Screen Gems filmed the series on a backlot of painted false fronts, and on the set of their pad lived Mr. Schneider, a mannequin who gave advice when you pulled his cord. Here he plans the trip: pull the cord, and every answer is a place you can go.
The pad · stage set · 11 places · 11 on the map
Pull the cord. Mr. Schneider knows where to go.
On the series he was a mannequin named after co-producer Bert Schneider, mostly voiced by the director James Frawley. Here he is drawn, and his advice is ours; the places are real.
…
He only talks when you pull.
Mr. Schneider is waiting. 11 places on his list; pull the cord to hear the first.
New York · Burbank · 1964–1966
A boy in the wings, then 400 at an audition.
The Ed Sullivan Theater, 1697 Broadway, November 2021. Epicgenius · CC BY-SA 4.0
9 February 1964 · 1697 Broadway, between West 53rd and 54th Streets, Manhattan
The side of the stage
On 9 February 1964 Davy Jones appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show with Georgia Brown, from the Broadway cast of Oliver!. It was the night the Beatles made their first appearance on American television.
Jones later said he watched the Beatles from the side of the stage, saw the screaming, and decided he wanted some of it.
After the show he signed with Ward Sylvester of Screen Gems, then the television division of Columbia Pictures. The Beatles’ night is in the Beatles World.
A working television theatre on Broadway. The marquee and front are free to see from the pavement; inside is for studio audiences.
SourcesGate 12 of the Warner Bros. Ranch on Hollywood Way, Burbank, January 2015: the old Columbia Ranch. Junkyardsparkle · CC0
1965–1968 · 411 North Hollywood Way, Burbank
The ranch
On 8 September 1965 Daily Variety and The Hollywood Reporter ran an advertisement for folk-and-roll musicians and singers to act in a new TV series. As many as 400 came.
Fourteen were brought back for screen tests, and Raybert chose the final four after audience research.
In the 1960s Screen Gems used the Columbia Ranch in Burbank to film numerous shows, The Monkees among them. The ranch’s fountain, built around 1935, was seen in The Monkees. It moved to the Warner Bros. main lot in 2019 and has been on the studio tour since 2020.
Demolition on the backlot was completed on 26 October 2023: Blondie Street and Park Boulevard were levelled.
A working studio, closed to the public, and its old backlot streets are gone. See the lot from North Hollywood Way; the fountain is on the Warner Bros. studio tour across town.
Sources
Viator · Ad / affiliate
Warner Bros. studio tours
Burbank, California
Live marketplace results for the Warner Bros. studio tour in Burbank, where the old Columbia Ranch fountain now stands. Check each listing for what it includes.
Stooges props, a talking dummy, and a laugh track you can switch off.
Sunset Gower Studios on Gower Street, Hollywood, December 2006: the old Columbia lot. Chuubikaura · CC0
1438 North Gower Street, Hollywood, Los Angeles
On the set
Screen Gems shot most of its interiors at Columbia’s main studio at Sunset and Gower; Sunset Gower Studios lists The Monkees among the shows on its stages.
Sets and props from the studio’s Three Stooges shorts were reused: Peter Tork wore the bunny pyjamas Curly Howard had worn. [laughter]
The four lived in a two-storey beach-house set, the pad, with Mr. Schneider, a mannequin who gave philosophical advice when you pulled his cord. [laughter]
Mr. Schneider was named after co-producer Bert Schneider and was mostly voiced by the main director, James Frawley. [laughter]
Laugh track on, as in the early episodes.
Early episodes had a laugh track, as was standard; the show eventually stopped adding one, and half the second season’s episodes had no canned laughter.
In 1967 the series won two Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Comedy Series. On 19 February 1968 Head began filming on the Columbia Studios lot, with two days on the pad set.
Now Sunset Gower Studios, a working lot that is not open to visitors. The gates and white office block are on Gower Street.
SourcesAn NBC photograph from the second season, 1967. NBC Television · Public domain
Beverly Hills · Hollywood · 1967
Who plays on the record? In 1967, the four of them.
