Word: czechoslovak
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...lucrative deal was among hundreds struck in the past few years in a booming sector of East-West trade: the hawking of East European talent to the West for cash or merchandise. Polish soccer goalies, Czechoslovak hockey forwards and East German handball coaches are only part of the business. Such athletes have been joined by thousands of other performers, ranging from the likes of renowned Czechoslovak Soprano Gabriela Benachkova, a diva at the prestigious Milan and Vienna opera houses, to Hungarian gypsy bands, Polish striptease artists, Bulgarian pop singers and Rumanian high-wire circus acts. Although the East bloc governments...
Many Eastern exports are now high-profile performers, including Czechoslovakia's Smetana Quartet, a string ensemble that earns $5,000 a performance in Western cities. Czechoslovak Hockey Player Jaroslav Pouzar, 36, helped Canada's Edmonton Oilers win three Stanley Cup championships. Though most East bloc talents are more modestly gifted, Western clients are usually delighted with them. Says a Viennese cabaret manager who hires Polish dancers: "They are better trained than Westerners, work longer and cost less." A four-man Prague dance band called Bob's Combo belts out tunes in English, German and even Japanese aboard the Royal Caribbean...
...bloc countries, even mild expressions of political dissent can be enough to deny sports stars as well as rock singers a passport. By the same token, mediocre talents boasting party membership often jump to the front of the line for jobs in the West. Explains a young Czechoslovak tennis player in Prague: "Here sports and culture are all part of politics...
...fume over the sluggish official talent agencies, which routinely do little more than collect the state's fat share of hard- currency earnings. Says Jana Jonasova, 44, a soprano at Prague's National Theater who has lost up to 70% of her fee for West European engagements to the Czechoslovak Pragokoncert agency: "I have to pay a Western agent another 20% to do the work. If I didn't organize things myself, I would never appear outside Prague...
BEST NET GAIN Rubbing out more than the competition, stoical Czechoslovak Tennis Ace Ivan Lendl at last learned to smile...