PAGE SIX
EDITORIAL
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
SUNDAY, APRIL 28, 1940.
The Kansan Comments -- EDITORIALS LETTERS PATTER
Kiddie Reviews--Pffff!!
It's a little difficult to tell just what is in store for this immediate young generation, but not hard to forecast what is at hand for that legion of short-pantied kiddie who tortune innocent audiences with their dancing school routines. These "ain't I cute?" tikes are going to be running back to their mommies one of these nights with tomato juice streaming down their cheeks crying "Waa! that bad man in the front row threw something at me."
Now that may be a little rough on the children. These mother's little paragons of cuteness can shuffle their feet around with just a bare semblance of rhythm may be their mothers "little lamb chops," but to the average hardboiled movie goers they're just plain ham actors. Ever since Shirley Temple slipped by the movie world with her "On the good ship, Lollypop"—the way greased by a brave smile for everybody,—mothers have been making perfectly good children over into stagey jackanapes, whose posturing and wailings groan nightly from American theater goers.
Take, for example, the Granada theater the other night. A fair show—Primrose Path—was prefaced by one of the most malodorous "kiddie reviews" ever flashed upon the silver screen—it takes a heavy scent to win that honor once. For 15 minutes children of every producer, actor, camerman, and scenario writer in Hollywood pranced and prattled to immortal ooedom. They committed mayhem on every one of the audience's nerves.
As if that wasn't enough, Friday night comes, and with it another "kiddie review"—in the flesh. The children weren't so terrible—performing before sis's suitor in the family parlor they'd have been a riot. But putting them on a stage before a full house of unsuspecting, innocent customers is an unconscious attempt to destroy that sacred Christian inheritance—the love of little children. The theater's announcer suspected the audience's sentiments because he apologized with a subtle introduction that the "show" would last "only 15 minutes." It seemed hours.
This epidemic of "kiddie reviews" is a product of spring. All winter the children have been taking lessons, spending the father's hard earned money, trying to learn how to be something besides normal children. So as a graduation present they are awarded the opportunity to wrack the nerves of an audience which paid hard cash to see the "Invisible Man."
★★
Many a motorist who is modest enough at home doesn't mind blowing his own horn once he settles down behind the wheel of his automobile. A horn may be a useful instrument if properly used, but the fellow who plays a solo on it with all stops open has more than brains.
You can't blame Mr. Schwahn, the manager. He, like any other man, can not withstand the demands of a mother who thinks her child is cute. But unless he can learn to turn a kind but deaf ear to doting mothers and ambitious dancing teachers, he's going to lose the reputation of being one of the best showmen in the Middle-west. Heed our desperate plea, Mr. Schwahn—No more "kiddie reviews" pulllease.
UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS OFFICIAL BULLETIN
Vol. 37 Sunday, April 28,1940 No 138
ALPHA PHI OMEGA: There will be an important meeting of the National Service Fraternity at 4:30 to tomorrow afternoon in the Pine Room of the Union building. All members please be present.-Kenneth Troup, secretary.
A. S.C.E. A.S.C.E. will hold its last meeting this semester on Thursday at 7:30 in Room 210, Marvin Hall. Kansas City meeting will be discussed, amendment to National Constitution will be voted on. Mr. Matthews will speak and money will be refunded for luncheon held in Kansas City—Leonard Schroeter, president.
ATTENTION; All cases to appear before the Student Court should first be appealed to the Clerk of the Court, Bob McKay, telephone 2903—Gene Buchanan, chief justice.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE ORGANIZATION: The regular weekly meeting, open to students graduates and faculty members, will be held Tuesday afternoon at 4:30 in Room C Myers hall—Patricia Neil, secretary.
BACTERILOGY CLUB: The Bacteriology Club will hold its annual spring picnic Friday afternoon, at the State Lake at Tonganoxie. The group will leave Snow Hall at 3:00 p.m.-Virginia Christie, secretary.
FIRESIDE FORUM: Fireside Forum will meet this evening at 7 o'clock at the home of Mr. and Mrs. King at 1100 Ohio. The informal discussion of a "Modern View of Religion" will be continued. Everyone is welcome—Lorraine Polison, public chairman.
MEN'S STUDENT COUNCIL: There will be a regular meeting of the M.S.C. tomorrow at 8:15 in the Pine Room—Irving Kuraner, secretary.
PHI SIGMA; Phi Sigma will hold its initiation Wednesday at Evan's Hearth at 5:30 followed by a banquet at 6:00. The guest speaker of the evening, C. Bertrand Schultz of the University of Nebraska will speak on Fossil Collecting in the Plains Region which will be illustrated with motion pictures in color. The talk will be at 7:15 at Frank Strong Auditorium—Hal Smolin, president.
ROGER WILLIAMS FOUNDATION: "Youth Looks at Music," is the subject for the meeting this evening from 6:30 to 7:30 at the Baptist Student Center, 1124 Mississippi Street. All interested students are invited. Social half-hour at 6:00—Bob Johnson, Eleanor Schooling, co-chairmen.
