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THE SUMMER SESSION KANSAN
Tuesday, July 9, 1968
TV violence is here... ...and will not go away
HOLLYWOOD — (UPI)— The abolition of violence in popular entertainment such as television is hardly likely because, as Mae West once put it: "Virtue has its own reward but has no sale at the boxoffice." Well, in many cases, anyway.
But the abolition of wholesale brutality and unmotivated sadism is only the negative aspect of the anti-violence argument. The big question, of course, is: what do you use instead? Conflict, without doubt, is the essence of drama.
Yet there are many kinds of conflict, most of them more dramatic than the use of gums and fists. And just as important as the anti-violence crusade is the new need for network officials to take a positive step in the entertainment area:
To allow, instead of the standard cynicism criticized by Carl Sandburg, genuine feelings of optimism, pleasure, anger and style when writers want to express them—which is often.
For this goes to the roots of an attitude toward the nation itself. Where optimism and pleasure not the laugh-track kind and style are discouraged, the nation gets a very mean, nasty, distorted and cynical view of itself. One needn't
be a Pollyanna—but there are beautiful things happening too, and significant things, and there are real people and matters worth exploring.
The novelist Thomas Wolfe once wrote: "It is good to eat, to drink, to sleep, to fish, to swim, to run, to travel to strange cities, to ride on land, sea and in the air upon great machines, to love a woman, to make a beautiful thing."
This is the expression of health, exuberance, of juices joyously flowing in a man who loved life. When is the last time you remember getting that kind of feeling from watching a television entertainment program? Who wouldn't rather be lifted up than put down and thrown into the gutter again?
In "The Decline of Pleasure," Walter Kerr wrote: "We are all of us compelled to read for profit, party for contacts, lunch for contracts, bowl for unity, drive for mileage, gamble for charity, go out for the evening for the greater glory of the municipality, and stay home for the weekend to rebuild the house."
Where, indeed, is the pleasure?
Well, there is little doubt that it
is often hard to come by in the very upright circles of most of middle-class, suburban America. And if that is the case, then television might do well to seek it out in other age groups and other social levels throughout the land—using writers and producers and directors from these places. Surely we cannot be satisfied with brute force and cynicism as our chief outlets.
Enthusiasm about life is beautifully contagious. I remember, years ago, reading these words about New York by H. L. Mencken: "If only as spectacle, the city is superb. It has a glitter like that of the Constantinople of the Cemmeni. It rears with life like the Bagdad of the Sassanians." It was already living in New York when I read those words, yet it made me look at the city with freshness and a new sense of thrilling adventure.
Not long ago, there was a young lady here in Hollywood who trained hard to become a professional dancer. One day she went blind. But despite her affliction, she still loved to dance.
Kansan Review You can't take...
KU Summer Theatre Repretory '68 opened its season Tuesday presenting, "You Can't Take It With You," before a S.R.O. audience. This Moss Hart-George S. Kaufman comedy is the first of four plays to be presented this summer as "a cavalcade of comedy." It was an excellent beginning.
The director, Mike Pedetti, is to be commended for excellent blocking. This is difficult to achieve in the "in-the-round" setting used. The audience is placed on stage with the performers which gives a feeling of intimacy that greatly compliments this play. One gets the feeling you are in the middle of the Vanderhof madness instead of merely watching.
Connie Stachowiak as Penny, the hyperthyroid mother is adequate. Her facial expressions are a bit to repetitive. She is most convincing during the second act.
Holmes Osborne, as Grandpa Vanderhof is a geriatric genie. He scowls, growls and cavorts through this part with arthritic abandon. Osborne does have a tendency on occasion to sound similar to Hal Holbrook as Mark Twain. This does not in any way hurt his performance. Grandpa makes you believe people can still avoid income tax.
Adding near professional talent are Bill Meikle as Mr. Sycamore, Bill Boyd and Richard Gilliland as DePinna and Donald. They have learned well the fine art of well planned business and comedy timing. Evie Masterson and Ronald Shull handle the roles of Alice and Tony quite well. It is difficult to carry straight parts in the midst of such characters.
The costumes are appropriate with the exception of Ron's first appearance in a white Nehru jacket complete with necklace. It is a bit too much.
The overall production is good. The few rough spots should disappear with experience.
"You Can't Take It With You," will be presented again July 17 and 23. Go see it.
—Jane Feuerborn
Kansan Telephone Numbers Newsroom—UN 4-3464 Business Office—UN 4-4358
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Each night, using a cane to guide her, she would leave her little apartment near Sunset Boulevard, walk down the brightly lighted thoroughfare to a place that offered music and sit at a table until someone asked her to dance. And each night, tapping her cane, she would walk all the way home. It was about a mile, but she had no money for a car or a taxi.
