Still breathless
It has been more than 40 years since Esther Williams first became
everybody's favorite bathing beauty in her water-based musicals, but
recently some of those movies, including Dangerous When Wet (1953),
Million Dollar Mermaid (1952), and Neptune's Daughter (1949), have
come up for air on video. Williams who hasn't made a film in 29 years, attributes her new
success on cassette to curiosity. ''People don't get to see live water
shows anymore,'' she says. But the wet one, 67, notes that her
legacy lives on in the sports world. ''Synchronized swimming was born
out of my movies. The mothers and coaches of today's champions were
my fans. They didn't want to swim fast; they wanted to swim pretty,
and they created a sport that's more difficult than gymnastics,
because you can't breathe under there.''
Entertainment For Married Men
Already in step with the safe-sex '90s, Playboy Home Video will
begin offering more tapes aimed at couples, starting with the October
release of The Secrets of EuroMassage. The video purports to
show Swedish, French, and German massage techniques, but it looks
more soft-core than how-to. Other sensuous how-to cassettes are in
the works. ''We're looking to create a new label called For Couples
Only,'' says Bob Friedman, president of Playboy Entertainment Group.
''It's like Playboy Goes Monogamous.''
Soupy Says
Nasty comics come and go but a pie in the face is forever, or so
believes Soupy Sales, the TV comedian whose anarchic
children's show was a hit with baby boomers more than 20 years before
Pee-wee's Playhouse. Soupy's slapstick will hit video in October when
Rhino releases The Best of the Soupy Sales Show. The tape
includes a black-and-white 1965 episode with Sammy Davis Jr. and
Frank Sinatra, and a color number with Alice Cooper from a 1979
revival of the show. Sales thinks some modern TV comics need to learn
a thing or two about their line of work. ''Cruel humor isn't funny,''
he says. ''People nowadays even resent Joan Rivers for picking on
Elizabeth Taylor. And you can't pick on the people. Roseanne Barr
wasn't funny doing ''The Star-Spangled Banner'' because she made fun
of it. She could have been so big and she blew it.''
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