Jane Dornacker & The Tubes

        

        

           

         

        

           

         

         

Jane Dornacker 

photo by Susan Gilbert

      

Today, October 1, would have been the 70th birthday of Jane Dornacker who was an American rock musician, actress, comedian, and traffic reporter born in 1947.     

Leila and the Snakes

photo by Ralph Cooksey-Talbott

Dornacker was the tall lead singer (Leila), keyboardist, and songwriter of the 1970s/1980s San Francisco "tack" rock group Leila and the Snakes (link below). Pearl Gates and Pamela Wood provided supporting vocals. Their repertoire included Rock and Roll Weirdos, Pyramid Power (link below) and a spoof version of the Peggy Lee song, Is That All There Is? Gates later left (and took the band with her) to form Pearl Harbor and the Explosions. Guitarist Miles Corbin went on to form the surf instrumental band the Aqua Velvets.       

Dornacker provided lead vocals on Christopher Columbus (1978) (link below), a song by R. Crumb & His Cheap Suit Serenaders. With Ron Nagle, she co-wrote the humorous hit song Don't Touch Me There for The Tubes (link below). The song was sung by Re Styles and appeared on The Tubes' second studio album, Young and Rich (1976), and was released as a 7" single in the US, the UK, and the Netherlands. The B-side was Proud to Be an American. Jane had also toured with The Tubes as a backing singer and dancer.

Jane Dornacker  

photo by R. Pruzan

Dornacker was also an actress. She appeared in playwright Sam Shepard's jazz opera Inacoma at San Francisco's Magic Theatre (1977) and was featured in other works by the Overtone Theatre. She appeared in The Stand-Up, Anita Sperm and as the mysterious Nurse Murch in the film The Right Stuff.      

Dornacker developed a successful career as a stand-up comic on the San Francisco circuit and did her first work as a traffic reporter in the early-mid-1980s for KFRC, a popular Top 40 radio station. She worked with Don Rose, who was that station's morning disc jockey at the time. She was noted for her exceptionally fast speech, so fast it required concentration to understand her. As she did traffic, she would tell her daughter Naomi to get up and get to school. She moved to New York City to become a much-loved, raspy-voiced "trafficologist" and "Jane-in-a-plane." After Dornacker died, Rose arranged several tributes to establish a college fund for Naomi.

Jane Dornacker & Whoopie Goldberg 

photographer unknown

On October 22, 1986, Dornacker was giving one of the station's N-Copter traffic reports during the Joey Reynolds Show on WNBC Radio in New York City. At 4:44 p.m., the Enstrom F-28 helicopter she was aboard plunged into the Hudson River from an altitude of roughly 75 feet (23 m). Dornacker was starting her report for incoming New Jersey traffic when the helicopter suffered mechanical failure in mid broadcast and crashed (links below). Her last words were, "Hit the water, hit the water, hit the water!" 
           

The F-28 helicopter nose-dived, struck the top of a chain link fence at a river pier, crashed into the Hudson River very near to the Manhattan shore and sank in 15 to 20 feet (5 to 6 m) of water. Both occupants were trapped for nearly 10–15 minutes before help arrived. Dornacker died on her way to Saint Vincent's Catholic Medical Center. She was 39 years old. Pilot Bill Pate, the only other occupant, was severely injured but survived.         

In the subsequent investigation, the NTSB found that the sprag clutch that was installed in the helicopter, which was on lease to WNBC Radio by Spectrum Helicopters of Ridgefield Park, New Jersey, was a military surplus part which was not designed for use in a civilian aircraft, and that the part had not been adequately lubricated. It directly led to a mid-air seizure of the main rotor blades. The investigation determined the cause of the fatal crash to have been use of improper parts and poor maintenance on the part of Spectrum Helicopters.   

Her death came shortly after that of her husband, Bob Knickerbocker, orphaning their 16-year-old daughter.  

   

         

Jane Dornacker
photo by Pat Johnson 

       

On November 22, 1986, there was a benefit for Dornacker at the Warfield Theater in San Francisco, California. The performers were Jerry Garcia, KBC Band, Tod Rundgren and The Tubes.   

       

      

    

              

Viewfinder links:          

       

The Tubes - White Punks On Dope       
Leila And The Snakes, Obiko & Kaisik Wong      
     

Net links:          

       

SF Gate obit       
Remembering Jane Dornacker      
          
    

YouTube links:          

        
Jane Dornacker ~          
        Christopher Columbus  
        The Deca Dance                 
        Don't Touch Me There (live)           
        Videowest - Stranger then Friction - 1979      
Leila And The Snakes ~         
        Rock-n-Roll Weirdos     
        Pyramid Power             
David Rapaport ~ Heaven Help Jane (2011)      

WNBC Traffic Helicopter Crash       
Reporters Last Moments Caught on Tape During Live Traffic Report 
Benefit for Jane Dornacker (50 minutes)       
            
    

Styrous® ~ Sunday, October 1, 2017     

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