{"id":5893,"date":"2014-07-04T05:30:33","date_gmt":"2014-07-04T09:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=5893"},"modified":"2014-07-04T05:30:33","modified_gmt":"2014-07-04T09:30:33","slug":"keith-allison-man-of-action-part-five-conclusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2014\/07\/04\/keith-allison-man-of-action-part-five-conclusion\/","title":{"rendered":"Keith Allison: Man of Action (Part Five \/ conclusion)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part Four<\/a>…<\/em><\/p>\n

Bill Kopp:<\/strong> You first rose to fame as a cast member on Where the Action Is<\/em>. Can you tell me how you got that gig?<\/span><\/p>\n

Keith Allison:<\/strong> At the time, I was playing with The Crickets<\/strong>, as their guitarist. But when in town, I did all the Boyce and Hart<\/strong> demos at Screen Gems. Sometimes they’d go in at ten in the morning, and they’d cut Joe Osborne<\/strong> on guitars, and various people on drums. And they switched around: sometimes James Burton<\/strong> and myself on guitars. They’d get whoever they could, for whatever the song needed. And Bobby Hart would often play keyboards.<\/p>\n

Back then, we’d make ten dollars a song. Three songs was thirty bucks. But thirty was the difference between finishing paying your rent and buying some groceries. So they owed me, like, forty dollars, as I had done four songs the week before. This was April or May of 1965. And I needed to pay my damn rent, or I was gonna get evicted. So I went to Screen Gems, and told Lester Sill<\/strong> \u2013 the director of Screen Gems on the west coast \u2013 that I needed him to cut me a check. And he said, \u201c I can’t sign a check unless Boyce or Hart sign a voucher, approving it.\u201d And I asked, \u201cWell, where are they?\u201d \u201cSome television taping. A new show. They’re down at the Whisky-a-Go-Go.\u201d He said, \u201cTake this, go get it signed, bring it back, and I’ll cut you a check.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

So I went down to the Whisky and I saw all these film trucks. I walk in, and I look up. I see Dick Clark<\/strong>. The first time I’ve seen him in person. Dancers and such, too. I saw The Raiders<\/strong> on the staircase, and I said, \u201cHey, guys!\u201d I already knew them. I had done a show with them in Honolulu, and I had run into them a time or two. I had known them for about a year. Not well, but kind of hi-how-are-you-guys.<\/p>\n

Tommy Roe<\/strong> was about to sing \u201cEverybody\u201d onstage. And a stage manager said, \u201cWe need butts in seats!\u201d So I sat down. One of the dancers, Joy<\/strong> [Ciro<\/strong>], saw me; I was wearing Levi’s and a Levi’s jacket, a yellow turtleneck, and I had a black leather cap on. And boots. A very sixties British-looking outfit. So Joy knew when the cameras would be on her. I was just clapping along and smiling. The camera did several shots of me, about four or five seconds each.<\/p>\n

So after that I went off to Las Vegas with The Crickets, to Texas, playing at the Thunderbird Hotel for a month. Two or three shows a night. And I got this telegram from Dick Clark Productions. They needed me to come in on my day off; they had a prepaid ticket for me at the airport. They gave me the address to meet with the Executive Producer. I thought, \u201cWhat the heck is this about?\u201d<\/p>\n

What had happened was, they got bags of fan mail after that show aired, with this kid<\/em> with one of the dancers. \u201cWho is that?\u201d And they pulled in everybody they could, asking them who it was. Finally they pulled in the girls from the front office: receptionists, young girls. And one of them said, \u201cAh! That’s Keith Allison. He plays with The Crickets. They’re supposed to be in Las Vegas right now.\u201d So that’s how they found me.<\/p>\n

So I flew in on my day off, and went over to Rosalind Ross<\/strong>‘ house; she lived right behind the Dick Clark offices on Sunset Boulevard. I knocked on her door. She opened it, looked at me and said, \u201cOh my god! Can you start today? And you play guitar?\u201d I said yes. \u201cCan you dance?\u201d I said, \u201cA little.\u201d She said, \u201cCome on in! We have a guitar here. Would you play something?\u201d So I played \u201cMaybe Baby\u201d and \u201cNot Fade Away,\u201d some Crickets songs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

She said, \u201cDo you mind if we cut your hair?\u201d I said, \u201cWhat!?\u201d My hair was kinda long and unruly; it wasn’t a proper haircut. They had a hairdresser already there, so they trimmed my hair. Then she said, \u201cWe need you at Will Rogers State Beach at seven o’clock tomorrow morning.\u201d I said, \u201cI have to fly back to Vegas tomorrow!\u201d \u201cWe know what time your plane is; you’ll be out by noon.\u201d So I started Where the Action Is<\/em> that morning.<\/p>\n

BK:<\/strong> That’s a Cinderella story!<\/span><\/p>\n

KA:<\/strong> It’s like Lana Turner<\/strong> at Schwab’s Drugstore. So I showed up that day wearing the same outfit: the yellow turtleneck and all. They’d show The Raiders playing, and then they’d cut to me, running down the beach with about 50 to 75 girls screaming and chasing me. They did those teaser shots for weeks, so people would say, \u201cWho is that?\u201d They’d build this thing up; that’s how they presented me.<\/p>\n