Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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GLENDA MILLER INTERIM EDITOR JIM FARRELL ART FRANK MGN. ED. AD MANAGER EDITORIALS Vietnam bombing Even as the Senate was moving to limit a president's powers to send us into war without congressional approval, the Nixon administration was ordering B-52s to attack North Vietnam for the first time. Defense Secretary Melvin Laird was declaring that our bombs will continue to fall on that country until its troops are withdrawn from the south. We seemed to be moving toward more massive air assaults - not tactical attacks upon troops but land-destroying bombardments of the countryside - than at any time in several years. Under what authority was the administration acting? Both the Johnson and the Nixon administrations have con tended that they held the authority to attack North Vietnam, in the absence of a declaration of was by Congress, under the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. But the Senate voted 81-10 for repeal of that resolution in the summer of 1970, and the House concurred on Jan. 12, 1971. The removed any vestige of authority which the President could claim for attacking the north. The rationale being used by the administration for the latest escalation is the one always used before;that we are forced to do it because the Communists are escalating. Aside from the foolishness of allowing ourselves to be continually drawn into this war, what can now be said about the legality of what the ad ministration is doing? But we hear no cries for the impeachment of Mr. Laird, who seems to be saying the administration will do as it wishes, Congress notwithstanding. Last Thursday the Senate voted 58-13 against a motion to table the bill limiting a president's war making power. (Of the Carolina senators, only Strom Thurmond voted for tabling, thus voting to leave a president free to exercise powers which the Constitution denies him.) It seems clear that the Senate will move on to passage of this bill. Thus once more it will be ex pressing its disapproval of the executive branch's arrogant disregard for congressional authority. In all of this there is further evidence of the misjudgement which this administration, like the last one, has applied in Vie1nam. In 1969 the Nixon administration made a decision not to withdraw rapidly and seriously seek political settlement. It apparently believed the North Vietnamese would cooperate with hs slow withdrawal. But why would they? The dissenters in the administration who argued against such wishful thinking were overruled finally by Mr. Nixon himself. That was naivete of the highest kind, of the same gendre as Vice President Spiro Agnew's obtuse comment last week that our involvement in Vietnam "was no mistake" and is "the most moral act" in the history of the nation's foreign policy. We do not expect the North Vietnamese to give up in Indochina simply to enable the Nixon administration to avoid admissions of error. Nor do we imagine, as the administration apparently does, that bombing will now do what it has never been successful in doing in Vietnam. We do expect to see communiques now about how effective our retaliatory actions are. Maybe they will be the same as the 1968 communiques; or maybe they will be rewritten. THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, DO I KNOW YOU CAN VOTE WHEN YOU'RE 18 YEARS OLD? NO, BUT IF YOU' LL MUMl A FEW BARS... The watermark A nigh BOBCRAFT Features Editor The 44th Academy Awards or Watch-Your-Favorite-Stars-Make Corm p ete -Asses-Out -Of - Themselves-Before-A-Live National-TeeVee-Hookup "hap pened" Monday night on NBC for two-and-a-half hours. When you get right down to it, the Oscars, as the little devils are called, serve the purposes of Publicity far more than the mouthed word "Art." Let's look at this way, if you see a movie with the word "Best Picture" with a photo of the statuette plastered all over the advertisement aren't you more likely to be steered toward that movie? Ah, come on, don't say no just to disagree with me. Anyway, I came in and sat down in front of my TV set like a good lobotomized American and caught the last half of the Bob Hope special spoofing the Oscars. The part I saw had Hope humiliating Ray Milland and Ingrid Bergman Does it matter that Joanne Woodward hates to dust her Oscar? Does it matter that the thing is only practical as a , doorstop? in two separate but equally em barrassing sketches. In between the sketches, Hope drooled and leered at Barbara McNair. A typical Hope special. Time for a station break, then the moment all America had been waiting for, a Duz commercial. Then they got on with the Oscars. A shot of a street with 8 zillion Rolls Royces caught in a logjam, over which an antiseptic cheery voice said "Live, the 44th AcademyAwards Show!." Well, it was the 44th Academy Awards but whether it was live is something scholars will argue over for years. His voice barely able to contain the excitement and the awe this announcer tried to give the names of all the stars as they flashed on the screen. It soon became a race between the announcer and the cameraman. The announcer trying to race through each name before the camera switched to another star, "And here's the exciting, lovely and vivacious, oops, Richard Jaekel!" Then with a flourish of a million violins we were taken into the inner sanctum, where a spotlight picked out Joel Grey walking down a thousand stairs singing something perfectly inane about what gosharooty swell place Hollywood is. How he held a straight face is beyond me. He should have gotten an Oscar for sheer guts. The song was a Hollywood production, all right, with every unemployed dancer in Southern California on the stage. And finally to top the whole thing, a ten foot Oscar came up out of the stage, Holy Moses! Then the president