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Speaker 1: Ridiculous crime. It's a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Elizabeth Dutton's Aaron Burnette. That's you.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Hey, what's it?

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Speaker 2: I got a question for you? Yes, do you know

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Speaker 2: what's ridiculous?

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Speaker 3: I do know it's ridiculous.

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Speaker 2: What close your eyes? My eyes are closed.

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Speaker 3: You're sitting in a buffalo wild wings Okay, just just

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Speaker 3: going to town on some wild wings. Okay, I mean

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Speaker 3: I assume that's what they saw.

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Speaker 2: Theresays.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so you're just like, oh, you're just putting the

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Speaker 3: herd on.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah.

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Speaker 3: And then you look up and there's a bodecious babe okay,

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Speaker 3: and she's she's one hundred percent real American beef saring.

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Speaker 2: Whoa this is?

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Speaker 3: She comes over and she's got like this like beautiful

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Speaker 3: lipstick on, and she leans in and she says to you,

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Speaker 3: I want to put you on a one way trip

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Speaker 3: to Flavor Town.

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Speaker 2: Okay.

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Speaker 3: Now, is this like the best fantasy you've ever had?

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Speaker 2: Totally? I mean it's just like, this is pretty much

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Speaker 2: how I dream of restaurant flirtations.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly. Well, you know what this could be real? Really, yeah,

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Speaker 3: because there are a lot of trashy ladies out there,

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Speaker 3: but also because Guy Fieri, yes, teamed up God with

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Speaker 3: Revlon what to come up with a Guy Fieri inspired

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Speaker 3: lip bomb.

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Speaker 2: I want to see the dart board where these things

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Speaker 2: come up with. They just put Revlon on there and

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Speaker 2: they're throwing darts, Guy fiery, and yeah, we hit like

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Speaker 2: the dice they rolled. They rolled sets of dicetnerships.

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Speaker 3: You know. Guy was just like, I love my lips

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Speaker 3: gloss my wife recommends, so they get together. It's called

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Speaker 3: Flavor Town, of course, and it's coral colored, which I

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Speaker 3: always feel like, if you want to tell the world

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Speaker 3: you're crazy, put on coral colored lipstick, but do it

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Speaker 3: outside the lines of your lips. In some parts that's

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Speaker 3: the universal like she's not all there. That's why I

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Speaker 3: keep some I don't wear lipstick, but if I have to,

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Speaker 3: like it's signified.

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Speaker 2: Like very Reno casino, like this girl's not right you

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Speaker 2: put that on?

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Speaker 3: It is It does not taste like any kind of sauce.

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Speaker 2: Oh there's that.

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Speaker 3: It doesn't taste like barbecue sauce. It doesn't taste like

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Speaker 3: it's just it has a vanilla scent and a buttery texture. Sure,

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Speaker 3: but it's yeah, it's like a coral color.

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Speaker 2: Trying to play along with this mashup and trying to

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Speaker 2: get ahead of it.

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Speaker 3: Saren, it doesn't stop there, God damn. So it has

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Speaker 3: like you can only get it from Revlon dot com.

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Speaker 3: Like you can't have it.

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Speaker 2: In the stores. Why would you.

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Speaker 3: It would be shoplifted immediately, like they'd all be gone.

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Speaker 3: But it comes with stickers so you can customize that

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Speaker 3: outside of your lip bombay and the container and like

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Speaker 3: one of them is like something says Boss of Sauce

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Speaker 3: and then like flames. So next time you're a Buffalo

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Speaker 3: Wild Wings getting.

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Speaker 2: My hands from that guy Fieri.

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Speaker 3: Good yeah, Well, and you there are women who are

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Speaker 3: trying to induce the male gaze because we know that

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Speaker 3: every single man on the planet loves chicken wings.

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Speaker 2: Totally and football and a bright shiny lip gloss and shiny.

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Speaker 3: Lip gloss or you know what, if you want to

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Speaker 3: wear it to Buffalo Wild Wings.

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Speaker 2: I might be interesting or it would look good on me, It.

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Speaker 3: Would actually be really complimentary. It would that would be

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Speaker 3: bad insummation your honor. That's ridiculous.

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Speaker 2: I'll give you that.

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Speaker 3: I know you will.

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Speaker 2: We're going to score that ridiculous. Thank you, Elizabeth. While

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Speaker 2: we're at it. I got something for you that's ridiculous.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, there's this saying you'll hear people refer to from

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Speaker 2: time to time. It's usually attributed to Oscar Wilde. The

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Speaker 2: aphorism goes, imitation is the highest form of flattery. You've

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Speaker 2: heard that, right, it is zaren it is now. It

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Speaker 2: wasn't Oscar wild who said that. He actually said imitation

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Speaker 2: is the student seriest form of flattery that mediocrity can

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Speaker 2: pay to greatness.

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Speaker 3: Well that's even better, which is.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a much fuller comment. But he was actually

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Speaker 2: not the one to coin the saying. Originally, he borrowed

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Speaker 2: it from this man named Charles Caleb Colton, who had

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Speaker 2: also borrowed it from an earlier version that dates back

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Speaker 2: to seventeen fourteen. And the earliest version is probably my favorite.

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Speaker 2: It is imitation is a kind of artless flattery.

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Speaker 3: Oh that's good too.

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Speaker 2: I think that one says it the best.

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Speaker 3: I think this just shows that there's nothing new under

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Speaker 3: the sun.

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Speaker 2: No, a lot of imitation in this flattery. Elizabeth, Today,

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Speaker 2: I want to tell you about the criminal and ridiculous

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Speaker 2: dangers of artless flattery.

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Speaker 4: Oh yeah, this is ridiculous crime a podcast about absurd

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Speaker 4: and outrageous capers, heists, and cons.

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Speaker 2: It's always n nine percent murder free and one hundred

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Speaker 2: percent ridiculous.

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Speaker 3: Read ridiculous, Elizabeth.

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Speaker 2: To start this story out and to keep things somewhat modern,

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Speaker 2: today's first story involves friend of the show, Justin Bieber.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, buddy, Yeah.

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Speaker 2: So Justin Bieber. How does he come into this great question? Elizabeth? Yeah,

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Speaker 2: I'm guessing you may or may not have seen the

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Speaker 2: Reason headlines about Justin Bieber in Las Vegas.

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Speaker 3: Uh uh, I don't really know. Like he's another one

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Speaker 3: of those singers like Katy Perry, Taylor Swift. I could

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Speaker 3: not name a song, not sure if I've heard one before.

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Speaker 2: You've heard them, you may have. They're like an ambient

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Speaker 2: noise coming out.

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Speaker 3: Of I couldn't tell you the name, or like sing

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Speaker 3: a bar or too. So, yeah, Justin Bieber. But you

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Speaker 3: know boy doesn't like to wear a shirt.

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Speaker 2: No that we do both know that about him. Yeah, Well,

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Speaker 2: apparently he was in Las Vegas recently, or rather, a

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Speaker 2: guy who pretended to be Justin Bieber was in Las

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Speaker 2: Vegas recently.

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Speaker 3: Uh huh.

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Speaker 2: Now, before you get into that, you were once a

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Speaker 2: Vegas local, So I wanted to ask, does this happen

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Speaker 2: in Vegas often? Where you have of like folks like

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Speaker 2: cover band people just losing their minds and going I

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Speaker 2: am Rod Stewart, Not that I've seen claims that they're not.

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Speaker 3: No, I did. I do know one one case of

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Speaker 3: this which I've heard about. There was this guy who

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Speaker 3: was going all over New Orleans pretending to be Ziggy Marley.

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Speaker 2: You mean me and I mean you yeah, I mean yea,

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Speaker 2: huh yeah. I've told this.

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Speaker 3: Story before, you know what, I can never hear it

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Speaker 3: enough times, Like every time I hear it, new details

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Speaker 3: come out that I savor.

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Speaker 2: Get it out. I was in the French Quarter in

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Speaker 2: New Orleans, big tourist area, a lot of people out drinking,

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Speaker 2: drinking those hurricanes, right, and this guy comes up to me.

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Speaker 2: He's like, man, I didn't know you were in town.

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Speaker 2: And I had to look at him real quick, and

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Speaker 2: I'm like, I don't know this guy. And I was right,

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Speaker 2: I didn't know him, but he thought he knew me

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Speaker 2: because he thought I was Ziggy Marley. So he buys

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Speaker 2: me a free round to drinks and I'm like, oh,

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Speaker 2: and I thanked him a Jamaican accent. Right, that's the

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Speaker 2: best part.

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Speaker 3: That's because if someone came up to me and said,

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Speaker 3: i'd know you're in Town of Bill, neither did I,

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Speaker 3: and then just go away.

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Speaker 2: But you're like, of course, So I get the free

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Speaker 2: round of drinks, and then he was like, I said,

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Speaker 2: I thank him in the Jamaican accent. But he's not done.

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Speaker 2: He now wants to show me a good time. So

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Speaker 2: he takes me from bar to bar to bar and

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Speaker 2: everyone I get introduced as Ziggy Marley. I do a

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Speaker 2: little Jamaican at them, a little patois, throw it down.

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Speaker 2: They give me free drinks. I keep going. This goes

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Speaker 2: on for hours.

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Speaker 3: Right.

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Speaker 2: Of course, I get drunk as hell on those hurricanes,

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Speaker 2: and then I'm like, I'm ready to go back to

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Speaker 2: the hotel. So I turned to my friend is with me,

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Speaker 2: and I'm like, hey, are you ready to bounce? Now?

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Speaker 2: The guy who's been taking us around he hears me

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Speaker 2: because I'm thinking I'm whispering, but all the hurricanes, I'm

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Speaker 2: probably just talking at normal volume. He hears me he's

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Speaker 2: speaking an American accent. Big mistake, huge mistake, right, and

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Speaker 2: he then his eyes change his hot anger flashes across

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Speaker 2: his face and he's like, you're not Ziggy Marley and

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Speaker 2: I was like, no, i am not Ziggy Marley. But

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Speaker 2: he grabs me and insists that I now go back

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Speaker 2: and apologize to every bar that I had gotten free drinks.

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Speaker 2: And so I did, and I had to go up

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Speaker 2: to all these bartenders and be like, Hi, I'm a

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Speaker 2: terrible person. You were so generous and I tricked you

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Speaker 2: and I'm a bad person. I'm sorry for bar after

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Speaker 2: bar after bar.

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Speaker 4: I love.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So basically I learned firsthand that people get pissed

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Speaker 2: when you trick them and pretend to be someone they love.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that is they people do. They don't like it,

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Speaker 3: and they're like, can you sing tomorrow people for us?

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Speaker 2: And you were like, well, I'm off the clock, man,

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Speaker 2: I can't remember all the lyrics right now in my patois.

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Speaker 2: So this brings us to pretend justin Bieber?

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Speaker 3: Yes, no, thank you for sharing that story.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, you're welcome.

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Speaker 3: I love hearing it.

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Speaker 2: So I got the full story of this, uh, this

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Speaker 2: guy who conned Vegas and how he got to pretend

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Speaker 2: he was justin Bieber until his ruse was busted. You

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Speaker 2: ready to hear about not Justin Bieber. Yes. So this

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Speaker 2: went down on August sixteenth of this year at the

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Speaker 2: Win Las Vegas Casino. Big you know, big casino. They

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Speaker 2: got a big nightclub. Everybody goes to this La based

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Speaker 2: DJ named Griffin with a y. He was performing at

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Speaker 2: the XS nightclub in the wind Casino. Oh Excess, Yeah exactly,

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Speaker 2: there you go, yeah, club Excess man. So it was

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Speaker 2: a Saturday night, crowds packed places, a bump in. DJ

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Speaker 2: Griffin isn't doing his thing in the booth on the

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Speaker 2: ones and twos WEEKI week the hell on When someone

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Speaker 2: comes up from the casino and whispers to him, Justin

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Speaker 2: Bieber's in the club. He's like what and he like

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Speaker 2: takes off a headphone so you can hear him. He's like, what,

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Speaker 2: what's up? And he's like and they're like, yeah, Justin

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Speaker 2: Bieber's here, and he's like now, DJ Griffin, he's cool

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Speaker 2: with it. He's like, oh, you know what do you

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Speaker 2: want to come up here? And he's like oh. They

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Speaker 2: wants to do a surprise performance sing one of his hits.

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Speaker 2: Sorry it's a song. Sorry, Oh the song is called Sorry.

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Speaker 3: I thought They're like sorry, he wants to perform, and

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Speaker 3: he's like, yeah, I'm sorry about that.

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Speaker 2: So DJ Griffin's like, yes, of course, we'd love to

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Speaker 2: do a surprise show. But Justin Bieber are you kidding me?

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Speaker 2: Have him come up here to the DJ booth. I'll

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Speaker 2: introduce him to the crowd. Then he could take the stage,

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Speaker 2: do a few songs. It'll be a dope and then

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Speaker 2: that's not a direct quote, obviously, but you get the idea.

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Speaker 3: So not Justin Birder's interpretation.

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Speaker 2: Thank you. He rocks up to the DJ booth, He

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Speaker 2: wraps up DJ Griffin. They chat real quick. Industry insider

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Speaker 2: to industry insider.

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Speaker 3: You know.

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Speaker 2: DJ Griffin tells a crowd at the club, I got

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Speaker 2: a super SMA surprise for you guys, and Justin Bieber's

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Speaker 2: in town. And the crowd just goes nuts, right because

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Speaker 2: he's gonna do a special surprise set for them, and

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Speaker 2: he's just recently dropped an album, so this all fits

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Speaker 2: for them. They're like, oh my god, this is history

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Speaker 2: or whatever. DJ Griffin cues up the track. Out on

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Speaker 2: stage comes not Justin Bieber. He starts to do some

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Speaker 2: low key Justin Bieber dance moves. He pulls up his

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Speaker 2: like the hood on his hoodie because he's actually wearing

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Speaker 2: a shirt in this instance, and then he busts into

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Speaker 2: his song. Sorry, right, Elizabeth, this guy is good. I mean, like,

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Speaker 2: I've watched the cell phone videos pit folks shot of this,

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Speaker 2: and he sounds like Justin Bieber, at least to my ears.

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Speaker 2: He looks like him. Right, He's got the same tattoos

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Speaker 2: as Justin Bieber, oh, exact same, exactly right, he all

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Speaker 2: has also has the same haircuts, got the same die

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Speaker 2: job because right now he's got this blonde die job.

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Speaker 3: My understanding from the various guss of subreddits that I

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Speaker 3: that I lurk in that he's having Justin Bieber's having

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Speaker 3: some trouble.

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Speaker 2: He's had a little bit of a rough time right now.

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Speaker 3: It looks like he's going. I want to think he

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Speaker 3: was also like victimized all coming out and he's having

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Speaker 3: a rough one, and so I think that if he

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Speaker 3: does something weird, like I just want to be on

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Speaker 3: stage for this exact pople aren't like, no, that's out

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Speaker 3: of character, because there's no such things out him. There's

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Speaker 3: such in character and reading a book maybe.

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Speaker 2: So this guy not Justin Bieber, He's up there on

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Speaker 2: stage and he's moving like Justin Bieber, He's roughly the

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Speaker 2: same size. He fools the majority of the crowd. They're like,

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Speaker 2: oh my god, I can't believe this. It's all these

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Speaker 2: videos that are taken. When he gets done singing sorry,

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Speaker 2: he waves to the pack, crowd, leaves the stage or whatever.

