Paris Match N°2187, 1991 *
Forty-one years ago today on June 28, 1971, Jim Morrison, Pamela Courson, and their friend, Alain Ronay, took a day trip to Saint-Leu-d’Esserent, 55 km north of Paris, just five days before Jim died on July 3.
Twenty years later, Alain Ronay published his story in the weekly French magazine, Paris Match. Included were two photos taken on June 28. These are the last known photos of Jim. (More photos from that day here.)
In the article, Ronay discusses his friendship with Jim and Pam and the events that transpired the evening Jim died. The publication of Ronay’s story coincided with the release of Oliver Stone’s movie, “The Doors”, and the 20th anniversary of Jim’s death.
I’ve known about this article for some time and had read bits and pieces of it here and there. But I never saw it or read it in its entirety. I recently purchased a copy on eBay to finally see it with my own eyes. In case you haven’t seen it already, please find below scans of the article in its entirety.
Inexplicably, the photo credit for page 3 reads “…Morrison, vocals (standing, center), John Densmore, drummer (standing, left), Ray Manzarek, keyboards (seated, left), and Robby Krieger, guitar (seated, right)…” Huh. At least they spelled everybody’s name correctly. See Rock Threads: 1970 magazine photo-spread for more information on this photo.
* April 25, 1991, 13 French francs, 1,047,000 copies
Jim looks really bloated from the years of booze, he may have had some severe underlying health problems with his kidneys and possibly blood pressure…it’s tragic, Morrison was the most important artist of the 20th century along with Picasso & Dali, it’s just so sad…in today’s climate may have gone to rehab and cleaned up, and we’d have dozens of albums, films, books, God knows what Morrison would have done in his more mature middle-age years…rip Jimbo.
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doesn’t jim look great in these pictures? i mean, don’t get me wrong….i’m not gay by any stretch, but the man looks happy and contented…..not to mention healthy and beautiful, especially with that smile of his…..hmmmm.
susan, I have a complete english translation of the agnes Varda part if you want it. I scanned it onto the “Doors Forum” about 3 years ago if you want to find it, otherwise, i’ll scan it again and send it to you.
take care,
matt
Hi Matt,
Sure, I would like to see the translation. Thanks for the info. I’ll see if I can find it on the forum.
Take care, Susan