Globetrotters Give Fine Entertainment

Press, Volume C, Issue 29444, 21 February 1961, Page 16

Globetrotters Give Fine Entertainment

There is a Latin tag familiar ie souse o< those few schoolboys studying the language to the effect that the height of art la tai Mo concealment; if the saying is valid, the Harlem Gtobetrotters can certainly be classed as artists. This wertd-r unowned negro basketball team was at Wilding Park last evening, with a variety dhow which is certainly the equal of anything seen in Christchurch in many a long year. Christchurch has had a long wait to see the Harlem Globetrotters, but it has been well worth while. They are superb entertainers, and their only difficulty may be in keeping their billing ahead of those who supported them on the programme. The crowd of 3500 certainly went homq satisfied, and it would be a churlish spectator who was not happy with the entertainment offered. The success of the performance was assisted by the fine setting in the open at Wilding Park, by the warm night air and a sliver of moon in a cloudless sky. The Harlem Globetrotters played a sort of match against a European combination called the United States Stars. It was never for a moment a serious exhibition of basketball, but the buffoonery was based on extraordinary ball-handling skills, as well as on some purely slapstick effects. The Globetrotters all had the most adhesive of fingers, and a very long lead over their opponents in the gentle arts of gamesmanship. Dummy Moves At times the speed with which the ball changed hands and direction defied the eye, with the Globetrotters screaming like dervishes the while, and executing a dizzy pattern of intricate dummy moves which the Stars, to their credit, seemed to find puzzling too. Before the end, balls which behaved in a most peculiar fashion were brought briefly into the game, but most of the fun came from the bewildering speed of some beautifully absurd manoeuvres. The Stars had a Hawaian, Robert Akeo, who found the basket from all over the place with style and precision; the Globetrotters had as their tactician, cheer leader, master of cere-, monies while the ball was in play, and general adviser one Robert Hall, who is a knockabout comedian of the very best quality. For the record, if any, ~the Globetrotters won. The variety programme will be the talk of Christchurch. There were no weak spots in the show, and there were three acts of astonishing quality.

Two items came from batonists, young men who made the majorettes at American football games look like rheumatic old ladies. Ray Wilbert did some incredible things with hoops, and Toni Wells, with basketballs as his main stock-in-trade, showed he is a first-class juggler—and might have made a first-class soccer player. On the trampoline, Dick Albershardt demonstrated delightfully the arts and graces of this growing sport Soaring high into the night sky, he executed some wonderfully relaxed gymnastics. "Ballerina Of Bicycle” Even in Christchurch, it is difficult to imagine that the bicycle could become to an entertainer what skates were to Sonja Henie. But a little Japanese girl. Kimi Yokol, gave a superbly graceful exhibition as the "ballerina of the bicycle." The old western films used to permit the cowboy heroes to ride their horses in unconventional and apparently uncomfortable attitudes, but Miss Yokoi was far better with her bicycle than anything Hollywood has put out so far. She received a tremendous ovation at the end of a charming performance. It was a cycle, too, which gave the evening its highlight. But it was a cycle with a difference. It bad only one wheel, and it was ridden by Boy Foy, seated some 10 feet off the ground. To a rhumba beat—which he followed, even on this extraordinary machine—he juggled magnificently. His piece de resistance was one of the brightest Still on his cycle, but now keeping time to a melody no doubt familiar to adherents of the Cha Cha. he managed to balance six saucers and five cups on his head. He placed each item above the previous one by the simple expedient of flicking it up with his foot. Billingsgate was never like this; at the end, he even kicked up a teapot to sit on the top of the pile. Per ardua ad astra.