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Daily News | With tears and smiles, Philadelphia bids farewell to the Geator
“That’s my boy!” said Gwen Brown, who took buses and the subway from Mount Airy to get to the service. The senior citizen listened to Blavat for decades, from the time she was young. “He was the boss with the hot sauce!” Brown loved what Blavat represented: “He was for all people, all ethnicities.
He brought us together. He was a pillar in the community.”“He did so much good for Philadelphia,” said Bennett, who lives in South Philadephia. And he could“He held my hand, and we danced,” said Bennett, a little dreamily. Outside the cathedral, the Geator’s immaculate white SUV was parked. Like him, there was nothing subtle about it: festooned with giant decals of Blavat and advertisements for a local car dealership. People on the sidewalk wiped tears from their eyes and took pictures of it. A large screen set up outside scrolled through photos of Blavat, impossibly young and handsome on his wedding day; older, holding up a glass of wine; on the bike he loved to ride through Center City; posing with a young fan, always smiling. The crowd that gathered to mourn the Geator was large, and diverse, some in furs and others in hoodies, many with white hair but plenty of young people, too. A knot of Philadelphia police officers stood near Blavat’s coffin; flower arrangements were everywhere, everything from red roses to flowers dyed and formed into the shapes of records and microphones and a giant representation of Memories in Margate, the club the Geator owned and made famous for weekend dance parties.
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