Factoids are facts that did not exist until newspapers wrote about them.

Norman Mailer.

Necessary preface.

The story is based on a real event that happened with the group The Doors, so its members are derived under real names. Anyone can be convinced of the veracity of this story by looking in Wikipedia or in the literary biographies of this legendary team. This episode is one of the key ones in the Oliver Stone movie “Doors”.

My only addition as an author is that I took obscene a version of this incident that caught my eye five or six years ago in an article in a youth newspaper devoted to the most provocative events of Big Rock Music, and tried to imagine how this could be. The author’s fiction is also the names of the girls and, accordingly, their images and dialogues (although I must note that their understanding of Jim Morrison fully corresponds to the impressions shared by one of the women who knew him closely with Paul Hougen, one of the biographers of the group).

Los Angeles. August 21, 1966

- Nancy! Ne en!

Door opened:

- Oh, Sally! Hi, honey.

- Hello. Listen, sit with my baby tonight?

- Yes, no problem, of course. And what happened? Date?

Sally waved her hand.

- Not at all! Friends in the "whiskey" are invited. They say there will be some kind of band there today. The vocalist is just dead. Beauty-a-vchi-and-to! - She dreamily rolled her eyes.

Neighbor smiled knowingly:

“Well, if the one I think of, then ... Well, yes, it’s worth a look.” Of course, he behaves strangely and dresses strangely ... Yes, and his songs are strange. But what is beautiful is beautiful. Your David is clearly no match ... By the way, have you quarreled with him? He hasn't been around for a while.

- Oh, him! - responded girl with annoyance. - He did become some kind of strange. He disappears for weeks, does not call, does not invite anywhere ... Here today, for example: Sunday, evening, I’m bored, I’ve been waiting all day for him to invite me somewhere, but he doesn’t call, he doesn’t come ... Under normal conditions Man, I would go to the club with my girlfriends? ..

“Well, yes,” Nancy added. - Such beauty cannot be neglected, it is true. He's finished playing, your David ... What time are you going?

- Yes, after a couple of hours, probably. Bye for now, bye ...

- Be aware, there must be a place in advance. When this guy speaks, you won't push yourself into Whiskey. You can even go out earlier.

- Damn it! - Sally was upset. - And we have already agreed with girlfriends ...

“Nothing,” Nancy comforted her. - Maybe everything will be fine. Bring your boy, and have fun yourself.

- Thank you, Nan! - The girl smacked the young neighbor and skipped off the porch. Nancy shouted after her:

- Do not let David descend!

***

Nancy was right. When the company, consisting of Sally, her girlfriends Dorothy and Patty and their boys, got to the intersection of Nord-Clark Street and Sunset Boulevard, where the club was located, next to it on both sides of the entrance throughout the narrow pavement between the parapet and the luminous, decorated signs crowded the dark green mirror wall. Carefree, rhythmic music mixed with joyful cheering shouted out of the open doors to a summer Californian evening. In "Whiskey-a-go-go" performances of musicians alternated with dancing under the plate; now it was the turn of the live performance.

- What, are you late? The girl asked in frustration. Their company stopped about ten minutes from the entrance.

One of the guys listened:

- No, it's “Love.” Today they are with the "Dorz" stand. But already finish - do you hear, "My little red book" play? Arthur always sings her at the end.

“And the Dorzes were already there,” the guy standing in front turned to them. “Well, they usually work at their warm-ups.”

“How were they? ...” Even in the fast-moving darkness, it was obvious how upset Sally was.“And this was ... how was it ...?”

- Morrison? - chuckled the guy. - No, I did not hear him. Their keyboard player sang, Ray. And Jim ... Maybe again went on a journey. - He somehow giggled disgustingly and knowingly exchanged glances with the guys from the company Sally, but she did not see it. A bright, glittering evening, which she had already managed to draw in her imagination, suddenly turned into a black and white cinema that even the glowing signs of the entire Sunset Strip district could not paint. She no longer wanted a fashionable club and its lightly addictive atmosphere, nor her company. Even anger at David, who pushed her to go to the Whiskey today, has disappeared somewhere. Heart squeezed a strange sadness. She had heard so much about this unusual guy and his group, so she wanted to see him ... She didn’t even think of the possibility of disappointment - how can you be disappointed in a man from whom all the girls of West Hollywood are crazy? And then suddenly ...

Sally did not even realize that she was being pulled somewhere, and came to her senses only when Patty almost screamed in her face:

- Lets go faster! Come on, let's go! Are you asleep?

The girl took a couple of steps and buried her in the back of a man who grunted. Then Patty literally dragged her forward, pushing through the dense rows. Dissatisfied voices were heard around them, someone even cursed, someone sent arrogant girls far away, but Patty paid no attention to anything and, like a tugboat, made her way through, dragging a non-thinking friend behind her. Sally tried to free herself, but nothing worked; tried to call her - the same result; she shook her head, trying to find the others, but saw no one. In the meantime, they were already at the entrance where the guard, instead of cutting off “No Place,” smiled and stepped aside, giving the girls the opportunity to get inside. As soon as Sally and Patty came in, he again took his place.

“And we already thought of starting without you,” said the mocking voice of one of their guys. “Sally, what have you been thinking about?”

The girl looked bewildered. Patti ... Dorothy ... guys ... here's someone else ... Everyone smiles, peresuchitsya, despite the crush ... No, it's not a joke: they are inside the club. But how?..

- How did we get here? She asked, puzzled, trying to shout over the roar of live music.

Her question was met with a burst of laughter. Then they explained to her that one of the guys accidentally had an acquaintance here, who, in turn, had a familiar guard, who let them in. “And so -“ there are no places, ”- this most familiar imitated the intonation of the guards, which caused another bout of fun. Then Sally found out that he was going to lead them to the stage itself. The girl looked incredulously around the hall: the club was crowded, so even switching places with a neighbor seemed something unreal. But their new acquaintance, apparently, was some kind of Hollywood wizard, because after a few minutes the whole company was near the stage, so close to the speakers that it was possible to touch ending Arthur Lee who was singing.

“I don’t understand,” Sally said, when the song ended and the musicians left the stage under an approving whistle and clapping, “what are we going to do here?” "Dorz" already made. Jim was gone. Well, we came for him, right? And I don't want to dance ...

“Baby,” their new acquaintance, who introduced himself as Chuck, cheerfully addressed her, “but didn't they tell you that Dorz broke their performance into two parts?”

My heart jumped and started beating loudly:

- Really?

- Of course. “That mongrel Chuck, it turns out, knew everything.” “Now we’ve gone for Morrison.” He will speak again. And during the break - dancing.

“I don't want to dance,” the girl said stubbornly and looked around again. - And how can you dance? So many people ... And under what to dance? Under Johnny Rivers, or what?

- What is Rivers, baby? "Birds" play, do not you hear it? - Chuck cheerfully showed her in the opposite ...