My Life With Comic Books: Part # 186

A brief introduction:

My name is Paul Howley. Some people have called me the "luckiest man in the comic book business" but that all changed as of January 9th 2001, when our son, Adam Howley, died.

The current cast of characters:
Paul Howley: age 46
Mal Howley: age 47
Adam Howley: my son, age 21
Cassy Howley: my daughter, age 17
The Monkees: Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork

MY LIFE WITH COMIC BOOKS: THE HISTORY OF A COMIC SHOP-Part 186

In late June of 2001, I learned that The Monkees were scheduled to perform at the Meadowbrook outdoor pavilion in Gilford, New Hampshire on July 20th. We lived about a mile away from Meadowbrook and it was a nice, family-run concert arena. I met with one of the owners of Meadowbrook and suggested that they advertise the concert as a fundraising event with a portion of each ticket price going to benefit The Adam Dean Howley Memorial Performing Arts Scholarship. The owner offered to donate between 50 cents and $1.00 for each ticket sold and I offered to help them promote the concert through the local media. The owner also suggested that I ask The Monkees to match the donation. I thought I had a good shot at getting them to agree to this because I had a good working-relationship with Davy Jones going back to the time he was a guest at our Worcester store.

I knew I’d be able to get some good local publicity since we lived right there in town! I was excited about the possibility of raising $8000 to $12,000 for the scholarship fund. The only “catch” was that the owner of Meadowbrook needed the approval of The Monkees so we could advertise the concert as a benefit concert. I called Davy Jones’ home (I still had his phone number from years ago) but his answering machine message told me that he was “on the road, touring with The Monkees.” I did not have any contact information for Peter Tork or Micky Dolenz but the staff at Meadowbrook told me they’d contact the management office of The Monkees to request their permission.

Meadowbrook staff left a few messages but The Monkees’ managers didn’t return the calls. This frustrated me because I knew I could help promote this concert enough to sell out every seat. I had valuable experience getting publicity for our stores and since this was for a very good charity I was sure the local and the surrounding area media would work with me on this important fundraising concert. But as the weeks flew by, it was clear that for some reason (completely out of my control) the management of Meadowbrook could not connect with the Monkees’ management.

A week before the concert performance, I asked Meadowbrook management to arrange to get me and some of my friends some back-stage passes to meet the members of The Monkees. At first, they declined. But when I explained how disappointing this failed promotion was to me, they rewarded me with the passes. My wife decided that seeing The Monkees would be too sad for her so I invited Barbara Foote, Deb Monell and her daughter Aimee, Natalie Watson, and my sister Sharon to go back-stage with me after the concert ended.

The concert was excellent! Even though I had heard that Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork weren’t really getting along very well, they did a great job of hiding their feelings. They performed nicely together. It actually looked like they were having fun! Unfortunately, less than half of the tickets were sold so the audience was only about 2500 people. When the concert ended we were brought into a fenced-in area next to the stage and we waited to meet The Monkees along with about ten other fans. Peter Tork came out first and although I had met him back in the 1980s I knew he’d never remember me. Peter walked from person to person shaking hands and thanking us all for coming to the concert. A few minutes later, Micky Dolenz came out and did the same. I had never spoken to Micky before so I was glad to have this opportunity to thank him for the many years of enjoyment he had given me. Then Barbara Foote saw Davy Jones meeting some of the other people in front of us. Barbara shouted (as she pointed to me), “Davy! Do you remember this guy?”

Now, I had told my friends about my experience from when Davy Jones had been a guest at my store back in 1993. I always told them how nice Davy was to me and to the crowd of fans who had come to see him. But I hadn’t seen Davy in person since 1993 and I looked different now (I had a beard). Davy Jones probably meets thousands of people every year and there was a good chance he wouldn’t remember me at all. If he didn’t recognize me my friends wouldn’t believe my story anymore! Davy looked at me and after a few seconds he said, “Hey Paul! How’s your store doing?” He remembered me. He’s THAT kind of guy!

UPDATE: On February 29, 2012, Davy Jones died of a heart attack at the age of 66.

