University Daily Kansan
Friday, October 14. 1977
5
Kansan Photo
Dick and Ike
Dwight Eisenhower, a native Kansan, teamed with a gruff young California senator named Richard Nixon to run for the White House in 1952. Eisenhower had launched his campaign with a trip back home to Abilene, where Kansas citizens greeted him enthusiastically.
De Mille's film won top production award
The movie industry had a hard act to follow in 1962.
The year 1861 had stunning performances by Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn in "The African Queen," Karl Malden and Viennigh Leigh in "A Streetcar Named Desire," Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron in "An American in Paris" and Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor in "A Place in the Sun."
Hollywood responded in its usual fashion in 1982 with Gary Cooper in "High Noon." John Wayne in "The Quiet Man" and Shirley Booth and Burt Lancaster in the movie adaptation of William Ming's hit play, "Come Back Little Sheba."
The Academy Award for best production of 1982 went to Cecil B. De Mille's film, "The Greatest Show on Earth," the story of the Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Barney Circus—clowns, elephants and all. Its huge cast included Isaac Hale, James Patterson, Gloria Grahame and Dorothy Lamour. It also received an award for best motion picture story.
BOOTH was chosen best actress of 1952 for her characterization of a loving but ignorant wife in "Sheba." In her role, she constantly reminded her husband, played by Lancaster, of oppression when she married them and he was forced to give up medical school.
The best actor of the year was Gary Cooper for "High Noon," a captivating western also nominated for best production. An Academy Award to Dimitri Tsimkin for his best musical score.
John Wayne, Mauren O'Hara, Victor McLagan and Barrry Flyttgerald gave amusing performances in "The Quet Man," and John Ford won his fourth Oscar as best director for the comic and sentimental film *Mary Poppins* (1953), received the award for best cinematography.
Another big film of 1952 was "Viva Zanata" stucco Anthony Quinn, who was
chosen best supporting actor by the
Chinese authorities, who were a
Mexican dictator Enrique Zapata.
THE MOVIE business in Lawrence was booming in 1852. There were four theaters and one drive-in: the Granda, the Patee, the St. George, the Lily and the Theatre, the Varsity and the Jayhawk.
Drawing students and townpeople to the theaters to see the latest movies were such greats as John Crawford, Bette Davis, Mickey Rooney in the Hardy series, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Gene Autry, the Marx brothers, Abbott and Costello, the Three Stooges, Debbie Reynolds, Eddie Fisher, Fred Adair, June Jelinek, Bing Crosby, Bob Hoge, Hely Landa, Gary Cooper, Esther Williams, Tyrone Power, Errol Flynn, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Broderick Crawford and Audie Murphy.
In January of '52, Murphy and two male co-stars from their new movie "The Cimarron Kid" talked with students and signed autographs in the Kansas Union lounge. About 500 students, mostly men, attended.
BRODERICK CRAWFORD appeared on stage at the Jayhawk Theatre in October.
J. D. King, local manager of the Commonwealth Theatres from 1949 through 1954, recalled that one movie very popular with students was a British film called "Light Little Island." It was one of the first British movies to come to Lawrence and was so popular because of its suggestive title, King said.
"We would bring it back about every six months," he said. "We would pack 'em in." It was in '51 or '52 when the Common Ground came out and we were Cinemascope screen and stereophonic sound. King said. Television is an up-and-coming thing in 1982, and movie producers
By DOUG PIERCE Staff Writer
See MOVIES page eight
Eisenhower in limelight in '52
In 1982, the United States was basking in post-war prosperity, Ronald Reagan and Doris Day were starring in "The Winning Team" at the Varsity Theatre and Kansas was celebrating the return of retired Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower.
The Kansas Legislature proclaimed June 4 Dwight David Eisenhower Day, and the state and Eisenhower's home town of Abilene were rolling out the red carpet for their native son, who soon would be running for President.
More than 30,000 people jammed the streets of Ablene for the homecoming ceremonies which included the dedication of the Eisenhower Museum and a speech by Eisenhower that kicked off his successful bid for the presidency.
THE HOMECOMING marked
Eisenhower in seven
ways as well as his return to civilization.
The adjustment to civilian life would take some time for Eisenhower. After his first term, he had a very difficult period.
Looking back ...25 years
Mo. Elsenhower said, "I wouldn't want to do that every day."
But to the crowd in Abine and most of America, it was as if he never had left.
but not enough to affect the election outcome.
GOV. ADIAI Stevenson of Illinois, the Democratic nominee, was seen as a threat by the anti-intellectual, Midwestern Eisenhower supporters.
After hearing Elseinwerder's Abilene address, a political opponent said, "It looks as if he's pretty much for Mother, home and heaven."
Television was coming of age in 1982, and it played a small part in the campaigns. Stevenson used the new medium, but the audience still primarily sent through the print media.
Patriotic appeal was Eisenhower's biggest asset. The question was not whether
he would carry the Midwest, but by how large a margin,
"EISENHOWER'S big appeal in Lawrence and the Midwest generally was that he was a good teacher. Richard Rancher, owner of Rancher Drugs, 921 Massachusetts St., said recently. "Large segments of mid-America were going to visit him simply because he was Gen. Ike from Kansas."
Ranay said that because of those values, Eisenhower had won the vote of many people from the start. Kansas wasn't concerned with "Eastern intellectual issues," such as ghettoes and racism, because such tonics didn't touch towns like Lawrence.
Raney said that Democratic campaign issues might have had some KU supporters,
"Some of the emotions of the candidates were lost in print," Raney said. "We couldn't know the candidates as personally in print in those days as we do today; through television. Anyway, all we watched in those days was wrestling."