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Speaker 2: DJ Griffin posts this video of him on Instagram of

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Speaker 2: him right after the set. Right, he's walking away saying

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Speaker 2: how amazing was that? Direct quote? Right, and then someone

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Speaker 2: comes up and tells him, Nah, that wasn't Justin Bieber.

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Speaker 2: That was one hundred percent of fake out some pretender

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Speaker 2: once again, pretty much direct quote. Yeah, you see DJ

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Speaker 2: Griffin realize he just got conned. And he's not pissed though,

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Speaker 2: like not like the guy in New Orleans was when

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Speaker 2: I tricked him. He's just a little bummed.

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Speaker 5: Right.

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Speaker 2: So then DJ Griffin says in the video the only

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Speaker 2: indication he had that it wasn't Justin Bieber was quote,

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Speaker 2: I literally thought he's put on a lot of weights

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Speaker 2: since the album dropped in such a Vegas comment. Also

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Speaker 2: a very la comment anyway, So I did find a

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Speaker 2: tweet from someone who was there that night at club excess.

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Speaker 2: They posted this on x SO trim Bean with two

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Speaker 2: ends said quote, can someone explain why this is a

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Speaker 2: thing going this far to look like somebody or are

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Speaker 2: him and Justin working together to promote something? Not gonna lie?

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Speaker 2: He almost had me fooled and clearly had all these

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Speaker 2: other people fooled once I got in his face. Nah,

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Speaker 2: I might come on, trim Beanieber fool, don't lie?

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Speaker 3: You were texting people? Oh my god, yeah, yeah.

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Speaker 2: Exactly, I got it justin Bieber's face.

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Speaker 3: That would be an interesting promotional thing for the album.

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Speaker 2: I think that'd be amazing.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, like you know, and then up and look at us.

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Speaker 3: We're talking about it.

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Speaker 2: I didn't even know, and that we're helping out with

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Speaker 2: the album so well. So not Justin Bieber is actually

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Speaker 2: this twenty nine year old Frenchman named Dylan Deskoloso, and

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Speaker 2: this is what he does for a living, Like he's

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Speaker 2: been imitating Justin Bieber for years, which helps explain how

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Speaker 2: he was able to con somebody in the night club, right,

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Speaker 2: But how did he conn the folks that win Las Vegas?

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Speaker 2: I mean a range of fake surprise show. He's got

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Speaker 2: to like coordinate it with them. Remember they went up

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Speaker 2: and told the DJ, well, great question, Elizabeth, I got

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Speaker 2: an answer for you. For answers, we turned to Las

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Speaker 2: Vegas entertainment reporter John Katz aka John Katz lamedes, yes

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Speaker 2: you know this guy?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, no is.

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Speaker 2: He reported that not Justin Bieber contacted Win Las Vegas,

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Speaker 2: or rather his team did, and as John Katz put it, quote,

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Speaker 2: the people who helped him execute this contacted the Wind

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Speaker 2: Resort and Win nightlife executives during the day on Saturday

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Speaker 2: and said, we're gonna have Justin Bieber in town. We'd

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Speaker 2: like to have a table and a VIP setup. So

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Speaker 2: it sounds legit to them, right, That helps sell the

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Speaker 2: lie initially, but like, wouldn't the Win folks kind of

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Speaker 2: sniff out of a faker if like not everything's correct,

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Speaker 2: not the right email account, so forth. Well, as John

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Speaker 2: Katz explains, the Win people thought that this was the

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Speaker 2: real Justin Bieber. Now he's had a shuffle in his

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Speaker 2: management and Justin Bieber's world is a little inconsistent to

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Speaker 2: begin with, so they were saying, okay, well, you know,

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Speaker 2: he just had an album drop swag last month, so

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Speaker 2: they said okay, so they believe it the same thing

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Speaker 2: you've said. Basically, he's going through a spell. This may

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Speaker 2: be Justin Bieber, who knows. So also the not Justin Bieber,

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Speaker 2: he had laid some really solid groundwork earlier in the

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Speaker 2: day on social media. How well, back to John Katz,

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Speaker 2: before they came over to the Wind, they were at

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Speaker 2: the Las Vegas Premium outlets in Symphony Park, no stop it.

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Speaker 2: They were seen there, and they also visited the Esplanade shops,

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Speaker 2: and they were in the Balanciaga they were seen coming

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Speaker 2: out of there. So basically exactly this not Justin Bieber

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Speaker 2: pops over the factory outlets, schmoozes with the people, he

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Speaker 2: poses for photos like hey, I'm also trying to get

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Speaker 2: a Chanel bag on the cheap. So then that night

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Speaker 2: at the club, though, after the lie gets exposed, and

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Speaker 2: as John Katz tells it, quote people who were there

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Speaker 2: who'd seen a performance said, this is not him, it's

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Speaker 2: the saying happening. But that's not all because not Justin

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Speaker 2: Bieber also had enjoyed all the perks of stardom. Remember

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Speaker 2: that VIP stuff. Oh yeah, he got bottle service. So now,

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Speaker 2: as John Katz explains, quote, his team would come in

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Speaker 2: expecting to have been comped bottle service at their booth,

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Speaker 2: and by the time he left, he had to sign

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Speaker 2: off for almost ten thousand dollars since he's not getting comped.

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Speaker 2: So now oops, not Justin Bieber's umblebook for ten grand

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Speaker 2: for his stunt, or at least his credit card was,

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Speaker 2: or someone's credit card was. Once the ruse gets exposed,

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Speaker 2: the Win folks not only did they make them pay up,

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Speaker 2: they also ban him for ever coming back to the

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Speaker 2: Win casinos. Now he's a Frenchman, what does he care?

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Speaker 2: You know?

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Speaker 3: Also, it's like the ten grand for that bottle service

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Speaker 3: is like literally they're giving him like forty dollars worth

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Speaker 3: of Oh.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's such a ripoff, it's ridiculous. So the Frenchman,

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Speaker 2: as I said, Dylan discos, he's been doing this imitation

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Speaker 2: game for a long minute, like around six years, and

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Speaker 2: he's successful over in Europe doing this. He's got a

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Speaker 2: YouTube channel where he posts his shows as a tribute act.

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Speaker 2: In fact, that last year Justin Bieber's wife, Hayley Bieber,

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Speaker 2: was shown a TikTok of this Frenchman. He was filmed

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Speaker 2: while he was on a train, and she said and

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Speaker 2: I quote I'm scared like he could fool even her.

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Speaker 3: Yes, but would be nice to me? Okay?

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Speaker 2: Would he be more present? This all started where people

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Speaker 2: told this not Justin Bieber, that he looked a hell

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Speaker 2: of a lot like the real Justin Bieber. And He's like,

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Speaker 2: maybe I make a career out of this, And he did.

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Speaker 2: Is he put in an interview with the outlet Need

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Speaker 2: to Know from the United Kingdom quote, A lot of

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Speaker 2: people told me that I look like Justin Bieber in

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Speaker 2: the past. However I do make sure to dressed like him.

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Speaker 6: I think our similarities looks wise, more some points of

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Speaker 6: our faces, and definitely our attitudes. Oh Now, Likewise, when

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Speaker 6: I'm on stage, I need to be the most Justin

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Speaker 6: I can be, and I think I'm good at mimicking him.

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Speaker 6: I became a look alike simply by going to a

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Speaker 6: Justin Bieber a concert. I took a lot of photos

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Speaker 6: and I thought it was super cool.

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Speaker 2: So he went to a concert.

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Speaker 3: And pretended to be Justin Bieber became his career.

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Speaker 2: He also said, when it comes to the reactions to

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Speaker 2: his whole Tribute Act quote, I would.

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Speaker 6: Say that the best and funniest reactions I got to

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Speaker 6: was people thinking I was Justin and knocking on my

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Speaker 6: hotel door at two am. There was so many of

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Speaker 6: them taking pictures and asking me to sign pictures as

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Speaker 6: Justin Bieber.

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Speaker 2: So he really gets off on this.

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Speaker 3: How on the list of like what should we do tonight?

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Speaker 3: How far down is Justin Bieber tribute show? Right?

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Speaker 2: So I think it's underneath like change my oil by hand.

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00:17:33,440 --> 00:17:35,880
Speaker 2: So there was at the other end of the spectrum

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Speaker 2: of things that when it doesn't go so well for

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Speaker 2: not Justin Bieber, as he told the UK outlet Need

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Speaker 2: to Know quote, the worst reaction I had to the public,

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Speaker 2: I would say was being mobbed with crying and hugs.

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Speaker 2: I don't understand very well that the power of love

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Speaker 2: for Justin, so it's nothing to bothers me. So he's

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Speaker 2: got these people fake crying on am thinking their meeting.

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Speaker 3: I don't understand that either. And there are musicians where

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Speaker 3: I'm like, dude, I you like saved my life. I

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00:18:03,840 --> 00:18:06,760
Speaker 3: would never cry, chase them and go to their hotel.

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00:18:06,960 --> 00:18:09,760
Speaker 2: We're talking more. I think imagine like teen fandom, you know,

400
00:18:09,800 --> 00:18:12,640
Speaker 2: it's that whole like Beatlemania screaming at the met Stadium

401
00:18:14,200 --> 00:18:16,200
Speaker 2: that's probably true. Like, yeah, you're probably right.

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00:18:16,600 --> 00:18:16,800
Speaker 3: I know.

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00:18:16,880 --> 00:18:19,600
Speaker 2: I'm some like thirty three year old business associate from

404
00:18:19,640 --> 00:18:22,760
Speaker 2: like I don't know, a restaurant chain in Omaha, Nebraska

405
00:18:22,840 --> 00:18:24,879
Speaker 2: is over there crying on their shoulder. You changed my

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00:18:24,960 --> 00:18:28,560
Speaker 2: life justin I know, I know I did. So that's

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00:18:28,560 --> 00:18:31,720
Speaker 2: our appetizer for today. Yes, next up, after this break,

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00:18:31,760 --> 00:18:34,640
Speaker 2: we'll get into the main meal. It's a really good story,

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00:18:34,680 --> 00:18:36,560
Speaker 2: a story of a woman who pretended to be Aretha

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00:18:36,600 --> 00:18:40,160
Speaker 2: Franklin and it changed her whole life. Oh no, back

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Speaker 2: after this basket of ads fresh out of the oven,

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00:18:42,480 --> 00:19:06,719
Speaker 2: warm and delicious enough for everyone. We're back, Elizabeth. Hello,

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00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:08,760
Speaker 2: you ready to get down and get soulful with an

414
00:19:08,760 --> 00:19:12,399
Speaker 2: Aretha Franklin conjob. So I first saw this story in

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00:19:12,440 --> 00:19:15,920
Speaker 2: an excellent article from Smithsonian Magazine. I'm a subscriber of

416
00:19:16,040 --> 00:19:19,240
Speaker 2: Smith's recommend magazine Totally. Article was a long form piece

417
00:19:19,280 --> 00:19:22,159
Speaker 2: called The Counterfeit Queen of Soul, a strange and bittersweet

418
00:19:22,160 --> 00:19:26,240
Speaker 2: ballad of kidnapping, stolen identity, and unlikely stardom by Jeff mash.

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00:19:26,560 --> 00:19:29,000
Speaker 2: Now we've covered stories similar to this one, for instance,

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00:19:29,080 --> 00:19:32,960
Speaker 2: Lost Beatles Americanos remember aka the American Beatles who did

421
00:19:32,960 --> 00:19:35,639
Speaker 2: a tour of South America, passing themselves off as the

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00:19:35,680 --> 00:19:39,360
Speaker 2: actual Beatles while conning the locals for fun and profit. Now,

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00:19:39,480 --> 00:19:41,520
Speaker 2: the same sort of con job was also going down

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00:19:41,560 --> 00:19:43,560
Speaker 2: in the UK back in the day, especially for R

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00:19:43,600 --> 00:19:45,639
Speaker 2: and B X in like the late fifties, starting with

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00:19:45,760 --> 00:19:48,600
Speaker 2: Little Richard and later motown acts and soul singers in

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00:19:48,640 --> 00:19:51,720
Speaker 2: the sixties. Because back then Americans would hop over the

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00:19:51,760 --> 00:19:54,159
Speaker 2: pond pretend to be Diana Ross and the Supremes, or

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00:19:54,200 --> 00:19:56,640
Speaker 2: pretend to be the Temptations or James Brown or whoever.

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Speaker 2: And this worked really well because the fans in the

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Speaker 2: UK and over in Europe, by Continental Europe, they didn't

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Speaker 2: exactly know what the R and B performers looked like. Yeah,

433
00:20:05,119 --> 00:20:08,240
Speaker 2: they knew what they sounded like, but they weren't saturated

434
00:20:08,240 --> 00:20:09,800
Speaker 2: with media the way we are, so it was a

435
00:20:09,800 --> 00:20:11,119
Speaker 2: lot easier to fake well.

436
00:20:11,119 --> 00:20:13,760
Speaker 3: And the images they'd see, like in magazines, weren't particularly

437
00:20:13,880 --> 00:20:14,320
Speaker 3: high reds.

438
00:20:14,480 --> 00:20:16,840
Speaker 2: No, there's also that, or even on the posters. Yeah,

439
00:20:16,920 --> 00:20:18,800
Speaker 2: so it wasn't also, by the way, just the Brits

440
00:20:18,800 --> 00:20:20,960
Speaker 2: and the Europeans who got conned like this, because this

441
00:20:21,080 --> 00:20:23,800
Speaker 2: also went down in the States. Oh no, oh yeah.

442
00:20:24,080 --> 00:20:26,200
Speaker 2: Now these days, as I said, it's much more difficult

443
00:20:26,200 --> 00:20:30,040
Speaker 2: to pull off eight not to justin Bieba, because it's

444
00:20:30,040 --> 00:20:32,800
Speaker 2: so easy to see where stars actually are right now.

445
00:20:33,080 --> 00:20:34,800
Speaker 2: You can just check their social media and be like,

446
00:20:35,440 --> 00:20:38,440
Speaker 2: that's not Sabrina Carpenter because she's in Toronto right now.

447
00:20:38,760 --> 00:20:42,000
Speaker 2: I just saw on Instagram or whoever you like. Now,

448
00:20:42,280 --> 00:20:44,720
Speaker 2: obviously this was not the case in the late sixties

449
00:20:44,760 --> 00:20:47,280
Speaker 2: when our story takes place. Yea, so are you ready?

450
00:20:47,359 --> 00:20:50,560
Speaker 3: TikTok really wasn't popping off then, No, it was a

451
00:20:50,800 --> 00:20:51,919
Speaker 3: very niche totally.

452
00:20:51,960 --> 00:20:53,960
Speaker 2: It was like eight millimeter reels. It sucked.

453
00:20:54,040 --> 00:20:55,240
Speaker 3: Yeah, not everyone had it.

454
00:20:55,760 --> 00:20:58,720
Speaker 2: So, Elizabeth, I'd like you to meet Mary Jane Jones.

455
00:20:59,200 --> 00:21:01,280
Speaker 2: She was a young Black woman who was very much

456
00:21:01,320 --> 00:21:06,160
Speaker 2: wanted to earn the same rispect that Aretha Franklin enjoyed.

