"The Story"

          Let me tell you what I came upon last night. I thought I was seeing a ghost. Let me tell you a little about this ghost. In 1969 there was a local and very talented band known as the "Grease Lightnin’ Band". The locals and throughout the United States knew them for their superb music as well as their famous concerts, benefits, charities and imitations of the artists they portrayed. The lead singer of the band was Jerry Albritton "My Ghost" a Local boy from St. Petersburg. Fl. He’s a Singer, Songwriter, Dance Instructor, Actor and his family owns Albritton Roofing here in St. Pete. Jerry has been on stage with such Bands as Paper Lace, The Doors, KC and The Sunshine Band and many others, He’s owned several nightclubs and has several songs published and gone on to be hits for others. Jerry is the owner of Shadow Productions Interactive-Entertainment and one member of the Duet "The Shadow’s". Jerry doses most of the sound Engineering for their shows. This reporter sat down and talked with Jerry and I asked him to tell me what happened. See, I was a big fan of this band and one day they were gone and I wanted to know just what had happened to this band. Jerry told me he remembers one fateful night in 1976 when the band had made a tour of the USA and was coming home from Orlando their last stop on The Greased Lightnin’ tour when dreadful car accident occurred leaving Jerry with extreme throat damage. It would make the "Grease Lightnin' Band" extinct and rob him of his exceptional singing voice. At first everyone thought Jerry was dead because he was reported DOA on arrival at the hospital at the request of his family and the other band members the rumor continue so he could recover without any hassles and that was that, but was it?

The Birth of "The Shadow’s"

Well it’s now 1982 and he decided to once again return and step out into the spot light with a new thing called "Sing-Along Karaoke", which he was asked to host. Hoping to work on recovering his singing voice he took the job. After two years he turned over the hosting job to others, as it was not what he wanted to do. So he went into dancing and teaching at Fred Astaire’s. He went on to own "Dance Garden" Studio, but that still was not doing it for him, he needed to sing. Now the late 1980’s and with the reinvention of Karaoke and Jerry with years of agonizing pain of working on recovering his voice Jerry decided to try his renewed voice on the public. He was told that a local establishment, "Beachy’s" was on the look out for local talent. Jerry was off to see if he could once again do what he loved best - perform. He picked a table out of sight so he could observe singer after singer as they went up to the Mic. He noticed that each singer was being video taped. The man behind the camera was Victor Lance known as "Video Vic". Jerry had made his song selection and before taking it up to the " KJ ", {The Host} called up "Vic" for the same song, Jerry promptly wadded up his request and listened with pleasure as Vic sang, doing a very respectable job. By now Jerry was more determined to continue with what he started out to do and that was to entertain. So he pick a new song and handed it in. When he was called up and started to sing Vic did a pop eye, over the top of the camera. Vic was very impressed. As the night went on, the two sang song after song becoming more impressed by what they heard. When the evening was all must over Vic & Jerry teamed up to sing "Good Luck Charm" by Elvis Presley & "You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling" by The Righteous Brothers which turned out to be a real crowd Pleasers ending with a standing ovation, Thus "The Shadow’s" were born. Victor Lance is a composer, author, director, cameraman and songwriter. He is a member of several unions. This includes The Screen Actor’s Guild. He has directed TV commercials, acted on stage and is in several movies. Vic has also performed with Bob Hope, Red Skelton, Phyllis Diller, Jill St. John, Lee Marvin and Jonathan Winters. He also plays a wide variety of instruments. Vic is the Vice-president of Shadow Productions Interactive-Entertainment and the other half of the duet "The Shadow’s".

Now Enters Joe

Joe Bonanno has always been interested in singing and started singing karaoke and hosting in the late 1980’s. He knew Jerry and Vic for many years and in 1990 he became the newest member of the team. He became a KJ for Shadow Productions and the newest singer to "The Shadow’s". Joe would sing with Jerry or Vic as the host or as the soundman when they had more then one show going or Joe would run another Karaoke show on his own. He gave the same great sound to the duet "but not" He gave to it his own style. Once in awhile they would all get to sing together and they all had a great time doing so. The Shadow’s perform a lot of artists in their own style and put on one of the best Live and Karaoke show this reporter has ever seen. "Ron" -Kenneth City News *Page 8, 1992. {Story has Also Been Seen In The} - * St. Pete. Times* Entertainment Section, 1994, *Discover Pinellas* Page 11 - 1997.

Foot Note.

Vic has since passed away; He is missed very much by his long time friend and singing partner. But will be long remembered for his humor as the first "host" of Shadow Productions Karaoke and for the great harmonies he brought to the duet, "The Shadow’s". With the passing of Vic, Joe has been able to fill the vacant spot as the singing partner for "The Shadows" and the full time host for their Karaoke shows. Joe Bonanno is a Singer, and Songwriter, friend and a great addition to the Duet, bringing his humor and harmonies to each and every Show.