The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 5

r2 THE COUR'ER-JOURNAL, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1988 3 Film version of tale stirs fears Health officer who warned of nuclear test threat dies f' If School of Veterinary Medicine and a district health officer of the Seattle-King County Health Department. From 1985 to 1988, he served as medical officer in the South Dakota Department of Health. Another death: Jess Oppenheimer, a radio and television producer, director and writer, Tuesday of heart failure after intestinal surgery. Oppenheimer, who helped create one of TV's most successful comedies, "I Love Lucy," died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 75.

Oppenheimer, Bob Carroll Jr. and Madelyn Pugh Davis wrote "I Love Lucy" in 1951 in response to a request from CBS to create a show for Lucille Ball and her husband, Desi Arnaz. In 1948, Oppenheimer was the producer and director of "My Favorite Husband," a radio show starring Ball. Oppenheimer began his career in broadcasting in 1936, writing radio shows at $125 a week. He wrote for "The Packard Hour" with Fred As-taire and Charlie Butterworth and the "Jack Benny," "Chase Sanborn," "Baby Snooks," "Edgar Bergen" and "Screen Guild" shows.

New York Times News Service Dr. Carl J. Johnson, a public-health official who attacked the federal government over the potentially dangerous effects of nuclear-weapons testing, died of complications from heart surgery yesterday at Lutheran Memorial Hospital in Lakewood, Colo. He was 59 and lived in Lakewood. Johnson, an epidemiologist and radiation specialist was the public-health director in Jefferson County, the site of the government's Rocky Flats plant, from 1973 to 1981.

Rocky Flats, a plutonium processing facility 16 miles northwest of Denver, opened in 1953. Johnson was one of the early critics of the way the government ran the plants, concluding that they presented substantial health risks to the public and to workers. In 1984, Johnson's views attained considerable credibility after The Journal of the American Medical Association published his study, "Cancer Incidents in an Area of Radioactive Fallout Downwind from the Nevada Test Site." The study found that radioactive fallout from nuclear bomb tests in Nevada caused an excess of cancer among Mormons in southern Utah. Previously, Johnson said, leukemia deaths among children in Jefferson County increased to twice the national rate between 1957 and 1962. Johnson, born in Sims, graduated from the Ohio State University College of Medicine.

He had a master's degree in public health from the University of California at Berkeley. He was an associate professor of pathology at the Cornell University After a private screening Wednesday for railroad officials and Bahm's relatives, Schlldknecht said he would consider eliminating the offending scene. However, last night Schildknecht said he had decided not to change the film, because it poses little threat of attracting visitors to the trestle from outside the Louisville area. If the film has more showings locally, Schildknecht said, he would incorporate the railroad's statement just before the final credits to help ensure that audiences hear the information. Railroad officials complained that last night's statement was barely audible.

They want it added to the film's soundtrack. Schildknecht, a Western Kentucky University graduate, began working on the film in 1985. Most of the $6,000 cost came out of his pocket Most of the film was shot at the Pope Lick trestle. However, scenes that show Clancy and a friend on the trestle were filmed at another, safer trestle, he said. Schildknecht said he contacted Norfolk Southern officials before he began filming, but was told the railroad would not cooperate unless he first obtained a $3 million liability insurance policy.

He said be was unable to find an insurance company that would write such a policy, and so proceeded without the railroad's permission. Bob Auman, a Norfolk Southern spokesman in Roanoke, Va said the company "objects strenuously" to photographs or films "that show people trespassing on railroad property." "It undermines our efforts on behalf of safety when movies like this are made," Auman said. Schildknecht thinks the film could actually improve railway safety. He wants to show it to students in the Jefferson County Public Schools to help educate them to the dangers of climbing the trestle, although he has not yet talked with school officials about the idea. Some people who saw the film last night predicted it could encourage teen-agers to visit the trestle.

"It seems like they were having fun there (in the film) the way they were cavorting around," said Neil Norman, 15, a sophomore at the Brown School. But Norman, who said he had never been to the trestle and was unfamiliar with the Pope Lick legend, doesn't expect many will try to cross the span. "Hopefully they'll be smart enough not to." Continued from Page I theaters nationwide. But an attorney for Norfolk Southern which owns the trestle, said he'll talk with Schlldknecht about first making some changes in the film. "I think it sends the wrong message," said attorney Charles Green-well.

