Abilene Reporter-News from Abilene, Texas • 31

ljFr tmtm a 9-B THE ABILENE REPORTER-NEWS Abilene Teiu Bandar Mara tag Jaly tt llM SAYS OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN SHOW DATES Theater Far From Death i Comes in New Disguises ANSWER CortW datutad Safr ed with Barry Fitzgerald and Howard Duff Taeeday Wednesday of the with Robert Mitchum and also Mitchum with Robert Ryan 1 California goM rWk Spanish America! War 4 World Wsr I Lindbergh flew to Thar Frl Sat A social ktoorv tt America could ba wriucs fi from dm rap EDITOR'S NOTE-Up until about years ago genuine American theater was characterized chiefly by the minstrel show and the evil villain type of melodrama Now however it's a different story Here by a man who has contributed much to it Is a graphic report on the vitality of American theater today ertory of the American Society tt Compoeen Aathors and Publishers Almost every him loric event Mgaiflcanc er trivial is mirrored in ASCAP law world warn prosperity and depreeemn the growth of tram-portalion from the tarty auto to modem air travel the evolution of jazz changing fashions and most other aspects of tha lives of plain Americans BATTLE Charlton Heston as a tough Army man finds the battleground is this dormitory at a military ch school with tiny Tim Hovey as Hie fifth column whicl threatens to defeat him in Private War of Major at the Town and Country Sunday Monday Girl Bull Fighter Coming to Acuna OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN alive and klcklag Despite shoulder Injury tained while fighting bulls kt Tijuana Mexico last Sunday Bette Ford wiO appear kt the Macarena Bril Ring in Ciudad Acuna Mexico on Aug Mlsi Ford was appearing with Patricia McCormick girl bull fight-from Big Spring at Tijuana PARAMOUNT 1 SunM Mon Tuea with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in the west Just before coming unpardnered Wedaeadar for I Daya starring Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab Herman Melville's white whale hunter with Richard Basehart Leo Glenn and Orson Welles QUEEN Sunday Monday starring Glenn Ford and Ernest Borgnine in western story of man who kills best friend Tuesday Wednesday the Threshold of with Guy Madison and Virginia Leith story of military scientists and rockets Tharsday-Moaday 1 "Screaming with Tom Try on Jan Merlin and Jacqueline Beer semi-documentary of paratroopers and D-Day for Europe Also and Abner MAJESTIC Sua Mon Tnes staning Jane Russell and Cornell Wilde about gvping gypsy who weds too often but wealthily Wednesday-Batarday with Scott Brady Rita Gam and Neville Brand Love-story of an artist among the wild women of the frontier METRO Sub Mob Tuea Man Who Knew Too Much" with James Stewart and Doris Day story of attempted assassination and kidnapping on two continents Wednesday Three with Iona Turner and Gene Kelly adventure -Thursday Friday Trouble With Harry" starring Edmund Gwyn and Shirley MacLaina hi comedy of the dead man nobody missed but dy thought they killed Saturday Ketchum with Howard Duff and Maggie Mahoney also with John Lund and William Ben-dix TEXAS Sunday Monday with Burt Lancaster and Ann Blyth also 1 every bo- -The youngest of the electronic media television is the vlctim of a good deal tt carries! snobbery Under the necessity of filling as much time as they are required to fill the producers must necessarily come forth with much that is cheap and stupid They have nevertheless In the short life of television created some excellent plays impressive theatrical productions and many new playwrights acton and directors 1 have been working in the theater for about 40 years During those years I think the American theater has dons so badly Leaving out workers who were merely successful in their time I mean men like David Belasco Flo Ziegfdd Avery Hop wood and limiting mysrif to men who have written plays that have become part of our national theatrical literature I give you Eugene O'Neill Sidney Howard Robert Sherwood Maxwell Anderson Marc Connelly Lindsay and Crouse George Kelly George Kaubnan Moss Hart William Inge Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams among others Tho Composers Among the composers and librettists we have created and developed in this time are Victor Herbert Otto Harbach Jerome Kern Rudolph Frlml Sigmund Romberg George and Ira Gershwin Irving Berlin Vincent You-mani Richard Rodgers Lorenz Hart Crie Porter Frank Loess er Frits Lowe and Alan Lerner It has been in these last lour decades that the American theater has broken from the parent theaters in Europe and started out on Us own Up to this period outside of European importations and imitations the only indigenous theatrical creations were the minstrel hew and the "black type of extravaganza dubious contributions to theatrical art but at any rate gay lusty and certainly American Today however it can be said that our theater has a personality and a distinction of its own and certain attributes that Identity It In