Jean Bennett

Promotion - Promotion - Promotion 

On any given day you can fine perhaps a half dozen groups claimg to the The Platters.  Some of them will tell you they have an "original member."  Unless Herb Reed's name is attached, it is not ture.  all of the other "original" singers have passed on.                                     

"I typed and stuffed and mailed about 500 Personality Pluggers every week to let people know about The Platters." 

When Buck Ram talked Mercury Records into signing The Platters, the record company wasn't interested in what happened to them.  They wanted The Penguins who had "Earth Angel" at the top of the chart.  Irv Green gave Buck free reign to do whatever he wanted with "his" group - that included promoting them.  It would be The Penguins loss, and their last #1 hit, but The Platters would rise to super-stardom with Jean Bennett working every waking moment to promote them. 

"There's a lot of talent out there, but without promotion 365 days a year that's where they're left - out there."

While Ram worked with The Platters on their music and show, Bennett went to work promoting them.  They became the main focus of her Personality Plugger, and she kept boxes of 45's on the backseat of her car in preparation to promote to everyone she came in contact with.  She and Ben traveled from Los Angeles to Michigan stopping at radio stations along the way to plug "Only You," -- and occassionly say hello to Dick Clark as they passed one another in radio station reception areas.

She took the group and their records to the the Los Angeles juke box supplier's buying day on the Sunset Strip every week to meet, greet, and perform, and to make sure everyone knew who The Platters were.  She arranged photo shoots and personal appearances, costumes and performance dates.

"We bought Zola the prettiest dress in a soft green that made her look so sweet."

To talk to Jean Bennett was to talk about The Platters.  Any introduction was her opening to say, "We represent The Platters."   If Ram would get one of his "bright ideas" for promotion.  Jean would make it happen no matter how far fetched it seemed at the time. 

"The kids worked hard for almost two years before "Only You" broke in Seattle."

Jean and Buck pushed the envelope to make social changes.  On the road Zola and Jean were roommates.  The Platters couldn't stay at "white" hotels.  Buck and Jean could stay at "black" hotels and did  ("Invisible Las Vegas") -  until Jean had enough.  From breaking the color barrier in the U.S. in the '50s to being the first black group to play for a mixed audience in South Africa in the '80s, Jean and Buck weren't having any part of segregation once the group was at the top, and they had the power to create change.

"I told the Flamingo that The Platters stayed where they played or they didn't perform.  I won, but they put us in rooms waaaay out in the back."

Jean and Buck were at a buyer's convention in Florida when Art Talmadge announced from the stage that "Only You" was being released on Mercury's purple "Race Music" label.  Buck took a fit.  While there are a few 45's still out there with the purple label, Buck made Mercury relabel them before another pressing was shipped.  He was not going to have his group pigeoned-holed by race thus setting the stage for Berry Gordy in the '60s. 

"Buck pitched a fit.  They were his songs.  He was Jewish, and the kids had worked too hard too long to have their market narrowed by the color of a record label.  He won.  The records were re-labeled, and the world opened up to The Platters."

Jean was out front for shows night after night talking to audience members about the group.  She spent her days on the phone.  She never missed an opportunity to tell anyone about The Platters or Buck Ram, and she started fan clubs for the group around the country.

"Herbie had this foot that turned in a little.  He was a great dancer, and he'd get out there and dance up a storm with Zola.  It was so funny -- and exactly what the act needed."

There are those who would like to diminish the roll Jean Bennett played in the success of The Platters.  They are all wrong.  Without her dedicated work and promotion of the group, The Platters would never have achieved their success, remained at the top of the charts or been so successful that they have spawned hundreds of bogus groups.  The difference between The Platters and other groups of the Golden Era of Rock & Roll is not the singers or even Buck Rams songs and production.  It is the incredible promotion done by Jean Bennett.

No one, no matter what they personally believe, has ever called themsleves a Platter without reaping the benefit of Jean Bennett's hard work and dedication.