Evening star., 1948-05-20

end before putting the neat on
gambling around here A thing like
that can have far-reaching conse-
quences. Take. for example. what
happened down in Rio de Janeiro.
A year or so ago, the law put the
heat on down in Rio and locked up
the gambling casinos, as an imme-
diate consequence throwing lot of
entertainers out of work. AS a far
reaching consequence Of the same
thing, Mischa Bess has a new Stel-
lar entertainer in his Balalaika floor
show.
She is an exotic-type dancer, if
not the only one, at least one of the
few whose name is the same coming
or going. Her name is Ira Ari and
she is at the Balalaika only because
they closed the gambling casino in
Rio. The casinos. it seems, were
what supported the tonier night
clubs, the ones that could afford to
pay performers. salaries to which
they like to be accustomed. There
are other night clubs" Miss Ari told
us, "but it is not much money. They
are not on the same pedestal as the
casinos. 1t hurts to work there" {"
She meant, we think that it hurts
the reputation to work in a less i'm
portant bistro, but not much money
must hurt, too.
So this is the sort of chain of
events Mr.. Fay might start. He
may chase out of town some num-
bers writer, who will then flee to
Reno and take a job away from an
elderly blackjack dealer. The black
jack dealer will go on relief and be-
come burden to the taxpayers. He
may even become so disgruntled
with the state of things that he
and all his friends will vote for Wal
lace. It's just like in the movies.
This thing is bigger than We are.
X X X *
The journey Miss Ari made from
Rio to New York II months ago
was not her first long trip. Her
travels began when she was young
dancer in Europe, who had learned
her trade starting at the age of six
in the school of the imperial ballet
in her native Russia. She was in
Warsaw when the Germans took
over and managed to get through
eight months of a desperate, fear
haunted existence before getting
out of there.
A contract for dancing engage
ment in Italy was her passport out
OF Poland, which she took advan-
tage of with speed even though it
meant leaving behind everything
she owned but the clothes she wore,
three dancing costumes and 10
marks, cash. She was in Italy
only two months when the Germans
took over there, too, again intensi-
flying the hectic aspects of her life.
Miss Ari managed to stay out of
their clutches, though finally get
ting to France, from France to
Spain, from Spain to Portugal.
The lights, food and the freedom
of fear she encountered in Portu-
gal were enough for Miss Ari. She
never turned around again, but
SollGl1luCo WCoO W oI dAli, WilClC Sllc
spent the next SIX years absorbing
the native culture into her art.
She won considerable acclaim there
as a concert dancer as we'll as one
known to the carioca public, which
seems to be the local name for the
saloon set, or cafe society. Her
own choreographer, Miss Ari made
a speciality of adapting native dance
one of the more exciting being her
version of a cacumba, sort of
devil dance performed in secret and
against the will of the authorities.
She features this one now in the
Balalaika's midnight show.
The Greeks, according to a we'll
known saying, had a word for it,
no matter what it was. The Greeks
don't have q word for everything,
though, you may be surprised to
learn. The language failed the
writer of story about Rita Dimi-
triou, the popular Athenian singer
of the Old New Orleans, which
appeared recently in the Sunday
magazine supplement of the Ma
tional Herald, leading Greek-lan-
guage newspaper in this country.
Miss Dimitriou proudly showed
| it to us the other night-full- page