My Life With Comic Books: Part # 90

Cast of characters:
Paul: age 38
Mal: my wife
Adam: my son
Cassy: my daughter
Davy Jones: formerly of The Monkees

MY LIFE WITH COMIC BOOKS: THE HISTORY OF A COMIC SHOP - Part 90

With all of the advance publicity done for Davy Jones’ guest appearance at the Worcester store, all that was left was the store preparation. My staff worked hard to clean up the displays of comic books, collectible toys, music CD’s, and sports cards. They swept the floors clean and did their best to make the bathroom presentable. I spent a few days selecting rare and valuable “Monkees” collectibles to have in a display behind the table where Davy Jones would be seated to meet and greet the customers, if anyone showed up.

Over the years I had accumulated an extensive collection of “Monkees” memorabilia, including all of the legitimately released records and almost every toy, jewelry, book, magazine, and clothing item ever produced! I tried to choose some of the most interesting-looking items for the display but I was nervous about having my own, personal collection out on display where there was a chance that these things could be damaged or stolen. I was always cautious and a little bit paranoid about shoplifting so my staff tried to be vigilant and aware of what was happening at all times. I decided to stand right next to Davy Jones behind the table. I set up an extra cash register on this table next to all of the merchandise that we were offering for sale so that customers could be tempted to buy a nice item to be autographed.

The night before Davy’s appearance, I barely slept. I was excited about meeting him but I was also very worried that no one would come to see him. By the time I left my house it was pouring rain. I thought that this was the beginning of a horrible day. I arrived at the store at seven o’clock and was disappointed to see that there was no one waiting in line to see Davy Jones. I kept myself busy by walking around the inside of the store, straightening out our shelves and displays, and listening to a cassette tape of music that featured Davy Jones as the lead vocalist from the days of “The Monkees.” This seemed to relax me as I realized that it probably didn’t matter that no one was interested in meeting him other than me. I’d certainly have fun with him!

By eight o’clock a few serious “die-hard” Monkee fans began to line up outside my store in the pouring rain. Because my staff wasn’t scheduled to arrive for another half-hour, I couldn’t let them into the store early to get out of the rain. That made me feel bad but I couldn’t help the customers and take care of all of the remaining details at the same time. As my employees and my wife and kids arrived they explained that there were probably lots of people just waiting in their cars for us to open the store so they wouldn’t get soaked in the rain. I had to leave at 8:45 am so I could get to the hotel where Davy and his road manager were staying by the pre-arranged 9:00 am pick-up time. I hated leaving the store when I had no real idea of the possible “turn-out” but I had to do it since I didn’t trust anyone else to pick him up and I was too cheap to send a limousine. I wanted to be in control of the situation in case Davy was too tired to wake up after his exhausting schedule. I have no idea what I would have done if that was the case but I knew I’d figure out something.

As it turned out, although he was indeed exhausted, Davy Jones was a complete professional. He was ready and waiting for me when I called his room from the hotel lobby. We arrived back at my store by 9:30 am, a full half-hour before the scheduled time of his appearance, and I was thrilled to see that we had a few hundred people waiting in line. My staff had all arrived and they opened the store early to get as many people out of the rain as possible. With “Monkee” music playing on our stereo system, the customers seemed to be having a good time talking to each other about “The Monkees” and excitedly anticipating Davy’s arrival. I brought Davy into the store through our side entrance and walked him to the back end of the store where we wanted him to sit. The cable news station and a local radio station were already waiting there for some quick and lively interviews and Davy handled them gracefully while his fans waited in line and listened to every word he said. As it neared the time for the ten o’clock autograph session to begin we positioned the uniformed police officer we had hired for security next to our guest table. My son, Adam, got behind the table with me to assist customers who wanted to buy any of the merchandise we had for autographing. A large pile of the five different “eight by ten” photographs that I had a local printer duplicate sat directly in front of Davy Jones. I priced them at $2.50 each or all five for ten dollars. I assumed that most customers would buy one or two but I guess the offer of all five for ten dollars, along with Davy’s neatly written autograph, was just too good to pass up. Hundreds of fans bought all five!

