The elephant in the room was the large sum of money that would be awarded to whoever was determined to be the songwriters of "Why Do Fools Fall in Love. It was copyrighted in the names of Frankie Lymon and Morris Levy. Emira's attorneys argue that Elizabeth and Frankie separated in mid-1965 and never lived together as man and wife thereafter, invalidating her claim to a common-law marriage. Her sister's boyfriend introduced them; soon, Emira was cooking meals for Frankie and they were shopping for wedding rings. If none of the women is Frankie's widow, the surviving members of his family stand to inherit. "Frankie had a very good appetite for the best of life," she says. Aside from Waters, the winner of this legal round is Morris Levy, head of Roulette Records, among the defendants when Eagle brought a federal suit in 1984. The Taylor sections are the most fun, largely because Taylor knew Lymon when he was at his performing peak and director Gregory Nava, whose last film was Selena, does an energetic job of re-creating the exuberant rock stage shows of the period. An act could rise and fall with astonishing swiftness then. She'd come with two girlfriends to meet her onetime idol. He left no fortune; when he died of a heroin overdose 20 years ago, he was broke and troubled, trying again for a comeback he never achieved. By 1962, Frankies career had been in decline for several years but she had nevertheless come with two girlfriends to meet her onetime idol. (All three women used the surname Lymon in court documents at least part of the time.) Most record buyers did not become aware of this latest change until the Happenings recorded a cover version of "Why Do Fools Fall In Love" in 1967 with Levy's name listed on the label. Ronnie had raised a large amount of money from the benefit concerts and donations, but he had been in limbo because of the legal battle, recalled Bill Olb. It is in fact three wives who face the camera, one after another, each claiming to be Lymons true love and legal spouse. -- a classic bit of doo-wop doggerel with Lymon credited as coauthor -- are murky. He was a master manipulator, however, and it was just two months after his less than honorable discharge for repeatedly being AWOL that he went to New York, telling Emira that he wanted to see about reviving his career while also secretly planning to contact lady friends and drug pushers in the city. And that was that, the last of the hits. Span wrote that Rubin gets his share too. ("I thought royalties was a dessert," says Elizabeth.). "Some drug users, they rob, they steal, they do everything to sustain that habit." Production design Cary White. Her obituary was posted on February 9, 2023. Heres the glamorous Zola Taylor (Halle Berry), a member of the Platters, one of early rocks supergroups. Absent the kind of star performance Jennifer Lopez gave in Selena (and that films cleaner, more direct story line), cornball dramaturgy can take audiences only so far and not one note further. Waters bore Lymon's only known child, a daughter who died shortly after birth. "He had been busted in California again for drugs." It was also not uncommon for an agent, producer, or record label head to name himself co-writer of a groups songs, thereby entitling him to half of the authors publishing royalties. Hell, the boy had so many needle marks on him, I thought he was a God-damned . Lymon's 1967 marriage to Eagle, marked by a ceremony at the Beulah Grove Baptist Church, was invalid, according to the opinion, because he was still married to Waters. 22, 2021. He was energetic; dynamic; charismatic. Elizabeth may have had the hardest time of it. He was clean for a time when she became pregnant in 1963, and he was deeply saddend by the death of their infant daughter. He is skeptical, too, about some of the harrowing descriptions of Lymon that have surfaced during the legal jousting. The next morning, Feb. 27, an uncle found him unresponsive on the bathroom floor and called police. Frankie, bouncing at the mike, was "this adorable little boy, with this little smile, the little suit; you wanted to take him home All I remember was the girls screaming about how cute he was.". As Water's claim went to court, Zola Taylor ex-member of the Platters, claimed that she had been sexually active with Lymon as early as the "Biggest Rock "n" Roll Show of 1956" tour. All rights reserved. He changed the spelling of the group's name on the record label to "Kodoks" to avoid a possible lawsuit from Eastman Kodak, and released their first single, "Teenager's Dream" and . Published by Legacy on Jul. And that led to his 1955 smash hit "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?," singing for Queen Elizabeth II at the London Palladium and performing in nightclubs and theaters worldwide. Music Stephen James Taylor. He was previously married to Emira Lymon, Zola Taylor and Elizabeth Waters. He told Zola that the new house guest was "a friend from New York," Zola remembers. Costumes Elisabetta Beraldo. "Sell, sell, sell," he advises. The small wedding party celebrated by getting very drunk, not an uncommon state for Frankie at the time. The sum, he said, "might have been $1,500. She told Span that she never recovered financially from the loss of her home and still feels "cheated." Cheesborough. As Waters' claim went to court, Taylor claimed that she had been sexually active with Lymon as early as the "Biggest Rock "n" Roll Show of 1956" tour. "She was speechless, actually unable to talk," reported the attorney, Dwight Peterson. Key parts of this chronology are in dispute, of course. 05:00 PM - 08:00 PM. Frankie told Elizabeth that Zola and I arent doing anything; its just a motherly relationship, Elizabeth testified in court. Emira testified in Surrogate Court that her arrangement called for any money recovered through her suit to be shared 50-50 with Rubin, after expenses and legal fees, which had already reached a substantial subtotal. (Diana Ross also had a hit with it), "Goody Goody," "Little Bitty Pretty One" and "Im Not a Juvenile Delinquent.". She called the work "moonlighting" and testified that she was arrested for it 15 or 20 times. 