the light musical theater we have evolved without any deliberate intention that I know of a form that is neither opera operetta nor straight musical comedy We call It a "musical play" Good examples of this type are Girt" Tinian's Rainbow" King and and current Fair Lady" and "The Mast Happy Fella" when rite suffered a shoulder Injury Miss McCormick dispatched the bull that injured Miss Ford This was the first time the two girl bull fighters appeared together- Juan Bilbao manager for Mist Fotd telegrammed the Acuna bull ring Thursday that the girl bull fighter should recover In about five days and be able to fight Aug Expected to be on the same program at i pm Texas time are two novllleroe Espiondado and Juzman These two young meh also fought with Miss Ford and Miss McCormick in Tijuana Acuna la across the border from Del Rio legitimate theater in its heyday could never have played to as many people In one season as TV now plays to in one night To satisfy these huge audience! there is of course much more employment for many actors writers directors scenic designers and technicians than ever before bflueece af Scleare So here we have adence having very difficult Influence in the history of this particular art the theater Is It a bad influence or good Influence? Many assume that it is a bad influence on tho theory that as you broaden the base of an audience you must of necessity write down to them I do not agree William Shakespeare was aiming to please as large an audience as he could possibly reach He wrote plays that found response in the pit as well as in the boxes I believe his plays suffered from this motive I think they benefited rather from the discipline that forced him as playwright to devote himself to stories that had substantial human values Those who have indulged themselves by writing for a small and precious audience have never cut much ice In the theater If Shakespeare could have reached an dience of million people In one day he would have been Man from another world cnecks in on Hugh Marlowe and Nancy Gates in Without showing Sunday and Monday at the Tower Twin and Key City and Tuesday Wednesday at the Park By OSCAR' HAMMERSTEIN Written for The AP The strangest thing about the history is that it is always about to terminate Commentators are traditionally obsessed with a conviction that the theater cannot possibly live more than a few years beyond the time at which they write I believe the theater has ever been as sick as they have thought It to be It is the commentators who have been sick with a kind of chronic necrophilia The source of this disease is not wish for the theater to die Almost all critics love the theater Loving it they fret over it like an anxious parent When a change comes over the child they fly into forgetting that all things in tiie world keep changing Frequently they mistake growing pains for harbingers of a fatal illness Remains la Disguise The theater remains despite the many disguises It has worn Many plays are deliberate adaptations from the Greek Eugene "Mourning Becomes is an example tragic sense is essentially Greek doubt if any man can write a modem play without falling into some debt to these ancient theatrical geniuses We keep what we Inherit and we continue to develop a new and increasingly varied theater The most radical changes of all have been wrought in this century with the development of electronic science Many who are predicting the demise of the theater are excluding from their considerations the electronic media of radio television and the movies If you accept this limited conception you must then admit most certainly that tin theater if not dying is certainly rtvihklng Twenty years ago New York had twice as many legitimate theaters as it has now Many cities which used to harbor legitimate attractions have no legitimate theater whatever today The movies have supplanted it Movie nausea Fad Now in turn the number of movie theaters is decreasing due to the inroads of TV But In my own conception of the theater these electronic media must be included I believe that wherever there is an audience and a stage or a screen or any frame within which acton are reading lines written by playwrights or singing songs written by composers there is theater AH live and electronic media require the aame talents All are providing shows some serious some frivolous There art good shows and bad shows on television and in the theater and the movies And it seems to me that the percentage of good to bad is no greater in the legitimate theater than Is in the electronic theater As for audience interest the The population of India is growing at the speedy rale of 1000000 a year FAST CONVENIENT COMFORTABLE CAB SERVICE CALL THE CITY CAB Co "The First with Joel Me-Crea as Texas' Sam Houston against Mexico also Blues Busters" with the Bowery Boys LINDA Sunday Monday' Indian with Kirk Douglas also "The Naughty by Abbott and- Costello Tuesday Wednesday with John Wayne also Mad with Via-cent