On Monday night, "Cornell Gunter's Drifters" will be playing, as usual, at the
Sahara ... and at the Venetian. Except that it's two different bands -- with the
same name. Playing the same town. On the same night. Confusing? That's not the
half of it.
Cornell Gunter, you see, was one of the very, very first Platters. Until he was
ousted in favor of Tony Williams. Who eventually gave way to Sonny Turner ...
who was eventually supplanted by Monroe Powell. Gunter, meanwhile, had been
hired by The Coasters -- as a replacement.
This constant swirl -- The Drifters are said to have had 53 personnel changes in
as many years -- sows endless confusion as to who can claim to be a "Platter,"
"Coaster" or "Drifter." Nevada law now reserves that right for musicians who
were regular, ongoing group members or for holders of the registered federal
trademark, according to state Sen. Joe Heck. As for defining a "member," Heck
concedes that may well be up to the courts to arbitrate.
Some states require that one be both an original member and hold title to the
group name. Which means that the only authentic Platters are Herb Reed's
ensemble, which Newsweek called "a group descended from the original Platters by
a genealogy only slightly less convoluted than the Plantagenets." Williams'
departure sparked a dynastic feud, with at least three rival "Platters" groups
vying against one another during the '60s.
One of the consequences was a three-way division of the "Platters" name west of
the Mississippi. Jean Bennett sanctioned one set of "Platters" at the Sahara,
another in Branson, Mo. and a third to Powell, with certain conditions. Which is
why, when his group plays Summerlin's Starbright Theater this Saturday, it will
be as "The Platters featuring the Legendary Monroe Powell." (Reed, however,
holds the federal trademark.)
Powell is a good sport about the whole thing. "I've been with them the longest
but I never had a hit," he says. "I was the bell ringer for all those 25 years
while Buck was alive." ("Buck" is manager Buck Ram, who died in 1991, having
sold out to Bennett in 1966. In his wake, innumerable "Platters" sprang up,
including one fronted by Turner.)
That's a piece of cake compared to the head-spinningly bizarre saga of The
Drifters. The original ensemble was canned after a single 1953 recording session
and manager George Treadwell would conduct another mass sacking in 1958; outcast
Drifter Bill Pinkney would go on to form not one but two "Original Drifters,"
once by co-opting The Tears (just as Treadwell had simply redubbed The Five
Crowns "The Drifters"). Treadwell also required all band members to sign away
their rights as a condition of membership.
The Coasters' history is comparably
convoluted. The Cornell Gunter's Coasters that is playing the Venetian is a
group incorporated by Gunter himself as a comeback vehicle. After Gunter was
shot to death in a Vegas parking lot in 1990,
bandmate
Charlie Duncan carried on in his stead.
He had a lot of competition: Early 1999 saw four rival "Coasters" groups
simultaneously touring the U.S. Two years later, New York-New York and
Larry Marshak were
defendants in a lawsuit that pitted the latter's "The Cornell Gunter Coasters"
against Duncan's "Cornell Gunther's Coasters Inc." (Duncan won, says manager
Denise Diaco.)
Previously, Marshak had been in
business with ex-Coaster Billy Guy. But when Guy surrendered his claim to the
"Coasters" brand to Carl Gardner,
Marshak turned to Shirley Gunter,
Cornell's sister, who sold him the "Cornell Gunter" name. Cornell Gunter, who
was gay, had left no wife and children, nor -- according to
Veta
Gardner -- a will. Hence the surreal spectacle of Gunter-founded "Coasters"
playing opposite a Shirley Gunter-sanctioned "Coasters."
DAVID MCKEE
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