of the academy walked on stage smiling like an idiot, and told everyone who didn't know already, that the Academy was going to give Charlie Chaplin an Oscar. He then introduced Helen Hayes, She was one of three emcees (or more appropriately, ringm asters) for the evening. She in turn, introduced, John Gavin and Ann Margaret who were to present the cinematography award. Ann Margaret was wearing this godawful thing proving once aai t with Os good taste is not her bag and acting like the perfect brainless sex queen. "Fiddler on the Roof" won and producer Norman Jewison accepted with a cutesy-cutesy speech that nearly made me throw up. Then the first song of the evening, "Life is what you make it", that Johnny Mathis was forced to perform, no doubt under duress, poor baby. But it really didn't matter, Henry Mancini and the Orchestra drowned him out and from the top of the screen you could see the boom coming down. I got the impression though, that all the singers were lip-synching, anyway. After he did his song, I was able to see the set more clearly, the cameras having wisely concealed it for a long time. There is only one way to describe the set: frighteningly hideous and grotesque. It looked as though it were made by draping used Christmas wrapping and aluminum foil that had been used to 'oast turkeys (very appropriate, now that I think about it) over plywood sheets. With stairs everywhere that no one used. Then they broke for com mercials. If anything could be worse than the Oscar show, it would be Eve Arden telling housewives about a revolutionary new way to cook chicken and ac ting like folks. When they came back, Helen Hayes had been replaced by Alan King, who hasn't been funny since the days of the old Gary Moore Show. At least Helen Hayes had class. Well, anyway, King goes through this long boring routine about movies that nobody laughed at. I don't think anyone laughed all evening, I think it was all canned laughter. Tough broad shot of Jane Fonda looking daggers at the stage and Donald Sutherland, beside her, looking like he needed a drink very badly. King tells all the stars about how tough it is to stand in line at the neighborhood theatre. I can hardly see King driving his Rolls Royce and standing in the rain to see a Ann-Margaret was wearing this godawful thing proving once again good taste is not her bag and acting like the perfect brainless sex queen. movie. And, God!, don't the producers wish people were standing in long lines everywhere to see their movies King then herded Richard Harris and Sally Kellerman on who gave the Best Supporting Actor to Ben Johnson who came up and told it like it is, "It couldn't have hap pened to a nicer guy." It was then time for King to nsult somebody else, lie in roduced Leslie Caron as "that unny lit tle Gigi." Leslie didn't spit it him, though. Escorting her was .Jack Valenti, a man, that legend has it, has something to do with the motion picture industry. He looked like ,Jack D)ouglas with a stiff upper lip and a bowel disorder. Tlhey gave out the award for the Best Foreign Language Film and somebody came up to accept. Sandy D)uncan and Michael York Uiglied their wayhoughm. givin car out the sound award. Then King introduced Gene Hackman and Raquel Welch without making too many mam mary cracks. They gave the best supporting actress award to Cloris Leachman, who was a basket case by the time she got to the stage. She babbled on something about thanking her piano teacher while folks backstage looked up the number of the Home. James Caan stood onstage trying to make Joey Heatherton while she stood there looking like a retarded cheerleader on her way to what she thought was the prom. Then, the curtain opened and down the stair strode that all-time great actor, Joe Namath. He was there to help give away the best costume award. He stood there trying to throw a move on his presenter-partner, Sybil Shepard. Dear Sybil said "For a hint of what you will be wearing next year, If anything could be worse than the Oscar show, it would be Eve Arden telling housewives about a revolutionary new way to cook chicken and acting like folks. best Costume design," I think there's a profound statement in that as they showed Russian court costumes, 17th century British court costumes among others. Somehow I just don't think hoop skirts are going to make a big comeback. Then they did Isaac Hayes' "Shaft." It was worse, than the opening number. They had all the dancers back dressed in--are you ready for this? harem costumes. Kinda strange for a theme for a movie that takes place in Harlem. Then, they had all this smoke and a shot of Isaac Hayes riding this piano down this corridor with a whole lot of arms waving from the wall. It was staggeringly awful and there was so much jumping around and smoke, I'm surprised they worked in Hayes at all. After a few more awards, we were subjected to the Carpenters doing "Bless the Beasts and Children," as if sitting through it in the theatre wasn't bad enough. Somebody gave Isaac Hayes the award for "Best Song". Walter Matthau, was hustled on to give the Best Actress Award to Jane Fonda who came on in a Chinese Tunic suit with a button undone. Liza Minelli in vampire eye make-up gave the Best Actor Award to Gene Hackman. They came back and the Academy gave the Best Picture Award to "The French Con nection," thanking its producers for finally producing an American film that people came to see. Then, there were some Chaplin clips that had been put together by Peter lHogdonavitch. This was easily the best part of the show. Then, they cut back to the stage, and opened this thing that looked like an elevator or an Iron Maiden or something and out stepped Charlie Chaplin to get a three minute standing ovation and to have an Oscar thrust in his hands. He stuttered his thanks and Gona O'Neill came over to save him from the crusah onstage.