Bode, Carl

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University of Rhode IslandDigitalCommons@URILetters (1979) Education: National Endowment for the Arts andHumanities, Subject Files I (1973-1996)1979Letters (1979): News Article 01Carl BodeFollow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/pell_neh_I_42This News Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Education: National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities, Subject Files I(1973-1996) at DigitalCommons@URI. It has been accepted for inclusion in Letters (1979) by an authorized administrator ofDigitalCommons@URI. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@etal.uri.edu.Recommended CitationBode, Carl, "Letters (1979): News Article 01" (1979). Letters (1979). Paper 18.http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/pell_neh_I_42/18" : ~ ·~· / Carl Bode What Tl)-ey Miss Out On: A Case History BAREFOOT under a benign sun, the students sprawl on the grass in front of McKeldin Library at ~University of Maryland, where I teach. Sup-plied with -e~erything from books to bongo drums, they're enjoying a lreedom denied those· of us who.went to col-lege mocb earlier. For exam-ple, they can take almost any course they wish, then drop il at a whim.. It's true that some faculty members are cam-paigning for a return to re-quired courses including a whole year of composition in English, a language which is begging for restoration; but they haven't won yel The students can live their personal as well as their acad-emic lives almost without re-striction. If they want to re-side on campus, the dormito-ries offer them seven differ-ent official options - not to mention a beguiling variety of unofficial ones. Though I'm not urging a return to one-sex, supervised dorms, I admit that the notion makes a cer-tain bashful appeal. So toaay's students have it made, I think. But there's one minor delight they'll never know. It has sunk without a ·trace. I'm sure you haven't thought about it for years and will never guess what I mean. {"Oh yes, I will." Oh no, ycn1 won't.) It's the laundry case! Mine was made of tough fiber-board covered with brown canvas. Around it went two straps- of webbing, one going the Jong way, the other the sMrt way. The front had a small glassine slot behind which you slid your name-and-address card. On one side you lettered your name and address, on the other your parents'. For a brief time when I was outraged because my parents didn't indulge me as usual, I slipped in a new card with my home address but above it simply "Resident." They forgave me, though I don't know why. After all, I was biting the hand that both fed me and kept me clean. Everybody had laundry cases; everybody followed the same ritual. Every week or two you crammed the case full. It was an act of catharsis to get rid of your dirty clothes. You held the top down by kneeling on it while you tightened the straps. Then you lugged it to the campus mail· room. When it came back through the campus mail you felt a lift of the spirit. In your room you took out the layers of clean clothes, the underwear, shirts, handkerchiefs, and the rest. They all smelled good. I can recall my mother out in the back yard taking down the family wash from the clothes· line strung between the trees. Pleased by. the way the wind and sun had done their drying, she'd sometimes bury ber face M!.1. 9 19:7.1 ) from THE EVENING SUN BALTIMORE, MARYLAND in a sheet and then remark to me, "Doesn't it smell clean? Just smell the ozone." It did smell clean. And it smelled or mountain peaks and salt air. But that was far from all. Slipped in between the clean clothes were ail sorts of good things. Rhubarb squares (chewy, they didn't crumble like some cookies), apples, fudge, raisins (they were full of vitamins), peanut brittle ... I know they all couldn't have been there at one time but I'm glad to Jet my memory de-ceive me. Every now and then, a tube of toothpaste or a bar of soap. And at the bottom of the case, the comics from last Sunday's paper. That's the way it was. To-day the students use the local laundromat. It shows more in--dependence and besides they meet some interesting people there, sometimes. But they don1 know the pleasure of opening the laundry case from home. i 

