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Now Playing: "Who Will
Be The Real Hero"
by John Batdorf & Michael McLean from
"The Early Years" CD.
| John Batdorf & Michael McLean |
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| Batdorf & McLean - |
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| Nathan McEuen (Guest), Sandy Jacobson (Producer), Elaine Gregston , Chuck Hailes (Guest) |
Who will be the real hero?
Answer at the bottom of the page...
About The Producer:
Sandy Jacobson
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Sandy Jacobson was born and raised in Los Angeles,
with two half-brothers
14 and 16 years older than her...
that gave her the gift of music a generation of ahead of her time.
The
show is dedicated to the youngest of the two brothers,
Roger Gelatt, who died prematurely in 1998.
Sandy
has a long history with the arts. She began dance lessons, at age two and danced her first performance that same year.
At age four, she won a "Beauty Pageant," acquired an agent, and began doing local television work. At age
six, she was in a life-threatening car accident, that left her with countless injuries and reconstructive surgeries...and
forced her into "early retirement" from acting... or so she thought...(read
on).
Sandy spent from ages six through thirteen having reconstructive surgeries, and initially spent three months in the
hospital recovering. When she came home from the hospital, her two brothers bought her a brand new color T.V., so that
she'd have something to do. "The Monkees" television show was airing at that time, and it was the only
thing that made her laugh and forget about what she was going through. Roger, seeing how connected she was to the show,
bought her every album that was released, and bought her magazines with stories about them, every time she went into the hospital.
Her biggest dream was to "someday" see them in concert, hopefully meet them, and thank them for making her laugh.
Her favorite "Monkee" was Peter Tork, because while Roger was incredibly smart, he always acted "dumb"
when he was joking around with Sandy...and Sandy connected with Peter's character in the same way. (She knew that
Peter Tork, the person, was a lot smarter than the character he portrayed...because she knew that her brother was smarter
than the character HE portrayed.)
Not to be stopped, she wrote, produced, directed, cast, choregraphed, and sold
tickets for a play performed in her backyard at age eight. Two years later, at age ten, she was one of the voice-characters
in a story she wrote for radio that was performed on a local radio station. She continued dancing, and had dance solos
in high school musicals, and was head cheerleader in high school and college.
When her daughter became school-age,
she introduced her daughter to countless opportunities, because she believed her biggest contribution to her daughter's
life was to help HER find HER OWN dream, and take it as far as possible. She gave her daughter soccer, Brownies, art
lessons, musical theatre, television and movie acting experience, ballet, jazz, piano lessons, etc. Sandy participated
in all of the activities equally...being a soccer mom, assistant Brownie leader, and backstage parent assistant for ballet
productions. Her daughter narrowed her choices down to ballet, TV/Film and musical theatre, in that order...and at age
twelve, her daughter announced that she "wanted to focus exclusively on ballet." That's what she did...and
she just retired from four years as a professional ballet dancer, with S.A.G. and Equity affiliations.
Ten years
ago, Sandy was rear-ended and diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome from her childhood car accident, temporarily
suffering flashbacks, nightmares, and short-term memory loss related to her childhood accident, and relived that experience
more than any other time in her life. A specialist helped her work through that. And, it was also when she
finally got to see Peter Tork, from The Monkees, in concert for the first time.
Through a series of professional
exchanges which arose out of that concert, a solid professional respect and admiration has grown. Peter has become a
contributor to an amazing change in Sandy's life the past few years...including encouraging her when she had the opportunity
for a re-entry into acting...with her first audition landing her a role in "Pirates of the Caribbean II & III."
She has since worked in 8 Feature Films, 4 T.V. episodes, and was the "Featured Girl" in an MTV-music video
project. She has deep gratitude for every opporutunity to act today...but is MOST passionate about the production of BACKSTAGE:
LOS ANGELES.
This
project would not be possible without the support and assistance of the talent, crew, and friends in Sandy's life today...including,
in no particular order, and not limited to: Peter
Tork, James Lee Stanley, John McEuen, John Batdorf, (who were our first four guests), Michael Sunday (host for most of
our segments), John Charchalis, Mike Driml, Nathan McEuen, Bob Stane @ The
Coffee Gallery, Gary Mandell @ Boulevard Music, and Paul Kulak @ Kulak's Woodshed...and everyone who has referred talent
to the show.
As Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz" said to the Tin Man, Cowardly Lion,
and Scarecrow..."You're the best friends anybody ever had!"
Sandy has been approached by several
producers over the past few years, to turn her copyrighted life story into a film. She has decided to
take THAT task on herself in the very-near future.
Sandy is available for speaking engagements to discuss overcoming obstacles in
one's life, and whenever possible to share her story with a child who may be facing similar life challenges. Requests
may be made via the contact page. Sandy
Jacobson's life story appears in: - XL-Extraordinary
Lives Magazine -
an international publication for inspiring entrepreneurs
(October 2007) - BackStage.com (Jan. 2006)
- Dec. 07 issue of her College Alumni Magazine.
Sandy Jacobson's Credits / Speaking Engagements: March 2011 - Sandy Jacobson is Co-Producing
a film that is a natural progression of her work on
her television show, BackStage:Los Angeles.
Filming begins May 18th, 2011. November 19, 2009 Sandy was asked to speak on a panel for
the Television and Film Department
at Loyola Marymount
University. Other panel members included representatives
from Dreamworks, and Warner Brothers.
http://www.lmu.edu/home/
November
10, 2009 Sandy was interviewed on the nationally
syndicated radio show "The Strange Dave Show"
at
9:45 PM EST. http://www.strangedaveshow.com
October
2008 - Sandy Jacobson, was a speaker/moderator
on a panel that addressed musicians on "Alternative
Ways to
Get Your Music Heard" for the October 2008 FAR-West (Folk
Alliance
Region - West) Conference.
http://www.far-west.org/
2007 NAMM Festival - January 18, 2007 attended the
NAMM Festival and shot the first interview segment of her
music-interview
T.V. Show, "BackStage:Los Angeles." - Sandy Jacobson was nominated for the
2007 Best
Indie Film Maker / Artist / Entrepreneur Craggy Award from Cult Radio A-Go-Go
- Sandy has served as a volunteer for The
Art of Elysium, a
non-profit organization that brings the arts to hospitalized children with critical medical conditions.
http://www.theartofelysium.org/
Sandy currently holds memberships with:
Folk Alliance http://www.folkalliance.org/
The Grammy Association
http://www.grammy.org/recording_academy/ Sandy has been a member of N.A.R.I.P. and E.P.P.S. She
also worked for Strand Media Group as Assistant Producer and Office Manager for four Nationally-Syndicated music and interview
shows, until the company relocated to the East Coast in 2003. Answer to the question: "The Real Hero" is in each of us, including YOU... every day that you get up and give each day the best you have to offer
IN THAT MOMENT, regardless of what your circumstances
or feelings tell you; because both your feelings AND circumstances can change in a minute, a day, or a year, but what
you DO with that time CAN change your life, the lives of others, and maybe even the world...or at least the part of it that
you occupy. It's when you do the things that are hard to do, in spite of how you feel or how things look, that you
have the opportunity to be a hero to yourself and to others.
Click here to view our promo footage at The Egyptian Theatre for The Monkees 40th Anniversary screening of their Pop-Cult
Classic film "Head."
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| photo courtesy of Bob Sherman |
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| Photo courtesy of Bob Sherman |
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| photo courtesy of Bob Sherman |
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| Sandy & her cousin P.J. in Wisconsin |
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| Sandy on set of Pirates of The Caribbean II. |
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| Jackie, Dona, & Sandy |
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| Peter Tork and Sandy Jacobson, at a |
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| On Sunset Boulevard ! |
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| Sandy Jacobson, with Caroline Boyce (Widow of Tommy Boyce of |
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| Michael Sunday, Michael McLean, Sandy Jacobson & John Batdorf (singer/songwriter of our theme song.) |
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| Peter Tork & Shoe Suede Blues performing at the 2010 NAMM Festival. |
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| Sandy Jacobson with Peter Tork after the Peter Tork & Shoe Suede Blues concert at the 2010 NAMM Fest |
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| Sandy Jacobson with Caroline Boyce (Tommy Boyce's Widow). |
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| Scott Gates ran into Peter Tork at the Jan. 2008 NAMM Festival. |
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One of the biggest joys of producing our show,
is the incredibly
genuine and amazing people that we have met from all over the world, and receiving
e-mails and photos from past guests
relating how they've run into other past guests in different parts of the country and having an
almost-immediate connection to eachother, through what we're doing with our project...
that's the magic...
and one of the biggest rewards!