457
00:21:06,600 --> 00:21:08,479
Speaker 2: She looked up to the Queen of soul and she

458
00:21:08,520 --> 00:21:11,400
Speaker 2: wanted what Aretha had. She wanted to be a star too,

459
00:21:11,720 --> 00:21:13,520
Speaker 2: because she certainly knew what it was like to not

460
00:21:13,600 --> 00:21:16,399
Speaker 2: have much at all. And she's like, this sucks. I'd

461
00:21:16,440 --> 00:21:18,719
Speaker 2: like to do that. And Aretha came from well, Aretha

462
00:21:18,760 --> 00:21:21,199
Speaker 2: but didn't come from poverty per se. But she was like,

463
00:21:21,240 --> 00:21:23,199
Speaker 2: you know, I want what Aretha has gained as a

464
00:21:23,240 --> 00:21:26,320
Speaker 2: young black woman in the sixties. So she by the

465
00:21:26,320 --> 00:21:30,680
Speaker 2: way Mary Jane Jones. She was raised in rural Petersburg, Virginia.

466
00:21:30,680 --> 00:21:32,760
Speaker 2: I'm not sure if you're familiar. I don't know it.

467
00:21:32,880 --> 00:21:35,560
Speaker 2: But she had a house without indoor plumbing. We're talking

468
00:21:35,600 --> 00:21:38,760
Speaker 2: in the late sixties. And then, you know, as things do,

469
00:21:39,040 --> 00:21:41,760
Speaker 2: life came at her pretty fast. She dropped out of

470
00:21:41,760 --> 00:21:45,440
Speaker 2: school after tenth grade. She got married at nineteen Sadly,

471
00:21:45,520 --> 00:21:47,879
Speaker 2: her husband passed away, leaving her to be a widow

472
00:21:47,920 --> 00:21:50,720
Speaker 2: with a young son that was rough on her. Things

473
00:21:50,760 --> 00:21:53,600
Speaker 2: didn't improve much when she remarried. Her new husband gave

474
00:21:53,600 --> 00:21:56,639
Speaker 2: her three more sons, but he was also a violent drunk,

475
00:21:56,800 --> 00:21:59,399
Speaker 2: so she divorced him. Now she's a single mother in

476
00:21:59,480 --> 00:22:02,520
Speaker 2: Royal vergil with four young sons. Oh man, the year

477
00:22:02,600 --> 00:22:05,520
Speaker 2: is nineteen sixty eight. Yeah, she'll has a dream though,

478
00:22:05,600 --> 00:22:08,840
Speaker 2: of making it as a star. So to make ends meet,

479
00:22:08,920 --> 00:22:11,919
Speaker 2: she performed at the local gospel music group, the Great

480
00:22:11,960 --> 00:22:15,760
Speaker 2: Gates of Petersburg. She had this tremendous voice, like a big,

481
00:22:15,920 --> 00:22:18,280
Speaker 2: full throated voice, the kind that sings out like the

482
00:22:18,359 --> 00:22:20,120
Speaker 2: up to the angels in heaven right, just like a

483
00:22:20,119 --> 00:22:23,040
Speaker 2: real soul singer voice. Only trouble for her was she

484
00:22:23,080 --> 00:22:25,399
Speaker 2: was untrained. She couldn't read music. She just had a

485
00:22:25,480 --> 00:22:28,520
Speaker 2: natural born talent. Yeah, yeah, now it was married Jane Jones.

486
00:22:28,520 --> 00:22:31,639
Speaker 2: But quote, I don't know one note from the next.

487
00:22:31,680 --> 00:22:34,439
Speaker 2: But what talent I got I got from God. And

488
00:22:34,520 --> 00:22:36,760
Speaker 2: as you know, Elizabeth, that's also how I sing. I

489
00:22:36,840 --> 00:22:39,640
Speaker 2: don't know one note from the next except for God

490
00:22:39,640 --> 00:22:41,840
Speaker 2: forgot to give me any musical talent whatsoever. But this

491
00:22:41,960 --> 00:22:45,520
Speaker 2: is how I sing. So I related to her immediately, yes,

492
00:22:45,760 --> 00:22:48,960
Speaker 2: but anyway. By nineteen sixty nine, Mary Jane Jones was

493
00:22:48,960 --> 00:22:51,280
Speaker 2: twenty seven years old. She'd been singing with her gospel

494
00:22:51,280 --> 00:22:53,560
Speaker 2: group at this point for six years. The leader of

495
00:22:53,600 --> 00:22:56,040
Speaker 2: her gospel group was this cat named Reverend Billy Lee,

496
00:22:56,520 --> 00:22:58,280
Speaker 2: and he said of her talent, I had to teach

497
00:22:58,320 --> 00:23:00,480
Speaker 2: most of the folks in my groups, but that was

498
00:23:00,640 --> 00:23:03,680
Speaker 2: one young lady I did not have to teach soul right,

499
00:23:03,840 --> 00:23:06,520
Speaker 2: Like I said, natural born talent. And she was also

500
00:23:06,600 --> 00:23:09,800
Speaker 2: a natural born performer. Like when she sang, emotions came

501
00:23:09,840 --> 00:23:11,439
Speaker 2: out of her like like the way they did from

502
00:23:11,440 --> 00:23:14,320
Speaker 2: Frank Sinatra. In that way that the audience could feel

503
00:23:14,640 --> 00:23:18,160
Speaker 2: her longing, her a, her blues, her pain, her love.

504
00:23:18,640 --> 00:23:20,879
Speaker 2: Sometimes she would even cry while she was singing. I'm

505
00:23:20,880 --> 00:23:24,160
Speaker 2: talking like real tears. She moved herself with her songs right.

506
00:23:24,320 --> 00:23:26,600
Speaker 2: Other times, well, she'd be sweating in that role of

507
00:23:26,640 --> 00:23:29,440
Speaker 2: Virginia heat and then the beads of perspiration ran down

508
00:23:29,440 --> 00:23:31,919
Speaker 2: her face like this, little tiny rivers of sweat. I

509
00:23:31,920 --> 00:23:33,960
Speaker 2: mean she felt it when she was singing. So people

510
00:23:33,960 --> 00:23:35,800
Speaker 2: were like, oh my god, this is so real. But

511
00:23:35,960 --> 00:23:38,959
Speaker 2: singing gospel music wasn't enough to feed her growing boys.

512
00:23:39,040 --> 00:23:41,480
Speaker 2: So to earn a little extra scratch for her family,

513
00:23:41,560 --> 00:23:44,080
Speaker 2: Mary Jane also performed some of that music her fellow

514
00:23:44,119 --> 00:23:48,000
Speaker 2: gospel singers would call the devil's music. So to do that,

515
00:23:48,119 --> 00:23:50,640
Speaker 2: she often worked at local nightclubs. She performed as part

516
00:23:50,680 --> 00:23:53,159
Speaker 2: of a review style show where she'd sing as an

517
00:23:53,160 --> 00:23:55,920
Speaker 2: Aretha Franklin tribute act. They didn't call it tribute acts

518
00:23:55,960 --> 00:23:58,280
Speaker 2: back then. She'd just be like a Retha Franklin cover

519
00:23:58,359 --> 00:24:00,920
Speaker 2: song or Retha Franklin, you know, imitator.

520
00:24:01,160 --> 00:24:03,160
Speaker 3: So it's because you don't really like you're saying it's

521
00:24:03,160 --> 00:24:05,040
Speaker 3: a reviews So I think she was probably doing more

522
00:24:05,080 --> 00:24:08,439
Speaker 3: than just a yeah, songbook and you don't have like

523
00:24:08,640 --> 00:24:11,720
Speaker 3: live you know, big name acts coming through when people

524
00:24:11,720 --> 00:24:13,520
Speaker 3: want to hear someone singing and do all music.

525
00:24:13,560 --> 00:24:15,840
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you're in Petersburg, Virginia and you're like you're

526
00:24:15,840 --> 00:24:17,960
Speaker 2: willing to do Aretha, I'm willing to pay right and

527
00:24:18,160 --> 00:24:20,480
Speaker 2: you know, whatever the dollar to get in. So this

528
00:24:20,520 --> 00:24:23,120
Speaker 2: earned her on average ten dollars a night to play

529
00:24:23,160 --> 00:24:25,600
Speaker 2: these different nightclubs in the area. And now she had

530
00:24:25,600 --> 00:24:27,840
Speaker 2: a backing R and B band and they would play

531
00:24:27,880 --> 00:24:30,960
Speaker 2: the latest hits and so they knew all of Aretha's songbook.

532
00:24:31,240 --> 00:24:34,080
Speaker 2: She was really good on Aretha's song think Right, And

533
00:24:34,160 --> 00:24:37,919
Speaker 2: so when Mary jans Jones laid into Aretha's lyrics, she

534
00:24:38,040 --> 00:24:40,280
Speaker 2: was like sing to her imagined lover and the audience

535
00:24:40,440 --> 00:24:42,840
Speaker 2: they truly felt her lonesome heart right. Like I said,

536
00:24:42,840 --> 00:24:45,560
Speaker 2: the emotions poured out of her. But her gospel group

537
00:24:45,640 --> 00:24:47,919
Speaker 2: could never know about the sinning she was doing on

538
00:24:47,960 --> 00:24:50,840
Speaker 2: Saturday nights, otherwise it would risk her check that she's

539
00:24:50,840 --> 00:24:53,040
Speaker 2: taking care of her boys with right. If they ever

540
00:24:53,119 --> 00:24:55,480
Speaker 2: learned about her Moonlight gig, she'd be dumped from the

541
00:24:55,480 --> 00:24:58,560
Speaker 2: gospel group. So she came up with this persona she

542
00:24:58,680 --> 00:25:01,800
Speaker 2: performed under a stage name, Miss Vicky Jones, and she

543
00:25:02,160 --> 00:25:04,680
Speaker 2: pull on a wig and go out and transform into

544
00:25:04,680 --> 00:25:07,960
Speaker 2: the star to be Miss Vicky Jones. Love right, and

545
00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:10,040
Speaker 2: she was damn good Chelsea plays, She sang rock songs,

546
00:25:10,080 --> 00:25:12,520
Speaker 2: she sang whatever the people wanted to hear. Yeah yeah,

547
00:25:12,560 --> 00:25:14,760
Speaker 2: But eventually words still got back to the leader of

548
00:25:14,760 --> 00:25:17,320
Speaker 2: her gospel group, the good Reverend Billy Lee.

549
00:25:17,400 --> 00:25:17,600
Speaker 3: Yeah.

550
00:25:17,640 --> 00:25:20,480
Speaker 2: Now, one Saturday night, he dips into the nightclub and

551
00:25:20,480 --> 00:25:22,600
Speaker 2: he's tucked in the back of this darkened club. He's

552
00:25:22,640 --> 00:25:26,120
Speaker 2: watching the show and Mary Jane Jones aka Miss Vicky

553
00:25:26,240 --> 00:25:29,040
Speaker 2: Jones didn't spot her boss in the crowd. She just

554
00:25:29,080 --> 00:25:32,080
Speaker 2: went ahead with her show. Meanwhile, old Reverend Billy Lee

555
00:25:32,119 --> 00:25:35,199
Speaker 2: he's watching and he starts to worry about his his

556
00:25:35,400 --> 00:25:38,639
Speaker 2: like star singers, everlasting soul, and how she's putting it

557
00:25:38,680 --> 00:25:41,280
Speaker 2: at risk and also risking her spot in heaven with

558
00:25:41,320 --> 00:25:45,080
Speaker 2: her blues act and the Aretha Franklin tribute songs. As

559
00:25:45,119 --> 00:25:47,400
Speaker 2: he tells it, he didn't confront her right away. In fact,

560
00:25:47,440 --> 00:25:49,560
Speaker 2: he didn't confront her that night. Instead, he just said

561
00:25:49,560 --> 00:25:52,000
Speaker 2: a little prayer to himself, say a little prayer. Oh

562
00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:54,800
Speaker 2: he did he really? Yeah? Right, He's like, don't lecture her,

563
00:25:54,920 --> 00:25:58,359
Speaker 2: don't preach to She'll be all right now. However, he

564
00:25:58,400 --> 00:26:00,760
Speaker 2: did worry, as I said, about how she'd manage if

565
00:26:00,760 --> 00:26:03,880
Speaker 2: she got out into the dangerous world of show business

566
00:26:03,880 --> 00:26:07,000
Speaker 2: and nightclub singers, as he recalled it. He thought to himself,

567
00:26:07,320 --> 00:26:11,000
Speaker 2: she goes in these situations, things could get out of hand. Elizabeth,

568
00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:12,359
Speaker 2: I'm here to tell you things got out of it.

569
00:26:12,400 --> 00:26:14,640
Speaker 3: Oh, I could imagine this is like, this is very

570
00:26:14,720 --> 00:26:19,880
Speaker 3: much like the Perks and Reck storyline with Ron has

571
00:26:19,920 --> 00:26:22,760
Speaker 3: a has an alter ego who plays in nightclubs called

572
00:26:22,920 --> 00:26:28,080
Speaker 3: really Silver, really Saxophone. And that's basically what I'm imagining.

573
00:26:28,160 --> 00:26:32,800
Speaker 3: So she now looks like Ron Swanson with the mustache.

574
00:26:32,920 --> 00:26:35,639
Speaker 3: With the mustache, that's what she had on the saxophone. Yeah,

575
00:26:35,680 --> 00:26:38,800
Speaker 3: and and like a Fedora.

576
00:26:39,720 --> 00:26:43,240
Speaker 2: I gotta check that show something amazing. So, as I said,

577
00:26:43,240 --> 00:26:44,960
Speaker 2: things got out of hand. And of course this goes

578
00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:47,679
Speaker 2: down in a nightclub. It was the winner of nineteen

579
00:26:47,720 --> 00:26:49,840
Speaker 2: sixty eight and she was performing at a nightclub called

580
00:26:49,840 --> 00:26:52,320
Speaker 2: the Pink Garter. That name should tell you everything you

581
00:26:52,440 --> 00:26:54,919
Speaker 2: need to know. The club was in Richmond, Virginia. It

582
00:26:55,000 --> 00:26:56,880
Speaker 2: used to be a grocery store, but by the time

583
00:26:57,119 --> 00:27:00,359
Speaker 2: Mss Vikett Jones was performing. It had been converted into

584
00:27:00,400 --> 00:27:01,240
Speaker 2: the Pink Garter.

585
00:27:01,280 --> 00:27:04,840
Speaker 3: The Pink Garters. So it's like, let's say, it's not

586
00:27:04,880 --> 00:27:07,200
Speaker 3: a huge it's not a supermarket, it's a grocery store.

587
00:27:07,359 --> 00:27:11,040
Speaker 3: I'm imagining like the kind of cavernous interior.

588
00:27:11,240 --> 00:27:14,960
Speaker 2: Yeah no, don't just imagine like a lot of tables.

589
00:27:15,119 --> 00:27:17,000
Speaker 2: Maybe as it candles on the tables, I.

590
00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:19,480
Speaker 3: Don't know, a lot of people get up to no good.

591
00:27:19,520 --> 00:27:23,639
Speaker 2: The deli sections now a bar. So the house band

592
00:27:23,800 --> 00:27:26,520
Speaker 2: was called the River Nets, right. The leader of that

593
00:27:26,600 --> 00:27:28,840
Speaker 2: band was the same man who ran the Pink Garter.

594
00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:32,399
Speaker 2: His stage name was the Great Josea all right, and

595
00:27:32,480 --> 00:27:34,520
Speaker 2: his mama called him Fenroy Fox.

596
00:27:35,080 --> 00:27:36,359
Speaker 3: That's a great stage name.

