, who plays Louise Beardsley in the movie . . . Prediction: Two rage TV shows of this coming season will be Mod Squad starring MICHAEL COLE, CLARENCE WILLIAMS III and PEGGY LIPTON, and Huck Finn starring MICHAEL SHEA and KEVIN SCHULTZ . . . NILSSON will score the music for Otto Preminger’s hip movie Skidoo (which stars JOHN PHILLIP LAW as the original original hippie)and NILSSON will also appear in a bit part in the film. J.P. LAW, by the by, is co-starring with BURT LANCASTER in The Gypsy Moths, a flick about professional free-fallers . . . Didja know that MICHAEL MAGOTTA and KEVIN COUGHLIN—who were featured in Wild In The Streets—also played in AI’s flick Mary Jane, which stars FABIAN? . . . Whose version of Bojangles did you dig? BOBBY COLE’S on Date or JERRY JEFF WALKER’s on Atco? I thought both were great . . . RICHARD FURAY, former BUFFALO SPRINGFIELDer, has organized his own group (no name yet) and they will be recording on Atco Records . . . The one and only FATS DOMINO is now on Reprise Records . . . Luscious LYNNE RANDELL is recording on Silvercloud Records. Her first single is The Right To Cry . . . The INCREDIBLE STRING BAND consists of only two members, MIKE HERON and ROBIN WILLIAMSON. They both sing, and between them they play 16 instruments! . . . GeeGee recommended LPs this month: Music From Big Pink by the Band (this is Bob Dylan’s backup group and he co-wrote most of the tunes on this LP, plus doing the cover drawings himself) on Capitol; The New York Rock & Roll Ensemble on Atco; Neil Diamond’s Greatest Hits on Bang; The Rascals Greatest Hits on Atlantic; Vanilla Fudge’s Renaissance, The Immortal Otis Redding and Iron Butterfly’s In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida—all on Atco; Tommy James and the Shondells’ Mony Mony on Roulette; Richie Havens Record on Douglas; Gordon Lightfoot’s Did She Mention My Name on UA; Lee Hazelwood’s Love And Other Crimes on RCA; Beach Boys’ Friends on Capitol; Jeff Beck’s Truth on Epic; Bill Haleys Greatest Hits on Decca; Gary Burton Quartet In Concert on RCA; Aretha Now on Atlantic; and the Springfield’s final LP before they broke up—The Last Time Around on Atco.
Don’t miss juicy JOHN DAVIDSON hosting CBS-TV’s The Model Of The Year beauty pageant on September 14 . . . Comin’ up: DUSTIN HOFFMAN’s amazing turn-about look for his kookie role in Midnight Cowboy. He plays a grubby young NYC con man named Ratso . . . There’s always room for one more MICHAEL. This one’s called SARRAZIN. (You know, the one with the beautiful eyes.) And he’s currently filming Wylie for UI. If you can’t wait until it’s released in ’69, you can write to MICHAEL SARRAZIN at UI Pictures, Hollywood, California . . . TIM MATHIESON (of Yours, Mine & Ours) is currently shooting How To Commit Marriage (starring Bob Hope) for Paramount . . . KEITH ALLISON (also managed by PAUL REVERE and the RAIDERS’ e. pluribus MARK LINDAY [sic]) has a single out on Amy Records called Who Do You Love, and is now a semi-regular on It’s Happening and Happening ’68 . . . TOMMY ROE’s latest single is Sugarcane and you can write to him at ABC Records, 449 South Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills, California . . .
Quote for the Month: May the beautiful sweet Baby Grace—open your heart and close your face.