"The more I see the film, the more I'm convinced of that" The film is based on a folk legend that Schlldknecht said has existed for more than three generations among teen-agers who live near Jef-fersontown and Fisherville. Most variations of the legend proclaim the existence of the sheepman monster that lives near the trestle off Pope Lick Road. Some versions say the monster chases people away from the trestle. But in Schildknecht's version, the creature lures youths onto the tracks with intense hypnotic powers. At least one part of the film is factual: Area teen-agers have been drawn to the trestle, and two have died there in the past two years.

Jack Charles Bahm II, a 17-year-old Spalding University student, was struck and killed by a train last Feb. 18 while walking on the trestle. In May 1987, 19-year-old David Wayne Bryant died of injuries he suffered a year earlier when he jumped from the trestle to avoid getting hit by a train. An epilogue to the film, narrated by actor Ben Allgeier, alludes to the deaths and warns viewers to stay away. But the film opens with Allgeier explaining the legend and saying, "You gotta go out there." A written statement from the railroad warning of the trestle's dangers was read to the audience before the premiere.

The statement said that anyone on the trestle could be prosecuted for trespassing and warned that the trestle has no walkways, handholds or ledges. Railroad officials and others also said the film is misleading because it suggests that it is possible to hang from the trestle to avoid being struck by a train. In the film, a character named Clancy, a high school student, goes to the trestle at night with two friends after they stop to buy beer. As Clancy walks across the trestle, he Imagines confronting the sheepman monster on the tracks. Suddenly, a train approaches and Clancy narrowly escapes by hanging suspended from the side of the trestle.

In reality, few people would have time to climb under the trestle before the train arrived, or the strength to hang on until it passes, officials say. i STAFF PHOTO BY KEITH WILLIAMS CHILLY CHORE: Albert Davis unloaded firewood for his daughter recently on North Western Parkway in Louisville. Davis, of Henryville, cut the wood in the Clark State Forest Jess Oppenheimer Helped create television's "I Love Lucy" Church helping poor by closing Eat hearty fl church members has dropped to about 50, but Sellers says they still try to help the needy in their midst. The congregation distributes food to about 100 residents each month, uses money from its dwindling treasury to help the needy buy prescription medicines, and helps get clothes to the poor. Even proceeds from the sale of the building will go to Hospice of Louisville, Home of the Innocents, and other charities.

"The decision to close at this time was one of stewardship," said Sellers. "Rather than be forced to close later with no money, we decided to put the building on the market now, and be able to pass some blessings on to others." Continued from Page 1 West Side-Portland as a neighborhood focal point" Dr. George Bullard of South Carolina, who was a staff minister and pastor at the church for four years until 1976, said West Side-Portland was already involved in youth groups but during his tenure it put additional emphasis on social programs. In 1974, it became home to the Nutrition Center for Senior Citizens, one of 14 in Jefferson County created to offer hot lunches and activities to the elderly. The church's growth as a religious force and much of its social posture is credited to Whiteley, who was infuriated by the vice thriving in Louisville in the 1940s.

ore He railed against gambling, urg Mail includes laws of travel ing city and county officials to rec Enjoy a great dinner at the Fifth Quarter on New Year's Eve. Choose from great steaks, seafood or prime rib our specialty! We will prepare you a dinner you'll remember into next year! ognize gambling for the cancerous thing that it is instead of merely kindly disposi- gourd growers had tions.) winking at it as a light matter." SOLID OAK 10-50OFF Storewide Inventory Clearance Sale "Most people idolized him," said Gilmet a church member for 35 years. "But he and we didn't see eyeball to eyeball." DINNER SERVED FROM 4 p.m. NEW YEAR'S EVE. Gilmet said she joined another Mon.

Dec. 26 thru Sat. Dec. 31 POUND OAK GALLERY 9407 Shelbyville Road 423-8833 Durrett Lane just off Preston Hwy. 361-2363 1-64 (Exit 19A to Snyder Freeway) j-Tww Taylorsville Rd.

I 2m, 1 1 OAK i Eit 23 off SnyrJy Freeway Old Tay'orsviHe Rd Continued from Page 1 will have just passed a sign saying, 'Next rest area 50 when a passenger decides that a 'pit stop is necessary. "Arriving at a most-needed rest area, the exit sign will read, 'No Concerning the Oct 31 column about Grace Jones Lover of Mount Sterling, who played the organ for silent movies in the 1920s, E. Peter Robare of La Grange wrote: "Fascinated to know there is someone else around who still remembers what a "cue sheet" was. too, was a musician in a silent movie theater but played the piano with my feet' "My father made a great career move by buying a silent movie house in 1927. This was a one-projector family affair.

