Messenger-Inquirer from Owensboro, Kentucky • 29

fllesscnger-Jnquirer 3-D Donald Duck' 3-D Local entertainment 2, 3-D Movies 4-D Music 6-D OWENSBORO, FRIDAY, AUGUST 14, 1981 s3 SECTION Middle- class monarch i Elephant king Babar turns 50 mm and their children or to putter in his garden under a floppy hat Bernard Berenson would have admired, spraying his flowers through his trunk. Not that life was always so calm in Celesteville. What Babar devotee could forget the terrible war with the rhinoceroses? Or how Babar won by painting huge eyes on the flanks of his elephant soldiers and scaring the wits out of the somewhat dense rhinos? There was a balloon voyage, once, and even a trip to the United States. All the Babar adventures are recalled in the current show at the Centre Culturel, beginning with the very first de Brunhoff drawings, some of them on lined paper torn, from exercise books. Jean de Brunhoff was an artist and designer whose father had been a fashion designer and one of the founders of the French magazine Vogue.

De Brunhoff created Babar as an amusement for his three children. When he died in 1937 Babar's story stopped, too. In 1946 one of his children, Laurent, by then an artist in his own right, took up where his father had left off nine years and a world war earlier. De Brunhoff films moved his elephant king out of his jungle milieu a jungle ameliorated by all the comforts of French middle-class life and Babar's evident but unspoken passion, a superb wardrobe. Along with the rest of the well-off world, Babar and Celeste traveled, met people and, in an intellectual sense, broadened selves.

Literally, of course, they could not be broader. In Hollywood, the drawings show, Babar donned the requisite floral-patterned By- FRANK J. PRIAL 1981, Ntw York Timoi Niwl Strvico The Nouvelle Observateur has labeled him a radical Socialist, but then they would. Just because he believes in cra-dle-to-the-grave social welfare. Actually, he much more closely resembles one of those affable Scandinavian monarchs who pedal bicycles into town and enter roses in annual competitions.

He is plump, conservative and benevolent, a leader by calling and bourgeois by choice. Babar, the king of the elephants, is 50 years old, and the Centre Culturel du Marais, a little museum and gallery in the Fourth Arrondisse-mentin Paris, is giving him a summerlong party. In case'your memory is dim and some original fans' memories might well be dim reigns over the geographically unspecified kingdom of the elephants from his capital city Celesteville, named after his wife, Queen Celeste. They have three children, Pom, Alexandre and Flore, but their household also includes Arthur, their cousin; Zephyr, the mischievous monkey; Cornelius, the oldest and wisest of all the elephants, and the Old Lady, that spare, dedicated person who raised Babar and gave him his middle-class yearnings. Babar has always been a king, thanks to his creator Jean de Brunhoff, so he is probably one of the longest-reigning rulers anyway not that 50 years is very long in elephant time.

He is certainly one of the most benign of all rulers, his principal governing precept being that they who are governed least are governed best. Mostly, he prefers to relax with Celeste From drawing by Lauront Brunhoff shirt and in New York, he went quite properly his people; the Babar standing in front of his into the streets in the anonymous garb of Wall own onyx fireplace, stuffy but content in wing Street. collar, gray striped trousers and dark cuta- But the true King Babar, the only really way coat, happy Babar it's right there in the drawings to see is the one at home with his family and Anthropomorphism is a pretentious word. Local man moves up in film business Hancock County Fair EVENT Stuntman tries for 'big time' WEDNESDAY Countywide prayer meeting Rides open THURSDAY FRIDAY Fair Queen contest Garden tractor, mini-hot rod tractor pull Gospel singing with The Witnesses Sports contests (youth) Dog and pet show Horse pull Goldilocks and the Bears concert By STEWART JENNISON Mossongor-lnquirtr He's been on television and in the movies dozens of times, but even local trivia buffs had little way of knowing his name or that he hails from Owensboro. But now, Byron Quisenberry, age 39, a 1960 graduate of Daviess County High School, stuntman and actor is trying to go "big time" as writer, producer and director of a theater-release suspense film due out this fall.

