The Kansas City Star from Kansas City, Missouri • 251

Inside After yean teacher Vincent CampaneBa plans a comeback in the art Page 8J oi marks the almostsuccess story of a despairing writer A review by 3IaryM Reef Page 1U Brush up on happening la Kaiuaa City this PaeSJ a Sunday June 29 1900 Page Organizers are told the over Sweet dreams lie within hooks -am Adozen choices sure to delight young old alike By Betsy Kline ontrsry to what some adults think children are capable of leading fantasy lives elaborate enough to rival those of the most dyed-in-the-wool grown-up daydreamers Give a child an idea and' watch him or her run away with iLever storybook hills and dales to lands where adults are not admitted or if they they accept the intrinsically superi-or Intelligence of their offspring occur -i sense of where he fits (eels about school for instance most probably will determine whether Us or nab fantasies are escape mechanisms to landi where the child is the sole repository far truth to which all others come far knowledge Some children prefer the company of animals those silent gentle types who love you whether you eat your broccoli or not' or get mud on your new Jeans For parents wishing to shape their children's fantasies or gently nudge them on Ur pleasant dreams here is a simple suggestion Share a hook Select one that Such fantasies feed on everyday! a child's se valopmenL Jf he or she is a preschooler look for books with easy-to-read type diet can be triced with the fingers enticing the child to learn to read Also browse awhile to find a book with illustrations that will appeal to your child: Does he like animals monsters or witches or mischievous children his own age? Finding a children's book with colorful and imaginative illustrations is a pleasant chore these days thanks to many marvelous titles both new and reissued which promise to entrance with colors shapes and funny forms (If you plan to read to your child or aid a beginning reader in discovering new words you owe it to yourself to pick a picture book you too will look forward to opening again and again) It is my happy task at this point to re- late brief synopses of a dozen of the best' children's nows that have crossed my desk recently The simplicity of the plots is a ref reshing pause from the complexities of everyday living The unperturbed moral dilemmas of heroes and heroines although played for laughs linger in the minds of impressionable children young and old A quick perusal at the bookstore or the library will tell you whether the book is suitable for your child As for the artistic quality of these books all were chosen largely on the basis of their visual appeal and imaginative interweaving of text and illustrations Be forewarned however that some of tickets to fantasy land will take a chunk out of your wallet about as big aa thfc admittance fee to Worlds of Fun But onoe paid you can return again and agkin with your children and hopefully your grandchildren Jio More Baths written and Illustrated ky'Bieck Cole (M pages: Deubleday 17 JS) Jhisis a whimsical tale about a little 1880 by John Walsh (reprinted with Long Sleep By Robert Butter MindiflivttnMnti fter the success early last summer of City in Cmebra-ition the areawide festival of the arts the organizers began working on an even better 1980 edition But their plans hit a snag: Local corporations and individuals who had supported the first City in Celebration with $230000 In cash material and services said they didn't have any to spare this year For one thing these big supporters of the arts hadn't budgeted money far City in Celebration because they hadn't known it would become an annual event But more importantly they said they were pouring their charitable resources into relieving the Kansas City Philharmonic of its crippling $838000 debt Indeed five of the city's biggest patrons of the arts contributed $875 000 toward getting the Philharmonic back on its feet There are limits to how much money even a huge corporation or wealthy individual can earmark for of the arts and saving the became a priority of thephilanthroplc community That meant no funding for City in Celebration and its cancellation left many smaller arts organizations without a vital showcase and somewhat chagrined by this turn of events It was evident as long as a year ago that the Philharmonic waa in critical condition and that the orchestra probably would be seeking large contributuhu to retire its debt according to William Hall treasurer of the philanthropic Hallmark Foundation Kansas City's major arts the Lyric Opera Kansas City Ballet and Missouri Repertory this year received increased funding from the Hallmark Foundation Hall said hut it was decided to turn down City in request because it was unexpected because $70000 for the event seemed unrealistically high and because the Philharmonic's need was greater Because Hallmark tends to set the pace in Kansas City when it comes to corporate largess City in Celebration will have to wait until next year Even though there is no guarantee that the money that went to the orchestra would otherwise have found its way to Kansas City's secondary arts organizations the situ-' ation has generated some grum- bling from the have-nots trim believe an orchestra that could not balance its books wu given another chance at their expense While the Theater Workshop does not rely on corporate support and waa minimally affected by the Philharmonic rescue Jim Cairns its managing director said he was aware of resentment in the arts community groups cant spend money See Party pg SJ col 1 Cub Scouts sports and other fatherly pursuits Little did these parents know that every morning I was writing sadomasochistic terror Now my cover is blown I am the man who thought up the hand that comes out from under the bed and sticks the hunting arrow through die throat I am no longer the pleasant-faced guy with the children and the pretty wife Mothers have to think a few times before letting their children come and play ball in our yard They never can be quite sure I won spring from the cellar looking like TOny Perkins on a bad trip I spoke at two local high schools brought in by popular demand because although the teachers had not seen every one of their students had The teacher informed me that the kids were afraid of me I had to spend the first 10 