597
00:27:36,560 --> 00:27:40,240
Speaker 2: That's what this why the Great he doesn't want you know,

598
00:27:40,400 --> 00:27:43,040
Speaker 2: maybe he worried about his mama finding out. So, as

599
00:27:43,080 --> 00:27:45,960
Speaker 2: the Great Hosea told the Smithsonian magazine, the Pink Guarter

600
00:27:46,080 --> 00:27:48,240
Speaker 2: was a black night club. Quote, it was ninety percent

601
00:27:48,359 --> 00:27:51,359
Speaker 2: black and there everything changed after Martin Luther King got killed.

602
00:27:51,520 --> 00:27:54,119
Speaker 2: Blacks was staying in black places. People were scared because

603
00:27:54,119 --> 00:27:55,720
Speaker 2: you know, remember he died in sixty eight, So this

604
00:27:55,840 --> 00:27:58,600
Speaker 2: is fresh, right, right, So the folks went to places

605
00:27:58,600 --> 00:28:01,320
Speaker 2: that they felt safe, like the Pink Garter, and that's

606
00:28:01,320 --> 00:28:04,680
Speaker 2: where things all change for Mary Jones aka Miss Vicki Jones.

607
00:28:05,119 --> 00:28:07,399
Speaker 2: So the Great Hosea, he's leading the river nets with

608
00:28:07,440 --> 00:28:11,120
Speaker 2: their rendition of Aretha Franklin's huge hit, respect And when

609
00:28:11,160 --> 00:28:13,080
Speaker 2: Miss Vickiy Jones steps up to the mic and she

610
00:28:13,160 --> 00:28:15,720
Speaker 2: lets her big voice fill up that room, that former

611
00:28:15,760 --> 00:28:18,480
Speaker 2: grocery store. Yeah, and in the dark and dimly lit

612
00:28:18,520 --> 00:28:20,400
Speaker 2: air of this club. The folks there at the Pink

613
00:28:20,440 --> 00:28:22,679
Speaker 2: Garter that night, you could have told them this was

614
00:28:22,720 --> 00:28:24,719
Speaker 2: Aretha Franklin and most of them would have believed it

615
00:28:24,760 --> 00:28:27,520
Speaker 2: was true. That's how much he sounded, but not only sounded,

616
00:28:27,560 --> 00:28:30,760
Speaker 2: but looked like Aretha really. Oh yeah, But it wasn't.

617
00:28:30,800 --> 00:28:32,920
Speaker 2: Just then we saw and heard this similarity to the

618
00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:36,160
Speaker 2: Queen of Soul, one of the other acts performing that night.

619
00:28:36,240 --> 00:28:40,360
Speaker 2: He saw Miss Vicki Jones singing and he heard dollar signs. Yeah.

620
00:28:40,440 --> 00:28:45,240
Speaker 2: Now into Lavell, Hade. Lavell wasn't from Virginia or even

621
00:28:45,280 --> 00:28:47,800
Speaker 2: from the South. He was a New York City hairdresser,

622
00:28:48,280 --> 00:28:50,200
Speaker 2: and he looked like one. He wore his hair in

623
00:28:50,240 --> 00:28:53,120
Speaker 2: this high pomper door like six inches off his head.

624
00:28:53,560 --> 00:28:56,280
Speaker 2: My favorite fun fact about Lavell Hardy was that in

625
00:28:56,360 --> 00:28:59,080
Speaker 2: nineteen sixty eight he had a near hit song of

626
00:28:59,120 --> 00:29:02,600
Speaker 2: his own called Don't Lose Your Groove. It reached number

627
00:29:02,640 --> 00:29:03,760
Speaker 2: forty two on the charts.

628
00:29:03,840 --> 00:29:04,800
Speaker 3: Did you listen to it?

629
00:29:04,880 --> 00:29:06,600
Speaker 2: I did not, but I did find a fun fact

630
00:29:06,640 --> 00:29:06,880
Speaker 2: for you.

631
00:29:07,080 --> 00:29:07,280
Speaker 3: Yeah.

632
00:29:07,360 --> 00:29:09,880
Speaker 2: It topped out just below a parody song by Bill

633
00:29:09,920 --> 00:29:13,440
Speaker 2: Cosby called Hooray for the Salvation Army Band. Oh dear,

634
00:29:13,560 --> 00:29:15,800
Speaker 2: that's what it was behind. It did not pass that

635
00:29:15,920 --> 00:29:18,360
Speaker 2: song it was from. That song was from the album

636
00:29:18,400 --> 00:29:21,920
Speaker 2: Bill Cosby sings Hooray for the Salvation Army Band with

637
00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:24,800
Speaker 2: an exclamation for my copy out from what I found.

638
00:29:24,800 --> 00:29:27,560
Speaker 2: That track was a comedic knockoff of Jimmy Hendrick's song

639
00:29:27,680 --> 00:29:28,600
Speaker 2: Purple Hayes.

640
00:29:30,040 --> 00:29:30,200
Speaker 3: Yes.

641
00:29:30,320 --> 00:29:33,120
Speaker 2: So the Bill Bill Cosby song Hooray for the Salvation

642
00:29:33,280 --> 00:29:35,880
Speaker 2: Army Band was a knockoff of Jimmy Hendrick song Purple

643
00:29:35,920 --> 00:29:38,960
Speaker 2: Hayes Yeah. And the album cover he looks like Jim Croche.

644
00:29:38,960 --> 00:29:41,280
Speaker 2: He's got this big bushy mustache, and he's got a

645
00:29:41,360 --> 00:29:43,640
Speaker 2: like like a kind of like a semi hippie gig.

646
00:29:44,280 --> 00:29:45,400
Speaker 3: Even happening right now?

647
00:29:45,440 --> 00:29:47,040
Speaker 2: Elizabeth, I gotta tell you, none of what I just

648
00:29:47,080 --> 00:29:49,600
Speaker 2: said makes any sense. No, I have no answers for you.

649
00:29:49,960 --> 00:29:51,080
Speaker 3: How does one get yet?

650
00:29:51,120 --> 00:29:51,400
Speaker 4: Whatever?

651
00:29:51,480 --> 00:29:55,000
Speaker 2: Anyway, back to the Pompadoor, Lavell Hattie, after he watched

652
00:29:55,000 --> 00:29:57,719
Speaker 2: Miss Vicki Jones do her best impression of Aretha Franklin

653
00:29:57,760 --> 00:30:00,200
Speaker 2: at the Pink Garter, he thought to himself, she that

654
00:30:00,200 --> 00:30:02,680
Speaker 2: I dentical from head to toe. She's got the complexion,

655
00:30:02,800 --> 00:30:05,120
Speaker 2: she got the looks, she got, the height, she got,

656
00:30:05,160 --> 00:30:10,000
Speaker 2: the tears, she got everything. So the wheels in his

657
00:30:10,080 --> 00:30:12,440
Speaker 2: devious mind start spending. And what I haven't told you

658
00:30:12,520 --> 00:30:15,120
Speaker 2: yet is Lavell Hardy earned two hundred dollars per night

659
00:30:15,200 --> 00:30:19,200
Speaker 2: working as a James Brown impersonator. Stop Yes, getting bust

660
00:30:19,280 --> 00:30:21,920
Speaker 2: the Popadour, and thus he knew Miss Vicky Jones as

661
00:30:21,920 --> 00:30:24,920
Speaker 2: a fake Aretha Franklin could be worth at least that much.

662
00:30:25,520 --> 00:30:28,480
Speaker 2: And she looked more like her than he looked like James.

663
00:30:28,600 --> 00:30:28,800
Speaker 3: Yeah.

664
00:30:28,920 --> 00:30:31,320
Speaker 2: So the next weekend, Vicky Jones was back in Richmond

665
00:30:31,360 --> 00:30:35,320
Speaker 2: performing at the Executive Motor n and Lavelle Hardy turned

666
00:30:35,400 --> 00:30:37,480
Speaker 2: up at the gig. After she does her act, he

667
00:30:37,560 --> 00:30:39,200
Speaker 2: makes his pitch. She steps up to her and he

668
00:30:39,240 --> 00:30:41,960
Speaker 2: tells her she could be making way more money with him,

669
00:30:42,000 --> 00:30:44,560
Speaker 2: and she could be making in these Virginia spots. He

670
00:30:44,640 --> 00:30:46,960
Speaker 2: told her about all the money to be made down

671
00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:49,959
Speaker 2: in Florida. That's where they pay for my music. So

672
00:30:50,200 --> 00:30:52,720
Speaker 2: Lavell Hardy was what we call it natural born operator.

673
00:30:52,840 --> 00:30:53,720
Speaker 3: Yeah, sounds like it.

674
00:30:53,800 --> 00:30:56,240
Speaker 2: And as such, she told Miss Jones that whatever she

675
00:30:56,320 --> 00:30:58,239
Speaker 2: needed to hear to sign on to his plan to

676
00:30:58,240 --> 00:31:01,280
Speaker 2: tour Florida, and you know, ex Lloyd her talents. So

677
00:31:01,320 --> 00:31:03,560
Speaker 2: he told her for an upcoming tour he was planning,

678
00:31:03,640 --> 00:31:06,560
Speaker 2: he wanted her to open for Aretha Franklin. He would

679
00:31:06,600 --> 00:31:10,240
Speaker 2: pay her one thousand dollars for a six city tour.

680
00:31:10,440 --> 00:31:13,120
Speaker 2: That's six shows. That's one hundred times what she was

681
00:31:13,120 --> 00:31:15,280
Speaker 2: making for one night in rural Virginia.

682
00:31:15,440 --> 00:31:18,680
Speaker 3: She's going to open for Aretha as in personally no.

683
00:31:18,720 --> 00:31:21,640
Speaker 2: Just as Miss Vicka Jones. Oh, so the offer is

684
00:31:21,760 --> 00:31:23,040
Speaker 2: it's too tempted for her to say no.

685
00:31:23,160 --> 00:31:26,440
Speaker 3: Is she going to do other songs aside from Aretha's No, Yeah,

686
00:31:26,480 --> 00:31:26,880
Speaker 3: She's going to.

687
00:31:26,880 --> 00:31:30,360
Speaker 2: Do her own song choices be they what they are? Sure,

688
00:31:30,640 --> 00:31:33,160
Speaker 2: So Mary Jane Jones, she went to a man she knew,

689
00:31:33,160 --> 00:31:36,920
Speaker 2: a cat named Harold Big Daddy Strayhorn, and he was

690
00:31:36,920 --> 00:31:39,160
Speaker 2: a local band leader and a money lender, apparently because

691
00:31:39,160 --> 00:31:40,840
Speaker 2: she borrowed the cash from him that she'd need for

692
00:31:40,880 --> 00:31:43,440
Speaker 2: a bus ticket down to Florida. So this was going

693
00:31:43,440 --> 00:31:45,080
Speaker 2: to be the first time she'd ever gone on a

694
00:31:45,120 --> 00:31:48,000
Speaker 2: tour without the Reverend Billy Lee and his gospel group.

695
00:31:48,400 --> 00:31:49,880
Speaker 2: So she was truly going to be out in the

696
00:31:49,920 --> 00:31:52,520
Speaker 2: world on her own, the thing that he feared. Now,

697
00:31:52,560 --> 00:31:54,480
Speaker 2: she sent her four boys to stay with her mother

698
00:31:54,560 --> 00:31:57,240
Speaker 2: and she packed for Florida, and then as the bus

699
00:31:57,280 --> 00:32:01,280
Speaker 2: headed south, she watched the world change from her window seat.

700
00:32:01,960 --> 00:32:04,680
Speaker 2: All Right, So when she arrives in Melbourne, Florida, she

701
00:32:04,800 --> 00:32:07,640
Speaker 2: linked up with Lavell Hatty and she was super eager

702
00:32:07,640 --> 00:32:09,640
Speaker 2: to start her new life as an opening act for

703
00:32:09,680 --> 00:32:13,760
Speaker 2: her hero, Aretha Franklin, Right, and that's when Lavell burst

704
00:32:13,760 --> 00:32:16,680
Speaker 2: her naive bubble. She wasn't going to be the opening

705
00:32:16,720 --> 00:32:19,120
Speaker 2: act for Aretha. Instead, she was gonna go out there

706
00:32:19,160 --> 00:32:22,680
Speaker 2: and she was gonna be Aretha. You see, he'd conder Elizabeth.

707
00:32:23,280 --> 00:32:25,160
Speaker 2: He told her exactly whatever she needed to hear to

708
00:32:25,160 --> 00:32:27,840
Speaker 2: get her down to Melbourne, Florida. And now she's stuck

709
00:32:27,880 --> 00:32:29,680
Speaker 2: because she doesn't have the money to buy a bus

710
00:32:29,680 --> 00:32:32,200
Speaker 2: ticket back home. There's no big daddy strayhoan Dawn in

711
00:32:32,200 --> 00:32:34,960
Speaker 2: Florida that she knows. Yeah, so she's like, and also

712
00:32:34,960 --> 00:32:36,280
Speaker 2: she shouldn't have the money to pay him back when

713
00:32:36,320 --> 00:32:36,800
Speaker 2: she gets back.

714
00:32:36,880 --> 00:32:38,560
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, she's got to earn while she's.

715
00:32:38,400 --> 00:32:41,560
Speaker 2: There, exactly. But she did still have her integrity, so

716
00:32:41,600 --> 00:32:44,720
Speaker 2: she said, no, I do not, and he's like no.

717
00:32:44,960 --> 00:32:47,080
Speaker 2: So Lavell's like arguing with her. She's like, I don't

718
00:32:47,120 --> 00:32:48,640
Speaker 2: want to be Aretha. I mean I want to be

719
00:32:48,840 --> 00:32:51,480
Speaker 2: like Aretha. She's like, I want to be miss Vicki Jones.

720
00:32:51,600 --> 00:32:51,880
Speaker 3: Sure.

721
00:32:52,080 --> 00:32:55,120
Speaker 2: Now that's when Lavell treated her like the naive country

722
00:32:55,120 --> 00:32:58,080
Speaker 2: girl that she was. He told her she didn't get

723
00:32:58,120 --> 00:33:00,840
Speaker 2: up on that stage and tell those nice folks in Melbourne,

724
00:33:00,880 --> 00:33:03,960
Speaker 2: Florida that she was Aretha, he could make her life hell.

725
00:33:04,400 --> 00:33:07,719
Speaker 2: As The Tampa Bay Times later reported, Lavell threatened her

726
00:33:07,760 --> 00:33:11,280
Speaker 2: saying that quote hit down, he had broken, don't know anybody,

727
00:33:11,360 --> 00:33:15,600
Speaker 2: and you are Aretha Franklin. So yo.

728
00:33:15,680 --> 00:33:15,840
Speaker 5: Yeah.

729
00:33:15,880 --> 00:33:18,480
Speaker 2: And then he went further than that. He quote threatened

730
00:33:18,480 --> 00:33:21,080
Speaker 2: to throw me in the bay. And not only that

731
00:33:21,120 --> 00:33:23,800
Speaker 2: she couldn't swim, she was also deathly afraid of the water,

732
00:33:23,880 --> 00:33:27,000
Speaker 2: so he hit the one like everything button to hit.

733
00:33:27,520 --> 00:33:30,880
Speaker 2: So now this pompadoord fake James Brown tribute act guy

734
00:33:30,960 --> 00:33:34,320
Speaker 2: further threatens her. Your body can easily be disposed of

735
00:33:34,360 --> 00:33:34,920
Speaker 2: in the wada.

736
00:33:35,080 --> 00:33:35,800
Speaker 3: Oh my god.

737
00:33:36,480 --> 00:33:39,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, So that's when she entertained what Lavell had in mind.

738
00:33:40,120 --> 00:33:41,080
Speaker 3: What else are you going to do?

