Below are my collection of articles on Pink Lady's American adventures which I culled from magazines and newspapers from early 1979 to the present day. If anyone out there happens to have clippings other than what you see below, please write to me about them at treetop.jeff@verizon.net. Thanks!

CASH BOX MAGAZINE: January 20, 1979
clipping provided by William Bisch

PINK LADY FETED IN L.A. - Pink Lady, a young female duo from Japan, recently was feted with an elaborate record industry reception at Yamato's Restaurant in Los Angeles. The duo, which consists of Mie, a 20 year old and Kei, a 21 year old will have its debut American release on Warner/Curb records. Pink Lady, who was recently awarded the Japan Popular Song Award, was also honored by Waturu Miyakawa, the Japanese Consulate General, during its visit to the States. Pictured (l-r) at the reception are: Michael Lloyd, who will produce the duo's album; Mie; George Benson; Kei; Neushi Ertegun, president of WEA International; Mie; Kei; Miriam Luttio, the duo's interpreter; Lloyd and Paul Drew, the duo's manager. Pink Lady is scheduled to return to America in March or April. GO TO APRIL 14, 1979 JUST BELOW FOR THE OTHER CLIPPING!

BILLBOARD MAGAZINE: January 27, 1979

JAPAN'S PINK LADY REACHES FOR WORLDWIDE RECOGNITION
by Haruhiko Fukuhara

TOKYO: The Pink Lady, the most popular song-and-dance female twosome here, have extended their string of consecutive number one hits to eight with "Tomei Ningen" which recently sailed past the the million mark.

With so many hits and sales records to their credit in just over two years since their debut, Kei and Mie, the Pink Lady partners, are now looking overseas for new challenges. The duo, who have signed a management contract with Paul Drew and also reached a worldwide (except Japan and the Philippines) recording contract with Warner Bros./Curb, recorded four songs in Los Angeles on October 19 and 20. One will be chosen for the next single due to be released worldwide on Jan.3.

Before leaving for the U.S., the two held a press conference at the Tokyo Hilton Hotel. Having glanced through the sheet music to "Love Countdown", one of the four songs and a prime candidate for release, Kei told reporters: "All the numbers that we've done have been fast but this one's slow and more adult. Now that I've turned 20, I've been wanting to to sing a song like this and am happy that it's actually coming out soon."

Mie added: "I'm happy that one of our dreams will be coming true. We're going to keep giving all our songs all we've got."

Next January, the duo plan to return to the States, record some more songs and host parties commemorating the release of their new single in L.A. and New York. This will be just the start of their busy schedule for the coming year.

Later in the month they will participate in the proceedings at MIDEM in Cannes. Around March or April they will do some promotional work on U.S. television. Promotional tours are planned for the U.S. and Canada in July, the U.K., France and other European countries in October and Australia in December.

CASH BOX MAGAZINE: April 14, 1979
clipping provided by William Bisch

PINK LADY ON ELEKTRA/CURB - The Japanese recording duo, Pink Lady, who have had eight consecutive number one albums in their homeland, stopped by the Elektra/Asylum offices in Los Angeles to chat with E/A executives. Pink Lady product will be presented on Elektra/Curb in the United States and a debut single, "Kiss in the Dark" will be released this month. Shown here are (l-r): Ken Buttice, E/A vice president of promotions; Mie of Pink Lady; Paul Drew, Pink Lady person direction; Kei of Pink Lady; Joe Smith, E/A chairman; and Jerry Sharell, E/A vice president of creative services.

TIGER BEAT: June 1979

FAR EAST MEETS WEST IN HOLLYWOOD

Who's the top group in Japan? Ifya think it's KISS, Cheap Trick, or the (Bay City) Rollers, guess again----all of them are very popular, but Japan's own Pink Lady is number one! 20 year old Mie and 19 year old Kei have had 10 number one singles and eight number one albums in a row, and now they'll be topping the U.S. charts too if music wiz Michael Lloyd has his way! He wrote and produced Pink Lady's single, "Kiss In The Dark", it's their first in English! Michael's been taking the pretty Ladies around to meet his music biz buddies, this pic was taken at a party in their honor, and Mie (left) and Kei (right) got to meet George Benson, Beach Boy Mike Love and rock group Van Halen!

