w w w w w w m m m 9 -qw r . IRW w w w w C o V E R R E C 0 R D i Operas (Continued from Page 3) sonations became extremely accurate during the '20s when the Opera was at its financial peak. Possibly the most convincing leading lady was Lionel Ames of Bay City who played Suzanne in the 1923 Opera Cot- ton Stockings, Ames is reputed to have gone on to become a professional female impersonator in Hollywood and Vaudeville. In that, their most successful year, the Opera traveled to 16 cities including New York, Washington, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago and Detroit. During the tour the Opera set a record by grossing more than any other amateur production before it in its per- formance at New York's Metropolitan Opera House. Several photographs were printed in various newspapers showing Ames daintily posed in evening gowns with captions like, "What girl wouldn't envy those arms!" or "And that svelt back! You'd never dream that it belongs to a man, would you?" Aside from his actual performance, there were a variety of ways to test the believeability of a leading lady. Durwood Grimstead who played the part of Miss Julienne in Contraire Mary went to the Daily in his feminine garb accompanied by L. C. Clayton, who was also in the cast. Clayton introduced Grimstead to the managing editor as a Russian actress who could speak only French and Russian. The managing editor fell for it and went through all sorts of hand gestures in trying to communicate. The leading lady from A Model Daughter went to an Ann Arbor cafe after rehearsal one evening only to hear the professor sitting next to him say, "see that stunning woman over there," to his colleague. Certainly though, the playing of a female part by a male did not feminize the man in the eyes of the audience who watched the Union Operas. For example, football center Bob Ingalls was tremendously popular in the 1940 production of Four Out of Five. Tom Harmon, Michigan's only Heisman Trophy winner, played in the same Opera, and in fact, Harmon's ap- plication card was among the memorabilia found in the cabinets. Although it was popular among stud- ents, the Shakespearian tradition of men playing the female's role was not Union Opera. He laughs heartily with satisfaction when recalling that making a lead role in ,the Opera was the zenith of his college career. He says that Thomas E. Dewey, a 1923 University graduate, also had a lead role in Top 'O the Morning, told him in a 1957 meeting that it was the highpoint of his college career as well. Dewey went on to win the Republican Presidential nominations in 1944 and 1948 when he lost to Harry Truman in one of the closest political contests in American history. Wagner recalls Dewey as being See pages 10 and 11 for more pictures found in the Union Study Lounge cabinets. controversy free. Some of the -alumni complained that the Opera represented a "he-man" University though a 'she- man" show. Nonetheless, the leading "lad"ies were quite entertaining in their disguises. Lilias Wagner, 83, of Ann Arbor graduated in 1925 and attended many of the Operas. When she recently looked through some old pictures of "Jack" Frost from the 1921 Opera Top 'O the Morning she said, "Now, this was Jack Frost. See what a beautiful gal he made." And when looking at the men dressed as chorus girls, she added, "Oh, those beautiful gals!'' Just then her husband, Herb Wagner, 87, sauntered into the room with a car- dboard box full of more memorabilia from the same production in which he played Michael O'Hara. Wagner said that he came to Michigan in 1916 with two goals in mind: One was to make the glee club and the other to be in the Michigan somewhat reserved, but organized. He said "He was always kind of stiff and not what you would say was affable and down to earth." Dewey's song in the Opera was "Satan put a Devil in the Irish": Satan put a Devil in the Irish And mingled them with wops and Jap-a-nese He furnished them with tempers to get them into fights And in their throats he put a thirst that sends 'em out at nights Oh Satan put a Devil in the Irish. According to Wagner Dewey's song didn't go over very well, "and he was a little down in the dumps." That Opera was set in Ireland where it was decided that there would be kings again. Most of the story concerns a plan to put Dewey on the throne. In the middle of the scheming, with sparkled eyes, Wagner raised his voice and recapitulated his climactic lines: "but will they be ready to follow us to revolution, to victory!" Yet Dewey was critical of that par- ticular play, sayig