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Rowe’s Note Book
81 Could Be The Beginning of Something New
NEW YORK CITY - It may be too early to
predict, but the gut feeling is the *Bl may be the
beginning of something new on B’way. It just could
be the year of the black resurgent along this man
made canyon. From this listening post rumors are
heard that Paul Winfield, who rattled the tubes with
a magnificant performance in the CBS-TV movie,
“Angel City,” is top choice to star in a remake of
“Native Son.” In the long age, this stage version of
Richards Wright’s “write” reality introduced the
acting power of Canada Lee to the incandescant
whirl. In its time “Son” did as much to hi’light the
public and pathos of Black Americans,in a racist
society as “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” did in spotlighting
slavery in a proonsed democracy.
Then there is the fund hunting for Angels who
would back a musical version of Harold Robbins’
pen treatment of the Ann Petry novel, “TheSreet.”
For this one any one of ,several names would play
across the marquee, like Altrovis Davis, Jr., Natalie
Cole, LeVar Burton, Irene Cara or Robert
Guillaume, as the main characters on the asphalt.
Also there are others waiting in the wings to dig
what’s happening before attempting to raise the
curtain on a remake of the late Mike Todd’s *39
World’s Fair hit, “The Hot Mikado.” This opus
starred the late Bill “Bojangles” Robinson out there
in Flushing Meadows arid on B’way. This production,
in the order of choice, would star Sammy Davis, Jr.,
Or Ben Vereen with Bobby Short on a long piano. In
the meanwhile Samm-Art Williams has dug his write
hand into some original thoughts in hopes of adding
some black originality to the glaring turf.
Conersation Row: Major black
organizations should check the hiring polities of the
posh hotels they continue to use for their $125-plus
per plate fund raisers. The hotels are the major
beneficiaries with much of their profits coming from
those who are seldom served by a black waiter. The
Hilton, where most of “our” affairs are held, coined
a record $99,300,000 last year. Ten months into the
eighties the chain looked like it would link another
record breaker with $93,600,000 in the till. Did you
noticed how fast the Souffer’s fire; investigators
stopped putting the heat on the fact that fire
problems were compounded by hotel help who did
not speak English, and others who were so new on the
job they didn’t know their way out of the kit
chen... The Northside Center for Child Develop
ment’s salute to John Hammond was long overdue
and most fitting. It’s about time an award is given to
someone who is deserving.
According to John Cousar, prexy of the Guar
dians, the ass’n of black police, only 300 minority
applicants, out of 2000 black and hispanic, wero
notified that their 93 to 90 score,is now a passing
mark. This based on a recerit Supreme Court ruling
which toppled the old passing mark of 94 to 90. “Only
159 of that 300 showed up,” he said.... This year’s
“Santa Claus and the Unicron” will mark its sth
year, but its young interpreters will be just as dainty
and delightful as ever. This holiday season the
Harlem Dance Foundation classic will light up the
Leonard Davis Center for the Performing Arts
wherein Carolyn Adams, Stanley Dalton, Julie
Strandberg, Carl Hardy, Lidell Jackson, Sean
Hopkins, Louis Solino and Clifton Thomas will have
more room to ply their youthful talents. The show is a
treat for you and your young ones.... Milton Berle was
set to berling on the hot end of a biting one-liner
exchange with L.A.’s Mayor Tom Bradley during the
Friars Roast and Toast cooked-up for Sammy Davis,
Jr., in Bev’hills last week. The total talented one
received the original's Life Achievement Award as
all the stars who mattered glittered in praise.
B’Way Banter: -- To be “Perfectly Frank” is a
loser, but no losser. After viewing this B’way opus I
understand why Kenny Solms, who conceived and
wrote the book for “Perfectly Frank,’ withdrew his
name from the show.... Peter Shaffer’s London hit,
“Amadeus” will make B’way next week Jan
McKellen, one of England’s super stage per
sonalities, stars.,.“Sophisticated Ladies,” vioven out
of the music of the immortal Duke Ellington, Opens
Jan. Uth. at the Opera House of the John F. Kennedy
Center for the Performing Arts....lnstructors at the
renowned Crane School of Music, Potsdam, N.Y., are
high in their praise of Kenneth Nichols. The gifted
young bass baritone has been elected prexy of the
largest choral origin in the school.
Write in Passing:..- You know the holiday season is
upon you when the annual invite arrives for Al Vigal
b’day bash. He’s 75 this time and still willing to
trot.... Everybody who thought their marriage
wouldn’t last is proberly gone. Wallace S. Hayes and
Esther F. Fields were married in Jacksonville. Fla.
Dec. 1 1915 and have just celebrated their 65th
wedding anniversary. Wally is a retired pharmacist
and Esther, who once was in the show choir of
“Blackbirds,” in latter yrs. became the lead singer
of the Abyssinian choir to emphasize the sermons of
both the Adam Clayton Powells. He’s 92, but as
expected the lady still will not reveal her age....
Happy Holidays and Stay Loose.
Red Cross Offers Courses
Registration is now
open for two Vital Signs
courses to be offered by
the Augusta Red Cross.
A class on the taking
and reading of blood
pressure will be taught
Dec. 29, 6:30 to 9:30, at
the chapter office, 811
12th St.
Auditions Held Dec. 17th-18th
The Garden City
Guild will hold auditions
for “A Raisin in the Sun”
A course on tem
perature, pulse and
respiration will be taught
December 30 at the same
time and location.
Advance registration
is required at the chapter
office.
at 135 McElmurray
Drive Dec. 17 and 18 from
6 to 8 p.m.
UNCF Recieves $150,000 Check
A check for $150,000
has been presented to the
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Marshall Bass (left), corporate director of personnel
development for R. J. Reynolds Industries,
presented a check for $150,000 to Christopher F.
Edley, executive director of the United Negro
Seagrams
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United Negro College
Fund by R.J. Reynolds
Industries. Inc., raising
the corporation’s total
College Fund, at a reception-dinner of the National
Urban League in New York. The contribution plus
pledge commitnMWto ratoeo IUIU*b total support of
theUNCFtemre Umb UmHm*
support of UNCF to more
than s’million.
The Augusta News-Review - Dec. 20,1980 -
Marshall Bass,
corporate director of
personnel development
Page 7
for R.J. Reynolds
Industries, said the
contribution included
$109,000, the .second in
stallment of a $300,000
pledge to assist UNCF’s
Capital Fund Drive,.atfl
$50,000 for ? < the
organization’s general
fund to be used in suppol
of the general academk
programs of many of th?
UNCF member irr
stitutions.
Bass, in New York
attend the Equal!
Employment OppoitJ
tunity dinner of »■ titti
National Urban LeaguF
said the international
corporation is increasing
its support to help
that predominantly black
colleges continue t/j
survive and progress. •
“The Upited Negro
College Fund repxesedfc
a primary instrument fa
ensuring that the privaf|p,
predominantly blagk
colleges- in the United
States .» Gbhtjnue to
produce quality
graduates from their
instraitions,” Bass said|
Bass presented the
$150,000 check to
Christopher F. Edley,
executive director of the
United Negro College
Fund.
“We believe that our
contributions to the
United Negro College
Fund are an investment
in the future of its
members institutions and
an investment in the lives
of many Americans,”
Bass said. “And, we
believe that these cofF®
tributions are a sourttT"
investment for ■ otM
company.”