University Daily Kansan
Friday, March 2. 1979
7
1979 Rock Chalk Revue carries 28-year tradition
By MARK L. OLSON
Staff Reporter
For the past 28 years, the Rock Chalk Revue has entertained audiences who filled Hoch Auditorium to hear the performers poke fun at everything from the chancellor to spring break. This year's show should be no different.
The Rock Chalk Revue will go on stage at 8 tonight and tomorrow night in Roch.
The extravaganza began in 1950 with a senior in business named Roy Wonder. Until that time, there had been "College Daze," which was a variety show composed of akty
When Rock Chalk first started, it was a one-night affair, where you were grouped by women or groups.
WONDER BEGAN with a contest to give the show a name, and Kathie Larson Raney won a $10 first prize with her entry—Rock Chalk Revenue.
Wonder, who lived in Manhattan, borrowed the idea for the new show from Kansas State University, which had a show called "Y-Orphium." The profits from the K-State were used to fund its campus YMCA.
In 1957, variety acts were added to the show to fill the gap between skirts and in 1960 men and women were paired in skirts for the first time.
The format of the show involved one group giving its performance on one half of the stage, while the next group was setting up on the other half.
The process for this year's Rock Chalk was set into motion just three weeks after the last curtain fell on Rock Chalk in 1978. The manager was a producer and business manager were
Although Rock Chalk participants are usually fraternities and sororites, occasionally a residence hall or scholarshipoup will break the pattern by entering.
There were 13 groups formed during the pairing.
Last year Hashinger Hall not only entered the competition, but won the award for best overall performance with its kit "Where Cairn Tails Are Few."
To be a part of the show, an entrant must be an organized living group, and that group or pair of groups must have both men and women.
After the groups had been paired, the next step did not come until the swelling heat of last summer had become the swelling heat of last fall, and students returned to KU. At that time O'Neal chose the room for Rock Chalk 1798 — "All's Fair in Love."
O'NEAL HAS since been replaced by Vicki Anderson, Evergreen Green, senior, because of conflicts he encountered after he worked at his job. He now acts as assistant producer.
With the theme "All's Fair In Love" in mind, the groups turned their creative energies to coming up with the elements of a music book, lyrics, songs, sets, costumes, lighting and more.
The groups' final scripts were turned in Nov. 15, and the fate of a semester's worth
of work by each of the groups was left in the hands of the scritt iudges.
The judges critiqued the scripts usbm several criteria, such as the show's continuity within the theme, the quality of the dialogue and the appropriateness of the dialogue.
The scoring of tonight and tomorrow night's competition will be done by 12 judges scattered throughout the audience. The groups will be scored for six awards.
Those awards are for best technical work, best performer, best original song, best production number, best script and best overallproduction.
THE FOUR groups who will perform tonight were announced on Nov. 25, after interview with the team.
The winning pairs are:
- Pi Beta Phi and Beta Theta Pi—I their show, “You Can’t Keep a Good Diver Down is Like Oxygen” is the story of a deep-sea diver water-breathing mermaid on one of his expeditions. He almost loses his life trying to overcome a prophecy and the physical challenges of a real-life marathon.
- Delta Delta Delta and Phi Gamma Delta - Ancient Egypt is the setting for their show "Till the Pyramids Fall, or It Nile or Never." The young King Kut is ready to turn 18 years old and be married, but an unmarried man has him doomed to marry a girl he abhors.
- Chi Omega and Delta Upsition—Students at Gallica University are matched by computer for marriage by an evil man in "B.E. Sees DeLight" in this show.
"All the scripts that were submitted last semester, 12 or 13 of them, were very good," Anderson said. "They're getting better every year."
Anderson is in her fifth year with Rock Calk, and has been an assistant producer, co-director of "In Between Acts," and a member of the stair crew in previous years.
She said the time she devoted to Rock took away from time for other things, and she didn't.
Anderson said most of the people involved with Rock Chalk find they have to rearrange their priorities when it comes to schoolwork and their social life.
"Second semester is the worst for grades," she said. "They go down the
According to Scafe, there is a trick to most Chalks to manage a bicker with wires from a wall.
"PEOPLE ARE learnin' there is a formula to Rock Challeng," he said. "You keep it nice and simple and clean. If you keep it nice and simple and clean, then the judges like it and you set it."
Scafe said the jokes in the shows have less of a campus slant than in the past.
"The jokes are a lot more clever this year," he said. "It's almost past campus humor anymore. People will disagree whether that is good."
