PAGES THE COURIER, SATURDAY, AFRIL » , lfTl a r t s / entertainment Hazel Garland 'Caged Bird' to become a movie ABOUT FOUR OR five years ago (maybe a little longer), I read a fascinating book that I found impossible to lay down after I started reading it. The book, entitled "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," was written by MAYA ANGELOU. I though at the time the book would make a terrific movie but for a long time it appeared as though I was alone in my thinking. NOW I AM happy to report that Tomorrow Entertainment, Inc., has purchased the rights to produce the drama based on Ms. Angetou's autobiography. As a result, Maya's best-selling boon will come to life when it airs as a new motion picture-for- television on the CBSTV Network,Saturdav. April 28 at 9 p.m. FILMED ENTIRELY 6N locationin Vicksburg, Miss., an all-star cast of noted Black performers will play the leading roles. Heading the cast will be such well-known actresses as ESTHER ("GOOD TIMES") ROLLE, DIAHANN CARROLL, RUBY DEE and MADGE ("ROOTS") SINCLAIR. Actors starring in lead roles are PAUL BENJAMIN and ROGER E. MOSLEY, with SONNY JIM GAINES and ART EVANS as co-stars. YOUNG CONSTANCE GOOD will be Introduced to movie fans as the bright, sensitive Black girl (Maya) who finds poetry and much pain In the South as she is growing up during the depression years. Introduced with Constance will be JOHN M. DRIVER 11, who portrays Maya's younger brother, Bailey Jr. SINCE MS. ANGELOU assisted LEONORA THUNA in writing the teleplay, I feel certain the dramatic adaptation from the book will retain Its authenticity. That is so important when a book, written in such poetic beauty as "Caged Bird" is adapted into a screenplay of teleplay as this one has been. ESTHER ROLLE HAS one of the strongest roles of her career. She portrays Momma, a nroud, respected owner of the general store n the small town of Stamps, Ark., who takes on the job of rearing her two grandchildren, Maya and Bailey Jr. when the children's parents marriage ends In divorce. She brings them up with pride and dignity, her "great brooding love" touching their lives. She also agonizes over the bitter fact that she cannot shelter them from the fierce prejudice that rages through the South during that era. I BEAUTIFUL DIAHANN CARROLL plays the role of the children's sophisticated mother, and brilliant actress RUBY DEE their eie gant maternal grandmother, who live in a more affluent atmosphere in St. Louis, where the children are taken by their father (played by ROBER E. MOSLEY) and left to adjust to an entirely different life style. PAUL BENJAMIN HAS the role of Mr. Freeman, one of Maya's mother's friends, who sexually assaults the child, traumatizing her Into silence. MADGE SINCLAIR portrays a perceptive teacher In Stamps, who molds and encourages her students and helps to »* make "caged birds sing." AN ABANDONED SHACK, bmlt in 1925, was turned into a general store for Ms. Rolle's character as Momma, the local grocer. Esther, one of the original members of the famed Negro Ensemble Company in New York, has always admired some of the famous historic Black women leaders that she would love to portray. HARRIET TUBMAN is her favorite. Esther feels her character in "Caged Bird" is a great woman of strength and dignity. "I believe I am portraying a woman who is the source of strength and love," she says. SPEAKING OF HER rote, Esther said: "I believe I am portraying a woman who Is prime* ef the way she is raising her grandchil dren, hat disturbed by the fact that because of racism in the small town, the children are As 'Momma," I havetotook ever, tt)ren|h and beyoad tan ha rd times the y encounter. Into a better pic tare. Memmi has to maintain her dignity and fake a false rtty white keeping the terror from their 1 *%T f s*. Downs hosts 'Four Alone OVER EASY with host HUGH DOWNS, Public Television's award-winning series about aging, presents a one-hour special, "Four Alone: The Older Woman in America." This documentary explores the issues and concerns of the largest and fastest growing group of older Americans: the 24 million women over the age of 55, and especially the nearly eight million in this group who are facing the challenges of growing older alone. The program airs, Sunday, May 13. (PBS-TV Network colorcast 8:00 to 9:00 p.m.; please consult local station for broadcast time in your area.) The program features on location visits to Maine, Louisiana, Florida and California with four women whose unique lifestyles present a positive picture of the older woman living alone in America. "The hardest thing I had to do after my divorce was to find a job. People just don't want to give you a chance," says Maine's Jeanette