Crazy Horse strip club draws ire over name

modbee ^ | 10-14-04

[LouAvul]

SIOUX FALLS, South Dakota (AP) - Descendants of the storied American Indian warrior Crazy Horse want an upscale Paris strip club to stop using his name, saying it's disrespectful to him and his offspring. The nightclub, Crazy Horse Paris, was established in 1951 and is well-known for adult entertainment similar to that featured at casinos in Las Vegas. It's located near the Champs-Elysees, the Seine River and the Pont de l'Alma bridge, where Lady Diana was killed.

Crazy Horse was an Oglala Sioux warrior known for fighting the U.S. military in the 1800s. One of his descendants and an executor of his estate, Harvey White Woman, has written club owners, asking that they change the name.

He said the request was prompted by an HBO cable television special that featured the club and its dancers wearing what looked to be feathered headdresses, a revered native symbol.

"I saw the name and I said, 'That's not right.' When you say the name Crazy Horse, you don't conjure up nightclubs. You conjure up the warrior," he said in a telephone interview from his home in Kyle on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

White Woman said he decided to write the club before taking legal action, something Crazy Horse's descendants have done in the past.

[Bandaneira]

It's better than calling a strip club, "Sitting Bull"

[Xenalyte]

Well, I'll be damned.

[Cooter]

I've been to the original in Paris and the show was quite a spectacle.

[Mr. Jeeves]

From the pictures on the Crazy Horse web site, it looks like the two shows are almost identical - right down to the layout of the theater and the stage. Same dance numbers, same costumes, same lighting.

[stand watie]

welcome.

free dixie,sw

[HarryDog]

I was stationed 60 miles from Paris in 1959-1960. Of course I went to Paris at least once a month. I attended shows in clubs large and small. I think they all had ladies in feathered head dress. Last time in Paris was 1993 the show at The Opera had dancers in head dress.

[monday]

"Really. Good for them. If this were about Vegas, that might be relevent."

See post 106. Your speculation that the feathered headdresses used in the shows at Crazy Horse in Paris refer to American Indian culture is stupid.

[Chad Fairbanks]

See post 106. Your speculation that the feathered headdresses used in the shows at Crazy Horse in Paris refer to American Indian culture is stupid.

What speculation? It's a fact. The Crazy Horse in Paris was named after an American Indian - they admit that. So, it makes sense to conclude that feathered headdresses are also borrowed from American Indians.

The truth isn't stupid. So get over it and move on.

[monday]

"The French government isn't above trampling on a minority group when it suits them."

I suspect this case will be more about trademark law than minority rights. I also think they, unfortunately, probably have a case. If someone were to name a strip club after your grandfather, you could probably demand that they pay you royalties for the right to continue using the name as well.

That is most likely why none of the owners of the Crazy Horse is willing to comment right now. I suspect they will come to some sort of settlement.

[Geronimo]

I want a strip club...

[monday]

"So, it makes sense to conclude that feathered headdresses are also borrowed from American Indians."

only to you

[rintense]

Just found out yesterday that my high school changed mascots from the Indians to the Bengals. How lame.

[Chad Fairbanks]

That is pretty lame. Unless one is a Left-wing AIM-style activist, the rest of us really have no problem with team names like that (some mascots go over the line of common decency, though, but that's a whole nother thang)

[Chad Fairbanks]

Only to me, and the people who run Crazy Horse in Paris.

You're the only one who's not seeing it...

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Perhaps they should change the name to "Crazy Whores".

[monday]

"Only to me, and the people who run Crazy Horse in Paris."

They don't wear "Indian feathered headdresses" at the Crazy Horse. They wear "show girl feathered headdresses" just like all the other show girl cabarets whether in Las Vegas or Paris. Their feathered headdresses have nothing to do with Chief Crazy Horse or American Indians. Actually I believe you are "the only one who's not seeing it."

[Old Professer]

You shoulda tried the $1.00/gallon Dago Red we used to buy on the sly.

[Chad Fairbanks]

The Showgirl Feathered Headdresses are different. Those are not Indian ones, as you so correctly point out. We have no disagreement on that at all.

However, when the headdresses in question are of an American Indian Style 9which I have seen) then one can obviously see the influence.

One question remains, however, and that is - where did the "fashion" of showgirls wearing feathered Headdresses originate, and how? - and what's with the rinestone bikinis? ;0)