739
00:33:41,280 --> 00:33:44,120
Speaker 2: Totally right, She's basically been kidnapped. So he tells her

740
00:33:44,280 --> 00:33:47,880
Speaker 2: again that while they're in Florida, quote, you are Aretha Franklin.

741
00:33:49,360 --> 00:33:51,720
Speaker 2: Now next up Lavell. He works the local promoters. He

742
00:33:51,760 --> 00:33:54,920
Speaker 2: tells them his client, Miss Franklin was in town looking

743
00:33:54,960 --> 00:33:58,200
Speaker 2: to do some shows. Typically she charged twenty grand a night.

744
00:33:58,320 --> 00:34:01,680
Speaker 2: Everybody knew that, but for them, she'd be willing to

745
00:34:01,680 --> 00:34:04,600
Speaker 2: book shows for the low low prices seven grand a night.

746
00:34:05,120 --> 00:34:08,000
Speaker 2: Why because the crowds in rural Florida would be smaller

747
00:34:08,040 --> 00:34:10,200
Speaker 2: than her shows up north or out west in places

748
00:34:10,239 --> 00:34:13,719
Speaker 2: like Las Vegas. So one local Florida promoter he goes

749
00:34:13,760 --> 00:34:14,160
Speaker 2: for it.

750
00:34:14,360 --> 00:34:17,239
Speaker 3: And none of them are like why why is she

751
00:34:17,360 --> 00:34:18,760
Speaker 3: desperate for a gig out.

752
00:34:18,560 --> 00:34:21,200
Speaker 2: Here in the winter too, not even tourist season like

753
00:34:21,200 --> 00:34:23,680
Speaker 2: they were talking. January of nineteen, sixteen.

754
00:34:23,360 --> 00:34:26,640
Speaker 3: Years oh, she's working out new material maybe, but even.

755
00:34:26,480 --> 00:34:30,080
Speaker 2: Then, you know no. And so Mary Jane Jones tells reporters.

756
00:34:30,640 --> 00:34:33,920
Speaker 2: After that same local promoter saw her first perform, he

757
00:34:34,000 --> 00:34:36,880
Speaker 2: thought I really was Aretha, and he acts, according to

758
00:34:37,080 --> 00:34:40,080
Speaker 2: he quote often to range a detective to protect me

759
00:34:40,160 --> 00:34:42,319
Speaker 2: and a car from my convenience.

760
00:34:41,920 --> 00:34:44,160
Speaker 3: Which Aretha would have been like, yes, please, no, don't.

761
00:34:44,200 --> 00:34:46,520
Speaker 2: You know that? Yeah, so of course, Lavelle hard it

762
00:34:46,560 --> 00:34:50,279
Speaker 2: was like, no, no cops are necessary now. So that

763
00:34:50,400 --> 00:34:53,880
Speaker 2: same local promoter he booked gigs for the Aretha Franklin Review,

764
00:34:54,120 --> 00:34:57,200
Speaker 2: and Mary Jans Jones aka Miss Vicki Jones went out

765
00:34:57,239 --> 00:34:59,880
Speaker 2: there night after night, and she does her best impression

766
00:34:59,880 --> 00:35:03,160
Speaker 2: of Aretha. The crowds they love it, Elizabeth. Most of

767
00:35:03,200 --> 00:35:05,359
Speaker 2: them were convinced if what they were seeing and what

768
00:35:05,360 --> 00:35:08,200
Speaker 2: they were hearing was the real Queen of Soul, Soul

769
00:35:08,280 --> 00:35:11,680
Speaker 2: System number one, even if it was some small podunk

770
00:35:11,719 --> 00:35:13,960
Speaker 2: town in rural Florida, and it made no sense of

771
00:35:14,000 --> 00:35:16,280
Speaker 2: the Aretha we'd be playing their little theater or nightclub.

772
00:35:16,280 --> 00:35:18,000
Speaker 2: They're like, no, no, of course she'd be here. They

773
00:35:18,000 --> 00:35:21,439
Speaker 2: decided to believe their lying eyes over the obvious truth

774
00:35:21,480 --> 00:35:23,600
Speaker 2: before them. Now at the end of each night's show,

775
00:35:23,719 --> 00:35:25,759
Speaker 2: miss Jones, she would rush back to her dressing room

776
00:35:25,760 --> 00:35:27,640
Speaker 2: because she didn't want to talk to anybody, and then

777
00:35:27,640 --> 00:35:29,080
Speaker 2: that way she could avoid the crowds. And then she

778
00:35:29,080 --> 00:35:30,960
Speaker 2: would go back there and just cry about what she

779
00:35:31,040 --> 00:35:33,400
Speaker 2: was doing. And then after she was done crying, she

780
00:35:33,400 --> 00:35:35,960
Speaker 2: would eat one of the two hamburgers that Lavelle gave

781
00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:39,520
Speaker 2: her each day as her food for the tour. What

782
00:35:39,800 --> 00:35:41,320
Speaker 2: she got two hamburgers.

783
00:35:40,800 --> 00:35:45,320
Speaker 3: A day, diet totally living on burgers.

784
00:35:45,400 --> 00:35:47,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, like one in the morning, one in the evening,

785
00:35:47,160 --> 00:35:52,160
Speaker 2: and yeah, it's terrible kibble for a dog. Then she's like,

786
00:35:52,200 --> 00:35:53,960
Speaker 2: you know, packed off to the motel room where he

787
00:35:53,960 --> 00:35:55,439
Speaker 2: would like hide his star act.

788
00:35:55,600 --> 00:35:57,600
Speaker 3: Oh my god, she's basically being trafficked.

789
00:35:57,800 --> 00:35:59,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, pretty much. It was a rough first three night,

790
00:36:00,160 --> 00:36:02,760
Speaker 2: first three shows, but Lavell hardy. He was making money

791
00:36:02,760 --> 00:36:05,320
Speaker 2: hand over fist, so he wanted to book bigger and

792
00:36:05,360 --> 00:36:07,919
Speaker 2: bigger shows, which meant bigger and bigger cities, which also

793
00:36:07,960 --> 00:36:10,160
Speaker 2: meant it would get harder and harder to con the

794
00:36:10,200 --> 00:36:14,040
Speaker 2: Florida crowds into thinking that's a refa. So, as missus

795
00:36:14,480 --> 00:36:17,960
Speaker 2: Jones told Jet Magazine, quote, I wanted to tell everybody

796
00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:21,080
Speaker 2: beforehand that I was not Miss Franklin, but Lavell said

797
00:36:21,120 --> 00:36:23,839
Speaker 2: the show promoters would do something awful to me if

798
00:36:23,880 --> 00:36:26,759
Speaker 2: they learned who I really was. I was scared. I

799
00:36:26,800 --> 00:36:30,239
Speaker 2: didn't have any money, no place to go. So, like

800
00:36:30,280 --> 00:36:34,040
Speaker 2: I said, she's got Basically, she's exactly. She's been kidnapped,

801
00:36:34,040 --> 00:36:36,960
Speaker 2: she's a hostage, and she's left to the whims of Lavell.

802
00:36:37,719 --> 00:36:40,560
Speaker 2: So she kept, you know, play acting as she best

803
00:36:40,600 --> 00:36:42,600
Speaker 2: she could as the real deal Queen of Soul. She'd

804
00:36:42,600 --> 00:36:45,239
Speaker 2: step out on in the stage, she'd become Aretha. She

805
00:36:45,239 --> 00:36:47,680
Speaker 2: would close her eyes and let her natural talents just

806
00:36:47,719 --> 00:36:50,759
Speaker 2: shine out of her because remember, she can sound like Aretha.

807
00:36:51,120 --> 00:36:54,080
Speaker 2: In under low lights, she looks like Aretha. So she'd

808
00:36:54,120 --> 00:36:56,120
Speaker 2: let those notes reach up to the heavens just like

809
00:36:56,160 --> 00:36:59,840
Speaker 2: Aretha did, and in fact her Arethe act was super convincing,

810
00:37:00,080 --> 00:37:03,399
Speaker 2: so like most everyone except for her. At one show,

811
00:37:03,400 --> 00:37:05,840
Speaker 2: the owner of the venue recalled that quote. Some people

812
00:37:05,840 --> 00:37:08,359
Speaker 2: who had seen Aretha before said that wasn't her, but

813
00:37:08,480 --> 00:37:11,719
Speaker 2: nobody was real show and even those doubts washed away

814
00:37:11,719 --> 00:37:14,160
Speaker 2: because other show goers would shouted the stage, that's her,

815
00:37:14,360 --> 00:37:16,919
Speaker 2: that's Aretha. Yeah. These are direct quotes by the way

816
00:37:16,960 --> 00:37:18,359
Speaker 2: from the newspaper at the time.

817
00:37:18,520 --> 00:37:20,920
Speaker 3: I love it, Like, have you ever gone to a

818
00:37:21,040 --> 00:37:22,920
Speaker 3: show and been in the crowd.

819
00:37:22,920 --> 00:37:24,040
Speaker 2: Like that's Jack White.

820
00:37:24,520 --> 00:37:26,520
Speaker 3: No, yes, that is Jack White.

821
00:37:26,640 --> 00:37:30,400
Speaker 2: I'm telling you, brothers, that is my man, Jack White, Jackson.

822
00:37:31,239 --> 00:37:35,400
Speaker 3: There's no that I didn't know was in question. Obviously

823
00:37:35,400 --> 00:37:36,880
Speaker 3: they're talking about it in the crowd.

824
00:37:37,000 --> 00:37:38,480
Speaker 2: There is some debate, yeah, but I think it's more

825
00:37:38,520 --> 00:37:40,120
Speaker 2: so some people are like like shoes showing it and

826
00:37:40,160 --> 00:37:42,080
Speaker 2: they're like, no, no, that's a Retha. I don't know.

827
00:37:42,160 --> 00:37:45,040
Speaker 2: I know two things. Son's coming up tomorrow, and that's

828
00:37:45,040 --> 00:37:48,360
Speaker 2: Aretha Franklin. So when miss Jones would leave the stage,

829
00:37:48,360 --> 00:37:51,080
Speaker 2: she would get carried off by thunderous applause. I'm talking

830
00:37:51,160 --> 00:37:53,879
Speaker 2: screams and shouts of the adoring fans of the real

831
00:37:53,920 --> 00:37:56,360
Speaker 2: Aretha Franklin because they got to see Aretha right here

832
00:37:56,400 --> 00:37:59,600
Speaker 2: in like Bradenton, Florida, at one venue. She gets this

833
00:37:59,680 --> 00:38:03,040
Speaker 2: stand ovation, all right, And so like some twisted like

834
00:38:03,160 --> 00:38:06,640
Speaker 2: Faustian bargain, she found that she'd gotten what she'd once

835
00:38:06,719 --> 00:38:08,960
Speaker 2: dreamed of when she wanted to sing before the audiences

836
00:38:09,000 --> 00:38:11,680
Speaker 2: and be in a star but and the audience responding

837
00:38:11,719 --> 00:38:14,440
Speaker 2: with all their heart and everyone's like overcome by her voice,

838
00:38:14,480 --> 00:38:17,520
Speaker 2: her presence, her star potential, the ache of her soul,

839
00:38:17,600 --> 00:38:21,120
Speaker 2: her transcendent voice. She got it all, but not really. No,

840
00:38:21,600 --> 00:38:23,319
Speaker 2: it was only it was it was nothing like what

841
00:38:23,360 --> 00:38:25,040
Speaker 2: she wanted it was. It was it was her dream,

842
00:38:25,120 --> 00:38:27,280
Speaker 2: but it felt like a nightmare.

843
00:38:27,360 --> 00:38:27,520
Speaker 4: Yeah.

844
00:38:27,600 --> 00:38:31,320
Speaker 2: One scripted by Livell ha Day. So, of course, a

845
00:38:31,400 --> 00:38:34,040
Speaker 2: scam like this one can only go on for so long. Eventually,

846
00:38:34,120 --> 00:38:36,319
Speaker 2: someone whose job it is to make money off the

847
00:38:36,360 --> 00:38:38,719
Speaker 2: reel of Aretha Franklin is going to hear about this,

848
00:38:38,960 --> 00:38:41,799
Speaker 2: and then it's all gonna go. Now, Okay, let's take

849
00:38:41,800 --> 00:38:44,400
Speaker 2: a little break. And after these messages, the reel of

850
00:38:44,520 --> 00:38:47,440
Speaker 2: Retha Franklin comes into this little morality play and the

851
00:38:47,480 --> 00:38:50,680
Speaker 2: temptation of Vicky Jones goes in a whole different directions.

852
00:39:11,400 --> 00:39:15,279
Speaker 2: Rebecca Elizabeth, Yes, we are enjoy this so far. I

853
00:39:15,280 --> 00:39:16,680
Speaker 2: thought it'd be a nice change of pace.

854
00:39:16,880 --> 00:39:17,359
Speaker 3: I like it.

855
00:39:17,480 --> 00:39:19,800
Speaker 2: So you're ready to hear how this long con goes

856
00:39:19,920 --> 00:39:22,680
Speaker 2: belly up. Of course, at this point it's the middle

857
00:39:22,719 --> 00:39:26,399
Speaker 2: of January nineteen sixty nine and Mary Jones is it's

858
00:39:26,400 --> 00:39:28,759
Speaker 2: book to play a show in Ocalla, Florida. It's a

859
00:39:28,960 --> 00:39:31,759
Speaker 2: forty two hundred seat venue, which is I know, I

860
00:39:31,760 --> 00:39:33,520
Speaker 2: don't know about you, but if you told me that

861
00:39:33,640 --> 00:39:37,240
Speaker 2: Maretha Franklin was booked to play the Southeastern Livestock Pavilion,

862
00:39:37,360 --> 00:39:39,680
Speaker 2: I would have been a bit doubtful. But this is

863
00:39:39,719 --> 00:39:43,680
Speaker 2: the biggest venue Miss Jones has seen yet, right, forty

864
00:39:43,680 --> 00:39:44,600
Speaker 2: two hundred seat venue.

865
00:39:44,719 --> 00:39:45,160
Speaker 3: Pretty good?

866
00:39:45,440 --> 00:39:47,440
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it's like an exposition hall that she's playing

867
00:39:47,480 --> 00:39:51,759
Speaker 2: in at the Southeastern Livestock Pavilion. That's the spot where

868
00:39:51,800 --> 00:39:55,640
Speaker 2: Florida Cattleman auctioned off livestock. Yeah. So, I mean, I know,

869
00:39:56,239 --> 00:39:58,239
Speaker 2: is going to rockstick right, I mean, I know, yes,

870
00:39:58,320 --> 00:40:00,840
Speaker 2: folks play like County Well.

871
00:40:00,680 --> 00:40:05,400
Speaker 3: And out here Cow Palace. I've seen Metallica play at the.

872
00:40:05,520 --> 00:40:08,440
Speaker 2: Total, but they don't still sell cows. They do, do

873
00:40:08,480 --> 00:40:08,880
Speaker 2: they know?

874
00:40:08,960 --> 00:40:09,440
Speaker 3: They used to?

875
00:40:09,560 --> 00:40:10,760
Speaker 2: Yeah, they used to. They stopped.

876
00:40:11,200 --> 00:40:14,400
Speaker 3: But they have other stuff that's like, you know, non music.

877
00:40:15,040 --> 00:40:18,920
Speaker 3: It's you know, they have like like they have like

878
00:40:19,520 --> 00:40:22,160
Speaker 3: gem convention type things.

