Page 6 University Daily Kansan, September 22, 1981
Spare Time
Leon Nevada Reno
on campus
TODAY
THE HILLEL LUNCH will feature a lecture by Alan Lichter, associate professor of English, on "Poland: Contrasts and Challenges," at 12:15 p.m. in Cork of the Union Delicatessen.
WILLIAM NEWMAN, former president of the American musicallology Society, will present a lecture on "Performance Practices in Bee-net Sounds" on *Somatas*, at 2:30 p.m. in w. Marchmont, Raval Hall.*
THE ENTRY DEADLINE AND MANAGERS MEETING FOR RECREATION SERVICES WATER POLO will be at 6:30 p.m. in the Robinson Center pool lobby.
TAU SIGM A STUDENT DANCE CLUB will meet at 7 p.m. in Room 242 Robinson Center.
A BIBLICAL SEMINAR will be held at 7 p.m. in the Ecumenical Christian Ministries Center.
THE CAMPUS CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP
with a bible study and fellowship at 7:30
pm p.m. Sunday
THE THIRD ANNUAL BYRON T. SHUZT
AWARD LECTURE will be given by Malcolm
Burns, assistant professor of economics, on
"President's Lecture," at 8 p.m. in the
Ferum Room of the Union.
TOMORROW
THE TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION PROGRAM will hold an introductory lecture given by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at 8 p.m. in the Governor's Room of the Mahison
THE UNIVERSITY FORUM will feature a lecture by Clifford Ketzel, professor of political science, on "Poland's Crises," at 11:45 a.m. in the Eumenical Christian Ministries Center.
THE ENTRY DEADLINE AND MANAGERS MEETING FOR RECREATION SERVICES TENNIS MIXED DOUBLES will be at 5 p.m. in Room 208 Robinson Center.
At 70. dancer still movin' his feet
by SUSAN VAN NESS Staff Reporter
He strolled through the tables toward the well-lit stage. He felt his energy grow with that of the jazz music; he heard the crowd applaud as they had done so many times before. Acknowledging the band members, he began to dance. And he danced so fine, and he danced so fast, that the audience could barely focus on his feet until he had stopped to watch the band stalked back to his table—smiling all the while.
Leon Veena Reno is a handsome man with gray hair, a little machete and eyes full of wisdom. When he smiles, his dark face shows off a beautiful set of white teeth, and his cheeks grow almost to the size of Dizzy Gillespie's when playing his horn. Reno celebrated his 70th birthday in March, and although his wind doesn't last as long as it used to, he still dances from time to time at the Jazz Place, 926 Massachusetts.
"I've danced just about all my life," Reno said. "I'd rather dance than eat."
RENO WAS BORN and raised in Lawrence. "It was a great place to grow up," he said. Woodland Park, which used to be in East Lawrence, had "big horse races and buggy cars and football and baseball grounds. They had an entire set of bands hands would come like Count Basel." Reno said.
From kindergarten through sixth grade, Reno lived with his aunt in Kansas City. He then moved back to Lawrence to live with his grandfather, Michael. When he wasn't in school, Reno was working.
"This place here was a great potato country," he said, "so I did a lot of potata pickin' and cultivated. Wasn't payin' too much. Nickel'a it was. I went to a dime, then they raised it to 20 cents a saus."
Reno didn't begin dancing until his early twenties.
the Lawrence Opera House was the Bowersock Theater which featured silent films accompanied by “Ol' Man Eberhardt” on the piano. "They'd have Charleston contests every now and then," Reno said, "and I won so many times, they wouldn't let me enter no more."
Reno never danced professionally; he danced for fun. Wav back in the early thirties, Reno said.
BUT RENO WAS not one to give up. He entered the tap dancing contests at the Bowersock, and he Charlestonized and jitterbugged at the Varsity Theater. The third theater in Lawrence was the Patee; "if could dance at Patee's," Reno said, "I would have been a part of it. There weren't but one colored man that went into Patee's and that was Jimmy Williams' daddy. He operated no-talkie' picture machines."
News of Reno's talent traveled fast, and by the late 1920s, the Kansas City jazz world was ready for him. "I met Jay McManshon on 12th Street," Reno said. "They called it the sunset Club. He played a lot in it." And then I met Big Joe Turner at the Tap Room on 12th and Paseo. I always loved the way he sang his songs because it was kind of 'boyeeyooey.' I swook he hands with Count (Basile) a thousand times. His drummer, Joe Jones, played there all the time. I'm pretty fair with drums . . . nothin' extra.
"Pendergast was runnin' Kansas City then," Reno said, "and he left it wide open.
"It was a jumpin' town. The middle of the week was just like a Saturday night. Some of the clubs would have a four- or five-piece band, 'em, and jugke boxes only cost a nickel a record. They had taverns pretty near criss-crossed like filkin' stations are today."
AND RENO DANCED them all: the Chez Parce, the Panama, the Sawdust Trail, the Paradise, the Subway, the Blue Room. He spent a week with his feet, and his days swinging a sleedummer.