One night, no one asked her to dance. And no one at the place ever saw her again. People there imagined terrible things—murder, assault. But it was nothing like that. She simply felt the place had helped her restore confidence in herself, and now she was moving on. She went home to the Midwest and married the boy who waited for her confidence to come back. No guns, no fists—but conflict, drama, courage, beauty and a reverence for the things life can bring.
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS.
New Books
A truly light touch marks several of the new books for summer. The Gothic damsel in distress, the western, the mystery, the thriller. Here are some:
" BUT SHE JUST DIDN'T LOOK LIKE A PHYS ED MAJOR TO ME."
Jane Aiken Hodge's WATCH THE WALL, MY DARLING Crest, 75 cents)—Political and romantic intrigue in old England, foggy marshes, carriages, masked strangers, and a kind of dopey heroine.
Phyllis A. Whitney's SILVER HILL (Crest, 75 cents)—The adventures of Malinda Rice at Silverhill, a Gothic castle full of horrifying memories and rather gruesome evidences of the present.
John Gardner's UNDERSTRIKE (Crest, 50 cents) — A new adventure of the improbable Boysie Oakes, the poor man's James Bond.
Ed McBain's KING'S RANSOM (Dell, 50 cents) — Detective Steve Carella in a new 87th Precinct mystery (and a good one, as usual).
Frank Kane's STACKED DECK (Dell, 50 cents)—Adventures of Johnny Liddell—blackmailers and dames and guns.
George Garland's BUGLES AND BRASS (Dell, 50 cents) — Arizona! The cavalry! Apaches! Brave men!
The devil may come
WASHINGTON—(UPI)—When Hanoi's negotiators in Paris said they would meet with "anyone except the devil," they betrayed considerable ignorance of U.S. presidential candidates.
Either that or they were planning to give up having tea with Averell Harriman anyway. There couldn't be time hereafter for both. Today we consider some of the visits they might expect.
Enter Eugene McCarthy, accompanied by a dozen well-scrubbed, bright-faced teenagers.
"How do you do, gentlemen," McCarthy nods. "I have journeyed these many miles to acquire your point of view on the differences which divide us and the dreams which unite us. Let me say I am pleased faint smile here that you did not invite the devil: He's far too busy signing bills in the White House.
"I share Pericles' visions of world brotherhood and political reform. I go further: I propose a world of scholars, governed by poets; our enmities forgotten in a new golden age of love and youth and beauty."
One Hanoi negotiator asked the other: "Did we invite Pericles?"
Enter Nelson Rockefeller, with a phalanx of ad writers and television producers.
"Hi, fellows," Rockefeller says, and shakes hands all around. "You fellows know my views on the war because everyone knows my views on the war which is more than anyone can say for my opponent.
"Feel the South Vietnamese should be fighting you instead of our fighting you. You fellows know we can't just quit fighting. But I'm sure we can work something out."
One Hanoi negotiator asks the other: "Who's his opponent?"
"Hello, men," he beams. "First, let me say that as vice president I am a member of the team; as president I will be my own boss.
Enter Hubert Humphrey, accompanied by Democratic party leaders, county chairmen and Lester Maddox.
"Let me make clear that my country is not divided about this war—it is a united, joyous country which is willing to shoulder its responsibilities and knows there may be some bad moments along the way. But we love change and welcome change and desire change and I am the disciple of change."
One negotiator asks the other: "Is team the same as troika?" Enter Richard Nixon, with makeup men, speech writers and staff psychologists.
"Negotiators, and my respected opponents," Nixon begins. "I think we should end the war and win the peace. You may interpret this any way you please, since I do not consider it seemly or appropriate for a candidate to discuss war policies while delicate negotiations are underway."
One negotiator turns to the other and shrugs.
One negotiator turns to the other and shrugs. Enter George Wallace, accompanied by 17 bodyguards, and a hillbilly band.
"Now you look here, boys," Wallace barks. "You all better straighten up or else when I'm president I am going to turn loose the full power of the mightiest military machine ever known to man on that backward little old country of yours."
Wallace leaves, and before Harold Stassen can even get there the Hanoi negotiators make an objection to the World Court.
"We said we'd talk to anyone except the devil," they protest, "but the perfidious Americans sent him anyway."
"Which one was he?" the court asks.
"There's a difference of opinion among us on that," the negotiators reply, "but we are sure as hell he was here."