My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
460 - I Would Never Try
Thu, 26 Dec 2024
This week, Karen and Georgia cover the story of singer Mary Jones. For our sources and show notes, visit www.myfavoritemurder.com/episodes.Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bit.ly/3UFCn1g. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Chapter 1: Who are the hosts of My Favorite Murder?
Hello and welcome to My Favorite Murder.
That's Georgia Hardstark. That's Karen Kilgariff. That's Christmas. It's officially not Christmas anymore while you're listening, but it's definitely Hanukkah. It's definitely the first night of Hanukkah.
Get ready.
Congratulations.
Hail you half Catholic, half Jews out there.
What's up? Oh, man. I love that idea, those couples together, the half Catholic, half Jewish, because both families were like, what are you fucking talking about? It's like both families were like, no. Those people? Yeah. We have some adorable holiday decorations. Thank you to Asia again. She's like our stylist.
Yeah. But also the first one, I just credit where credit's due. Alejandra did the autumnal Halloween show. That's right. She had ran her ass down to Target like last second. Okay. I thought it was Asia. This time Asia went and really did it up nicely.
I'm definitely stealing the Hanukkah decorations when we leave tonight.
I think you should. That's good.
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Chapter 2: What is the story of Mary Jones?
In 1968, he released a record that Jeff Mache describes as, quote, a minor hit in the U.K., End quote. But the act that really gets him booked the most is the one where he sports a six inch pompadour and impersonates James Brown. Oh, wow. So Lavelle's situation is very similar to Mary's in that they're both making money covering the hit songs of famous vocalists. But there's a key difference.
Jet Magazine later estimates that where Mary earns around $10 or $20 on a good night, which is worth around... In the 60s, $10 to $20, $150. Close, $85 to $170. Wow. You're in the pocket. Okay. So that's how much she would be getting. Lavelle makes $200 a night. Oh, my God. Which is $1,700 in today's money. Damn. That's pay-your-bills money.
That's super pay-your-bills money, and it's like, was he a better singer than her? Right. I wonder why he's making so much more than her. That's weird. So tonight at the Pink Garter Club in Richmond, Virginia, Lavelle watches Mary absolutely crush it on stage. He is blown away by her ability to channel Aretha both vocally and visually. Mm-hmm.
Lavelle will later say, quote, she's identical from head to toe. She's got the complexion. She's got the look. She's got the height. She's got the tears. She's got everything. Wow. As Lavelle witnesses the incredible talent that is Mary Jones, he senses an opportunity. He wants to take Mary on tour, but not as Vicki Jane or Vicki Jones. He knows that he can make way more money way faster.
So for context and just for the young people who forget the years before the Internet, they did exist. There was a time where you couldn't just look someone up with a click of a button. For most fans, back then in the 50s and 60s, knowing what your favorite musical artist looks like would basically be based on their album covers, maybe a three-minute set on TV, maybe pictures in magazines.
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Chapter 3: How did Mary Jones start her singing career?
If they're lucky enough to be able to afford a ticket, they might be able to go see them in person. But for the most part, fans recognize their favorite performers by their voices. So if someone's voice sounds like a well-known artist and they even slightly resemble them, it's not hard to pass them off as that famous performer back then.
And for what it's worth, Mary didn't think she looked like Aretha Franklin. Jeff Mache couches that she looked enough like Aretha for the scheme to work, but Mary was not like a dead ringer for Aretha. It wasn't a full impersonation in that way.
Like you had to have not known exactly what she looks like to believe it. Yes. Okay.
And the kind of, I think it's an attestment to the power of her voice because it would be like, is that? And then she'd start singing and then they wouldn't even worry about it. Not only that, but as the 50s and 60s is a time when many performers, especially black artists, do not have enough legal power or protection.
So impersonators start popping up all around the black music scene, billing themselves as the real deal to unsuspecting audiences. So that, I guess, is like a common thing that happened back then. And because you can make a lot of money off of a good impersonator, some of them even eventually have connections to organized crime.
Like a system starts being put in place of how to find these people and how to like exploit and put these people on tour and everything.
Like managing, but it's shady.
