Beetlejuice (entertainer)

Lester Green (born June 2, 1968),[2] better known by his stage name Beetlejuice, is an American entertainer, actor, and member of the The Howard Stern Show's Wack Pack. He was named the greatest Wack Packer of all time by Howard Stern in 2015.[3] He has also appeared in such feature films as Bubble Boy and Scary Movie 2.[4]

Beetlejuice
Beetlejuice in 2004
Born
Lester Green

June 2, 1968 (age 52)
NationalityAmerican
Other names
  • Beet
  • Beetle
Occupation
Years active1999–present
Height4 ft 3 in (130 cm) [1]
Websitejollydwarf.com

Personal life

Lester was born with dwarfism and microcephaly, a condition that caused his small head relative to his small body.[5] He is the second youngest of six children by his mother Lillie and was raised in the Marion Section of Jersey City, New Jersey.[6] He was discovered in a neighborhood bar by Sean Rooney who became his manager. Lester would go on to become an entertainer and joined Rooney's dwarf tossing company where he was given his nickname because of his resemblance to a character in the movie Beetlejuice.[7] Sean died in 2009 [8] and management of Lester's career would fall to his brother, Bobby Rooney.[9]

On the October 2, 2007, broadcast of The Howard Stern Show, Jerry O'Connell revealed that he knew Beetlejuice while he was growing up. O'Connell's mother was Beetlejuice's special education teacher at PS 31 in Jersey City, New Jersey, and Beetlejuice was such a good student that he did special work as her "assistant".[10]

Career

Beetlejuice made his debut on The Howard Stern Show on July 14, 1999, making an appearance with Frank "Third Degree" Burns, another little person, while Rooney was promoting his dwarf tossing business.[7][11] Stern immediately took a liking to Beetlejuice and saw his potential for stardom, calling him a "once in a lifetime guest".[12] Beetlejuice would go on to make numerous appearances on the show and became one of Stern's most popular guests.

In 2000, Stern was invited to the 17th AVN Awards to receive an honorary special achievement award which he sent Beetlejuice to receive for him. Beetlejuice gave the acceptance speech with some direction from his manager that had to be stopped due to his lengthy, "incomprehensible rambling". That same year he made an appearance on WCW Nitro where, dressed as Superman, he confronted Jeff Jarrett backstage, who then proceeded to hit Beetlejuice over the head with a prop guitar. Beetlejuice then interrupted Jarrett's WCW Championship match before being pummeled by the wrestler in the ring.[13]

In 2002, he appeared in rapper N.O.R.E.'s music video for the song "Grimey"[14] and was featured on three songs on the hip-hop group Smut Peddlers' 2001 debut album, Porn Again, on the tracks "Beetlejuice Intro", "Pimpology by Beetlejuice", and "Beetlejuice Outtakes"[15] on Rawkus Records.[16]

Beetlejuice sang "This Is Beetle", also known as "The Beetlejuice Song", on The Howard Stern Show in late 2004.[17] Stern Show producer Richard Christy recorded the song, wrote music to accompany Beetlejuice's raw vocals, and then engineered it into the full song.[18] The key lyrics to the song are, "This is Beetle, he's bad as can, and he knows he's the best."[19] The song, which Beetlejuice created spontaneously in the recording studio, has been covered by the rock group Staind,[20] who included the song on special editions of their album Chapter V. On September 19, 2005, Blues Traveler played their version of "This Is Beetle" on The Howard Stern Show.[19][21] Initially, Stern was unable to broadcast this recording on his Sirius Satellite Radio program because CBS Radio owned the copyright to all of Stern's shows from K-Rock.[22] Stern and his production staff recreated many of the more popular segments from his days on K-Rock, but attempts to recreate "This Is Beetle" were unsuccessful. However, in May 2006, Stern, Sirius, and CBS reached an agreement to sell the rights for all his K-Rock broadcasts to Sirius, thus enabling Stern to play the song.[22] There was also a controversy around the share of potential profits from the song, and Beetlejuice's manager at the time, Sean Rooney, got into an argument with Gary Dell'Abate, the executive producer of The Howard Stern Show, regarding the percentage share of the profits between Beetlejuice and Christy.[23]

Throughout his career Beetlejuice also participated in amateur boxing matches with other little people such as in 2005 when he went up against "The Toad".[24] During the 2006 United States Senate election in New York, Beetlejuice appeared in a "Beetlejuice for Senate" parody campaign ad created for the Howard Stern show. In the ad, Beetlejuice announced his stances on various subjects such as abortion, taxes, education and drugs.

