St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 41

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH A ii jr. 16, 1974 5D In Son Dies That Old Chid spectator night sounds By Dick Richmond Of the I WDispatch Staff PLAYBOY If anyone were to attempt to list the top love songs of the last 10 years, Bill Withers's "Grandma's Hands" most likely would not even be in the running. It's not the right type. No romance.

Then, too, the subject matter is wrong. On top of that, the music has an infectious beat. Toe-tapping melodies ordinarily do not make for good love songs. In spite of that, "Grandma's Hands" is a love song because it is a sensitive appraisal of how one person feels about In introducing it at the Playboy Club the other night, Withers talked about his boyhood in Slab Fork, W. how he used to accompany his grandmother to church.

"It was a place for" happy music," he related, "and I remember her there. Hands' is about her," he said. "I want you to know that I really dug that old chick." It was a statement of a man who finds no embarrassment in exposing his feelings to others. He does it beautifully and in such a way that almost fj -imii mi rvr ir- ririiiiiriaiiT MiiiiiiTiT- i.a.iir at the movies the other way and make rationalizations for yourself that the world is just changing and you have to go along willi it. I hope it doesn't become necessary for me to make any more rationalizations than I have already made.

It doesn't ease anything for me." If the conflict within himself still exists, Withers didn't show it in his performance. It wasn't masterful, but it was very human. He is a entertainer saying things and singing songs in a very entertaining way. He will be at the Playboy Club, 3914 Lindell Boulevard, through tomorrow. Cover is $5.50.

Nonmembers can attend by paying an additional $1 entrance fee at the door. ARTHUR'S Different situations, different performances. When I caught a group called Sommerset a couple of years ago, there was a girl singer with the band who impressed me so little that I did not remember her name. After hearing Michele Car-dillo sing with Doris Phillips's Foursome Monday, I don't think I'll have another memory lag. She's not a sensational performer who has the ability to exhaust the audience.

But she is comfortable in the spotlight, cozy with songs and conversational with the crowd. Doris plays keyboard, Robin Hood is on bass and the drummer is Jerry Allison. Michele seemed to respond to the musicians and they to her. When she was singing, they wove the music through her words. In the vocal pauses, the band came into its own.

anyone could relate to his words. Unlike the poet who shrouds the meaning of his lines in silence, Withers is a storyteller who wants people to know how he came to write a song. "It's funny," he said, "when you leave the security of your grandmother how you run into those other ladies. People kept warning me about them. But I figured a person had to bring something bad into a relationship to get something bad in return." With that he sang "Use Me," a more traditional kind of love song.

It was a hit for him about a year ago. That is how the evening went with Withers talking about his music and then singing his songs in a sandpaper voice. His introductions were conversational; his music heavily loaded with crisp drumming, stylized piano and imaginative bass. Withers is an enigma in the music business. He's 36 now and he didn't enter the field until he was 33.

Slab Fork is a coal mining community. He is the youngest of six children. He spent nine years in the Navy, where a speech therapist cleared up his childhood stutter. "Most of the time spent in the military was very lonely," he said recently. "Everybody has given their daughters instructions to leave military men alone.

And you don't have very much money." When he left the Navy, he spent five years working in a factory. "You meet people there all with the same level of taste," he said. "The slick people don't work in factories. They get around that." Withers hadn't even been listening to music during most of those years. If he went where it was playing in the background, he said, he more or less ignored it.

Then, he suddenly began to listen. "I saw that the people who were making music got attention from the ladies," he said. His first single record was "Ain't No Sunshine." It became a gold record and in 1972 won a Grammy Award as the best rhythm and blues song. "Grandma's Hands" was his second hit, then "Lean On Me" and "Use Me." Currently he has a good single in a song called "You," which is on his latest album "Just-ments." About a year ago Withers dropped out of the business for a time, checking out his situation and his consciences He experienced some shocks, disillusionments and disappointments after becoming a performer. "I was socially naive coming into this business.

