WOI TV News Clips 451

Chinua Achebe is from Biafra. He is a novelist. Some of his works have been A Man of the People, which is published by Doubleday at Anchor. He received the Margaret Wrong Prize for his first novel, which was -Things... -Things Fall Apart. Right, and the Jack Campbell New  Statesman Award for... -For Arrow of God. -Arrow of God, and then the Nigerian National Trophy for... -For No Longer at Ease, 1960. -Right, now these are all novels. -Yes, yes they all are. When was the, when did you write the last one? The last one, The Man of the People, was published first in London in 1966. It coincided with the troubles, the beginning of the troubles, in the Nigerian Federation with the first military coup that we had in  [Genoa?], and it was interesting because the story itself was a story of the political corruption in Nigeria, and I, more or less, said that this kind of thing might end with a military coup in the novel, so it was quite close, parallel. Now, of course this is one of the contributions of a writer, as they write of their own people and their own culture, isn't it? Yes, yes, I think if a writer is, a writer should have  his ears close to the ground, as they say, and if he's a member of society, and he is a member of society, then what goes on is of primary importance to him, and there may be moments when, like in this case, he finds himself as a kind of prophet. Now, do you think that perhaps the novel form might have as much of an impact as, let's say, just a straight news release or an opinion by a person written in a different form. Oh, it has more, it has more. I mean, far more. There's no comparison at all. -We're talking about good novels. -Right. Ah yes. I mean, I think a good novel is worth thousands of tons of documentation because, you see, a writer should play all the keys at once, and therefore his vision, I think, is likely to be more rounded, and therefore more true. Now can, well let, let me say this. Do you, as a writer, not only try to, to portray the situation as it is, with the various people and cultures involved, as well as try to find a solution? Yes, well, there are certain levels of this, of trying to find the solution. I think, in a writer, in this kind of situation, becomes a critic, a critic of society because he feels very strongly if things are not going very well, and therefore, if he says, for instance, as I said, it is not right that those with whom we cooperated to win independence, which we placed so much hope, should now turn around and misuse their position of authority. The position of trust then is already making a concrete suggestion. I don't think it is my place to say "this is the kind of government we want". I might feel, if I find that kind of solution of course, I could say it, but I think it is enough for me to say that this is not what what we fought for. Something is wrong, you see, and draw people's attention to this. Now, how has the conflict affected you personally and the pursuit of you, your, really in a sense, desire to be a writer? Well, the situation is a very, very extreme one. In terms in strictly limited physical sense, it has affected me in so many ways. I should be teaching, for instance, at the University of Biafra. Now, this university was one of the first victims of the war when the Nigerians moved in, because it happened to be near the border, the Biafra-Nigeria border, so they moved in there quite early in the war, and so the work there stopped. I mean, they not only moved in, they set the library on fire, so that's one way which it has affected me.  I cannot make my classes. Then I lived in Enugu and what my house happened to be one of the first to be hit by a bomb, and a lot of my books and documents and manuscripts and paintings were destroyed. Now, then thereafter I have I have moved three times, you know, from place to place, so this is, this will give you an idea. I mean, I haven't suffered as much as most, but it's quite a lot, you know, to have this kind of disorganization, and I just do not have the mind or the inclination or the kind of spaciousness which I need for writing novels. I do need space and peace and so on, and I find I cannot write any novels now, so I'm doing other things. We are all fighting a war, so I am fighting, but I do find time to write poetry. -Now this is something new for you. -This is something new for me. It seems to me to be the form suited to this particular circumstance. It is intense, it is brief, and seems, seems right, the right form for the time being. Now let me ask you this, is it of the form and of meaning that it will be meaning-meaningful to all peoples of the world? Yes, well I hope so. I mean I think, yes I think, I think, I mean, I've been talking about the novel, for instance, as if it was merely a social vehicle, a vehicle for social reform, and that kind of needs that, but it's also a work of art. I mean, I'm assuming that we already have a good novel when you're talking about what its additional, and a good novel should be of interest to readers anywhere in the world. And this, I feel fairly satisfied, for instance, with this limited success I have I have had with my books. For instance, apart from publication in Britain and America, in other parts of the world, I mean, 19 foreign languages. So I think if you are saying something of importance, then I think it should be of interest to people everywhere. Well, I think sometimes there is not this understanding that actually if a novel is good, or a poem is good, that it would be of, in the sense, universal identification because otherwise it would be in a sense just a chronological diary. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. It has to break out of this kind of restricted area. It is, it is located somewhere in time and space. It may be talking of a particular culture, but running through it, I think, must be, if it is any good, must be some overtones that would sort of strike a chord in human hearts and minds everywhere. -Now, as I said in my mind, there is no doubt that yes, you are a novelist of significance and that your work already has been acclaimed as being significant. The poetry is partially a part of the new. What are some of the things that, let's say that the strife were stopped in the next month or two, what would you foresee for yourself in the things that you would want to write about then? Well, I haven't I haven't worked out, say, the next subject or theme of a novel, I but I know that I have learned quite a lot. My whole attitude to the politics, for instance, the politics of Africa in relation to Europe. When I've seen so much that is ugly, I mean, really, that has come out during this conflict. I mean, so much humbug, so much hypocrisy, and so on. And this is bound to come out somewhere. In my own society itself, I have seen some good things, some excellent things, the response of a people in an extreme situation discovering themselves. This is something good. I wish we had more time to pursue it but we do not. Our guest is Chinua Achebe and he is from Biafra, and thank you very, very much. Thank you very much. Friday is a very big day for our guest. She is Mrs. Mabel Iowa Robbins. She's president of the Iowa Retired Teachers Association and the big day is the official dedication of Heather Manor. Now what's Heather Manor, first, and then tell me how it started. Well, many years ago, some of our good teachers had the idea that a retirement home for teachers was not only feasible, but very much needed, and some of our teacher friends thought they might help us. They were the Heather Shaw sisters who lived out on Fleur Drive and they gave three acres of land to on which to build a retirement home for teachers. Well, of course next thing that we ran into was the Federal Aviation Authority, that said no you can't do this because it's right in the flight pattern from the airport. The planes will fall down on you and crush your home, or they will make so much noise that the people can't sleep, and so forth. So, we had to look around for another place, and that's when we contacted the Urban Renewal Board, and the ISEE Executive Board, who was sponsoring this project, made the deal with them to buy the present place where Heather Manor is built. But, because these sisters had given such an impetus to the project and sort of given us the nudge that put us over, we kept that name Heather, which was the first part of their name, Heather Shaw, and we kept that name Heather and called it Heather Manor. I think it's rather a pretty name. I like it. It's a little unusual, not such a common name, but not like golden age home, golden years home, or harvest years, or anything like that, you know it's a little bit distinctive and I like it. I think it's a wonderful name. - [Speer] There's something sort of romantic about it. -Yes, yes. - [Speer] Now it's located at East 5th in Des Moines? -Des Moines streets that's right, that's right, right northwest of the Capitol and of course as you come into Des Moines from particularly from the West, or Southwest, or Northwest, there are two things that you can see. One's Heather Manor and the other thing's the state capitol and the Heather Manor just looms up over all the surrounding landscape and it is a beautiful building. It's just unusually beautiful, we think. - [Speer] Now are these apartments, are they rooms, or how do..? -There, well, there are three different sizes of apartments. There's the two room apartment which has a bedroom which closes off. That's such as I have. - [Speer] Now you were the first resident. -I was the first person to go in there and I nearly broke my neck to get in there first. I wanted to beat everybody to it. I knew my sister was coming in. I knew I could handle her and keep her out till I got in, but there was another girl from Colfax coming in and I was scared to death she'd get in before I did, but I got there first. I was the very first resident and I was of course very proud of that. I had selected my apartment the year before so I knew her, I was going to go, but I was proud to be the first resident. Then there are apartments which they call a medium sized studio apartment. That's a one room apartment. Then there is the smaller one, a few smaller ones, that are perfectly adequate. They're not small, they're not little at all, they're perfectly adequate. They have all the same equipment that we have: closets, baths, private bath, all units have their own private bath, and everything, linen closet, everything like that, plenty of cross ventilation. Even the smallest one has, so that if a person doesn't have quite the funds to pay for the larger apartment, why he couldn't go into one of the smaller ones. And there's large storage space in our apartment and that's very handy, but of course the other storage spaces are in the basement, and there are laundry facilities in the basement, and everything that you would find in a first-class apartment home, only a little bit better. - [Speer] Now is there a central eating spot? -Yes there is. Yes, I've had three meals a day there ever since the 29th of May when I moved in, and my only complaint about the chef and his cooking is the fact that he feeds us too much, and I have plead with him to cut down on the food and I said if I gain 40 pounds, my doctor will kill me, and so you would be to blame. He just cooks such wonderful meals, and they're so well planned and there's variety, great variety and they're served attractively. We just are so happy there, we couldn't be happier, and we're so glad we went there. Now, do teachers have a problem like some other older people as