About The Red and Black (Athens, Ga.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 10, 1981)
Page 2 The Red and Black Monday. November 10, I9HI Brumby Hall gets smoke alarms By ANN DEACON Krd and Black Staff WrUrr Installation of an early warning smoke detection system is nearly completed in Brumby Hall, according to Dan Hallenbeck, director of University housing "We have installed the conduits for the smoke detection system all the way from the ninth floor down to the second floor of Brumby Once the conduit is in, the system can be wired," Hallenbeck said. He said that installation in the other two high-rise dorms, Russell and Creswell Halls, will begin as soon as it is completed in Brumby. He did not know, however, if the smoke and thermal units would be installed in the other two dorms before the entire system was actually hooked up and in operation. The photo-electric system consists of a beam of light, which, when broken by smoke triggers the alarm This alarm automatically sets off the regular fire alarm in the buildings. Fire doors for the three dorms have already arrived, but the housing department has postponed installation until special-order locks for the doors come in, said Bob Huss, assistant director of housing The scheduled delivery date for the locks is Dec 10. “We will install the doors immediately after the locks arrive," he said. The fire doors are "B" labeled, w hich means that they will contain a raging fire for approximately an hour and a half. Hallenbeck said This summer the metal louvers above doors in Brumby and Russell were covered with metal and the doors were undercut inch to allow for ventilation, he said The louvers in Creswell w ere not covered because it is not air-conditioned and the vents are needed for air circulation. Public Safety also painted fire lanes in all dorm parking lots this summer, and an emergency lighting system was installed in Creswell Hallenbeck said there is no need for concern about fire safety in the high-rise dorms. All buildings have valid evacuation plans and fire alert systems, he said The improvements in fire safety are funded through an allocation of $390,000 approved by the Board of Regents last April Birnbach takes credit for prep phenomenon Klvena Green displays Bugs Bunney cel Staff photo/\|it/i Harris (CPS) — Lisa Birnbach, editor of "The Official Preppy Handbook." happily takes credit for the preppy fad now enjoying its second year of supremecy on campus. Since her witty guide to the mores of the rich and casual appeared in October. 1980, it has become not only a bestseller, but a force moving style-conscious students to buy Lacoste alligator shirts (preferably pink this year), khaki pants, Sperry Topsiders shoes and anything from the "prep mecca:" The L.L. Bean catalogue. Now a year old, the Handbook has sold a phenomenal 1,193,000 copies, is in its 22nd printing and has spawned Canadian and Japanense editions More is coming Workman Publishing, which produced the Handbook, is offering preppy desk diaries and the like to help separate the “key" people from the nerds andwonks. But, oddly enough, under the Fair Island sweater, penny loafers, argyle knee socks and camel corduroy blazer is a different Lisa Birnbach: A very serious, 25-year-old liberal Jewish Democrat from New York who is mostly amused by the GEORGIA SQUARE fXg# 543-1632 HIGHWAYS 29 - 71 at •YPASS 1 $2.00 MON THRU SAT ALL SHOWINGS Bf FORI 6PM SUN A HOLIDAYS FIRST MATIN!! SHOW ONLY Halloween II R 2:00 4:00 6 00 8:00 10:00 Scan Connary 6 Shtlly Duval Time Bandits PG 2:00 4 30 7:00 9 30 Southern Comfort ' R I 5 4:15 6:15 8:15 10:15 I 2:15 4 Dudley Moore Arthur PG 2:15 4:15 6:15 6:15 10:15 GENERAL CINEMA THEATRES PARIS ADULT THEATER For Ladies & Gentlemen 18 and over Strange Diary Bedroom Bedlam /' Black Girls y Open Mon. Sat. 10a.m.-11 p.m. Sun. 1 p.m.-9 p.m. STUDENT DISCOUNTS — Ladies tree Tues. & Thurs. 8 mm Films * Video Tapes * Magazines 140 WashinglonSt.548-8930 preppy phenomenon "People still ask me Was it a joke? Was it supposed to be serious?'" Birnbach said "I still can't believe that it’s that hard to figure out There's a difference between you preppies are ridiculous' and 'us preppies are ridiculous.' That’s what we were trying to do." "I don't like it when people want to restrict other people from something. I want everybody to be preppy So despite all the frivolity she has helped promote, she is concerned about the student audiences she speaks to almost constantly. "When students want me to see how preppy they are, they show me their Reagan- Bush stickers. That doesn't make