The N.C. Essay
Page 7
All Interview With Susan Summers
Recently Susan Summers was
invited to Journalism 201 for an
interview. The staff had already
addressed her on its problem-
three students on the ^ff of the
college and high school
newspaper. A notice had been
placed in Don Martin’s Hap
penings asking for assistance and
none had come. But the staff was
not that wrapped up in its own
problems; they wanted to find out
just how difficult the new
president of Student Government
was finding her job. But with its
own problems in mind, the staff
knew it would have a sym
pathetic ear when addressing
Susan on the school’s apathy. She
had campaigned for change.
Interviewer: What have you
found different so far from some
idea you may have preconceived
about SGA?
Susan: It’s a lot more work. I
imagined 10 to 15 hours of in
volvement a week; it’s more like
30.
Essay: We heard that you
recently spent some of that time
putting out a Hre.
Susan: Chris Robare was
responsible for putting it out.
Essay: Were you there?
Susan: I had just driven up
with a car full when the alarm
went off.
Essay: What were people
doing?
Susan: Everyone I saw was
kind of standing around. Some
D&P’s were trucking, locating
fire extinguishers, and by the
time I got to second floor B the
hre was being extinquished.
Then, I tried to ventilate the
smoke. Burning plastic does
create a toxic gas. It was a pretty
serious thing but no one took that
into consideration. It could have
exploded.
Essay: Was anyone charged?
Susan: No one knows who did
it.
Essay: Then you suspect ar
son?
Susan: It was hardly an ac
cident.
Essay: Do you think it was a
joke or something more serious?
Susan: It probably was a joke
but the joker did not know how
serious it could become.
Essay: Were the resident
students alarmed?
Susan: Not really and I almost
understand that. When you hear a
fire alarm going off once a week-
because a mechanism was
messed up, somebody cooing or
smoking, then all you do is wait
for someone to cut the thing off.
Plus students clown with alamos
too and this is dangerous.
Essay: Speaking of dangers,
last year there were a lot of
outsiders bothering students,
mainly girls, around the school.
Is that s^ a problem?
Susan: I haven’t heard of any
occurences. The security officer
keeps me pretty informed and
they have run a few people off
campus. The other night there
were six extremely drunk men at
Waughtown Street. It is a poorly
lit place and on the way to the
shop. The place has become a
concern of security guards. They
feel there should be a light up
there.
Essay: Moving on, is student
government planning anything
new this year to sponsor?
Homecoming is a bit old.
Susan: Homecoming is a much
larger investment now.
Essay: Is that good to someone
like you who has been here for
two years? Are you tired of it?
Susan: No, I’m never tired of it.
The thing is that on another
campus the students get involved
with Homecoming. It’s no
release. It’s no longer....
Essay: Fun?
Susan: Yeah. Some here get
serious but it is a different kind of
release. But we aren’t really
involved otherwise. The whole
objective, you see, is to offer as
big as rdease as possible to the
entire student body. I want it to
become for them whatever it will
be.
Essay: We’re staying away
from apathy since tiiiis column
usually goes that way with
student government people, but
what about our problem- the
paper and three people on the
staff?
Susan: Vour problem is just an
extension of the lack of in
volvement. We have no yearbook
because no one wants to be
bothered. It is really difficult to
deal with people who say we must
have a school paper but lend no
support. You can’t make people
involved.
Essay: The Happening Sheet is
a positive thing. Do you feel that
should continue?
Susan: Yes, but the reason it
works is that there’s one person
who is paid to put it out. And he
cares about it.
Essay: Do you feel that editors
should be paid as in the case of
the Essay?
Susan: I know the editor was
salaried but it didn’t work out.
The Essay was extra-curricular
involvement but that went
downhill. Then we got
cooperation with the Academic
Department and things were
great and then people lost in
terest again.
Essay: It’s always been new
students though. They just didn’t
show up this year with an interest
for journalism.
Susan: I think a lot of students
do not take into consideration the
importance of student govern
ment and what position that
organization can play in the
campus community?
Essay: Is there a campus
commiuiity?
Susan: In a physical form, yes.
Essay: What about high
sdiool? Do you get involved in
their problems with Council?
Susan: Yes. What I was getting
around to was that the thing
about Council is that students
don’t know that they have that
outlet. Constantly 1 hear old
complaints about issues blown
out of proportion. Students should
come to Council when they c^’t
get things done like housing
problems, etc. Students need to
realize this outlet.
Essay: When can students
come and where?
Susan; Anytime they see me or
another representative. The
meetings are at 12 noon on
Wednesdays in the Student
Council office in Seminar C. here
in Commons.
Essay: Is Connmons a problem
for you?
Susan: It is a tremendous
problem to schedule a room for
meeting in the Commons. In fact,
it is not a student Commons; it’s
a classroom, a dance studlo-none
of this was the original intention.
The newspaper should be officed
up here. Dance should not be here
at all.
Commons? The gym is still an
ordiestra rehearsal hall. The
dance studio should be the book
store or art gallery or something,
liie day students make a mess
because they don’t have
anywhere to go.
The main concern is that the
building is misnamed. It should
be called Subsidiary Classroom
Building!
Essay: Can anybody do
anything about it?
