The Times Herald from Port Huron, Michigan • Page 19

Times Herald MM Thursday, February 9, 1984 it's Bob and Ray From mikeside, Veteran comedy duo return Radio series Movie Review 'w( 1 Bill Bunn National Public or ethnic jokes. "I wouldn't want to do a show my own kids couldn't listen to," Ray explains. In the 13-part series that began Jan. 3 on some public-radio stations, Bob and Ray are backed up by sound-effects man Al Schaefer and Paul Taubman on keyboards. The shows, which were taped before a live audience last fall, are sponsored in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

They were NEW YORK (AP) Wally Bal-lou and Biff Burns are back. So is Ronnie Westerfield. Not to mention further episodes of "Garrish Summit." To fans that means only one thing: Bob and Ray are on the air again, wreaking their familiar havoc, this time in a new series on National Public Radio. That's Bob Elliott (he's the shorter one) and Ray Goulding (he's the one with the booming voice). And their cast of characters, including: Sportscaster Biff Burns, "live from mikeside." Ronnie Westerfield, who's putting together the Inter-American Hide-and-Go-Seek League, "a sports promoter's nightmare." And "unlikeable, young Rodney Murchfield" who arranges to fake his own kidnapping to collect the ransom on the soap-opera parody "Garrish Summit." To the accompaniment of schmaltzy organ music, Ray delivers the verbose intro for the show within a show.

"Garrish Summit: the endless story of intrigue among the socially prominent. There, in stately splendor, far removed from the squalid village below, they fight their petty battles over power and money. Bob and Ray fight no petty battles between themselves; they are inseparable to most of their fans. No one ever thinks of Bob without Ray or Ray without Bob. They play all the parts, male and female, although Ray admits he sounds a "little grizzly" as a woman.

They were making their name in radio about the same time television was making its debut in American living rooms. But then, Bob and Ray have made a career a.JA Radio announcers Bob Elliott, left, and Ray had a regular radio show in several years, Goulding tape their new radio show in New they're familiar faces and voices on tele-York. The show is heard on National Public vision commercials and frequently make guest Radio outlets. Although Bob and Ray haven't appearances. Brenda Lee's a jolly ol' star Area entertainment-Pottery exhibit planned at community college to air waves for Ballou speaking," an inside joke that pokes fun at the technical goofups broadcasters make.

Wally and Biff and the rest are sponsored by "Einbinder Flypaper, the flypaper you've gradually grown to trust over the course of three generations," and by the Monongahela Metal Foundry, "makers of steel ingots for home and office use." Their wordplay requires close attention and a well-developed sense of silly. But it's always clean, droll humor with no "blue" the man responsible for finding her 1969 hit "Johnny One-Time." Now she's teaming up with Lee Greenwood-Larry Gatlin producer Jerry Crutchfield to get a contemporary Nashville sound. "I've known Jerry since I was 10 years old. And he wrote some of my hit songs. In fact, one of them, 'My Whole World Is Falling was used in the movie I'm the kind of artist that feels more comfortable with people who know who I am and what I do, and he does." Married to Ronnie Shacklett at 19, Lee and her husband reside in Nashville.

Happy with her life, she has only one regret that she did not go to college. "I'm still thinking seriously of going. I would like to have had that experience." She's quick to say that singing always has been "a pure joy" for her. However, "The music business was never the all-consuming thing in my life," says Lee. "Maybe that's because nobody ever told me it was supposed to have been.

Nobody ever told me I was a star. Nobody told me I was different from anybody else. And when you're little, you believe what you're told. "I feel like at one time I was in that Judy Garland category of worldwide music stardom. But being from Nashville and having the values I was raised with probably kept me from attaining the heights that she did.

But you know what? Those are the same things that kept me from going into the depths, too." Friday John Heldtke of Mercy Hospital, substance abuse. Museums Museum of Arts and History Open 1 to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. Group appointments available at other times. 1115 Sixth Port Huron.

Sarnia Art Gallery Open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5: 30 p.m. Saturday and 2 to 5 p.m.

