Yet another piece can now be added to the Jackpot puzzle. Apparently, Gleen Asp and Marco Donatello used the services of PR manager Leo Münchhausen in the mid 80s in order to kickstart a faltering musical career.
Münchhausen’s experience of working in the music business was, to say the least, diminutive. He started his career as a croupier in Atlantic City in the early 70s, working his way up in the casino hierarchy, finally becoming manager of the slot machines in one of the casinos before founding his PR company Haha! Business in 1983.
Münchhausen tried to promote the Jackpot track “Lord of the flies” in America 1985, an attempt at cashing in on the traditional dance craze song. “Lord of the flies” introduced a “fly dance” for the dancefloors but the whole thing passed over the heads of the record buyers like a soundless, invisible projectile.
The collaboration with Münchhausen would prove to be quite an expensive affair for Asp and Donatello. The band payed Münchhausen 100.000 Swedish kronor to give the “Lord of the flies” a favourable placing in American record shops. This was never done. Instead Münchhausen operated a scam where money from a very eclectic mix of disco artists, Albanian magicians and struggling stand-up comedians were used to entertain a bad case of gambling addiction. The financial consequences for Jackpot were severe. Gleen Asp ended up as resident DJ in Kiss make-up at a gay bar in Manila and Donatello sank deeper into his heroin abuse.
Today Leo Münchhausen is the CEO of a Palm Beach company that design theme park attractions.
