Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 84

REPUBLIC Channel 15 readies lineup to replace ON TV programming By Bud Wilkinson Republic Staff ON TV has begun what is expected to be a lengthy process of folding its subscription-television service in the Valley, while KNXV-TV (Channel 15) seems in solid shape to start telecasting full time early next month. The sudden decision to suspend ON TV operations in Phoenix on May 4 was made by the service's parent company, Oak Communications, and was relayed to the approximately 140 local employees of ON TV late Wednesday afternoon. Oak Communications also is moving to disassemble the ON TV service in Dallas. It reportedly will wrap up operations April 30; a recorded message tells callers who wish to take the ON TV service that subscriptions are no longer being accepted. These actions will have no effect on Oak Communication's three other subscription-TV operations in Los Angeles, Chicago and Ft Lauderdale-Miami, according to the company.

ON TV's more than 24,000 Valley subscribers are expected to be informed of the company's plans by early next week. "We will be notifying them by mail, hopefully by Tuesday," said George Fettig, ON TV's local general manager. The phasing-out process is expected to last several months. "We will be keeping our administrative offices open as long as necessary to settle accounts," Fettig said Thursday. Commenting on employee reaction to the news of the shutdown, the executive reported, "There was some shock and certainly some tears.

There's a lot of loyalty here." The company is "making every effort to keep these people through the transition" and plans to "maintain as much of the work force as we can during the transition period," Fettig said. Relocation to ON TV operations in other cities will be possible for some workers. "Oak has told me any qualified person would be considered. They want good people," he said. Fettig first learned of Oak Communication's desire to fold the Phoenix service during a meeting Wednesday at Oak Communications headquarters in Rancho Bernardo, Calif.

He then flew home to tell his staff the bad news. Channel 15, meanwhile, is expected to begin programming the prime-time hours on May 5, and recently has acquired nearly a dozen syndicated shows to fill the evening hours. General Manager Ed Cooperstein said Thursday that a lineup will be announced late next week. Among some of the available selections are Gunsmoke, Rawhide, Mission: Impossible, Mannix, The Rookies, The Fugitive, The Twilight Zone and One Step Beyond. Other program acquisitions are being considered, said Cooperstein, whose station currently sells air time nightly to ON TV at a $300-per-hour fee.

Official word that the local subscription-TV service, which began operating in the Valley in September 1979, will cease operations is expected early next week. "Confirmation of these facts will be forthcoming," said Fettig. The demise of ON TV locally comes as no surprise to some industry observers, who perceive subscription television as a stop-gap measure in areas having low cable penetration. ON TV's closure became a question of "when," not "if," as there was a continuing loss of subscribers to the burgeoning cable industry. ON TV has witnessed an erosion of more than 14,000 customers, or one-third of its subscriber base, since July, when the company hit a peak of 39,034.

The company's customer count was put at 24,837 as of a week ago. THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC Friday, April 15, 1983 and the arts Late choreographer captured the insanity of world conflict Bank letter of credit adds new wrinkle to theater dispute Ballet remains strong anti-war indictment Dimitri Music Drobatschewsky -a rp THE GREEN TABLE Ballet in one act (eight scenes) by Kurt Jooss, performed by the Joffrey Ballet. Presented at 9 p.m. today on KAET (Channel 8) as part of the Dance in America series on Great Performances by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The subject, alas, is timeless.

In 1932, the German choreographer Kurt Jooss created The Green Table, a ballet that won first prize at an international competition in Paris and became the classic anti-war dance statement. The Green Table will again spellbind audiences when the Joffrey Ballet performs it on Great Performances' Dance in America at 9 p.m. today on Channel 8. Jooss, a native of Stuttgart, Germany, was searching for a means of artistic expression when, as a young man, he met Rudolph Van Laban, one of the founding fathers of modern dance. Performing with Van Laban's highly athletic dance troupe, Jooss became an enthusiastic devotee of modern, interpretive and expression-istic dance.

"I was entirely unsuited to be a dancer," said Jooss. "I was heavy, phlegmatic and totally without muscles." The chance meeting with Van Laban changed his life. "The dance of which I was unaware, came to me, and I was like a sleeper being awakened by the bright morning sunlight," Jooss explained. When, after its instantaneous success in Germany, The Green Table exploded upon the international dance scene, Jooss became world-famous overnight. His triumph, however, soon was overshadowed by excruciating setbacks, the first of which occurred in 1933.

With the Nazis' rise to power in Germany, the new regime demanded that Jooss fire his Jewish and half-Jewish company members. Jooss, a man of great artistic conviction, showed that he possessed its moral equivalent and refused. He and his troupe were forced to flee their native country to avoid internment in a concentration camp. performs the work. The work opens with a conference at a green table, around which 10 politicians, grotesquely masked, are disagreeing.

