Mary Arnold - Sting 1980

Around 1979 I became and ecdysiast fan. Ecdysiast, meaning stripper was coined in 1940 by H.L. Mencken. The place to see these wonders was at a bar called The Number 5 Orange. One of my faves was a 5ft tall bomb called Little Mary. She had a voice that could fill the cavernous Vancouver Coliseum without any loudspeakers. She liked to appear with leg warmers, but what enamoured me to her, was her preference of music. She danced to my then favourite new song by The Police called Message in a Bottle. 

In 1980 The Police came to Vancouver and I photographed Sting at the then Hotel Denman.

I photographed The Police twice after that. The last time they came to Vancouver was 28 May, 2007 and they knew me. In particular I connected with Andy Summers who was and is a fine photographer. I gave him a roll of the sharpest film ever made, Kodak Technical Pan. Because they knew of my liking for their song Message in a Bottle they gave me a strangely shaped 45rpm record with the song on both sides. One was a never-before-recorded live version.

28 May 2007

 Now, all these years later, my fave song of Sting’s Englishman in New York.

Little Mary has been my friend since. This coming week I am taking her to an ecdysiast reunion.