4
Friday, February 13, 1976
University Daily Kansan
Arts & Entertainment
Learning about life
Hashinger Theatre's production of "Dandelion Wine" is a reader's theater interpretation of Ray Bradbury's book about a young boy's summer of growing up in New York. The play will be shown at 10am on Thursday, June 9.
City, Mo. . sophomore; Kathy Horstman, Kansas M. Junior; Nell
Stevens, senior; Mary Lakey, Leewood M. junior; and Elsie Orr.
Chesterfield, M. junior.
Staff Writer
Jazz joint really jives
By BILL UYEKI
You might consider Paul Gray's Jazz Place, 928 N. Magnolia Avenue, for a nighttime entertainment. There you can still quench that raging thirst and, at the same time, listen to some thundering screams from his house.
Picture yourself on a Saturday night, ready for a party. You can share a few beers with able some friends, and you're thumbling through your memory for tonight's ideal
GRAY IS A SHORT, chuky, quiet-mastered • Lawrence businessman and KU alumnus who owns the music store below the building. He resembles a mustachioed Danny Thomas. But put a trumpet in his hands and surround him with a Gaslight Gang Band, and suddenly he is on the great Satchme himself.
The Gaslight Gang's music is foot-tapping, hand-clapping melodies, tinged with a taste of boogie. The sound is big-band sounds. With able
Nah, you don't want to be bombarded by a blaring jukebox again, and losing at it. You are awfully expensive, right?
The band consists of KU alumni ranging from the class of '40 to the class of '75. The Gang's members play with a sense of informality and often resort to amusing stage antics, as well as singing. This is a steady rapport between the band members and their listeners, whose ages range from 18 to 80.
brass and woodwind sections, a steady drummer and a lively pianist plunking away on a semit-battered old upright piano. For future projects tunes shoots vividly and contains gusto.
Rather than performing carefully rehearsed tunes, the band accepts requests enthusiastically. In addition to bringing the crowd into the act, this necessitates impromptu singing and dancing, creating a mood of spontaneity—the true spirit of jazz.
SATURDAY NIGHTS are reserved for the Gaslight Gang but other jazz bands are available. At Thursday and Friday nights,
Guest artists seem to float in and out at will. Gray joined the trifor a few numbers, as did one of his waitresses, Jayne Casselman, when she wasn't tending bar.
Other frequent guests include Mike White, a part-time
HUSKY TRUMPETER Jim Sellards, who has led horn sections with such well-known bands as斯曼 Kenton's and Doc Severison's, was the guest artist last Saturday night.
clinester and Jackson County, Mo., executive, and Skip DeVol, a fine bajo player from Las Vegas. DeVol, a former KU student, is scheduled to appear at Gray's Feb. 27 and 28.
The play, Hashinger Theatre's first spring production tells the story of Spoella, a old boy who, during the course of a summer, becomes aware of death and his own mortality.
The setting is a small Illinois town in 1928.
The entertainment isn't limited only to the stage. The Gang also performed some spirited offstage dancing to the band's tunes, dances, eliciting smiles and cheers from a surprised audience.
Walking through downtown Lawrence, one can sense the good time jazz in the midst of storefronts. The club's second floor windows shake with each resounding note. It can now be entered from Massachusetts, as well, but they may have to place in find the first time, but if you're like most, you'll soon know the way to the jazz lovers' showcase in downtown Lawrence.
"The show tries to encompass all the different ways of
Gray's club has been open since last January. Thanks to some recent additions, the club has expanded its seating capacity to accommodate the large Saturday night crowds.
Hashinger Hall Theatre will present a reader's theater adaptation of Ray Bradbury's *8 tonight and tomorrow.*
'Dandelion Wine' opens Hashinger's spring season
"The setting will be neutral enough that it will help the
growing old and the different ways of being young," Jeff Kuykendall, director, said this week.
The play will contain no action and very little pantomime, Kuyenkendall said. Instead, the actors would use images with their voices.
"It's a very high-energy play," he said. "Readers' theater runs a great deal on the skills needed to energy the actors can project."
audience to concentrate on the actors and experience the emotions of the characters. It will require the audience to actually be a part of what's happening on stage."
