The Michigan Daily-Thursday, October 27 1977-page 5
AR S ARCADE. . . a weekly roundup
Protected performance
BIRMINGHAM, Mich. - The off-
stage happenings of Oh, Calcutta, a
musical revolving around sex jokes and
nude, actors, turned out to be more
dramatic than the opening night per-
formance on Tuesday which went with-
out incident. '
Local fire officials had ordered the
Birmingham theatre closed before the
musical's six-day run began last Tues-
day after the theatre was cited for 11
violations of fire codes.
Theatre owners claimed city officials
were trying to force Oh, Calcutta off the
stage because of the nude performers.
However, U.S. District Judge Law-
rence Gubow said the theatre owners
were not given sufficient time to install
Mrs. Canale regularly makes trips to
New York for jazz, ethnic and Oriental
dance classes. Although she's already
made a name for herself here as a belly
dancer, she said, "It takes years to
learn how to vibrate and flutter without
looking like you've giving birth."
She'll get some of the recognition she
cravds when the new Guinness Book of
World Records goes on sale next year.
She'll be listed in it twice for setting
marathon belly dancing records of 66
hours and 44 minutes and 14hours, ac-
cording to letters she produced from
the Guinness people.
"If I was'nt serious about this I
wouldn't have humiliated myself doing,
that by wearing Pampers," she says.
-AP Photo
Marilyn Faith Hickey, Patricia Alexander and Ragina Rodwell, (1 to r)
members of the cast of Oh, Calcutta relax before their first performance
Tuesday night.
"We have no comment on the lawsuit
at this time," the ABC spokesman
said.
"
A rt for art 's sake
NEW YORK - A Swiss art dealer
paid $440,000 Wednesday for Henri
Matisse's The Lute, the highest price
ever paid for a painting by the
French artist.
Four other price records were set
as Mr. and Mrs. Sidney F. Brody of
Los Angeles sold a part of their
collection at Sotheby Parke Bernet.
The Matisse drew the highest price
of the sale. The previous high for a
painting by the master was $350,000
for Woman at a Window sold in July
1973.
But the Brodys refused to accept
$650,000 for Modigliani's Jeanne Me-
buterne, which was the low esti-
mate in the catalog and almost
$300,000 more than anyone has ever
paid for a painting by the artist.
The previous record for a Modig-
liani was $370,000, paid for A Boy in
Short Pants, sold in December 1975.
Brody is the former chairman of
the Los Angeles County Museum of
Art where a large part of his huge
collection is on display.
"
Totie recovering
LOS ANGELES - Comedienne
Totie Fields, whose left leg was
amputated last year, underwent
surgery Tuesday for removal of her
right breast after doctors discovered
a small malignant tumor, her agent
said.
Doctors said the 46-year-old com-
edy star was doing well and was
expected to be released from Los
Angeles New Hospital in about five
days. Her hospitalization was at first
kept a secret because Miss Fields did
not want the publicity and "was quite
upset," said Susan Wait, public
relations director at the hospital.
Dirty old man
DEWEY, Okla. - Walter Bell, 87,
a small, wrinkled man of determina-
tion, refuses to stop showing X-rated
movies that gave the town its reputa-
tion - that of "Dewey's Dirties."
Bell contends he cannot make a
living showing any other kind of
movies because of Dewey's proxim-
ity to Bartlesville, Okla., four miles
south on U.S. 75. He said he is not
allowed to show first-run productions
by major movie studios until 30 to 45
days 'after the movies close at
Bartlesville and Dewey residents go
to Bartlesville to see movies.
Bell, who had an apartment in the
same building as his Capri Theatre,
said he wanted to show European
film art, but they just don't make too
many of those any more. So he
started showing the films he calls
Reverend Kent Kellogg, pastor of
the First Baptist Church and co-
chairman of the Clean Dewey Com-
mittee represents the con side of the
issue.
Kellogg said he does not consider
the films shown at the town's only
theatre to be art at all. He considers
them obscene - especially the
current fare, an X-rated version of
Through the Looking Glass.
"We had a high school art teacher
view the film and he found no art in
it," he said, "I consider the movie to
be very vile, obscene and offensive,,
the teacher said.