The hardest thing for a conventionally brought-up male to adjust to is that it is not really the way they told you it was. You're not going to find that innocence they told you to look for and protect. "You can make life miserable for those around you by giving lectures. You can go By Joe Pollack Of the Post-Dispatch Staff 'California Split' MOST OF THE TIME, Robert Altman doesn't seem sure whether he's directing comedy, tragedy or cal commentary in "California Split," and the film often stems more a collection of episodes than a continuing sto ry, but it hangs together as a fascinating piece of entertainment. Joseph Walsh wrote the original screenplay, about a couple of gamblers.

George Segal is a compulsive who tries to live in the straight world. Elliott Gould is a compul- Bill Withers Subtle. On an instrumental version of "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother," Robin on stand-up bass courted every note from the instrument, Jerry laid back on the drums and Doris gave the number a lot of wrist action. Improvisation is the TTTTTTTTTTTTTTT Ull I I i i i 17.1 1 1 I I I 1 1 I i T-IV" IPhITT The ultimate 3-D movie. AlKfyMft i ijafSfiiHii lib uii, w- i -rv sive, but also an out-and-out hustler who prefers living outside the straight world.

The Segal characterization is an excellent one; the Gould part is another unshaven wisecracker, which is all the actor seems to play these days. Anyone who shuffles pasteboards, rolls dice or visits the race track will identify immediately with either Gould or Segal, or with lots of the other brilliantly cast minor parts. From the low-ball poker games of Gardena, to Santa Anita and on to Reno, the action is fast. All the minor roles are splendidly cast and brilliantly portrayed, and there is a basic honesty to the writing and direction that gives the film real class. Ann Prentiss and Gwen Welles are very good as a pair of hookers, one old and wise, the other young and inexperienced to the point of asking, before a week-long trip to Hawaii, "Do you think I'll like him? Is he handsome?" There are overtones of a Lesbian relationship, but the whole thing is handled in the best of taste, and it is one of the more hon-' est looks at ladies of the evening that Hollywood has done.

Walsh the writer doubles as Walsh the actor in several fine scenes as Segal's bookmaker, and Barbara London is outstanding as a horseplaying woman who makes the mistake of listening to Gould at the race track. Bert Remsen does a neat bit in drag, Edward Walsh (the writer's father) is demonically evil as a poker-playing foe of Gould and Barbara Ruick is brief but effective as a bar maid in Reno. All the supporting parts are small, as the players wander in and out of the series of vignettes that make up the entire entertainment. Segal is the only character with a continuing thread, and the others come and go like gamblers dropping in and out of a high-stakes game. Gould's looseness blends well with Segal's tightness, as the two men play well together, and Gould has his moment in the sun, when he hustles a group of youngsters in a schoolyard basketball competition, that is glorious.

The production is of superior quality, and there is some splendid use of multi-layered sound, credited to Richard Portman, Jim Webb and Altaian's own equipment. conclusion falls a little bit flat, but getting there is much more than half the fun. The parts add up to much more than the whole, and it's enjoyable. (Running time: 1 hour, 48 minutes. Rating, R.

At the CREVE COEUR, GRANDVIEW, SOUTH COUNTY.) eMr. Majestyk' IT SAYS SOMETHING about the attitude that Hollywood has created toward violence when a viewer of "Mr. Majestyk" is more shocked over the machine-gunning of a load of watermelons than over the brutal deaths of dozens Penfield was a New England girls school in 1955. There were a few things the school didn't teach. secret of putting a new veneer on an old musical surface and that's what she did.

Good music. The Foursome will be in Arthur's, Ncrth Grand Boulevard at Highway 40, through August. No cover, no minimum. THE PICTURE YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR WITH OUT THE WAIT! I Michele Cardillo Peggy Lee's Fever" be- to the sultry, Michele had no trouble with it. Stevie Wonder's "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" lends itself to the exuberant.

Michele was exuberant in a lazy way. On an old standard she was an actress. Not dramatic. ll.HTYMAHY nit vw iinmu i 1:13, )1S, 5:15 7:15, 9:15 LATE SHOW tint III 1 Imthilp I JAT 1 1 '00 JACK' AND 'WALKING TALL' MUVIt cVcKTUNc ABUUI! JA 1:10 3:10 5:10 7:10 9:10 THE SUNDANCE KID" JT ff- no one under 17 admitted 7:30,9:30 -ATE SHOW WW-fW I 6706 Clayton Bd. I 7740 Olive St.

