Pinman Jim Morrison's first film

The Lizard King Was Here is one of my favorite books. The amount of research that went into these pages is worth the cover price.

This book shows the liberties that some biographers used as a selling tool to their "Jim Morrison" story. The abundance of exaggerations abound as the original interviewees during the research phase of books such as "No One Here Gets Out Alive" recall what they told the biographers of the so called "first" Morrison biography and what they thought of the published version.

It must be said that Ray Manzarek, even though his name does not appear as one of the authors of NOHGOA it is a well known fact that he was a ghost writer of the book. Look at the many interviews that Manzarek has given since this book was published back in 1980. 99% of those interviews expound upon the myth of Jim Morrison. We are at the 40th anniversary of Jim's death this year and Ray's tribute act has already begun selling tickets to their shows basing the advertising as a 40 year celebration.

As we know The Doors, the original band is over 40 years old so how can it be a the 40th Anniversary Doors celebration? Seems more like a celebration of Jim's death but I guess the advertisers see things differently. As usual anything to make buck, right?

Excerpt from The Lizard King Was Here
Pages 118-119

Andy Morrison:

Andy had been quoted at length in the book, “No One Here Gets Out Alive,” though the authors focused on negative comments he had allegedly made regarding his older brother. He was quick to voice his disgust at the way Jim has been portrayed in the media. “I don’t have much to say after all these years. There’s been so much nonsense written about Jim, the negative stories really don’t mean much to me anymore. Somebody sent me one of the more recent books about him and I only got through about ten pages because it was so full of (horse stuff). It’s just not factual. The people writing these things have been a bunch of (jerks) and it’s meaningless to me because they copy and repeat each other’s lies and I’m not going to get involved at this stage.”

I asked Andy about his dealings with Jerry Hopkins and the information attributed to him in “No One Here Gets Out Alive.” He responded: “I told Hopkins and Sugerman what I could and I don’t have much of an opinion on their book. I told them both sides. They wanted to sell books and they focused on stories like how Jim would sit on me with lugies hanging down or the rock throwing thing, but these things were few and far between. I told them those stories, but that’s what happened to every kid and some kids had it a lot worse. All big brothers did that. The fact is Jim was like five years old so when he was graduating as a senior, I think I was still in seventh grade and what he did to me was what every older brother did to every kid. He was a great older brother and we had a lot of good times, but none of these writers want to hear about that. He was interesting, he was funny, he treated me great, he was the one who got me started reading, and sometimes he’d take me into D.C. with him on the bus and we’d go to the zoo or to bookstores. No one wants to print how things really were, because it wouldn't sell books.”

We briefly discussed other topics like Jim’s art work and the trips the two would take into Washington, D.C. before I asked Andy about Jim’s relationship with their parents while they were living in Alexandria. He said, “Jim always got along with my mom and dad. There was never any big deal between them when we were in Alexandria. He would get along fine. I mean, he knew how to act and he might not have agreed with everything they said, but he knew when to keep his mouth shut and how far he could go. My dad was gone a lot of the time on assignments an sometimes it was just my mom, but he stayed down in the basement a lot and had his own entry way so he could go out whenever he wanted. Even after he was going to college and he came out to Coronado, he went out on my dad’s ship and cut his hair and did a couple of day cruises with my dad. Up to that point everything was basically okay.”


Calendar Entry For Alexandria Virginia 1959-1961
newdoorstalk.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=calendarview&thread=533

Excerpt From The Doors By The Doors Book

Re: Jim Morrison BIO for Elektra Records (1966) where he said his parents were dead.

Adm. George (Steve) Morrison: I’d never heard that. I had the feeling that he felt we’d just as soon not be associated with his career, and stay in the background. He knew I didn’t think rock music was the best goal for him. Maybe he was trying to protect us.

Jim: I don’t want to involve anyone unless they want it. When we’re born we’re all footprinted and so on. I guess I said my parents were dead as some kind of joke. I have a brother, too, but I haven’t seen him in about a year. I don’t see any of them.

Besides the brother Morrison mentioned (Andy, who was six years younger), Jim had a sister, three years his junior. Her name is Anne Chewning.

Anne: I thought he was doing that to separate himself from my parents. My dad was in the Navy, he had his own life, and I don’t think Jim wanted to involve them at all. He was a real gentleman. He knew he was going to be doing things that would not have been approved by the family. I don’t think he wanted the responsibility of his behavior reflecting on anybody else, and he separated himself completely. He liked mystique, too. He didn’t want to be from somewhere.