Bell was arrested on an obscenity
First Breeze of Summer Opens
Marietta Baylis, Sheila Tanner Cain, and Ron "0J" Parson perform a scene
from Leslie Lee's drama in the Trueblood Theatre.
sprinkler systems and said the Broad-
way production could go ahead as
scheduled as long as fire officials were
in attendance.
Fire chief C. G. Nunnelly selected
three-man volunteer teams for the
show's run who would "pay attention to
what they're supposed to."
Rare viewing
NEW YORK - Classical music in-
strumentalists are as rare on-television
as a Brahms concerto, but viewers will
get a chance to watch Andre Watts per-
form on two separate occasions next
week.
The 31-year-old pianist will be seen
playing Beethoven's Piano Concerto
No. 4 with Eugene Ormandy and the
Philadelphia Orchestra Oct. 25 in honor
of United Nations Day, and Oct. 29 he
will join Eric Leinsdorf and the New
York Philharmonic in a "Live from
Lincoln Center" broadcast in which he
will play Br'ahms Piano Concerto No. 2.
Both will be on PBS.
"
Belly-a=go-go
PHILADELPHIA - Stephen Canale,
11, takes guitar lessons and his 9-year-
old sister, Regina, studies the violin.
When their teacher mentions the "G
string," they giggle - their mommy
wears one.
Mommy is Vikki Canale, 33, who go-
go dances as "Nitro, the Snake Dan-
cer," complete with pasties, 6-foot-long
{ boa constricter and G-string, to help
pay for an obsession - belly dancing.
Mrs. Canale, who calls herself a typi-
cal housewife and mother of three, also
calls herself Sabra Starr when she's un-
dulating in spangled belly dancer's
garb.
"Everybody says 'Sabra, you don't
have to do this. You should be satisfied.'
Ask any of the girls who work go-go
places. They all know who Nitro is. But
I'd like to be known as the top belly
dancer in the country," she said. And
go-going, which sometimes brings in
$75 a night, is helping her reach that
goal.
Wallenda wallops
SARASOTA, Fla. - High-wire
aerialist Karl Wallenda, 72, has been
hospitalized after falling 20 feet while
rehearsing a stunt for a television
movie about his daredevil life.
"It was my fault," said Wallenda
after the accident Thursday night.
"I'll be more careful next time."
Wallenda, a great-grandfather, is
head of the Flying Wallendas circus
family which has been stricken .by
high-wire tragedy in past years.
He was practicing what he once de-
scribed as his most dangerous trick
when he fell. Two members were on
bicycles wupporting the ends of a bar
while Wallenda sat perched on a
chair on the bar between the cyclists.
"My pole slipped forward," said
Wallenda. "I was taking it a little
easy."
A dog, a bird
and a Fawcett
HOUSTON - The parents of
actress Farrah Fawcett-Majors have
filed a $7 million damage suit against
the American Broadcasting Co. and
Houston affiliate television station
KTRK.
James and Pauline Fawcett of
Houston claim they were libeled in a
skit on comedian Redd Foxx's show
aired Sept. 22. They allege the
program depicted them in a way that
caused them damage, ridicule, em-
barrassment and humiliation.
Ken Johnson, general manager
and vice president of the television
station, said he had not seen the suit
and could not comment on the
allegations.
An ABC spokesman in New York
said the skit in question was a "funny
comedy," which fictitiously depicted
an interview with the actress' par-
ents. The spokesman said Foxx
played Fawcett, and wore a wig
combed in his daughter's hair style.
A dog and a bird wore similar wigs.
charge last April for showing the
film. A trial earlier this month in
Bartlesville ended in acquittal. But
the verdict has not stopped his
opponents.
Bell, who has been showing the
films since 1964 said he doesn't
consider them obscene. "Obscenity
is what you or I make it," he said.
"There is obscenity, but it is not a
man and a woman making love. That
is natural. It's something we all do.
I'm getting a little old for it my-
self, but I would give it a try.
s
$9, 000 fake
BRENTWOOD, N.H. - The wife of
a respected New England antiques
To tie Fields
dealer says a report that her husband
unknowingly sold a fake 17th century
chair to the Henry Ford Museum
could ruin his reputation.