Beetlejuice's likeness has also become a popular internet meme called a "reaction image Macro". The image, uploaded to his official Instagram account in 2016, shows him eating while sitting at a table looking at something out of frame.[25] Additionally, videos and compilations of Beetlejuice are popular on sites such as YouTube, Reddit, and Facebook, with many of these videos receiving millions of views. His manager Bobby Rooney maintains active Twitter[26] and Instagram[27] accounts for Beetlejuice where he has millions of followers. He also has an official merchandise site.[28]

Filmography

Film
YearTitleRole
2014Apartment TroublesHairless Cat[29]
2012Girls Gone DeadHimself
2005True Crime: New York City (Video Game)[30]
2004Beetle UncensoredHimself
2001Scary Movie 2Shorty's Brain/Himself
Bubble BoyLil' Zip

Television
YearTitleRole
2009This is BeetleHimself
2003Doggy Fizzle TelevizzleHimself and Super Juice
2000WCW Monday NitroHimself

References
  1. "Sixteen People In Howard Stern's Universe, From Robin Quivers to Crackhead Bob". Rolling Stone. March 16, 2011. Retrieved June 20, 2018.
  2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRs8aUqZbRw
  3. https://web.archive.org/web/20150320160649/http://www.howardstern.com/howard-on-air/howard-100-101/2015-03-18
  4. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1004025/?ref_=tt_cl_t13
  5. Kaplan, Jason; Thomas Panasci (2005-06-16). "The Rundown". The Howard Stern Show. Archived from the original on 2007-10-13. Retrieved 2007-02-10.
  6. "Beetlejuice Documentary". YouTube.com. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
  7. http://www.marksfriggin.com/news99/7-12-99.htm
  8. "Sean M. Rooney Obituary". obits.nj. Jersey Journal. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
  9. Rooney, Bobby. "Stick and Move Management". stickandmovemanagement. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
  10. Kaplan, Jason; Thomas Panasci (2007-10-02). "The Rundown". The Howard Stern Show. Archived from the original on 11 October 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-04.
  11. https://www.howardstern.com/show/2017/03/20/stern-files-declassified-discovery-lester-beetlejuice-green/
  12. Dell'abate, Gary. "Stern Files Declassified: The Discovery of Lester 'Beetlejuice' Green". howardstern.com. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
  13. Williams, Joey. "Top 10 Moments of Jeff Jarrett's WCW Career". wcwworldwide.com. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  14. Jake, Paine (2007-06-27). "N.O.R.E: Hood Dreams". AllHipHop.com. Infinity, Allhiphop.com, Inc. Archived from the original on 28 June 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-04. AllHipHop.com: To close on a funnier note: one of my favorite rap video moments from of yours is in 'Grimey', when Beetle Juice throws the cereal boxes off the shelf. Tell me, was that your idea to put him in the video? N.O.R.E: Yo, man, let me tell you somethin': nobody got my idea of Beetle Juice first off.
  15. "Smut Peddlers: Porn Again" (MP3). Eastern Conference (Amazon.com). 2001. ASIN B000QR38N8. Retrieved 2012-11-02.
  16. "Shabooty Interview Series: Cage (Chris Palko)". shabooty.com. 2007-11-04. Retrieved 2012-11-02.
  17. Kaplan, Jason; Thomas Panasci (2004-12-03). "The Rundown". The Howard Stern Show. Archived from the original on 2007-10-13. Retrieved 2007-02-11.
  18. Kaplan, Jason; Thomas Panasci (2005-06-17). "The Rundown". The Howard Stern Show. Archived from the original on 2007-10-13. Retrieved 2007-02-10.
  19. Kaufman, Gil (2005-10-28). "Stern's Beetlejuice: The Jolly Dwarf With Staind, Blues Traveler In His Corner". MTV News. MTV. Retrieved 2007-02-11.
  20. Kaplan, Jason; Thomas Panasci (2005-08-10). "The Rundown". The Howard Stern Show. Archived from the original on 2007-10-13. Retrieved 2007-02-10.
  21. Kaplan, Jason; Thomas Panasci (2005-09-19). "The Rundown". The Howard Stern Show. Archived from the original on 2007-10-13. Retrieved 2007-03-12.
  22. "Stern Gets Old Tapes, CBS Gets $2M". CBS News. 2006-05-25. Archived from the original on 19 June 2006. Retrieved 2006-07-26.
  23. "The Beetle Song Controversy (Part 3 – Sean Straightens Things Out)". Retrieved 2016-04-29.
  24. "SHOW RUNDOWN: MARCH 11, 2005". howardstern.com. 11 March 2005. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  25. "Beetlejuice Eating". knowyourmeme. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
  26. "Beetlejuice Green". Twitter.com. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
  27. "Beetlejuice Green". Instagram.com. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
  28. "CUPPA ARMY". cuppaarmy.com. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
  29. "Apartment Troubles (2014)". imdb.com. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
  30. Luxoflux. True Crime: New York City. Activision. Scene: Pause menu credits, 4:29:10 in, VOICE TALENT.
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