The cast members are Susan Darigo, University City, Mo., sophomore; Kathy Horstman, Kansas City, Mo., junior; Mary Lakey, Leawood junior; Debbi Neil Muhlberger, Tuska, Okla.; senior; and Elsie Orr, Chesterfield, Mo., junior.
Hearts and Minds' brings pain to both
Bv CHUCK SACK
Reviewer
When "Hearts and Minds" won the Academy Award for Best Documentary last year, the film itself was almost obscured by the furor over the acceptance speech and the Academy's hasty, predictable disclaimer to that speech.
"Hearts and Minds," an examination of the origins and
How comforting it was to muse about the "inappropriate political statement" or "Frank Sinatra's reading of the song "A Moment in Time" without bothering with the film that prompted it all.
effects of the Vietnam war, is the most painful film that I have ever seen.
It's painful in its images of American Vietnam veterans, from bitter paraplegics to bewildered pilots to brave men who lost their lives whom seek to salvage some meaning from their experience.
It's painful in its recollections of the worn ideas and too familiar faces that got this country into the Vietnam "conflict" and couldn't extract us.
The title comes from President Lyndon Johnson's
1964 statement that "the ultimate victory will depend on the hearts and minds of the people who live out there." But the film is probing the hearts and minds of the Americans who lived through that period, both at home and "out there."
Director Peter Davis, best known for CBS's controversial 1972 documentary, "The Selling of the Pentagon," gathers material from almost every conceivable source. There are several stories in this book: "This Is the Army" and "The Road to Hong Kong," segments from TV newsreels, shots of every President from Truman
to Nixon and even a scene of Bob Hope's gaffe at Nixon's White House dinner for the movie "Alive" and like! A captive audience."
But the film is much more revealing when Davis and his crew interview Vietnam vets who were new to the same nascivi families such as the old coffinmaker who lamentes the deaths of his seven daughters. And there is some searing new footage, such as the remarkable scenes of political and banking activity at the Sao Tome Country Club.
"Hearts and Minds" was not awarded an Oscar for its
politics, and the incident at the Awards was unfortunate because it gave the film a propagandistic aura that the film is carefully at play. The film's style is to question, not to preach.
A former pilot responds to the inquiry "Do you think we learned from this experience by saying 'think we’re trying hard not to.'"
In context, it's one of many truly moving scenes in "Hearts and Minds," and I cried. For the greatest pain is caused by the unresolved conflict that confronts the unresolved past in order to turn to the future.
Area moviegoers patronize avant-garde films
Entertainment Co-Editor
BY MARY ANN HUDDLESTON
Movieguers in Lawrence may be an untapped reservoir of support for experimental, high artistic quality.
Although most of the movies shown here by SUA and commercial theatres have already proved successful at the box office, some lesser known and less well-known films have done well financially.
"Hearts and Minds," a documentary about the Vietnam war, opened Wednesday at the Lucille Ball Center in week, "Lacombe, Lucien," a French film directed by Louis Malle, made a profit, according to Elden Harwood, local manager of the Commonwealth theatres.
The Commonwealth Amusement Corp. operates the five commercial theatres in Lawrence.
DURING THE FALL
SEMESTER, Commonwealth
Singer, and
Songwriter,
The Phantom of the
high quality films that weren't
box office winners. Both made
money, Harward said, although
the film was not a major hit.
"We issued the challenge while the iron was hot," Harwood said, "and a great many people to see it."
Harwood he had scheduled "The Passenger" in response to a story by Chuck Wagoner and film series chairman, that appeared in the Kansan last fall. The movie had been a commercial bomb across the country but was acclaimed by critics.
Approximately 1,400 saw "The Passenger" during the week it ran in Lawrence.
"The Phantom of Liberte" played the first week in December.
Harwood said. He said it had made enough of a profit for him to bring other movies of the same type.
THE ADVERTISEMENT for it was addressed to those who had seen "The Passenger." It said, "You've earned it you care enough. 100 of you care enough about this type of film to buy a ticket, we
Ed Ruhe, professor of English, said he thought an audience could be developed for a film about "entertainment" by frequent showing of good films. The University environment, with its concern for quality, would nurture development possible, he said.
