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Augusta News-Review - June 1, 1978 -
Ester Rolle
going back
to ‘Good Times 9
Ester Rolle, now in
Crawfordville making an NBC
film, has announced that she
will return to the TV show
“Good Times” now that she
has been assured that changes
will be made.
She once said, “I think that
‘Good Times’ is the most
realistic portrayal of a Black
family that we’ve had on TV as
yet.”
A year or two later Esther
quit the show because she
though the CBS series made a
mockery of the Black family.
She will return to the
Norman Lear situation comedy
this fall, mollified and
hopeful that the show will
regain its integrity.
Five years ago, “Good
Times” co-starred Miss Rolle
with John Amos as the parents
of a ghetto family in Chicago.
The family included a teen-age
son and daughter and a
pre-teen son.
The stories, humorously
written, more often than not
involved social issues facing
poor Blacks in big cities. But as
the series wore on, Miss Rolle
and Amos took second place to
Jimmy Walker, who played
J.J., their 19-year-old son.
Amos had enough and quit
two years ago. Miss Rolle
departed a year later.
“I left because the show
lacked quality,” she said. “My
salary was never an issue.
Money isn’t important to me. 1
have to live with myself every
day. 1 couldn’t sacrifice myself
and what 1 believe in for
money.
“I could die tomorrow and
not be able to take my money
with me. But 1 could take with
me my personal dignity and
what I stand for.”
Miss Rolle is possessed of
considerable dignity and poise.
During her year’s hiatus from
the series she starred in an
off-Broadway play and
appeared in two television
movies.
She still appears to be
emotionally distraught by her
experience with “Good
Times.”
“The original concept of the
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Page 6
show was partly due to a
stipulation of mine,” Miss
Rolle said. “The intent from
the beginning was to depict a
real family with a wife,
husband and children instead
of the stereotyped Black
woman without a husband and
a houseful of kids. I felt I
couldn’t do a show like that.
“I was one of 18 children in
our home in Pompano Beach,
Fla., and my mother and father
stayed together.
“Well, when John Amos left
the show, the writers killed off
the husband. And there I was,
playing a Black woman
without a man and with three
kids. Last year, when 1 left, the
writers explained that my
character, Florida, got married
and took off for Arizona
because of her new husband’s
health.
“All it'»really amounted to
was the mother deserting her
family after picking up with a
strange man she’d just met.
How do you like that for the
image of a Black mother?
“Actually, I found the show
was putting the Black family in
a bad light. There was a
19-year-old grownup living
with his poverty stricken
family doing nothing but lying
around the house loafing and
trying to be funny.
“I think the character of J .J.
was damaging to children. The
image was destroying too many
young children who wanted to
pattern themselves after J J.
“I talked to teachers, kids
and parents when I traveled
around the country, and they
said a lot of Black children
were emulating J.J. 1 told them
to watch Jimmy Walker, the
man and actor, who could read
and write, not J.J. the
character on the show.”
It was rumored that both
Amos and Miss Rolle,
long-established performers,
had departed “Good Times”
because Walker had gradually
taken over the starring role,
leaving them with the crumbs.
Walker, after all, was a
neophyte stand-up comedian
with virtually no dramatic
training. He had never acted in
emsemble before.
736-3351 |
Miss Universe says
liberal arts degree
is 6 a waste of time’
Janelle Commissiong
Janelie Commissiong, the
reigning Miss Universe, didn’t
exactly plan to be a beauty
queen, but her entry in the
contest did arise naturally
from her career interests.
At 24, she is a graduate of
the Fashion Institute of
Technology and formerly
worked as a dress buyer for
Martin’s in New York City.
She always knew that fashion
was her major interest.
“In my high school
yearbook, it says ‘plans to be
a fashion buyer’ under my
picture,” Janelle remembers.
“I was pretty fortunate, I
Local soldiers complete training
FORT BENNING, Ga.
(AHINC) - Pvt. LaJuan M.
Lovett, son Mr. and Mrs. John
E. Lovett, 3701 London Blvd.,
recently received a Parachutist
Badge upon completion of the
three-week airborne course at
the U.S. Army Infantry
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always knew what 1 wanted to
do.”
How, then, did she come to
enter the Miss Universe
contest?
“After getting some fashion
experience behind me, I was
about to open my own
boutique in Trinidad. The
Miss Trinidad contest was
coming up, and somedne
suggested that it would be
good advertising for my new
business if I entered,” she
says. “I never thought that I
would win, and then go on to
win Miss Universe too.”
School, Fort Benning, Ga.
