a twisted tale Ron Mann brings the true history of The Twist — and social dancing — to the screen by Marc Glassmai "I had lots of Chubby Checker records when I was a kid. My mother got me my first one when I was four. I thought he had invented The Twist. Of course, I was very wrong." Ron Mann pauses, brushes back his shock of thick, greying hair and gets up to riffle through his record col- lection. We're at the acclaimed documentarian's office, Sphinx Productions, so the albums he is flipping through are all rhythm'n'blues and pop LPs from the 60s. At his home, the sorting out would be far more complex. There he has a vast collection of jazz, spoken art, and psychedelic albums, records of his previous obsessions. Mann picks up a stack of old LPs and passes them to me, one by one, making appropriate com- ments for each audio artifact."Here's Twisting with Ray Charles and one with B.B. King. It's not even a twist record, but record companies would slap the title on anything in those days." Those days were the early 60s. Now, thirty years later, Ron Mann is nearing completion of his film about that time, simply called Twist. Hank Ballard, creator of The Twist TAKE ONE What drove Toronto's aging Filmmakers Distribution Cen- cultural community, many members of whom are all too willing enfant terrible to do his usual tre, to discuss the Financing, to allow the hard work of producing their films to be done painstakingly precise treatment creation and distribution of through government agencies. Yet this performance, and others, of what even he, in his darker independent film. Jonathan has garnered Ron Mann many supporters among the new film- moments, considers to be teen- Barker of the Ontario Film making community in Toronto. Atom Egoyan, Bruce McDonald, age fluff? There are several sto- Development Corporation is Peter Mettler and Patricia Rozema are all friends of the director, ries in the twisted tale of how being taken to task by several and point to his early successes as being inspirations for their won rhythm'n'blues joined rock' members of the audience for highly innovative work. n'roll's mainstream, and social that organization's problematic dance became liberated from financial policies. Suddenly a "WHAT I USUALLY DO when I'm starting off on a film is to precise movements to become voice bursts out from the back. talk to people. When Comic Book Confidential came out, I did a free-form popular art. Before Rising to his feet, Ron Mann a lot of interviews, and a number of talks at universities and col- describing the convoluted, denounces his follow filmmak- leges. Everybody asked me the same question: 'What's your next intersecting tales of Joey Dee, ers for a general lack of initia- film?' Of course, immediately seconds after you've finished a film Dick Clark, Chubby Checker, tive in raising private capital they want to know what's next. So I would say, just to try things Hank Ballard and the Mid- and then castigates the govern- out, 'It's a film about The Twist,' and people said, 'Well, that's nighters, the Peppermint mental funders for lack of res- interesting.' So here it is." Ron Mann is talking before a test Lounge, high society, the ponsiveness to independents. screening of Twist at Film House, a Toronto production facility. Chitlin Circuit, low society, Seizing his moment, Mann His audience this afternoon is filled with funders, critics, What rock'n'roll dan c i n 9 is all about is a n a s s i m i 1 a t i o n , and American Bandstand s describes his hit documen- dancers, let's segue into anoth- taries, Imagine the Sound and a n a p p r o p r i a t i o n er scene in the life of this cine- Poetry in Motion. The first matic composer, Ron Mann. features Paul Bley, Archie o f b lack ni u s i c It's early 1988. The Jack- Shepp and Cecil Taylor, and is man Hall at the Art Gallery of a completely sympathetic por- a n d black d a n c e . trait of the most significant jazz revolutionaries of the 1960s. Neither the CBC or research and production contributors to the film. the NFB had put a penny into The film explodes onto the screen with the driving force of the it, nor Poetry in Motion, only pop tune to reach #1 on the Billboard charts twice. Over a which stars such literary lumi- montage of people twisting in discotheques, at parties, and on the naries as Allen Ginsburg, Jayne beach, "the dance sensation that swept the nation" gets a discern- Cortez, bp nichol and Charles ing film crowd's hips shifting. The film is structured into seven Bukowski. Defiant and loud- parts, each introduced by a dance lesson for the audience's edifica- spoken in a