Tuesday, September 17, 1974
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Page Five
Richard
Pryor's
EASTERN MCHIGAN UNIVERSITY
PRESENTS
BACHMAN-TURNER
OVERDRIVE
crazy universe
By DAVID WARREN
and IRA MONDRY
"Glad to see so many niggers
in school." With that, Richard
Pryor opened his act Saturday
night at Hill Auditorium. The
black comedian, whose outrage-
ous style has been stymied by
T.V., was able to work to his
fullest potential, free of censor-
ship. The predominantly black
audience responded in the most
positive way: they laughed.
For the last 10 years the
comedic style of Richard Pryor
has gone through numerous
changes. He began his career
as a basically establishment
comedian, who appeared on the
Ed Sullivan Show, and a series
of T.V. shows sponsored by
Kraft. Since then he has writ-
ten and appeared in motion pic-
tures, including Blazing Saddles
and Uptown Saturday Night.
However, the proper forum for
Pryor's talents has always
been, and remains, the live per-
formance.
Pryor is basically a social
comedian, who attempts to deal
humorously with serious con-
temporary issues.
The subjects covered in his
concert ranged from Ford's par-
don to the Patty Hearst kidnap-
ping.
Speaking of the famous photo
of Patty holding a machine gun;
during a bank holdup, "We don't
know what she was doing there,
maybe she's having lunch. The
nigger's definitely robbing the
bank.",
Pryor also use personal ex-
perience in order to comment
on race relations. "I grew up in
a whorehouse. That's where I
first saw white folks."
Pryor's genius lies in his
ability to take a common situ-
ation, expand it to fantastic pro-
portions, and thus show the ab-
surdity of it. He immerses him-
self in a specific setting, and
develops a dialogue between,
various characters. Through
this process he lends insight into1
everyday reality.+
Pryor seemed at ease with
the audience. His casual man-+
ner and strange outlook on life1
helped to settle the otherwise
noisy crowd. At one point he'
had to deal with a heckler.;
Rather than reacting with hos-
tility, he used the heckler as a
foil for his humor. Because of
his great comic attitude he
saved himself from a potentially
ugly situation.
One of the negative aspects of
the show was the poor sound
system of Hill. This particularly
hurt the opening act, Labella,
a group consisting of three wo-
men singers and a backup band
of four pieces. Their lyrics were
almost totally unintelligible, and
the loud, electric music was
filled with unpleasant echoes.
A great deal of Pryor's ma-
terial was also lost because of
the poor acoustics, and it was
frustrating to try and under-
stand garbled words and phras-
es. In addition, his rapport with
the audience may have been
impaired by the bad sound
quality, as it is very import-
ant for a comedian to be able
to speak directly to an audi-
ence.
Despite these problems, Pry-
or was able to compensate with
talent and raw energy. There
were very few slow moments in
his entire hour and a half set,
and in addition to being crazy,
as his album advertises, Rich-
ard Pryor also happens to be
an extremely funny man.
WITH
BOB SEGER
Bowen Field House
Sunday, Oct. 13-8 p.m.
TICKETS $5.00 & $6.00
Available at McKenny Union-EMU
a Brass Ring Production
Daily photo by KAREN KASMAUSKI
Richard Pryor
Sesquicentennial photos
exhibit city buildings
By SARA RIMER
one man said, "I wish they had
i.,UU Y d d Wnt1 Gjiaj ' I. 7
The photographic sampler of tink at'swamreatyil i
the city's architecture currently think that's a great building."
on view at the University Mu- Representing the University
s um of Art provides a visual in elegant Italianate style is
awakening. President Fleming's house. Ac-
For the past year photogra- cording to the exhibition cata-
phers Lester Fader and Harold log the house was the first in
Himes stalked the town's 19th the city to have flush toilets
and 20th century architecture, installed in 1871.
carefully searching out both the While Fleming5s residence,
famous and the forgotten for several times enlarged and re-
their collection entitled "Ann modeled, and enhanced by a
Arbor Architecture, 1800-1918: A manicured lawn and gardens
Sesquicentennial Selection." easily reveals its graceful lines,
While the pair, both profes- a photographer's skill and dis-
sors in the College of Architec- cerning eye are required to il-
ture and Urban Planning, focus-, luminate the faded beauty of
ing their cameras on noted, the Ann Arbnr R ilro adD nt
oblivion when its train station
days ended in 1950. It became
first a beer warehouse, bounced
briefly back into the spotlight
as a teenage nightclub, and
then steadily deterioriated until
ouite recently. Now undergoing
extensive restoration it will soon
enjoy a renaissance as a col-
lection of specialty shops.
Waller hopes the exhibition,
which runs until Sept. 22, will
"suggest opportunities for pre-
servation."
Indicating the fire which se-
verely damaged the Emmanuel
Baptist Church and the re-
peated vandalism attacks on the
Ticknor - Campbell House, also
known as the Cobblestone
Farmhouse, Waller w a r n s,
"Historic architecture in theI
city is an endangered species."
