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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 17, 1977)
■r« Franc«« Sehoên-New»pap«r Roo» U n lre ra lty of Oregon L ib ra ry Eugene, Oregon 97403 \.W ( ‘ 4 PORTLAND OBSER V à M 7 N«. 14 IT , 1977 16e per ► z «F ✓ KBOO expands minority coverage by Ulysses Manahafi cut Youths produce sequal to Kong by G. L . Gedgar M in i* producer Ditto De Laurentiis ■ad special effects m u te r. Ray H arry hausen should look over their shoulders, three young Portland filmmakers are producing a sequel to the 1983 classic and 1977 re make of “King Kong." using the technique of miniature animation perfect ed by Harryhausen. Anthony Cash, Cott Ellis and Frank Hunt, all high school freshmen, have not only written a new script and operated the cameras, they have built the Kong m4wi«*in— th a t e r e used in the film. And. even though the movie has yet to be completed, the trio h u already received an award lor their work as “C and C Productions." Cash. a fifteen-year-old student at p ------- High School and the Portland A rt School, and Ellis, a fourteen year-old “film nut" at Monroe High, developed the idea for the project in late 1975 while attending Buckman Elementary School. Hunt. H . who also attended Buckman, joined them two months later. He presently attends W uhington High School. Cash and Ellis actually started out disliking each other but their friend ship grew out of a common interest in (Unoaaurs, other monsters and monster movies; especially th o u containing the work of Ray Harryhausen. filmdom's undisputed king of three-dimensional ani mation. or Dynamation. Harryhausen, who w u first introduced to animation techniques u an understudy of the original Kong’s creator. Willis O'Brien, received an Academy Award for his first professional animation work in another monkey movie, "Mighty Joe Young." in 1949. Since then, he h u unleashed an incredible array of spine- tingling beasts in 14 films, including "The Beast from 20.000 Fathoms" (1963). " It Came from Beneath the Sea" (1965), "The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad" (1968), “Mys terioius Island" (1961), “Jason and the Argonauts" (1963), "One Million Years B.C." (1966) and "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad" (1974). "We have seen just about every mon ster movie there is," u y s C u h about the tremendous amount of research done by the trio. "Do you realize how many times Tokyo h u been destroyed?" The group collected a massive amount of Kongpher- nalia"* and other materials from local sources ("You can find almost anything at the library." says Colt) u well u a lot of material from California. So impressed were they with Harryhausec’s work, C u h . Colt and Hunt would settle for nothing le u than Dynamation to bring their Kong back to life; suited actors playing "monster", a technique used by filmmakers and for the most part, by De Laurentiis in the currently- running Kong " c u t give the right feeling, says Hunt, adding, “A ll he c u do is move around, open his mouth u d smile. You c u t get the quality of animation." He explained that moving lips, rolling eyes u d flaring nostrils could not be done effectively. Fighting pos itions u d m uouevers possibly used by particular beasts could not be carried off that well. Dynamation is one of the most time- consuming forms in the realm of special effects. Differing from the process used in making cartoons, Dynamation requires shooting a single frame of film of the model in one position, u o th e r frame after the model is moved a fraction of u (Please turn to p. 3 col. 1) In 1976 when K Q IV , Portland's only Black managed radio station went off the air, KBOO began to attempt to serve the minority audience that was left without a station. KBOO now h u a soul music program hosted by Michael D . Vance, a former K Q IV disc jockey. This feature is part of the new Saturday programing which ingjudes jazz, blues u d soul. Other Saturday programs are: Uncle Homer's Jazzhole Cover; Jazz Rap with George Page; Kidney Stew blues with John Head u d Radio Lab, featuring rock and jazz with Rick Mitchell and D u Chinn. by Ulysses Marshall ► Women are God's gift to earth. They are beautiful, not only on the outside but on the inside, too. Verolta Waddy, an interesting, intelligent, and beautiful lady is an example. Veroita is an Aquarius. Her favorite activities include sewing, singing, writing music, and she is the director of a Gospel Choir. Varoita is a student at the University of Portland and a Y T u n leader for the YW CA. She would like to get her Masters degree in the near future. She wants a family of two. • Her description of her