8822 County Road 64. Before the case came to court, Emira changed her mind about the tombstone, despite initially agreeing to have Ronnie Italiano and the UGHA to undertake the project. Obituary. And yet -- what was it about him? Bigger than life! 1200 Observatory Drive | Madison, WI 53706-1212 | Map. Others still do, however. Lymon and his group followed up with three more hits in 1956 and another in 1957. If Elizabeth or Zola is found to be his widow, they have agreed to share the proceeds of his estate equally. Donald Ray Lymon Sep. 6, 1964 - Jan. 23, 2023 Lie in State Fri. 1/27/23, 4-8pm at Small's Mortuary. Fox), a prison-hardened former shoplifter and prostitute. Their affair continued off and on for several years. The monetary figure was estimated by Chuck Rubin, a former agent, who Paula Span described as a kind of musical bounty hunter. She also wrote that he established his Artists Rights Enforcement Corp. in 1981 to hound, bully, or sue record companies that he thought were depriving artists of their earnings, while taking a substantial cut for his efforts. Rubin's 200 or so clients, from the Del Vikings to the Coasters, constitute an honor roll of early rock 'n' roll. If Emira won, she would share the proceeds with Chuck Rubin and go after Morris Levy. None of whom had ever divorced, was his legal widow and heiress. When she and Frankie fought about it, Elizabeth said in court, he pulled a gun on her and she fled. She did not know the druggie described in this trial. In a matter that grew steadily more complex, Jimmy Merchant and Herman Santiago, the two surviving members of the original Teenagers, filed their own federal suit against Levy and his companies, with Emira also named as a defendant. Frankie, by 1965, had pretty much been reduced to lip-synching at record hops on the East Coast. Paula Span, Frankie was addicted to drugs and alcohol and Elizabeth, who was 19 at the time, was sympathetic. 1 pop hit for Diana Ross in 1981 and recently turned up in a greeting card commercial. I know its been good for me.. When you made a deal with Ronnie, it was usually oral, a real old-school type of business person. Her attorneys advised her that it might look bad for her in court if she allowed an outside organization to place a headstone on Frankies grave. Zola had also been a teenage star. They were married in June 1967 at the Beulah Grove Baptist Church, with 50 members of Emiras family in attendance and a reception afterward at the Capri Lounge. She had insisted that he check himself into a Manhattan hospital to cure his drug habit. Levy ruled his empire with an iron hand, using both fear and intimidation as part of his business model. Chuck Rubin. Paula Span reported that, during the trial, the judge even raised the disquieting possibility that none of his three supposed marriages was legally contracted, that Lymon had no widow. Mays Mortuary, 1221 James Brown Blvd. Yet she also talked about Lymon's ruptured family, and, again, his drug dependency. She also stole the hearts of many people and led to a five-year legal battle to answer which of the three women who claimed to be married to the star was the real Mrs. Frankie Lemmon . Your email address will not be published. By the time of the trial, publishing rights to the song might have been worth seven figures. At one point, Levy owned more than 90 companies that employed 900 people.These included record pressing plants, tape-duplicating plants, a distribution company, a prominent New England chain of record stores, and numerous record labels. As the lead vocalist for the Teenagers, Lymon (played by Larenz Tate) helped turn Why Do Fools Fall in Love into one of the biggest hits of 1956. This answer is: He left no fortune, but his name was listed as one of the songwriters of Why Do Fools Fall In Love. Neither has Elizabeth or Zola. At her insistence he checked into a Manhattan hospital to cure his drug habit, and maybe he succeeded for a time. And that song, which he wrote or helped to write and which will bear his boyish vocal signature forever. Yet just over a year later, Lymon would be found dead in his grandmothers bathroom from drug abuse. Rodgers, who had been Roulettes top-selling artist in the 50s and early 60s with his #1 hit Honeycomb and 26 other charting singles, suffered traumatic head injuries from a blunt instrument in the beating. His was a wasted life, and he was so talented., Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. Emira's attorneys have alleged that the other two widows "acted in concert" with Levy, and point to contracts that Zola and Elizabeth each signed with Levy's publishing business, Big Seven Music Corp. Each assigned the song's copyright to Big Seven in exchange for an advance ($10,000 in Elizabeth's case, $7,500 in Zola's) against her share of future royalties. They wanted to impress their friends in school by being on the radio. This trio first meets as a group in 1985 in the offices of Morris Levy (Paul Mazursky), the shrewd operator whose company released Lymons hits. Span wrote that she was conscious of her stardom and arrived at court daily in a limousine. The court found that "the decedent and Elizabeth {Waters} have satisfied the requirements of common law marriage in the State of Pennsylvania." William McCracken, who represents Emira Eagle, called her at the elementary school where she teaches. Levy had been arrested earlier in 1986 as part of the F.B.I. Zola's attorneys argue that California law makes her a "putative spouse" entitled to share in Lymon's property. But Anne Pomeroy of the Artists Rights Enforcement Corp. (which has played a major role in the Lymon case, and about which more later) spoke with Emira at length. The two surviving members of the Teenagers claim that they wrote the song with Lymon when they were all Harlem street-corner harmonizers hoping for a break. "And he was still just a kid when he started on the next wife, Elizabeth Waters," said Nava. They also pointed to the absence of documentation from Mexico as evidence that Zola and Frankie never married at all. She said he didn't mean to hurt her, and blamed his behavior on his addictions. Required fields are marked *. "He had such presence, he'd just take over a stage and wipe an audience out. It was the hit that made him and the Teenagers famous back in 1956, and the one song that he recorded that remained both popular and valuable over the years. When she recovered, she declared that "she knew it; she'd had faith all along," Peterson said. Back in 1956, the hit song had first been credited to Frankie Lymon, Herman Santiago, and George Goldner - head of Gee Records. He also represented several of the artists featured on the "Dirty Dancing" album. Elizabeth Lymon says she married Lymon on Jan. 23, 1964, in Alexandria, Va., and bore him a daughter the following year. 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