THE BOSTON GLOBE • Till MaudAllan: 'Street Fight~ ■ VIDEO 'The Salome Dancer' Continued from Page 53 Capcom. "It's head-to-head competi­ tion, it's fast-paced, and people like By Margo Miller that. What makes it so great is that GLOBE STAFF there are over 30 fighting and de­ A video collage fense techniques to master." Her "mama's boy'' brother was· Like thousands of other Street hanged for the murder of two young of Maud Allan Fighter II fans, Fonseca and his · women he killed in the belfry of the There is no extant film of Allan friends hang out in the afternoons, family church. The scandal was to dancing but Cherniavsky has put to­ play the game and have a good time. dog her for the rest of her life but, gether a six-minute video of still "To me, it is an unusual game. also, perhaps, to form her art. A photos called "Did She Dance?" that · The fighting moves are challenging Canadian raised in San Francisco, augments the illustrations in his bi­ and each character is different," said she was one of the pioneers of mod­ ography. Published in Canada by , Fonseca, sporting a baseball cap, a ern dance. Even more than Isadora McClelland & Stewart in 1991, "The Walkman and a T-shirt. "And you Duncan or Loie Fuller or Ruth St Salome Dancer" awaits an American can also compete with other kids in Denis, she was fodder for the tab­ publisher but can be ordered fro~ the arcades." loids. Only Maud Allan was the "Sa- Firefly Books, 250 Sparks Ave., Wil­ The flashy "Street Fighter II" . lome Dancer." lowdale, Ontario, Canada M2H 2S4. game became a phenomenon after Usually the severed head of John To order the video, as well as the Capcom USA Inc. released it in Feb­ the Baptist was a stage prop and Al­ electronic publication containing ruary 1991. It was later named "Ar­ lan kissed papier mache lips. One Cherniavsky's documentation write cade Game of the Year'' by the evening, to avenge one of her broth­ the Dance Collective Danse, 145 Amusement and Music Operators er's victims, a Hungarian baron George St., Toronto, Canada M5A Association. made a cruel substitution, a head 2M6. Riding the popularity wave, Cap­ fresh from the morgue. As Salome, com then released "Street Fighter II she wore a costume that would make Champion Edition" in April. Since Madonna look overdressed. Lest her then, the company has sold ~ore performance in India compromise like him to engage Miss Allan at the than 20,000 arcade games nation­ the "prestige of white women," the Palace Theater so that the English wide - the average Top 10 video British viceroy considered banning public may enjoy her performance as game rarely sells more than 3,000 "Salome." Instead, Allan danced her much as we have." units. Street Fighter II was also fea­ classical music program, interpret­ Butt did and the public did. tured on the covers of six game play­ ing Mendelssohn's "Spring Song" Maud Allan played the Palace, the ers' magazines over the past four and Chopin's Marche funebre and class act headlining a bill of jugglers, months. Grieg's "Peer Gynt" Suite. "I believe performing dogs, the comedian ''who The Super Nintendo Entertain­ it was appreciated by the Europe­ made the Shah laugh," and a black­ ment System version of the game re­ ans," wrote a Bengali critic, "but we face act called Belle Davis and Her cently hit Boston's store shelves. In Indians had no taste for it." Sou~hern Piccaninnies. Allan danced Japan, where the game is more pop­ Allan's US debut came in Janu­ "The Vision of Salome" immediately ular than it is here, more than 1 mil­ ary at Boston's Symphony Hall. 1910 after The Bioscope, a sort of news­ lion units have been sold. American critics were also puzzled: reel. The movies were to kill vaude­ "When virtually all of our indus­ was she a concert artist or a vaude­ ville, and television to dent the mov­ try critics concluded that the Street ville entertainer? ies. Had Allan been the "Salome Fighter II game series would rival The life and times of Maud Allan Dancer" of the 1960s, she would the popularity and success of Pac­ (1873-1956) are vividly conveyed in have been launched on the Ed Sulli­ Man, we knew we were not only re­ "The Salome Dancer," by her most van Show. leasing a megabit, but initiating a recent biographer, Felix Cher­ How shocking was "The Vision of new entertainment phenomenon," niavsky. His father Mischel was the Salome"? All things considered, a said Joe Morici, Capcom senior vice cellist in the Cherniavsky Trio with more daring act than the perfor­ president. "The home version of whom Allan toured the world. For a mance artist who smears herself Street Fighter II will have a dramat­ while, the Cherniavskys feared Allan with chocolate to make a political ic impact on the market." would make off with handsome Leo, statement or the practitioner of Boston's video arcades and the­ the trio's violinist. In a letter home, mixed media who suspends the crux­ aters that carry the game have been the tour manager unburdened him­ ified Jesus in urine. Certainly an act crowded with teen-agers wearing self about Allan: "She has innocent of more imagination. Allah was not backward baseball caps and squint­ but dangerous blue eyes, like a quite nude. Acts like hers invited the ing into the glare of the screen. child's, but she is mean and selfish, a audience's imagination to conspire. Street Fighter II features 12 grab all and give nothing, a harlot at Acts like hers humbly conspired with characters, including Honda the heart and a humbug because she is the arts of music and theater magic. sumo wrestler, Dhalsim the yoga always posing as the paragon of vir­ Unlike most dancers, she was genu­ master and Bianka the beast. Each ture." Uncharitable, but not inaccu­ inely musical. As a young woman she character has his or her own rate, Felix Cherniavsky writes. Even in black and white photos, those eyes ~~-:~~pes !or -~-~~~~rt car~r-~ ~ 11-=====================i :SDAY, JULY 28, 1992 55 ~r II' Wants to be the next Pac-Man. 1g ba 'To me, it is an )p fd unusual game. The rn fighting moves are . M 1? challenging and [l each character Is g /'.• -- .i different. And you 4 can also compete , • I with other kids In the arcades.' IGNACIO FONSECA 'Street Fighter II' player which is no easy feat. At the Game Room, Dan Li, a 15- year-old self-crowned video-game expert, was earnestly defending his character from losing. Gripping the joystick, his hands moved rapidly to deliver kicks and blows to his oppo­ nent. Li, who attends Boston Latin Academy, said he has been interest­ ed in video games since he was very young and now spends about two hours playing the game with his friends. "This is much better and more challenging than other video games," he said. ''You can fight each other and you have to master the special moves. It is very popular among my friends at school." Maybe so. But one concern for parents may be the game's violent battles, though both Capcom and Nintendo representatives are quick to say that Street Fighter II is no more violent than other action-ad­ venture video games. I "It's not that baa or bloody," Goddard said. "This is just competi­ tion, and it is fun. The violence isn't what draws people. There are more violent games out there." Each "Street Fighter" character has !4 flghtlng styles. If its current popularity is any in­ dication, Street Fighter II will be strengths, weaknesses and 24 fight­ "It took me about a year to get around for a long time. For now, ing styles. Players will eventually all the moves down," Fonseca said. Fonseca and his friends have set have to master special moves like "But . there was never a boring · their sights on buying the home vid- ' the "Sonic Boom," ''Yoga Fire" or moment." eo version of "Street Fighter II." It "Dragon Punch" to defeat certain Because only two players can costs about $75. opponents. compete at a time, it is not unusual "1 don't see anyone getting bored Some fans, like Fonseca, have to see dozens of kids challenging with it," said Fonseca. ''You can play learned about 30 of the moves. But it each other. Players must defeat each all day, and as far as I know the takes patience and time, they said. opponent before facing the next one, craze hasn't died out yet." ... - . o gerous. Even if there were film showing of Busoni (a sometime lover) and Ar­ Allan in perfonnance, it would reveal tur Rubinstein testified to her musi­ little about how she danced, or her cality. She made you feel the music effect on the public. She had few stu­ change from major to minor, one dents, left no school. "She simply al­ critic marveled. Where she wasn't chemized a piece of music for you," a innocent was in the choice of Salome London critic wrote of her visualiza­ as subject matter. tion of Chopin's Valse in A minor. Most of Christian Europe and For our part, we can't go back to America still felt it was blasphemy to that innocent age. You went on the stage most things in the Bible. As stage at considerable risk to your head of the Church of England, Ed­ reputation.