The Beverly Hills Hotel on Sunset Boulevard, May 2013. Alan Light · CC BY 2.0
January 1967 · 9641 Sunset Boulevard, Beverly Hills
The hotel meeting
Don Kirshner, Screen Gems’ head of music, supplied the songs; at first session players such as the Wrecking Crew played on the records. His Brill Building writers made tracks the band could pretend to play on the show, to keep up with the schedule.
In January 1967 Mike Nesmith, Kirshner and Colgems lawyer Herb Moelis argued here. Kirshner had brought royalty cheques and gold records.
Nesmith demanded a change in how their music was chosen and recorded, and the meeting ended with him punching a hole in a wall. All four still took the $250,000 cheques.
Kirshner was dismissed after releasing a single in Canada without the approval of the record executives, the producers or the band.
A working hotel on Sunset Boulevard; the lobby and restaurants are open to guests and diners.
Sources
The Beverly Hills Hotel
The Beverly Hills Hotel
Beverly Hills, California
The hotel on Sunset Boulevard where Mike Nesmith confronted Don Kirshner in January 1967. Check its own page for rooms and rates.
Santa Monica Boulevard at Vine Street, October 2006: Gold Star’s block. The studio is gone; shops stand on its site. Downtowngal · CC BY-SA 4.0
January 1967 · 6252 Santa Monica Boulevard, near Vine Street, Hollywood
Two songs of their own
In January 1967 the group recorded early versions of The Girl I Knew Somewhere and All of Your Toys here while seeking control over its music.
Gold Star stood at 6252 Santa Monica Boulevard, near the corner of Vine Street.
Gold Star closed in 1984. A fire destroyed the building months later, and a mini-mall was built on the site.
Gone: a mini-mall stands on the site, near the corner of Vine Street.
Sources6363 Sunset Boulevard, RCA Victor’s Hollywood studio from 1964 to 1977, now the Los Angeles Film School, in February 2024. Clyde Charles Brown · CC BY-SA 4.0
February–March 1967 · 6363 Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood, Los Angeles
Headquarters
After Kirshner’s dismissal the band recorded Headquarters under Chip Douglas; the archive documents February–March sessions and their new instrumental autonomy.
Headquarters was the first Monkees album on which the four played the instruments and wrote much of the material.
RCA Victor opened a facility and offices at 6363 Sunset Boulevard in 1964 and ran its Los Angeles studios there until 1977. The Monkees recorded there. The building is now the Los Angeles Film School.
Columbia–Screen Gems and RCA Victor set up Colgems Records to distribute Monkees records.
Now the Los Angeles Film School. See it from Sunset Boulevard near Ivar Avenue; the building is a school, not a museum.
Sources
Viator · Ad / affiliate
Hollywood music history walks
Hollywood, Los Angeles
Live marketplace results for music tours of Hollywood, past Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street. Check each itinerary for its stops.
It reached No. 1 after its release on 22 May 1967, was replaced the next week by Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, then spent 11 weeks in a row at No. 2.
From a Colgems trade advert for their third album, May 1967. Left to right: Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Mike Nesmith, Peter Tork. Colgems Records · Public domainSources
Honolulu · Queens · Wembley · 1966–1967
Forty minutes in Honolulu, six shows with Hendrix, the Pre-Fab Four.
Blaisdell Arena on Ward Avenue, Honolulu, February 2010; it opened in 1964 as the Honolulu International Center. Robert.Allen · CC BY-SA 3.0
3 December 1966 · 777 Ward Avenue, Honolulu, Hawaii
The first concert
On 3 December 1966 the Monkees gave their first live concert here, a 40-minute set.
Columbia sent the Monkees out to play live, over Kirshner’s objections and against the producers’ first wishes.
The centre was built in 1964 as the Honolulu International Center and renamed after Mayor Neal S. Blaisdell.
A city-run arts and events centre near downtown Honolulu. The city has been planning to redevelop the site, so check its events before you go.
Sources
Viator · Ad / affiliate
Honolulu city tours
Honolulu, Hawaii
Live marketplace results for tours of downtown Honolulu, near the Blaisdell on Ward Avenue. Check each itinerary.