LOOK MAGAZINE: June 11, 1979

HOT PINK LADIES

The singing duo Pink Lady has taken over Japan. Its 10 number one singles and eight number one albums have spawned Pink Lady dolls, Pink Lady notebooks, even Pink Lady bicycles. The two women sing on Japanese television shows and commercials; their images are plastered all over advertising posters. And now, says their American represenative, Paul Drew, the group is "in the process of being adapted to the world market outside Japan, like the Datsun car or the Sony."

Pink Lady, named for the drink, consists of two 21-year old former junior and senior high classmates, Mitsuyo Nemoto and Keiko Masuda. Mie ("me") and Kei ("kay") were both born in Shizuoka City. In February 1976, they auditioned for the Japanese TV talent show A Star Is Born and walked away with the top prize and a recording contract. Since then, it's been one success after another. Even their movie debut, in Pink Lady's Great Motion Picture was a box office hit.

After all the acclaim in Japan, why bother with the American Market? "An adventure," says Kei. "An adventure," echoes Mie. And, of course, the United States market is the largest in the world.

Mie's and Kei's "adventure" is well planned. Michael Lloyd, a major force in the success of Shaun Cassidy and Debby Boone is composing and producing their songs. The group's biggest success is with children; their U.S. debut will take place on America's own preteen heartthrob's TV extravaganza, The Leif Garrett Special, airing May 18 on CBS. And for added insurance, their first single is a disco tune called "Kiss In The Dark."

Despite the extensive professional plans, Pink Lady has another goal. As Mie recently told a reporter, "We are females, and a woman's happiness lies in getting married. We will continue only until one, or both of us, marries."

BILLBOARD MAGAZINE: June 15, 1979

PINK LADY ENDS DROUTH

TOKYO: Music industry people here are elated over a single which this week has moved up to 63 on Billboard's Hot 100. It's "Kiss In The Dark" by Pink Lady on Elektra/Curb.

Not since 1963, when Capitol imported Kyu Sakamoto's "Sukiyaki" from Toshiba records here and watched it become number one throughout the world has there been a Japanese hit in North America. That's a 16-year dry spell. "Kiss In The Dark" and "Sukiyaki" are the only two hits ever charted in the U.S. by Japanese in the entire history of the recording industry.

ROLLING STONE: September 6, 1979

PINK LADY: JAPANESE BUBBLEGUM
by Ben Fong-Torres

"A Pink Lady?" the bartender at Vanessi's repeats. "It's---let's see---gin, lemon juice, grenadine....apple brandy, an egg and heavy cream. It's very heavy and very sweet."

I order a Scotch and water while waiting to meet Pink Lady, the two-woman pop sensation from Japan who are on the West Coast cutting their first Englsh langauge records. Half an hour later, the two twenty-one year olds, Mitsuyo Nemoto (nucknamed "Mie") and Keiko Masuda ("Kei") jump out of a limo and breeze into the restaurant with their two managers: Kazuhiko Soma, who discovered and groomed them, and Paul Drew, who's guiding their invasion of the U.S.

Dressed like Olivia Newton-John in Grease, black sweater for Kei, chenille top for Mie, pink slacks and boots, they're anonymous here, talking and giggling at each other like the girlhood friends they are. They neither look or act like the best selling female recording act in the world, based on $75 million in sales in two years, from eight albums and nine singles, all but one Number One in Japan. At home, their concerts fill baseball stadiums; they are all over TV, doing pitches for everything from insecticides to underwear, and their image in marketed on some 350 Pink Lady products.

What have they done to deserve this? Followed orders, basically, and put together a pop sound rooted in The Archies, with touches of Abba and The Supremes. Their first American single, "Kiss In The Dark," is Disco, with an innocuous remake of Left Banke's "Walk Away Renee" on the flip side. Since neither lady speaks fluent English, they sing phonectically, and although they handle the language impressively, their readings inevitably seem souless. Still, with "Kiss In The Dark" nearing the Top Forty, Pink Lady is the first Japanese act to make the U.S. charts since Kyu Sakamoto hit with "Sukiyaki" (which was in Japanese) in 1963.

