65° - 01.11.1969, Side 17

Hitting the Night Spots
★ hy ★
AMALIA LINDAL ★
★
★
:k
★
Television and devaluation have put dents in the
nightlife business, but the Hotel LoftleiSir has no
complaints, Sigtun is ecstatic, and the teenagers
still manage to be everywhere but at home on
weekend nights in Reykjavik.
Three hotels: Loflleidir, Saga and Borg, and
five restaurant-clubs: Rocfull, the Playhouse Cel-
lar, Klubburinn, Glaumbaer and Sigtun, offer
dance orchestras and entertainment on weekends
if not during the week, (watch the newspapers),
and community halls such as Templarahollin,
Stapi, Ungo and Las Vegas host to folk-dancing
and the longhaired teeny-boppers.
All the hotels and clubs have their regular
house combos of Icelandic musicians and usually
a singer, among whom might be mentioned Elly
Vilhjalms, famed for her voice in an Osvald
Knudsen film of Iceland, Helena Eyjolfs, with
Ingimar Eydal in Akureyri, and Svanhildur with
the Olafur Gauk quintet. Haukur Morthens, Ice-
land’s Bing Crosby, now pours out his baritone
at the Hotel Saga, as does crooner Ragnar Bj arna-
son, currently entertaining the Icelandic-Ameri-
can society in New York, and Omar Ragnarsson,
natural comedian of explosive energy, kindles
most special event gatherings.
Only three spots feature imported entertain-
ment. Sigtun’s manager, Sigmar Petursson says
business has never been so good since he intro-
duced striptease to Iceland. Four years ago when
he became owner of the restaurant, he imported
singers, acrobats, dancers, guitarists, and a ma-
gician, but as one devaluation followed another,
the audience shrank. Now with his sixth stripper,
he reports complete satisfaction. His girls are
always anxious to come, cost no more than con-
ventional artists and report themselves as pleased
and satisfied with life in Iceland. The statement
of one such showgirl that she found the local
audience unnerving because she was used to per-
forming before middle-aged spectators and ap-
preciative noises instead of wide-eyed, silent
teenagers was not wholly true, says Sigmar
because that particular girl was interviewed after
only one performance. Entrants to Sigtun must be
identified as being 20 years old, but patrons are
rarely over thirty, he says, and usually single.
Sigtun’s girls come through a London agent and
are booked for a month each. “Business is very
good. I have no rivals,” says Sigmar.
At the Hotel LoftleiSir, Emil GuSmundsson
provides a different sort of entertainment: sing-
ers, dancers, comedians, and special acts from all
countries, provided from agents in Paris and
Amsterdam.
“Since the last two devaluations, airfares and
accommodations have become prohibitive,” he
says. “The only reason we manage is that the
LoftleiSir airlines owns the hotel. Artists wanting
to reach the United States or Europe stop over
in Iceland and perform for three weeks. In return
they get their fare free, accommodations free,
and are taken on various sightseeing tours.
One of our most popular people wais an
Egyptian belly-dancer who came for a week
last April by arrangement with the United Arab
airlines. We served Egyptian food that week and
it Was a great success. Later we had a Bulgarian
week with Lea Ivanova and Eddy Kasassian’s
band. We are planning a Finnish Week in January
on an exchange basis with Cabaret Fennia in
Helsinki, to which we are to send Icelandic artists
and cooks. Popular single entertainers have been
the American jazz singer, Johnny Barracuda,
who introduced sing-alongs and has been very
popular on his three visits, and U.S. folk-singer,
Terry Ber, plus singers and dancers from Mexico
and Spain, very popular since so many Icelanders
have been travelling to Spain. From November
26 to December 22 the Les Gaisei roller skaters
will appear. From December 26 to January 26th,
Duo Novak, the Russian Cossack dancers will
perform as well as the Finnish week entertainers.
Afterwards comes Joe Dawkins, a U.S. Negro
singer who has been in Sweden for the last two
years.
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