Forest Hills Stadium from Dartmouth Street, Queens, December 2011. Jim.henderson · CC0
1967 · 1 Tennis Place, Forest Hills, Queens
The support act
The Jimi Hendrix Experience were booked to open the Monkees’ first American tour, in 1967. The Monkees asked for them because they were fans.
The Monkees’ young audience disliked the Experience, who left after six shows. Chas Chandler later said he had set the tour up for publicity. Forest Hills Stadium hosted the Monkees with Jimi Hendrix.
The 14,000-seat horseshoe stadium was built by 1923 for the national tennis championships, and it still stands. His own story is in the Jimi Hendrix World.
A 1920s tennis stadium that is now a summer concert venue, a short walk from Forest Hills–71st Avenue station.
Sources
Forest Hills Stadium
Concerts at Forest Hills Stadium
Forest Hills, Queens
The stadium where the Monkees played with Jimi Hendrix in 1967 still stages summer concerts. See its own listings.
In 1967 the Monkees were the first group to headline on their own at the Empire Pool, as Wembley Arena was then called.
The UK tour had a chilly reception: papers said they did not always play their own instruments, and called them the Pre-Fab Four.
George Harrison praised their self-produced work, and Nesmith sat in on the Beatles’ session for A Day in the Life at Abbey Road.
In 1997 Nesmith rejoined the others for a UK tour, with two sold-out concerts at Wembley Arena.
Now OVO Arena Wembley, a walk from Wembley Park station. The arena is ticketed; the square outside is open.
Sources
Jimi Hendrix at Gröna Lund, Stockholm, 24 May 1967, six weeks before the Monkees tour. Original photographer unknown · Public domain
Long Beach · Griffith Park · 1968–2021
Two jumps from one bridge, and a last bow under the pines.
The 1968 Gerald Desmond Bridge in Long Beach, January 2014, six years before its replacement opened. Darkest tree · CC BY-SA 4.0
1968 · Ocean Boulevard over the Back Channel, Port of Long Beach
Head on the Gerald Desmond
It opens at a bridge dedication: the Monkees run through the ceremony and Micky Dolenz jumps off the bridge. At the end they come back, and each of them jumps.
Head was written and produced by Jack Nicholson and Bob Rafelson and directed by Rafelson, with the Monkees playing themselves.
The 86-minute cut premiered in New York on 6 November 1968 and was not a commercial success.
The arch was built from 1965 to 1968. In October 2020 a cable-stayed bridge, the Long Beach International Gateway, replaced it.
The new Long Beach International Gateway carries Ocean Boulevard across the Back Channel; the 1968 arch stood just south of it. See both from the road or the harbour.
SourcesThe Greek Theatre in Griffith Park, Los Angeles, 2019. Steven Lek · CC BY-SA 4.0
14 November 2021 · 2700 Vermont Canyon Road, Griffith Park, Los Angeles
The last show
Micky Dolenz and Mike Nesmith’s farewell tour played over 40 US dates from September to November 2021. The final show was here, at the Greek Theatre, on 14 November 2021.
Nesmith died on 10 December 2021, less than a month later, leaving Dolenz the only surviving member.
The Greek has hosted concerts in Griffith Park since the early 1930s and is owned by the City of Los Angeles.
An open-air theatre in Griffith Park, owned by the city. Shows run mostly in the warmer months; the park around it is free.
In Los Angeles, 6363 Sunset, Gold Star’s corner and Sunset Gower are a walk apart in Hollywood; the Greek is up the hill in Griffith Park; the Beverly Hills Hotel is a drive west along Sunset; Burbank is over the hills and Long Beach an hour south. In New York, the Ed Sullivan Theater is in Midtown and Forest Hills a subway ride into Queens. Honolulu and Wembley stand on their own.
Where it is now
11 places you can visit, from Broadway to Griffith Park. Gold Star and the ranch’s streets have gone, so their pins are the sites.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
Site reference · Restricted access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Now Sunset Gower Studios, a working lot that is not open to visitors. The gates and white office block are on Gower Street.
