Note to readers: You will find this post quite long, but I hope not tedious. I hope there are enough photographs so that reading goes fast. Enjoy. The last paragraph is repeated here as most people won’t read that far: “One more thing to mention at the end of a long post where very few readers will find it: At the Mathis site there is a 47 page article by “Lestrade” called Pacific Theater. Because it is a PDF and I am technically inept, I cannot link without having a dead link. So you’re on your own to find it. Lestrade has done some excellent work in deconstructing the Aleutian campaign in World War II. The reason I bring it up here is that his photo analysis is superb. It’s well worth a journey and perhaps an hour of your time.”
In a prior post, I mentioned that Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, John Denver and Taylor Swift had all been pasted into family photos, that is, we do not know their names, only that their last names: Morrison, Joplin, Deutschendorf and Swift are not their real names. It appears from the outside looking in that these musicians were (are) lifetime actors. I would guess that they were recruited because someone spotted some talent that could be developed.
However, it had to be made clear them that they were not to be let loose on the world, that they would put in their time, learn their trade and then exit the music business. They would be given intense training and then songs to sing that they pretend(ed) were (are) their own creation. In fact, Morrison, Denver and Joplin faked their deaths. Swift is still with us, but I have to suspect a fake death is on her horizon. (Prince probably fits into this category, but I never listened to his music and so have not taken the time to look into his very suspicious death. So too a few others, like David Bowie, for example. Rappers and hip hop, I never tuned in. Die away.)