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| Paul Kulak and Sandy Jacobson after a recent concert at Kulak's Woodshed. |
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| Michael Sunday, Sandy Jacobson, Laurence Juber, and Javier Otero. |
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| Post-Production Photo... |
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| Our Crew, and host, with our guests Mike Handcock & Ngahihi Bidois from New Zealand. |
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| Michael Sunday, Ngahihi Bidois & Family, Sandy Jacobson during a return visit to L.A. from Ngahihi |
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| On location with The Quarrymen - Colin Hanton, Sandy Jacobson, Rod Davis, and Len Garry. |
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| Scott Gates with John McEuen (The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band) at The Coffee Gallery Backstage. |
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| Chip Douglas, Bobby Hart, Peter Tork, & Davy Jones at the 40th Anniversary Screening of |
Chip Douglas produced "Headquarters" and "Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn, &
Jones, Ltd." in addition to arranging and playing bass on The Turtles hit "Happy Together." Chip was a recent guest
for our show. Bobby Hart was part of the songwriting team of Boyce & Hart who wrote several of The Monkees songs, including
"Last Train To Clarksville." And, of course, Peter Tork and Davy Jones, two of "The Monkees."
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| John Batdorf, Sandy Jacobson, James Lee Stanley in the studio. |
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| Ngahihi Bidois (Guest), Michael Sunday (Host), Mike Handcock (Guest), & Sandy Jacobson (Producer). |
Our two guests from New Zealand! |
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| Peter Tork and Sandy Jacobson during the |
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| John McEuen (Guest) & Michael Sunday (Host) on the set of BackStage:Los Angeles. |
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| Sandy Jacobson, speaking at the FAR-West Music Conference, Oct. 2008. Photo courtesy of Russ Paris. |
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| Some of the people who helped make the 2008 FAR-West Conference a success ! |
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| We Five (our guests) with Michael Sunday (Host) & Sandy Jacobson (Producer) |
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| Three of our past guests...Keith, Peter, & Ainjel |
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| Keith England, Peter Tork, Sandy Jacobson, & Ainjel Emme. |
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| The Quarrynen on their recent visit to L.A. |
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| The Quarrymen - Len Garry, Colin Hatton, with Sandy Jacobson (our producer), and Rod Davis. |
The Quarrymen are the band where John Lennon, Paul McCartney,
and George Harrison met.
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| Laurence Juber (our past guest), Sandy Jacobson, & Peter Tork (our past guest). |
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| John McEuen's most recent Southern California show |
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| John McEuen, Past-Guest, with Sandy Jacobson at The Coffee Gallery Backstage. |
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| Matt performed with John McEuen that night. |
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| Past-Guest, Matt Cartsonis with Sandy Jacobson at The Coffee Gallery Backstage. |
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| At The Roxy for Brian Ray's CD-Release Concert / Party for |
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| Sandy Jacobson (our Producer) at Brian Ray's CD-Release Party/Concert for his CD |
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| David is currently working on HIS next release ! |
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| Sandy Jacobson ran into another past-guest, David Philps at Brian Ray's CD-Release / Concert Party. |
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| Brian Ray performing tracks from his latest CD "This Way Up!" at his CD-Release Concert/Party. |
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| Sandy Jacobson, on The Great Wall of China. |
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| Sandy Jacobson on The Great Wall of China. |
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| "The Dreamcatchers" Wrap Party / Tour. |
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| Sandy Jacobson on the grounds of The Summer Palace in Beijing. |
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| An elementary school photo of my half-brother Roger, who always made me laugh. |
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| Richard Mikuls, at The 2007 NAMM Festival. Richard passed away June 9, 2008. |
Among his many music accomplishments, Richard was most recently a
long-time and important member of Shoe Suede Blues.
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| My mom, who always believed in me, (even when I didn't), with my two half-brothers. |
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"L.A.'s REAL Music Interview
Show!"
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