far as eating is concerned? You mean as far as having a special diet or something that sort is concerned? They have, the chef can prepare them a special diet because he's a man that's been in restaurant work all his life, and he knows about special diets and about preparing special diets, so that he could do that if it were necessary. But, so far everybody is husky and there's one lady that a (inaudible) has to have her meals taken to her in the room, but as long as there are only a very few people in there, why the chef doesn't mind doing that, but of course if it were full he wouldn't have time to do that. And of course the North Tower is all equipped with kitchenettes. That is a stove, electric stove, and a refrigerator, and a sink, and a big cupboard, and so forth. Garbage disposal and the service calls is just outside the door, so that these people who wish to cook for themselves can be perfectly well taken care of, but I didn't want to, I cooked and washed dishes all I was going to, and I wanted somebody else to do it for me. Well, now part of it is the company of having somebody to eat with and then you do continue with good nutrition. Yes, oh yes. Of course, my sister is in another two room apartment just around the corner from me and so we go down together. They, the people who cook for themselves, and we call them very facetiously Cookies because they cook for themselves, but that's a nice sweet name too. They will come down occasionally, perhaps Sunday dinner, or maybe for dinner regularly at the noon meal, they'll come down just to get one meal a day when somebody else prepares it and they can have what they need. - [Speer] Now is this restricted to just teachers? -Oh no, no indeed it is not. We have some folks already in there who are not teachers. It's retired teachers and their friends, so all you have to do to get in is to say you're a friend of Mabel Iowa Robins and you could get in. What happens if you haven't have a teacher and you weren't very good when you were a little boy or girl? Well, most teachers are very forgiving souls, you will find, and they will forget all those unpleasant things and they may say yes, this is a good person, and he should come in. [Speer] Now in another vein, are the communities taking the full advantage of the talents of the teachers that are retired and making use of this within their community work? Pretty well, I think the smaller communities are more prone to do that than the larger communities. The smaller communities depend a very great deal on their retired teachers for substituting in the schools and that's a real problem, you know. Substitutes are hard to get these days and they're very delighted to have these retired teachers substituting, and then they depend on them to do a great deal of red cross work. They depend on them to, they set up an auxiliary and say here's the hospital auxiliary, join the hospital auxiliary, they set this auxiliary up so if the retired teachers will join it and work in the hospital you know. Take the books around from the from the library, the bookmobile, and take the flowers around, deliver the flowers, deliver the mail and things of that sort you know. They, why, the hospitals just couldn't get along without these retired teachers, they just are so necessary to the community. [Speer] Now what about as working as perhaps special tutors for some of the children that really need it. They do that a great deal. It's hard to get a child who has dropped out once to come back and be tutored. If they can get them before they drop out and say now we will help you take a teacher who is agile enough to get over to the school and meet the child after school, we'll tutor you for half an hour, or 3/4 of an hour to stay, and why they do that a very great deal, but when the child has already dropped out of school, it's just like pulling teeth to get them to come back for any kind of tutoring, though the teachers would be glad to do that. And retired teachers, they don't have so much at stake, don't you know, and perhaps they're not so uptight as the classroom teacher, and don't have so many worries during the day, and there may be a little more patience with these cherubs that need a little special help. [Speer] And they don't have to worry about their position the next day in the classroom. Their pensions are safe, and Social Security is safe, and they just as a mom and Papa don't like it, that doesn't make a difference to their child. Well, I know it's going to be a very special event Friday at Heather Manor, which is located at East 5th and Des Moines St. in Des Moines, Iowa, and our guest was the first resident. She is a Mrs. Mable Iowa Robins, the present president of the Iowa retired teachers association, and thank you. Yes, it was my pleasure. If there is any question about the popularity of Wayne Newton, all you have to do is just look around us here. You can't see, but you may be able to hear them from time to time, the girls basketball from Nevada, and Wayne Newton happens to be very much as far as his singing is concerned, a person that the older people enjoy too. Wayne, you don't just sing for the young people, do you? Well, no ma'am, we have kind of been accused of being an anachronism and if that be true, I would guess it would come from the fact that we do, primarily do songs that maybe the older people might enjoy in a new way, and with new arrangements that maybe the younger people can enjoy. So, we try to walk that very thin line between the adults and the younger people, and have enjoyed a modicum of success at it. Would you be a bit more specific, as far as some of your background is concerned, that is the type of song and the type of musical background, or the instrument background? As far as formal education in music, I've had none, except for a year of taking