HughE Dillon: Chubby Checker and The Geator Do the Twist

Plus: The Straight and Butch project

Straight and Butch has been a two-year-long project of local TV host Butch Cordova.


Cordova thought: Wouldn’t it be fun to do a series of fine art photos of straight men (non-homosexual) and him (uber gay man), while also filming it all for a 90-minute documentary? That film, Straight and Butch, debuts at the Philadelphia QFest tonight at 7:30 p.m.


On July 2nd, I attended the opening night of Butch’s first one-man show featuring some of the photos from the project at Ven and Vaida Gallery in Old City (3rd & Market).


There was a really great turnout of friends, walk-ins and “the straight men.”


ABOVE: “Straight man” David Lloyd Miller, with Butch in front of their piece. Butch had met David at a party and just asked him to do it. Both are really into fitness and said it was an easy shot. Their next collaboration will be running the Philadelphia Marathon together this November.


The photograph above, by Christopher Gabello, is one of my favorites, with Times Square in the background.


Also in attendence were Claire Brown Kohler, Michael Toub, Ian McLean, Anthony Borzotta, Eric Wagner, and Kelly Burkhardt, as well as Roy Ziegler, author of New Hope, Pennsylvania: River Town Passages, and life partner Chuck Tarr. Roy is currently working on a new novel about a prominent family in Philadelphia.


Donald Carter with Survivor alum and another “straight model”  Gervase Peterson, and Chrissy DiCaprio.

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Come on Baby, Let’s Do The Twist!!


Chubby Checker returned to Philadelphia to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of his popular hit “The Twist” last Friday. The song was introduced to a national audience on August 6, 1960, on The Dick Clark Show produced in Philadelphia (on the right in purple is The Geator Jerry Blavat). The Daily News sponsored the event to celebrate 50 Years of Twistory at Dilworth Plaza, next to City Hall, and attempted to break the record for the most people twisting, which was 6,000. It was a nice try, but they unfortunately fell short as many of the folks in Philadelphia were on vacation after the July 4th holiday. Could we try it again in October?

FYI: On August 3rd, Jerry Blavat will share memories of doo-wop in Philadelphia as a band hand-picked by him will perform music from the genre. $5 at City Hall at 6 p.m.

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If you spot me on the street and call out either “Hey PhillyChitChat or Hughe!!,” maybe I will feature you in this space like Lesley Kozloff Goldstein and Monique Crawford. They were on their way to El Vez for cocktails one recent one-hundred-degree evening when they called out my name.