JAY JANES: There will be a Jay Jane meeting in the Union building Wednesday at 4:30.—Ruth Spencer, president.
PROFICIENCY EXAMINATION: The last examination of the regular term will be held Saturday, May 4. at 8:30 a.m. Juniors and Seniors who have not passed an earlier examination should take this one. None but Juniors and Seniors are eligible. Candidates must register in person at the College Office, Room 121 Frank Strong Hall, between April 29 and May 1.
prep LEWIS PRIZE ESSAY CONTEST IN APPLIED CHRISTIANITY. Contests this year must hand in their essays at the Chancellor's Office not later than Wednesday, May 1.
WESTMINSTER FORUM: Westminster Forum will meet this evening at 7:30. J. F. Kell will speak on Our Responsibility Regarding Juvenile Delinquency.—Bob Talmadge, president.
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Official Student Paper of
THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Lawrence, Kansas.
Publisher ... Walt Meininger
EDITORIAL STAFF
Editor-in-Chief ___ Reginald Buxton
Associate Editors
Gene Kohn...Betty Coulson...Jim Bell
Feature Editor...Virginia Gray
NEWS STAFF
Managing Editor...Jay Simon
Campus Editor...George Sitterley
Campus Editor...Elizabeth Kirsch
News Editor...Stan Stouffer
Sports Editor...Larry Winn
Society Editor...Kay Bazarth
Socialist Editor...Richard Beyer
Media Editor...Roscoe Boorn
Wine Editor...Bob Trump
Rowling Editor...Art O'Donnell
Business Manager ... Edwin Browne
Advertising Manager ... Rex Cowan
REPRESENTED FOR NATIONAL ADVERTISING BY National Advertising Service, Inc.
College Publishers Representative
320 MACH AVE. NEW YORK N.Y.
FRENCH FRANCE
**Subscription letter:** in advance, $3.00 per year, $1.75 per semester. Published at Lawrence, Kansas, daily during the school year, delivered as second class lesson. September 17, 1910, at the office at Lawrence, Kansas, under the act of March 3, 1879.
Cradle of American Art Found In Middle West
By Bernard (Poco) Frazier, Sculptor
Art experts ventured the prophecy some years ago, that the ultimate cradle of American creative expression would be located in the middle-west. Taken lightly at first, this surprising statement was given new force in the nineteen thirties, when a group of painters from the prairie states drew the national spotlight and were welcomed as proof that the thing had happened. Their painting and the stories of their lives caught the fancy of the country with such intensity that little was said about art which did not include them as subject matter and prime example.
This state was fortunate in reaping more than its share of the glory which the midwest region found heaped upon its artistic potency. John Steuart Curry and Henry Varnum Poor received major awards and were loudly acclaimed in the marble halls of our great centers, Ward Lockwood and Kenneth Adams accepted fine teaching positions in state universities and our leading graphic artists, Lloyd Foltz, Charles Capps and Hershel Logan found themselves on the prize lists in the best of competition. Bruce Moore, Wichita sculptor was given a Guggenheim Fellowship and Waylande Gregory from Columbus was called the finest ceramic sculptor by Life and Fortune magazine.
★ ★ ★
Teaching staffs of the states art schools found new and increased acceptance of their work and student groups received letters of praise for originality shown in their creative efforts. The New Yorker informed us jokingly that people were beginning to believe that Kansas was a place where geniuses almost hid the tall corn and Life printed an article "Art Books as Best Sellers" which used photographs of two art books as illustration one written by Thomas Craven from Salina and the other bearing as a cover design, a painting of Kansas by a Kansan. It was suddenly more profitable to be from Kansas than from New York's famed Greenwich Village colony as far as art prestige was concerned. Apparently the prophets had been a little timid.
All of this time there was another idea in the air. It was not a new idea but it was certainly a growing one. Some people were wondering what all this could mean to those people back home, who furnished the cultural situation, the subject matter and often the funds to make this thing possible. It was being whispered that recognition in the marble halls was not enough and that until the cycle was more complete, returning the movement nearer its point of origin, it was not an entire success. This belief doubts that our mission is to furnish activity for art organizations and suggests that real value is more apt to be found in the doing than in the owning.
★ ★ ★
This idea will blossom. Schools are more interested than ever before. Exhibitions are including names of many people who live and work successfully in their home community. A leading sculpture student at the university announces that he will not be a professional but will have a studio during the five months a year when he is not an oil operator. There are many healthy signs.
If the joy of creative fervor is to touch the multitudes, they must have faith that they are endowed with as much right to indulge as the professional and they must realize that the margin of difference in talent which separates them from the other group is not half so wide as they might be led to believe. Honor our men of fame. Their greatest service is to prove that it can be done here. The source from which they sprang is not a temporary one. A critic says that an apple by Cezanne is of more artistic importance than a madonna by Raphael. He might have added that the drawing on the fly leaf of your old math book could be of more importance, to you, than either the work of the rebel Frenchman or the immortal Italian.
Fa Le Di
fund