It's called "Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker," and far from being a nursery tale, the film follows a group of nine vacationers on a weekend boat trip down the Rio Grande, where, in the Agatha Christie tradition, individuals are mysteriously eliminated from the tour group. With a budget of somewhere "under a million dollars," Quisenberry's cast does not boast any superstar names, although there is a son-of-a-star and several experiencedcharac-ter actors. The movie will star John Wayne's youngest son, Ethan; Woody Stode, a black actor who has been in several John Ford films and is better known in Europe than in the U.S. Gregg Palmer, a regular bad guy in countless "Gun-smokes" and John Wayne Wayne films; Alvy Moore, the "Green Acres" farm agent; and Pepper Martin, who was featured in "The Longest Yard" and gained a certain infamy as the trucker who punched out the temporarily weakened hero of "Superman II." In a recent telephone interview from his Burbank, Calif, office, Quisenberry said he got the courage and the backing to attempt a feature film production after getting favorable reviews for a touring multi-media production called "Harry Carey, Jr. and the Westerns." Quisenberry wrote and directed the one-man show which featured the veteran western character actor as the narrator of a behind the scenes tour of classic westerns.

After graduating from Daviess County High School, where he played footbajl and ran track, Quisenberry gradually began his relo- SATURDAY Baby contest Livestock exposition Doll show, hobo contest, bubblegum blowing -Fair parade through Hawesville Homecoming contests Sports contests (adults) Little Miss Hancock County pageant No Name Band Concert but that's what Babar and Donald Duck and all other talking animals going back to Reynard the fox are about. Babar, though, represents a special kind of metaphor. He and his family and friends seem to encapsulate the essence of middle-class French life. including "Rockford Files," "Columbo," "Rich Man, Poor Man" and "B.J. and the Bear" plus about 15 feature films including "The Front Page," "Black Sunday," and "The Hindenburg." "Remember the scene outside the office tower window in 'Earthquake' where the guy falls of the scaffolding?" Quisenberry asks.

"That was me." That wouldn't be considered big bucks by Robert Redford, but for Quisenberry and others in the working class of the Screen Actors Guild, the residuals checks for each TV show or movie rerun adds up to a steady income. But in hopes of climbing the Hollywood ladder, Quisenberry has incorporated himself as the major stockholder of Calendar International Pictures. The first venture was to film "Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker" in California. Sound and film editing is being completed now, and Quisenberry is negotiating for a distributor, he said. The director says his murder-suspense film goes easy on the gore.

"It's nothing I wouldn't let my mother go see," he said, but he said last week he hadn't decided if he would try for a "PG" or rating. "It's fine line, sometimes. We'll have to decide which would be better for us." Though one of John Wayne's sons, Patrick, has made critically ignored screen appearances, but Quisenberry predicts better things for his leading man, Ethan Wayne. "He probably has more natural acting ability than Patrick. He's more rugged and very athletic and looks terrific in the film." If Wayne and other members of the cast appear to be truly perplexed about who or what is cutting down their colleagues, it's because they really didn't know "who-done-it" while the filming took place.

"No one had the ending. It drove them all up the wall," Quisenberry laughed. had five running stories last year, this year we'll have three and end one every week. "The producers were a little overambitious last year. They were trying to be 'M-A-S-H' right away.

The public wasn't familiar enough with the characters to take all those liberties." Second, the attention given to the Emmy nominations and the overwhelming media praise should stimulate some viewer tune-in. When "Hill Street" seemed close to cancellation last year, several TV writers initiated letter-writing campaigns to save the show. In all, 10,000 letters and forms were mailed to NBC, and they weren't the usual crayon rantings. "They were well-written, type-written and loaded with good prose," said Gene Walsh, an NBC spokesman. The show's quality and these "Dear Fred" letters were factors in saving "Hill Street" when NBC programs "Buck Rogers," "Lobo" and "BJ and the Bear" were getting higher ratings and still getting their pink slips.

(Pleai. HILL STREET, Pag 2-D) TIME 7:30 p.m. After prayer meeting 7:30 p.m. 7:30 p.m. 8:30 p.m.

1 p.m. 2:30 p.m. 6 p.m. 8 p.m. 9:30 a.m.

10 a.m. 10:30 a.m. 1:30 p.m. 2:30 p.m. 2:30 p.m.

7 p.m. 7:30 p.m. 9 p.m. Fairgrounds unless otherwise noted. p.m.