The SUA film series is considered by many to be the best vehicle for bringing artistic movies to Lawrence because
If only 1,000 of you care enough about this type of film to buy a ticket, we will make sure that you have the films
will make sure that you have the films to see."
Only about 800 saw "Phantom,
Only" Hartwood, said, even though it was considered artistically better than "The Passenger. He said he had been little bit better than breaking on it.
FACULTY AND STUDENTS at the University who were interviewed said there was a need for high quality, artistic movies.
Harwood estimated that 800 attended "Lacombe, Lucien," which he said was enough to put him "barely in the black."
However, Harwood said he had scheduled several more films for this spring, including "Magic Flute," Ingmar Bergman's version of the Mozart opera of the same name.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
"I think it's a wide open market and it can be developed," he said of the demand for artistic films. We continue showing them as we don't run into the red ink."
Published at the University of Kansas weekdays
and Sunday afternoons; Sunday and Friday late-
day periods posted on postage tape at Law-
rence Public Library; Monday through Thursday
seemer or $14 in Durham County and $10 a
week from Durham County. The minimum
inquiries are $25 and a semester paid through
the university's office.
In spite of the dedicated fans in high quality, artistic films, Harwood and all but one of the chairmen for the five SUA film series, they have selected selections of movies primarily on a film's past success.
Business Manager
Rosy Parris
HARWOOD SAID he booked all box office successes automatically and many movies that were borderline realist of his choices are a matter of judgment, he said.
Editor Carl Young
SUA is less concerned with making a profit than commercial theaters are.
"I think we have a responsibility to fill all the audience needs," he said, "the bounds of good business judgment," he said. "We try to cultivate new audiences but we publicly hold corporation."
Steve Benjamin, SUA board member in charge of films, said he had seen "an overwhelming more careful this year in their selection of films, staying mainly with movies that had a well known title, actors or actors."
THE FIRST CONSIDERATION is how many people will want to see a movie, and why good a movie is artistically.
Each chairman goes through catalogs of available films and relies on his own memory of those films, he said.
Film Society, said his series had concentrated on foreign films. He said he based his choices on well known titles and interspersed those with big-name directors.
"We keep the unknowns to a minimum," he said. "We don't want to take a chance on too many of them."
Steve Lewis, chairman of the
According to Benjamin, SUA films are doing very well. In the past the Popular series, which have been supported the other series, he said, but this year the crowds during the week have been "phenomenon. Only one or two of them have been the cost of the film, he said.
STEVE SCHMIDT, chairman of the Special Film series, said that most successful of the weekly series in terms of attendance and profit. During the fall he showed mainly science fiction
"1984," made the largest gross of any of its films, at $21.25 million. "Air," a 1996 film that ran seven minutes, was shown on TV.
The cost of film rental we
$27.50 for "1984" and $6 for the
short. Incidental costs, for
"Personna" was the most successful showing. Attendance was 488 and the film grossed $300. Film rental was $150, or 50 per cent of the box office income.
Reasons given for improved attendance varied
DeForest said she thought he had simply happened to bring movies people wanted to see. LEWIS SAID he had noticed many new faces attending the Film Society, whereas in past years he only attended all the showings. He attributed the increase, however, to the overall increase in University enrollment.
Schmidt attributed his success to a current interest in science fiction films and the fact that there hadn't been a science fiction series for a few years.
Stu McDonald, chairman of the Popular Film series, said, "I'd like to think that college crowds were more refined and distinguished in their tastes, but that's not true."
"I wouldn't want to say it was due to some overall enlightenment on the part of the film, audience." he said.
Whether film audiences in Lawrence are more conscious
shipping, projectionists, ticket sellers and publicers, haven't been taken out of the gross profits.
I'd like to think that college crowds were more refined and distinguished in their tastes, but that's not true.
Complete financial figures for fall haven't been computed yet, said Kathryn Gile, assistant programs for the Kansas Union.
Beverly DeForest, chairman of the Classical Film series, said she had made money on all her films and that "Street Nearad Desire" was the most successful, drawing a crowd of 500. The movie grossed $341.25 Film rental, however. A third of the classical films: $125 or 60 percent of the box office gross, whichever figure was greater.
