Play that fakey music

Play that fakey music, white boy

Imposter bands are a dime a dozen -- and there are dozens in Las Vegas

BY DAVID MCKEE
Arms aloft and gently swaying, we had, at last, been turned into putty at the hands of The Platters.

Over a mere half-hour in the Sahara hotel's Congo Room on Monday night, the celebrated vocal group had softened us up with "Only You," further kneaded us with the unabashedly gooey "Twilight Time," and then -- our hearts practically pouring down our shirts -- finished us off with their hit, "The Great Pretender." Its gently pulsing piano figure seems to underscore the double woe of a heartache that must remain hidden; the woo-oos unfurl not as vocal frills, but rather as a subdued, bluesy lament. Anyone who's ever had a broken heart can't help but be touched by this doo-wop classic.

And anyone with a sense of irony can't help but smile: The three men and woman on stage were no Platters, but pretenders themselves.

Whoever these people are, they're one of at least a dozen so-called Platters of various vintage and authenticity performing in the U.S. Take your pick: You've got the Amazing Platters, the World Famous Platters, the All-Star Platters Revue, the Legendary Platters, the Buck Ram Platters, the Wilson Williams & His Platters, the Magic Platters.

But you don't have to hit the tour circuit to see the facsimiles in action. Las Vegas, where the line between tribute, cover band and original band so easily smears, seems to be a hotbed of fakes and phonies. Not that tourists -- who themselves take Vegas' trademark blurring of fact and fiction with good humor -- seem to mind.

"I think they were outstanding," says Sandra Lisanti, of Tiburon, Calif. of The Platters show, which was preceded by faux-Coasters and ersatz Marvelettes sets. With a common-sense, buyer-beware attitude, neither Lisanti nor her husband feel ripped off. "People know the Platters aren't alive," she says. "It's the Platters songs. But they sound just like the Platters! I would turn around and go right back in to see it all over again. There's a generation that didn't know about any of these groups and now they do. I think that's wonderful."

Others don't. You might say they feel someone's blowing smoke in their eyes -- and they want these groups snuffed out.

Truth laws

It was in a bathroom at the old Flamingo, the story goes, that the lyrics for The Platters' first Top Ten single were hammered out. "The Great Pretender" would be their longest-running hit.

Fast forward 50 years and pretenders, few of them great, are ubiquitous. While states are gradually moving to crimp the leeway enjoyed by imposter bands -- in essence, tribute bands that masquerade as the real deal -- it's coming awfully late in the day for those artist who say they've been the most victimized.

Following in the footsteps of South Carolina, Pennsylvania and New York, among others, Nevada's 2007 Legislature, in its waning hours, unanimously passed a "Truth in Music" law, aimed at redressing a decades-long injustice. The last of the original Drifters, Bill Pinkney, "received photographs of Gov. [Jim] Gibbons signing the bill into law, with me looking on, along with Sonny Turner of the Platters," reports his former manager, Maxine Porter. "He was so pleased that his legacy would be living on, hopefully in a market where the truth can be told to the imposters."

That pleasure was short-lived. Soon after, Pinkney was in Daytona Beach for an Independence Day concert and, as Porter puts it, "slipped away from us on the Fourth of July and went on to join the celestial choir."

With states like New Mexico and Missouri (where a faux Platters act plays in Branson) punting Truth in Music bills into the 2009 session, other doo-wop veterans may not have long to seek vindication, either. Lone surviving Platter Herb Reed is 76. Says Veta Gardner, wife and business manager of Carl Gardner, the last original Coaster, "I'm 75 years old, my husband is 79. It just gets to the point where you feel you're fighting a losing battle."

However, one of the biggest thorns in Reed's and Gardner's sides may soon be removed. The Nevada Consumer Affairs Division is investigating the Platters/Coasters/Drifters revue at the Sahara, at the behest of both the state and an unnamed patron who wants his money back. Neither division Commissioner James Campos nor investigator Fred Washington would delve into specifics, but Washington characterized it as a "pretty sensitive investigation. I'm dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's on this one." He added that he's in constant contact with state Sens. Steven Horsford and Joe Heck, co-sponsors of Nevada's "Truth in Music" bill. The bill is being pushed onto state legislatures by the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in Pennsylvania, which prefers the state level because there's a better chance of local authorities cracking down on scam artists.

"These are tribute bands in sheep's clothing," says Jon Bauman, chairman of the Hall of Fame's Truth in Music Committee (you might remember Bauman as "Bowzer" of Sha-Na-Na). "Tribute shows generally have a lower ticket price, which is fine, because you know what you're getting isn't real. In this situation, when you have shows pretending to be the real thing, you're duping consumers."

In the past, the Sahara has taken a see-no-evil/hear-no-evil approach toward its controversial revue, telling the Los Angeles Times, "We are operating under the assumption that they are totally licensed." As to the inorganic composition of the groups performing as The Platters, Drifters and Coasters (the latter has had four lineups in the last three years), an unnamed Sahara flack said, "they are part of the lineage of the name."

To which Porter retorted, "I've got Drifters records older than [them]."

But Gardner makes it clear the casino's not to blame. "The Sahara said they had nothing to do with it because the place was four-walled," wholly leased out to presenter Larry Marshak, the Queens, N.Y. promoter and former Rock Magazine editor at the eye of the storm. The Lawrence, Mass. Eagle-Tribune calls Marshak "the true oldies' bands' worst nightmare" -- and that's one of the nicer things said about him. State regulators, when contacted by CityLife, were unaware of Marshak's existence.