In Japan, the Pink Lady phenomenon is based on a peculiar mix of bubblegum music and peekaboo imagery. Although their audience is mostly teens and preteens who've seen them on TV, in concert, Mie and Kei wear scanty outfits along the lines of go-go nighties and torreador tights. And while they do sort of dance together, mostly childish head bobbing and simple hand waving and pointing motions, they exude wholesomeness.

That's where the grooming comes in. Mie and Kei were spotted at a TV audition three years ago by Soma. "Most Japanese singers are short, and they are tall," says Soma. (Mie is five feet five, Kei is five three) "And I felt their singing was....trainable." Soma put Kei on a diet, which trimmed her by fifteen pounds and began dressing them in matching minskirt outfits ("By being half naked," he says, "they presented health, not sex") and named them Pink Lady. "I was looking for a striking name."

Mie and Kei say that despite their initial resistance to the vaguely suggestive name and bubblegum image, they are happy. As for the music they do: "My ideal is to sing my own songs," says Kei, who agrees that Pink Lady's product is on the childish side. But they don't want to expand their audience too suddenly, she says, because that would be "too adventurous" and might leave their younger fans stranded. Kei's favorite artists are Wayne Newton and Tom Jones while Mie named Diana Ross and Donna Summer.

They also have no complaints about their contract with Soma's management-production company, which paid them $250 a month each for their first year, while their records made millions for management. Now they recieve $40,000 a year each and earn a penny per single and twelve cents per album sold. They get nothing for their advertising work and do not share in merchandising profits, except as stockholders in the production company. "It may sound unfair," said Soma, "but it's all part of the system. If they get sick, the company secures their security, until age twenty-five." Mie and Kei drew salaries before their debut, he argues, and were gauranteed their pay whether or not they had a hit.

Now they have their own condos in a "nice part of Tokyo" and are busily attending English classes at Berlitz as part of Paul Drew's strategy for Pink Lady to make it in the U.S. Mie doesn't put it in business terms: "We want to test ourselves," she says. "Japan (the world's second largest record market) is still a small market. The United States is at the center of the world." And Drew is thinking platinum all the way. Pink Lady's first English-language album is out (on the Elektra/Curb label) and Drew, formerly the main ear at the RKO chain of powerhouse AM stations, has picked the music.

"Kiss In The Dark," he says, "is a formula record with the hooks in it, "Kiss and you run away" which means that the radio stations should pick up on it immediately. It's just one of those manufactured pieces of hit material that should do extremely well."

TIGER BEAT MAGAZINE: October 1979

THE TIGER'S BEAT: PINK LADY

Pink Lady! They're taking the U.S. by storm! Pink Lady is made up of two lovely girls from Japan, Mie (pronounced "Me") and Kei ("Kay). You probably remember them from Leif Garrett's TV special in May when they made their U.S. debut. Their American debut song is an upbeat disco song called "Kiss In The Dark" and is fast becoming popular with dancers all over the country!

Speaking of dancers, these two young ladies could give us all a lesson or two! To see them perform is a rare treat you don't want to miss! Mie and Kei were classmates in both junior and senior high school and enrolled in a creative dance modern ballet school in hopes of one day becoming peformers. Their hard work paid off and now their spectacular dance numbers almost resemble acrobatics. Mie says, "If we did any more dance than we do right now, we couldn't possibly sing, too!"

Pink Lady is currently the hottest group in Japan. They're on top the top of the music charts and have attracted a following that borders on the edge of fanatic. There are over 81 Pink Lady products being sold in Japan today, everything from notebooks to bicycles! And now, new horizons have been set for them to conquer----the U.S.

The name Pink Lady was given to Mie and Kei by the composer of their Japanese songs. He says he named them after the cocktail Pink Lady because he thought it was a drink that was sweet and strong &endash; a colorful drink that is cute and and has a mixture of contents. But at first Mie and Kei objected, because pink also has another meaning in Japanese, it suggests something sexy!

But, Mie and Kei are probably two of the nicest, charming and most traditional girls you could ever meet. Mie and Kei strongly believe in their Japanese values which say that a woman's place is in the home. Mie says, "We are females and a woman's happiness lies in getting married. We will continue only until one or both of us marry." But, for the moment, marriage seems to be far away. Mie and Kei are too busy winning your heart!

