Police crash middle-of-the-road tea party
By ERIC MORGENTHALER
Yesterday was a special kind of Sunday for the four members of Fred's Lunch Films; it was highlighted by a tea party in the middle of Clark Street followed by a visit from four police cars and a ticket for obstructing traffic.
The amateur film company, which is headed by Gus Hedberg, a former KU student, is shooting low-budget films for fun and profit. The group's first film venture was "Never Bet the Devil Your Head," an adaptation of a short story on Edgar Allen Poe.
The company now is working on its second film, "The Tea Party," which it hopes will be finished and ready for showing by the first of December.
THE THEME of "The Tea Party" is just what the name implies—the story of a man who sips tea at odd places at odd times with odd people. It will include four tea party sequences, the first of which was recently shot on a local railroad track at dawn.
About 3 o'clock yesterday afternoon the group of four gathered at Hedberg's house on Clark Street in Lawrence to film sequence number two. Members of the film company include David Wilson, Kansas City sophomore, Mona Hammam, Cairo, Egypt, freshman, and Tom Clark, Baxter Springs sophomore.
Bryan Anderson, Grand Forks,
N.D., sophomore, was also there
with his 1951 green panel Chevy
truck.
IT TOOK a while for the group to get organized. Mona had to wash out the tea pot, which had not been cleaned since the last filming. Gus had to change into a dark suit, vest and polka-dot tie, and had to part his hair down the middle. Tom had to locate Gus's wire-rimmed glasses.
David had to hunt a wooden chair out of his apartment, because Gus only had one chair, and you just can't have a tea party with only one chair. But after a while, the group was ready to begin shootin "the street sequence."
The original plan had been to shoot the second tea party scene while floating down the Kaw River in a fisherman's boat; but there were no fishermen handy Sunday who were willing to give up their boats. So the group decided that the middle of Clark Street would be as good a place as any for the second party.
THE PROPS for the scene-a
small wooden table, four chairs, the teapot, cups and saucers and a vase of paper flowers — were jammed into Bryan's truck, along with the four crew members, the movie camera and Bryan. In mass, they rode the half-block down to the end of Clark Street.
There the props were set up—in the middle of the street. Company members were stationed at both ends of the street with red flags to ward off approaching cars (none approached, however).
The cast was readied, a brief rehearsal was held, Gus seated himself at the table, and the filming was begun.
WITH THE camera rolling, Bryan's green panel truck pulled up to the table, where Gus was sipping tea, and Tom jumped out. He ran up to the table, waving a wrench in his left hand. Gus greeted him with a smile and lifted a cun of tea upward.
"CUT . . Everybody hold their places for the next scene."
"CUT." This time Tom stayed in place.
Tom moved. So the first sequence was filmed again.
THE CAMERA moved in closer for the filming of the second sequence. Actors were in their places; the camera was ready to roll.
Suddenly, a car pulled around the corner. The red flags did not do much as far as stopping it—the car had a red light on top and a police badge painted on its door
"Oh God," Gus said. "Here it comes."
A policeman walked up to the group and politely asked what was going on.
"Well, we're making a movie," someone explained.
"I see," replied the officer, "And this?" He pointed to the table set for tea in the middle of Clark Street.
"Well, we're filming a tea party. Is anything wrong?" The officer remained passive.
JUST THEN another police car pulled up, followed by a third. A fourth patrol car arrived, but left immediately—everything appeared under control.
By that time, explanations did not mean a whole lot. Bryan's truck, from which part of the filming had been done, was parked in the middle of the street; the tea table was in front of it. The truck was ticketed for being parked in the middle of the street.
By this time, explanations meant even less.
Archaeologist will lecture
John L. Caskey, professor of archaeology and head of the classics department at the University of Cincinnati, will speak on "Keos and the Cylades in the Bronze Age," in the fourth Humanities lecture series at 8 p.m. Nov. 29 in Lawrence High School auditorium.
HE WAS A MEMBER of the University of Cincinnati staff excavations at Troy, Turkey, from 1932-1938 and field director of excavations at Heraion of Argos, Lerna, and Eutress in Greece. Since 1961, he has served as field
Art lecture set
Erik Larsen, art historian from Georgetown University, will lecture in KU's Art Museum lecture hall at 8 p.m. on Nov. 21.
The lecture, enlisted "Frans Post—a Dutch Artist in 17th Century Brazil," is sponsored by the Committee on Brazilian Studies and the History of Art Department.
director for the university's excavations in Keos, Greece.
Student Union Activities will sponsor a coffee-forum in the Kansas Union at 3:30 p.m. on Nov 28 where Caskey will discuss the relation of archaeology to understanding classical antiquity. At 7:30 that evening he will give an illustrated lecture on "Excavations at Lerna." This lecture is sponsored by the Archaeology Institute of America.
Swaebou Conateh, Gambia, Africa, senior, won seventh place in the William Randolph Hearst Foundation's Seventh Annual Journalism Award Program. He will receive a $100 scholarship.
Prize to African
His winning article concerned the People-to-People university program.
Leroy Towns, Kansas State University senior, won first place and a $500 scholarship for his coverage of a jet airliner crash near Kansas City last summer.
The officers took everyone's name. They tried to figure out just what had been going on, explained to the young cast that they would need permission of the city manager to film a tea party in the
middle of the street. Members of the group nodded.
THE OFFICERS asked the photographers, who had been taking pictures of the whole affair, to stop taking pictures. The photographers did.
As the officers left, the cast moved the props out of the street and carried them back to Gus's house.
"I guess we should have gone to the river," one member remarked.
"I guess so," another said
—UDK Photo by Robert E. Morgenthaler Jr.
"DON'T TAKE MY POT, OFFICER!"
Cop stops shooting of Fred's Lunch Films latest cinematographic effort—a tea party in the middle of Clark Street. Seated is Gus Hedberg, head of the amateur film company.
Daily Kansan Monday, November 21, 1966
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