"I worked at Armour's packin' house," Reno said. "First job I got was killin' cattle, and I hatched that, Just hit 'em in the middle of the head and they'd fall down."
Harden had worked there 13 years before four plain clothesmen from the Army made his boss stop the belt belt so they could take Reno to the Army. The guys came to come to the Army and I didn't want to go to the
**Army. . . I was in three years, nine months, and**
**24 days, or somethin' like that." Reno said.
Reno returned to his home in Kansas City after overseas duty in World War I. "I was partyin' so much at 1111 Michigan," he said, "that I was pretty near dead."
"They weren't smokin' too much of the weed in them days. Mostly liquor. And some people that couldn't buy liquor, they'd buy this here 'canned heat' and strain it and mix it with strawberry soda pop and drink it, and they'd get just as drunk as I don't know what."
At the Chez Paree, Reno met a 'shake dancer' named Rosalee. "In them days," Reno said, 'they'd get on stage and all this here' be shaken. One night I told her how much I cared for her and she said, 'oh all the men tell me that,' and I said 'well, in all my life, I never had no woman as dark as you, and I'm really fallin' for you.' Finally we got together.
"Her people lived in Chicago so she said 'well,
if you want me, you have to come to Chicago and
come back'."
DURING HIS STAY there, Reno and Rosaher danced at the Blue Night Club. "So as we started dancing' the jitterbug, Reno said, 'You're going to look at us and clap. She could really dance, Ion."
Eventually, Reno and Rosalie went their separate ways and after spending 31 years in Chicago, Reno headed home to Lawrence. He worked for eight years for the department of education in Kansas, Kansas, and then worked for Kansas Color Press. Inc. 220 Haskell, where he was ever since.
His home is warm and personal. Leopard skin material covers his couch and his table. Memories cover his walls. There are pictures of Martin Luther King, of his son "Doodlebug" and his grandson "Little Bug" who lives in California. There is a copy of his birth certificate over three years to find, and a newspaper clipping that lists famous men and their size shoes.
Most of the picture frames contain snapshots of the past, pictures of his friends and family, pictures of his dancing years. Pictures of him with that big smile that says, "dancing makes my soul so happy, that I just have to move my feet."
Putting KU theatre season together takes time, hard work, commitment
By STU LITCHFIELD Staff Reporter
When most people talk of seasons they mean holidays, spicy food or the weather. When Jack Wright talks of seasons, he means holidays, year-long commitments and budgets.
Wright, chairman of the University Theatre's production committee and faculty member for the theatre department, coordinates the selection and production process for the shows produced in the University Theatre and Inre Theatre series.
Acording to Wright, the process of putting a theatre season together is like a puzzle.
"It's not really like putting the puzzle
right," he said recently. "It's
creating the puzzle."
Ron Willis, director of the theatre department, said that a good, diverse season helped
According to Wright, there are also certain practical realities that must be recognized. The size of the shows, the amount of men's and women's roles, the rehearsal time and the technical requirements are all important considerations.
Such considerations and the final decisions are made by the production committee, which is composed of five faculty members and three students.
COMMONWEALTH THEATRES
GRANADA DOWNTOWN
TELEPHONE 801-5180
The final decision for the 1981-82 season was made several months ago.
develop skills in the students and displayed the different talents of the faculty.
The productions to be performed in the Inge Theatre will be "Holiday," "Evening Light" and "The Madman and the Nun."
The productions to be performed in the University Theatre this semester will be "Tales from Hans Christian Andersen," "Dracula," and "Bridgadon."
"Body Heat"
Starts Friday
7:15 & 9:30
"The Continental Divide"
7:30 & 9:20
"American Werewolf in London"
7:40 & 9:30
HILLCREST 2
91TH AND 10WA
TELEPHONE 842-8400
"Two hours at nop stop the riffs."
RAIDERS OF THE
AIRLINES
AIRBANKS
FREES
SUN, 7 THRU 8 MAY SAT AFTER 8 PM, 2:15
OPENING
7:25 P.M.
MAT. SAT &
SUN. 7:15
JOHN TRAVOLTA
NANCY ALLEN
CINEMA 1
3157 AND 1094
TELEPHONE 824.6200
7:30 ONLY "Muppet Caper"
HILLCREST 517 AND IOWA
TELEPHONE 842-8400
"Cannonball Run"
"9 to 5"
"Thunder and Lightning"
"Mother, Jugs, & Speed"
STARTS AT DUSK
9:30 ONLY
"History
of the World
Part 1"
WHAT CAN
YOU GET
FOR $1.06??
TONIGHT ONLY!
$1.06 GETS YOU INTO ANY MOVIE
AT ANY LAWRENCE THEATER
PLUS: PRIZES
GIVEN OUT BY KLZR STAFF
AT ALL THEATERS
IT'S 106 NIGHT!!
DON'T MISS IT!!
COMPLIMENTS OF
KLZR 106
SEE COMMONWEALTH MOVIE LISTINGS FOR SHOWTIMES