I had an agreement with Davy that he would sign autographs from 10:00 am to noon and then he’d get a two-hour lunch break and then he was to sign for two more hours. When noon approached, his road manager said, “Hey, let’s break for lunch.” Davy looked at the huge line that still went all through the store and out onto the sidewalk and said, “We certainly can’t have all of these fans just stand and wait while we go off to eat!” We sent out for tuna fish sandwiches while he continued to sign autographs and visit with the fans for almost five more hours. Davy posed for photographs with eager forty to fifty-year old women who couldn’t believe they were actually meeting him in-person! When a group of kids confined to wheelchairs came in, he gave them all free copies of his current music compact discs. I don’t think there was anyone who was unhappy with Davy Jones that day. Even though he was functioning on only two hours sleep, he was funny, friendly, full of enthusiasm, and eager to please everyone.

A little after five o’clock we decided that we needed to end the autograph line. Davy had performed “above and beyond” our original agreement. I felt as if I had taken advantage of his good nature. Davy never complained. At the end of the event when we went into the private “front-room” of the store and it was time for me to pay him I remarked about his kindness to all of the almost two thousand people who came to see him. Davy said, “Paul, it’s because of people like these that I can continue to make my living in the entertainment business. They are important to me.” It was refreshing for me to hear a celebrity really appreciated his fans. Although I had negotiated a fair contract with Davy, I decided that I would pay for his meals and his hotel for two nights. I also decided that since I sold over two thousand photographs at a very high profit, I would share some of this money with Davy. By the time we were done, Davy ended up with more than double the money he was expecting. He thanked me for the unexpected generosity and he said that he enjoyed the visit. When I brought him back to his hotel room he thanked me again and told me that I was one of the very few people in the past thirty years who didn’t try to take advantage of him. Davy must have believed that I was an honest man because he asked if I would be interested in becoming partners in his book publishing business. He was having trouble keeping his books “in print” because of his busy touring schedule and he wanted me to take over this aspect of his business. My wife and I discussed it but I eventually declined because I was intent on retiring from active work in the next two years and although I’d love to get to work with Davy Jones on a regular basis, I knew what my long-term goals were.

Besides setting a new one-day sales record at my Worcester store, this Davy Jones event was one of our best in terms of customer satisfaction and excitement. Very few of my regular store customers came to see him though. Almost two-thirds of the nearly two thousand people who came to our store that day were first time visitors and most of them were women. I’m sure that many of these “new” customers have continued to shop with us on a regular basis so the actual financial rewards have kept growing.

Next chapter: Terry Stewart, president of Marvel Comics, almost destroys the entire comic book industry.
Pictures: Davy Jones as a guest at our store.

My Life With Comic Books: Part # 89

Cast of Characters:
Paul: age 38
Mal: my wife

MY LIFE WITH COMIC BOOKS: THE HISTORY OF A COMIC SHOP - Part 89

We had booked Davy Jones of The Monkees to make an appearance at our store in Worcester, Massachusetts in September of 1993. Davy’s manager agreed that he would receive a “lump sum” fee and Davy would be responsible for all of his own travel expenses. Davy would also agree to sign free autographs for any visitors. We wanted to be sure that Davy was safe so we hired a Worcester police officer as security for this event. We wanted this special event to be “perfect” and we tried to anticipate every possible problem that could come up. Our store had arranged to have many guests before but this would be the highest expenditure we ever had for an in-store event so I wanted it to seem really special for my customers.

We printed thousands of “flyers” to give to everyone who visited our store in the three months prior to Davy’s visit and we encouraged all of our employees to be sure to verbally advertise this appearance. We sent out the flyers to everyone on our huge mailing list and ran our newly created television commercial on cable television channels for a thirteen-week period before the September event. I was excited about the opportunity to meet one of my favorite childhood performers. I wanted my customers (and any new visitors to my store) to have the opportunity to get a personal autograph from Davy Jones without having to pay for it. But I wouldn’t mind making a bit of money on this event if I could figure out some way to do it.

