Where'd Ya Go Curly Jo?

1

A friend of ours enjoys festooning Facebook with  kitschy retro bits of ephemera from the distant/not so distant past.

Recently he posted this--what looks to be a newspaper ad from the 1970's (judging by the collar on the  shirt and hairstyle).

It's not a remarkable newspaper ad.  Simply a plug for a local or perhaps traveling entertainer at one of hundreds of Holiday Inn hotels that once upon a time dotted the U.S. highways at regular intervals.

The ad gives us the basics:  Curly Jo Russell.  Two week Holiday Inn hotel bar stint.  Cocktail Hour prices.  Hotel address (although  no city or state).

After our friend posted this, quite a few other people jumped in to share humorous imaginings about the identity of Curly Jo Russell.

Because imaginings are all we are left with.



The longer I looked at this ad, the more questions percolated uselessly into my idle mind.


Who was Curly Jo Russell?
What was his real name?  Surely his mother didn't name him "Curly Jo"...right?
Where was he from?  Did he have a job besides touring the Holiday Inn bar performance circuit?
Did he have a family?  A partner?  Children?   A cat?

I did a few quick google searches and came up with nothing.

I googled "Curly Jo Russell" and "1970's performer".  Nothing.
I googled "Joe Russell", "Joseph Russell"  and "1970" along with "performer", "musician", "magician", "comedian".

Nothing.
Nothing.
Nothing.


Meanwhile, someone else added a bit more information to the mystery.

2

The address listed on Curly Jo's original newspaper ad matched the address for  a former Holiday Inn in Grand Island, Nebraska.

I thusly renewed my search.

Nothing.

I searched the obituary archives for the long-time local newspaper, the "Grand Island Independent" (on the assumption he might have been a local) .  I read 15 to 20 obituaries that included the name "Russell" in any way.

I did some math and figured Curly Jo may have been born between 1940 and 1950, and then narrowed my obituary search.

Nothing.


Along the way I read the summarized newspaper life stories of cowboys and farmers, ministers and world travelers, soldiers and woodworkers and teachers.  Some of the stories were long and detailed. Others simply noted place of birth and place of death.

But no Curly Jo Russell.

Now, I am well aware that I'm not a professional researcher.   And I am also aware that the name "Curly Jo Russell" might be entirely a stage name.  Or perhaps in his later years Curly Jo decided to distance himself from his youthful Holiday Inn performer past, so it wouldn't even show up in his obituary.

However I know this much.  At one point in the 1970s,  only 40 years ago or so, there was a person who called himself (or herself.  One cannot assume) "Curly Jo Russell".  

At one point only 40 years ago Curly Jo Russell wanted to share his talents with the world.  Curly Jo might have been a comedian.  A musician.  A magician.   Who knows?  The what doesn't matter as much as the fact that Curly Jo Russell followed a dream to the microscopic stage of a nondescript Holiday Inn bar in Grand Island Nebraska.

What matters is that across everything that Curly Jo Russell might have been and done, who he might have loved and lost, the entirety of his life is immortalized in a random, now-amusing newspaper ad for a Holiday Inn bar performance where his audience could enjoy mixed drinks for 50 cents each.

Depending on your perspective,  the story-non-story of Curly Jo Russell could be wildly depressing...or it could be reassuring.

Most people want to make a lasting mark on the world--a touch of immortality (because for some reason the desire for immortality seems to be somehow genetically wired into our psyches, starting with the biological drive to have children and then just spiraling out from there in all the weird ways).

What we get from this touch of immortality is anyone's guess.  But we want it anyway.

The real story of Curly Jo Russell may be lost forever.

But Curly Jo got his touch of immortality.  He surfaced improbably, 40 years after his Grand Island Nebraska performances, on a social media site where he managed to unintentionally amuse us and spark our silly imaginations.

Personally, I think there are far worse ways to touch the future.

Good for you Curly Jo.  We are entertained.






Sources

1. https://www.facebook.com/thekitschbitsch/?hc_ref=NEWSFEED&fref=nf

2.  https://www.google.com/search?q=holiday+inn+2503+s.+locust+grand+island
+ne&espv=2&biw=1248&bih=594&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi4y
JL7ttDOAhXLpR4KHYb_DAIQ_AUIBSgA&dpr=2