Paying tribute

With the Sahara changing ownership this summer, it may be singing a different tune. Sahara management didn't return CityLife's calls and its head of casino operations, Larry J. Woolf, said, "First I've heard of it," when asked about the state probe. But the new owners are apparently warbling like canaries or are, as Washington delicately puts it, "a provider of information."

Marshak is having legal troubles on the East Coast, too. In 1999, a federal district court judge deemed Marshak's registration of The Drifters' trademark fraudulent and awarded it to Faye Treadwell, widow of manager George Treadwell -- a verdict upheld two years later by an appellate panel that included now-Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. It permanently enjoined Marshak "from using The Drifters name in commerce."

Undeterred, Marshak continued peddling his pseudo-Drifters (or "If-ters," in Porter's parlance) under modified names. On Sept. 10, Justice Dickinson Debevoise had seen enough and found Marshak and numerous associates in contempt of court. He deemed Marshak's Drifters clone, "The Elsbeary Hobbs Drifters," to be "an elaborate shell game."

While Marshak has been able to have enforcement of New Jersey's new "Truth in Music" law stayed, bookers aren't taking any chances. The Atlantic City Hilton elected to "advertise its last Marshak Coasters/Drifters/Platters booking as a tribute act and, when it returns to Resorts International (both hotels are owned by Colony Capital), it will be billed the same way," according to Resorts spokesman Brian Cahill.

Similar circumspection may be taking hold at the Sahara, where The Drifters were recently pulled from the lineup. A yellow and black sign at the bar outside the showroom discloses the development -- though "this decision is being challenged," the sign says -- and unhappy customers are offered refunds at the box office before the show starts. (Though, if you're an oldie who loves the oldies, you're faced with the prospect of a half-mile hike back to the ticketing kiosk.) The replacement offered Monday night was another Marshak clone group, The Marvelettes -- in which, needless to say, no original Marvelettes take part.

While other groups, including The Shirelles, The Vogues, The Diamonds and the Ink Spots have been bedeviled by knockoff acts, "The three groups that are most abused are The Platters, The Drifters and The Coasters," says Pennsylvania state Sen. Bob Robbins, a '50s-era-music fan whose district encompasses the Vocal Group Hall of Fame, in Sharon, Pa. Robbins sponsored the Keystone State's Truth in Music bill, which Bauman and others are using as their template in Nevada and elsewhere.

Faye Treadwell, Carl Gardner and Herb Reed may hold title to The Drifters, Coasters and Platters names respectively, but the modus operandi of Marshak is to find relatives of ex-band members and sometimes ex-band members themselves to sell him rights to use their names or those of deceased loved ones. "People were selling rights that they really had no right to sell," says Heck.

Hence the elaborate -- and to Maxine Porter and Veta Gardner, disingenuous -- billing employed at the Sahara.

Says Gardner: "I get on the plane, and I see the advertisement: 'The Cornell Gunter Coasters,' but you can't even make out 'The Cornell Gunter' because it is so small that you need a magnifying glass. Even the advertisement they have in Las Vegas, a man on a horse wouldn't see it."

Invisible men

And then there's the elephant in the middle of the room. Or, as the sponsor of California's "Truth in Music" law (currently gathering dust on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's desk), Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, told California Progress Report: "Shady promoters have used the music and originality of mostly 1950s African American musical legends without proper authorization for several decades now. These musical legends, some of whom are available for performances, don't work because imposter groups undercut their salaries and assumed their fame."

Because The Platters, Coasters and Drifters ascended at a time when black singing groups were still a tough sell, they enjoyed little visibility with the general public. "If they were not successful enough to be regulars on the Ed Sullivan Show or Hullabaloo or Shindig, to where the audience could recognize the faces, the public was left looking at an album cover," says Bob Crosby, president and CEO of the Vocal Group Hall of Fame.

Even a record jacket wouldn't help. Recalls Porter, "Being African American, they came through at a time when artists' photographs were not on album covers. There was always some little scene, some tree or bird." At least the Motown artists, she notes, had the benefit of greater TV exposure.

But the Platters, Coasters and Drifters predated the success of the civil rights movement, as Crosby points out. "I know these guys. They talk about performing in Las Vegas where they would have to dress in their cars. It was a horrible misjustice put on creators of our pop culture. These guys were stars yet they were treated as second-class citizens."

What's more, Crosby adds, they were taken advantage of by businessmen who paid them one-time recording fees -- no royalties, no rights. Now they're undercut in the market by imposter groups. "And this has just been a horrible problem for them," Crosby says. Having been cut out of royalties and ownership, "all they had left was their live performance. And when that's stolen from them, the legacy is stolen, their applause is stolen and their income is stolen."

At least, as Maxine Porter sees it, progress has already been made "and we are still rolling along."

"Jon Bauman really revived the whole thing for us and we are really indebted to him because nobody else has ever done what he has done for us," adds Gardner. But her optimism is more tempered. "Even if they say 'a tribute,' they will put the word 'tribute' so tiny that you're going to Las Vegas and you see 'The Coasters! The Platters!' You don't see the 'tribute.' So you think you're going to see these stars."

CityLife Managing Editor Andrew Kiraly contributed to this story.

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