GROOVES MAGAZINE: November 1979

REVIEW OF PINK LADY'S ALBUM

Mie and Kei, the Japanese answer to the Bee Gees, prove that boogie can be performed endlessly and mindlessly by persons of any race, creed or color. The two 22-year old ladies, who parade around under the name Pink Lady, smile blankly on the cover of their first American release. Behind those blank smiles it's easy to imagine someone saying, "If we can't sell these two, what can we sell?"

There they are, all sweetness and light. Two cute female voices doing cute, sanitized versions of "disco music." Here is the perfect album that a discophobe can use to argue the intrinsic worthlessness of disco. Shaun Cassidy's producer, Michael Lloyd, has unashamedly lifted the disco conventions of any solid disco success to appropriate for this disc. Lloyd shows how easy it is to take soaring strings, a thumping beat, a wailing cry and a back-up chorus, and with very little effort, produce a contrivance like this album, particularly with tunes like "Kiss In The Dark."

But, in light of Pink Lady's career, aural wothlessness is status quo. In Japan, they are the epitome of Japanese M.O.R., so it's no wonder they were matched with Lloyd, the America king of pop-kitsch. Hopefully, though, a less cynical and more musically educated audience will not accept Pink Lady's frothy dose of disco doldrums.

BILLBOARD MAGAZINE: December 14, 1979

NBC-TV SIGNS PINK LADY DUO

LOS ANGELES: NBC-TV chief Fred SIlverman is getting fast action from Pink Lady, the twosome from Tokyo who have sold more records in Japan than any other act of the late 1970's. Silverman has contracted with Pink Lady's U.S. manager, Paul Drew, for exclusive televsion rights to the two beauteous young women, who spent all last week in Burbank toiling on a program which will be telecast in one of two ways.

Silverman will either give Pink Lady its only weekly show starting in February, in prime time, or beam the duo's efforts as a one-hour special. The special would be the first of several to be produced in 1980, Drew reports.

"The fee the girls are getting," Drew adds, "is the highest ever paid to an unknown imported act."

PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS: February 29, 1980

JAPANESE ROCK STARS TURN TO COMEDY
by Vernon Scott

HOLLYWOOD: Pink Lady is to Japanese pop music lovers what the young Elvis Presley was to American rock fans, the ultimate star. Pink Lady is the name of a pair of 21 year old Japanese girls named Mie Nemoto and Kei Masuda who sell more records than anyone else in Asia. A press release says they are the Number One selling record stars in the world today.

Be that as it may, the important thing is that Mie (pronounced "Me") and Kei (pronounced "Kay") will star for six consecutive weeks beginning tonight on Channel 3 in NBC-TV's new musical comedy series, "Pink Lady Starring Jeff Altman." It's a dumb title for a show. But it does account for the presence of Altman in the series.

No Japanese born performers have starred in American television. The language barrier alone is an almost insumountable problem. But Pink Lady, who sing rock song such as "Kiss In The Dark" in English could change that. In addition to beautiful harmonizing, Mie and Kei are a visual delight. Friends since they were 14-year old schoolgirls in Shizuoka City, Mie and Kei entered a singing contest four years ago sponsored by a TV station. They won easily and became instant stars in Japan.

They were named Pink Lady after the fussy pink cocktail of the same name. Their first record, "Peppa Keibu" (Pepper Police Inspector) was a runaway hit for Japan's Victor Records and they were on their way. Pink Lady's Japanese promoters say their success is unprecedented in Asian music history. They claim Pink Lady has grossed $100 million with 14 consecutive hit records and more than $20 million in concert appearances in Japanese baseball stadiums where they;ve drawn as many as 200,000 fans.

They made their movie debut two years ago in the Japanese produced "Pink Lady's Great Motion Picture," a science fiction-western adventure. One would assume that Mie and Kei would have amassed enormous personal wealth, a large entourage, a private jet and other appearances favored by other international rock star. Such is not the case. Mie and Kei are thoroughly Japanese women and, as such, are still light years behind liberated western women.