Kurt Jooss" anti-war ballet, The Green Table, will be seen in its entirety for the first time on television at 9 p.m. today on Channel 8. The Joffrey Ballet By Andrew Means Republic Staff A new chapter has opened in a behind-the-scenes struggle centered on the Celebrity Theatre. It concerns a $750,000 letter of credit which, it is alleged, was used by theater tenants NOW Entertainment Inc. as proof of financial resources to secure its lease in January 1982.

Whether the letter was valid or a worthless photocopy now has been called into question. Apart from possibly affecting the validity of the lease, the issue could result in criminal charges. The letter has been dismissed as irrelevant by David Lonn, NOW's president, who says it "had nothing to do with (securing) the lease." The letter was never needed, he said, because alternative financing was found when NOW became a limited partnership. "There are people who want the theater," Lonn said. "But the fact is, we've put Vt million (dollars) into the building, and the only thing that's going to get us out of here is if I decide the Phoenix market isn't worth it, and I'm a long way from that" For two years, the Celebrity has been administered by a bankruptcy-court appointee, Jerry Skousen, acting on behalf of the owner, International Airport Motel.

It was Skousen, according to court officials, who negotiated the lease with NOW. The letter of credit was the financial basis for the deal, said Skousen's attorney, Jon Vogel. Several months after the lease was signed, Vogel said, he contacted the bank named in the letter, the Great American Bank in Miami, because of liens against the Celebrity. "Their reply was, 'We don't know anything about Vogel said. Vogel reportedly is under pressure from at least one of the owners, David Manusevitz, to investigate.

"There's been some wrongdoing, and whoever committed it should be prosecuted," said Foster G. Mori, an attorney for Manusevitz. NOW also is contesting a $300,000 suit by contractors who claim that amount still is owed on a $1.5 million remodeling project. The suit is directed at both NOW and the theater owners, International Airport Motel. Lonn says the work wasn't done properly and has named the owners and the trustee in a countersuit claiming that building-code violations at the theater were not disclosed before the lease was signed.

"Once the (theater remodeling) work was done, what's the difference?" said NOW's attorney, Frank Lewis. "It's a red herring," Lewis said. "If (Vogel) said we let (NOW) in on condition they do improvements, and they haven't, that would be different "The trustee is bringing this issue up now because the trustee and the partners know they have misled NOW. At this point, they would love to have the theater back because of all the money that's gone into it." Issued on Jan. 22, 1982, the letter of credit is headed Great American Bank "irrevocable commercial letter of credit" and authorizes Now Entertainment Inc.

to draw up to $750,000 "available by your drafts at sight." However, there are differences of opinion whether this letter was the real thing or a facsimile, issued merely to show the form a valid letter of credi could take. Vogel said the letter received by the trustee was presented as the genuine article. Great American's president, Bill Spute, denied all knowledge of the letter when contacted last week. But later an attorney for the bank, Gene Stearns, said the bank had, after an extensive search of records, found that it had issued a copy of the letter of credit to Lawrence Malanfant. Malanfant, the owner of the Pima Country Club in Scottsdale, had considered investing in NOW.

According to Stearns, the letter had COPY written on it and was not negotiable as a bona fide letter of credit. A few days after it was issued, Stearns said, Malanfant called the bank and said the letter was not needed. Apparently, Stearns said, "at some subsequent time" after the letter left the bank, "the word COPY was eliminated." Malanfant said he recalls that the letter did have the word COPY written on it. But, Lonn said, "The copy I have, and the copy the court has, doesn't have COPY on it." Also in question is a $9,000 check Lonn said he signed as a fee to the bank for the letter. Lonn says he has a copy of a check made out to the bank and cashed on NOW's account At first, Stearns said he had no knowledge of this check, but after conferring with the bank official who made the transaction, he said a $9,000 check had been received, but from Malanfant for an entirely separate letter of credit for $300,000.

Malanfant agreed with this. Lonn said the $750,000 letter was canceled when Malanfant withdrew and NOW found alternative financial sources and became a limited partnership. Asked why he thought the investigation was being made, Lonn said, "There's a lot of people that make money from litigation. You have a business that's in Chapter 11 and has no business being in Chapter 11 because they don't owe anybody anything. They are in there because of ego and personal reasons." Chapter 11 of the Federal Bankruptcy Act frees a company from the Theater, E6 choreographers and dancers.