Pop ran the projector, my mother sold tickets, and I pumped the player piano." Marvin Bryant of Louisville has informed me that I incorrectly wrote in October that the 684-inches-in-circumference bushel gourd that won our annual Big Bushel Gourd Contest this year was the biggest I'd seen since the contest began. Bryant who won the contest in 1986, reminds me that his gourd was 69 inches in circumference, and he has threatened either not to renew his subscription to The Courier Journal, or to read it only on days when I'm not published, unless the mistake is corrected. (And I thought that all bushel Open Sun. 1-5, 10-6 267-1749 Finally, my recent reprint of a letter sent by an irate Tennessee farmer, many years ago, to the president of the Paducah, Tennessee and Alabama Railroad after one of its trains struck the farmer's bull prompted the following letters: Alfred Abrams of Prospect wrote that in 1946, Dr. Robert G.

Lee, then pastor of the Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, told of an Arkansas farmer who wrote the Southern Pacific Railroad: "Dear Sirs: "My razorback strolled down the track a week ago today. "Your Number 9 came down the line and snuffed his life away. You can't blame me, the hog, you see, went through an open gate. So kindly pen your check for ten, this debt to liquidate." A railroad employee replied in kind. "Our number 9 came down the line and killed your hog, we know.

But razorbacks on railroad tracks quite often meet with woe. Therefore, my friend, we cannot send the check for which you pine. Just bury the dead, write o're his head, "Here lies a foolish swine." J.W. Reeves of Salt Lick, adds: "It was common knowledge, during those days, that the most valuable animal on the farm was any old bull or heifer crossed with a railroad locomotive." church during the last of Whiteley's tenure because of his prohibition against women holding important church posts. "But he did a lot for the church," she said.

After Whiteley came a succession of nine seminary students for whom the church served as a training ground. "We had some extremely good ones," Gilmet said, "and they all tried hard. And we sent many out into the religious world to do important things." Dr. Harold Songer, pastor from 1957 to 1962, is now vice president of academic affairs at Southern Seminary and professor of New Testament interpretation. Bullard is state director of missions for the South Carolina Baptist Convention, but he says he got as much in spiritual development from the congregation as he contributed as pastor.

"I just really felt like it was an intense laboratory of learning," Bullard said. "The needs were so different than in Baltimore and Philadelphia where I grew up that sharing Christian love with them really helped mature my faith." The thriving neighborhood Bullard remembers, however, is now about 35 percent poor, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and construction of Interstate 64 in 1971 resulted in huge population declines. As a consequence, the number of The Original" AO1 iiiiiiillllii ICY. FAIR EXPO CENTER KI.GEC.S3i -SAT.

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Judge rejects request for new drug sentence business out of a St Matthews apart ment when police raided it May 25. S3. 2 GSGMIC BS EAST WING WEST WING PAVILION- have been raised throughout the country as attorneys have appealed sentences imposed under them. The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in October about the constitutionality of the guidelines but has not ruled.

Taft said in court that he requested the stiff penalty because of Hays' previous drug convictions, lying to investigators and refusal to provide names of dealers and customers. Ballantine told Taft and Hays' attorney, Bill Devers, that Hays' drug dealing was not as bad as other drug cases that involved larger quantities and threats of violence. Ballantine called drugs "a terrible blight on our society," but termed Hays dealing "a small operation." Hays, of the 1400 block of South Brook Street was running a drug Continued from Page 1 mitted after Nov. 1, 1987. Ballantine said the case's circumstances warranted neither the maximum life sentence and $4.5 million fine nor the minimum sentence of 30 years and a $2.5 million fine.

Although sentences outside the guidelines are permitted, Ballantine suggested to Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander Taft who prosecuted the case, that he hoped Taft would appeal to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. "I would like to have guidance," Ballantine said. He later said he wanted to know when departure from the guidelines is appropriate.

Taft indicated he would consider appealing the sentence. Questions about the guidelines ONE OF THE WORLD'S LARGEST FINEST FLEA MARKETS! When arrested. Hays was out on bond from Jefferson Circuit Court and U.S. District Court on other drug cases. At the St Matthews apartment police found seven pounds of marijuana, drug paraphernalia and $12,789.

They also found financial records from December 1987 that show Hays grossed nearly $170,000 from his drug business from May 1 through May 25. In requesting the maximum sentence for Hays, Taft told Ballantine that Hays wasn't "deserving of any break from this court" Devers contended that Hays was not a big-time dealer as portrayed by Taft, and that he could be INCLUDING OVER 800 ANTIQUE BOOTHS! SHOW OPENS THUnS. DEC. 29 HOON NO EARLY SHOPPERS.