June 24, 2007
To the Ledger and to Canton Magazine:This upcoming September 13th is the 40th
anniversary of The Doors’ spectacular visit to Canton, right
after "Light My Fire" hit #1 on the charts. I saw the
magazine’s feature on this last year, but with the 40th
coming up, perhaps it’s time to bring out more of the story.
I spent several hours with them that day, culminating
with dinner at Norris before their performance. I’ll never
forget everybody at "Joe’s Place" nearly dropping their
forks when we walked in, especially at the sight of Jim
Morrison. His truly wild hair and black leather pants almost
shut the place down!
My involvement came about because Bob Radford, managing
editor at the Daily Ledger, hired me right out of high
school for what he called my "sparkling writing." My first
assignment was a trip to WIU in Macomb to interview the
popular piano duo, Ferrante and Teicher.
That went very well, so after that I was the go-to girl
to do the interviews when other acts came through the area,
especially here in Canton. Gary Lewis and the Playboys come
to mind (the son of comedian Jerry Lewis). I remember that
the Lettermen, with their heavy make-up and carefully
coiffed hair, were a huge hit. They still look that way!
So I was Connie-on-the-spot when it came time for The
Doors. What a fluke that was! They were on contract to tour
the community college circuit, when suddenly they had their
break-out hit, "Light My Fire." To their credit, they didn’t
try to break their date with Canton Community College, even
though now they were in demand at all the biggest
venues from New York to California. They even appeared on Ed
Sullivan only a few days after performing in Canton.
I don’t know how they got from the Peoria airport to
Canton. All I knew was that after my last class in the
afternoon at the college, I was to report to Canton High
School and link up with Jerry Dawson, then a bank
vice-president, to help officially host the band. It was
great fun assisting The Doors with the sound checks -- and
fantasizing about running away with them when the night was
over!
I was a groovy chick in those days and Jim didn’t mind at
all as we sat side-by-side at the restaurant and kind of
cuddled, talking about the changing music scene in the USA,
while Jerry made polite conversation with Manzarek, Densmore,
and Krieger. I remember babbling on and on to Jim about how
Canton was ready for a new reality – well, at least I WAS!
Whereupon Jim said to the others, "Hey, guys, Connie says
this town is ready for us!" (More about dinner with The
Doors, and what happened onstage, in my Ledger feature,
enclosed.)
To my great chagrin later, when Morrison practically
lunged off the stage and did rather inappropriate things
with his mic stand, the Canton audience didn’t exactly
applaud. In fact, just like at the restaurant, their jaws
dropped in complete silence – and Morrison glared at me from
the stage. I shrugged – well, Jim, that’s show biz. I wasn’t
particularly enamored with him anymore.
Soon they cut the performance short, with Morrison
muttering, "Let’s get the heck out of here." (Only the word
he used wasn’t "heck.") And that was the end of OUR
relationship.
Anyway, I needed to go home and get my Ledger piece ready
for the 7 am deadline, so I wasn’t there for their tear-down
and trip out of Canton. I wondered how I would ever capture
the sheer strangeness of being with these guys who were such
polite gentlemen off-stage and so absolutely alien on-stage.
But I think I did it!
Here is my 9/14/67 Ledger write-up -- "Doors
exposed Canton to California Reality Cult."
Connie Cook Smith