Price Thar Frl Bat With the Atom Richard Denning and of Rogue with George Montgomery CHIEF Sunday Monday "Artists and starring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis alio with Spencer Tracy Taesday Wednesday Forbidden with Robert Mitchum and at Red with Van Johnson Thar Frl Bat starring Glenn Fora and with Charlton Heston Saturday Midnight with Barry Sullivan and Dorothy Malone PARK Seaday Maaday and Taesday Wednesday Without End" with Hugh Marlows and Nancy Gates also Gene Nelson and Faith Domergue Science-fiction duo Thur FrL Sat Meet Me in Lai with Dan Dailey and Cyd Charisse also "War of with John Wayne KEY CITY Sunday Monday Without with Hugh Marlowe and Nancy Gates Atomic with Gene Nelson Nak-'and Faith Domergue Tuesday Wednesday with Leslie Caron and John Kerr Passage" Rod Cameron and Joanne Dru Thar Frl Sat "Jubal" with Glenn Ford Ernest Borgnine and Rod Steiger Dakotas" Bill Williams and Coleen Gray CRESCENT Sunday Monday With the Robert Mitchum and Jan Sterling also Me with Ralph Meeker as Mike Hammer detective a la Mickey SpUlane Taesday Wednesday My with Walter Brennan and Brandon Do-Wilde also with James Whitmore and Edmund Gwen In science fictioner Thar Frl Sat Me in Us with Dan Dailey and Cyd Charisse and with Ward Bond and Francis Lee TOWER Sunday Monday Without with Hugh Marlowe and Nancy Gates also Atomic Gent Nelson and Faith Domcrque Tuesday Wednesday "Anything for Bing Crosby Mitzi Gay nor Donald O'Connor and Phil Harris Also 'Tony with Charlton Heston and Rhonda Fleming Thar Frl Sat with Glen Ford and Valerie French and "Duel on the Mississippi" with Lex Barker and Patricia Medina TOWN fir COUNTRY Sunday Maaday Private War of Major starring Charlton Heston Julie Adams and Tim Hovcy big soldier makes little soldiers also Looters" Taeaday Wednesday Tall with Clark Gable and Jane Russell and to Ba Very Very starring Betty Grable and Sheree North Thar Frl Sat starring Glenn Ford Ernest Borgnine and Rod Steiger also Threo Old Ghost Towns Too Old for Film 4-8515 BUDDIES Buddies from the underworld end their chances for friendship with Ralph Meeker who plays Mickey Spillane's detective Mike Hammer in Me at the Crescent Sunday and Monday TIP NO 7 HOLLYWOOD tm Abandoned ghost towns in the Mojave Desert were too old and dilapidated-looking for a movie sequence so the studio built a ghost town one that looked like it had been abandoned only a few days It will be really abandoned after filming on is finished The llOdegme heat on the location near Victorville Calif wu so intense thet Dorothy Malone only feminine member of the cast and several crew member nearly collapsed Director Harry KeOtr fawtalled a portable air conditioning unit in a cooling room ordering everyone in the cast and crew to take regular rest periods it jl 'i PROTECT PRECIOUS PICTURES IN A PICTURE ALBUM i YOUR COMPLETE AS WHAT THE COST OF Photographic Store FOR TOUR FAVORITE PICTURES THAT Eduard Franz as an Indian chief-and Kirk Douglas scout cross a river in Indian showing Sunday Monday at the Linda OR INAPSHOTI? FILM CAMERAS Many people have head that by moanllng Mr ptetaraa ar saapabota to an album the coat af protect laa the album affoeda to vary amaU against tha east af laoalag far-avar that procloaa moment eaptarvd to a photograph that ran never ba replaced OVERNIGHT PROJECTORS Where you will find the finest Cameras Projectors Film Screens Photographic accessories Light Meters Enlargers Dark Room Supplies at reasonable prices FILM LENS FILTERS DEVELOPING LI6HT MITERS CAMERA BOOKS ALL TAPE WESTERN From Um top down are Glenn Ford Ernest Borgnine and Rod Steiger the three Westerners who star In the story of a man who shot his friend showing Ihursday-Saturday at the Town and Country Key City and Chief and Crescent Theaters Also Sunday Monday at tha Queen Thar are aeveral albama aa Ike market today tadadlag albama for Wedding Birthday Vacation! Babies aad many other apedal occaalae atoama ACCESSORIES RECORDERS MADE by Caaauk aaa of the Nna for if yaar Album naadi FOR ALL YOUR BUDGET TERMS EASTMAN KODAK CO ON ALL ITEMS ANSCO HASSELILAD CANON OMEGA KEYSTONE ARCHS RADIANT GRAFLEX PLUS AND FAST PHOTO FINISHING' OUR OWN GUARANTEE pirn the BELL AND HOWELL ZEISS EXAKTA ROLLEIFLEX FILM IN BY PRINTS READY Maaafaetarere 10:30 9:00 Unlimited laatractloa 0 Esebaago Ftlvlegea AM MORNING NEXT AT NIGHT COLOR AND BLACK AND WHITE PHOTO FINISHING pa Wide Predart Choke DcnMutr alien FOR THOSI WHO WANT THI REST Use Our Door Film Deposit lex After Store Hour CAMERA INC 1124 No ti4 momumm Fi S-17XS CAMERA CENTER 179 Cyprcie Fk 9-179! INC AiMU AUSTIN'S CAMMAH0P 131 Cyreie Pb UTN- Everythin! Photographic 1124 Nani 2nd Tha LarfMt Cams Sitacti la Wall SMILE Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis now out of partnership get in some fancy models for their crude aaubing In and showing Sunday Monday at the ChutL Pliaaa 2-1722 Taiaa Phono 4-1744 WATCH NEXT SUNDAY? PAPER FOR OTHER T1PR 233 Cypress WJI I aim -I 3 Jt A 9 I 'A 1.