Sunday. 124 S. Christina St. St. Clair County Community College Fine Arts Galleries Open 8 a.m.

to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Fine Arts Building, St. Clair County Community College. St.

Clair Historical Museum Open 1: 30 to 4:30 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. 308 S. Fourth St. Clair.

Tours available during museum hours. New Baltimore Historical Museum Open Saturday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., or by appointment. In the New Baltimore Public Library. Selfridge Air Museum Open from 1 to 5 p.m.

Tuesdays and Thursdays and 1 to 5 p.m. on the first and third Sundays of the month. Group tours are available by appointment. At Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Harrison Township. yk vK 1 produced by radio impresario Larry Josephson and his Radio Foundation.

"We're doing this because I think they should be on radio," Josephson explains. "It's as much for radio as for Bob and Ray. They need each other." Bob, 60, and Ray, 61, have been a team for the last 37 years, and they say they've never thought of splitting up. They attribute their recent renaissance to their discovery by a generation of listeners too young to remember "the world before Naugahyde." Last year, Bob and Ray were honored with a retrospective show at New York City's Museum of Broadcasting. Also last year, the first four-part series they recorded for NPR won a Peabody Award.

This year they published a book, whose title derives from their sign-on, "From Approximately Coast to Coast, It's The Bob and Ray Show." And although they haven't had a regular radio show in several years, Bob and Ray are familiar faces on television commercials lucrative and steady," says Bob) and frequently make guest appearances on TV. Would like to do a regular weekly radi show? "We might do a daily radio show even," Ray answers without hesitation. Without a regular show, "you get lazy and rusty," laments Bob. "But we have fun that's the whole idea," chimes in Ray. With that on their minds, they sign off with the following admonitions: "This is Ray Goulding reminding you to write if you get work." "And Bob Elliott inviting you to hang by your thumbs." Hannelore Fasciszewski works In her studio outside Mount Clemens.

Her work Is on display through Feb. 23 at St. Clair County Community College. Events highlight Black History Month Local Black History Month activities continue this weekend and next with presentations at the James R. Leonard Center.

A black history variety show will highlight this weekend's activities at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Members from various art classes will perform. Donations are $1 for high-schoolers and adults, 80 cents for younger children. An evening of theatre will be presented at 7:30 p.m.

February 18. Fine arts classes and other performers will relate a parade of quotes, events and personalities of the black experience in America. Tickets are $2 and $1. Other planned activities include a danceathon Feb. 24, sponsored by the center's Advisory Council.

Prizes will be awarded. Entrants must collect at least $15 in pledges. Admission for spectators is $5. 'Silkwood' a new kind of realism "Silkwood" is a new kind of movie and a very good kind. Although true, it is no documentary or dramatized biography.

It rejects the traditional problem-crisis-solution approach to storytelling. Jettisoned, too, is the melodrama that usually passes for realism. What is left is the heart of Karen Silkwood. But producer-director Mike Nichols exposes it without exploiting its poignancy. Any tears will not have been jerked.

Viewers must constantly remind themselves that they are not seeing the last few months of Silk-wood's life, that she and those in her life are only actors. This is not another version of "The China Syndrome," with cardboard characters, anti-nuclear preaching and the perverse thrill of a possible meltdown. All that might happen is that unknown people could someday be cooked nuclear workers' slang for radiation burns. But just as "Silkwood" has the feel of real life, it may change viewers' ideas of how events take form. Silkwood, portrayed by Meryl Streep, believes something is wrong at the facility where she helps to make fuel components for nuclear power plants.

She tries clumsily to gather evidence. Her debt-ridden employer, her coworkers who will lose jobs, her union that wants a juicy contract, her lovers and her best friend all abandon or betray her. But Silkwood is no tragic heroine, standing alone against evil. The movie focuses on her relationships, showing how they shape her behavior and its consequences. It shows the original playfulness at the surface of her deep liking for people.

