Fake 'Aretha Franklin' Performing On Stage Left Fans Furious

On a hot, humid night in 1969 in Fort Myers, Florida, it was hard to see anything. Steam rose from the damp streets, clouding the air, and inside the High Hat Club, 1,400 eager people sat in cigarette smoke and fog-machine haze, staring at the curtains. The lights were dimmed. The atmosphere was tense. And the silhouette of Aretha Franklin stepped out on stage — or so the crowd thought.

Moments Away

The woman behind that silhouette was sweating. This audience was ten times bigger than any audience she'd entertained before, and the stakes were high. One wrong move, or one bright light too close to her face, and they would all know the truth. The jig would be up.

Point Of No Return

As the woman forced herself to swallow the fear, she wondered how things had come to this. She'd never wanted to commit fraud — she wasn't Aretha Franklin. She'd dreamed of a life where she could sing on stage as herself: Mary Jane "Vickie" Jones.

Mild Obsession

It was true, though, that Jones admired Aretha. She sang along to all of her music, and read every article about her in Jet magazine. She did her makeup like Aretha. But there was a big difference between Jones and her idol: Aretha had money. Jones didn't.

Different Lives

As a matter of fact, Jones was strapped for cash...badly. At 27, she was a single mother with four sons, had once been widowed, and then divorced her alcoholic and abusive second husband. She couldn't get by on government assistance, so she took a job singing with a Motown tribute group for just $10 a night.