Ken Burns.
"You married me in high school!" said Ken Burns as he entered the green
room of the Lydia Mendelssohn Theater last Thursday afternoon. Maybe it was
the bew
ildered expression on my face that caused the celebrity to explain. "It was
in one of your Creative Thinking classes at Pioneer in 1970 when you were
the minis
ter and conducted a fake and funny marriage between me and ..." Same old
problem. Can't even remember the other person's name since he reminded me
about it la
st week.
This green room brings back other memories, though. After Kenny and
Ricky Burns
graduated from Pioneer we created Pioneer II/Earthworks and then Community
High. Over the years we invited ourselves to many of the lectures in this
hall. We
sat in this same room and interviewed Gore Vidal who admonished Arwulf to be
very clean and very polite when it came to any kind of sexual contact.
Jolie Gabo
r brought along her husband, the Hungarian freedom fighter Count deShivitsy,
and I proposed marriage to the old Hungarian beauty, too, simply so that I
might gi
ve a good spanking to her three daughters - Zsa Zsa, Magda, and Ava. Mike
Wallace let us chase him through the balcony of this theater, as well, but
the kids
got their interview. Arthur Treacher spoke to us of being a butler in the
movies, even though the kids associated him with fast fish food enterprises.
They re
cognized Vincent Price more readily, both from his horror movies and from
his expertise as an art critic and collector for Sears; they appreciated his
theme: I
like what I know! Virtually all of the celebs attested to the fact that
they became talented and famous because of alternative modes of education
and had much
to tell our little hippie reporters.
Last week's back stage was managed by another former student, Barry
LaRue, who used to proclaim he wouldn't 'make art' in the fifth grade unless
he could si
t on Mr. Dodd's lap.
Lecture series grand dames grouped our Commuicator writers around Ken
for a few quick snapshots of a quarter century of creative classroom
activities. Syl
via VanMeerten, Patrick Halloran, and Paul McKeever sharpened pencils and
got ready for their first big celebrity interview. David Britt found the
coffee pot a
nd settled in for the interview. Sam England came in just in time to get in
the pictures with Ken that were taken by some of the Ladies From The
Committee.
For this last lecture in the Waterman Lecture Series we had been told
we'd have to listen over the PA in the green room but, as curtain time
arrived, the ma
nagement magnimously seated us in the the second row, center. The reports
follow on this page . . .