Lovers Lament
Juliette Beeler, Overland Park sophomore, and Scott Bradley, Greensberg junior, sing a song from the Alpha Kappa Lambda-Delta Gamma Rock Chalk Revue skit, "20,000 Legs Under the Skirt or 50 Ways to Lose Your Lover."
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Arts & Leisure
Traditional dating hit by inflation
By ROBIN SMITH Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
It has been a long, rough school week,
five tests, three themes and one book report
from last week.
But where will a KU student go on a Friday or Saturday night with a member of the team?
And how much money will KU students have to spend for a night out on the town as compared to how much alumni spent years ago?
Ronald McGregor, professor of botany,
who graduated from the University of
Kansas with a Ph.D. in 1844, said he
had often taken a date to the movies.
"During the mid-1930s, you could go on a pretty fair date for a dollar—but that's not what you're going to do."
Singer hams it up for audience
Staff Reporter
Elmer Fudpacker is billed as "an act that dares to be different." Before he started his act Saturday at the Hideout Club, 330 Wisconsin St. , Fudpacker suite and listen to the Gene Hill group, and listen to the western band that later would back him up.
As he waited to be called to the stage, Fuducker talked to members of the audience and drank Coke from the bar. He doesn't drink liquor before his act.
By DOUG HITCHCOCK
After his name was called, Fudpacker stopped wringing his hands and bounded up to the stage, under the glare of a single spotlight.
"Hey, we're going to let it all hang out tonight," he said.
"Iimagine if Lawrence was named Fuduckersville."
The audience tittered at the thought, not quite prepared for what they were seeing.
But, the act was well-rehearsed,
calculated to bring a laugh. Fuducker has been in show business for many years. He was named Comedian of the Year in 1988 and received a gold record from comedy album of the same year, he said.
He recently released a country and western album, "Elmer Fudpacker Sings Songs that contains many of his band during one of his 'Las Vezas-style' songs."
WHEN HE STARTED as a performer, Fudpucker used his real name, Hollis Champion. "But, that didn't work too well," he said.
"For a long time, people wouldn't hire Eimer Fudpucker. They didn't know what was going to be done." he said.
But after he changed his name, he still had some problems.
Before his show began, Fuducker said, "I'm going to do a Las Vegas show tonight." It's a sicher than other shows I do. Still, I'll have to tone it down some here.
"I've always said it takes three things to put on a show: lighting, material and talent. I always try to give 'em two."
With that, he turned and retreated to his dressing room to change out of his doubleblanks and yellow Fudpucker jacket into his stage clothes.
During the show, Fudpacker wore a red sequined suit that sparkled almost as much as his blue eyes. He cracked jokes and plays, always moving around the stage.
"IVE BEEN IN this business for 20 years and there hasn't been a stage I walked out on that I wasn't scared to death. The smaller the crowd, the scareder I get. But, it only lasts for five seconds," he said.
He walks out on all sorts of stages, including country fairs, conventions and nightclubs. He plays Las Vegas, too, open for acts like Jerry Lee Lewis.
He has been in Lawrence twice, once at the Eagles Club and another at the American Legion. He also plays in Tonek twice a year.
"I work some show, but my biggest business is novellies. Fudpacker business is comedy. Fudpacker business. No wait, you'd better make that a quarter million, they might check
"The next night you play in a club and you have 75 to 100 people. You have to fit the show to the night," he said.
"It's a crazy business. One night you work a crowd, a convention or something and you have a lot of people."
The T-shirts bear one of Fudpacker's slogans and wild mutations of animals. The Swamp Root Potton which is colored water, he said. "sells" "like hot cakes."
FUDPUCKER'S劲畅 novelties include T-shirts, jackets, bottles of Dr. Fudpucker's Swamp Root Potion and Fudpucker Boozer Britches.
But the Elmer Fudpucker show is just a small part of his life.
"I don't know why they buy that stuff. It's not what I buy, but they buy more of that than nearly anything else," he said.
He gave pairs of Boogie Britches away to members of the audience during his show. The lacey, pastel bikini pants be Feducker's name and slogans.
During his break, Fudpucker autographed a pair of Britches for an elderly woman who was in the audience.
Besides loking and handing out Boogie
"That makes my night," he said. "I'll even go out and give her a big kiss, if she doesn't mind too much."
Britches, Fudpacker sang country and western favorites that brought the house together in mass sing-alongs.
To start each song, Fudpacker called,
"Fellows, give me an E," and the Hill
band began to roll, playing unrehearsed.
"You've got to hire the band to fit the night. Now, this band won't work in some situations I work in. But, here, they're fine," he said.
Fudpacker's songs ranged from Hank Williams-style yodels to spoofs of songs like "Big. Bad John."