Susan: Well, for starters, I got
an office. I did lose Seminar B
because I didn’t sign up and was
pre-empted by a ^ama singing
class. Let me add-it’s pretty
difficult for twenty-nine
represoitatives, to meet in a
closet. It just makes me mad.
Let’s just hope students become
more involved with this com
munity.
Essay: Well, this interview has
opened up some interesting
subjects. Can we end on a
positive note?
Susan: I have a positive
response-HOMECOMING!
Sleuth
One of the delightful things
about “Sleuth” was the part the
element of surprise played in the
development of the plot. In every
case, the surprise factor formed
a proverbial “exit” for the three
or four main sulnlivisions of the
film, forming a pattern of tension
and release that felt satisfying in
its pretended complexity.
Midiael Caine was adequate as
a London hairdresser; the most
confusing thing that I found in his
interix'etation of the character
was the ever-changing IQ he
inadverdantly presented in this
man. At first he appeared to have
just walked off the set of one of
his secret agent movies (the
power of association) what with
taylored suit, sports car, and the
Midiael Caine glasses. But later,
what was evidently supposed to
be an attempt at character
development somehow came off
as a reminder from the director
to get into character.
While Oliviers performance
was superior to Caine’s, in my
oiHnion, I felt that the most
sincere job of acting took place in
the character of the detective
(the actors name I’ve forgotten).
His relatively brief appearance
somehow forms the highlight of
the movie for me. Whether his
reason for being there was to dub
in for Caine’s lack of sustaining
power or whether merely to
provide another actor with a job
is irrelevent in this case, as the
illusion is broken when “there
are only two people in the
movie!” discovers through the
crests and friends that “well, not
really”.
The music, also, subtly
enhanced the effect of the film;
the game-playing atmosphere
where unreality and fantasy
formed the major motivational
factors involved. A little of the
circus, a little of the ominous and
only brief reminders of the real
world, such as the end of the film.
All in all, it was delightful en
tertainment and a well-needed
change of pace from the
Hollywood mill.
Clifford Young
Sister Moon
Franco Zefferilli’s in
terpretation of the major
segments of the life of St. Francis
of Assisi I hope will start a trend
in subject matter for films in the
70’s. I think we need more artistic
oideavors where sheer positive
thinking sets the stage; we need
to see things as they should be
instead of how they are (or how
people think they are) in slightly
larger doses than we’re receiving
at Uie present.
The film, essentially, centered
on the metamori^asis of Francis
from mere mortal to saint and
the reaction of family, friends,
and townspeople as well as his
efforts to buUd a church. The
quasi-climax of the film has St.
Francis in an audience with the
Pope. My main criticism of it is
a lack of contrast in the form.
Beautiful vistas and panoramas
are constantly held up for our
approval the rich costumes and
colorful settings are paraded
before our eyes, clamoring for
attention. The result of this
beautiful marathon is that when
we come to parts that are sup
posed to be tremendously
spectacular, the effect pales
biecause we’ve already seen too
much like it.
Zefferelli’s eye for good,
photogenic faces once again
serves him in good stead; both St.
Francis and the girl were ex
traordinarily beautiful. But this
too proved tiresome after awhile
even though token shots of
peasants and lepers were for
thcoming.
At any rate, a healthy dose of
inspiring medicine did manage to
make itself felt and the various
messages of the film were
projected, I think, loud and clear.
If more of these messages were
exposed to more people through
the film medium, people mi^t
begin believing them.
Clifford Young
The Show Business
Nobody Knows
From four-letter words to the
legitimate theatre, from the
casting couch to the work of
Edward Albee, The Midnight
Earl has walked a beat that has
given him an “in” to many
scandalous and heartwarming
stories. These are stories he has
never revealed; he does so now in
The Show Business Nobody
Knows.
In this eye-opening book, Earl
Wilson gives us a fascinating dish
of untold-tales, secret and not-so-
secret scandals, and glimpses
into the life styles of superstars in
the tinsle world of entertainment.
Nothing escapes the attention of
Mr. Wilson as he zeroes in on the
showbusiness roles played by sex
symbols such as Rita Hayworth,
Lana Turner, Marilyn Monroe,
Jayne Mansfield and Raquel
Welch, and superstars such as
John Wayne, Marlon Brando,
Sammy Davis, Jr. and Barbara
Streisand.
Author Wilson peeps into
what’s behind the nudity
revolution (Hedy Lamarr
starting it all) and why it has
reached the present epic
proportions. He delves into
scandals involving the business
as well as private activities of
stars, producers, and directors-
including the Taylor-Burton
saga- that have been hushed up.
He dedicates colorful chapters
to Las Vegas and offers an
unusual view of Mystery Man
Howard Hughes. Wilson’s
treatment of the big-name bands
and of stars as Frank Sinatra,
Dean Martin, Perry Como, and
Peggy Lee, who got their start
wiUi them-gives the reader a
hypo-dermic in the arm of
nostalgia. He also covers the rise
of important black stars as Leslie
Uggams, Diahann Carroll,
Sidney Poitier, and Harry
Belafonte, who have hit the jack
pot.
The early night club era, the
gaudy girlie shows, and the wild
music business-dlsc jockeys,
payola, the shift from jazz to rock
to folk to rhythm and blues to the
lonely cry of soul- are the stuff of
The Show Business Nobody
Knows.
Randy Jones