In the summer of 1968, as The Doors were reaching the height of their fame, Jim Morrison stepped into one of the most curious and whimsical moments of his public life. Around July of that year, renowned photographer **Frank Bez** organized a now-famous photo session at the **Hollywood Bowl**, featuring Morrison, his longtime lover **Pamela Courson**, and a brunette model named **Cathy Christiansen**. The result was a surreal series of images that seemed to blur the line between performance, poetry, and illusion — photographs that gave life to the idea of Morrison as both a rock star and a mystic capable of “levitating women.”
The inspiration came from Morrison himself. In an interview for *Ladies Home Journal*, the singer — known for his unpredictable sense of humor and fascination with the mystical — joked that he “had a way to talk to girls that made them levitate.” Frank Bez, always searching for new visual concepts, seized on the remark. He called Morrison and proposed a playful yet artistic photoshoot to bring that statement to life. Morrison agreed, intrigued by the idea, and so began one of the most unusual creative collaborations in rock photography.
To make the illusion work, Bez enlisted help from the **Magic Castle**, a famous Hollywood mansion that serves as a private club for magicians. “They put me in touch with a guy who specialized in levitation,” Bez later recalled in an *Esquire* interview. “He said, ‘I’ll tell you how to do it — but I’ll kill you if you tell anyone else.’” With the magician’s guidance, Bez rigged a hidden contraption that would make it appear as though Morrison was using invisible powers to make women float in the air.
The photoshoot was done in two parts. First came Cathy Christiansen, a model hired specifically for the shoot, followed by Pamela Courson, who had tagged along with Morrison that day and enthusiastically asked to take part. Pamela, dressed casually in her own clothes, balanced herself precariously on the rig as Morrison — wearing his Hollywood Bowl rehearsal attire — looked on. Though the setup required patience and balance, the resulting photos captured a spontaneous, almost magical intimacy between the two lovers.
Bez remembered that Morrison initially approached the idea with mild skepticism. “He was a little skeptical when we did the levitation thing because he felt he was pushed in the corner for making that comment,” he said. “But once we solved the problem, he was into it. He was more outgoing, and I never saw the difficult part of his life because we just had good times.”
Frank Bez’s photography in the 1960s often reflected the energy and experimentation of the era. He photographed everyone from **Jane Fonda** to **Raquel Welch** and **Jimmy Stewart**, capturing not just faces but a sense of cultural transformation. The Morrison session, however, stands apart — a perfect storm of 1960s Hollywood creativity, counterculture humor, and rock mystique.
Over time, these “levitation” photographs gained mythic status among fans of The Doors. Some even claimed that Morrison could truly levitate people, blending his poetic mysticism with supernatural legend. While the truth is far more down-to-earth — clever camera angles and a magician’s trick — the story endures as a symbol of Morrison’s allure: a man who could make the ordinary seem transcendent.
In the end, Frank Bez’s photographs captured more than a visual illusion; they captured the essence of **Jim Morrison’s paradox** — part showman, part philosopher, part myth. Whether or not Morrison could make women “levitate,” one thing was certain: his words, presence, and music had a way of lifting spirits far beyond the realm of gravity.
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