Today, when he comes to a new town,
Fudupacker may not draw a full house.
But, he doesn't seem to mind.
"You got to work hard to get people to enjoy themselves. When the crowd is smaller, like this one, you have to work harder to make them laugh," he said.
And, if the crowds disappoint him,
Fudpacker can go back to Nashville to
the Elmer Fudpacker Pub to watch acts
Jennings or John Mennis or Johnny
Paychev
"Sometimes, it kills you, and I've died a few times. But, if you've got what they want, people will wade through the snow to see you."
"You know what a UFO is?" he asked. "It’s an unidentified Fudrucker怒。When you all get ready to leave, we’ll all rush in and strike him, or he strikes the band for another son."
BUT, DESPITE THE small size of his crowd at the Hideout, Fudpucker seemed to keep everybody off guard with his jokes and songs.
"I'm going to do one more song. This one's a hit. Lawrence Wek had it out before they made him put it away," he said.
Fudpucker is an entertainer. He works hard to give his audience what he thinks is a good time.
"It's the biggest night club in Nashville. It seats 680 people. We get a lot of the bigger acts to come in," Fudpucker said.
The audience at the Hideout Club seemed to revel in the show. Fudupcker's jokes, songs and non-stop one-inners received riotous laughter.
And they responded. Nobody was worrying about inflation or the war in southeast Asia. They were too busy having a good time.
James Akagi, chairman of microbiology, who graduated from KU with a Ph.D. in 1959, also said that he took dates to the 1960s and 1970s when rades had risen to 75 by the mid-1960s.
To a movie ticket in Lawrence ranges from $2.75 to $3.
"I think that dating was a lot more conservative during the '50s," Akagi said.
"I had to put myself through college, so I spent hours at my job thinking I would think many students had too much money to pay for it."
Akagi said he also took dates howling
THE MOST inexpensive place to bowl in
Lawrence today is the Jayhawk Bowl in the
Union. On a weekend night at the Jayhawk
a student can bowl for 60 cents a line and 25s
The Hillcrest Bowl, 9th and Iowa Streets, and Royal Lanes, 3300 Iowa St., charge 95 cents and 97 cents on weekend nights and shoe rental ranges from 30 cents to 35 cents.
"We also used to go down to the Wagon Wheel and the Jayhawk Cafe," Akagi said. "But there wasn't as much drinking going on in town." Mr. Akagi said one that I knew really had the money.
Francis Prosser, professor of physics and astronomy, who graduated from KU with a Ph.D. in 1955, also said he took dates to a movie.
"Eut talk to anyone who was in Lawrence during my time and they will tell you about it."
"The Dynamite, which was on 23rd Street, just about where the entrance to the Malls now is, was a hot spot in my days. They served 3.2 beer, had a jekebos and a shot of whiskey. It was now the Sanctuary Club, was also built around them and that was a hot spot also."
THE SANCTUARY, 1401 W. 7th St, is now a private club with a $15 membership charge. Guests pay $1.50 on weekend nights unless they are with members.
James Gunn, professor of English, who graduated from KU with a Ph.D. in 1951, also commented about the shortage of cars to use for dating.
"in general." Prosser said, "there was a lot of double dating because very few students."
"We didn't go to the bars too often because it wasn't convenient," Guhn said.
"BUT I DO remember that we used to go on 'Coke dates' a lot. That's when you would take a girl to the Union for a Coke. Plays, like the KU sport games were also a highlight.
"No one had cars. Before World War II, not many of us had cars and after the war there was a car shortage. We had to walk to work and drive to work again, going tougo again, though it's hard for me to need you."
"But going into Kansas City, Mo., was the big time. We used to be able to take a train into K.C. in the morning and then come back on a train to Cleveland for cheap back then; no one had any money."
Prosser said that after he took a date to the movies, they often would go out for something to eat. He said that it was usually just a snack, not an entire dinner.
Today many KU students often taken their dates out for dinner. Russell's East, 3400 W. 6th St., and Don't Steak House, 2170 N. 5th St. are popular places that a KU student takes a date.
At Russell's the most expensive item on the menu is the Alaskan Krab leg, stuffed with salmon and crabmeat.
According to Sharon Hackel, Littleshute, Wis., senior, who works at Russell's, the most popular items sold are the stocks, the brine and the prune, and the prune rib, which ranges from $9.95 to $9.99.
THE MOST expensive item listed on the menu at Don's Steak House, is the prine rib at $10.75, which also includes an entire dinner.
According to Carla Holder, a hostess at Don's, the most popular item sold is the 10-cm mug.