Rd. I PASSES I "Qinru Accirw Akin t-Trrl MS mMM1 111? of people. Of course.there is the knowledge that the watermelons are reay dead and the people will get up to be killed again in other films, plus the realization that this if food being destroyed, but the scene LOTS OF LAFFS! They didn't rob the money, they stole the whole bank. LATE SHOW FRI. I iis.

3:15 SAT. 115 P.M. trot CLAYTON UST YEAR 'BILLY 4" 0 That's what this movie is about. iriiMiiHiM mRCIST UjJUiMI yi'BIC JAKE' ft. hwk.

created EXORCISru SOMT NO MSSiS PI A 1 MATINEE DAILY if ram ''I (17 thrilled audiences across thi nation. than sickness, that insane destruction has become so much a part of the world as viewed through the motion picture 'camera. The picture itself is pretty dumb. It starts as if it is going to be a real look at the problems of migrant farm la-, borers, but since Charles Bronson is the star, it soon dribbles off into standard murder and mayhem, with some car chases to fill out time. Among the more charmh.g methods of death are the use of a wooden beam on one victim and a car ramming into a second, backing up and doing it again.

Bronson gets involved with an underworld leader, played by Al Lettieri, and for some inane reason of Elmore I onnnffl'c croannl a thav HorMo rn on nftor nno annthor Mil 1 Ml Satan's Horror Henchmenll tru SCAII THI TIU IICHT OUT Of YOUI NOW WO JPV CHARLES BRONSON "MR. MAJESTYK mm when it is obvious each has i MATINEE UAILT DAILY I II tummwi YiH.9. Shy. Or. I FREE PASS! SPEND A NITE WITH THE I fPV "77 WOMEN IN WHITEI JjkSJ 5Mi with his life, or death.

Linda Cristal portrays Branson's woman, and Lee is Lettieri 's, and they show a little more emotim than the Great Stone Face. Bronson shows less. (Running time: 1 hour, 44 minutes. Rating, PG. At the BAC RITZ, CRESTWOOD, MANCHESTER, STADIUM VILLAGE).

wonderful world of animals 9900 Pogt WOODRIVER, ILL. r1 A- a feeling of sadness, more more important things to do to answer. Bullfrogs seldom encounter horned toads under normal circumstances. They don't usually share similar environments. Still, bullfrogs have big mouths (and stomachs) and many might belt down Horny, or try to, with little benefit to either of them Horny would be happier, with a homesite of his own anyway, one considerably, dryer than Benny's.

If he1 didn't succumb to Benny's-appetite, he'd be likely to de-, velop fungus or other problems associated with a very, moist environment he's not. suited to. 11.00 IVMTDAT 7:13, 9:13 LMlilllIj I sundai 29S.gf.n,weodl 15529 S. fill HUH Brtntwoodlj TO ANY ONI STAYtNO FOITHI COMrHITI SHOW I FRI. SAT.

1 NITES ONLY! THE THREE 7:05 K5 team a lot in the streets. of 1. 1 MUSKETEERS' 1. 'UkW 0 Jjrf 2. 'MAMr 1 1 MUSKETEERS' i twMif ui umitt rn u-1 ttKicftur I i WWt 'i 1 "TlP II T1 1 1 1 Bgff pi HEARTBREAK SI P.l.n Mo.

RIU' i aiin it'C AIM IT'S SHOW of 74 Ybu UrlM rMIIPmMAIinF ALL HILARIOUS! (BEATRICE ARTHUR) By Frank Miller, D.V.M. DEAR DR. MILLER: Benny Bullfrog's got a nice big terrarium with a pool. He's also got a big appetite, but he gets well fed. Somebody just gave me Horny, a horned toad, but I don't have any place to put him.

If I put him in with Benny will he make it there? He's so spiny I wouldn't think Benny would eat him, would he? D.E. THAT'S an extremely portant questionfrom Hor-ny's viewpoint, but a hard one ltWl til D. INS. OKN 7:30 1 OMN lneiegeiiaoi 730 BLACK CHARLEY" Mi (LUCILLE BAIL) MATINEE SUNDAY 'THREE TOUSHi I ah til Ilka ln.NHlt I Mrs- jj Mimn, imnnii T. fcnorlet, WO.

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