Letters (1979): News Article 01

University of Rhode IslandDigitalCommons@URILetters (1979) Education: National Endowment for the Arts andHumanities, Subject Files I (1973-1996)1979Letters (1979): News Article 02Carl BodeFollow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/pell_neh_I_42This News Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Education: National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities, Subject Files I(1973-1996) at DigitalCommons@URI. It has been accepted for inclusion in Letters (1979) by an authorized administrator ofDigitalCommons@URI. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@etal.uri.edu.Recommended CitationBode, Carl, "Letters (1979): News Article 02" (1979). Letters (1979). Paper 17.http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/pell_neh_I_42/17Salu_te to fl:. Small 'Federal .Agenc)· Uy CARL BODE I spare you statistics be-i · d t t r " cause nobody reads them. TODA y 1 stan a a 1 a .. en- ; But the very range of pro-tion to a very small agen-1 ductions which the Federal cy, the National Endow-; Theater organized and of-merit for the Arts. With such · fered is impressiYe: classical a heavy title I'd expect to drama, including Christopher see in its beige cubicles and . Marlowe's "Dr. Faustus''; c;orridors: flow charts; modern drama, including the ~em?s in sextuplicate, each plays of such newcomers as with its own color; photos of Arthur Miller and Clifford .. 'Around the Corner.' That bel's Room' anyway. The. must be the elusive prosper- steep expenses of Broadway ity we have been seeking for productions had forced the ., some six or seven years. . . . appearance of Off-Broadway Next we have 'Companionate ones. The rising expenses of ·Maggie', and then this great Off-Broadway had spawned rhetorical and intriguing . Off-Off-Broadway. The thea-question, 'Did Adam Sin? ter once again ailed. badly. ' " Then, enter the NEA smiling C.hanging tempo and pitch, with encouragement and the congressman then ad- proffering a little money. dressed his convulsed col- • leagues ·with the voice of ·The NEA grants, both di· reason: "Now if you want rect and through the state that kind of salacious tripe, arts councils like· ours; ordi-· " very well, vote for it, but if narily require matching . anybody has any interest in money, thereby doubling the the President, adorned with i O~et~; dance drama; drama Jaure! Jea~es; ~nd ~ongs of 1 for children; . foreign-lan-fu~chonanes m their da:k I guage drama, including _suits or dun dresses, cro~d- ; plays in Yiddish; musicals, mg the water c~olers. In- , including "Sing for Your • ~te~d the NEA _swmgs, as do ; Supper"; black (or Negro its Jazzed-up offices. , . then of course) drama by What it's done for the arts~ f black companies, as well as in the few years of its exist-r ~.an occasional white adapta-ence is so salutary that I · tion, including that thumping yearn to protect it. I yearn : : success · "The Swing Mi-to shelter it from the cornfed ~ kado," which made Gilbert congressman whose culture· ~ and Sullivan sha!<e as they'd consists of watching reruns l' never shaken before; pag-of · reruns. of "Bonanza:'. ? eants including "The Losi: w~ile, downing Pabst Bl~~ ~ Colon;,"; . arid even puppet decency on the stage, if any- resources for the drama. ~ one has an interest in real Once again, I decline . to ~ cultural value, you will not dro'Wn you in' statistics- ori 1 find it in this kind of junk.~' what or who has been helped ·• . R1bbon.--l'yearn-to-shelter It-,-· 'shows: "Thete was- live thea- -. from the blinkered liberal on;}· ter in. 31 states and it was Capitol Hill who proclaims ati "watched by. 30 million per-budget tim~. that it'.~ going_ to_t ::sons.. : · . · . · . . · be either br~ad ori . music. f In the face of this enor-And who adds that this cowi-1 mous achievement the Fed-try can't _affu1d th~ fine arts eral Theater was killed by and social services too- Concrress durincr the loner though the NEA's total\ hot 0 summer of· 19:39 Th~ budget wo~ldn't build one l . charges were that it har-large housmg development. j bored Communists and pre-I'm the more protective\ sented dirty plays. because I · have history on \ · my side. I can remember an i epis6de of · remarkable i achievement which came to ; a tragi-comic end.. . . ; Once befor·e, but then in an '. era of dire economic need, · we created agencies for the! arts. This was during the ; Depression and it wasn't for : the sake of the arts but . simply to keep the practi-tioners of the arts from starving. One agency in par- . ticular sticks in my mind ". and it can serve to represent the rest. It was the Federal Theater, founded to give a living to theatrical workers of all sorts, from stars to st2gehands. It accomplished more in four years of bad. t\mes than had been done in . d generation of good ones. 'The total cost to the tax- · payer during tile life of that . agency was $46 million-the , cost of a single battleship in j those simple days. For that 1 amount the American public ! got more theater, more var- : ied theater, and better thea-ter than ever before. The · House Un-American Activities Committee, under Congressman Martin Dies, and the House Appropria-tions Committee led the on-slaught. One highlight was provide.1 by Congressman Joe Starnes, who demanded to know if this Christopher Marlowe fellow was a Com-munist. But the most memo-rable event was the reading aloud by Congressman Ever-ett Dirksen, in his goose-grease voice, of the titles of some of the plays which had been given. The Congres-sional Record attes~ that the assembled House listened with laughter and applause. Let me offer a few ·in-stances of what brought the House down . MR. DIRKSEN: '.'There is 'Up in Mabel's Room.' There h an intriguing title far you. . . . Here is another, 'Be Sure Your Sex will Find You Out'. (Laughter) Then the State Department might take note of this, 'A Boudo·ir Dip-lomat.' Tnen ther~ is · It was in vain that Con· throughou~ the United · gressman · Casey from · the . States; . he~ instead -is . a 1 other side of the House re- short sampling from.· fiscal;' butted· stiffly that the Dirk· l973: · • . · ,· . .. · •· s.en humor was ribald. It was To professional companieS: · 1 in vain that the heads of the Seattle~5:. Contemparary Thea-: 1 Federal Theater poiilfed out ·· ter;:,,$'1,SOO;-:::Abmgdoo;::-:-Vi1'4 that these frothy comedies . glnia's _Barter Theater, $7°,:ioo .. · ~ · represented merely ··the Washington'~- Black:. ·Reper-·] smallest fraction of .lts- var- tory . Company $50,000;;. and ;; ied offerings. The Hoiise · New York's La."ffama Experl~ j voted to destroy the Theater mental Theater, $00,000. . · -'.' ·: and hooted as it did so. To experimental theaters j That was over 30 years and playwright-development" I ago. Now the National En- program3: New . Orleans's ·· dowment for the Arts has Free Southern Theater, $25,-rriade a very effective new 000; · Oklahoma City's Con-beginning. Though its budget temporary Arts Foundation; , grows, it remains slender $3,000; . and New York"'s de- ; when compared with that of ffantly named Ridiculous nearly every other . agency. Theatrical Company, $10,000. , Yet its achievements are al- · To professional theaters ' ready amazing, both in what . for young audiences, chiefly . ; it has done directly and what of children: Washington's : it has done by supporting Living Stage, ~30,000; and · state arts agencies like our New York's Paper Bag Play· · Marvland Arts Council. . ers, $35,000. . · . In· trying to help the Ariier- · So there . we are. ·· I've ; ican theater the NEA faced rarely qualified as a profes. a situation nearly as thorny sional optimist, yet I readily as that of the past It found concede that times look bet-that dramatic productions ter for the NEA. Everett had become so wickedly ex- Dirksen's son-in-law, Howard pensive that no one, except a . Baker, is a Senator and he's plump businessman on a ~oted consistently to support plump expense account, I~- I trust that's a straw in could afford to see them. the proverbial wind. ~nd all that the businessman I Mr. Bode is chairman. of itched for was 'Up in Ma- the Maryland Arts Council. ) THE EVENING SUN BALTIMORE, MARYLAND SEP 

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Letters (1979): News Article 01

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