EXT. LAKE GENEVA AREA COUNTRYSIDE - DAY
DANA is out riding horses with a close friend, PETER, and
confidant in the Lake Geneva area countryside when she gets
the idea to set up an ARABIAN HORSE FARM.
DANA (V.O.)
More than anything, more than
putting the Sugar Shack on the map,
I had always dreamed of developing
my own horse farm. One day out
riding with my good friend and
confidant, Peter, I shared my
dream. Discussing what it would
take to make it happen, I realized
it had to be an Arabian horse farm.
That was a big-time business.
Arabians can range in price up to
$1,000,000. To make such a farm
work financially you had to be an
expert in breeding, training,
showing, and selling the prized
animals. Peter shared my deep
regard for the breed, we both felt
Arabians were among God’s most
beautiful and inspiring creatures.
On that day my SUGAR LEGACY ARABIAN
FARM was born.
PETER
Dana, if you really want this, I
know we can make it happen. I'll be
with you every step of the way.
DANA
I don't know...it would be a big
financial commitment.
PETER
Dana, it’s risky but you’re a
first-rate businesswoman. Look at
what you’ve done with the Sugar
Shack.
DANA (V.O.)
Encouraged by Peter’s support and
enthusiasm, I decided to take the
next step. The excitement had just
begun. First, we had to find a
choice piece of property. Late one
spring night I was driving down
Highway 50 with Peter when
something in my gut had me pull
over.
EXT. LAKE GENEVA AREA ROAD
Dana and Peter are driving down Highway 50 when suddenly
Dana pulls the car over. Dana falls in love with the
property, she tracks down the owner, and though he's not
eager to sell, eventually he does.
PETER
Hey Dana, what are you doing?
DANA
Over there...look, Peter, it’s our
farm! Look at all the rolling hills
and meadows.
DANA (V.O.)
Finding the owner was the easy
part. Persuading him to sell, not
so much. The acreage had been in
the man’s family for generations,
but I went to work on him and over
a period of seven months I
eventually wore him down and he
finally signed papers on the 200
acres. After a brief celebration,
Peter and I chose the location for
the barn overlooking the property,
with a heavily wooded area in the
distance on a ridge. One day I was
riding my mare, Lilly, to that
wooded area. Looking back I could
see the workmen raising the frame
for the barn. I reached down
stroking Lilly’s mane and said
softly, 'This is where I’m going to
build our home.'
From a little girl falling in love with a circus PONY, and
later when a boyfriend bought Dana her first horse, and
later as a Playboy Bunny she bought her first Arabian
stallion, Cass, which led to Dana's Arabian horse farm, and
later morphs into ANIMAL GARDENS, following that, a new
trainer taught the farm horses to dance to music and the
DANCING HORSES, her Las Vegas style stage show came into
being and is still entrancing Lake Geneva area audiences
year after year.
DANA (V.O.)
With the Sugar Shack a success, and
after developing The Sugar Legacy
Arabian Farm, I wasn't finished.
The farm eventually evolved into my
family-friendly petting zoo, Animal
Gardens, and that was followed by
the launch of a Las Vegas style
equestrian spectacle, The Dancing
Horses! I’d been in love with
horses since childhood. I was five
the day I was put on one at a pony
ride, an attraction down by the
Lake Como shore in the summer. What
an amazing feeling! My family spent
much of the summer at our cottage
in Lake Como so I ended up hanging
out all day at the ride. The owner
let me walk the ponies and do other
chores. A few years later I was in
my teens and dating a sweet boy
named, Johnny, who bought a horse
and said I could ride it, which I
did every time I came to Lake Como.
Again, some years later, when I was
a successful Bunny at the Chicago
Playboy Club, I bought Cass, my
first horse, an Arabian stallion. I
kept him at a farm and rode him
whenever I could. It was at the
Sugar Legacy Arabian Farm where I
showed and bred horses and it was
there that the flash of inspiration
came for The Dancing Horses—a way
to present my love of horses to the
world. A trainer named Laura Amadis
joined the staff at the farm. She’d
worked with horses in the circus.
She decided to surprise me on my
birthday by training my favorite
Arabian stallion, Baskin-Robbins,
to do a circus routine to music!
After saying she had a special
present for me, we went down to the
round indoor arena which was 60’ x
60’ and ornately enclosed in
beautiful large stained glass
windows. The music started, Baskin
came out and performed a liberty
dance, reared up on his hind legs,
spun and twirled, and all to the
moving melodies playing in the
background. I cried.
DANA
Laura, can you train other horses
to do similar things?
LAURA
Why, yes, of course, what did you
have in mind?
DANA
I want to put a show together that
will reach into the hearts of the
audience and stir them to realize
their dreams.
LAURA
I'm with you, Dana...let's get to
work!
Dana moved the Dancing Horses to Animal Gardens and built a
year-round ARENA and for the show's title Dana picked, THE
POWER OF A DREAM. My prize stallion, BASKIN-ROBBINS, passed
before I opened The Dancing Horses, but all his sons,
daughters, grandsons, and granddaughters are featured in the
show.
DANA (V.O.)
