Subject: The Doors
Summary: The Doors sprang into existence in 1965 and went on to record such hits as "Light My Fire" (1967) and "Hello, I Love You" (1968), led by Jim Morrison, lead singer, composer and poet.
Along with the group's enormous following came the usual band of critics. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover described the music of The Doors and other period bands as "repulsive to right-thinking people."
Summary: The file contains a letter in which an angry, self-described "old fashioned parent" spat out venomous feelings toward the Beatles' "John Lemmon" (John Lennon) and his "Mistress Oona" (Yoko Ono) for posing nude, "complete with genitals showing." The writer went on to heavily embellish an incident The Doors had in Miami.
Summary: On March 1, 1969, Morrison exposed himself to 13,000 people while on stage in Miami. The band left the country the next day on a planned vacation, but Morrison turned himself in to the FBI in Los Angeles upon his return. The press had a field day prior to his arrest while he was out of the country. A 1969 news clipping reported Morrison's felony charge of "lewd and lascivious behavior" and "public drunkenness," and at the time, newspapers wrote fans were "disgusted" with his behavior.
In 1970, a jury found him guilty of indecent exposure and profanity but innocent on a felony count of lewd and lascivious behavior and a misdemeanor charge of drunkenness. Freed on appeal, he died in Paris in July 1971 before his legal problems were fully resolved.
