[Exotica] [obit] Don Lurio

[Nicola Battista]

just a few thought about Don Lurio, the legendary (for me at least) american
(italian adopted) choreographer who died and was briefly mentioned here in
another "obit" email...

one of the most famous 1960's shows he worked in was "Studio Uno"; this was
in the age when italian television was done by real *artists*, the era when
if you had someone singing on tv probably that was Mina or some other
super-star and if you had an orchestra accompaining her maybe you had
Morricone or some other Maestro conducting....

Don Lurio launched german twins Alice and Ellen Kessler, who became stars on
Italian national tv RAI and also probably influenced the erotic imaginary of
a whole generation of Italians... of course the Kesslers where the first
people interviewed yesterday by Italian TV channels to speak about Don
Lurio's contribution to classic tv shows.
Their most famous number (a silly dance done to an even sillier song called
"Dadaumpa") was also Don Lurio's creation.

In 1984 he appeared in an incredibly trashy TV show called "Quo Vadiz?"
(with a final "z"!) with film director and comedian Maurizio Nichetti,
showgirl Sydne Rome and other weirdos. In that show Don Lurio recreated
absurd versions of some of his famous numbers, also with the collaboration
of Nichetti and Rome.

I particularly remember that "Punta e tacco baby one, two, three" dance
which consisted of Don Lurio commanding the others to do a certain move;
everytime he announces one move you do that move and then repeat the
previous moves; this way the dance and the song get more and more
complicated while being performed... in the end all three performers fall on
the floor exhausted or something like that :)

In another number Don Lurio rhythmically ripped newspaper pages while
dancing and singing, showing that you could "dance" and "play" with paper.
He ever ripped a dictionary in two at a certain point ("se la vita va al
contrario, strappa in due il vocabolario", he sang... "if your life is going
'to the contrary' - i.e. the wrong way -, rip in two the dictionary").

Another fantastic bit was that he had been in Italy for 40 years or so and
his Italian was still terrible and with a strong American accent. Compared
to some foreign football players who come here and 6 months later speak a
perfect italian (possibly with some local accent depending on the team and
the city they play for ;))) that was always a reason for some hilarity when
he was on tv. A few years ago he was invited by Fabio Fazio in one of his
shows about football and he was left alone speaking with Peter Van Wood. Van
Wood (www.vanwood.it) is a dutch-born singer and astrologer that has also
been in Italy for decades and for some mysterious reasons still speaks
Italian the same way Don Lurio used to do.
Fazio created this exhilarating dialogue between Don Lurio and Van Wood
which no one seemed to understand completely.

Don Lurio never wanted to talk about his private life. According to what the
newspapers said a few years ago, he was homosexual and lived for several
years with the same partner. When this guy died, Don Lurio was left out of
this guy's testament or something. This was the only time when something
about his private life was revealed to the public. In those days some
journalist phoned him but he refused to talk. Some other people would have
used all this for some kind of publicity stunt but obviously Don Lurio that
kind of guy.

He was a complete weirdo, but a nice one. We nostalgic of good tv shows are
gonna miss him a lot.

Nicola DjB

www.ecl3ctic.com
www.kutmusic.com