My original plan was to present the
show to the public at the Sugar
Legacy Arabian Farm, but fate
intervened and I moved the
operation to the location of a
horseback riding stables where I'd
developed Animal Gardens, a
family-friendly petting zoo, and
later, there I built the arena for
The Dancing Horses with public
shows beginning a year later. The
show's title, The Power of a Dream,
has been crafted to evoke memories
that many of us have from
childhood, in particular promoting
the theme; Where Will Your Dreams
Take You? The vision has been
beautifully choreographed around
our unique venue by a talented team
of artistic and technical
professionals and performers. My
prize stallion, Baskin-Robbins,
passed before I opened The Dancing
Horses, but all his sons,
daughters, grandsons, and
granddaughters are featured in the
show. The horses were taught to do
certain routines while I’d pick the
music and fit them into the overall
theme. The full production evolved
over time with concert-quality
sound, stunning lighting, and
thematic projections onto a large
screen, all woven together to
immerse the audience into a surreal
fantasy focusing on a theme of
Realizing your Dreams. And to
think, it all began back at the
Sugar Shack on that fateful day,
March 15, 1976, the first ever
showing of male exotic dancing
which eventually in 1979 evolved
into a powerful iconic symbol used
to fuel the American Feminist
Movement.
INT. SUGAR SHACK - MARCH 15, 1976
Dana leaves the stage and reenters the dressing room to
reassure GUY and LARRY that everything will be alright
during this, the FIRST EVER anywhere public appearance of
male exotic dancers.
The crowd is resoundingly receptive to Elliot's show.
Dana looks out on the stage from behind the curtain and a
reflective mood overcomes her face. A male dancer is on
stage going through various stages of his performance as
Dana summarizes her remarkable rise to fame as the innovator
who turned the tables on the sexual exploitation of women in
the erotic entertainment field, thus launching the next
significant phase of progress for the American Feminist
Movement.
DANA (V.O.)
Elliot, Guy, Larry, and the concept
of male exotic dancing were
accepted enthusiastically by a
population of American women who
had worked for and were ready to
enjoy the same opportunities for
sexual fantasy fulfillment that
have always been available to men.
The Sugar Shack experience grew
into a national phenomenon in 1979
when the Chicago Sun-Times ran a
full-page feature article. Titled
"Naughty Night-Life" the story was
syndicated across the country and
the publicity started an avalanche
of media attention. Articles in
national magazines, guest
appearances on national talk shows,
interviews on radio and for
countless newspapers followed.
Calls for reservations began
immediately and we were booked
solid for months. Other dancers
followed the brave men who launched
our bold entertainment adventure.
Among the best were Robert Cochise,
D.J. Adonis--my son, and Paul Czar.
Yes, fame and fortune found the
Sugar Shack and my name became well
known, but my real reward came each
time I saw the joy on the faces of
the women who found a new sense of
sexual, personal, and social
dignity because of the Sugar Shack
experience. During the '90s
interest in male exotic dancing
waned, the Sugar Shack shifted to
female exotic entertainment while
continuing to present the original
Sugar Shack experience on the
weekends. During the '90s I began
to develop my Dancing Horses review
which was presented daily at my
theme park, Animal Gardens in Lake
Geneva before being invited to take
The Dancing Horses on the road to
Las Vegas for an extended series of
performances. The preparations were
intense. Once again, however, fate
intervened.
INT. LAS VEGAS DANCING HORSES INDOOR ARENA
After a brief shot of the Las Vegas Hotel marquee listing
the grand opening of The Dancing Horses, move inside with DJ
ADONIS is holding his GRANDSON and standing next to his
mother, Dana, as he assists her into her chair, unable to
speak because of a recent stroke which also left her
paralyzed on her right side, but present for the grand
opening of her Las Vegas Dancing Horses extravaganza.
D.J.
Ma, are you alright? Can I get you
anything?
Dana shakes her head indicating she is okay.
D.J.
(continuing)
Let me take your cane. Just sit
back now and enjoy the results of
all your hard work.
After three years in preparation, the house lights dim, a
huge VIEWING SCREEN comes to life projecting a message for
all in the AUDIENCE to FOLLOW THEIR DREAMS.
During the introduction, the first EQUESTRIAN ACT explodes
into the arena and is greeted with a spectacular LIGHT SHOW
supported with the musical theme from Star Wars as the
BROTHERS and SISTERS descended from the patriarch of the
Arabian line, stallion Baskin-Robbins, gallop into the
arena.
DJ looks at his grandson, then, down at his incapacitated
mother who was once such a strong, vital, driving, and
demanding woman, and sits down.
INT LAS VEGAS DANCING HORSES INDOOR ARENA
Scenes continue showing brief segments from the successive
acts in the performance leading the the closing act.
A loud flashy pyrotechnic display signals the spectacular
finale of the premier performance of The Dancing Horses Las
Vegas Show and the sound of the explosions brings Dana back
to the present.
The seven Brothers and Sisters sired by Dana's original
Arabian stallion, Baskin-Robbins, are prancing along a
walkway in front of the audience.
As the show ends, Dana looks up at her son for the last
time, DJ, with a tear in her eye, closes her eyes, and just
before dying drifts back in time again seeing herself first
as a child standing in awe of a police horse in Chicago,
then as a little girl riding a pony for the first time in
Lake Como, and finally as a young woman riding
Baskin-Robbins, her Arabian stallion, off into the beautiful
rolling countryside of her ranch in Lake Geneva into a kind
of heavenly pasture.
THE END OF DANCING STALLIONS LIMITED TV SERIES EPISODE 10
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