me happy at all. I'm political and I’ve always been political, but I recognize that they didn't invite me to be Lisa Birnbach. They invited me to talk about prep. " Some of the time her views lead out anyway. At Duke, she couldn't resist speaking out against the Nixon library proposed for the campus "Students aren't political at all. I'm worried that they aren't getting enough out of their education. When I'm up there I'm not trying to say. Let's all throw up together' There is more to college than that I hope that most of them know that all of this is just in fun, "she said. Birnbach does realize that some do take it seriously, perhaps as a symbol of personal caution. “I wish something else (other than prepl had become a symbol of playing it safe, but preppy isn't incompatable with that mood,” she said. "If the only choices you have are to major in business or art history, one way to play it safe its to dress preppy.' ’ It has also become a badge of identity. "In the sixties you knew that anyone who had short hair was a fascist and voted for Nixon and anybody who had long hair was okay. Now you can have long hair and be a fascist," she said. The alternative is to dress preppy. Birnbach said. It is "instant respectability. I mean, you're always dressed for a job interview." she said. Birnbach is not without her own prep school credentials Daughter of a gem importer and a writer, Birnbach went to Manhattan's Lennox School, Riverdale Country School, Barnard College and Brown University, graduating in 1978 with an English degree It was at Brown when Birnbach and classmate Jonathan Roberts started keeping notebooks of the foibles of their fellow students, usually those of the upper classes. "We even had a list of preppy diseases," she said. “There was a lot of things that didn't make it into the book.” Sadly for pop culture historians, the notebooks were lost, and Birnbach and company had to start from scratch when Roberts mikec*£S«4' is live &J999H- TonightandTomorrowW TONfcHT »«£*«£? He'sathisbestona stage See him yourself November 10 a ndVlo nttieSta ^ of Friends. TOMORROW Meet M.ke in person from 4-5J0P-J on November 1 1 at 8 ecca6a.we^rt ne’s3S charrnin ^ one to one as he 15 one to one thousand of ^ nv ^^e e w°th in front of the XSace WeTdoih Mike s latest, t,rep = ^.ftan’ IS on sale y/nde you re at it, <c the entire Mike collection Rock The Bounty Hunter/ The Country and Chiia nrodiqy There's enou9h w armt?theretokeepthe home fires crackling for months Record Bar Georgia Square proposed to Workman Publishing to "do a book on preppies." The publishing house was initially uninterested, but in Spring, 1980, when designer Ralph Lauren produced a line of preppy clothing, Workman changed its mind. Roberts convinced Birnbach to edit the book because Roberts, a Workman staffer, was busy with other projects. They assembled it in five months Birnbach "really thought the book would die in a few months after it came out,” when students waded into the school year. "College students don't spend much time in the book stores after they buy their (text) books,” she said Instead, the handbook took off, and Birnbach has been touring colleges ever since. Her first tour took her to the West and South, including Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, which she dubs "The preppiest college in the country. ” "Other than Gordon Liddy, I think I’m hitting the college lecture circuit the hardest," she said. On the circuit, she plays her high priestess of prep role to the hilt, wearing Top Drawer regalia and presiding over any kind of pro-preppy event the sponsors concoct. At the University of Southern California, she judged a Who's Most Preppy Contest. Some entrants brought golf carts and standing closets full of The Right Clothes. Generally she does a 90- minute stand-up comedy routine and then answers audience questions. Topics range from prep sex (“a contradiction in terms”) to drinking. She encourages students to "wear beer." "Beer is not only a beverage, but a fashion accessory," she said. The ulitmate in drinking acceptance is performing ■the "technicolor yawn" — throwing up in public. “There really can't be a sequel (to the book) as such." she said with a laugh. "We say that nothing's changed since 1635, so there isn't anything different.’’ She sells celluloids By STEPHEN GENOVESI Krd jihI k Staff Writer Have you been searching for a special something to put on that bare wall at home? Something that is unusual and one of a kind? Well, search no more. Elvena Green and her collection of eels may be just what you need A cel, short for celluloid, is the final piece of art work of an animated film before it reaches the camera. It takes thousands of individual cels to make up a cartoon Green, a retired professor from the Agnes Scott Drama Department, is not only a collector but is also a dealer of cels Green calls her works of cartoon art "one of a kind” and sold them at Georgia Square over the weekend Her established dealership is at her home in Decatur. “One cel occupies two frames, and 24 frames occupy one second on the screen." Green explained. "Therefore, it takes approximately 7,000 cels to make a 10-minute cartoon." The cels are not only decorative types of art, hut they can be very valuable. Such is the ease with most Walt Disney cels Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" was the first animated film whose cels were officially sold to collectors and preserved. Cels in Green's collection are priced from $3 all they way up to $1,200 for one Snow White cel “All the cels that have backgri jnds are valuable works of art and are worth the investment," Green said “I'm always being contacted by anxious collectors who are looking for a certain character, with a certain setting and in a certain animation," she said. Green's selections include Disney cels, Hanna-Barbera cels (Yogi Bean, Warner Brothers (Bugs Bunny), Lantz (Woody Woodpecker i, and Melendez (Peanuts) Older eels are made of nitrate and thus are delicate and highly flammable. Green said Cels made since 1941 are made of acetate and ale not considered dangerous to store Green started collecting cels in 1978. She had heard from an agent that there were large varieties of Hanna-Barbera cels available in California She took the risk of buying them and in two months she had 2,000 Today, she has more than 1,000. Preppy handbook starts ‘merchandizing bonanza’ (CPS) — Lisa Birnbach's "little madras book," "The Official Preppy Handbook," has touched off a major merchandising bonanza as well as a fad. Now in its 22nd printing, the preppy handbook has thus far sold over a million paperback copies, at $4.95 each, and a hard cover Christmas "collector's edition." priced at $9.95 each, is on its way The book forms just the wheels, though, of a commercial bandwagon upon which numerous exploiters have been quick to hop Workman Press of New York, which publishes the book (and the Kliban Cat books) also produces an astounding array of related preppy products “The preppy book,” said Donna Gould, Workman's publicity director, "has parented preppy products." Indeed. Preppy tote bags and T-shirts abound, as do aprons ("Before truth," extolls one, "the right fork"), desk diaries, Christmas cards, stationary, book bags, note pads (messages from the desks of "Mummy," "Daddy,” "Muffy" or "Skip”) and pins ("C.B.C" — Couldn't Be Cuter — for one.) Corky Tyler, national sales manager for Sigma Marketing Inc., a large distributor of "Hey mister... Got a Dime?" Spend It at Sonny’s Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday Only Offer Good During October and November Only Draft =1 LbAI * MbAI • lint GRE PSYCH • GRE BIO • MAT GMAT • OAT • OCAT • PCAT VAT • SAT • CPA • TOEFL MSKP • NAT L MED BOS ECFMG • FLEX • VQE NOB • NPB I ■ NLE SfckflM KAPLAN preppy ceramic pieces and glassware, is less sanguine Although enthusiastic about her company's preppy products, she says they have not done well iiulmdtmr the Northeast. Southeast or southern California "It hasn't caught on in places like Wyoming or the Dakotas, but this is not due to resistance to the product, but to a lack of interest," she said. If those regions do not need preppy, it is clear that preppy does not need them either. One firm, the C.R Gibson Co., has already sold "in excess off" $750,000 worth of preppy scapbooks, photo albums, address books, bulletin boards, mini jigsaw puzzles and other printed material just since May. No dream goes unopposed, however, and opposition is exploitable, too Bloomingdale's and Macy s in New York have both opened special preppy shops, which feature preppy- and anti-preppy material side-by-side "The 1 Hate Preppies Handbook," in particular, is reported by Macy's to be “doing very well." The phenomenon has even proved itself lo be exportable: Preppy products have been licensed in Japan this year. That’s ri&ht! With the purchase of any food item at Sonny's, )) Miller's draft is only ten cents! Come on out and drink for a / |j dime. Limit Three Per Customer. /, p MKI0 & /, Sunday thru Thursday / Friday 6 Saturday U Atlanta Highway Open 11a.m.— 9:30 11 a.m. — 10 p.m. ^ * / 546-0385 Across From the Mall /
