Billion Dollar Babies Timeline

TIMELINE 7 Billion Dollar Babies

1973

Jan `73 Alice and Cindy move into Penthouse apartment in Manhattan.

Jan 3rd `73 Hello Hooray released

Feb 12th `73 Alice flies to/from New York

Feb 17th `73 Slick Black Limousine included on N.M.E. Alice attends a Jack Benny show at Sheperd’s, Drake Hotel, NYC

Feb 18th `73 Alice is invited to introduce the legendary comedian George Burns at Burns' Philharmonic Hall performance. In fact Jack Benny was the compare for the evening but Alice did get to meet them both after the show and he presented them with an award (a gold coiled snake) Alice had had one made up for Benny but that had yet to arrive.

Feb, `73 The band in rehearsals at the mansion. Mick Mashbir is brought in to augment Glen. Bob Dolin plays keyboards.

Feb 26th `73 Alice poses for the Dali hologram(Disc) presumably in NY.

Disc 21st April `73: `Dali's portrait of Alice Cooper was begun on February 26 as Alice, wearing over a million dollars worth of jewels, on loan from Harry Winston, posed for the artist with an anatomical brain designed by Dali which included such Daliesque symbols as a coffee eclair (indicating Alice's accessibility to his public), Dali ants and a soft watch. Alice also held a microphone designed by the artist of a sectioned Venus de Milo, representing "the shattering of antiquity by this rock star's voice." The sitting was filmed through a special holograph process involving a laser beam and refracted light.`

Billion Dollar Babies Tour

Flo and Eddie support at all shows.
Enter the Guillotine.
New Snake: Eva Marie Snake

Feb 27th `73 Dress Rehearsal show in Port Chester, NY and Billion Dollar Babies album released

Melody Maker reports that there was no paying audience and they opened with `Dead Babies`.
On the morning of the show, Alice is invited to give a lecture at The Eastman School of Music on the art of writing 'popular music'(although it seems he didn`t do it).

Mar 1st `73 Kitchener, Ontario Kitchener Memorial Auditorium

Mar 2nd `73 London, Ontario London Arena

Mar 3rd `73 Ottawa Civic Center [Ticket] [Ticket]

Mar 4th `73 Hamilton, Ontario MacMaster University (Show cancelled due to doors being too small to get equipment in?)

Circus Oct `73 Neal Smith Interview: The amazing violent streak made its first nasty appearance in Toronto, during the first part of the tour. An M-80 bomb, equivalent to K stick of dynamite was tossed onto the stage. "It landed in between me and Dennis," shudders Neal. "The impact was incredible. It almost blew us off the stage "

Mar 5th `73 Rochester, NY War Memorial

Alice and Ashley Pandel spend the evening at Max`s.

Mar 8th `73 Philadelphia, PA Spectrum

Band introduced by Kal Rudman

Mar 9th `73 Philadelphia, PA Spectrum [Ticket]

Band stay at the Penn Centre Inn.

Mar 10th `73 Roanoke, VA Civic Center (w/ Earth, Wind and Fire) [Ticket]

Mar 11th `73 Williamsburg, VA William and Mary College

Mar 15th `73 Knoxville, TN Civic Auditorium (CANCELLED)

Mar 16th` 73 Fayetteville, NC Cumberland City Memorial Auditorium

Mar 16th `73 No More Mr Nice Guy single released.

Mar 17th `73 Clemson, SC Clemson University

Melody Maker run the story that Alice has been killed when the Guillotine malfunctions at the Mar 9th Spectrum show.

Mar 18th `73 Charlotte, NC Coliseum [Ticket]

Mar 20th `73 Jackson, MS Coliseum

Mar 21st `73 Original show scheduled for Little Rock or Auburn, ALA but were canceled)

Mar 22nd `73 Savannah, GA (CANCELLED)

Mar 23rd `73 Atlanta, GA OMNI [Ticket]

Mar 24th `73 Columbia, SC Carolina Coliseum

Mar 26th `73 Boston The Garden(w/ Flo & Eddie)

After show party at the Bal-o-rue Roller Rink with Shitton playing.

Mar 27th `73 Hershey, PA, Hershey Park Sports Arena

Mar 28th `73 Baltimore Civic Center, MA (ticket)

Mar 30th `73 Indianapolis, IN Convention Center [Ticket] [Ticket]

Mar 31st `73 Cleveland, OH Public Hall

April 1st `73 Cincinnati, OH Cincinnati Gardens (ATT. 12,000)

April 2nd `73 Louisville, KY Convention Center [Ticket]

April 3rd `73 Alice is in New York For the opening of the Dali Hologram Exhibition. That evening he parties at the St. Regis Hotel.

