July 8, 2004

Say What You Want, the Man Can Still Dance

ay What You Want,

The Man Can Still Dance

When we walked into the FYE music store in Midtown yesterday, ERNEST EVANS, better known as CHUBBY CHECKER, was already demonstrating the Twist to a reporter, followed, it appeared, by the Pony and then the Hucklebuck.

There were maybe a dozen people in line for autographs, a few of them holding copies of his new CD, "Chubby C & OD/Limbo Rock Remixes."

Chubby C is Mr. Checker's hip-hop handle. OD is a rap group.

On the autograph table was a brochure for Mr. Checker's new food line, Chubby Checker's Snacks (soon to be available at Piggly Wiggly): there's Hot Twist Hickory Beef Jerky, the milk chocolate Checkerbar and Girl of the World Spring Water, honoring Mr. Checker's wife, CATHERINA LODDERS, Miss World 1962.

Leading, unsurprisingly, to the first question and answer.

"Have you noticed the amount of Twist products on the market since 1960?" said Mr. Checker, more stocky than chubby these days.

"I thought, 'Oh my God, how they're cleaning up on my fame.' " And within seconds he was doing the Twist, in slow motion.

"People don't understand what the Twist is all about," he said, before explaining that when he did the Twist in 1959, he invented the concept of dancing to a beat without touching one's partner.

"Everybody does this," he said, "It's still here. Chubby Checker, 24/7, in the music industry."

As he talked, he danced the Pony, and then waved his arms and reached down to his crotch like a gangsta rapper.

"The way we dance to rock 'n' roll, pop and hip-hop is as old as my career," he said, in response to a question about the current music scene.

"No one questions WALT DISNEY on animated cartoons or ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL on telephones. Chubby Checker in front of the whole world on American Bandstand did this thing right here, free-form dancing, and the whole world changed forever."

Given all that, what did Mr. Checker think about BRITNEY SPEARS, or EMINEM, or -

"I don't talk about them 'cause they don't talk about me," he said. "All I know is that they use my telephone to relay their message to the people that are making them rich. All I know, anybody out there that has a beat and they're dancing to it, they're Chubby. No one ever did that before Chubby did that."

Mr. Checker said he blamed the radio stations.

"Here's the only song to be No. 1 twice since God breathed breath into ADAM.

" 'The Twist' by Chubby Checker. Why wouldn't they play that? Why would they play 'Twist and Shout' by the BEATLES? It's not right."

As Mr. Checker signed autographs, his producer and manager, GARY LEFKOWITH, a friendly guy who resembles BOB DYLAN without the mumbling, told us how most Clear Channel stations would not play Mr. Checker's latest music. There was the one station in Lancaster, Pa. And the other, in St. Louis, that played it at 3 a.m.

And this morning Mr. Checker had been scheduled for a "major news show," Mr. Lefkowith said, but they canceled at the last minute.

"Wait till your editor gets finished with this story: it'll look like spaghetti," Mr. Checker said, looking up from a poster.

"Frustrating isn't it?"

Maybe It's Just Your Taste

Last week, the high-art crowd showed up at Grand Central Terminal to celebrate RUDOLF STINGEL's covering of 12,000 square feet of Vanderbilt Hall with a carpet we can only describe as "Chernobyl grandmother chic."

JOHN CURRIN, known for his paintings of bourgeois women with Winnebago-size breasts, was with his wife, the sculptor RACHEL FEINSTEIN. Mr. Currin became friends with Mr. Stingel during a time when they had studios on Houston Street.

"From Tiananmen Square to MONICA LEWINSKY," Mr. Currin said, trying to figure out when that was, and revealing his thought process.

So, Mr. Stingel, tell us about the carpet.

"It's casino carpet, Las Vegas," he said, looking at the blue roses on the hot pink background. "But changing the colors, you throw it off. It's like a carpet gone wrong. But then I really realize that the people don't really feel uncomfortable with these colors. I wanted to do something different, but now I realize that I got the mean. Here is average American taste for you."

With Lily Koppel