Saturday, "Homecoming Day," gets started at 9:30 a.m. with a baby contest to pick tne prettiest baby out of five age groups. "Little Baby Fair Boy" and "Little Baby Fair Girl" will be selected. A livestock exposition is scheduled for 10 a.m., and at 10:30 a.m., a doll show, hobo contest and bubblegum blowing contest will get under way. The fair parade is set for 1:30 p.m.

through downtown Hawesville. At 2:30, the homecoming contests start at the fairgrounds. Contests include oldest person, the couple that traveled the farthest, couple married the longest, oldest couple and a baby-crawling contest. Also at 2:30, there's an adult sports program featuring watermelon seed spitting, husband calling, hog calling, three-legged race, 50-yard dash, arm-wrestling, wheelbarrow race and nail driving. The Little Miss Hancock County contest is at 7 p.m.

Saturday, and the No Name Band from Cannelton, will perform in concert at 7:30 p.m. Approximately $1,000 in prizes will be given away at 9 p. m. in the last event of the fair. Admission to the fair is $3 per carload.

Drawing for prizes NOTE: All locations are Hancock County Hancock County gears up for 4 days of fair events NBC clears way for 'Hill Street' spinoff BYRON QUISENBERRY Stuntman turns director cation west but not with any thought of a Hollywood career. He attended Murray State University two years, then moved to Texas and majored in history at the University of Houston, where he graduated in 1967. He tried teaching a while, but part-time work in radio during his college years opened a different set of interests and connections, and in 1968, he joined the Houston Astros media department as assistant publicity director, working under Paul Haynie, "the voice of NASA" during earlier space shots. Quisenberry got his start in camera work and editing by preparing weekly film highlights of the Astros for use by the television networks. Other contacts eventually led him to Hollywood where he has lived since 1972.

For nine years, Quisenberry found parts as actor or stuntman in about 50 television shows, predicted it would pick up seven or eight Em-mys and the audience would discover it in the fall." If Silverman were a better program prophet for NBC, he wouldn't be unemployed today. But he may be right on this one. The first phase of his prediction was on target. Last week, "Hill Street," a police drama with strong character and comic threads, earned 21 Emmy Award nominations. i Emmys may be a reflection of program quality, but they dont always measure viewer appeal.

Several shows were dead and buried when they won Emmy Awards. But in the case of "Hill Street ihere are legitimate signs that the Emmy nominations are not the kiss of death. First, it is a superior show that should become ever more watchable this season through some format changes. Tartikoff and new NBC boss Grant Tinker both feel that the program bit off too much last season, spinning too many stories per episode without reaching any resolutions. "We will attempt to satisfy the viewer more," said Tartikoff.

"While we may have By KEITH LAWRENCE Motungor-lnquiror The 22nd annual Hancock County Fair opens a four-day run Wednesday at the county fairgrounds on Kentucky 1389 near Hawesville. Patsy Thompson, fair board secretary, said everything gets started with a county-wide prayer meeting at the fairgrounds at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. Rides operated by Harper Amusements of Owensboro will open immediately after the service. County residents can start entering various exhibits in the fair Thursday.

That night the fair queen will be crowned in a pageant which begins at 7:30 p.m. A garden tractor and mini-hot rod tractor pull is also scheduled to start at 7:30. A gospel singing featuring The Witnesses from Hawesville is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. Friday is Farm Bureau Day at the fair. Exhibits will be judged during the day.

At 1 p.m., sports contests for young people will feature 25-, 50- and 100-yard dashes, a relay race, a bike race, a tug-of-war, egg-throwing, a tricycle race and a penny hunt. A dog and pet show is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Friday and that night activities include a horse pull at 6 p.m. and a concert by Goldilocks and the Bears from Owensboro at 8 By FRED ROTHENBERG Aiiociartd Prtu NEW YORK -NBC expects big things this year from "Hill Street Blues," the only show that seems to have attracted more Emmy nominations than viewers. So big, in fact, that the network already is thinking of a spinoff.

"We have the feeling that 'Hill Street' could just take off," said Brandon Tartikoff, president of NBC Entertainment. "We're working on a spinoff with Hill and Renko (the black-white cop team played by Michael Warren and Charles For unbridled optimism, television programmers are akin to baseball managers in spring training. But planning a spinoff show for a program that was in danger of cancellation and finished 83rd in the ratings? Is NBC counting its chickens before they're even conceived? "We sat in scheduling sessions last spring and were convinced that 'Hill Street' was about to explode," said Tartikoff. "We felt the show was just a season away, much the same way 'M-A-S-H' moved to become a hit. Fred Silverman said we had to keep it on the air.

He.