Melody Maker feature 14th April `73: "Between Louisville on Monday and Detroit on Wednesday, Alice sidestepped back to New York for the unveiling of his chronograph portrait by Salvador Dali in the chichi Knoedler Gallery on Manhattan's Upper East Side."

April 4th `73 Detroit, MI Cobo Arena [Ticket] [Ticket]

Alice attends a party for Procol Harum at the Plaza Hotel.(Disc)

April 5th `73 Detroit, MI Cobo Hall

Alice parties at the Roostertail nightclub after one of the Detroit shows, transporting everyone there in a double decker London Transport bus. Disc and Jackie Interview Alice, his mother and uncle Vince at the same time as they were in the audience and are at the hotel, the St. Regis.
He also appears to have a puppy named `Astor` "named him after a character in an old movie I saw on television. It was a series called the Thin Man and it starred Myrna Loy and William Powell." .
The article confirms he`s just been in NY with Dali.

April 6th `73 Pittsburgh, PA Civic Arena

April 8th `73 Fort Wayne, IN Memorial Coliseum [Ticket]

April 9th `73 Chicago, IL Amphitheatre

April 10th `73 Chicago, IL Amphitheatre

Circus Oct `74 Neal Smith Interview: One night, in the middle of the first number, "Hello Hurray," at the Chicago Amphitheater, when Neal felt the penetration of a sharp object into his white satin covered back as he hammered out the strong beats of the opening number, he realized that whoever had tossed the projectile at him had done it intentionally. "I called over Goose, one of my guys from Detroit who sets up my drums, and I said, 'Check my back.' He did and noticed it was bleeding. Finally, he looked down on the ground and saw a dart!"

April 12th `73 Lincoln, NE Pershing Hall

April 13th `73 St. Louis, MO Municipal Auditorium

April 14th `73 Memphis, TN Mid South Coliseum

April 15th `73 Kansas City Kansas City Municipal Auditorium (Ticket exists showing Allen Fieldhouse. Lawrence, Kansas) [Ticket]

April 20th `73 Dania, Miami, FL Pirate's World (poster/ticket)[Ticket]

April 22nd `73 Jacksonville, FL Veterans Memorial

April 25th `73 Mobile, AL Municipal Auditorium [Ticket]

April 26th `73 New Orleans, LA Memorial Auditorium

Cream reports that after a meeting at the hotel, the band and Shep decide that once the tour is over, everyone will take a year off.

April 27th `73 Shreveport, LO Hirsch Memorial Coliseum

April 28th `73 Dallas, TX Memorial Auditorium [Ticket] [Ticket]

Live footage filmed for `Good To See You Again, Alice Cooper`

April 29th `73 Houston, TX Sam Houston Coliseum [Ticket]

Live footage filmed for `Good To See You Again, Alice Cooper`
Circus Oct 73 Neal Smith Interview:

When the band's Lear Jet swooped down into the Houston airport for a concert appearance that night, Alice, Michael, Neal, Glen and Dennis were hustled into a waiting Brinks armored truck for the ride to the hotel. Suddenly, the quintet was astonished to hear the thundering of horses hooves and the whooping of what sounded like a band of cowboys. Almost immediately, the door of the truck was yanked open, and a tall lean Texan with a ten gallon hat and smoking six-gun poked his bronze face into the dark truck. "You guys the Billion Dollar Babies?' he drawled. "No, not us, somebody else," mumbled the frightened captives. The cowboys pulled the five quaking long-hairs from the truck, forced them to put their hands up against the side of the truck, and proceeded to strip them of their jewelry, money, and expensive clothing. One cowboy held a gun to the truck driver's head. Another shot the second driver and he fell with a thud to the ground. Suddenly, a blast of familiar music materialized from thin air and a white horse came galloping towards the small band of superstars. The Lone Ranger, garbed grandly in white, sat perched astride the beautiful stallion. "He must have had twenty shots in one gun," recalls Neal, "because he shot all the cowboys. Everyone was sprawled on the ground immediately the band realized the entire event had been a specially staged act for their enjoyment— and that everything was being filmed by the Hollywood film crew - flown out to capture them on celluloid. Eight cameras were pointed at them from various hiding spots.

Bootleg tapes circulating, marked Corpus Christi 30th April `73 are in fact this Houston show.