that, "it was a plotless story and a plotless Opera. Others criticized the Opera. on the same grounds. A L. Weeks, who wrote the 1918 Opera Let's Go said, "the plot is so thin that it has been suggested that the play would have been more ap- propriately named Let's Go - Crazy" Nonetheless, the carefree and non- sensical discontinuity of the Union Opera may have been a reason both for its enormous collegiate success and a factor in its demise. In 1929, Merrie-Go-Round was such a financial disaster that the Operas were discontinued. While its failure was something of a surprise, it did come af- ter several years that saw a gradual decline in sales, faculty enthusiasm, new ideas, and student interest. Several unsuccessful attempts were made to bring back the opera. Two Operas produced in 1934 failed, and others went without success in the years immediately before and after the second world war. MUSKET (Michigan Union Show and Do-Eds Too) was created in 1956 in an attempt to combine the Union Operas with the women's theatre group. One difference between today's MUSKET and the old Union operas is the lack of student involvement in writing the music and script in today's productions. Rob Markus, Vice President of Programming at UAC (of which MUSKET is a part) says, "MUSKET included in its plans to do more established, broadway-type shows, and encourages their growth." MUSKET has attempted two original student musicals in 1974 and 1979, but neither met with success. Yet MUSKET has its similarities to the Union Operas, albeit on a smaller scale. It too has played before the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, and in 1966 and 1967 went on ex- tended tours in the South Pacific and Europe. Unlike MUSKET, though, the ex- citement and high student involvement created by the Union Operas may never be repeated in University theatre. But the legacy of those Operas is with us still. the Glee Club continues to sing songs that were originally written for the Operas. In fact, of 18 school songs in the current University songbook, six are direct products of those Opera scores. Also, without the funds raised from the Operas, there would be no Union - and no Union Study Lounge - at least not as we know them today. Plans are currently being made to display some of this historical material in the Union's Study Lounge. The remainder will be tran- sferred to the Bently Historical Library so that it will be available to Michigan Students and Alumni. Anderson is a first year psychology student in Rackham and coordinator of the Union study lounge. He will be appearing Friday at 6p.m. on WCBN on the Arts and Ideas show. mid-'60s; in a few cases the dedication is easily enough to fool your friends with (i.e. no one willever believe you're really playing a ne w record). e "Is this supposed to be progressive music?," you might ask, smirking. SWell,shut up. The name of the game here is FUN, and these discs are plenty of FUN. The curious but uneducated are en- couraged to start with Voxx Records' Battle of the Garages Vol. 11 Battle of the Garages Volume II, a Ba Vtotally boss compilation of no less than Various Artists 16 smart young bands, coming straight Voxx Records from the nation's high schools and living rooms to you. The production On Fyre values are, actually, excellent, and the The Lyres variety of music is remarkable, Ace of Hearts Records ranging from The Impossible Years' terribly pretty (Despite unpretty lyrics: It's About Time "Tinker toy/kills the boy/slight The Pandoras depression") "Attraction Gear" to dance freak-outs like Yard Trauma's Voxx Records Zontar Must Die! The Wombats Voxx Records By Dennis Harvey Yeah man! It's just too cool that at a time when the later crests of ancient "new wave" are beginning to crash on- to Top 40 Shores (thus rendering several previously ace bands BORING, not too coincidentally), a new un- derground has surfaced - the garage/paisley/psychedelia/ '60s-pop- redux revolution. Choose your own term; however classified, there's no doubt that a large percentage of what's really happening in music right now is looking backward to Nehru jackets and the Summer of Love. Not that many of the various bands conveniently lumped into this category bear much resemblance to one another. The leaders of the pack don't even necessarily sound just like they were pulled out of a time capsule, either. The Rain Parade's increasingly melan- choly, spacey mixture of Neil Young, the Byrds and the Strawberry Alarm Clock creates a surprisingly serious new form of psychedelia, while such