ideal man is—“My ideal man is someone who is a Christian, intelligent, and understanding - someone who respects me u a woman without categorising me because of sex, or limiting my ability, or considering me to be inferior to the male species. My philosophy is. I am to be my m u 's helper, by his side, not his servant.” She's Get The M agk Teach KBOO is a listener supported station. Rather than taking advertising, listeners subscribe to the program guide for $26.00 per year and become shareholders in the station. "We operate through coopera tion u d democracy." Mitchell said of the non-profit group. Another aspect of the station is its public affairs emphasis and spoken word programs. Interviews and playbacks of important community meetings provide a unique service. A recent development has been the effort to e x p u d minority news reporting. "KBOO, as an alternative radio station, tries to be irreesihls to groups and individuals who are deprived of access to big-time corporate owned' media." Beginning in Marek, KBOO will pre sent a Black Culture and A rts program called "The Underground Railroad”. The station also caries gospel and folk mpsfe. poetry, drama and children’s stories. In December, 1976, the radio signal was increased from 3000 watts to 12J00 watts, reaching a vast new audience. The station is located at 3129 S JE. Belmont. The staff urges the public to tune in to F M 90.7 and welcomes comments »»«i suggestions. Concordia College hosts NAACP meeting The Minority Affairs department at Concordia College will host the member ship meeting of the N A A C P on Sunday, February 20th at 4:00 p.m. "This fits well within the scope of our Black Awareness Celebration that is taking place at Con cordia throughout the month of Feb ru a ry " , stated T he R everend Rocell Gilmore, director of Minority Affairs. The meeting will be held in the Guild Hall Lounge located on the main college campus at 2811 N .E . Holman. This is the first» meeting since the election of new officers. The agenda will consist of orientation and discussion of the objectives for the branch this The Reverend John Jackson, encourages all members and th o u inter ested in the civil aad human rights of Blacks and other minority groups in the country to participate. Rehabilitation: Does the system believe1? Each year thousands of drug addicts go through the Oregon courts. Literally millions of the taxpayers' dollars are spent on alternative programs to prevent the warehousing of drug addicts into prisons. Few drug addicts are able to get into long range, intensive programs, yet vast amounts of time, energy, patience, concern, love and hope are put into each man u d woman who is fortunate enough to get into one of these programs. What happens to these individuals when they complete their rehabilitation programs? How much does the justice system believe in its formulated defini tion of rehabilitation? Are alternative drug programs a coverup for an incurable social program? These are some of the questions raised by the conviction of Babe Wilson, drug counsellor for the state and former drug addict. “I know that the legal authorities in Portland. Oregon, are not willing to believe, cannot believe, and just plain don't want to believe that I, a convicted felon, ex-dope fiend for over fifteen years, could go to a drug rehabilitation program for eighteen months u d come out a ehuged m u with a made up mind to dedicate the rest of my life to learning all the modalities of drug treatment,” Wilson explains. “I ’m just one of so many other ex addicts across the country that the system considers in the same way - 'Once a drug addict, always a drug addict'. But I ’m not going along with this indictment. “I ’ve just been convicted of criminal activity in drugs u d taking contraband into a correctional institution by a ton to two vote, after the jury deliberated for ten hours. The decision followed a week long trial in which several corrections u d police officers gave conflicting testi mony.” Wilson faces sentencing under the Career Criminal Act, a program which allows the District Attorney’s office to select which ex felons it will designate as “career criminals”, providing long-term sentences. "My life is at stake u d I know it. I am innocent. The people in this town know it and the police department knows it. I am Judge condemns drug programs 'RwdijiiL, dujMt bukdoutta KBOO is primarily a volunteer effort. Using volunteers sometimes creates tech nical deficiencies, but it also gives the station a human quality that is lost in the typical automated media production. What is the opinion of the judicial system about drug treatment programs u d the addicts who use