POP-A-LOOZA: JUKEBOX EXPRESS (a fabricated film not actually made in 1958)

Rock 'n' roll star Leather Tuscadero in Jukebox Express

Every week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares some posts from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archives. The latest shared post is my fantasy of a fictional 1958 rock 'n' roll movie I call Jukebox Express.

Comic Sophie Lennon played Rose "Mama" Mammamia in Jukebox Express.
Put THAT on yer plate!

I created Jukebox Express in 2018. It was prompted by watching actress Jane Lynch as fictional 1950s comic Sophie Lennon in the TV series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. While the TV show (one of my favorites) spotlights an up and coming fictional stand-up comic who bills herself as Mrs. Maisel, Lynch's role as Lennon prompted my mind to wander to the film That Thing You Do!, which also tells a story of imaginary entertainers. That movie takes place in 1964, six years after Maisel meets Lennon in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. I didn't really think of Sophie Lennon interacting with That Thing You Do!'s made-up teen sensations The Wonders. But what about an older character from the film, an equally-fictional figure who may have been active in the entertainment industry in 1958? Troy Chesterfield! The screen actor who introduces The Wonders on national TV! What if Sophie Lennon and Troy Chesterfield had made a movie together in 1958?

Actor Troy Chesterfield

The rest just fell into place.

I wanted to patch together a 1958 jukebox flick made entirely by fictional characters we've already seen elsewhere, on TV, in movies, books, comic books, novels, whatever. They had to be characters who could have been active in 1958. Actress Ginger Grant from Gilligan's Island. Rock 'n' roller Leather Tuscadero from Happy Days. Inventor, industrialist, and film producer Howard Stark from Marvel Comics movies. Jukebox Express occurred to me as the inevitable title. 

On February 6th of 2018: I posted a tease for Jukebox Express:

"What is Jukebox Express? And how in the world does it combine That Thing You Do!, King Kong, I Love Lucy, Happy Days, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Gilligan's Island, My Favorite Year, Singin' In The Rain, Three Amigos!, an instrumental by The Fleshtones, Charles Chaplin's Limelight, Bye Bye Birdie, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Room Service, Batman: The Animated Series, Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls, Pleasantville, The Honeymooners, the 1970s Ellery Queen TV series, Back To The Future, Weird War Tales, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Animal House, The Girl Can't Help It, the pilot episode of The Monkees, King Creole, The Andy Griffith Show, John Waters' Cry-Baby, Please Don't Eat The Daisies!, The Beverly Hillbillies, Twin Peaks, The Rocketeer, WKRP In Cincinnati, and Funnyman?

I don't know yet. I won't know unless or until I write it. Oughtta be fun."

Jukebox Express producer Howard Stark

And it was fun. I finished it in just over a week, and I had an absolute blast fabricating this nonsense. When it was done, I found myself with a longing wish that Jukebox Express could have been a real film that I could watch in between The Girl Can't Help It and A Hard Day's Night. The day after I posted Jukebox Express, I followed it with a complete guide to its fictional players, from Conrad Birdie, Stan "King" Kaiser, and George McFly to Kathy Selden, Ricky Ricardo, Alan Brady, and Otis Day and the Knights. That's rock 'n' roll! And that's the end.

Stan "King" Kaiser as Rocco "Death" Manzetti in Jukebox Express

Should I apologize for exuberance and joy in my own stuff? Not this time. Screw it. I am stupid proud of Jukebox Express. Fine, diagramming that sentence leaves us only with the admission that "I am stupid." It's nonetheless true that I really, really like Jukebox Express.

And I hope you will, too. Welcome to a rare screening of the lost 1958 rock 'n' roll movie Jukebox Express, the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.

Actress Ginger Grant as Kirby Lee. A movie star!

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