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POLICE OFFICER
Stop the music, now! Right now!
DETECTIVE # 2
Everybody up against the wall!
(Just seconds later, the
music stops and the silence is downright eerie.
The sound of claves lingers for another forty-five
seconds.
(BOUNCER # 1 also known
as BIG VIC moves toward the POLICE CAPTAIN.)
BIG VIC
Hey, Cappy, you gotta get us outta here! We can’t
take the heat; we’re on parole.
POLICE CAPTAIN
Are you nuts? This is a raid and that’s
the FBI. They’re in charge and I’m
under their jurisdiction.
(BOUNCER
# 2 also known as YUMPY crosses to the POLICE
CAPTAIN)
Lary Selon Palladium legend |
YUMPY
Jurisdiction, shit! You’re under
Max’s payoffs; that charge’ll
cost you your fuckin’ medals unless
you dance to our tune.
BOUNCER
# 3
Yeah, you’re a crook like us, only
you get medals for it!
POLICE
CAPTAIN
You fucking spick cockroaches!
BIG VIC
Come on move us out the side door or we’ll
sing a song you won’t like.
(A
G-Man approaches Maxwell `MAX’ Hyman,
the proprietor of EL PALLADIUM. Having
observed the commotion from the side,
MAX wanders onto the stage, dazed to see
EL PALLADIUM, at one time a dream he sawto
full fruition, nowa chaotic blur.)
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G-MAN
Are you the owner of this establishment?
MAX
Yes, of course (beat.) Why are you doing this
terrible thing?
G-MAN
(Overlapping)
Mr. Maxwell Hyman, please read this.
(MAX
feebly extends his hand to accept a folded piece
of paper)
What is this?
G-MAN
This is a warrant for you to cease operations
immediately.
MAX
Are you crazy? We have five hundred people here.
|
Michael Terrace
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G-MAN
(Adamantly)
You are to cease all business and stop the
music and halt the sale of any more liquor.
MAX
You’re ruining my business why I
don’t even know why!
(Dance
instructor and EL PALLADIUM house emcee
KILLER JOE weaves through the crowd at
a fast pace)
KILLER JOE
(To MAX)
Talk to Costello. Hoods know the law better
than the cops.
(MAX
slowly nods in agreement with KILLER JOE)
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(Lights
rise on JOE COSTELLO already joined by MAX)
JOE
COSTELLO
(An underworld capo)
(Wisely)
This didn’t happen by accident.
(Snaps his fingers)
Get to a phone and tell your lawyer that you’re
gonna fight this and sue for damages and the infringement
of the civil rights of the Spanish artists and
dancers.
(Points his finger to MAX’s chest)
You got an enemy somewhere. Just let me know who
it is and if you can (shrug) I’ll take care
of it.
(An
anonymous voice begins to chant “Bailar,
Balair”(dance, dance). The lights at U.C.
rise to reveal this lone voice as that of TITO
PUENTE who instructs the patrons to continue to
dance.)
TITO PUENTE
(Jubilantly, although obviously shaken by anxiety)
Counts out the clave beat to start the band .One,
two, three, four, five!
(AUGIE
and MICHAEL, two resident dancers at EL PALLADIUM
walk forward to D.C. where they stop and stand
side-by-side in amazement)
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AUGIE
Oh My God; what does this mean, are they
gonna close the Palladium?
MICHAEL
The cops didn’t come here to dance,
Augie. Someone jealous bastards are trying
to shut it down.
AUGIE
Who do you think it is?
|
Augie
and Michael |
MICHAEL
The most likely are always the competitors they’ve
been here and their eyes popped out of their heads
when they saw the enormous crowds, and the funny
part is they are very prejudice, but they love
the color of green.
(THE BOUNCERS run over to the POLICE CAPTAIN as
their leader, BIG VIC speaks for them.)
BIG
VIC
(Beseechingly)
Hey Cappy! Get us outta here before the paddy
wagon gets here.
YUMPY
So let’s Cha-Cha out of here. (beat) Now!
