There’s hope
for quality
TV drama
By Jay Sharbutt
AP Television Writer
This Thursday, a new weekly series
original drama for TV kicks off on public
television. It is called Visions, is produced
by KCET here and is intended to:
• Offer far more mental sustenance than,
say, Hawaii Five-0
• Encourage new dramatic works for TV
and give new American playwrights a
chance to work in the medium of commer
cial television’s constant quest for ratings.
It’ll have 13 original dramas and four re
peats this season. The premier show, Two
Brothers, is a study of a mentally ill doctor
David Spielberg and the inability of his
brother Judd Hirsch (of the Delvacchio
series) to help him. This show plays tonight
at 9 p.m. on OEPBS, Channel 17.
The prime mover and artistic director of
Visions is Barbara Schultz, a former execu
tive producer of CBS Playhouse when
there was one, and former East Coast prog
ram development director for CBS.
She says Visions goes back to 1972,
when Fred Friendly, TV guru at the Ford
Foundation, a major funder of public TV,
and officials at the National Endowment for
the Arts, got to worrying about the paucity of
American dramatic works on the American
public tube.
“It seemed to them everything in drama
was coming from England,” she said. “And
of course, this was true....”
The upshot of the worrying was the selec
tion of KCET as producer of a home-grown
dramatic series originally calling for 36
dramas to be made over a three-year
period under a $10.2 million budget.
Of that sum, $3.2 million was to come
from benefactors others than the Ford
Foundation and the National Endowment,
whom Schultz says kicked in a total of $5
million, or the Corporation for Public Broad
casting, which provided $2 million.
It was a bad year for finding benefactors
and thus, she says, Visions had to cut back
to a two-season, 24-show schedule with the
$7 million provided by Ford, the En
dowment and CPB.
Still, she says, she stayed with her origi
nal vision of making Visions a weekly
show, not only to build an audience but to
sustain the new writers scrivening new
works for the series.
“The pressure to hit it big in a dramatic
special is just too great for a rookie televi
sion dramatist,” she adds. Only three of 13
first-season Visions authors have any kind
of television experience.
“On a weekly basis, it's possible to fail
and you can’t really succeed unless you
fail,” she says. "To have new people par
ticipate in the medium, there has to be that
allowance that they can fail.”
German beer on tap in ‘de Frisco s
If you've been looking for a tavern with
some class and style where you can get
good food and great beer, carry on a con
versation in comfortable surroundings, play
a game of pool on a good table with straight
cues or even read a book, try de Frisco’s in
the Atrium building on tenth and Olive.
Stepping from the Atrium into the custom
finished, solid oak interior is a trip in itself.
The first thing that catches your eye is the
book corner. It's a time-capsule that takes
you back to the Victorian era when society’s
leisure time was spent in comfortable draw
ing room conversation. Pleasantly fur
nished with antique easy chairs and soft
light reading lamps, surrounded by an im
pressive collection of readable books, the
book corner invites conversation and re
laxes atmosphere.
Separated from the conversation area by
a partition of narrow paned windows, the
game area exudes a rich plushness that is
more likely to bring out the sporting instinct
in one than the roudy competitive atmos
phere found in most taverns.
The custom built pool tables are two-inch
solid oak with rare Brazilian rosewood rails,
leather pockets and English felt. A black
velvet clad hostess will find you when it's
By Eric S. Lee
your turn to play. It also sports the newest
model foozbal1 tables and the hottest flap
per games in town—Captain Fantastic, the
Pinball Wizard and Seventeen Seventy Six.
The food at de Frisco's is comparable to
any restaurant in town. Soups and sand
wiches are compliments of Pat Helmers,
once the cook for the New World coffee
house. Don't be surprised if you find your
Could You Reduce Proust?
Could you reduce Proust
So that he looks as though
He were staring at us
Behind a window
With a little black moon
Above him?
With his elongated arm
Reaching back—
Resting
Contemplating an attack
On insects
Reduce Proust
With a little black moon
Above him
As though he were looking out a
Dark window .. black moon
His reflection
His own face
Morrison Weed
beer — Lowenbrau and Millers on tap —
being served by the manager, Derrick Ot
terstedt or the owner, Dick Meigs,
Meigs describes himself as a "rabid
Oregonian." He came to Eugene 10 years
ago as a student at the University. "At the
time it was either graduate school or
Canada,” he recalls. "I was the first long
haired freak in the business department I
spent most of my time playing the guitar
Upon graduation, Meigs found himself
over-qualified for most jobs “I didn't like the
idea of driving a gray state car or moving to
Salem to be a state economist or some
thing, so I had to create my own job.