Edinger, 58. After her 34-year marriage ended in divorce, she began a relentless search for employment despite a handicap and a lack of job skills. This New England woman finally got her chance and now works as a desk clerk in ?. university library. This job gives her enough money to support herselfrand a daughter in college, the only one of three children sti'.l living at home. With a strong sense of selfconfidence, Jeanette looks ahead. "The future? Today is my future. I take one day at a time, and enjoy it to the fullest." Louisiana's Lottie Mae Burnley worked as a domestic cook until a recent fall crippled one leg and has survived on a $168 a month since the death of her husband last year. "\ could have stopped after my husband died and said, 'I just can't make it.' But older people have to keep pushing on and I've always been a good fighter." Lottie Mae never had children of her own but she has adopted the local young people who are frequent visitors in her modest but warm home. She rarely feels lonely because, "T nnftt ar>A An «,<,«« «*Ko iL^fa^^SSJ^^S rr y tears,I don not at age 70. joy. t have time to waste my life in spends her time fishing and she has no intentions of marrying again. Five years ago, Alice Malashenko, 75, took . her nickel and dime savings, left her Miami home, and gambled on her lifelong dream of living in San Francisco. "I had to take the , chance regardless of the consequences," she explains. Alice arrived in San Francisco and rented a room In a Tenderloin hotel without family or friends to help her. Since then, she has been active in local senior citizen groups and takes frequent walks across the Golden Gate Bridge, despite her handicaps. She feels the move out West was worth the risk. "When my time comes I will be grateful. I got w*iat 1 wanted out of life." OVER EASY'S host HUGH DOWNS explores with Louisiana's Lottie Mae Burnley.70, how friends and neighbors make life meaningful despite the recent loss of her husband and a modest income, on a onehour special, "Four Alone: The Older Woman in America ", a documentary about women successfully meeting the challenges of growing older alone, Sunday, May 13. i >, .; viThe Record By ULISH CARTER The world of music today is flooded with disco this and disco that. And like all forms °* music there's some good and bad. With everyone knowing that i? they can create a |„ g o oFive w i n recent d se„ ,„,' , „_ .y , _ ,. . r di »ocn eof uii t the uic l su e i iat n releases leweaaes among aiming the ine masmasm two ,neloser Dont missma,Tiage sj . , It's , ? ,just"one ? more *mouth. to feed", says Black ve collection disco sounds Mandre. at all. Sun, TheofGeorge Bussey are Experience, Mary Bowman, 55, alias "Fish Mary". Two The Wonder Band, and Midnight Rhythm. husbands who drank much harder than they The best of the lot is Mandre, which has worked forced Mary to be both mother and created an album they^ call "M30OO". This is-— _„— .._ _ . — .. father to her five children. a relatively new,for self-composed groupThis which "Lots of struggle and lots of heartache has been around about two years. is h a « h o o n a r n i l l l H fnr i h n i i t turn iraaoe TV.ii. i e taught me to be independent at an early the third in a series of albums, each being a age", she explains. Until the death of her sec- shade better than the previous. They have a very space sounding sound ond husband 13 years ago, Mary admits that with the use of a lot of electronics to create a she, too, led a "hard-drinking life." Today she lives alone on the Florida Keys where she sound somewhat like the soundtrack to "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," but with a much funkier-disco beat. It's very funky, with a hard driving bass setting the foundation. It will still be appealing to both the white disco crowd as well as the Black set. Ruby Dee portrays a It's one of those creations in which the engiwell-to-do St. Louis ma- neers should get just as much recognition as triach, in "I Know Why the musical musicians does. However they the Caged Bird Sings." both do brilliant jobs. The new motion picture The other four albums are typical disco Tefor television, based on leases, but all are good. Black Sun calls their Maya Angelou's book release "Disco Heat", and it's made up of a about a young black girl nearly 17 minute version of "Black Sun" on growing up in the South side one and a 14 minute version of "Big during the Depression, Money" on side two. Both are disco smokers will be broadcast on , which are worthy of play In the disco spots, "The Saturday Night The material is made up of trie-rhythm secMovies," Saturday, April tion fully supported by strings, horns and fe28 at 8 p.m. on WBBM- male