It shows her anxious concern for a cooked worker even a silly, mean-spirited one and her tender caring for a spiteful lesbian friend, played by Cher, whom she cares for but cannot love. The picture shows how strength becomes weakness for Kurt Russell, Silkwood's boyfriend. The only solid part of her life, he cannot deal with complexities that fragment it. "Don't give me a problem I can't solve," he says. The acting is a new approach, like Nichols' direction and the script by Nora Ephron and Alice Arlen.

Acting's bag of techniques, gestures and expressions has been trashed. The actors cease to play characters and become people. The film's rejection of senti- MAntnlifir eotiAo if finm flanrao. sion. Viewers will leave, after two hours and eight minutes, thinking not about why Karen Silkwood died but about the kind of person .1 Ua sue waa euiu now one iivcu.

MiKWOoa, raiea 10 resinci viewers younger than 17 (18 at I some theaters) without accom-! panying adult, has obscene lan-. guage, sexual references and nudity. It is at Playhouse II, Marysville. Bill Bunn Is a Times Herald reporter. What's on Theaters CHESTERFIELD TOWNSHIP Chesterfield Cinema 725 1617 IMLAY CITY Cinema III 724-6577 MARINE CITY Marine City Cinema 765-3296 MARYSVILLE Playhouse Theatres 344-9400 Village Green Cinema 329-1900 PORT HURON Huron Theatres 984-4742 McMorran Place Theatre 985-6166 SANDUSKY Sanilac Theatre 648-2505 SARNIA (519 AREA CODE) Capltol(6-10 p.m.) 344-5441 Cinema Centre 344-0690 Lambton Clnemafafter 5:45 p.m.

(542-5539 Odeon 337-2611, 337-9727 (7 a.m.-2 p.m., 6-11 p.m.) ST. CLAIR Rlvervlew Cinema 329-6900 Radio WPHM, AM 1180 9:05 a.m. ENTERFORM WITH VIRGINIA COULTHARD of being out-of-sync. In the early days at Boston radio station WHDH, Ray the serious newscaster and Bob the serious disc jockey would ad lib on the air to fill the gaps between songs. So developed their long-winded style.

It deflates every pompous announcer you've ever heard and is about as subtle as a whoopie cushion. One of their signature characters is roving reporter Wally Bal-lou, whose self-introduction is always abbreviated so we hear "-ly Brenda Lee Contemporary country She has placed more than 65 titles on the charts in her career. In her 25-year career, she has freshened her musical approach several times. Her warm, bluesy voice found a home in country music in the 1970s, beginning with her version of Kris Kristofferson's "Nobody Wins." She entered this decade with a trio of huge hits. One, "Tell Me What It's Like," brought her a 1980 Grammy Award nomination.

A second, "The Cowgirl and the Dandy," was written by country-pop veteran Bobby Goldsboro. And on "Broken Trust" she was backed with the gospel harmonies of the Oak Ridge Boys. In 1983, she did a duet on "You're Gonna Love Yourself in the Morning" with Willie Nelson, WHLS, AM 1450 9:05 a.m. LET'S TALK ABOUT IT WITH LARRY LICK Monday State Representative Keith Muxlow. Tuesday Pat Barrett and Dr.

Jeffrey W. Berry of Walsh College, children after high school. Wednesday Sergeant Chris Newton, recruiter for Michigan Army National Guard. Thursday Henry Engen, Metro Planning Commission, plans for St. Clair County.

Friday Michael D. Soule, Lt. U.S. Air Force Reserve and liaison officer for the U.S.A.F. Academy and Air Force Officer Training Corps, and Maor Bob Raub, U.S.A.F.

Reserve, regional coordinator for the academy and AF-ROTC, Qualifications for entering the academy and training corps. 1:10 p.m. TODAY'S WOMAN WITH ADDIE PHILKO Monday Lillian Muldermans, cakes and candy making. Tuesday Buck Neumann, flowers and centerpieces. Wednesday Mary Ann Stackpool, spiritual advisor of Port Huron Hospital, holistic approach to medicine.

