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| '50s rock 'n' roller Leather Tuscadero in Jukebox Express |
Jukebox Express, the great 1958 rock 'n' roll B-movie starring Troy Chesterfield, Ginger Grant, Leather Tuscadero, Sophie Lennon, and Stan "King" Kaiser, is two years old today. And obviously, the reason a 1958 beat flick is only two years old in 2020 is because I made the whole thing up as a blog post for February 14th, 2018.
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| Ginger Grant |
This remains one of my favorite blog pieces, in spite of the fact that Google hasn't been a fan of it. More about that later. I explained the genesis and back story of Jukebox Express here; this introductory paragraph from that second piece summarizes what I had in mind:
My idea for Jukebox Express began as a random thought when I was watching the terrific Amazon Prime series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which is set in 1958. After I saw actress Jane Lynch's portrayal of a fictional comic named Sophie Lennon, my mind wandered somehow to the idea of Lennon meeting Troy Chesterfield, a fictional actor played by Peter Scolari in That Thing You Do! From there, my imagination started to cobble together the idea of bringing together various fictional thespians and show people for a fictional project. It had to take place in 1958 to include Sophie Lennon (because I don't know what, if anything, the creators of Mrs. Maisel have in store for her), so I had to think what other figures I could place into that specific timeline. The rest just snapped into place, and this make-believe rock 'n' roll movie Jukebox Express was duly fabricated.
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| Inventor, industrialist, and Jukebox Express producer Howard Stark |
Hijinks ensued. I think the resulting Jukebox Express concoction is a hoot, and I hereby declare it to be absolute canon within the fictional milieus of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, That Thing You Do!, Gilligan's Island, Happy Days, My Favorite Year, The Andy Griffith Show, King Creole, Room Service, Twin Peaks, Batman: The Animated Series, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Back To The Future, Animal House, The Girl Can't Help It, The Beverly Hillbillies, King Kong, The Honeymooners, The Monkees, Barney Miller, Singin' In The Rain, Ellery Queen, Funnyman, Three Amigos!, WKRP In Cinncinati, Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls, I Love Lucy, the Mallory novels by Max Allan Collins, Please Don't Eat The Daisies, Cry-Baby, Limelight, Weird War Tales, Pleasantville, The Rocketeer, Wordsmith, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, my own Eternity Man, an instrumental by The Fleshtones, and Murder, She Wrote. Canon. Gospel! Don't argue with a deranged blogger.
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| Troy Chesterfield on The Hollywood Television Showcase in 1964 |
I like it. Google hasn't shared my enthusiasm for it. The piece has been flagged repeatedly, and I never could determine what the objection was. This week, a thought occurred to me about a possible (and really silly) explanation of what the problem might have been. I made yet another minor tweak to fix it, and lo and behold! Jukebox Express has finally passed its audition. Can't say more without risk of takin' a can opener to a fresh tin of nightcrawlers. (Well, except to note that, believe it or not, it was kinda Trump's fault. Like I needed another reason to detest that guy.)
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| Stan "King" Kaiser as Rocco "Death" Manzetti in Jukebox Express |
Meanwhile, I invite you to enter the world of a work of fiction I call Jukebox Express, and then to read the story of its origin. Lights! Camera! JUKEBOX EXPRESS!
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| The great Sophie Lennon. Put THAT on yer plate! |
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