vocalists, has a driving beat, but just TV, Channel 2. easy enough to appeal to the white audience as e,, ^ « ^ » * . ^ « The Wonder Band's release, "Stairway To v v v a H Ruck Love", includes singles "Mairway TO Heaven" and "Whole Lotta Love" which are receiving air play on both black and white radio stations. "** However, side one, which is made up primarily of "Stairway To Heaven" and "Whole Lotta Of Love," is the kind of disco generally played at the white disco spots whereas side two somewhat straddles the fence. "Finale", and "Wonderful Medley*" has the hard driving bass which makes them appealing to the black w w w * * audience M W U I V I I V V but *#uv the w i v other w i i w a two i n u don't v l f l l t L ignite llel any fires. On the whole a fair disco release The George Bussey Experience labels T k n I''«.„_«« »..„ n i • • theirs as "Disco Extravaganz Phase 1". Bussey is a very exceptional musician, playing the drums, bass, guitar, Clarinet, Fender rhodes, grand piano, soprano, alto and bass saxophones as well as co-sharing the lead vocal work on this release. He also composed all the material and co-produced it Side one is a real beauty. It's broken down into four different phases of "Disco Extravaganza". Bussey, with the help of the strings and horns of the Don Renaldo group, and some help from other Philadelphia artists does it very nicely with the funky bass setting the foundation for it all. He concludes it with a mellow "My Feelings For You", in which the heavy male and female vocalists do a beautiful job. Side two is nice but nothing great. It's made up of four very nice disco tunes The orchestra does the tunes. Nothing unique but nice. "Midnight Rhythm" is made up of a 15 minute "Climb/Rushin' To Meet You" an eight minute "Workin' & Slavin' " and a nine minute version of the title tune. It's primarily t h e k i n d of d i s c o h e a r d a t t h e white disco spots. The keyboard work dominates ii » De Niro talks about self " I 'm not actually that much Driver," tor which he recieved an a loner—as some people insist— Academy Award nomination, Dr that I don't occasionally enjoy Niro has heen relentlessly purtalking about myself," said Acad- sued by members of the news media. All are eagertowrite emy Award winner Robert De Niro during a discussion of his about the real person behind the latest film "The Deer Hunter," masterful characterizations that an EMI Films, Inc. Presentation have become the De Niro trademark. Yet, except for a few nafor Universal. Set In a steel producing region tional publications which have of the American industrial heart- been successful in piercing his land, Michael Clmlno'a mm "The cloak of anonymity , he is mostly Deer Hunter" is an epical treat- inaccessible to those who want to ment of contemporary life, focus- take his time to answer what be considers "meaningless quesing on a closely-knit group of tions." steelworkers whose Uvea are drastically altered when three of "I'm just not 'on' all the time" them go off to war. Appearing De Niro explains. "I think you with DeNlro as steelworker bud- find an awfultotof people in my dies are John Caxale, John Sav- profession who are basically shy age, Christopher Walken and and Introverted by nature, and (toft to right) Stan (John Cazato), Axot (Chuck Aspergren). Michael (Robert Do Niro), Steven Chuck Aspegren. their extrovert qualities—In my i (John Savage). Angola (Rutanya Aida), Nick (Christopher Walken) and Linda (Meryl Streep) De Niro, who has been tabbed case, I know are limited to their work. h celebrate following the marriage of Steven and Angels, in "The Deer Hunter." this year's one of the screen's newest superstars,toa very private person "When I do s character like Academy Award winner as Best Picture, is currently playing selected theaters in the Chicago W Michael Vrotuky, the steelworker as well as an intensely serious i area. actor who prefers to stay out of in "The Deer Hunter,* I try to "% the limelight glare usually ssaoci- make him appear as real as if I'd ated with film stars. knows him all my life Therefore, keep a y energies up and any demandforprivacytoapparently provides s screen presence so u electrifying and varied that he tiring that disturbs nuttoa nega- htoaVaytoself-improvement, Since his Oscar winning per it's not too easyforme to flip •"V has been called an American formance in "The Godfather, back out of character as I come tiveforceteAM." making K possfMe for him to turn — Laurence Olivier When De Niro U working, his Part II." and his role In "Taxi off camera. Actually, I have to In the kind of performance that •i »ll •— Untitled Document Thomas M. Tryniski 309 South 4th Street Fulton New York 13069 www.fultonhistory.com