Davy’s manager would get me some copies of the two different books that Davy had written about his days as a “Monkee” that I could sell. I ordered two full cases (forty copies) of one book and twenty copies of the other at a wholesale price of fifty percent off of retail price. Agreeing to purchase these on a non-returnable basis, I wanted to be sure that I didn’t order too many copies. I also got lucky because a good customer of mine had five different vintage photographs of The Monkees from the 1960’s that he offered to allow me to copy so that I’d have something interesting for Davy to sign for my customers. A local printer reproduced five hundred of each of the 8 by 10 photos on a glossy paper at a very low price. The possibility that I would sell that many photos was low but the cost was reasonable and, just in case I ended up with a big crowd, there would be something there for them to get signed. I also knew many people might bring items from their own collections to get autographed.

We contacted the local cable news station and they agreed to do a small news segment about Davy’s appearance. Two of the larger newspapers also expressed interest in covering the event. I was satisfied that we were “covering all of the bases” as far as publicity goes but the almost complete lack of interest on the part of my loyal customer base surprised us all. We would try to remind every customer about the upcoming appearance and most of them would just shrug and say, “Yeah, I’m not a fan of The Monkees.” We’d try to get them interested by reminding them that he is a famous celebrity and he would be signing FREE autographs but as the day got closer we all began to believe that we’d really made a mistake.

A week before the appearance Davy’s manager called to inform us that Davy had a “gig” in New York City that wouldn’t get over until almost one o’clock in the morning on the day he was supposed to be at my store. By the time his concert was over he’d be exhausted and he’d still have a five-hour drive from New York to Worcester, Massachusetts. By the time Davy and his road manager checked into the local hotel there would be less than two hours for him to get some rest before I was to pick him up to bring him to my store. I certainly wasn’t happy with this new development. I hate surprises, especially when the financial risk was so high. I enjoyed being in complete control of my situations and this was ruining our careful plans.

Next chapter: Even the weather is against us!

Picture: A young Davy Jones of The Monkees.

My Life With Comic Books: Part # 88

Cast of Characters:
Paul: age 38
Mal: my wife
Adam: my son
Cassy: my daughter

MY LIFE WITH COMIC BOOKS: THE HISTORY OF A COMIC SHOP - Part 88

One day in 1993 I received an advertising flyer from a talent agency that represented a large number of celebrities and entertainers. My store manager, Chris, and I looked through the roster of people they were offering but most of them had no connection to our business of selling comic books, toys, and sports memorabilia. There were lots of singers and some old television stars but one name “jumped out” at me. Davy Jones of The Monkees was available through this talent agency!

The Monkees was one of my favorite bands from my childhood and I thought it would be such fun to have Davy Jones as a guest at my Worcester store. The Monkees had gotten back together for a highly successful tour from 1986-1987 and I had paid to see them five or six times during that period. Each show was extremely entertaining and the audiences seemed to love these guys. Chris and I weren’t sure that our customer base, primarily collectors of comic books and sports memorabilia, would have any interest in seeing an ex-Monkee, but if the price was reasonable enough I would book Davy Jones just for my pleasure. The Monkees were not touring as a group at this time so I thought that perhaps this could be affordable.

The talent agency asked me a bunch of questions about what I would want Davy Jones to do at my store. I explained that I wanted him to sign free autographs for my customers. I wanted Davy to be available to “meet and greet” my customers from 10:00 am to noon, and then he’d take two hours for lunch and come back to sign more autographs from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm. The agent thought that it sounded possible and she quoted me a price for Davy’s services. The fee was reasonable enough so I accepted the deal with the conditions that Davy Jones would be responsible for his own transportation and hotel expenses. The agent cleared the appearance with Davy Jones and she sent me a contract that I signed and returned. I now had four months to make this a successful event.

Chris and I worked on press releases to send to the newspapers and radio stations in the area and we created a flyer to be sent to the people on my huge mailing list but I wanted to let the general population know about my exciting guest. I decided to advertise his appearance with some “spots” on cable television.