Building reference · Public access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Now the Los Angeles Film School. See it from Sunset Boulevard near Ivar Avenue; the building is a school, not a museum.
Area reference · Public access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Gone: a mini-mall stands on the site, near the corner of Vine Street.
Building reference · Public access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. An open-air theatre in Griffith Park, owned by the city. Shows run mostly in the warmer months; the park around it is free.
1Sunset Gower Studios on Gower Street, Hollywood, December 2006: the old Columbia lot. Chuubikaura · CC0
1438 North Gower Street, Hollywood, Los Angeles
Columbia’s lot at Sunset and Gower
Screen Gems shot most of its interiors at Columbia’s main studio at Sunset and Gower; Sunset Gower Studios lists The Monkees among the shows on its stages.
Now Sunset Gower Studios, a working lot that is not open to visitors. The gates and white office block are on Gower Street.
Sources
26363 Sunset Boulevard, RCA Victor’s Hollywood studio from 1964 to 1977, now the Los Angeles Film School, in February 2024. Clyde Charles Brown · CC BY-SA 4.0
6363 Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood, Los Angeles
RCA Victor, 6363 Sunset Boulevard
RCA Victor opened a facility and offices at 6363 Sunset Boulevard in 1964 and ran its Los Angeles studios there until 1977. The Monkees recorded there.
Now the Los Angeles Film School. See it from Sunset Boulevard near Ivar Avenue; the building is a school, not a museum.
Sources
3Santa Monica Boulevard at Vine Street, October 2006: Gold Star’s block. The studio is gone; shops stand on its site. Downtowngal · CC BY-SA 4.0
6252 Santa Monica Boulevard, near Vine Street, Hollywood
Gold Star Studios
Gold Star stood at 6252 Santa Monica Boulevard, near the corner of Vine Street.
Gone: a mini-mall stands on the site, near the corner of Vine Street.
Sources
4The Greek Theatre in Griffith Park, Los Angeles, 2019. Steven Lek · CC BY-SA 4.0
2700 Vermont Canyon Road, Griffith Park, Los Angeles
The Greek Theatre
Micky Dolenz and Mike Nesmith’s farewell tour played over 40 US dates from September to November 2021.
An open-air theatre in Griffith Park, owned by the city. Shows run mostly in the warmer months; the park around it is free.
Sources
Stay
A room on Sunset.
The hotel where the row with Kirshner happened.
The Beverly Hills Hotel
The Beverly Hills Hotel
Beverly Hills, California
The hotel on Sunset Boulevard where Mike Nesmith confronted Don Kirshner in January 1967. Check its own page for rooms and rates.
The Warner Bros. studio tour, Hollywood music walks and Honolulu.
Viator · Ad / affiliate
Warner Bros. studio tours
Burbank, California
Live marketplace results for the Warner Bros. studio tour in Burbank, where the old Columbia Ranch fountain now stands. Check each listing for what it includes.
Dates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
The full record
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
11 of 11 places · 14 of 14 Moments
The Ed Sullivan Theater
1697 Broadway, between West 53rd and 54th Streets, Manhattan
The side of the stage
Davy Jones, in the Oliver! cast, watches the Beatles’ American television debut from the wings.
The Columbia Ranch, now Warner Bros. Ranch
411 North Hollywood Way, Burbank
The advertisement
Daily Variety and The Hollywood Reporter advertise for musicians to act in a new TV series; as many as 400 come.
The series begins
The Monkees starts on NBC; Screen Gems films it on the Columbia Ranch and at Sunset and Gower.
Columbia’s lot at Sunset and Gower
1438 North Gower Street, Hollywood, Los Angeles
Mr. Schneider
On the pad set lives Mr. Schneider, a mannequin who gives advice when you pull his cord.
Two Emmys
The series wins Outstanding Comedy Series.
RCA Victor, 6363 Sunset Boulevard
6363 Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood, Los Angeles
Headquarters
With Chip Douglas producing, the four play their own instruments.
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