Sonny Liston in HEAD (1968)

[Brutu]

check out this weird photo
(be sure to scroll downfor article)

http://books.google.com/books?id=KtoDAA ... pg=PA58&dq

[BoxBuzz]

Fully Bizarre....

[Dart340]

FYI, the picture is a still from a scene from "Head" - The Monkees' movie co-written by Jack Nicholson. In the scene before, Davy Jones plays I believe a pianist who insists on being a prizefighter over the objections of his fiancee. (No, I'm not kidding, either...) He confronts Sonny at a weigh-in and tells him he has "a Million Dollar Face" and Sonny won't be able to hurt him. Sonny just stares at him with malice. Next scene, Davy is being beaten to a pulp and Sonny finally sends him flying for the kayo.

[Brutu]

I was just watching one of the dvd's of the Monkee's just last week.
In another early episode from 1966,'Monkee's In the Ring",in it Davy Jones also played a boxer.
I wonder if he had boxed in real life?
He displayed some pretty good moves and a long jab in the episode.

[Brute]

I was just watching one of the dvd's of the Monkee's just last week.
In another early episode from 1966,'Monkee's In the Ring",in it Davy Jones also played a boxer.
I wonder if he had boxed in real life?
He displayed some pretty good moves and a long jab in the episode.

Davy Jones was an apprentice jockey before he became an actor. I remember something about the episode with the boxer. A crooked promoter signed Davy up and took him to a title shot with a series of comically fixed fights. It was a skit on "The Harder They Fall."

[Brutu]

The fight sqeuence for HEAD was filmed at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angles CA,
two weeks before Liston made his comeback fight in Reno Nevada
against Bill Mc Murray(March-16.1968).The Monkees were guests in Liston's dressing room the night of the fight.
Here is a really clear photo were you can see how good of shape Liston looked at least 2 weeks before.
He weighed 223 lbs for the fight.

http://www.corbisimages.com/stock-photo ... davy-jones

[Brutu]

The movie HEAD(released November.20.1968).
Sonny Liston's cameo starts at about 0:31:00 to about 0:36:00 into the movie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVxriDM8h68

[misterpunch]

apparantly dolenz was beseiged with offers to turn pro after he flattened liston - wisely he stayed in the music biz

[misterpunch]

many people think sonny was never the same fighter after dolenz caught him with that huge right hand.

[Brutu]

Sonny Liston-ht 6 ft 1",fist size 15".
Davy Jones-ht 5 ft 3",fist size(unkown)


http://psychojello.tumblr.com/post/1814 ... the-set-of


( BTW I dont think that I can recall seeing Sonny Liston having a smile on his face like that
ever since he was still the heavyweight champion of the world.
The Monkees must have brought some really good reefer with them on the set there).

[misterpunch]

brutu - included in that mag of yours with liston and arcaro, there is a story about a murder in grand rapids so horrible to read that i didnt sleep after reading it. its only a short piece but it shocked me. and theres nothing on the internet about it at all. but thanks anyway

[Brutu]

hey misterpunch,

you can real all the back issues of JET magazine
over at google books.
You can even arrange it that the issues can be read in chronological order
dating back to 1952.Those were real stories they had in it up until the early 1980's
when like most of the mainstream magazines and news televison in America
It started more emphasis on fluff and entertainment.

[Brutu]

Nick Tosches in his book mentioned that Sonny liston had recorded a Rock and Roll record
a couple of months before he died.
Back in 2007 someone (one time poster)had posted at the cyberboxingzone a link
to a photograph and audio clip of the 45 which they claimed they purchased at a yard sale
and it was found in a sleeve of another album,the Carpenters I think.
I cant remeber the title of the 45 but it
was something like"I'm a Lover Man"also i wrote down the muscians who were involved in it,
and googled them.They were some early funk muscians,who became somewhat succesful,
but not really famous like Earth,Wind&Fire or even the Checkmates LTD.
Unfortaetly not long after the poster posted that,someone hacked into the cyberboxingzone,
and all of the messages were deleted at that site.I can not remember
who the muscians were or what became of the 45,other then remembering
the finder had it on E-Bay.He said also he e-mailed the audio clip
to the late Harry Shaeffer and to Nick Tosches,who thought it sounded groovy.
I didnt have audio on the computer I had.so I never did get to hear the sample.
Like I mentioned earlier it was a 45 demo record,so I dont know if it was one of a kind
or maybe one of the only surviving copies.I wonder if Nick Tosches purchased it?

[Brutu]

I had read in a Los Angeles newspaper article from late November 1970,
that Sonny Liston was to or did appear on a local talk show in LA to promote
the episode that was to air that night(November 27th),
from what I understand.He had his car accident the previous day in Las Vegas,
it was only when he came back to Las Vegas that he admitted himself to the hospital.
if he did appear on the talk show(which one wasnt named)I wonder if the video still exists?
I wonder if it could have been either the syndicated Mike Douglas show or the Merv Griffin show?
That would be some historical video-tape if it did happen.

[Brutu]

Some other video-tape from 1968,that hopefully someone somewhere will retrieve sometime(if it still exists).
Was Sonny Liston's appearence on THE JOEY BISHOP SHOW which aired Friday July .5.1968.
Which was a national televised live talk show(ABC-TV).Regis Philbin was Joey Bishop's sidekick,
Sonny was on it to promote his first American comeback fight against Henry Clark at the Cow Palace in San Francisco,
on that same network the next day live July.6.1968 on ABC Wide World of Sports).
I dont know if the segment was live in the studio or taped previously at the gym in Oakland Ca(which would be my guess).
Im sure they discussed his cameo in the Monkees movie.
From what I had read ,at some point Joey Bishop puts on the gloves to "spar" with Sonny Liston for the show during the interview
(IMOP which is always really an ego trip for any talk show hosts that have ever done that against
a professional boxer on their own tv shows,I was never sure what they were trying to prove doing it).
Joey Bishop was a fight fan and could usually be seen in front row seats at the championship fights
in Las Vegas back in the 1960's.

[Brutu]

This publicity still ran in the television section page in a number of newspapers the day that this episode of
LOVE AMERICAN STYLE originally aired(November.27.1970).

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SONNY-LISTON-SI ... 35c0f22781

[Brutu]

Check out this photo from the set of HEAD.
take a look at the grabbling hooks at the end of those pythons.



http://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-1968-S ... 36810bb8fc


This photo reminds me of a photograph of one of the last photos taken of Sonny Liston in Nick Tosches book.
As far as his body posture of Liston in his ray-ban glasses on the poor side of Las Vegas.