Meigs' interest in music led him to open a
small record store on 13th Avenue. Starting
with records and gradually expanding into
music instruments and electronic equip
ment, the Sun Shop soon became known
as the musician's music store
With the business well under way, Meigs
had more time for his hobbies, but some
how he couldn't separate business from
pleasure An expert foozball player and
flapper (pinball) enthusiast, he found a real
demand for tavern games that wasn't being
filled. So he and some friends got together a
company and wound up owning half the
tables between Eugene and Salem.
Through promotional efforts for the com
pany, Meigs gained a great deal of expos
ure to taverns throughout Oregon. "The
Northwest is unique for it's tavern atmos
phere," says Meigs. "Washington, Oregon
and maybe Wisconsin are the only states
with a large group of people that are beer
and wine oriented."
Although he says Eugene is the biggest
tavern town in Oregon, Meigs doesn t feel
that it is adequately served "There are
some good taverns in Oregon. Mothers
Mattress Factory in Corvallis is a highly im
aginative tavern that works well. We
wanted to build a tavern that fit Eugene s
style A lot of the taverns are good for cer
tain aspects but most of them were built
before music became a factor."
Meigs visualized a tavern as having three
separate areas that don't intrude on each
other. People who just want to sit and talk
shouldn't have to pay a cover charge for
music they don't want to listen to and they
shouldn't have to worry about getting a pool
cue in the back of the head. Conversely,
those who want to listen to good music and
boogies need a large area with good acous
tics.
Meigs hopes to open the music section
sometime around the first of the year it's in
the basement of the Atrium and has an area
about twice that of the tavern itself— by far
the largest dance floor in Eugene—"and
the acoustics will be excellent," Meigs
says. Through the Sun Shop Meigs has
solid connections with most of the local
musicians. He also hopes to bring big name
groups to town.
de Frisco's was built with the style and
philosophy of Eugene in mind, portraying
the quality of life with which we have be
come accustomed and heralding a new era
in entertainment and leisure time activities.
All in all it looks as though de Frisco's is
going to be what's happening in Eugene
this winter.
Master violinist opens concert series
tugene roaor, me miuk jayyer ui Clas
sical music” People Magazine, will be the
first artist to appear in the current concert
series of the Eugene and University Music
Association. The concert, at 8:30 p.m. to
morrow night in Mac Court, is open only to
holders of season tickets. A few of these are
still left at the Main Desk at $6 for students.
In only a single season Eugene Fodor
has won the admiration of music lovers
around the world with his virtuositic perfor
mance and charismatic personality.
The 25-year old violinist, who lives in
Turkey Creek, Colorado, achieved interna
tional fame when he captured the highest
prize awarded by the 1974 Tchaikovsky In
ternational Violin Competition in Moscow.
No American violinist, or any musician from
the Western world, had ever done so well in
a part of this prestigious event which con
fers celebrity status upon its victors.
Although Fodor s success seems to have
happened overnight, he has actually been a
student of the violin since age seven. After
his father, an amateur violinist, introduced
him to the fiddle he studied for ten years
with Harold Whippier, the former concert
master of the Denver Symphony. During
this time he won four first prize honors in
local competitions and at age 11 made his
debut with the Denver Symphony.
Later Fodor studied at the University of
Southern California, Juilliard, Meadow
mount, and Indiana University. He collected
further awards, including in 1972 first prize
in the International Paganini Violin Compet
ition. During this period his teachers in
cluded the legendary Jascha Heifetz.
On his return to America following his
victory at the Tchaikovsky Competition, he
played for New York’s Mayor Beame, who
in turn presented him with the key to the
city. Afterwards he flew west to Denver, to
rejoin his family, where the governor wel
comed him at the State Capitol and pro
claimed Eugene Fodor Day. That same
night he played with the Denver Symphony
at the 15,000-seat Redrock Amphitheater
at the foot of the Rocky Mountains.
Since his victory in Moscow his career
has grown rapidly. He has already been
heard in North America, South America,
Europe, the Soviet Union and New Zea
land. He has played at the Caramoor Festi
val and with such leading American orches
tras as the National Symphony of Washing
ton, D.C., Philadelphia Orchestra,
Pittsburgh Symphony, Baltimore Sym
phony, London Symphony, and Buffalo
Philharmonic.
During the summer of 1975 he performed
in many of the nation's major summer festi
vals including the Saratogy Festival where
he was soloist with the Philadelphia Or
chestra.
In the 1975-76 season he will make a
coast to coast tour of the United States,
during which he will be soloist with leading
orchestras and play numerous recitals. His
foreign engagements will include a tour of
Europe. In New York he will return for the
presitgious Great Performers series at
Avery Fisher Hall in December.
Despite his busy concert schedule,
Fodor will cut his fourth album for RCA Re
cords this season.
While not jetting around the world and
playing in its major concert halls, Eugene
enjoys an outdoor life on his father s 80 acre
ranch in Turkey Creek, Colorado, where fie
is an avid motorcyclist, scuba diver, jogger
and horseback enthusiast.