Some still function, providing stages for tours by the Colon companies and foreign performers.

Arguably the most popular of all these foreign performers was found by Branson himself, albeit quite by chance.

Was he a big enough name to bypass the usual restrictions on foreign performers?

While some foreign performers seem willing to cut loose most of their roots to reach the lucrative American market, others carry their traditions with them.

Similar considerations, if put less bluntly, were behind cancellations by several foreign performers over the past year.

Any further decision would still have to be ratified either by the 79-member council or by the union's committee on foreign performers.

"I wish we could get even 5 percent of the bookings going to foreign performers."

His early hiring efforts frequently drew puzzled looks from foreign performers.

In China, censorship and extreme government scrutiny of film and television mean a few added hurdles for the foreign performer.

Blue was nominated for the best foreign performer of the year at the 2003 Venus convention in Berlin.