Before the days of smartphones and the internet, it was hard to tell what celebrities really looked like.
Back then, the most you could ever catch a glimpse of was a picture of their face on an album cover or black and white images on the TV.
So, that may be why in the 1960s, some people wanted to cash in on this by impersonating famous stars.
One of the most popular of these impersonators was a woman named Vicki Jones, who pretended to be Aretha Franklin.
Most fans of Aretha Franklin didn’t really have a way of knowing when the singer would show up in town.
So, when she—or Vicki Jones—did appear, everyone flocked to the venue to enjoy the show. Lavell Hardy, a fellow impersonator who acted as James Brown, said that Jones was the best performer he’d ever seen. And she looked just like Aretha Franklin.
“She’s identical from head to toe,” he said. “She’s got the complexion. She’s got the looks. She’s got the height. She’s got the tears. She’s got everything.”
Hardy was also a promoter, and he hired Jones by telling her that she would be the opening act for Aretha Franklin in Florida.
But when she arrived in Florida, Hardy admitted that there was no Aretha. Instead, Jones would have to pose as the actual “Queen of Soul.”
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She objected, but Hardy told her that she would be in a lot of trouble if she didn’t cooperate. He threatened to throw her into the nearby bay, saying that she could “easily be disposed of in the water.” Jones did not know how to swim and had a fear of drowning, so she complied.
“I wanted to tell everybody beforehand that I was not Miss Franklin,” Jones later said. “But [Hardy] said the show promoters would do something awful to me if they learned who I really was.”
In Florida, he locked her in a hotel room and fed her two hamburgers a day. Even if she had been able to escape and call the police, she probably would’ve felt some apprehension about it.
Just a few months earlier, a “blacks only” rally in Miami had turned into a riot. Police ended up shooting and killing three residents, including a 12-year-old boy.
Jones was finally exposed after a prosecutor bought some tickets, thinking he was going to see Aretha Franklin.
When he learned that Jones was a fraud, he felt robbed and betrayed. Hardy and Jones were captured at a nightclub, where they were getting ready for a show. Hardy was charged with “false advertising.”
In the courtroom, Jones maintained that she had been forced into being Aretha Franklin. The prosecutor believed that she was a victim and even asked her to sing for him. He dropped the charges against her, as her vocals provided support for her story.
When she emerged from the courthouse, a lawyer and entrepreneur named Ray Greene was waiting outside for her.
He offered to be her agent. So, the following year, she started singing and touring under her own name. She was an inspiration to the crowds who showed up to watch her perform.
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