them? Circuit Court Judge Robert Jones answered that question this morning while sentencing “Smokey" Eppley to six years in the penitentiary. Judge Jones said drug treatment programs in prisons do not work u d that he h a s n e v e r seen one outside that works either. “Drug programs are a waste of talk,” he said. The only persons who are whlped are the ones who have an almost "religious conversion”. He expressed the opinion that Alpha House, one of the state's programs in Portland, h u had no success. He advocated a prison sentence every time an addict commits a crime, predict ing that eventually the individual might c h u g e his behavior to avoid punishment. "Other programs aren’t going to help change that behavior.” Help is not going to come from some "fancy drug pro gram”. Eppley, a former heroin usee, had been on five years parole. During this time he had moved to P o rtlu d , obtained two jobs, and working steady had supported his*family for two years. During this period he w u on the state methadone program. In July of 1976 his methadone w u gradually lowered so he decided to quit the program. “When I left jail five years ago I w u e le u , but I w u scared, he explained. He went to methadone to get off heroin, then to speed to get off methadone, then to alcohol u d around the cycle again. He quit his job at the printing p lu t but continued the other job because it did not require m u tin g pe ople. He got into financial trouble, then one day in December while on speed, he robbed a pharmacy with a toy gun. He explained his attempt to run u d escape reality, “I didn't walk into a drug store but into a ja il cell.” In trouble since the age of fourteen, Eppley said he had s u n enough of freedom to w u t to be free. Saying his attempt to escape reality through drugs not only hurt himself but his family, he asked for a sentence that would allow him to maintain his family ties. He had asked for a drug program, but local programs did not s u m to be able to take him at this point. Thomas Gaddis, crimnologist and w rit er, told Judge Jones that Eppley h u the talent to become a nationally known w riter if his motivation it not destroyed. He expressed hope that Eppley would be able to use his talent to reveal the injustices of the criminal justice system. “Inmates u d prisoners are the major body of people not asked for advice about the bankrupt criminal system.” He said the “barbaric conditions in the county jail and the incredible state penitentiary” had nothing to offer in aasisting a person to mature u d to retain their motivation to change u d excell. going to fight it in the highest court in the land if this is what it takes to prove my innocence. I am fighting this, not only for myself, but for all of th o u other ex addicts who are considered 'guilty' for ever. “I have put too much dedication u d hard work into changing my life from a nothing low-life parasite to what I am today. As a drug rehabilitation counsellor for the Oregon State Mental Health Division of Oregon for the last two years. I’ve been helping drug dependent people change their self-destructive life styles. I know deep withing my soul and guts that I have something to give a drug addict who really, with everything in him, wants to change his life. I have something to offer another because that is one of the things that truly keeps me drug free. “There is u old saying that h u been around for a long time. It's b u n around treatment progams quite a while too, Ta order to k u p what you've got, you must give it away.’ I ’ve bora living by this and the other things I learned in my own drug treatment for the last three years.” (Please turn to page 2 eeL 1) RO BERT W STRAUB Govcwwow O F F IC I O F T H t G O V E R N O R S T A T E C A P IT O L SALEM B 7 3 IO January 24, 1977 STATEMENT BY GOVERNOR BOB STRAUB Throughout our history, Black Americans have made significant contributions toward the development of the United States. Their efforts have helped to secure freedom and individual dignity as an essential part of our heritage. Today, Blacks are actively involved in every area of our society and should be rightfully proud of their efforts and the contributions of their forefathers in the building of this nation. Yet, we must continue to work to insure that equal opportunities are available to citizens of every race. Therefore, as Governor of Oregon, I hereby proclaim the Month of February as "Afro-American Black History Month" in Oregon. I call upon all citizens to rededicate themselves to the principles of freedom and to recognize the many contributions Afro-Americans have made to our state and nation. < 3 J i / K S Bob Straub Governor of Oregon —