Dealer Roger Bacon has avoided
comment on reports of the alleged
fake Great Brewster Chair, but his
wife told a Dover, N.H., News-
paper, Foster's Democrat, "This
whole episode puts my husband in a
rather uncomfortable position. All
his life, he does everything honorable
and is the most respected of dealers
and then this hits the fan."
Armand LaMontagne of North
Scituate, R.I., claimed recently he
made the chair during the winter of
1969-70 because of his feelings toward
museums and some antiques dealers.
"Those people think they're infal-
lible, you know," he said. Mrs. Bacon
said the description of the chair given
by LaMontagne is different from that
of the chair her husband sold to the
museum in Dearborn, Mich. She
declined to say what the differences
were. Mrs. Bacon said her husband
heard rumors several years ago that
the chair, which he sold the museum
for $9,000, was fake. She said he
called the museum and offered to
re-examine it.
"But the museum people told us
they already had re-examined it and
were satisfied it was real," she said.
The museum announced last week
that it now considers 'the chair a
reproduction.
If the chair is real, it would be one
of only a few of Great Brewster
Chairs in existence. They were built
during the Pilgrim era of the mid-
and late-1600s for church elders, and
few were made because most people
sat on stools. Two known surviving
chairs are in the Metropolitan Mu-
seum of Art in New York.
Recent Deaths
The rock music world may have
lost one of its hardest-driving, hard-
est - working and hardest living
groups with the deaths of three
members of the band Lynyrd Skyn-
yrd.
Singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist
Steve Gaines and his sister, backup
singer Cassie, all 28, died in a Thurs-
day night airplane crash in McComb,
Miss., while traveling between con-
cert dates to promote the band's new
album, Street Survivors.
The 'other six members of the band
were injured in the crash.
Van Zant, the group's outspoken
leader, epitomized the band's image
of rebellious, hard-drinking, hell-
raising Southerners. He seemed
equally at ease picking a fight and
picking up a microphone to belt out
bluesy rock numbers like T For
Texas and Gimme Three Steps in his
raspy voice.
Van Zant was proud of the South,
using a huge Confederate flag as a
stage backdrop. He wrote the band's
one' AM radio hit, Sweet Home
Alabama as a rebuke to Neil Young,
whom Van Zant felt unfairly put
down his people in such songs as
Southern Man and Alabama.
NEW YORK - Chiang Yee, auth-
or, poet, painter and professor emeri-
tus of Chinese at Columbia Univer-
sity, died Monday during a visit to
China, a Columbia spokP'sman re-
ported Friday. He was 74.
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -
Howard Guyton; lead singer for an
American group touring Argentina
as the Platters, died Thursday at the
age of 39.
The Arts Arcade was compiledby
Arts staffers Wendy Goodman,
Renee Shilcusky, Mike Taylor, Aus-
tin Vance and Tim Yagle from the
AP and UPI wires.
oed by WCBN and
Michigan Union
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76-DAILY
NOON LUNCHEON
Homemade Soup & Sandwiches 50C
Friday, Oct. 28
Tom Morrison,
U-M Counseling Service
"is there a Man's Liberation Movement"
at GUILD HOUSE
802 MONROE (corner of Oakland)
I
TONIGHT at 8 P.M.
University Showcase Productions
in Trueblood Theatre
PTP Ticket Office
Michigan League, 10-1, 2-5 p.m.
Trueblood Box Office 6-8 p.m.
FOR INFORMATION CALL:
(313) 764-0450 before 5p.m.
(313) 764-5387, 6-8 p.m.
Tickets through all HUDSON'S
r*Il
Leslie Lee's
Compelling BLACK Drama
POETRY READING
with
Katheryn Adisman, Matt Kopka,
Jacob Millr and Jeff Wine
Thursday, Oct. 27-7:30 p.m.
i.)14.)
The University of Michigan
Professional Theatre Program
Ann Arbor -- Power Center
Call
(313)764-0450
For Information
at GUILD HOUSE
802 MONROE (corner of Oakland)
Refreshments
__
. .
DR. ANGUS CAMPBELL
Program director of the Survey Research Center and
former Director of the Institute For Social Research.
will present a lecture on
41
"WELFARE AND WELL BEING"
44
Friday, Oct. 28-8 P.M.
it at the
AUDITIONS for
Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well
and Living In Paris
\VAIAN 1.