They are under contract to T and C (Trust and Confidence) Music and, admittedly, they do what they are told by the corporation. They were ordered to accept NBC's offer for six one-hour shows. While tradition prevents them from complaining or even showing displeasure, Pink Lady is not ecstatic about moving to Hollywood for three or four months it will take to produce their shows.

The beautiful, slender young women tried to smile while eating the unfamiliar fare at a health food restaurant not far from the studio. They were accompanied by a Japanese woman translator and a Japanese photographer. Both young singers are homesick, both for the same reason, boyfriends. Mie and Kei have separate apartments in a fancy Westwood complex but they are having difficulty adjusting to American food, customs and people.

Clothes are a problem, too. Although Mie and Kei are tall by Japanese standards, they are so slender that most garments are too big for them. They are also horrified by the prices in Beverly Hills boutiques. Pink Lady has appeared only once previously on American TV, as guests on the Leif Garrett special, filmed in England, more than a year ago. They also starred in a couple of concerts in Las Vegas two years ago.

VARIETY MAGAZINE: MARCH 5, 1980
REVIEW OF PINK LADY AND JEFF
clipping provided by Ben Benjamin

Jeff Altman is a bland, good natured comic whose stock-in-trade seems to be bad impressions of constantly imitated celebrities (Walter Cronkite, Johnny Carson, Howard Cosell, Humphrey Bogart, Richard Nixon) and of character types (a punchdrunk prizefighter, a hardsell TV pitchman, a Billy Graham like evangelist). That NBC-TV would put Altman in charge of a new six-episode primetime variety series is a somehwat melancholy commentary on the state of a form that once thrived on the networks' schedules but that now seems to have been abandoned.

The nominal stars of the Altman show are two female Japanese singers, Mie Nemoto and Kei Masuda, who perform under the title Pink Lady. For about five minutes, Pink Lady is a refreshing novelty because the two are sleek and beautiful and somewhat out of the ordinary. (And they're delicately, definably Japanese---unlike say, the Kim Sisters who come off as Oriental parodies of Las vegas showgirls.) But the novelty quickly wore off on the pilot as Pink Lady managed to make every one of the half dozen or so songs they performed sound alike. And the badinage between Altman and Pink Lady, much of which centered on Mie and Kei's hesitancy with the English language was painful.

Altman detonated a lot of pseudo-humble jokes about the fact that he's not well known to a mass audience. But the jokes were on the level of "My mother and father are not here in the studio----they're next door at the Merv Griffin Show taping, watching Merv interview his suit." The guests on the pilot seemed computer selected by NBC's research department: Blondie to get the young demographics, Bert Parks for the older folk and Sherman Hemsley for black audiences. Parks and Hemsley were left in the lurch by the show's writers, and Blondie did one of its earbending numbers while being photgraphed with repeated overlapping dissolves, Chromakey visual efforts and tilted camera angles. (Ed. note: That wasn't even a live performance by Blondie. It was taped.)

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: NOVEMBER 23, 1990
REVIEW OF PINK LADY AND JEFF
clipping provided by Hime-chan (http://winksounds.tripod.com)

(Ed. note: It would appear this this review of PL & J was part of an EW piece on the ten worst turkeys of movies and television)

The buildup: After springing Supertrain on the American public, NBC president Fred Silverman needed a hit for his new network in early 1980. Working with bright, young Brandon Tartikoff, the newly promoted president NBC Entertainment, the TV whizzes developed a show around Pink Lady, a Japanese superstar singing duo of two young ladies named Mie and Kei.

The turkey tale: Not only were the singers virtually unknown to Americans, they didn't speak much English. To solve the langauge barrier, Jeff Altman----another unknown at the time----was called in to play interpreter and wear a tuxedo. Dolled up in fishnet stockings, hot pants and halter tops, Mie and Kei sang and joined Jeff in witty repartee. Trouble was, only the laugh-track operator could understand it. "It could've been funny had we been a little sarcastic about ourselves and not taken the girls so seriously," Altman now says. Pink Lady and Jeff was canceled in a month and Mie and Kei bid sayonara to the States. But altman eventually emerged as a popular comic. His second Showtime special aired in May, and now he's developing his own sitcom for NBC.

