April 27, 2011 – On September 6, 1966, Davy Jones, Peter Tork, Micky Dolenz, and Michael Nesmith, collectively known as the American pop group The Monkees, were in Chicago on a promotional tour that brought them to the Chicago River.

The group “invaded” WLS radio, then located in what is now the Smurfit-Stone Building on Michigan Avenue. This photo was taken a few blocks away, on the south bank of the river in front of the Chicago Sun-Times Building, now the site of Trump International Hotel & Tower.

“They also took dozens of promotional shots, most of which ended up in the 1966/67 tour program that they sold at all of their concerts,” reports Meghan Brozanic, who recently added the photos to her Monkees fan site, Psycho Jello. “There are pictures of them in front of Marina City, the Wrigley Building, at Buckingham Fountain, in front of the Prudential Building, and more.”

Brozanic, a web production coordinator, started Psycho Jello in 1999 and now shares more than 1,800 photos of the group on her website, along with historical information and features such as “The Funniest Monkees Interview Ever.”

Says Brozanic, “I definitely thought it was cool that there were so many great pictures of the Monkees in Chicago, and definitely interesting that those were the ones they used in their tour program.”

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 Website: Psycho Jello