Unwelcome in America

Mon, 31 Jul 2000 21:00:00 +0000

Two cops and two City Hall employees shuffle, almost timidly, into the Kensington Welfare Rights Union; by now, it's a familiar drill. The KWRU, as it's called, is headquartered in a row house not far from a North Philadelphia neighborhood infamously dubbed "The Badlands," which serves as a dependable junket stop for Ted Koppel and his "Nightline" crew whenever they want to report on the city's thriving heroin trade. The KWRU house would be indistinguishable from adjacent structures -- their tilting roofs and defaced facades forming a tawdry necklace against the city's skyline -- were it not for the large "UNWELCOME IN AMERICA" sign plastered across the front door.

It might be a familiar drill, but the cops and the City Hall reps are on Cheri Honkala's turf, and goddamn if she's going to let them forget it. Honkala, the 37-year-old director of KWRU, a woman whose diminutive frame and girly manicure belie her propensity for battle, gestures the cops to join her and a couple of KWRU volunteers at their conference table.

Bombshells away

Wed, 19 Jul 2000 19:00:00 +0000

To understand why Mamie Van Doren is who she is and how she has held on to what she was, we first must examine the breasts. Lordy, those breasts. Fashioned by God and fondled by Elvis. Born during the New Deal and bloomed during Nagasaki. Coaxed Howard Hughes out of reclusion. Got action in the back seats of cars America hasn't made in half a century. Even brought down the house in Vietnam. Bigger than Marilyn's, more buoyant than Jayne Mansfield's -- and they're still here.

Boy, are they still here -- even though it's been decades since Mamie Van Doren was on Hollywood's A-list of pinup girls and B-list of movie starlets. They were showcased in a string of drive-in quickies and sexploitation films throughout the '50s, including "Sex Kittens Go to College" (subtitled "You Never Saw a Student Body Like This!") and "Untamed Youth" ("Youth Turned Rock 'n' Roll Wild and the Punishment Farm that Makes Them Wilder!") They were just about the only facet of Van Doren's career that stayed afloat during the '60s. They've outlasted -- she's outlasted -- not only her fellow '50s bombshells but the leading men who pursued them: Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, even Rock Hudson (who, she claims, left a Clinton-esque stain on her dress).

Salon.com > Karen Abbott

Unwelcome in America

Bombshells away