Bingo Zohar was a 19-year-old aspiring rock n' roll singer who was murdered by his cousin, JP Valentine, in 1953.
Background[]
Bingo grew up in Brandy Vinyl, a farm town. He moved to Germantown, Philadelphia after his parents died in a car crash to live with his Uncle Ed and aunt Juliana. While in Philadelphia, he had a girlfriend named Miranda Allison, and worked at Valentine's Five-and-Dime. There, Bingo became fast friends with his black coworker, Arthur "Aces" Brown. The two worked the night shift and bonded over their shared love of Blues and Rock n' Roll music.
History[]
Juliana revealed that Bingo wanted to be a musician. At the Philadelphia Talent Show, Bingo performed his own song after his cousin JP's quartet 'JP and the Wishing Stars'. Initially playing a song more in-fitting with the 'crooner' style music of the time, Bingo became frustrated with the lacklustre and mocking response from the audience and decided to play the music he enjoyed instead. He appeared to model both his music and performance style off of other musicians such as Chuck Berry, Little Richard and, in particular, Elvis Presley. His rock n' roll songs were a success at the Talent Show and he attracted equal parts admiration, jealousy, and controversy.
Bingo began to believe that he could actually make a career out of his music and sent off a request to American Bandstand to record a song for their show. Around the same time, Ed offered him a promotion at the Five-and-Dime to the counter manager. Bingo learnt that Ed could afford to do this because he had fired Aces; Bingo had left the music he was listening to on the diner jukebox by mistake and Ed blamed Aces for it. Bingo tried to explain it was his own fault, but his uncle wasn't interested.
Bingo sought out Aces at Red Hot Mamas, a blues club in Point Breeze, to apologise and tried to reconcile their friendship. Aces delivered some home truths and forced Bingo to think about the harsh realities of society and the racism that permeated it. Their discussion was interrupted by Miranda. Having been scared into thinking that there was no way she and Bingo could have a stable life together if he were a musician, Miranda begged him to accept the promotion by telling him that he just "wasn't that good of a musician" to make it big, but he refused. In the present, Miranda confesses this was a lie, as Bingo had been good enough.
Bingo went to look for Ed and found his aunt Juliana instead. He learnt that his uncle had been cheating on his aunt for a long time and she had given up on her own dreams of pursuing further education and studying to become a homemaker, a decision she regrets. Bingo and Juliana had a heartfelt conversation about taking chances and not letting other people restrict who you are and what you want to do. Then, Juliana revealed that Bandstand had responded and wanted a recording from Bingo before the next day (Ed hid this and lied to Bingo earlier). She helped him with the last lot of lyrics which were bothering him, and he ran off to record his original song.
While Bingo recorded his song, his cousin arrived at Five-and-Dime. JP was angry that the family he had thought was perfect and happy was just a facade, and that society around him was changing in a way he didn't like or understand. He blamed Bingo for it, saying, "Everything was perfect until you came". Bingo argued that their society was never perfect, citing Juliana being forced to give up her dreams, Aces getting fired due the colour of his skin, and Miranda fearing she wouldn't be able to make it in life herself. After a short argument, JP turned his father's gun on Bingo and shot him in the chest, killing him.
JP moved Bingo's body to outside of Red Hot Mamas. Unbeknownst to him, Bingo's wallet fell out of his pockets in the alley behind the Five-and-Dime and was later picked up by Lloyd Jordan.
In the closing montage, Aces "sees" Bingo in his blues club, performing on stage one last time to the musical backdrop of Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love".