In May 1967, "Elektra Records" Organized A Lunch In Los Angeles For The Doors.  

1967.09.18, New York. 📷 J. Brodsky

I received an Aztec wall


of vision


& dissolved my room in


sweet derision


Closed my eyes, prepared to god


A gentle wind inform’d me so


And bathed my skin in ether glow

Van Nuys CA. Birmingham High School Stadium. May 20th 1967  © Joe Klein.

🔻The Doors join the bill for a fundraiser for the local High School. This concert is notable as it is the bands first major outdoor concert with more than 15,000 attending.  A third of the crowd leaves after The Doors set. They are 2nd billing to Jefferson Airplane but that will be turned on it's head once Light My Fire, released the previous month, takes off and hits #1.

Photographer Bobby Klein talks about this photo shoot: “We arrived in Venice in the morning and walked along the canals. This bridge has been preserved in its original form in Venice, which was designed in the early 1900s. On the way there, in my car, the guys heard ”Break On Through" on the radio for the first time," and everyone was delighted. They understood what it was like to have a hit. " January-February 1967, Venice Beach, California. © Bobby Klein.

On August 27, 1967, The Doors performed two shows at Cheetah in Santa Monica, California. 📷 The band is photographed backstage

March 1968, NYC, NY.- NY Subway Session in Navy Blue Coat. ©️Paul Ferrara.

When The Doors came together, “a diamond was formed. And it was clear and hard and luminous.” – Ray Manzarek

The Doors by Gene Trindl. During a  public photo  shoot for "Elektra Records", Los Angeles, California, late Summer-early Fall, 1966

The Doors 1967.09.09 Village Theatre,New York, NY. 📷Nathan Farb

Bobby Klein : "I was the first official photographer of the Doors, and this shot was taken early on. It was 1967 and we were heading to Venice Beach to take some publicity shots but got hungry, so Jim recommended stopping off at Lucky U Cafe, his favourite place in Los Angeles to grab breakfast. It was a tiny Mexican restaurant owned by a Chinese man, pretty much just a counter with no tables. Jim ordered a beer and a menudo – a beef and chilli soup – to line his stomach. It wasn’t uncommon to see him sink six beers in an hour. I’ve always enjoyed shooting people when they’re eating because it creates an intimacy. So I got behind the counter and started snapping away. Jim was beautiful. He looked like Michelangelo’s David. He was checking me out: “Who the hell is this guy?” He didn’t suffer fools, and this was early on in our relationship. There’s an intensity in his eyes: he was totally serious about being seen as a credible poet."

January 1967, Lucky U Café, Venice Beach, photo by Bobby Klein

The Doors appear on television for the very first time on KHJ-TV's Boss City in February of 1967. Hosted by DJ Sam Riddle, this episode was broadcast on February 18th at 6:00pm.  During the month of February 1967, Break On Through is The Doors first  single release and is most likely the song performed. Interviews with the performing groups are known to have taken place with the host and likely followed the performance. For years, it was presumed that The Doors performance on SHEBANG was their first-ever appearance on tv, however a newly confirmed performance date for that show has at last revealed that this performance on Boss City was in fact The Doors very first. At the present date, no surviving copies of The Doors performances on Boss City have surfaced, however two photographs taken by Jasper Dailey during this filming are known. 

The Doors at Boss City on February 18, 1967,  photographs by Jasper Daly.