A few months earlier, I had been approached by a cable-television advertising sales person (named Sue) when she was trying to sell me on the idea of actually spending some money on television commercials. I explained to her that I was not in the habit of spending any money on advertising. I had built my business over the previous thirteen years by spending about twenty dollars per year on an advertisement in the annual “Comic Book Price Guide.” I was not going to be easy to convince that I should buy television commercials. But Sue was very persistent and she presented me with a proposal for a fifty-two week advertising campaign. The cable company wanted me to run seven spots each day and pay thirty-five dollars for each of the thirty-second commercials. They also wanted me to pay for the production of the commercials. Cable companies have over a hundred channels running twenty-four hours per day for which they need to sell commercial time. If they don’t sell that space they’ll be forced to run a “PSA” (Public Service Announcement) that they won’t get paid for. So I “countered” with a quite different suggestion. I wanted them to pay for all production costs. I was only to pay thirty-five dollars for one spot each day in a pre-scheduled time-slot and I would ask them to place ten “free” bonus spots anywhere on the television schedule. I was also only willing to commit to a thirteen-week contract. Sue spoke with her boss and they agreed to my suggested terms. We filmed two different television commercials in my store to show the viewers how huge this space was and to let the public know what types of products we sold. Our first thirteen-week contract was expiring soon when we got the contract for Davy Jones’s appearance. Sue convinced the cable company to renew our contract for another thirteen weeks at the same low rate.

The cable company created a new commercial to advertise Davy Jones visit and they really did a nice job. They used a little bit of the original theme song from The Monkees television show and some photos of Davy from the mid-1960’s to let the viewer know that he was coming to our store to sign free autographs. The commercial ran for three or four weeks before Davy’s store appearance and we hoped that the local television audience would be interested in coming to see him. But as we approached the event date, I was surprised (and dismayed) to learn that my loyal customer base seemed uninterested in coming to meet Davy Jones.

Next chapter: Could this event be a disaster?!

My Life With Comic Books: Part # 43

MY LIFE WITH COMIC BOOKS: THE HISTORY OF A COMIC SHOP - Part 43

As a twelve-year-old, my favorite rock and roll bands were The Beatles and The Monkees. I know that seems strange since these two bands were very different. The Beatles were very creative and wrote their own music. The Monkees were really only actors pretending to be musicians. But there was something special about The Monkees. Perhaps it was just the television show hyping them each and every week or maybe it was the fantastic songs written by many of the most successful songwriters of the 1960’s including Neil Diamond, Carol King, Neil Sedaka, Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart. Whatever it was, they were really my favorite band. I had all of their albums and many of the toys and trading cards made with their pictures on them. I bought lots of the teen magazines that featured articles and photos about The Monkees. I didn’t have a chance to see them in concert because we lived so far from any of the cities that they played in from 1966-1967. The Monkees broke up around 1969 so I figured I’d never get to see my favorite band perform live. That all changed in 1986.

A customer from my comic book store told me that three of the original members of The Monkees were reforming to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the television show. Mike Nesmith didn’t need to tour with them because he was still living off of the huge inheritance from his Mom’s creation of “Liquid Paper” but Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork were going to be at The Hampton Beach Casino club about an hour away from Worcester. So my wife, Mal, and my good friend and fellow Monkee fan, Kevin Simpson, joined me to see the concert. The concert also featured other bands from the sixties including Herman’s Hermits, Gary Puckett and The Union Gap, and The Grass Roots. We had great seats, dead center, about fifteen feet from the stage. When The Monkees began their set of songs it was obvious that they were enjoying this new chance of regaining their stardom. They seemed like they were having a fun time and the audience loved them. I was so thrilled to finally get to see the band that gave me so much pleasure when I was a kid.

When the show was over I was disappointed that we didn’t have tickets for the late show that evening. My friend Kevin also wished we could see them again. We went outside and we saw hundreds of people waiting in line for the next show. It didn’t take long for us to buy some tickets from a “scalper”. We didn’t have good seats but it was certainly worth the extra money to see them again.

Now, I’m sure you’re wondering what this has to do with my life with comic books and the history of my comic book store. You’ll have to trust me for a little while longer…it really is all connected!

Next Chapter: Serious illness strikes!