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE: October 24, 2001
clipping provided by Carolyn Bergman and Michael Michaud

BAD TV IS THE THE 'PINK'
by John Carman

Bad TV never dies. It just finds new revenue venues.

Our latest example is "Pink Lady," a 1980 disaster with a unique place in the hearts of all who value network blunders. "Pink Lady" was released this month in a special three-disc DVD collector's set from the sick folks at Rhino Home Video, for $39.95. If you're searching for it in a store, use your nose. It found its way to me along with a press release touting "Pink Lady" as "a monument to bad television." The quote is from one of the show's own producers, Sid Krofft.

"Pink Lady" was a comedy variety show that aired on NBC from March 1980 all the way to April 1980. Some would say that NBC was a mite slow on the trigger finger back then. It starred two Japanese showstoppers, Mitsuyo Nemoto and Keiko Masuda, also known as Mie and Kei. Also known as Pink Lady. Mie and Kei had a problem. They couldn't speak English. In NBC's haste to put the show on the air, it seems that no one thought to ask.

Fred Silverman, the NBC president who was laboring to lift his network from the bottom of the TV fish tank in 1980, knew only that Mie and Kei were recording superstars in Japan. And cute, sort of. NBC added a rising young comedian, Jeff Altman, to the show as Pink Lady's interlocutor and lead sketch comedy player. Altman did the grunt work. It was a little like working with two potted plants. Mie and Kei said "Yes," and "No," and "Jeff, you so handsome" in heavy Japanese accents, while Altman fought for laughs. Then, at the end of each show, they all jumped in a hot tub together.

Critics hated "Pink Lady" with a fury usually reserved for uncatered press events. The public, for once, concurred. It lasted five weeks. All the shows are in the DVD set, along with a sixth installment that never aired. Yes, even "Pink Lady" has a "lost" episode. Having watched the first two episodes, I can fairly say that "Pink Lady" withstands the test of time. Which is to say, it's not one whit more palatable today than it was 21 years ago.

In fact, the old story that Mie and Kei couldn't speak English doesn't do the stars justice. They also couldn't dance. And they had no comic timing. To tell the truth, they really couldn't sing, either. This much, Altman says in a new videotaped interview accompanying the discs, was a tad unfair. Altman says Mie and Kei could sing quite well, in Japanese. But NBC forced them into phonetic renderings of American pop songs. They had little idea what they were saying, or singing.

TV legend has it that "Pink Lady" reached the airwaves because of Silverman's desperation. He'd come to NBC in 1978 with a statesmanlike pledge of quality television. By 1980, he'd have happily put "Caligula" in prime time. Altman's theory is a little different. He thinks RCA, which owned its record label as well as NBC, pressured Silverman into "Pink Lady" as a platform to sell the duo's records in the United States. I guess they hadn't caught Mie and Kei swaying and snapping their fingers through "Boogie Wonderland." It's an experience.

When it was over, Mie and Kei returned to Japan. Altman never stayed in touch. It would have been tough, since they'd done most of their off-camera communicating in hand signals. And while the public was able to dispatch "Pink Lady" in five weeks, it has never stamped out bad TV shows altogether. Coming from Rhino Video in about 2021, no doubt: the special collector's set of "Emeril," starring the cook with egg on his face.

TV GUIDE: November 10-16, 2001

ONE PINK LADY, PLEASE
by Tim Williams

"What happens when Japan's hottest singers meet America's hottest comic?" asked a 1980 NBC promo. Answer: Pink Lady and Jeff, a legendarily awful variety show now on DVD (Rhino). "The girls were not as fluent (in English) as they'd been pitched," says Jeff Altman. The show's failure didn't shock him----perhaps because of the robotic versions of disco hits. "You looked into the girls' eyes and it was like all sevens had come up on a slot machine."

PULP MAGAZINE: January 2002

Dear Pulpsters,

I can't tell you how tickled pink (pardon the pun) I was to have read the excellent feature on Pink Lady in the October 2001 issue of your magazine. Having Mie and Kei (wearing their silver space outfits from "UFO") on the cover was an added treat. I'm a 42 year African-American man who's been madly in love with Pink Lady ever since the very first time I saw them a quarter century ago.

