And Which of the Three Did You Choose?

Back in the mid-1960s, Oklahoma City's youth had an enormous dilemma -- which of the three amusement parks should you favor?

First, there was Spring Lake, the stalwart Beatles-esque playground for the young that, by the 1980s, would be converted into a vocational educational school. I remember my sister going there with her best friend Karen Brown in 1966. They entered a "make-your-own-record" booth where ever witty Karen opened their recording with "This is Mrs. Brown's Lovely Daughter, " appropriately referencing a top 40 song of the era.
Across town, just north of the Northwest Expressway was its rival, the upstart, short-lived Wedgewood that would be converted into a similarly named apartment complex during the Carter administration. Its cheeky approach was the Rolling Stones to the more mainstream Spring Lake.

Who would have thought that bland Frontier City would soldier on into the 21st Century? I remember my dear friend Molene doing "Who Can Stop the Rain" in drag in the mid-1970s down the block at the wonderfully raunchy trannyshack named The Road House. These memories branded on my brain like a rose tattoo that will neither forgive nor forget.s

JTTV - Season 2, Episode 11 - Molene Jackson Plans New Year's Spectacular at Caeser's in Las Vegas

After her triumph last year playing Radio City Music Hall, my dear friend show biz legend Molene Jackson plans to play Caeser's in Vegas this year. Tickets are fetching $5,000 and up.

Although long a dedicated feminist, Mo caught a lot of flak for the lyrics in this featured tune. However, as our close friend Angela Davis said in coming to her defense, even the best lyrics of Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday contain similar sentiments and embody women's struggle with white male oppression. On top of that, how can you knock a gal that can pick up a zither and make it sound just like a banjo!

Molene - The Legend Returns

Have I happened to mention the huge concert on New Year's that my dear friend Molene Jackson is putting on? Her first in, well...a while.

Tickets sold out 90 seconds after of going on sale, and one poor matron from Rye, New York, was trampled to death in all the hub bub surrounding the release of the tickets. I've heard that some tickets have shown up on eBay for $10,000 but I question how long they will last.

I've known Mo since 1980 when she was working in a catheter factory. She now works in a dairy products factory but is still an eternal legend all the same. I just feel honored to have been able to have helped with this little video promoting the concert.

Yes, But What About Molene?

One of the greatest things about MP3 files is that it has given me the chance to share some of my very odd, not available on iTunes music library with family and friends. Things like Little Marcy’s “I Love My Pussy” song, Kay Thompson’s “Louisiana Purchase” or the Crew Cuts “Slam Bam.” Then there is the German 1981 compilation “Lieber Zu Viel als Zu Wenig” that is a particular favorite.

Recently I compiled several of those gems for a friend of mine we’ll call Molene featured here on the cover of a three-disc set I made for her this summer. She was eternally grateful to have these long lost jewels in a CD jewel box. In case you’re slow, Molene is not a biological girl, and that’s not her actual body. But that is definitely her head and her style. 1979 was a crucial year for Molene, and four years later I embarked on writing a three-volume biography of the Molene legend that began in 1862 when she was a teen. Many important historical events, we learned, had Molene in the background. The shroud of secrecy was finally pulled away to reveal that the Presidential “assassinations” of the past 140+ years had no political roots. All were mere lovers’ quarrels. Molene, who could find love high or low, was embroiled in a lover triangle with Lincoln and Booth, Kennedy and Oswald, etc., etc. Rejection of Booth and Oswald led both men to off their rivals and themselves, since they simply couldn’t stand the idea of a their world not including Molene.

Those volumes that chronicled the legend of Molene were all the more potent since her real day job at the time was in a catheter factory. Some celebrity bios are written to capture a reality long ago lost. Others are written to give us one that takes us away from the one in which we are just marking time.

Today those bios hold a double meaning, tales of lives that did and did not happen. The blurred line between the two no longer matters, but the legend of Molene does. She endures. I’ve been intent on restoring the now fading versions of these opuses from nearly a quarter of a century ago, and perhaps some of these pre-Photoshop entries may make their way onto JunkThief.

Some of the remnants of that era – the HiLo Club and Molene herself – are still with us, but I think it is an appropriate use of web-space to let the world glimpse into those glory days of yore. The line for the Molene fan club forms at the right...