steel guitar lessons when I was six years old. Otherwise, we have had a lot of practical education and experience in the in the respect that I started at the age of six years old in country and western music, and we stayed in country and western music, and they invariably use the editorial way because it also refers to my brother and my manager. We stayed in country music up until the Elvis Presley period, and I'm sure you remember that. - [Speer] I remember that. - [Newton] You remember that. [Newton] Then there was no demand for country singers, and we went into, for a very short time, in a period of doing rock-and-roll music, and then we opened in, in Las Vegas in 1959. I was 16 years old, and we had to do a variety of music because what happened is, from doing one or two shows a week in Phoenix, Arizona, we were thrown into a schedule of doing six shows a night, six nights a week that went on five years. So consequently we had to develop different kinds of music and different techniques, so we did a little country, a little rock and roll, a few standards, bordered on maybe light classical, and Broadway tunes. So, we had a bit of education in all of those fields, and I think probably that's pretty much what we do now, is a wide variety of music, rather than one particular type. Two questions, the first one you can answer real quickly I think. Where are you from originally? Originally, Ronoake, Virginia. [Speer] Mhm, and secondly, what do you want to specialize in as you become older? [Newton] Well, as I look around I kind of feel old right now. As I get older, I think the I don't think there's a quick answer to that, so if I may elaborate, I think the time has come and gone that a singer can just stand and sing. As the time has come and gone that a performer can just be a star in the United States. You have to do more things than just sing. You have to be a performer, for instance, and you have to strive to be an international star. Now what this means is to embellish your career and try to take in possibly acting if you're able to do it, maybe a weekly television show or specials, records, night clubs, concerts, fair dates, and rodeos. If you can do all those kind of things then of course it's a little easier to achieve some kind of longevity. [Speer] Now, what in your background have you done or are you doing now, because now you have a special coming out. -Yes ma'am. -[Speer] And this is part of the entire background, -Yes ma'am. -[Speer] as as far as preparation for where you're going in the future. We have very, definitely, planned rather than having it be accident what we want to do in the future, and taken [country?] steps in hopes that when the future comes and when those things are there that we have constantly hoped for, that we will be able to do it, such as motion pictures. I have done three or four or five dramatic television shows, which I've enjoyed immensely, and and I hope to do more. Our special is certainly a prime example of what I'm talking about in the respect that the concept is called one more time. -And if I may mention the guest stars briefly? -Yes. I'll take a deep breath. We have Tennessee Ernie Ford, Count Basie, [K Star?], the Mills Brothers, Johnny Ray, Frankie Laine, Louie Bellson, Louis Jordan, Charlie Barnet, Les Brown, and Paul Weston. Now. And I might add that this is... Would you care to breathe now? That's it. It is ABC. And it's right in front of the Academy Awards. -Right. -And the whole premise of the show is to go back and recreate, we hopefully have, some of the greatest moments in music with the people who made them great. -Mhm. -So it was quite a quite a kick for me. I loved it. -Now, you're you're doing records now. -Yes ma'am. Mhm. Now, does this, how long have you been doing big seller records? -Well, it varies.  -What was the first one? The first one was a tune called Heart that got into the Top 20 across the nation, and then along came Danke Schoen, and then Red Roses, and then Apple Blossom Time, and Summer Wind, and so on down the line. But, we have got into an area of recording also, that it's kind of unique in the respect that we probably sell more album records than single records. Usually what happens is you record a single, if it becomes a hit, then the album, it comes right out of the single. -(Inaudible) go and do an album. -Do you record the single and the album at the same time? Not necessarily, and as a matter of fact, when you're proving yourself, as we had to on many occasions, you record a single record first because it's a lot cheaper for the record company to produce a single record than an album, and then once the single record becomes a hit, they will request that you go on and do an album. -Then do you have to redo it to record for the album? -No ma'am, what they do is take the master off of the single and usually title that. First is Walking on New Grass, is the title of my brand-new MGM album. There is a tune in there called Walking on New Grass, so what you do is record probably 11 songs in an album and you take what you think could possibly come out as a single, or has been a single, and title the album after that. And, so then, you can include in different albums some of, depending upon the title and the composition, different songs and it maybe a repeat sometimes, a run from before. Right. First as we, we've done Danke Schoen, I think in three different albums, one being the title album from the tune. Secondly, I did a Wayne Newton in-person. (Inaudible) at the crescendo a few years back, and naturally we do Danke Schoen in our act, so it was repeated again, same with Red Roses in those terms. Well, Wayne I want time for people to be able to put the voice with the name. This is Wayne Newton, and let's listen to a record from the new album Walking on New Grass by MGM. Great.