popsters as the Three O'Clock, Let's Active, the dB's and the Bangles re-cast classic '60s hit-single formulas with distinct post-wave sensibilities. Some of the most pleasurable of the new releases are, however, pretty much straightforward flashes back a couple of decades. The records detailed below are all more or less pledged heart and soul to the garage band sound of the "Some People." Nearly every song deserves a mention, but rather than wasting valuable newspaper space on them, I'll instead order you to go and blow your money on the record. A sheet (with photos) is included to provide valuable info on the bands, none of which are from that new- psychedelia capital city, L.A. - it was wisely decided to instead devote all of the upcoming Volume III to that scene. The projected Volume IV will concen- trate on international garage bands, a mind-boggling prospect that I, for one, salivate at the vary thought of. Where Volume I (released way back in 1981) had a large number of cover versions, Vol. II is almost entirely original material. And very fine stuff it is, well played too. The fact that the first record featured such current luminaries as the Chester- field Kings, the Slickee Boys and the Wombats (see below) makes it clear that the combatants on the Battle of the Garages today may well' be the un- derground faves of tomorrow. The Wombats typify the mixture of the 60s and '80s, of pure bash-around crude verve and imaginative skill that has made both of the Battle records so much fun. Their debut LP, Zontar Must Die!, is an eclectic but always feverish collection of teen punk tunes somewhere between the Standells and Stiff Little Fingers. These boys can sound like music to slam or do The Swim by, but at either extreme they remain loud, danceable, slightly fuzzy- sounding (producer: Steve Burnett) and very likeable in a sort of the-band- next-door way. Like the Ramones (though with perhaps a few more variations on the theme musically), the Replacements, and other classic rock instances of arrested adolescence, the Wombats have that kind of screamy beat-crazed energy that could come careening off stage or disc and go splat at any minute. Zontar Must Die! never gets sloppy, but it has just the hyperven- tilating looseness one might hope for in a psychedelic-punk group from Ohio. Important tracks include "Split in Two," "In a Minute" and "Tallahassie Lassie." Boston's cave-teen heroes The Lyres have a swell album out at last. On Fyre is an excellent rave-up party platter that, with its combination of archival summer-of-'66 perfection and wildly rescusitating enthusiasm, could con- ceivably fit as well at a frat bash as at your own next go-go/Nehru-themed blowout. It's difficult to capture this sort of boys-at-play unadorned dance rock on vinyl without losing some critical energy, but Rick Harte's production leaves the Lyres sounding clear but not cleaned-up. Rat-a-tat beats, those ace organ backdrops, and those reverbs man! Plus vocals of real swaggering juvenile artlessness by Monoman. The songs, too, are of w for this sort c could-be-like- great (if oci from "You R guitar riffs. expect, are a point of view. deed anywhe good time is g There are r hard to cho perhaps the Ann" and th Other One" c tion. Unquestion basement vin is the Pando Time. Besi coolest cover notes ("Gw backup vocal the-go. Turn at all the exc the title of sc recent mem with hardcorf Aside fron monies of t beautiful slov (which wouli montage-of-h while-remei from a circa- Time throws who say girl g spirit. These girls can write a selves, seen comparison. The songs might term c they have agreeable ha Star persor Pierce, who originals (the Hump" and' a sensational that are abot girl-group of Rasping arou tly on the san James Browi spit out an around. The instru is equally d equally comi tasteful flou: basic Vox/ba The Pandora lots of it. Once again .. . The Liberty Music Shop's RECORD SWAP Saturday afternoon from noon til 5 p.m. in the lot adjacent to the Shop on East Liberty Street Free admission INTRODUCING ARB Student owned operated disco electronics outlet FOR STARVING STUI who want to buy brand nam technology at affordable price Stereo Equipment: portables, car, home syster Computer Equipment: hardware, sofrware, ani Fall Specials - + Eagle 11,.IBMPC, 256K and more - $1,895.0 + Microcom MacModem 1200/2400 with sotrwai + X'LNT DS, DD Diskettes with lifetime guarantee MUCH MORE! Call 996-0 Dewey (second from right) and Wagner (far right): High point of their college careers 4 Weekend/Friday, September 28, 1984- Weekend/Friday] S