THE FILM SOCIETY'S
of the quality of a film is debatable, but Harwood and the film chairmen said they had noticed changes in the types of movies audiences were coming to see.
WHEN THE HILCRESST theatres opened, Harwood said, they ran several art films. They were quite successful at first but soon declined off. He attributed much of the art films' initial success to interest generated by a former faculty, Dick McCann.
people used to come to the movies two or three times a week, no matter what was on," he said. "Now is they don't want to see a movie you can't give it away. A good quality picture of
any type can be a box office winner."
Benjamin said he had noticed changes in audience interest in SUA films.
"I think audiences today are more sophisticated in what they watch," he said. "They have an eye for the art in a film. They are attending foreign films and they used to stay away from."
McDonald said the changes he saw were in the types of movies coming to campus. For instance, the film "Anti-war film," was more
popular a few years ago than it is now, he said.
However, there seems to be quite a market for X-rated movies common among Iranian Vikers. The week after “Phantom of Liberate,” Harwool said that on the night it opened, the other four theaters combined grossed 10 million dollars of what “Super Vikers” made.
The University community is the main source of patronage for high quality films, he said. "Without it I wouldn't even attempt to run one of these films," he said.
McDonald said, "The students here are lucky. They get to see things they don't get in Kansas City. SUA can bring unique, arty and controversial but profitable movies. The fact that the movie makes much money says something for the audience here."
Harwood said, "I've made an attempt from time to time to create interest in this. This is where the future of the industry lies. You can leave the pop stuff out and use the dusty to make better pictures although it's a long way from being the art form it should be."
Highlights
Concerts
TED NUGENT AND HEAD EAST—Heavy metal rock 'n' roll, with high volume and high volume underground guitarists. With Nugent are the Amboy Dukes, Head East, a bassist from Boca Raton. Muad had their most recent hit, "Never Been Any Reason." (8:30 tomorrow in Hoch
This Week's
Exhibits
Theater
(Feb. 16 through March 5 in the Kansas Union Gallery)
(Through March at the Museum of Art)
DANDELION WINE—A reader's theater adaptation of Brad Ray Bardstaff's book about one
PAINTING AND SCULP-
FACULTY Members in the
department of painting and
sculpture will exhibit a variety
THE REDISCOVERY OF THE ARCHITECTURE AND drawings of 19th century American architecture. influence of the Middle Ages.
Recitals
summer in the life of a 12-year old boy. He learns to come to grips with mortality, especially his own.
(8 tonight and tomorrow night in Hashinger Hall Theatre)
(8 p.m. Wednesday in Swarthout Recital Hall)
Films
(8 p.m. Monday in Swarthout Recital Hall)
VISITING ARTIST—Ann Kocseli, pianist, will perform selections from Bach, Schumann, Beethoven and Barber.
VIVA LA MUERTE—A story
FACULTY RECITAL-
Howard Boyajian, professor of stringed instruments, will play selections by Bach, Hindemith and Schumann on the violin, and Schumann by piano and harpichord.
MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS—Sidney Lumet's flat direction, Gadfrey Uner's sharpness and the hammy performances of the cast badly mar this mystery. Agatha Christie's tale could still almost carry the film without it, and weren't so busy being art.
about a 10-year-old boy during
a mother denounces his father to
the Pascists. The boy's
mother violent dreams
dominate
NO DEPOSIT, NO RETURN
you kid become a
live-action. Disney feature
comes complete with a social message, indicating that the Disney studio is taking its first
BREAKHEART PASS-A-
WAR
MacCluskey's novel, Starring
Charles Bronson, Jill Ireland,
Ben Johnson, Richard Creena
ROYAL FLASH-George Fraser MacDonald's scoundrel in Richard Lester. The flair and slapstick of "The Three Musketeers" toward his prospective adversary "How I Won the War," and not even Malcolm McDowell, who very uncomfortable can help,
BARRY LYNDON-Stanley Koberch made the most convincing move all time, but whether it is an ironic and literate masterpiece or a boring and constipated play deba Starring Rary O'Neal.