Thursday Dr. Daniel J. Wllhelm, pediatrician. if jit toS'it Gannett News Service Brenda Lee, the 4-foot, 9-inch redhead who's been blasting vocals into hits since childhood, may be taken for granted in this country, but not in England. "I did a mess of TV and radio in England," says Lee, who recently returned from promoting her March tour there.

"I just had an album that went No. 4 over there. I need to cultivate that market again because it's still one of the places where I sell the most records. To the English, anybody who was in on the doorstep of rock and roll' it's almost like you're legendary. "They think of me as rockabilly.

And once they love you over there, they love you for always." She remembers her first trip abroad (age 12) with amusement. The French press, refusing to believe a 12-year-old could possess her enormous voice, billed her as a 32-year-old midget. "It was great publicity for me," she laughs. "I went over there for three weeks and stayed for two months. Then I went on to England." Lee's early records were rockabilly, and one, 1958's "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," is now a holiday standard.

But it was as a ballad singer in the 1960s that she became a superstar. Her throbbing deliveries of "I'm Sorry," "All Alone Am "As Usual," "Sweet Nothin's," "Losing You," "I Want to Be Wanted," "Fool No.l," and her 25 other top-40 pop hits gave her status as one of the greatest all-time female song interpreters. Monday Restoration of Victorian Inn, Lynn Secory Tuesday Fresh and Silk Flowers, Howard Silk; Unusual Jewelry and Care of Precious Jewelry, Bill Mosher; Care of Your Wardrobe and Organizing Your Closet, Krlstl Hazard; Guideline for Holding onto a Love Relationship and How to Mend a Broken Heart, Dr. Sam Marble, PhD; Baking and Decorating a Sweetheart Cake, Chef John Prectel; Mini-Love Readings According to the Stars, astrologer Cindy Irish. Wednesday HUD Funds for Home Improvement, Leonard Hool.

Thursday Dignity In Dying, the Rev. Frank Bennett Jr. and Dr. Kenneth Bol-lln, M.D. Friday Role of Engineering In our Society, Michigan Society of Engineers Kenneth Forglel and Milton Rogers 12:20 p.m.

ENTERFORM II WITH VIRGINIA COULTHARD Monday Mayor James Relken, Peerless property Issue. Tuesday Peerless property Issue, -Betty Oberstar of Citizens Lobby. Wednesday Frank Foster, Social Security representative. Thursday Pharmacist Chuck Ely. Friday State Representative Jim Docherly.

The St. Clair County Community College Art Department will present porcelain pottery by Hannelore Fasciszewski Feb. 12 through 23. A public reception will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday in the college's fine arts building.

Fasciszewski will present a slide show at 2:30 p.m. in Room 36. The exhibit includes the porcelain, porcelain raku and ne-riage techniques of handmade pottery. Sweet Adelines to hold concert The River District Chapter of Sweet Adelines will present a benefit performance at 8 p.m. Friday, Feb.

17 in the St. Clair County Community College Fine Arts Theater. The proceeds will go toward the purchase of equipment for the St. Clair County Sheriff Department Marine Rescue and Recovery Unit. For ticket information, contact Wayne or Donna Brusate, Marysville.

Tickets may be purchased at the door, $5 adults and $3 students and senior citizens. Sarnia gallery hosts exhibition SARNIA LOOK '84, the annual juried exhibition at the Sarnia Public Library and Art Gallery, 124 S. Christina will open at 8 p.m. Friday and continue through March 10. Demonstrations will be held from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m.

in the art gallery. Diana Bennet will demonstrate weaving Feb. 19. Vera Stevens will give a pottery making demonstration Feb. 26.

Gary Nixon will demonstrate acrylics March 4. There is no charge. Painter opens show BRIGHT'S GROVE, Ontario Works by Richard Kinnee will be on display through Feb. 29 In the Gallery In the Grove, Hamilton Street. The Port Huron painter will also be featured at an opening reception in the gallery from 2 to 4 p.m.

Sunday..