Aliens Inade Small Town; City Close Streets, Launches Secret Weapon
June 8, 2008
Big Mama Gayle and her Sugar Daddies delighted aliens and others with her bombastic stage show (not that she stays on the stage much), May 17.
The annual UFO festival is stationed at the McMenamin’s Hotel Oregon on 3rd Ave. and N.E. Evans in the Historic Downtown area of McMinnville, Ore. UFO sightings over the hotel might be reported any time of the year, but once a year the hotel throws a big party in the aliens’ honor and they gleefully attend.
Several related events, such as the Alien Pet Contest and the UFO Parade, take place earlier in the day. The Alien Ball attracts creatures of all kinds, ranging from alien greys draped in hooded silver capes, belly dancers, medieval jesters, pirates and some critters that appeared to have been in the blow zone of a nuclear test gone bad.
As the sun sets in the west, Millie’s Room upstairs at the hotel starts to rock out. Big Mama Gayle out-aliens just about everyone with her costume changes and her juggernaut presentation. No one escapes unchanged from the Alien Ball.
Editor of PE&D Bonnie Carter and this writer as cohort, got a front row table at the ball. Carter was precious in her tin-foil hat. Either she was well-shielded from negative emanations or could tune in to extra stations. This writer is happy to note that she can still fit into her old uniform, (Enterprise, NCC 1701, Engineering, two stripes. HA!).
Hayden’s band, all world-class professionals, kicked off the evening and hardly anyone in attendance could sit still. Hayden’s voice could be heard, but she herself was moving around the crowded room like a demon under the kudzu, entertaining all in her path. Her many costumes employed this evening were sewed by her mother, Carol. The entire collection includes an Easter bunny, gorilla, belly dancer, clown, gypsy, Carmen Miranda, all Gayle’s gowns and all the beautiful silver neckties for the band members.
When Big Mama Gayle and her Sugar Daddies perform, it’s not a mere performance or party, it’s an event. Her non-stop floor show might present tunes such as Bad, Bad Boy, Pipeline, Johnny B. Goode, Stormy Monday, some Motown, classic rock and unpredictably more. Dancer Martin performed a routine, backed by the band playing You Can Keep Your Hat On and later on, half of the house went weaving between tables in a conga line to the song La Bamba.
Big Mama Gayle is Gayle Hayden. She borrows a quote from Bob Hope; when she was born, the doctor told her mother, "Congratulations. You have just given birth to an eight-pound ham. "I’m three times the woman I was then!" Hayden laughs.
Hayden’s father was a musician and her mother danced a lot. Hayden started in early childhood with music and dance lessons. At age 16, she had her own band in San Francisco called the Freudian Slips. They appeared in Life Magazine on June 3, 1966 (when the magazine sold for 35 cents). Hayden performed in the musical Hair for two years, then followed the production to Broadway for one year. In December, 1969, Playboy Magazine wanted to do a feature on the girls of Hair and their preferred model was a married young woman whose husband did not approve. Hayden had no such restrictions, so she was photographed in a modest, draped pose for Playboy.
A lifetime performer, Hayden continued as a go-go dancer from Guam to the Metropol. After Guam, she came to this area to visit her sister. In Vernonia, she met the man who became her husband and together they produced a fine son, who is now a power lineman in the Vernonia area. She has returned to the live performance arena, while working for the school district for the past 20 years, teaching all kinds of special needs children. She loves them all.
Current band members include Josh Hundley on lead guitar; Joel Redwine on drumset; Kenny Lowther on guitar and vocals; good friend Larry Haller on bass and Sam Solano on sax, a graduate of the Mt. Hood Community College Jazz Program. Redwine tells us, "You never know what to expect when playing with Big Mama Gayle. It is definitely the most spontaneously wild band I’ve ever been in; no two shows are the same!" Dancers Whitney Martin and Kathleen Brown are the band’s beloved and authentic go-go dancers. They are so cute! (Note: the term go-go-dancer originated at the Whiskey-A-Go-Go Club in California. The outfits are hallmarked by mid-calf white boots designed by Andre Courreges with the flat heel rather than the chunky style now in use. Gleaned from http://www.thehipstergo-godancers.com/ by Kathy Collier. Used without permission.)
Hayden is assertively ebullient when talking about her band members. "Besides Big Mama Gayle, we have a virtuoso saxophone player, a rock-and-roll frontman, a blistering lead guitar player, rock solid bass player and a multi-talented surf/jazz/rock drummer," she says. Some of them worked with her when they were students and have now returned as professional performers. They all are special, with interesting personal lives. For example, dancer Martin works toward becoming an opera singer; guitarist Lowther teaches fifth-graders and is said to have a great sense of humor; dancer Brown works in a convent; Hundley is a computer tech; Redwine anticipates training as an EMT and saxophonist Solano aspires to having his own band.
"I want to make people happy", says Hayden She receives compliments such as how one person hadn’t laughed since a spouse died, or that Hayden had made a non-dancing husband get up and dance. Hayden’s life is now filled with equal enjoyment from teaching special children, mentoring young people in general and doing her show. She does approach reticent men as part of her show and says "They all know I’m clowning." She can knock five beers off a table with her famous inflated bottom; no word on any break of this record. No matter where she is, Big Mama Gayle just naturally gets people laughing and feeling the fun.
"You’re never too old to have fun be silly and rock and roll," she advises. She is there to make the audience have the biggest fun, even though she and the band all love the performance. She emphasizes the burlesque, cabaret-feel in her performance.
For now and the future, she plans to work more on her health, so she can keep on going. The Big Mama Gayle and her Sugar Daddies event is scheduled for many performances in June, July, August, September and New Years Eve. At press time her web page was still under construction, so be sure to check ad and Bandstand in this and future issues for details.
"We are only as good as our audience," Hayden says, and thanks all comers profusely. When Big Mama Gayle opens wide her loving arms, there's room for everyone.