(April 30th `73 Corpus Christi - There is a tape in circulation of this gig but it`s actually Houston the day before. This show, if it happened, isn`t on any tour itineraries or adverts that are known to exist)

May 1st `73 Oklahoma City, OK Fairgrounds Arena [Ticket]

May 2nd `73 Tulsa, OK Tulsa Assembly Center

May 3rd `73 Fort Worth, TX Will Rogers Coliseum

May 4th `73 Albuquerque, NM University of New Mexico

May 5th `73 Tucson, AZ Community Center

May 10th `73 Los Angeles, CA Forum

May 11th `73 Los Angeles, CA Forum [Ticket]

May 12th `73 San Bernadino, CA Swing Auditorium

May 13th `73 San Diego, CA Sports Arena - Lots of unused tickets exist. [Ticket]

May 17th `73 Denver, CO Denver Coliseum

May 18th `73 Denver, CO Denver Coliseum [Ticket]

May 19th `73 Salt Lake City, UT Salt Lake Palace (canceled?)

May 20th `73 Las Vegas, NV (Canceled?)

May 24th `73 Portland, OR Portland Memorial Coliseum(poster)[Ticket]

May 25th `73 Seattle, WA Center Coliseum

Circus Oct `74 Neal Smith Interview: Alice was again the moving target of a frenzied fan's vendetta in Seattle, Washington, on the last leg of the band's tour. "Someone tossed a bottle at his head, and Alice went right down," reveals Neal. "He was singing at the time, and he dropped the microphone and fell right down. He had a little cut over his eye later on, but he was O.K."
Poster exists saying this was May 25th.
Reports exist saying Alice was arrested for citing a riot by Seattle Police because he was holding posters between his legs and telling the crowd to come get them

May 26th `73 Vancouver, BC

May 29th `73 Alice leaves Canada

May 30th `73 Minneapolis, MN Metropolitan Sports Center

May 31st `73 Milwaukee, WI Milwaukee Arena

June 1st `73 Possible planned show in Toledo canceled

June 3rd `73 New York, NY Madison Square Garden [Ticket]

Me Alice: "I went on stage with six broken ribs, a fractured elbow and 20lb over weight, bloated with fluid".
Kiss reportedly in the audience

June 3rd `73 Possible planned show in Boston canceled

June 5th `73 Nassau Coliseum, NY [Ticket][Ticket] ( some sources list June 5th `73 Vancouver, BC (Additional Show))

June 7th `73 Providence, RI (Flo And Eddie join the band for a run through of the Beatles' "Hard Day's Night") [Ticket]

June 8th '73 the band return to Los Angeles. Alice bought a house next to republican politician Barry Goldwater.

After the tour, Joey Greenburg and Charlie Carnel leave the band organisation. Alice was a mess. His legs and arms were bruised from the show and he had two broken fingers, a cracked rib and severe mental tiredness.

Alice Banned from the UK

In June of 1973, Alice received a lot of press in the UK due to the attempts of one, Leo Abse MP. Apparently, Abse had taken exception to Alice and tried to get him banned from entering the country. Alice reaped the rewards of the added publicity while keeping relatively quite about the fact that the band had no plans to tour the UK anyway.

Some news reports from the time:

Sounds - 2nd June 1973

MP Abse aims to ban Alice's Wonderland
THERE'S SOMETHING faintly ridiculous about the sight of 56-year-old Labour MP from Pontypool - a man with a record of kindly if rather fashionable ideas - getting hot under the collar about dear ol' Alice Cooper and his conjurer's guillotine.
The spectacle moves into the realms of farce when we're told that his attempt to get the Home Secretary to refuse Alice an entry permit for his planned Autumn tour was inspired by the revulsion of his teenage children.

---

New Musical Express - 2nd June 1973

Abse V. Alice - Hypocrisy?
LEO ABSE, the M.P. for Pontypool, is another of those individuals clearly bent on restricting the public's freedom of choice. He announced last week plans to revoke Alice Cooper's entry permit for his forthcoming British tour.
Not to be outdone, Mary Whitehouse's National Viewers and Listeners Association eagerly climbed aboard the Abse bandwagon - completely overlooking the fact that Cooper has no plans for a British tour in the immediate future and has not even applied for an entry permit.

Seems that Abse objects to Cooper's "commercial exploitation of masochism" - including his bizarre make-up, smashing up of toy babies, mock executions and tangling with a snake. If these are his main worries, maybe he should also try to ban Punch and Judy, whose show has included the same features for decades past.

