Come on baby, let’s do the Chubby Checker

Young Chang

Chubby Checker says to call him “Chubby,” that everybody’s always

called him that. It feels weird to address him as something potentially

derogatory instead of his given name, Ernest Evans.

He insists it’s OK.

A boss named Tony in South Philadelphia gave him that name, he says.

He was 11, the boss ran a poultry market where Chubby sold everything

from chicken to apples.

The business was his first stage -- an arena where he serenaded

customers with renditions of everything from Elvis to Little Richard --

and where the chubby child became known as “the singing man.”

In 1958, Dick Clark’s wife, Barbara, tacked on the “Checker” because

of a likeness with Fats Domino.

And that’s how Ernest Evans came to be Chubby Checker -- the title

synonymous today with the Twist, doing the Pony, the Fly and the Shake --

and how Checker came to make a rather huge claim.

“If you’re looking at him and he’s looking at you, you’re not dancing,

you’re doing the Chubby Checker,” Checker said. “Before Chubby Checker,

did anyone dance apart to the beat? . . . This is our creation. It’s the

biggest thing in music.”

Checker, who will lead today’s Orange County Fair opening ceremony as

well as the evening concert series, breaks it down like this: When you’re

talking on the phone, you’re actually doing the Alexander Graham Bell.

When you’re sitting with the lights on, you’re doing the Thomas Edison.

And if you’re dancing without holding your partner, therefore apart

from your partner to the beat of music, you’re doing Checker’s dance. And

whether you’re doing the Twist or the Pony or the latest Destiny’s Child

groove, you’re playing with a version of Checker’s creations, the

performer says.

“If you have a song and your song has a beat, at any place on the

planet, they dance apart to the beat,” Checker said. “Before Chubby

Checker, it was not here. I want the whole world to know that.”

He defines the Twist as “putting a cigarette out with both feet” or

“coming out of the shower and wiping the feet with a towel through the

beat of music.”

“We did this thing called the Pony, the Fly, the Shake,” he explained.

“And all these dances put together has given us this wonderful freedom

that we have had 24-7 since 1959 to dance apart to the beat to

everybody’s music.”

His biggest hit, “The Twist,” topped the pop charts in 1960 and 1962.

The White House at one point had to deny reports that people were

Twisting at a White House party. The dance was even banned for some time

at community centers in Tampa, Fla., in South Vietnam and by East

Germany’s Communist Party, to name a few Twist-a-phobic instances.

“Because that’s all they did -- my dances,” Checker said. “They look

at each other and do nasty stuff. Well guess what? I’m Mr. Nasty.”

The performer promises a hyped performance at the fair and to drive

his crowd “crazy.”

Steve Beazley, deputy general manager of the fair, says the theme of

the annual tradition -- “Twist and Shout” -- celebrates Checker’s idea of

the Twist.

“We’re very lucky to get him for that,” he said. “He’s one of the few

celebrities known internationally, so we wanted him to help us kick off

our fair.”

FYI

WHAT: Chubby Checker

WHEN: Opens the fair at 10 a.m. today. Performs in concert at 8 p.m.

WHERE: Arlington Theater at the Orange County Fair, 88 Fair Drive,

Costa Mesa

COST: Free with general fair admission. Reserved seating is $10.

CALL: (714) 708-1543