Friday, May 11, 2001 | 8:50 a.m.
Chubby Checker will be twisting the night away at the Stratosphere this weekend.
The 59-year-old icon of the twist will be playing a Las Vegas showroom for the first time in about five years.
"I played Vegas lots of times in '70s, but I wasn't ready for it," said the entertainer, who shot to fame in 1960 with "The Twist." "In the '80s I was not there much. When I was, I played in the lounges. In 1995 or '96 I said if I'm not playing main rooms I'm not going to play there anymore."
Checker has had a career that spans five decades, yet he said he is frustrated by his lack of recognition -- not that people don't recognize him, but they don't recognize his importance in the world of dance.
What baby boomer hasn't danced to the twist, the pony, the fly and the shake -- some of the popular dances created by Chubby's recordings?
"A lot of things in life are taken for granted," he said. "For example, when people think of George Washington Carver, they think of peanuts and stop right there. But he did so much more.
"I have the Dr. George Washington Carver syndrome. I popularized the twist, but what about the fly, the pony and the shake?"
Checker lays claim to creating a form of dance in which the partners look at each other while moving, but don't touch.
"It's called dancing apart to the beat," he said. "Before Chubby Checker, that didn't exist."
Checker said he doesn't want to appear like an egotist, but "I made a creation and the creation has been alive since I walked onstage and did it."
Checker was born Ernest Evans in 1941 in Spring Gulley, S.C. The family later moved to Philadelphia.
He was dubbed "Chubby" by the owner of a produce store where the teenager worked briefly while in high school.
Another employer, Henry Colt (who owned a chicken store) liked the youth's voice and would set up a microphone so he could sing for shoppers.
A friend of Colt's was songwriter Kal Mann. Dick Clark asked Mann to write a song and recommend a singer for a musical Christmas card based on "Jingle Bells." Mann suggested Checker sing the song he wrote.
Clark's wife, Barbara, heard him sing and gave him the stage name Chubby Checker, a play on the name of Fats Domino.
A few months later, while a senior at South Philadelphia High School, Checker made his first record, "The Class."
Shortly before graduating he rerecorded a song written and originally recorded by Hank Ballard in 1958, "The Twist."
During his 42 years in the music business, Checker has released more than 20 albums and 40 singles. He's sold more than 250 million records and has toured the world as a performer.
Still, he said, "I'm having big problems with my fame. It seems like people are trying to discredit me and not give me the respect I deserve in the music business."
Checker said he should be playing at major showroom venues, where many of his peers perform.
"I'm glad to play at the Stratosphere," he said. "I'm in a room that is respectable."
Checker said he routinely sells out shows around the country, but still has a hard time being taken seriously.
"But forget the career," he said. "What's most important is how I look. You've got to come and see how I look after all these years. All the other guys are used up. I'm still fresh. I brag about it because I work hard to keep in shape."
Checker said he spends about 100 days on the road a year.
When he isn't performing, Checker is developing food products, such as Chubby Checker beef jerky (which he said will soon be available in Las Vegas), Chubby Checker hot dogs and Chubby Checker barbecue sauce.
"I figure everybody else (in the food business) is using my fame to make money," such as the new Pepsi product called the Twist.
"So why not me?"
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