The alley behind the theatre erupted into shrieks on Wednesday night after band members stepped out of the stage door and walked to their cars. A crush of girls pressed up against the razor-wire fence; some lobbed roses and stuffed animals over the barrier. Then, the screaming mob dashed into the street for one last glimpse as the police-escorted motorcade drove off.

A scene from A Hard Day's Night?

Nope. This is Jonas mania, not Beatlemania.

The Jonas Brothers are the youthful heartthrobs whose self-titled album has gone platinum. They are the latest beneficiaries of Walt Disney's tween star machine and could be the company's next creative franchise — in the mould of High School Musical or Hannah Montana.

Disney Radio and the Disney Channel helped propel the musical careers of the brothers Jonas — Nick, 15, Joe, 18, and Kevin, 20 — before the band was even signed in December 2006 by the parent company's label, Hollywood Records.

The exposure has turned the Jonas Brothers into a national media sensation. Recently, the brothers made appearances on ABC's Dancing With The Stars, Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show and Nickelodeon's Kids' Choice Awards.

Now, Disney is throwing the full weight of its television group behind the Jonas' first movie, Camp Rock. The TV movie will premiere on June 20 on the Disney Channel in the US and air over successive evenings on ABC, cable channel ABC Family and online at Disney.com.

“This is a moment where the platforms of the television group combine to launch a potentially valuable new franchise," said Anne Sweeney, president of Disney-ABC Television Group.

Disney boys

The managers surrounding the group say the best protection against exploitation in the music industry is a solid family. In the case of the Jonas Brothers, they tour on a family bus that is limited to precisely that: family. Their father, Kevin Jonas, is a pastor who serves as the group's co-manager and grounding influence.

“We grew up with a rule: Even if at the top, look like you're at the bottom," Nick said. “It basically means to stay humble and keep the right attitude through the whole thing."

Like the Jackson 5, the Jonas Brothers are built around a musical prodigy — in this case, Nick Jonas, who has performed on Broadway since he was 7, including a role as Chip in Disney's live production of Beauty and the Beast. He signed with a major label at the age of 12 as a Christian pop artist.

Steve Greenberg unearthed Nick's eponymous CD in 2005, among a pile of recordings from artists Columbia Records wanted to drop. Greenberg, then the label's president, said Nick's voice stopped him cold and reminded him of a previous discovery: the pop/rock group Hanson, whose debut album sold 12 million copies globally.

“This was the best voice I've heard since Taylor Hanson," said Greenberg, now head of S-Curve Records, a New York music company. “You don't just let guys like this go."
Greenberg encouraged Nick and his brothers in their songwriting, making them CD mixes of '70s punk rock bands such as the Ramones for inspiration.

Released in August 2006, the brothers' first album, It's About Time, sold 65,000 CDs, despite its endorsement by Radio Disney, which reaches more than 5 million weekly listeners ages 6 to 14 and about 3 million moms. That's because Columbia made it available in limited release.

But even before the first album was cut, Disney was courting the brothers. The band's advocates at Radio Disney brought them to the attention of the Disney Channel. By April 2006, the brothers were recording the theme song to the channel's animated series, American Dragon: Jake Long. A music video of the band appeared on the channel in May 2006, a month before the series debuted.

Rich Ross, president of Disney Channels Worldwide, didn't hear the group until October of that year, at Radio Disney's 10th anniversary concert in Dallas. “They brought down the house, they brought down the city, they took everything with them," said Ross, whose background is talent relations. “This was something incredibly special. They were all I could talk about."

Bringing down the house

The group's manager, Johnny Wright, who had worked with the Backstreet Boys, ‘N Sync and Spears, persuaded Columbia to release the Jonas Brothers from their contract. So in December 2006, Hollywood Records stepped in, signed the group and teamed them with a veteran producer.
The group's next album burned up the charts. The album released in August, Jonas Brothers, sold 1.1 million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. And two singles, S.O.S. and When You Look Me in the Eyes, cracked the Top 10 of Billboard's Hot Digital Songs chart.

The group's forthcoming album could only benefit from on-air campaigns and live events on Radio Disney and exposure on the Disney Channel, which in August 2007 featured the New Jersey boys in an episode of Hannah Montana following the premiere of High School Musical 2, which delivered the largest audience in basic cable history. The band also opened for Miley Cyrus on her Best of Both Worlds North American concert tour.

This spring, the Disney Channel will feature a short-form reality series, Jonas Brothers: Living the Dream, which gives a behind-the-scenes look at the on- and off-stage lives of the musicians. Then, it's off on a 38-city summer concert tour.

“We think the sky's the limit with the band," said Jason Garner, chief executive of North American Music for concert promoter Live Nation.

By Dawn C. Chmielewski, Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service

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