04 - Holy Ola Ray!

Yes. THAT Ola Ray.

The cute little black girl with the fine, lean legs. The girl in the poodle skirt and tight pink sweater, her hair in a ponytail, filled with Jeri-curl. The girl who strutted around Michael Jackson as he turned from innocent movie date to a creature straight out of a John Landis flick – complete with Vincent Price’s backing monologue.

THAT Ola Ray. Mmmmmm….Ola Ray. You probably didn’t even know who she was in the autumn of 1983.

I did.

Ola Ray. The same girl who was Playboy’s Miss June 1980.

I’d spent a good part of my sixth and seventh grade year carefully holding her centerfold with one hand.

The holes in her belly button were about the size of two centerfold staple holes. Her lips, covered in waxy bright red lipstick were no different in the “Theriller” video. When other people were invested in John Landis movies, Rick Baker’s special effects make-up, and rehearsing the dance moves and the moonwalk, I was admiring the girl who couldn’t act, but she sure could strut.

And I never bought or wore a replica of Michael Jackson’s famous red and black leather jacket or parachute pants or zipper-covered dress shirts (You know who you are…so we don’t have to name names here). Like always, I was wearing cargo pants (known as Army fatigues back then) and faded sweatshirts, like I always have and probably always will.

Looking back, her outfit (acid washed peg-leg jeans and cropped leather/denim jacket) and hair style (female poodle mullet) were caught squarely in the middle of 1984. She still looks as fantastic in that video today, almost two generations later, as she did the evening we all saw it the first time.

Of course, it was the golden age of music videos, but even that didn’t propel Ola Ray to superstardom. On the other hand, there were the VeeJays – relative unknowns who became household words among teenagers throughout the American Heartland. J.J. Jackson, Nina Blackwood, Alan Jeffries, and Martha Quinn.

We remembered two truths about these people. Alan Jeffries appeared as an extra in David Bowie’s “Fashion” video and Martha Quinn did NOT appear in “Centerfold” by the J. Geils Band.

But, knowing the truth isn’t always everything. Like KISS-member Gene Simmons once said, “I never understood people wanting to see behind the mask. It’s like going to a magic show and knowing the illusions. It ruins the show.”

And when I taped the “Centerfold” video, I never cared that it wasn’t Martha Quinn and I didn’t care that Ola Ray could not act. Either way for me, the show just must go on.

So, late at night, in the winter of 1983, I dreamt of Ola Ray’s impeding stardom – even if I was one of the few who felt she was a superstar. So, I held private conversations with the ‘cute black girl from next door.’ .

“Ola…I have something to tell you…I’m not like other guys…”

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