Charlie Heiferman from West Nyack, New York: “Someone stole the
water from my pool…4000 gallons, overnight”
The New York
City area was facing a severe water shortage in the mid-60s, and local
municipalities established rules governing what would be seen as waste. Heiferman managed to fill his pool before the
restrictions in his area took place, and believes that his water was taken by
someone from somewhere with even tighter regulations, such as New Jersey. How a thief could make off with that much
water unnoticed, when a noisy fire truck could only hold about a thousand
gallons, is never sufficiently explained.
Walter von Gunten from Madison, Wisconsin: “I didn’t draw this
picture…I cut it out of one piece of paper – with scissors”
Von Gunten is
an artist, originally from Switzerland, and the picture he refers to is a
detailed work of art showing an owl in a tree. The technique is known as
‘scherenscnitte’ or ‘scissor cuts’.
Special guest Soupy Sales introduces a group of five Watusi people
from the Congo, dressed in African garb, who perform a native dance: “We met in
a dancing class…We’re learning an American dance…The Watusi”
As a dance, “The Watusi” was a fad in
the 1960s, named in large part for the exotic African culture whose traditions
involved spectacular dances such as the one performed here. As a people, Watusi was the former name of an
African ethnic group we now identify as the Tutsis. This group is performing at the African
Pavilion of the New York World’s Fair.
Soupy and the Tutsis perform The Watusi to the great, culturally
appropriated delight of the audience. Sales
is about to star in his first feature film, Birds
Do It (1966). It would be the only
starring role in film for a man who would become much more famous for his
television work.
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