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 . . .