Page 6 Portland Observer, September 24,1981
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HAPPENINGS
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Left to right: Pam ela Hernandez. Diana Williams. Danisa Aubrey, Cynthia Grant
Barnum
&
Bailey
G rassroot News, N . IF .— From
the concrete jungles o f the big city
to the sawdust o f the big top, Afro-
Americans are earning their pay and
developing their talents through the
circus. A t the Ringling Bros, and
Barnum A Bailey Circus which re
cently toured P ortland, five A fro -
Americans stood up to be counted.
The only Black clown to tour in this
segment o f Ringling Bros, is Skeeter
Reece. “ 1 started perform ing in a
neighborhood unicycle troupe called
the K ing Charles troupe in New
York. T h a t’s how I got introduced
to the Circus.” That was eight years
ago and for the last four skeeter has
been a down.
“ As a clown 1 deal with improvis
ation. A ll the skits are unrehearsed.
I look for something in the crowd or
in the ring to make fun at or I can
make fun at myself. I have learned a
lot by traveling around the country
and seeing how other people live.
You have to learn a lot about differ
ent people and different nationali
ties.”
A m ong the skits that are per
form ed by Skeeter is one where a
well-dressed man along with his lady
is sitting in the park and along
comes a hobo (Skeeter). He fusses,
messes and just gets on the w ell-
dressed man’s nerve. At the end the
Ijobo runs o ff with the lady’ s wig.
Both young and old enjoyed this
skit, which by the way is written by
(Photo by Richard J. Brown)
Soul
Skeeter.
A long with the elephants, lions,
tigers and bears are the show girls.
P a-m ela H ern an d ez, D ian a W il
liams, Denise Aubray and Cynthia
Grant are the sisters you might have
seen rid in g the elephants. " A s
showgirls we hang by our necks on a
web, ride anim als and dance. We
saw the w ant-ads in the paper 20
months ago. T o be a showgirl you
have to be a dancer and know a little
bit about gymnastics and you have
to be into performing.” A ll the girls
emphasized the need to be profes
sional at all times. “ Sometimes we
don’t feel like smiling all the time
but we do because it ’ s part o f our
jo b . W hen we first got hired we
were scared o f the circus because we
thought it was a bunch o f crazies
but after meeting and working here
they are just like n o rm al people.
You learn to live w ith everybody
and because there are so many peo
ple here from across the world it ’ s
lik e a little U n ite d N atio n s. You
learn to share because you share
four sinks with 20 other girls. Also
you learn to do without. We have to
do w ith o u t a car and a p h o n e ."
Asked if they did without men, their
reply was it was an individual deci
sion.
I t ’ s nice to know the greatest
show on earth has a scattering o f
the greatest talents from our com
munity.
SKEETER REESE
(Photo by Richard J. Brown)
Sam and Dave make big comeback
Grass root News. N. H i — O ut o f
the repetitious beat o f the top 40s,
away from the deafening amplifica
tion o f pop music and more soulful
than the RAB o f today, the original
soul men charmed the audience at
Luis La Bamba. Sam and Dave left
a soulful impression on Portland.
For many years Sam and Dave were
quiet on the musical fro n t. Dave
r
b irth in o rig in a l soul music? " I
don’t know if the public got tired of
it but a lot o f im portant people in
the music industry began to look at
the acts they had signed in a d iffe r
ent way. F o r us it was Saturday
N ight L ive and they did a movie
with all our original materials along
with a couple o f cable T V shows and
the next thing we know , Sam and
Men of Soul
Zr
stated, " W e wasn’ t in to a retire
ment thing but it was the whole mu
sical industry going through a
change. In this change we traveled
slower than some because we were
hooked up in that A tla n tlc /S ta x
thing. L ate r the big record com
panies jumped on the stuff that was
hot at that tim e , lik e D isco, and
kinda forgot about the acts that they
already had. They were just greedy
and wanted to lock up everything.“
Well, disco got cold and now Sam A
Dave are back. Dave smiled at this
observation and said that old sol
diers never die, they just fade away.
W h at accounted fo r this new
by Lanita Duke
Grassroot News Service
Dave are back working.”
Sam and I first hooked up in
Florida and we toured the different
gospel routes. I h ad n ’ t got in to
going to nightclubs but Sam had.
One night I went to hear him and
they pulled me on the stage. The au
dience loved us and we’ ve been to
gether ever since. Sam and Dave
didn't write or produce any o f our
materials. Isaac Hayes and D avid
Porter wrote a lot o f our hits so it
wasn’ t just us, and when a white
group sings our music and makes a
m illion dollars because everybody
gets a piece o f the pie.”
Dave views their act as pure enter-
8am and Dava Gat Down With Soul
tainment. “ I ’m an entertainer. I try
to reach as many people as I can but
know that I can't puli all the people.
You young kids think you’re listen
ing to something new. You are not.
Y o u r parents listened and loved
Sam and Dave and now many rock-
and-roll groups sing our songs. So
where you think they got it from?
We are happy and we’re working al
most every night in the week.’’
Tony at Luis’ La Bamba ought to
be supported financially for bring-
ing in acts that bring out a little soul
in this country/rock Northwest. The
music o f Sam and Dave still has the
quality o f when music was still mus
ic instead o f the carbon-copy songs
that have do m in ated the young
adults o f the '80s. The fact that
th e y ’ re back in the act says that
maybe the public can’ t be steered
into what’s good for them by a cou
ple o f m arketing managers o f the
music industry. The way it should
be is now the way it is.