And even before disco, dancing was also a place to take a date.
MegGreger said, "We used to have 'hour dances' at the old Union every Wednesday
Today, some students take their dates dancing at Shenanigan's 901 Wissamusic st., and pay a $2 cover charge to listen and dance to disco music.
Gunn agreed with McGregor. "We used to dance a back left back, guess the kids still do today for that matter." he said. "But, back left was when you used to dance together."
Spare Time
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN-
Night Life
Lawrence Opera House, 644 Massachus
sits ST
- Fast Break, March 3.
- John Hartford, March 7
* Bluebeard, March 9
- Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, March 10
- Norman Blake and the New Grass Revival, March 21
- Paul Gray's Jazz Place, 926 Massachusetts St
St.
- Jim Stringer, guitarist, with the Gaslight
Gang, March 2-3
- Willie Thomas and Rich Maddeson March 10.
- Clark Terry, March 9
- Off the Wall Hall, 737 New Hampshire St
* Stopper. March 2.
- Stropper, Milton Z.*
* Benefit for Kansas Natural Guard, March
- Old Time Fiddlers Gathering, March 4.
Theatre
- Romeo and Juliet March 2, 3; 8 p.m. University Theatre.
- Rock Chalk Revue, March 2-3, 8 p.m.
Hoch Auditorium.
Concerts
- American String Quartet, March 2 and 4
8 o.m. Swantouth Recital Hall
- KU Symphonic Orchestra, March 4, 3.30 p.m., University Theatre.
KU Percussion Ensemble, March 6, 8 p.m.
Swarthout.
Recitals
- Pheobe Snow, March 15, 8 p.m., Lyric Carii Theatre.
- Dire Straits, March 19, 8 p.m., Memorial Hall
Dena Gordy Berquit, cello, March 5, 8
p.m. Swarthout
Jayhawk Invitational Jazz Festival, March 10, all day.
Susan K. Smith, trombone, and Alan Mar
in Joha March 7 on 8. Swarth凋
Helen Hoffmeister, organ, March 8, 8 p.m.
Swarthwuit
Chamber ensemble at KU for concert
The American String Quartet, one of the nation's youngest professional chamber music ensembles, will present concertats at 2 p.m. in Sawthorpe at Recital Hall in Murray Hall.
The quartet members, Martin Foster and Laurie Carney, violins; Daniel Avshalomov, viola; and David Geber, cello, met at the Julliland School of Music in New York City and made their New York debut in 1875. The quartet also performed for the Mannes College of Music in New York.
In its KU performances, the group will play a Beethoven quartet and two quintets with piano by Shostakovich and Schumann. The music will be the pianist for the quintet works.
The quartet is performing 11 concerts and presenting master classes in the Midwest this semester on a grant from the National Education Association.
The group performed at KU last summer in the Summer Concert Series and will be making its third appearance on the Chamber Music Series this weekend.
Tickets for the two concerts are on sale at the Murphy Hall Flat Office. All seats are free.
Union exhibition spans 32 years of prof's works
A print that appeared in a KU professor's first exhibition in 1994 will be included in a show of his works from March 1 to March 23 in the Kansas Union Gallery.
The exhibition, sponsored by Student Union Activities, consists of 47 prints that John Talleur, professor of art, made from 1947 to 1979.
The prints show changes in Taleur's style during 32 years.
He used Christian images and symbols to explore the mysteries of existence and death in his early prints, Betsy Bray, curator of prints and drawings at the Spencer Museum of Art, said. Most of the prints were black and white.
She said his recent work, much of which is abstract, would be emphasized in the book.
“There is a bold, dynamic quality to his later work,” she said. “This is new. He uses larger forms that are more brightly colored, perhaps because themselves are not necessarily larger.
"Not all of his later work is abstract, but a lot of it."
TALLEUR SAID he did not consciously change themes, although he often used color
"I do whatever happens to interest me at the moment." he said.
Talluer's prints have been exhibited in the United States and Europe. They are included in the collections of more than 50 art museums in London and the United States.
Broun said she suggested that SUA exhibit Taller's work.
I felt it would be important to see the work of someone who has been making prints for more than 25 years in Lawrence, "A Workman" for a full-scale review of Talent's work.
Taller, 53, earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago and his master's from the University of Iowa. He joined the KU faculty in 1953.
The artist studied in France from 1952 to 1953 on a Fultbright Fellowship. He said he did not think the styles he saw in France were his own, but he said he first made a woodcut print there.
Taller said he was excited about the exhibit.
"I really think it'll be a good show," he said.