minutes assuring them that I carried no weapons in my brief case Gradually they moved their chairs a little closer and asked how we put die hatchet in the actress's face without ruining her career I have several friends who are truly distressed with me although they cannot figure exactly wherein my culpability lira These nice people are "old-line and liberals Out of affection far me they saw the movie They understood that this was a horror movie but they were shocked in a way they had not counted on- Without spoiling the ending for you I'll say that our heroine becomes locked in a terminal struggle with the villain Time and again the heroine cannot bring herself to kill the villain The audience ends up screaming her I Kill her! Kill her (We have a female villain another victory for ERA and another defeat for Phyllis Schlafly) See Murders pg 3J col 1 you want to reach out and squeeze them Make-Believe Bummer: A VlctorlmB Idyll by Fred Cody with Illustrations by Arthur Boyd Houghton (73 pages AAW Publishers: $1083) Here is a children's book probably more suited to adults thanks to the marvelous Victorian drawings by Arthur Boyd Houghton who died in 1875 The eerie almost otherworldliness of the children and adulta in these pictures has a sinister quality that could conceivably produce nightmares after repeated exposure The text by Fled Cody reconstructs the See Fantasy pg 10J col 1 by Andrew Ward Illustrated by John Walsh (32 pages: Atlantic-Little Brown IMS) is the only word for this story about three bears and' their aborted hibernation As the grown-ups get ready for the long winter sleep Baby Bear Just can't seem to get sleepy despite the 83 bedtime stories and 32 lullabies read and sung to him His attempts to amuse himself in bed for several months only disturb his grouchy parents The poor thing is beset by nightmares of "terrible golden-locked and lipsticked little girls creeping past the door" John three-color Illustrations make the bears so huggable True confessions from the man who plotted Triday the murders Illustration from Bear and the permission of Atlantic-Little Brown) girl who runs away from home because her parents want her to take a bath in the middle of the day Mind you she isnt averse to a bath at bedtime but plopping in the suds midday rubs her die wrong way In her Journeys she encounters a chicken a cat and a hog ail of whom are not accustomed to taking baths and they initiate her into their peculiar rites of cleanliness Jessie a pout-faced skinny little tyke with pigtails soon is splotched with mud and sand in Brock Cole's delightful pastel pen-and-ink drawings A dip in the pigpen and she's off and running to the bathtub Baby Bear and the Long Sleep written I began as a playwright attempting to delineate the depth of my artistic consciousness The first play I produced went into rehearsal at 125 pages and came out at 70 The actors had trouble with the depth of my artistic consdous- Once burned I turned to a less communal form of the novel For years I wrote detective books the nov-elizations for the TV series thrillers and sagas But it until my friend Sean a producer responsible for the cult terror favorite House on the asked me that I attempted horror for the silver screen He said have $500000 to make a very scary film that should prab as large an audience as possible" Never having seen many horror films (I get scared when someone goes I went out and saw everything I could Then Cunningham and I sat in his kitchen drinking coffee for hours before I came up with the a summer camp-arid the villain The modes of destruction took more coffee and a careful recollection of every physical fear I'd ever had I put the killer under the bed because 'any 9-year-old can tell you where killers hide I the ax in the face because I'm terri-ied of having my face messed up and nothing is quite as messy as a scout ax Cunninpiam kept saying: it relentless" When the final draft waa accepted I cheered ard took my wife out to several long dinners butldidnotgototheset where they were filming my movie For one thing moviemaking is stxiut as fascinating as watching somebody spray for aphids Worse the acton look at the author as weird for ha vented all the terrible stuff they have to do put tied By Victor Miller ItwyVMhingiantal I wrote "Friday the I also majored in English at Yale have a lovely wife and two reasonably well-adjusted children But I wrote one of the goriest movies ever made Now I must live with the consequences My the neighbors are aghast my parents shocked my friends mystified and my agent euphoric My aids are impressed (They are 11 and 7 and I let them aee "Friday the In fact everybody under 21 eeems to be impressed This low-budget ($500000) thriller reportedly has grossed more than $25 million Most of that money has come from the pockets of thT17-to M-year-oid crowd My mother was not impressed After she and Dad spent their working lives puttingme through all this high-class education they are puzzled that instead of Keats am heading twin bills i Chainsaw Massacre" They to the week it opened Fearing csrdisc arrest for one or both I hiB told them they didn't need to go I imagine it took some time and effort to assimilate what they had seen and inte- grgte it into their image of me My i my and checking my closets for the rpar- night monsters I wu sure were there tjet they sat through by actual count one knife in the gut two slit throats one hunting arrow in the neck one hatchet In the face one body through a window one arrow in the eye and one decapitation I imagine they were a ggrieved to see the cinema of dark Gable transformed into A Grand Guignol But when they called me my mother said is a marvelokk dy of horror S1 -z top-grossing box-office hit in the country for three soUd weeks Variety still lists it as second only to Empire Strikes Back" My life has changed For years IVe been active in my children's schools the III am the man who thought up the hand that comes out from under the bed and sticks the hunting arrow through the throat Mothers have to think a few times before letting their children come and play ball biouryardff Miller Surprisingly after the 13th" wu In the can Paramount Pictures bought it put millions into promotion and released tt in JLUO theaters across the country The Critics hated the film but couldn't change the fact that It was the.