879
00:40:22,719 --> 00:40:25,759
Speaker 2: Yeah. But normally if you see someone in like the

880
00:40:25,800 --> 00:40:29,200
Speaker 2: Southeastern Livestock Pavilion, it's at the end of their musical career,

881
00:40:29,360 --> 00:40:30,919
Speaker 2: not when they're a huge Grammy win.

882
00:40:32,280 --> 00:40:36,720
Speaker 3: County Fair material, which the go to County Fair people

883
00:40:36,760 --> 00:40:40,319
Speaker 3: in the Bay Area. Now, for years was Tower of Power, right,

884
00:40:40,400 --> 00:40:43,680
Speaker 3: they always played like Alameda County Fair, And now I'm

885
00:40:43,719 --> 00:40:50,520
Speaker 3: finding that, Oh yeah, they play a lot of county

886
00:40:50,560 --> 00:40:52,640
Speaker 3: fairs because they're like, you know what, we can get

887
00:40:52,719 --> 00:40:55,399
Speaker 3: drunk before we go on stage. It's they'll pay us.

888
00:40:55,440 --> 00:40:57,120
Speaker 3: It's very, very limited.

889
00:40:57,120 --> 00:40:58,440
Speaker 2: After there's not going to be anyone here from the

890
00:40:58,520 --> 00:40:59,080
Speaker 2: music industry.

891
00:40:59,160 --> 00:40:59,920
Speaker 3: Don't have to go far.

892
00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:01,320
Speaker 2: I don't worry about a music review.

893
00:41:02,200 --> 00:41:04,879
Speaker 3: But I see him on all sorts of crazy low rent.

894
00:41:04,920 --> 00:41:06,680
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, you'll see him on the posters attached to

895
00:41:06,760 --> 00:41:09,759
Speaker 2: like light poles and when he's driving. So this has

896
00:41:10,160 --> 00:41:12,520
Speaker 2: basically how you fleece suckers because they don't question the

897
00:41:12,560 --> 00:41:14,960
Speaker 2: obvious tells like Aretha Franklin being booked to play the

898
00:41:15,000 --> 00:41:18,000
Speaker 2: Southeastern Livestock Pavilion in the dead of winter. If they

899
00:41:18,040 --> 00:41:21,960
Speaker 2: believe that you've already done half the work, yeah, exactly. Anyway,

900
00:41:22,000 --> 00:41:24,720
Speaker 2: all around a call of Florida, Lavelle had posters slapped

901
00:41:24,800 --> 00:41:27,640
Speaker 2: up that advertised Queen of Soul was coming to town.

902
00:41:28,080 --> 00:41:30,360
Speaker 2: You better act fast, get your tickets now, right. And

903
00:41:30,360 --> 00:41:31,920
Speaker 2: not only that, he also got the word out on

904
00:41:31,960 --> 00:41:34,560
Speaker 2: the local black radio stations that also helped to sell

905
00:41:34,560 --> 00:41:37,239
Speaker 2: the con job because if it's on the radio, how

906
00:41:37,239 --> 00:41:39,560
Speaker 2: could it not be true? You see that these days

907
00:41:39,560 --> 00:41:41,880
Speaker 2: with TV and like and the internet and the Internet,

908
00:41:41,920 --> 00:41:43,759
Speaker 2: it's like, well, it must be true. This guy is

909
00:41:43,800 --> 00:41:46,600
Speaker 2: saying it. So the next show would be the biggest

910
00:41:46,640 --> 00:41:48,800
Speaker 2: crowd yet. As I said, for Mary Jane Jones, and

911
00:41:48,840 --> 00:41:51,600
Speaker 2: the prospect of fooling forty two hundred people at the

912
00:41:51,640 --> 00:41:54,560
Speaker 2: same time had her nerves. But she was basically as

913
00:41:54,560 --> 00:41:56,440
Speaker 2: nervous as a long tailed cat and a room full

914
00:41:56,440 --> 00:41:59,320
Speaker 2: of rock and chairs. Right then, a bit of heavenly

915
00:41:59,360 --> 00:42:02,600
Speaker 2: intervention occur, the kind that shattered her faustian bargain with

916
00:42:02,760 --> 00:42:05,879
Speaker 2: Lavell Haday. You see, just before that show went down,

917
00:42:05,920 --> 00:42:09,080
Speaker 2: the local prosecutor of Marion County received a phone call.

918
00:42:09,360 --> 00:42:12,040
Speaker 2: On the other end was Aretha Franklin's attorney. He was

919
00:42:12,080 --> 00:42:14,640
Speaker 2: calling from New York City. He'd been busy arranging the

920
00:42:14,680 --> 00:42:17,719
Speaker 2: real Aretha Franklin's upcoming shows in Miami, Florida, when he

921
00:42:17,719 --> 00:42:20,440
Speaker 2: heard from promoters in Florida, you know, the ones working

922
00:42:20,440 --> 00:42:22,800
Speaker 2: down in the sunsigned state, that his client was already

923
00:42:22,800 --> 00:42:24,360
Speaker 2: working stages in rural Florida.

924
00:42:24,640 --> 00:42:26,000
Speaker 3: Stop. Oh, this is so good.

925
00:42:26,040 --> 00:42:28,799
Speaker 2: He's obviously thrown by this. This is news to him, Elizabeth,

926
00:42:29,080 --> 00:42:31,680
Speaker 2: So he starts asking the obvious questions, Now, who did

927
00:42:31,719 --> 00:42:34,240
Speaker 2: what and where? What shows? Can you tell me dates?

928
00:42:34,239 --> 00:42:37,320
Speaker 2: Can you tell me spots, locations, venues? Who owns that venue?

929
00:42:37,320 --> 00:42:37,960
Speaker 2: All the questions.

930
00:42:38,040 --> 00:42:38,320
Speaker 3: Yeah.

931
00:42:38,360 --> 00:42:41,000
Speaker 2: Once he gets to the bottom of Lavelle's scam and

932
00:42:41,120 --> 00:42:44,520
Speaker 2: basically tracking the progress of this fake Aretha Franklin, Retha

933
00:42:44,560 --> 00:42:47,640
Speaker 2: Franklin's real lawyer phones the Marion County Prosecutor and informs

934
00:42:47,680 --> 00:42:50,560
Speaker 2: them of what all he's learned. The Prosecutor's like, yeah,

935
00:42:50,600 --> 00:42:53,320
Speaker 2: we gotta Retha Franklin in town. My wife's a big

936
00:42:53,360 --> 00:42:55,200
Speaker 2: fan and we got tickets to go see her at

937
00:42:55,200 --> 00:42:59,759
Speaker 2: the Southeastern Livestock Pavilion and wreatha. Lawyer's like, what, well,

938
00:42:59,800 --> 00:43:01,759
Speaker 2: I got some bad news for your wife.

939
00:43:01,680 --> 00:43:01,759
Speaker 3: Ye.

940
00:43:02,200 --> 00:43:04,600
Speaker 2: Now the prosecutor he springs into action. He phones the

941
00:43:04,680 --> 00:43:08,120
Speaker 2: chief investigator over at the Marion County Sheriff's office. He

942
00:43:08,200 --> 00:43:11,400
Speaker 2: tells his chief investigators, basically the chief of detectives, he

943
00:43:11,520 --> 00:43:14,879
Speaker 2: wants the impostor arrested and locked up post haste. Yeah.

944
00:43:14,920 --> 00:43:17,440
Speaker 2: The chief investigators like, you ain't got to tell me twice?

945
00:43:17,520 --> 00:43:21,640
Speaker 2: When and where is this show. So this particular investigator,

946
00:43:21,640 --> 00:43:24,480
Speaker 2: he wasn't your typical small town southern sheriff. In fact,

947
00:43:24,560 --> 00:43:26,840
Speaker 2: he and his partner were both known to wear fancy

948
00:43:26,920 --> 00:43:29,960
Speaker 2: suits and kind of fancy themselves as investigators as opposed

949
00:43:29,960 --> 00:43:33,000
Speaker 2: to sheriff detectives. And basically what I'm saying is, Elizabeth,

950
00:43:33,040 --> 00:43:36,040
Speaker 2: these two men had notions. Yeah, they got in swollen

951
00:43:36,080 --> 00:43:39,160
Speaker 2: heads already after they've been interviewed for like Detective magazine.

952
00:43:39,239 --> 00:43:41,719
Speaker 2: And then also they provided security for Elvis when he

953
00:43:41,760 --> 00:43:44,440
Speaker 2: was in No callis shooting a movie like they know show.

954
00:43:44,280 --> 00:43:45,640
Speaker 3: Business now yeah, yea.

955
00:43:46,440 --> 00:43:49,280
Speaker 2: So they told the Marion County prosecutor, don't you worry, Hoss,

956
00:43:49,640 --> 00:43:52,680
Speaker 2: We'll go get justice for Aretha Franklin. And now before

957
00:43:52,719 --> 00:43:54,200
Speaker 2: I tell you about that, Elizabeth, I'd like you to

958
00:43:54,280 --> 00:43:55,799
Speaker 2: do me one favor. I'd like you to close your

959
00:43:55,840 --> 00:44:08,959
Speaker 2: eyes and I'd like you to picture it. It's sound

960
00:44:09,080 --> 00:44:12,920
Speaker 2: check at the Okalla's Club Valley Nightclub. Lavelle Hardy is

961
00:44:13,040 --> 00:44:15,400
Speaker 2: running the scene. Meanwhile, the star of the show, the

962
00:44:15,440 --> 00:44:18,200
Speaker 2: One and only A Retha Franklin, is running through her

963
00:44:18,239 --> 00:44:22,400
Speaker 2: plans set for her upcoming show. At the moment, you, Elizabeth,

964
00:44:22,400 --> 00:44:24,640
Speaker 2: are behind the bar since you're a bartender at the

965
00:44:24,640 --> 00:44:28,040
Speaker 2: club Valley Nightclub. You're pertending to get ready for the

966
00:44:28,120 --> 00:44:30,560
Speaker 2: night to come, but really you're just watching this show

967
00:44:30,760 --> 00:44:33,440
Speaker 2: and sound check. Normally you wouldn't show up to work

968
00:44:33,480 --> 00:44:35,400
Speaker 2: so early to get ready for the Saturday night. But

969
00:44:35,480 --> 00:44:38,560
Speaker 2: how often is Aretha Franklin in your nightclub? As you

970
00:44:38,640 --> 00:44:41,399
Speaker 2: towel off highball glasses and arrange them for the night's

971
00:44:41,480 --> 00:44:44,719
Speaker 2: drinking to come, you watch Aretha Franklin sing her song.

972
00:44:44,920 --> 00:44:47,200
Speaker 2: Think her voice is strong, just like it is on

973
00:44:47,239 --> 00:44:50,160
Speaker 2: the albums. Even for just a sound check, it sounds

974
00:44:50,320 --> 00:44:55,279
Speaker 2: amazing and it's just you, her, her papadored manager, and

975
00:44:55,320 --> 00:44:58,360
Speaker 2: the club owner. It's a super intimate setting. What a

976
00:44:58,520 --> 00:45:00,920
Speaker 2: rare treat you think this makes up for all the

977
00:45:01,040 --> 00:45:03,560
Speaker 2: nights you have to mop up puke and clean the

978
00:45:03,600 --> 00:45:06,279
Speaker 2: toilet after a long Saturday night. It's all worth it

979
00:45:06,360 --> 00:45:10,080
Speaker 2: for these moments. After Aretha finishes her song, the club

980
00:45:10,160 --> 00:45:13,440
Speaker 2: falls quiet. Her pompadored manager steps up on stage and

981
00:45:13,480 --> 00:45:18,040
Speaker 2: whispers some notes in her Now you can't hear what

982
00:45:18,040 --> 00:45:20,759
Speaker 2: he's saying. Instead, you hear a knock at the club door.

983
00:45:21,000 --> 00:45:24,720
Speaker 2: It's a loud, insistent knock. It sounds like it's the police.

984
00:45:25,080 --> 00:45:27,040
Speaker 2: When the club owner gets up, checks that he has

985
00:45:27,040 --> 00:45:29,120
Speaker 2: his gun on him, he walks over to the door.

986
00:45:29,440 --> 00:45:32,520
Speaker 2: His shoes sound against the club's hard floor, and then

987
00:45:32,640 --> 00:45:35,360
Speaker 2: he opens the door. It turns out it is the cops.

988
00:45:35,760 --> 00:45:38,319
Speaker 2: Two detectives flash their badgers and then push their way

989
00:45:38,320 --> 00:45:41,160
Speaker 2: into the empty night club. On stage, Aretha and her

990
00:45:41,160 --> 00:45:44,520
Speaker 2: manager both freeze in place. They both look about as

991
00:45:44,560 --> 00:45:46,239
Speaker 2: guilty as a kid who's caught with his hand in

992
00:45:46,239 --> 00:45:49,800
Speaker 2: the cookie jar. The cops announce, don't move a muscle.

993
00:45:49,880 --> 00:45:53,640
Speaker 2: You're both under arrest. What the hell you think to yourself,

994
00:45:53,640 --> 00:45:56,560
Speaker 2: What could Aretha Franklin done to be treated like this?

995
00:45:57,080 --> 00:46:00,000
Speaker 2: The cops frisk them both. You watch as the cops

996
00:46:00,120 --> 00:46:02,720
Speaker 2: pull seven grand out of the soup pockets of Aretha's

997
00:46:02,719 --> 00:46:07,280
Speaker 2: pompadoored manager. After that, outcome the handcuffs. He and Aretha

998
00:46:07,360 --> 00:46:09,960
Speaker 2: are both handcuffed, and then purp walked out to the

999
00:46:10,000 --> 00:46:13,360
Speaker 2: waiting police car. You follow behind the officers, not quite

1000
00:46:13,400 --> 00:46:16,440
Speaker 2: believing this is happening. You watch as the two sheriff

1001
00:46:16,520 --> 00:46:20,520
Speaker 2: detectives shove the pompador manager and then Aretha Franklin into

1002
00:46:20,520 --> 00:46:22,960
Speaker 2: the back seat of the police car. It's a brand

1003
00:46:22,960 --> 00:46:27,080
Speaker 2: new sixty nine, Pontiac. The car is clean, clean. Aretha

1004
00:46:27,160 --> 00:46:29,960
Speaker 2: sits in the back end. She stares back at you.

1005
00:46:29,960 --> 00:46:32,439
Speaker 2: You mutter to yourself, that is no way to treat

1006
00:46:32,480 --> 00:46:34,319
Speaker 2: the Queen of soul. And then you hear the club

1007
00:46:34,320 --> 00:46:37,200
Speaker 2: owners say, you idiot. I don't know who that is,

1008
00:46:37,239 --> 00:46:41,680
Speaker 2: but it ain't Nowheretha Franklin. So there you go, Elizabeth,

1009
00:46:41,680 --> 00:46:44,120
Speaker 2: You're a moment with the show. So when they were

1010
00:46:44,200 --> 00:46:45,680
Speaker 2: doing it was a sound check before they did the

1011
00:46:45,680 --> 00:46:48,240
Speaker 2: big forty two seats. She just needed somewhere to perform,

1012
00:46:48,320 --> 00:46:50,399
Speaker 2: so you leaned on some venue like maybe we'll come

1013
00:46:50,440 --> 00:46:53,680
Speaker 2: back here and do a show for you. Now. After

1014
00:46:53,800 --> 00:46:56,799
Speaker 2: Lavelle and then Miss Vicki Jones were both arrested and

1015
00:46:56,800 --> 00:47:00,520
Speaker 2: booked for their fake Aretha Franklin show, this story off

1016
00:47:00,560 --> 00:47:04,520
Speaker 2: it leads to national headlines oh really. As the Flint

1017
00:47:04,600 --> 00:47:07,840
Speaker 2: Journal of Flint, Michigan reported on January twenty third, nineteen

1018
00:47:07,880 --> 00:47:10,960
Speaker 2: sixty nine, from a syndicated story by the Associated Press,

1019
00:47:11,040 --> 00:47:15,279
Speaker 2: quote dateline oh call of Florida. An itinerant male hairdresser

1020
00:47:15,400 --> 00:47:18,440
Speaker 2: was jailed Wednesday after police say he staged a quote

1021
00:47:18,480 --> 00:47:22,560
Speaker 2: Aretha Franklin show by forcing a penniless Virginia girl to

1022
00:47:22,600 --> 00:47:25,000
Speaker 2: pose on stage as the twenty thousand a week soul

1023
00:47:25,080 --> 00:47:26,200
Speaker 2: singer from Detroit.

