And now we get to some first-hand actual recollections of people who were at the taping of this episode. One of the best accounts, complete with humorous anecdotes, comes from the associate producer at the time, DONALIE FITZGERALD. She details her memories of that day in her book titled, "If You Fall Down, Pick Yourself Up Like A Lady" (1). Quoting her below:
"The day of the show, I was called on the phone. 'They are here, in their Ambassador-Wiltshire hotel rooms. Where is the limo ?'
Limo ? I had no budget for a limo, but my own car was a swank, black 1964 four-door (also known as 'suicide doors'). So our assistant director, Ron Fury, put on a baseball cap and called himself the limo man, and away we went to the Ambassador to pick up the Stones.
I found them wearing dirty t-shirts, slopping beer all over each other, shaking the cans to see how high the fizz would go, splashing it all over the ceilings, walls, and curtains. The man at the door said, 'They are ready', and I, hoping they were bringing clean shirts with them, said. 'Let's go.'
We arrived at the station, a Melrose Avenue fixture next to the Paramount Studios in Hollywood, where residents see stars from movies, television, and records every day. Stars would go to local supermarkets and shop just like their fans. Stars went to movies and restaurants. It was no big deal, but when my family-car turned Rolling-Stones-mobile pulled up in front of KHJ-TV, a wave of girls came rushing from behind bushes, statues, signs, cars, and doorways. The Stones jumped out of the car, running straight into the station with a mass of teenage girls following close behind. Down the long hall, toward the studio where we would do the taping, the Stones stopped and went inside the prop room, which was exactly where my thirteen and fourteen year old daughters had taken refuge when they saw the running mob of girls. The door was locked behind the Stones, and they were now alone with my little girls. Those slobby, beer-squirting boys.
I was the line producer of the television show the Stones were about to appear on, but hit record or no hit record, I was going to get my own satisfaction as the mother of my two little girls. I was going to smash a Rolling Stone if anything happened to one of them. Five, ten minutes, an eternity and the door opened, and suddenly the Rolling Stones were ready to perform ! My daughters drifted out, eyes glazed, catatonic, but otherwise okay. They told me the Stones had been playing games with the various props, that Brian Jones twirled his hair in a unicorn style and repeatedly announced that he was 'a queer', and Mick Jagger rolled Dave Gilmore's (2) old swivel desk chair from one end of the room to the other, knocking over props and grabbing funny hats.
Liberti (3) and both Conlan brothers (4) finally hustled the Stones out of the prop room, toward the stage. Nobody noticed them, not until they were in place, on camera, live (5). Every one of them had removed his socks, rolled them up, and stuck them in their respective crotches. It was a grotesque look anywhere, and this was a teenage television show, live (5), on the air. No makeup, no rehearsal, no socks. Just large bulges where their penises might have been.
It disgusted me. From the control room, we told all three cameramen to stay away from the Stones' pants' bulges. We saw alot of Mick's spindly, flailing, dancing tennis shoes that day.
Years later, my daughter Valerie encountered Bill Wyman at a Paris cocktail party, and she reminded him of that California day. His reply was, 'Oh, yeah, your mum was the one who made me take me bubble gum out of me mouth'."
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