@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @@@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @
@ @@@@@ @@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @
@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 6/02/00 -- Vol. 18, No. 49
Chair/Librarian: Mark Leeper, 732-817-5619, mleeper@lucent.com
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper, 732-332-6218, eleeper@lucent.com
Distinguished Heinlein Apologist: Rob Mitchell, robmitchell@lucent.com
HO Chair Emeritus: John Jetzt, jetzt@lucent.com
HO Librarian Emeritus: Nick Sauer, njs@lucent.com
Back issues at http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
The Science Fiction Association of Bergen County meets on the
second Saturday of every month in Upper Saddle River; call
201-447-3652 for details. The Denver Area Science Fiction
Association meets 7:30 PM on the third Saturday of every month at
Southwest State Bank, 1380 S. Federal Blvd.
===================================================================
1. Reminder: Channel 13 in New York is running THE LATHE OF HEAVEN
tomorrow, June 3, at 8:00 PM. Other PBS stations are also running
this as well, but times may vary so check your local listings. [-
ecl]
===================================================================
2. Last week I was talking about my new passion for something
fairly old, the radio of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Let me tell
you about my take on old-time radio.
In the great days of radio things were very different from now,
particularly in the early days before radio networks. Networks
really were networks with no central organization providing shows
to everyone. Some creative radio station worker at some local
station would get an idea what local listeners would like to hear,
maybe the adventures of a masked cowboy good-guy and his Indian
companion. He would start writing scripts and members of the
station staff would act them out. Frequently they would not even
be paid over their other duties. But that was inefficient. Later
other stations would pick up recordings, I think usually made on
phonograph records, and would play them on their station. Actually
"The Lone Ranger" was creating in 1930 on WXYZ in Detroit and
shared among a Michigan-wide radio network. Eventually it was
picked up by the WOR in New York and WGN in Chicago and played by
the larger Mutual Network. And here is a point for you trivia
buffs. Eventually it was so popular that it spun off another
program. The same creators said that John Reid, the man behind the
mask of the Lone Ranger, had a great-nephew who also donned a mask.
The difference was that he fought modern criminals. Britt Reid was
given his own sidekick, Kato, and became The Green Hornet. Rumor
said that Kato was Japanese until the war, then was Korean.
Actually he was *always* Korean. Of course by this time there were
professional actors in the roles, though many had come from local
radio station jobs.
Mutual was the largest of the networks but there was also NBC and
CBS. Mutual was more an exchange of programming. CBS and NBC had
more of a central organization that defined the programming for the
member stations. NBC actually ran two different networks keeping
them separate. They were called the "Red" network and the "Blue"
network. The government eventually said that had to be broken up
so NBC sold the Blue network and the NBC Red Network became just
NBC. The Blue Network went though a number of changes and
eventually was renamed ABC.
But speaking of there being professional actors, if you listen you
get so you really recognize certain voices; Mel Blanc, John Dehner,
and especially William Conrad. It almost seems like one in three
radio programs had the voice of William Conrad disguised in one way
or another. I never saw the program but Conrad may be known to
some readers as the Fat Man in "Jake and the Fat Man." Conrad
showed up again and again in radio stories. He was the star of
"Gunsmoke," but he was just about any character they needed in "The
Voyages of the Scarlet Queen." If they needed somebody who was
Chinese, or Japanese or Malay, he was right there with a
superficially disguised voice. I am good with voices and
associating them with who is speaking so in my minds eye an awful
lot of people in radio look a lot like William Conrad. Each of
these at one time or another had his own radio show and would at
the name time appear in several shows. John Dehner was Frontier
Gentleman (not a bad show, but one less remembered because it was
never done on TV). Mel Blanc had a comedy variety show. I suppose
there is no accounting for taste, but the comedy does not transport
well into the present. When we listen now my wife has no interest
at all in the comedy programs and I listen sometimes out of
historic interest, but I never hear anything I consider funny. On
the other hand suspense and horror make the transition fairly well.
People rarely realize what a good medium radio is for story-
telling. Why? Well story-telling was probably born around
campfires. I think that our ancestors would tell stories at nights
to pass the time. That is the ideal medium for two reasons. One
is that the listener has to picture what is going on in his own
head. He becomes the co-creator of the story. Similarly with
radio you create your own images. That is one thing radio has in
common with books, a least books without illustrations. It is
something that is lost with film. We are getting to the point when
almost any images you can visualize can be put on the screen, but
even so they are somebody else's images. With radio as with books
you create your own visual images. But aural story-telling also
has an advantage over books. One does not control the rate of the
story-telling. You turn over the driving to someone else. It is
the story teller who controls the speed of storytelling. Books
give you too much control over whether you will stop reading,
whether you will skip a portion. A roller-coaster would be no fun
if you had a brake pedal and an accelerator. Listening to a radio
story you are obliged to concentrate and take it at the rate it is
given. And that surrendering of control makes the story much more
immediate. And everything I have said here goes double for horror
stories. There it is more important both to visualize the threat
and to give up control and be carried along.