As it happens nothing further had been heard at Press time of Abse's Parliamentary clarion call - presumably because the Commons have been too busy contemplating their own internal sex scandal. Which should be an indication to Abse that, before criticising others, he should see that his own House is in order.

Record Mirror - 2nd June 1973

Leo Abse MP, declaimed: "Cooper is peddling the culture of the concentration camp. Pop is one thing - anthems of necrophilia are another."

July 11th `73 Billion Dollar Babies single released

July 19th(thur) `73 Alice attends a party in New York Thursday for Van Morrison which was also attended by Roman Polanski. While up in Greenwich Connecticut, Michael Bruce is laying down songs for his solo album.

The band spend much of the summer separated. Alice goes to Acapulco with Cindy and then to Phoenix and New York. In New York he is often seen at the most Max's Kansas City nightclub.

July `73(Either 30th or 31st July) Alice is at Max's Kansas City to see that Stooges and shares a table with Todd Rundgren amongst others.

Aug 19th `73 `Alice is at a benefit for Free Shakespeare called `A Shakespearean Cabaret' in Los Angeles held at the Hollywood Bowl. Many other celebrities attended including Roddy Macdowell, Jean Simmons, Glenn Ford and with Governor Regan introducing the glittering array of talent` Alice performed 'Gutter Cat Vs The Jets' .

Aug 20th `73 Alice is in Canada (ONT)

End Aug `73 Neal marries Babbette.

Aug/Sept 1973 At some point here Alice presents an award to a Louisville Slugger at baseball match

Sept '73 The band are at the Hyatt House, Toronto for awards from WEA. Also rehearsing at Nimbus 9 studios

Sept 9th 1973 The band fly to Los Angeles

Sept `73 the band join up in Los Angeles to look at footage for a film, "Good To See You Again, Alice Cooper". They also record backing tracks for `Muscle Of Love`. Glen is becoming a problem as his playing is almost unusable. The Hollywood Vampires date from this time. During a trip to Hawaii, Alice discoveries Golf.

Oct. `73 Neal living in Phoenix. In Circus Oct `73 he makes reference to the band moving to new individual houses in Greenwich, Conn.

Oct 10th `73 Alice recieves his Japanese visa giving him free travel to Japan for four years

Oct 12th `73 Rolling Stone: `"Michael O. Bruce, guitarist and Keyboard man with the Alice Cooper band, and two other men were arrested Friday October 12th (1973) at a Greenwich, Connecticut, house on suspicion of possession of cannabis for sale. Police, who said they had a search warrant and were acting on a tip, turned up four pounds of the alleged illegal weed. The three were released on $1000. bond and told to appear in court on November 5th`

Oct 19th `73 Alice in Japan

Sounds Nov 17th: He arrived in Japan on October 19 to announce the simultaneous worldwide release of his forthcoming LP "Muscle Of Love". He was greeted by an airport reception of close to 5,000 fans who tore at his hair and clothes, before one particularly loyal fan presented Alice with a nine-foot boa constrictor named "Moische, Moische" which means "Hello, Hello".
Circus News report Jan `74: `When Alice Cooper arrived in Tokyo, Japan recently for a promotional visit and TV special, he was greeted at the airport by a reception of 5000 Nipponese fans who tore at his hair and clothes. One particularly loyal fan presented Alice with a 9-foot boa constrictor named "Moische, Moische," which means "Hello, Hello." Two hundred journalists gathered at the Akasaka Prince Hotel the next day for the largest press conference ever held for an entertaining personality in Tokyo. During the conference Alice received as a present several Geisha girls who attended him for the entirety of his five-day stay in Japan. The Geishas performed such tasks as peeling grapes and feeding them on toothpicks to the Muscleman of Love and entertaining him with little stories and dances which are supposed to make the listener mellow and ready for an evening's pleasure. `

Oct 22nd `73 Alice leaves Japan and returns to the US

Oct `73 Circus (Jan `74): Alice is staying at a house on Malibu Beach. Michael is at Sunset Sound in Hollywood putting down basic tracks for `Never Been Sold Before`. A week later, Alice Cooper, still dressed in a Malibu T-shirt and torn white shorts, was standing before a microphone in the plushness of the Record Plant studios on West 44th Street in Manhattan. He was in the middle of a song called "Man with the Golden Gun," which hadn't been given publicity because Alice wanted it to be a surprise to the James Bond people. Later that evening, Alice did the vocals for "Woman Machine."
This is the session visited my Liza Minneli and Ronnie Spector.(all this is in RS too)

Nov 15th `73 `Muscle Of Love` album released