way few Canadians tion. can be, Mann describes to his Through a masterful use of archival footage, contemporary astonished audience the then interviews with musicians and dancers, and rhythmically precise unfinished Comic Book visual and musical editing, Twist progresses from jazz choreogra- Confidential. Pointing out phy and "jump blues" of the early 50s, through the heyday of the that financing exists from pri- early 60s dance crazes, into the emergence of psychedelic rock and vate broadcasters, international freeform dancing of the Woodstock era. distributors and private Twist teems with characters, befitting an age that honoured donors, Mann concludes his individualism. There's Carol, the film's occasional narrative voice, intervention by welcoming who supplies the only reflective tone from all of the dancers who whatever help the OFDC can enjoyed a brief moment of idolatry as white Philadelphia teen- Ron Mann give to independent filmmak- agers dancing on American Bandstand in the late 1950s. Hank ers but suggests that all film- Ballard arrives as the rueful creator of The Twist, trying to hide Ontario is filled with arts makers in the audience remain his despair over the success of the Chubby Checker version of his administrators, bureaucrats exactly that—independent. own, self-penned classic. Chubby is present, offhandedly describ- and filmmakers. A forum has Ron Mann won few friends ing his greatest talent: "I can make anything nice. That's my gift." been created, partially under that night. His words were a Joey Dee appears, "a real sweetheart" according to Mann, describ- the auspices of the National fresh wind blowing through ing his awesome brush with celebrity. Performing at The Film Board and the Canadian the stultifying air of Canada's Peppermint Lounge, off Broadway, the leader of 1961's hottest 2 2 TAKE ONE New Jersey band suddenly discovered that his tune, The most famous for the suggestive Ron Mann has not only pre- Peppermint Twist, was being danced by Danny Kaye, Julie lyrics to his huge mid-50s hit, sented the hidden history of Newmar, Anne Bancroft and Senator Jacob Javits. Work With Me Annie, was social dance, but also com- The film wryly observes The Twist as a cultural phenomenon. judged to be unacceptable to a mented on the changing spirit Everything from shots of astronauts twisting in space to twist white audience by Dick Clark. of North American culture breakfast cereals to twisting baby dolls is given its due as this phe- Checker's version of The during a turbulent time. nomenon is shown to reach truly hysterical proportions. Mann's Twist, described accurately by What makes Ron run? Why film even-handedly captures the growing absurdity of the choreo- Ballard as a "clone" of his has this veteran director spent graphed sequels to The Twist. Another American Bandstand song, became one of the great- three years night after night alumna describes how she shooed away a fly while dancing with a est hits of all time. Checker's drinking coffee, smoking ciga- partner. Within weeks, Chubby Checker was being taught the celebrity as a black teen idol is rettes from dusk to dawn, to steps to his latest hit, The Fly, by the same teen-age dancer. viewed not only within the create this film? "I'm trying to After Going to A-Go-Go had to smash against such cultural context of rhythm'n'blues, but make unpopular culture popu- detritus as Molecule A-Go-Go, the white American public was within that of such white pop lar. If you watch television left with one thing: the ability to dance freely without a partner stars as Frankie Avalon and you're getting the same mes- for the first time. Twist concludes with two specific homages. The Fabian—apt comparisons in sage on channels A-Z. I'm first is to that "whitebread" American public through a home both cases. American Band- looking for something be- movie of a family ranging from children to grandparents dancing stand dancers Jimmy and tween the dials." Twist is not to Twist and Shout. The second, and the film's grand finale, Carol admit to the director only between the dials. It is reflects the source of all of this artistry: Mama Lu Parks' Parkettes that they learned a dance, the between the grooves of anyone perform a stunningly choreographed version of Land of a Strand, from black Philadel- who loves dancing or genuine- ly funky rock'n'roll music. T_1 Thousand Dances, which is where we are today. phian youth and were afraid to For all of its crowd-pleasing footage, exuberantly expressionistic acknowledge it on national dancing, and wonderfully engaging rhythm'n'blues music, Twist television.