Michael Nesmith Doll
“ Personally, I see no resemblance. ”
The Michael Nesmith Doll was conceived by The Monkees for their 1986 Reunion Tour. Michael Nesmith was unable to join the tour due to brain damage from inhaling too much Liquid Paper fumes, so the group decided to replace him with a life size replica. Peter Tork just so happened to already have one lying around in his Laurel Canyon house, which he was more than happy to bring along on the tour.
Purpose[edit | edit source]
Although Peter Tork refused to comment on the original purpose of the doll, it resembled Michael Nesmith enough to deceive audiences and his own children, many of whom had not seen their father in decades and had forgotten what he looked like. Many have speculated that the doll had been subjected to improper use, but all parties involved have denied this. On the tour, the doll attended interviews and "performed" on stage with the group, staring at his bandmates with an unimpressed look that replicated Mike's 60s mannerisms.
Group Tensions[edit | edit source]
The Mike Doll was the source of many arguments between bandmates Peter Tork, Micky Dolenz, and Davy Jones. Peter refused to allow any of the others to handle the Mike Doll, and became quite possessive of it, beginning to only speak through the doll in a scarily accurate impression of Michael's voice.
Horse incident[edit | edit source]
While in Texas in the early stages of the tour, Davy took the Mike Doll in a fit of rage and stormed off to a local horse stable. As an experienced jockey, Davy had no issue convincing the owners to allow him to take some horses out for a ride. The Mike Doll was strapped to an unbroken Thoroughbred, which took off before Davy could stop it and dragged the Mike Doll for several miles while Peter looked on in horror. After many hours spent struggling to capture the horse, the Mike Doll was finally caught on a fence and was untethered from the Thoroughbred.
While the Mike Doll was mostly intact, this incident still caused one of the biggest Monkee fights of 1986. Once the Mike Doll was recovered by Davy, he brought it back to Peter, who immediately punched him.
Pool It! incident[edit | edit source]
.jpg)
It is not widely known that The Monkees' greatest album, Pool It!, originally featured artwork that included the Mike Doll in the pool with the three other band members. It was believed that having four Monkees on the cover would help sell more copies of the album, and that no one would care enough about Mike to look closely at him.
It was this incident that finally caught the attention of the real Michael Nesmith himself, who was furious at their attempts to replace him with a doll. Further, he specifically was upset by their decision not to clothe the Mike Doll in proper swimwear. When asked about his thoughts on the album cover, Mike's response was, "If you look at the other guys, they're all dressed in your average swimwear. Swim shorts, patterned tights, all the usual stuff you expect to see on middle aged men at the pool. And then they have this doll dressed in a full suit. It's clearly an intentional ploy to make me look stupid."
Despite the final decision not to use the photo as the album cover, it is still widely known to be one of Henry Diltz's best shots.
Death[edit | edit source]
The Mike Doll was last seen at the Hard Rock Cafe, where it took a fall from the upper levels and appeared to snap its neck on the way down, shortly after Micky Dolenz began to talk about Leonard Nimoy for the fifth time that evening. The circumstances of this incident are not clear, and all the bandmates have refused to comment on it.