During the first week of
training, students undergo a
rigorous physical training
program and receive
instruction in the theory of
parachuting. The second week
they receive practical training
FILM CONTRACT
When her reign is over,
Janelle has a contract to do a
mvie for Paramount. After
that, though, she still plans to
return home and open her
boutique. “I plan to do
importing, mainly from the
States,” she says, with her
target especially on working
girls in their early twenties.
Janelle regards her title as
“some of the best advertising
in the world” for her business
- not to mention the fabulous
world travel she has enjoyed.
COLLEGE OPTIONAL
Janelie’s attitude toward a
college education is mildly
controversial. “I think that
college is improtant if you
need the training in a specific
field, but going to school just
to be there, to get a degree in
liberal arts - to me that’s a
waste of time.”
She believes strongly in
trade schools, and thinks that
many young people would be
better off there than in
general liberal arts schools.
Then when they come out
“they’d be able to do
something.” She admits that
her opinion may be a bit
one-sided, because “I always
knew what I wanted to do.”
Janelle went straight from
high school to the Fashion
Institute of Technology as a
merchandising major.
CAREER AND FAMILY
Being a career girl doesn’t
rule out having a family, in
Janelle’s opinion, and she
hopes eventually to combine
both. “I’ll need someone who
thinks a wife’s career is
important,” she specifies. “To
center your life around a
career gives you a sense of
fulfillment.”
Since becoming Miss
Universe, Janelle feels that her
horizons have expanded
amazingly. “My eyes are
opened to so much more,
people I’ve met,
circumstances 1 never even
imagined ... Back in Trinidad,
one of the things I’d like to
do is work with high school
kids, to give them some hope
- the feeling that there’s
nothing they can’t
accomplish.”
by jumping from 34-foot and
250-foot towers. The final
week includes five static-line
parachute jumps.
Lovett entered the Army in
October 1977.
The private is a 1977
graduate of Glenn Hills,
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QUIET FOMENT - Bill Cosby stars as an art dealer who works on assignment as
an undercover agent on overseas cases and Gloria Foster portrays liis wife, in “Top
Secret,” an action adventure on NBC TV’s “The Big Event” Sunday, June 4 (9 to 11
p.m. NYT).
Cub Scouts offer four summer camps
Cub Scouts in the
Georgia-Carolina Council of
the Boy Scouts of America will
have four Cub Camps to
choose from this summer.
Rather than hold one Camp
at Scout Camp Linwood
Hayne, Cubs will find the
camps closer to their
hometowns for the first time,
according to Council Chairman
Bobby Jones.
FORT SILL, Okla. - Pvt.
Ronald G. Oliver, son of Mr.
and Mrs. Ricfrard E. Oliver,
3623 Madrid Drive, recently
completed training as a
cannoneer. under the One
Station Unit Training (OSUT)
Program at Fort Sill, Okla.
OSUT is a 13-week period
which combines basic combat
training with advanced
individual training.
Students learning the duties
of a howitzer or gun section
crewman and received
instruction in handling
ammunition, setting fuses
and preparing charges,
communications and
maintenance.
Oliver entered the Army last
March.
He is a 1976 graduate of
Glenn Hills High School.
**********
U.S. FORCES, Germany
(AHINC) - Pfc. Joe A. Collins,
son of Mrs. Mary Collins, 1603
Sunset Ave., recently
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Cub Camp will be held
Monday, June 12 through
Friday, June 16 at the
following locations; Georgia
National Guard Armory in
Augusta, Aiken State Park in
Aiken County, Magnolia State
Park in Millen, and the
Thomson Lions Club Building
in Thomson.
Cub Scouts attending will all
gather at Camp Linwood
participated in an Army
Training and Evaluation
Program in Germany.
The program is designed to
evaluate individual and unit
efficiency under simulated
combat conditions.
Collins, a cannoneer
assembler with the 18th Field
Artillery in Augsburg,
Germany, entered the Army in
September 1976.
The private is a 1975
graduate of T.W. Josey High
School.
His father, Joseph Collins,
lives at 812 E. Boundary.
House Hunting? ? Call - -
Charles Smith
Jack Bowles Realty Co.
SALES - RENTALS - TRADES
Bus; 793-7881 Res: 793-1344
Meadowbrook Drive Office
Hayne the following Saturday,
June 17, for “All Cub Day”.
Saturday’s activities will
include contests, games, and an
evening campfire. Cubs are
encouraged to bring their dads
and brothers or friends, and
invite mom to bring along a
picnic supper.
Registration information
for Cub Day Camp is available
through the Scout Council
Office in Augusta.
Alumni to go
to Copenhagen
The Augusta College Alumni
Association is planning a trip
to Copenhagen departing
Atlanta June 13 and returning
June 21.
Cost of the trip is $549.
Interested persons should
contact the Maxwell Alumni
House for further information.