The Green Table opens with a diplomatic conference at the eponymous green baize table, around which 10 politicians, grotesquely masked, are disagreeing. The meeting ends when each delegate pulls out a pistol and fires: War has been declared. Outside the conference room, young men are called to the colors. From this moment on, Death goose-steps across the stage in scene after scene, claiming one victim after another. There are pictures of farewells, of soldiers leaving their women.

The battle commences and men die. Refugees flee and suffer; a partisan woman is executed. The Profiteer makes his appearance here and there; he sells a young girl into a brothel. War-stained soldiers return but Death is in control everywhere and claims his share. After the final parade of the dead, only Death and the diplomats survive.

The last scene returns to the green table. The politicians argue, but the outcome will always be the same. The subject, alas, is timeless. Music for the ballet was composed by Fritz Cohen and is performed on the piano by May Sofge. The Joffrey Ballet is the first American company to produce The Green Table and has performed it for the last 15 years.

The one-hour telecast also includes excerpta of interviews with Jooss, and shows portions of some of his other works, such as Pavane for a Dead Infant, Big City, and A Ball in Old Vienna. The company had barely settled in England when, at the onset of World War II, Jooss suffered the cruel irony that so many anti-Nazi refugees from Germany were forced to endure: He was interned by the British authorities as an "enemy alien." Jooss survived internment and the war and returned to Germany in 1947. He re-established his ballet company and school, and performed for the Allied occupation forces. However, a year later, the company folded for lack of financial support. Until his death in an automobile accident in 1979, Jooss taught, lectured, and achieved worldwide recognition for his work.

He helped ballet companies throughout the world with the staging of The Green Table, and he now is considered one of the major influences on today's Tempe fair celebrates updating of old-time craft skills Bvnts Gene Luptak ARIZONA FOLK FAIR Saturday, 10 a.m. to p.m., Petersen Park, Priest and Southern Avenue, Tempe, featuring crafts, storytelling, dance, cowboy skills, music, foods and folk games. Free admission. Today carones (confetti-filled eggshells), kite making and tattooing. Hopi Indians will demonstrate piki making, basketmaking, corn parching and other crafts.

Papago Indians will share traditions of basketmaking, pottery making and Indian games. At 1 p.m., ranching skills will be demonstrated, including calf tying, roping, auctioneering, barrel racing and sheep shearing. Music and dance will be provided throughout the day. Performers include the Edelweiss Alpine Dancers, Cambodian Association of Dancers, Ballet Folklorico de St Martin, Hopi dancers from Hotevilla-Bacavi Community School, Croatian Junior Tamburitzan Band, Gospel Singers of Casa Grande, San Simon Papago Square Dancers, fiddling by Ray Gardner, Serbian Folk Dance by St Saves Serbian Orthodox Church and Irish piping by the Rev. Martin Kelly.

Ethnic foods also will be available. The Arizona Folk Fair is presented by the Tempe Historical Society and the department of English at Arizona State University. It has been funded by a grant from the Folk Arts Division of the National Endowment for the Arts, Visitors to the Arizona Folk Fair on Saturday will see and hear scores of state residents who have adapted folk traditions to contemporary times. "We are interested in how folk culture is transmitted and how it changes to the contemporary," said Marjorie Tschohl, fair director. "This is not an old-time fair, it is not like Williamsburg (or) this is the way it was in 1883." The fair will be held from 10 a.m.

to 5 p.m. Saturday at Petersen Park, Priest and Southern Avenue, Tempe. Admission is free. Tschohl cites her grandmother as an example of someone who continued a folk tradition into the contemporary times of her day. Her grandmother made quilts by hand but was enthusiastic when the sewing machine came to town.

She adapted easily to make quilts on the machine. Tschohl said folk traditionalists might not approve of the use of a machine to make quilts. "We never stop time," Tschohl said. Another example of folk culture is the New Dimension Car Club, which will display low-rider cars at the fair. Tschohl said the club members use styling of vehicles to express individuality and cultural identity.

1 PLAY IT AGAIN David Soul, right, plays Rick Blaine, owner of Rick's Cafe Americain, in NBC's remake of Casablanca. Bud Wilkinson, El 5. Bridge E7 Cinemafare El 3 Dining out E14 Leisure calendar E3 Movie guide E10 Namesfaces E2 Night life guide E4 Three storytellers will be on hand from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. George will relate stories about cowboys and life on the ranch; Cornelius O'Driscoll will tell Irish stories; and Ezrel McCowan will share his stories of planting and harvesting.

McCowan has had exceptional success with his garden in south Phoenix. He says of his secrets is that he learned from his mother Louisiana how to plant by the moon. Various folk crafts will be demonstrated at the fair, including Greek spinning methods, tatting, quilting, shawl making, beadworking, whittling, silversmithing, Ukrainian-style egg decorating, cas- Admission is free. i.