1024
00:47:27,040 --> 00:47:29,520
Speaker 3: Well, at least it's there casting it that in the

1025
00:47:29,600 --> 00:47:31,640
Speaker 3: right lights. Yeah, not an accomplice totally.

1026
00:47:31,880 --> 00:47:33,920
Speaker 2: The story goes on from there to report that quote.

1027
00:47:34,040 --> 00:47:36,879
Speaker 2: Lavelle Hardy, twenty four, of New York was booked into

1028
00:47:37,000 --> 00:47:39,680
Speaker 2: Marion County Jail under a five hundred dollars bond on

1029
00:47:39,800 --> 00:47:43,440
Speaker 2: false advertising charges after he bought ads for the Aretha

1030
00:47:43,560 --> 00:47:46,479
Speaker 2: Franklin Review for Thursday night at a four thousand seat

1031
00:47:46,520 --> 00:47:51,279
Speaker 2: exposition hall. Meanwhile, when the Marion County Prosecutor speaks with

1032
00:47:51,360 --> 00:47:54,600
Speaker 2: the miss Vicki Jones aka Mary Jane Jones, yeah, she

1033
00:47:54,760 --> 00:47:57,480
Speaker 2: tells them about how she'd borrowed money to come to

1034
00:47:57,560 --> 00:48:00,200
Speaker 2: Florida and that she thought she'd be performing un under

1035
00:48:00,200 --> 00:48:02,960
Speaker 2: her own name, but instead Lavelle. He threatened her, He

1036
00:48:03,000 --> 00:48:04,719
Speaker 2: kept her in motel rooms, he was feeding her just

1037
00:48:04,760 --> 00:48:07,359
Speaker 2: two hamburgers a day. It all becomes clear to this

1038
00:48:07,400 --> 00:48:10,160
Speaker 2: prosecutor that, as you've noticed, she's the victim. She and

1039
00:48:10,239 --> 00:48:10,600
Speaker 2: a purp.

1040
00:48:10,719 --> 00:48:10,919
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1041
00:48:11,160 --> 00:48:13,240
Speaker 2: So, in a story I found from the Tampa Bay Times,

1042
00:48:13,320 --> 00:48:17,000
Speaker 2: the Marion County prosecutor told reporters how quote, I'm sure

1043
00:48:17,040 --> 00:48:19,359
Speaker 2: glad we found out about this thing. There are going

1044
00:48:19,440 --> 00:48:22,040
Speaker 2: to be thousands of people from all over the Southeast

1045
00:48:22,040 --> 00:48:25,200
Speaker 2: for the show. She couldn't have fooled all those people. No,

1046
00:48:25,360 --> 00:48:27,400
Speaker 2: tell them what they would have done to the pavilion,

1047
00:48:27,760 --> 00:48:29,319
Speaker 2: and it could have been far worse when she got

1048
00:48:29,320 --> 00:48:30,600
Speaker 2: to Tampa or Jacksonville.

1049
00:48:31,160 --> 00:48:32,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, they don't play.

1050
00:48:32,200 --> 00:48:35,920
Speaker 2: No think of the pavilion people. Where are we going

1051
00:48:35,960 --> 00:48:38,240
Speaker 2: to sell our livestock if something happens to the pavilion.

1052
00:48:38,320 --> 00:48:41,200
Speaker 3: We we have a full schedule, yes exactly. We got

1053
00:48:41,320 --> 00:48:42,160
Speaker 3: nowhere to divert.

1054
00:48:42,360 --> 00:48:44,719
Speaker 2: We got a truck pull on Sunday, Yes exactly. So

1055
00:48:44,800 --> 00:48:47,160
Speaker 2: he tells reporters that he's decided to file charges after

1056
00:48:47,239 --> 00:48:49,840
Speaker 2: quote the real a rit the Franklin agreed to testify

1057
00:48:49,840 --> 00:48:52,960
Speaker 2: in criminal court here stop was willing to come down.

1058
00:48:53,080 --> 00:48:54,839
Speaker 3: Just wanted to get to get her down.

1059
00:48:55,000 --> 00:48:57,359
Speaker 2: Oh my god. Yes, he was like, what, okay, book

1060
00:48:57,440 --> 00:48:59,879
Speaker 2: the show, I mean booked the trial. So as one

1061
00:48:59,880 --> 00:49:02,239
Speaker 2: of the sheriff's detectives did point out, quote, if it

1062
00:49:02,320 --> 00:49:04,600
Speaker 2: was a drag, Aretha would have gotten mad, but this

1063
00:49:04,680 --> 00:49:07,160
Speaker 2: girl went over. So he's basically saying like, that's why

1064
00:49:07,160 --> 00:49:10,120
Speaker 2: Aretha and two pissed. The homegirl did her right. So

1065
00:49:10,120 --> 00:49:13,200
Speaker 2: Elizabeth the Clia Soul wasn't mad at Miss Vicki Jones

1066
00:49:13,239 --> 00:49:15,600
Speaker 2: for pretending to be her. She was only mad at

1067
00:49:15,600 --> 00:49:20,000
Speaker 2: the itinerant male hairdresser, Nobelle Hardy. Now, in fact, Aretha

1068
00:49:20,080 --> 00:49:23,040
Speaker 2: told Jet Magazine quote he ought to be prosecuted, not

1069
00:49:23,120 --> 00:49:26,560
Speaker 2: that girl. Right, go on, Aretha. However, this wasn't up

1070
00:49:26,600 --> 00:49:28,919
Speaker 2: to Aretha to decide. That was up to the job

1071
00:49:28,960 --> 00:49:31,239
Speaker 2: of the Marion County prosecutor, and he still needed to

1072
00:49:31,280 --> 00:49:34,080
Speaker 2: be fully convinced, because anybody can say anything right. So

1073
00:49:34,200 --> 00:49:36,080
Speaker 2: to prove her side of the story, he asked, Miss

1074
00:49:36,200 --> 00:49:38,880
Speaker 2: Vicki Jones, you sing from me, let me hear you

1075
00:49:38,920 --> 00:49:41,959
Speaker 2: are Aretha. So when Miss Vicki Jones opens her mouth,

1076
00:49:42,040 --> 00:49:45,000
Speaker 2: she hits him with her natural talent. And after he

1077
00:49:45,000 --> 00:49:48,560
Speaker 2: heard her sing, this Marion County Prosecutor concluded, this girl

1078
00:49:48,640 --> 00:49:52,360
Speaker 2: is a sanger. She is terrific. Just singing without a combo,

1079
00:49:52,520 --> 00:49:55,120
Speaker 2: she showed she had a distinctive style all her own.

1080
00:49:55,440 --> 00:49:57,520
Speaker 3: What was the point of that demissu.

1081
00:49:58,320 --> 00:50:00,799
Speaker 2: So she convinces him that she is the and the

1082
00:50:00,880 --> 00:50:04,319
Speaker 2: lavelle had conned this simple girl from rural Virginia into

1083
00:50:04,360 --> 00:50:07,480
Speaker 2: doing this Florida long con and as the Marion County

1084
00:50:07,520 --> 00:50:10,960
Speaker 2: prosecutor told reporters, she didn't have a red scent. She

1085
00:50:11,040 --> 00:50:13,239
Speaker 2: had four children at home and no way to get

1086
00:50:13,239 --> 00:50:16,320
Speaker 2: to them. We were thoroughly convinced that Vicky was forced

1087
00:50:16,320 --> 00:50:18,560
Speaker 2: into being Aretha Frankel, and it was obvious she was

1088
00:50:18,600 --> 00:50:21,080
Speaker 2: a victim. So now, as a result, Miss Vicky Jones

1089
00:50:21,120 --> 00:50:23,840
Speaker 2: was placed in protective custody and she faces no charges.

1090
00:50:24,560 --> 00:50:27,359
Speaker 2: Then when she's released from the courthouse, she was met

1091
00:50:27,360 --> 00:50:30,080
Speaker 2: by this gaggle reporters because it's now a national news

1092
00:50:30,160 --> 00:50:32,000
Speaker 2: story and they all want to get their angle. So

1093
00:50:32,120 --> 00:50:35,839
Speaker 2: Vicky Jones tells the gathered newsman, the judge said, I

1094
00:50:36,000 --> 00:50:38,000
Speaker 2: really sounded like her. I know I can use a

1095
00:50:38,000 --> 00:50:40,759
Speaker 2: little training in singing jazz and the blues, but I

1096
00:50:40,800 --> 00:50:42,600
Speaker 2: feel I can go all the way. I don't believe

1097
00:50:42,600 --> 00:50:44,759
Speaker 2: there is such a word as camped. So she's like

1098
00:50:44,760 --> 00:50:46,720
Speaker 2: trying to sell us up, like could we get another

1099
00:50:46,840 --> 00:50:49,439
Speaker 2: little stage for me now? As for her con job

1100
00:50:49,480 --> 00:50:52,319
Speaker 2: as Aretha, she also told reporters that quote, I'm not her,

1101
00:50:52,560 --> 00:50:54,560
Speaker 2: I don't look like her, I don't dress like her,

1102
00:50:54,560 --> 00:50:57,040
Speaker 2: and I should don't have her money and in an

1103
00:50:57,080 --> 00:51:00,440
Speaker 2: exclusive interview with The Orlando Sentinel. She later said, I

1104
00:51:00,520 --> 00:51:03,400
Speaker 2: want the truth told. I have never met her Beta Franklin,

1105
00:51:03,440 --> 00:51:06,120
Speaker 2: and I have never seen her except on television. So

1106
00:51:06,280 --> 00:51:09,000
Speaker 2: at this point, you know, Areta doesn't come back into

1107
00:51:09,040 --> 00:51:10,720
Speaker 2: the story. She doesn't come and meet her or anything.

1108
00:51:11,280 --> 00:51:13,120
Speaker 3: At least kicked her down some money to get home.

1109
00:51:13,200 --> 00:51:14,960
Speaker 2: That would be nice, right, But this isn't the end

1110
00:51:15,000 --> 00:51:17,200
Speaker 2: of this strange tale of impersonation. Because I have good

1111
00:51:17,200 --> 00:51:18,080
Speaker 2: news for you, Elizabeth.

1112
00:51:18,160 --> 00:51:18,520
Speaker 3: I love it.

1113
00:51:18,640 --> 00:51:20,960
Speaker 2: This story has a happy ending, thank you. You see,

1114
00:51:21,000 --> 00:51:23,480
Speaker 2: when Miss Vicky Jones stepped out of the Marion County Courthouse,

1115
00:51:23,480 --> 00:51:25,720
Speaker 2: it wasn't just reporters waiting for her. There was also

1116
00:51:25,760 --> 00:51:29,280
Speaker 2: a self made millionaire named Ray Green. He was smitten

1117
00:51:29,320 --> 00:51:31,680
Speaker 2: with her, smitting with her story. He wanted to offer

1118
00:51:31,719 --> 00:51:35,360
Speaker 2: her a legitimate show business place, a legit contract, and

1119
00:51:35,400 --> 00:51:37,319
Speaker 2: he paid her five hundred dollars to get her back

1120
00:51:37,320 --> 00:51:40,000
Speaker 2: home to Virginia. And then he offered to be her

1121
00:51:40,200 --> 00:51:42,839
Speaker 2: managing agent and her advisor, and he booked her a

1122
00:51:42,880 --> 00:51:47,000
Speaker 2: real deal, sold out to her all across Florida, performing

1123
00:51:47,280 --> 00:51:52,399
Speaker 2: as herself. Miss Vicky Joneses then enter jazz legend Duke

1124
00:51:52,440 --> 00:51:58,160
Speaker 2: Ellington Yes, just weeks after her arrest. On February eighth,

1125
00:51:58,239 --> 00:52:01,640
Speaker 2: nineteen sixty nine, The ord Lando Sentinel reported that quote

1126
00:52:02,040 --> 00:52:06,080
Speaker 2: erstwhile Aretha Franklin impersonator Mary Jane Jones performed under her

1127
00:52:06,080 --> 00:52:09,120
Speaker 2: own stage name here Vicky Jones with band leader Duke

1128
00:52:09,160 --> 00:52:13,200
Speaker 2: Ellington and his band Stop Yes. Her long strange road

1129
00:52:13,239 --> 00:52:14,640
Speaker 2: to fame it finally paid off.

1130
00:52:14,680 --> 00:52:15,120
Speaker 3: Wow.

1131
00:52:15,239 --> 00:52:17,480
Speaker 2: When she stepped out on stage with Duke Ellington, he

1132
00:52:17,520 --> 00:52:21,080
Speaker 2: told his audience at the Civic Auditorium in Sandford, Florida, quote,

1133
00:52:21,160 --> 00:52:23,319
Speaker 2: I want to introduce you to a Florida girl who

1134
00:52:23,360 --> 00:52:26,439
Speaker 2: made national headlines two weeks ago. Now he was wrong

1135
00:52:26,440 --> 00:52:29,000
Speaker 2: about the Florida her part, right, But who's gonna correct

1136
00:52:29,040 --> 00:52:31,279
Speaker 2: Duke Ellington exactly? So on stage he gave her like

1137
00:52:31,280 --> 00:52:33,440
Speaker 2: an avuncular kiss on the cheek to like, you know,

1138
00:52:33,560 --> 00:52:37,480
Speaker 2: basically denote her being special. And this photographer snapped photos

1139
00:52:37,480 --> 00:52:40,319
Speaker 2: of this like star making moment. And back to the

1140
00:52:40,440 --> 00:52:43,600
Speaker 2: Orlando Sentinel, which reported that she appeared in an expensive

1141
00:52:43,640 --> 00:52:47,320
Speaker 2: looking yellow ankle length evening gown and without a wig.

1142
00:52:47,960 --> 00:52:51,719
Speaker 2: Oh fashion please. All of a sudden, so with this band,

1143
00:52:51,920 --> 00:52:54,279
Speaker 2: Duke Ellington's band begins to play the song every day,

1144
00:52:54,360 --> 00:52:57,040
Speaker 2: I have the blues. Miss Jones stood before that microphone

1145
00:52:57,040 --> 00:52:59,719
Speaker 2: and began to sing the opening lyrics, speaking of bad

1146
00:52:59,800 --> 00:53:02,720
Speaker 2: luck in trouble. Well, you know I've had my share,

1147
00:53:03,280 --> 00:53:06,680
Speaker 2: and the crowd was transfixed, mesmerized by her natural talent.