Next week I will talk about how some of these effects were created
and some of the people who created them. [-mrl]
===================================================================
3. THE BIG KAHUNA (a film review by Mark R. Leeper):
Capsule: There is not a whole lot of plot in
this stage play adapted to the screen. Three
salesmen come to a Wichita hotel to sell
industrial lubricants. Each of the characters
is something of a cliche. They talk about life
and their dreams and their regrets. The film
really does not get very far, but the
characters are interesting enough just to
listen to. Rating: 7 (0 to 10), +2 (-4 to +4)
I give a URL where that great speech of advice
from the end of the film can be read and
savored.
When American playwrights want to have a character in a
frustrating, thankless occupation they usually pick that of
salesman. We have had Arthur Miller's DEATH OF A SALESMAN, William
Inge's DARK AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS, and David Mamet's GLENGARRY
GLEN ROSS. Roger Rueff has taken a crack at the same field with
his stage play "The Big Kahuna," which he has now adapted for the
screen. The plot of THE BIG KAHUNA is fairly minimal. Two veteran
salesmen and a young representative from research come to a Wichita
hotel to sell industrial lubricants. The three bounce off each
other as they talk about life, love, business, religion, death, and
each's history. Almost the entire play takes place in one room
with little more than trimmings taking place outside the room.
Lodestar Laboratories has sent three salesmen to a fancy hotel
hosting a convention in Wichita. The three are to run a
hospitality suite. Phil Cooper (Danny DeVito in one of his best
roles ever) has brought Tom Walker (Peter Facinelli) to his first
convention. Walker is not really a salesman, but was borrowed from
R&D because he had the right sort of image. The pair is almost
directly joined by the supremely cynical Larry Mann (Kevin Spacey,
reprising the more nasty parts of his personality from AMERICAN
BEAUTY), a salesman with the personality of a thundercloud. Larry
goes immediately into an angry tantrum because the food Phil has
ordered is not fine enough and the suite of rooms is not big
enough. Observing in timid fear is Bob. As the three talk we
eventually find out about each of them. Larry is intentionally
crude and cruel to get a reaction and to get his own way. He has
an unpleasant way of turning a friendly conversation into a cross-
examination. He analyzes and examines people around him like
specimens on a slide. Phil is nearly burned out and used up.
Divorced, he lives alone and nurtures a death wish. Placid and
less intolerant than his long-time partner Larry, he quietly sits
and reads PENTHOUSE magazine while Larry's storms blow over. His
job is most of his life now. Young Bob is a Baptist with an urge
to draw Christ into every conversation.
For any play that is really a filmed conversation, the rules of
plotting are different from most films. The author only has to
keep the characters together long enough so something interesting
comes out of their mouths. And THE BIG KAHUNA is a lot closer in
style to WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF and MY DINNER WITH ANDRE
than it is to most films you will see in a theater today. The film
sinks or swims by how interesting the conversation is and what it
tells us about the people having it. For much of THE BIG KAHUNA
the style is like the old Sunday morning TV plays that showed
modern people in distress and at the end of a half hour they would
smugly point to religion as the ultimate problem solver. This
almost seemed to be a longer version of one of those plays. Toward
the end even Bob's religious fervor comes under attack with a few
well-placed verbal shots.
The play is written with more symmetry and stylistic contrivance
than is at first apparent. Each character has a secret fantasy we
see enacted. The dialog is good dialog and is engrossing, but that
is not the same thing as realistic dialog. (Ask William
Shakespeare.) In this case the Rueff contrives to have each of the
characters laid bare to the audience.
This is a film that will not be for all tastes, nor will it bring
in the audiences that an action film would, but it has its rewards.
If it does not do great boxoffice, at least the production costs
were small. I rate it 7 on the 0 to 10 scale and a +2 on the -4 to
+4 scale.
Oh, and the great monologue of advice at the end of the film. That
is "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)" by Mary Smich and read by
Baz Luhrmann, and you can find the words at
http://www.thepositivemind.com/HTML/Sunscreen.html. [-mrl]
Mark Leeper
HO 1K-644 732-817-5619
mleeper@lucent.com
Trying to tell what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time
by watching the second hand of the clock.
-- Ben Hecht
THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT ALMOST BLANK