MAN RAY IN TOWN SQUARE; LATE PHOTOGRAPHER FEARED ALIVE
An unidentified man claiming to be renowned Dadaist photographer and filmmaker Man Ray staged a performance art piece in Courthouse Park yesterday afternoon.
If confirmed, this would be Mr. Ray's first public appearance since his death in Paris in November, 1976.
During the course of his hour-long exhibition, the performer disco-danced with a Boston terrier and challenged the small crowd of onlookers to fence with him using Hickory Farms Beef Sticks and celery stalks. Afterwards, he distributed autographed photographs of Sally Struthers.
The famed photographer's widow, Juliet Man Ray, denied that the performer was Mr. Ray. "We're both dead. Get a life," she stated via e-mail. Mrs. Ray passed away in 1991.
Most of those present at the performance expressed serious doubt that the performer was, in fact, Man Ray. "He had the Dada thing down -- the nihilism, the deliberate absurdity and rejection of context," said Rose Perring of Clovis. "But Man Ray would be over 110 years old, plus he's dead. I doubt he would really look that good in a brassiere and galoshes."
A few, however, were convinced. One woman who asked not to be identified stated that she had no doubt. "I mean, he was doing the Hustle and reeked of 'Hai Karate' aftershave. Nobody alive after the 1970s would do that."