ALBERT KAHN'S massive design for Angell Hall is one of the1
tecture. Architect Kahn supposedly patterned th e multi-columned
Lincoln Memorial in Washington.
highlights of Ann Arbor archi-
dI concrete building after the
603 E. LIBERTY
DIAL 665-6290wat
'35 7 &15
Andrews Sharif
Seed
Paavh s onasoEasnn Coor i
[P anA AoEmassy resese
The Unversity of Michigan
PROFESSIONAL THEATRE PROGRAM
P LySe'tS N EW
YORk
n the
POWER CENTER
A MUSICAL COMEDY REVUE
A BISSFUL DELIGHT
Jan. 17-19
THE
RIVER
NIGER
"OG.ECIT N, WARM
x ANMOSTPORTANT
ASTORYOFTODAY. eT
Feb 14,6
SAM LEVENE & EDDIE FOY JR
SttnginNeSmon'
I El D1' I N'HETC
"SHnREWDLY BALANCED. RATHER TOUCHIN(
SLICE OF THE SHOWBSIZ LIFE."-Do..N
Ma. 29.30
)ice Mendelssohn Theatre 764.0450
beautifully - preserved residen-
ces like President Fleming's:
house on South University, they
also recorded the more subtle
charm of old buildings like the
Ann Arbor Railroad Depot on
S. Ashley, neglected until quite
recently.
Fader explains, "We wanted
to create images that would
open people's eyes. The whole
thing should be a creative and
exciting visual experience.'
The two photographers reject-E
ed the advice of people who
suggested, "Why don't you put
in the garbage cans or the
cars?"
According to Fader, "We
didn't want to create sociologi-
cal works. We wanted people to
look at buildings as physical
forms in their historical con-
text."
Describing the response of
visitors newly sensitized to their
environment by the exhibition,
museum director Bret Waller
reports, "People exclaim, 'I've
driven by that house for years,
but I've never really looked at
it. It's beautiful."'
Familiar faces in what the
photographers call their "por-
traits of buildings" are the Wil-
son - Wahr House on N. Divi-
sion, the University Observatory
on E. Ann and the Ann Arbor
Firehouse on E. Huron.
But, the photographers' eye-
opening architectural tour also
extends along the less-traveled
route down to the Anson Brown
Building, the oldest surviving
commercial structure in town,
on Broadway. It stops at the
Ticknor - Campbell House on N.
Packard, a farmhouse being
slowly reborn under the aegis
of the Cobblestone Farmhouse
Association, and lingers at the
Guy Beckley House on Pontiac
Trail. The House was a station
on the Underground Railroad
for runaway slaves in the 1800's.
Only a few visitors decry the
absence of favorite buildings.
While no one voted for a shot
of the Undergraduate Library
just beginning to climb out of
its abandoned shell w
The Depot sunk slowly into
I"
The
relationship:
between
sensual
people
is limited
They must
find-
a new Way.
LARRY KRAMER and MARTIN ROSEN present KEN RUSSELL'S 1tm of
R. H. LAWRENCE'S
"WOMEN IN LOVE"
Q COLOR/by DeLuxe United Artists
Starring GLENDA JACKSON, who won her first Academy
Award for her acting in this film, OLIVER REED, ALAN
BATES, and JENNIE LINDEN, -AND ENCYCLOPEDIA
OF FILMMAKING TECHNIQUE.--"'Women in Love' is
extraordinary. In particular, the sexual encounters have
both a power and a tastefulness that we rarely see in to-
day's sexually frenzied films."--LIFE MAGAZINE.
TONIGHT & TOMORROW NIGHT
September 17 and 18
7:00 and 9:30 p.m. - ADMISSION $1.25
THURSDAY-September 19-ONLY!-7 & 9:15--$1.25
"A MOST EXTRAORDINARY FILM!"
BIPR'!TL OF
ALL SHOWINGS IN AUDITORIUM "A", ANGELL HALL
tickets for all of each evening's performances on sale outside
the auditorium at 6 p.m,
r
Ap,
r
1974's MOST HILARIOUS
WILDEST MOVIE IS HERE!
"Mnay be the funniest movie of the
year. Rush to see it!" -Minneapoh s'tribune
"A smashing, triumphant satire'
-Seattle Post Intelligencer
"Riotously, excruciatingly funny:'
--Milwaukee Sentinel
"Consistently hilarious and
brilliant --Baltimore Daily Record
"Insanely funny, outrageous and
irreverent'-Bruce Williamson-PLAYBOY MAGAZINE
A GREAT NEW
MOTIONPICTURE COMEDY
MELIES, PORTER & GRIFFITH PROGRAM
(at 7)
Some very early and rare films from the pioneer silent years of 1900-1915.
This is an opportunity to see "experimental cinema" in its oldest and
perhaps genuine form.
QUEEN CHRISTINA 1933
Produced and Directed
by Ken Shapiro
" Written by
Ken Shapiro wtit
Lane Sarasohn
A K-S PrOeuction
A Syn-franx
IF En~terprises
a,
Fm .orporaoii
R RESTRICTED
A Robert Mulligan/Richard A. Roth Production
JENNIFER O'NEILL - GARY GRIMES - JERRY HOUSER- OLIVER CONANT
Written by Produced by Directed by Music by
HERMAN RAUCHER RICHARD A. ROTH ROBERT MULLIGAN MICHEL LEGRAND
?-