(Turing to the POLICE CAPTAIN and stepping within
an inch of his face)
If you know what’s good for you and you’d
like ta keep those fuckin’ medals, you’ll
arrest us and take us out the side door now. Come
on now Cha-Cha-Cha; out, out.
Elita & Terrace |
POLICE
CAPTAIN
You Goddamn cockroaches, all right, I get
it
(In a loud, pompous voice)
‘Kay, you’re under arrest; alla
yas, come with me. (Looking around to see
if, particularly the G-Men, notice this
assertion of official authority)
Move it out, Cha-Cha-Cha.
(The POLICE CAPTAIN escorts the three BOUNCERS
down the side door stairs.)
(Standing
at a nearby table occupied by a group of
prostitutes who are regulars at EL PALLADIUM,
the MADAM shouts as if preaching a gospel
sermon to her girls)
MADAM
Disperse, grab a man, fall in love and get
married, but makes sure you play it cool
‘cause we don’t want any heat.
|
(Each prostitute moves in on a male as the MADAM
sets her eyes on a G-MAN who has had already began
to make his way toward her.)
MADAM
Hey Dickie, you can raid and ravish me any time,
you can start now and finish later and later.
G-MAN
Look baby don’t make it hard for me; I’m
a stick-to- it-iveness guy I gotta keep a steady
force
of movement (beat) it’s a stiff duty that
I have to keep up.
MADAM
|
(Enthusiastically)
Ooh, that’s what I love. (beat) A
stiff dick (slight beat) tec-tive who makes
it his duty.
(Another
EL PALLADIUM dancer named TYBEE ( A Chita
Rivera type) who is also part-time secretary
to its proprietor MAX HYMAN, jumps on to
the bandstand next to Tito as patrons now
try to run and escape the club)
TYBEE
Come on Tito, keep them dancing. Play man,
play!
TITO PUENTE
(He claps his hands to the familiar claves
beat of 1-2-3-4-5)
Dance, don’t stop ba-liar.
(All
the patrons respond and clap in the identical
tempo 1-2-3-4-5. as the sound of theclaves
intensifies)
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TITO
PUENTE
EL-PAL- LA- DI-UM; 1-2-3-4-5!
TYBEE
(To TITO PUENTE)
That s it! Hit the claves (She sings out) EL-PAL-LA-DI-UM
1-2-3-4-5! Come on, Tito, play! This can’t
be the last dance at El Palladium. Hit the conga
drums and play to the Afro-Cuban Voodoo gods for
help!
(Patrons
scurry to get rid of whatever drug paraphernalia
or substances or they may have with them)MAX
(To G-MAN)
This is an outrage! This is illegal! You’re
scaring my patrons; this’ll ruin my business.
G-MAN
We have a warrant.
MAX
I can sue and I will!
(Paces back and forth wildly)
El Palladium is the show place for the dance
and the music of the Spanish people.
|
Palladium dancers: Gene Zackary, M.Terrace,
Carlos Bletran |
(Turns
violently away from and then back to the G-MAN)
It’s the heartbeat of all Latinos. I won’t
let it fall to the whims of jealousy. It’ll
always
be here with the beats of the bongos the clave
and ghosts of the chanting Voodoo Gods.
G-MAN
Look, this is my job, we have a warrant, so just
take it.
(Instantaneously,
a tall, muscular man that mythology would know
as a WITCH DOCTOR appears in a puff of smoke.)
WITCH
DOCTOR
(In a deep resonant, bass voice)
Max, your dream will live on and you will always
be remembered. El Palladium will never close in
the eyes of dancers. Come on Tito, come on Tybee,
let’s dance and play for the future dancers
of the Mambo.
EL
PALLADIUM is completely transformed and breaks
into an orgy of dancing to the famed bandleader
Machito, who chants “Tanga”, .
Tybee, a resident dancer and part-time secretary
at El Palladium, breaks into a dance like the
wild woman she’s known to be – the
embodiment of “ Tanga!”
(Lights out abruptly)
End
part 9
I
lecture about the Palladium era and teach on the
method of dancing with-in the claves. mterrace@nj.rr.com
See
you on the dance floor.
© Michael
Terrace
Tuesday, 02-Nov-2010
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