1148
00:53:06,800 --> 00:53:09,319
Speaker 2: You know, the song choice and you damned to share

1149
00:53:09,360 --> 00:53:11,800
Speaker 2: a better believe they knew the blues she was singing

1150
00:53:12,000 --> 00:53:14,600
Speaker 2: was real, so her voice it was basically as striking

1151
00:53:14,640 --> 00:53:17,160
Speaker 2: and as authentic as like a clap of thunder. Right,

1152
00:53:17,200 --> 00:53:19,600
Speaker 2: They're like, oh, you cannot deny this. And as the

1153
00:53:19,680 --> 00:53:22,759
Speaker 2: Orlando set and also reported quote, Ellington said he is

1154
00:53:22,800 --> 00:53:25,920
Speaker 2: considering giving miss Jones the chance of a lifetime, hiring

1155
00:53:26,120 --> 00:53:29,680
Speaker 2: her on for a six month contract. The very next month,

1156
00:53:29,680 --> 00:53:32,239
Speaker 2: in March of sixty nine, the cover of Jet magazine

1157
00:53:32,239 --> 00:53:36,560
Speaker 2: featured in Miss Vicki Jones cover, Jet Star was Born,

1158
00:53:36,960 --> 00:53:39,360
Speaker 2: and she told Jet Magazine it was so exciting just

1159
00:53:39,400 --> 00:53:41,399
Speaker 2: to be in Duke's company. But he didn't know how

1160
00:53:41,440 --> 00:53:44,040
Speaker 2: I sing, and I didn't know how he play. For

1161
00:53:44,160 --> 00:53:46,560
Speaker 2: his part, Duke Ellington corrected that because he said of

1162
00:53:46,600 --> 00:53:49,320
Speaker 2: Miss Vicki Jones, she's a good soul singer. But he

1163
00:53:49,360 --> 00:53:51,200
Speaker 2: also said that the obvious part out loud. It was

1164
00:53:51,200 --> 00:53:54,439
Speaker 2: time that she breaked the Aretha imitation and she needed

1165
00:53:54,440 --> 00:53:57,000
Speaker 2: to have like her own right now. Months later, still

1166
00:53:57,040 --> 00:54:00,319
Speaker 2: following her story, national newspapers report on her progres rest

1167
00:54:00,400 --> 00:54:04,880
Speaker 2: to stardom in the Progress Index newspaper. Ironically, on May eleventh,

1168
00:54:04,920 --> 00:54:07,440
Speaker 2: nineteen sixty nine, the paper reported that Duke Ellington had

1169
00:54:07,440 --> 00:54:12,200
Speaker 2: written six songs for an upcoming album for Miss Jones. Yeah.

1170
00:54:12,200 --> 00:54:14,640
Speaker 2: In an interview with the paper, Vicki Jones said, it's

1171
00:54:14,680 --> 00:54:17,240
Speaker 2: gonna be hard, but nothing's gonna stop me from making

1172
00:54:17,239 --> 00:54:19,759
Speaker 2: it as a singer, and she added that quote, I

1173
00:54:19,800 --> 00:54:22,759
Speaker 2: want to do songs strictly about me, how I got

1174
00:54:22,800 --> 00:54:25,719
Speaker 2: started and how I love. Everything I write will be

1175
00:54:25,760 --> 00:54:28,239
Speaker 2: based on my life. I think people will be interested.

1176
00:54:28,520 --> 00:54:30,719
Speaker 2: I love the way I am. I like the many

1177
00:54:30,760 --> 00:54:32,600
Speaker 2: different people I meet. I want to take time to

1178
00:54:32,600 --> 00:54:34,960
Speaker 2: see the beauty of this world. Because remember, just from

1179
00:54:35,040 --> 00:54:38,160
Speaker 2: rural Virginia. Now she's like about to go national tours,

1180
00:54:38,360 --> 00:54:41,080
Speaker 2: which is exactly what she did. She toured America singing

1181
00:54:41,120 --> 00:54:44,000
Speaker 2: as herself, and the people loved her. She played sold

1182
00:54:44,000 --> 00:54:47,760
Speaker 2: out shows not just in Florida now, but in New York, Chicago, Detroit,

1183
00:54:47,960 --> 00:54:51,880
Speaker 2: Las Vegas. She would arrive in a chauffeured limousine, just

1184
00:54:51,920 --> 00:54:55,280
Speaker 2: like Aretha Franklin. She was now earning fifteen hundred dollars

1185
00:54:55,440 --> 00:54:58,120
Speaker 2: a night for her shows. It wasn't exactly Retha Franklin money,

1186
00:54:58,160 --> 00:55:00,719
Speaker 2: but it was damn good money for nineteen sixty that's

1187
00:55:00,719 --> 00:55:04,360
Speaker 2: good money for now night totally. In fact, she became

1188
00:55:04,440 --> 00:55:07,480
Speaker 2: so popular that now there was a Vicky Jones impersonator

1189
00:55:07,520 --> 00:55:11,040
Speaker 2: playing shows pretending to be her. Hit the story at

1190
00:55:11,080 --> 00:55:13,720
Speaker 2: Gumpull Circle. Now she was the star for the imitator.

1191
00:55:14,480 --> 00:55:16,719
Speaker 2: And when she heard about this pretender making money off

1192
00:55:16,719 --> 00:55:19,600
Speaker 2: of her name, Vicky Jones said, she stopped now. But

1193
00:55:19,719 --> 00:55:22,239
Speaker 2: I don't hold anything against her. I know how it

1194
00:55:22,360 --> 00:55:25,680
Speaker 2: was to be hungry without any money, supporting a family,

1195
00:55:25,840 --> 00:55:28,440
Speaker 2: and to be separated from my husband. Now this is

1196
00:55:28,480 --> 00:55:31,200
Speaker 2: all pre generous and gracious of her. But after a

1197
00:55:31,320 --> 00:55:33,760
Speaker 2: year on the road playing sold out shows, she returned

1198
00:55:33,800 --> 00:55:35,839
Speaker 2: home to Virginia, and she found that she missed her

1199
00:55:35,880 --> 00:55:38,759
Speaker 2: family and her young boys needed her back home. They

1200
00:55:38,800 --> 00:55:40,520
Speaker 2: were too much of a handful for her mother to

1201
00:55:40,560 --> 00:55:43,200
Speaker 2: take care of, so she decided to quit the stage.

1202
00:55:43,280 --> 00:55:45,560
Speaker 2: She walked away from her dreams of stardom, and she

1203
00:55:45,680 --> 00:55:48,319
Speaker 2: never went back. She only ever played She only ever

1204
00:55:48,480 --> 00:55:50,800
Speaker 2: from this point on performed songs for her four boys,

1205
00:55:51,040 --> 00:55:53,320
Speaker 2: and for them she would occasionally belt out un Aretha

1206
00:55:53,360 --> 00:55:56,480
Speaker 2: Franklin song. But she also kept a framed copy of

1207
00:55:56,480 --> 00:55:58,840
Speaker 2: that March nineteen sixty nine Jet magazine with her on

1208
00:55:58,880 --> 00:56:02,200
Speaker 2: the cover. It was a very tangible reminder of her

1209
00:56:02,320 --> 00:56:05,279
Speaker 2: year as a bona fide star, a real live soul

1210
00:56:05,320 --> 00:56:08,040
Speaker 2: singer who played with Duke Ellington and performed for Soldau

1211
00:56:08,120 --> 00:56:09,239
Speaker 2: shows across the nation.

1212
00:56:09,360 --> 00:56:10,080
Speaker 3: It's incredible.

1213
00:56:11,440 --> 00:56:13,919
Speaker 2: Oh god, So what's a ridiculous takeaway here?

1214
00:56:14,480 --> 00:56:17,960
Speaker 3: Then? That that was a wild ride, that was you know,

1215
00:56:18,000 --> 00:56:22,399
Speaker 3: the ups and downs. No, I you know, I think

1216
00:56:24,000 --> 00:56:26,960
Speaker 3: one of the things we see this with like art forgers,

1217
00:56:27,000 --> 00:56:30,440
Speaker 3: that they're very, very talented if they'd only just do

1218
00:56:30,520 --> 00:56:32,759
Speaker 3: their own thing. And that's like with her, you know.

1219
00:56:33,520 --> 00:56:35,719
Speaker 3: And it's just with the art world. With music, it's

1220
00:56:35,760 --> 00:56:37,640
Speaker 3: hard to break into it if you don't have the

1221
00:56:37,719 --> 00:56:39,200
Speaker 3: right connections.

1222
00:56:39,880 --> 00:56:41,560
Speaker 2: Because you're in some world Virginia.

1223
00:56:41,719 --> 00:56:44,200
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, And so you know, it's a shame that

1224
00:56:44,280 --> 00:56:47,080
Speaker 3: she wasn't able to from the jump just get the

1225
00:56:47,120 --> 00:56:51,440
Speaker 3: recognition with her own talents. But I love that she

1226
00:56:51,840 --> 00:56:53,960
Speaker 3: at long last got it. And then got to like

1227
00:56:54,040 --> 00:56:57,360
Speaker 3: go out on top of everything she wanted. What's your

1228
00:56:57,440 --> 00:56:58,360
Speaker 3: ridiculous takeaway?

1229
00:56:59,400 --> 00:57:02,120
Speaker 2: Mine is Lavelle Hardy. I mean, like, how do you

1230
00:57:02,200 --> 00:57:03,799
Speaker 2: not see him coming? You know what I mean?

1231
00:57:03,840 --> 00:57:08,239
Speaker 3: He's like twenty four years Yeah, I tant from New.

1232
00:57:08,160 --> 00:57:10,799
Speaker 2: York City walking around here for like rural Virginia telling

1233
00:57:10,800 --> 00:57:14,680
Speaker 2: people I can make you money. I'm telling you. So

1234
00:57:14,880 --> 00:57:16,959
Speaker 2: that's just mine. It's like, come on now, you gotta

1235
00:57:17,000 --> 00:57:19,760
Speaker 2: be suspicious of the Lavelle Harties. Oh yeah, so you

1236
00:57:19,840 --> 00:57:20,960
Speaker 2: in the mood for a talkback?

1237
00:57:21,160 --> 00:57:21,520
Speaker 3: I am.

1238
00:57:21,680 --> 00:57:23,560
Speaker 2: Let's watch this down with a good one, producer. Can

1239
00:57:23,600 --> 00:57:28,640
Speaker 2: you hit us up with one? Oh?

1240
00:57:28,760 --> 00:57:30,240
Speaker 6: Oh my god?

1241
00:57:33,520 --> 00:57:39,240
Speaker 5: I love you, hey, Zaren and Elizabeth. You know what's

1242
00:57:39,320 --> 00:57:41,640
Speaker 5: ridiculous how much I love your podcast. You know what

1243
00:57:41,680 --> 00:57:44,520
Speaker 5: else is ridiculous. I have an acquaintance who once borrowed

1244
00:57:44,520 --> 00:57:47,760
Speaker 5: a large plastic cow from a certain chicken establishment's billboard

1245
00:57:47,840 --> 00:57:50,440
Speaker 5: and placed it in their local church's nativity scene. The

1246
00:57:50,480 --> 00:57:52,440
Speaker 5: restaurant press charges, so now they have to tell that

1247
00:57:52,480 --> 00:57:55,080
Speaker 5: story every time they interview with for a job. This

1248
00:57:55,160 --> 00:57:57,000
Speaker 5: is Sarah from Texas and I love what you guys do.

1249
00:57:57,120 --> 00:58:01,800
Speaker 2: Have a good one, Yes, Sarah from Texas having to

1250
00:58:01,840 --> 00:58:04,240
Speaker 2: explain a stolen cow every time you want a new

1251
00:58:04,320 --> 00:58:05,280
Speaker 2: job to put.

1252
00:58:05,160 --> 00:58:08,640
Speaker 3: It into it. You're not stealing from your adding too. Yeah,

1253
00:58:08,640 --> 00:58:11,920
Speaker 3: but yeah, I love that. Yeah, Oh about that arrest.

1254
00:58:12,000 --> 00:58:14,120
Speaker 2: Tell it's about a time you once had to solve

1255
00:58:14,280 --> 00:58:17,880
Speaker 2: a difficult crisis. Well, I stole a cow one time

1256
00:58:17,920 --> 00:58:20,520
Speaker 2: from a local fast food joint. Excuse me, everyone in

1257
00:58:20,600 --> 00:58:24,120
Speaker 2: nativity scene involved, don't worry. Well, as you can say,

1258
00:58:24,240 --> 00:58:27,160
Speaker 2: we always love to talk back. Yes, so hey, go

1259
00:58:27,280 --> 00:58:29,400
Speaker 2: download the iHeart app, leave a talk back and maybe

1260
00:58:29,400 --> 00:58:31,960
Speaker 2: you'll hear your voice here. And you can also always

1261
00:58:32,000 --> 00:58:34,880
Speaker 2: find us online at Ridiculous Crime on ig and in

1262
00:58:35,000 --> 00:58:38,360
Speaker 2: Blue Sky, and we have our account Ridiculous Crime Pod

1263
00:58:38,520 --> 00:58:42,439
Speaker 2: on YouTube. Go like, subscribe, tell your friends, and please

1264
00:58:42,480 --> 00:58:44,439
Speaker 2: don't be shy leave a comment. We do read them.

1265
00:58:44,680 --> 00:58:48,400
Speaker 2: We also have our website Ridiculous Crime dot com. Elizabeth.

1266
00:58:48,440 --> 00:58:51,640
Speaker 2: We were just nominated for the World Wildlife Funds annual

1267
00:58:51,720 --> 00:58:54,920
Speaker 2: Penguin of the Year People's Choice Award. Yes, we're the

1268
00:58:54,960 --> 00:58:57,400
Speaker 2: first non penguin to be nominated. Huge honor for us.

1269
00:58:57,680 --> 00:58:59,800
Speaker 2: Fingers crossed with just luck and email us if you

1270
00:58:59,880 --> 00:59:02,439
Speaker 2: like if you want at Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot

1271
00:59:02,440 --> 00:59:05,480
Speaker 2: com the interns enjoy read Nos two and that we

1272
00:59:05,520 --> 00:59:08,160
Speaker 2: do as well. Thank you for listening. We will catch

1273
00:59:08,200 --> 00:59:08,960
Speaker 2: you next.

1274
00:59:09,240 --> 00:59:09,640
Speaker 4: Crime.

1275
00:59:14,680 --> 00:59:18,680
Speaker 2: Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Burnett, producer,

1276
00:59:18,800 --> 00:59:23,040
Speaker 2: edited by Jack White's favorite Brian Eno, impersonator Dave Cousten,

1277
00:59:23,280 --> 00:59:27,600
Speaker 2: and starring Annalise Rutger possibly as Judith. Research is by

1278
00:59:27,600 --> 00:59:31,440
Speaker 2: Marissa I Am not James Brown. Our theme song is

1279
00:59:31,520 --> 00:59:34,840
Speaker 2: by the world's best Milli Vanilli tribute act Thomas Lee

1280
00:59:35,000 --> 00:59:38,280
Speaker 2: and Travis Dutton. The host wardrobe provided by Botany five

1281
00:59:38,320 --> 00:59:43,120
Speaker 2: hundred guest Haarn makeup by Sparkleshop and mister Andre executive producers.

1282
00:59:43,160 --> 00:59:45,840
Speaker 2: I've been you know I do a mean Marky, Mark

1283
00:59:46,160 --> 00:59:49,920
Speaker 2: Boland and Noel You should see My Funky Bunch Brown

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Speaker 2: REDI Why say it one more time?

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Speaker 3: Yes Crime.

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Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts

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Speaker 1: from iHeartRadio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

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Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.