Yeah. So in his Smithsonian Magazine article, Jeff Mache mentions a guy named Roy Tempest, a London-based promoter who collaborated with the New York mafia to employ, quote, the world's greatest singing postman, window cleaners, bus drivers, shop assistants, bank robbers, and even a stripper, unquote. I want to go to that party.
Well, they were to pose as bands like The Temptations during European tours. Okay, yeah. So they're maybe even a step further away. And so it's just like all these wildly talented people that are like, okay, we'll send you over there. You'll be the temptations. Amazing. Crazy. In other cases, the dupes are actually sanctioned by the industry itself.
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Chapter 4: What challenges did Mary Jones face as a performer?
Do you know? Do you have it? Are you asking me to do long division? No, I'm asking you if you have the number, if I guess it.
Oh, yes, I do have it.
Great.
I thought you were saying, like, how much would that be a night where I'm like, oh, my God.
8,000.
Wow. Really close.
Which is great money. It's like such great money. Doing what you love, singing the songs of a person you adore.
That's that's like a dream. And when I hear for four sons, I just I can't help but think about how much my one brother, my one skinny ass brother ate when he was a kid. That would put like the groceries would be gone the first night because of my brother's appetite.
Yes.
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Chapter 5: How did Mary Jones impersonate Aretha Franklin?
So to have four that times four is fucking expensive. So expensive. Yeah.
So it's good money. It's Mary's dream come true. Singing on the same bill as her idol. You know, it's a payday. It's everything. My thing is this. And it's like when stuff like this happens, it's hard to be kind of a critical thinker. But why would anybody hire you to sing Aretha Franklin songs before Aretha Franklin comes out and sings her songs? I wonder if that was like a thing then. No.
Like one more time. And now one more time, the real one. Fair enough. Fair enough. I don't know.
I think it steps on it a little bit. It's a question that one would ask. It's like if you had two comics and like one was more famous and the first one did the exact same set and they're like, OK, here it is again, but like better.
Yeah, exactly.
It doesn't make sense.
You'd just be like, I think I actually like the first guy better. Yeah. Fair enough. So as Jeff Mache notes, quote, she'd never seen, Mary had never seen that amount of money in her life. So she went for it. She decided to take a risk and go open for the real Aretha. So Mary leaves her kids with her mother and goes to a local lending company to borrow the bus fare. I know. Yeah.
And she makes her way down to Melbourne, Florida. I wonder if they pronounce it Melbourne. Yeah, I wonder. I wonder. I wonder. I wonder. But when she arrives, she learns that Lavelle does not work for Aretha Franklin. Mary's not going to be opening for Aretha Franklin. Instead, she'll be impersonating the Queen of Soul for oblivious audiences. Mary refuses to comply.
She would later say, quote, that Lavelle. threatened to throw me in the bay. Holy shit. She doesn't know how to swim. And he said to her, quote, your body can easily be disposed of in the water. Oh, my God. Yeah. So she has no choice. Oh, how terrifying. Yeah. Not only that, but she does not have the money for the bus fare home.
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Chapter 6: What was the impact of Aretha Franklin on Mary Jones?
Chapter 7: What is the significance of impersonators in the music industry?
Right. You think that they would question it too, right?
Right.
But they didn't.
But I think it's a thing of like suddenly someone's going, do you want to go do the thing that you really want to do and would love to do? It's real cheap. And you're like, yeah, I'd love to.
But maybe the owners like knew also were in on it also and then just didn't tell the patrons.
Right.
Absolutely. Could be. I mean, you're going to make bank. Because there's probably a lot of mob business going around there, right?
Where it's like, don't fucking lie to me. Right. So just like, hey, it's nice to have a sellout night. It's nice to get some consistent money and sell all your drinks. Tip your waitress. Yeah, please. So Lavelle puts together a tour of small black clubs in Florida that he calls, quote, the Aretha Franklin Review. Yeah.
At her first gig, Mary goes on stage in a long yellow gown that Lavelle buys for her. It looks like a cheaper version of something the real Aretha Franklin might wear. She also wears a wig and very heavy makeup, but it's her voice that makes it all work. Mary performs as Aretha like her life depends on it because she thinks it does. The audiences are completely fooled.
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