I was in the Navy at the time and my ship transferred to Yokosuka in August of 1977. It was there that I discovered Pink Lady and was instantly mesmerized by them. I don't know what it was about them that attracted me, how pretty they were, their cool costumes, or their incredible song and dance act, but I was quickly hooked on the Ladies, plain and simple. From there I bought pictures, books, even cassette tapes of their music, even though I didn't understand a lick of Japanese. I didn't care, I was fascinated by Mie and Kei and couldn't get enough of them.

I was fortunate to have been in Japan at the height of Pink Lady mania when Mie and Kei were insanely popular. You literally couldn't turn around with seeing them on TV, in books, newspapers, magazines and billboards, their concerts drew unbelievable numbers, hell, they even had their own animated biographical series. The closest thing that equates to the fandom Japanese people had for Pink Lady was Beatlemania back in the 60's. Young, old, male, female, even foreigners like me, it didn't matter, the Ladies attracted legions of fans like no other pop stars could.

Pink Lady's high energy song and dance act predated Madonna and Paula Abdul, and every time I see Britney or Christina shaking their tails on MTV, I can't help but think: Mie and Kei were doing that before they were born! And they did it better! From what I've learned, Pink Lady's act was unlike anything fans of J-Pop had ever seen before, the catchy songs (my favorite is "Wanted"), the wild costumes, the mind blowing choreography, Mie and Kei were nothing short of a phenomenon. Is it any wonder that the Ladies became idol singers of the highest order?

While Pink Lady didn't invent the concept of the Japanese idol singer, in my rather biased opinion, they are perhaps most associated with the genre than any performer who came before them, or any who's followed since. In some ways, and this is highly debatable, Mie and Kei were the genre, lock, stock and microphone stand. When you stop to think about it, the Ladies were, in their own way, pioneers, paving the way for future girl groups like Puffy, Morning Masume and Speed to follow in their footsteps and became famous, just like J-Pop's grand divas.

Perhaps the truest barometer of a performer's popularity is how he or she survives the test of time. Even though it's been twenty years since Pink Lady broke up, Mie and Kei are just as popular now as they were in their heyday, as evidenced by all the webpages and websites in Japan devoted to them. And, that popularity has stretched abroad to the States as well. In December 1998, I decided on a whim to put up a Pink Lady webpage of my own, never figuring to get much, if anything in the way of traffic. As of mid-September, my site amassed a surprising 20,000 hits!

Most of the people I've heard from here in the U.S. told me they discovered Mie and Kei thanks to the infamous Pink Lady & Jeff. So, who says something good can't come from something bad? I've corresponded several times with Akihiro Seki and the good folks over at PL-NET (which my site is part of by the way!), in fact, it was they who told me about the PL feature in your magazine! I too have heard from PL fans from abroad, including one person from Poland of all places! I jokingly call my tiny clique of stateside Pink Lady fans "The Chameleon Army of America".

As for the PL feature itself, it was well done and entertaining. The interviews with Marty Krofft and Jeff Altman were informative and interesting, revealing facets about the show that I never knew about. And from all the things Jeff mentioned, it's a miracle the show even got off the drawing board, never mind into the studio. Jeff hit the nail on the head when he called PL & J an "ugly classic", one that's been vilified for two decades, yet, people seem to be inexplicably drawn to the show, so I won't be a bit surprised if the video release does well in the stores.

Oh, and before I forget, congratulations to your guinea pigs for surviving the PL & J torturethon. That was hilarious! It was like reading an 'R' rated script to an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000! They were definitely brave and hardy souls, braver than I ever could have been! I couldn't handle more than two episodes back to back before my sanity began to fray. I'll be the first to admit PL & J wasn't top quality (though compared to the trash on prime-time these days, it's a masterpiece!), but, for me, it was more than worth it, just to see Mie and Kei on American TV.

Once again, many thanks for the excellent piece on Japan's original dream queens. It was a most worthy effort, but then, Pink Lady was worthy of it!

 Jeffrey C. Branch
Webmaster: "Pink Lady: The Website"
http://www.pinkladyamerica.com