PETE SEEGER, famed folk singer. now being persecuted in the U.S. is shown performing before an audience of Can- adian youth during one of his earlier tours of Canada. He is scheduled to give a one night concert in Vancouver‘s John Oliver High School Auditorium on Tuesday. March

6 at 8 p.m.

U.S. COURT TO HEAR SEEGER CASE SOON

“PHETE Seeger, world famous American folk © singer, who faces a year’s imprison- ment for refusing to answer ‘questions posed to him by the US. House Un-American Ac- tivities Committee, appeared recently at a rally in New York to abolish the HUAC. Appearing with Seeger were Gore Vidal, playwright, and Ring Lardner Jr., Aca- demy Award winner. Both these men _ recently authored articles in national Magazines blasting HUAC.

The rally stressed the need for organizing against the 1962 appropriations vote for HUAC in Congress.

On April 14, Pete Seeger was sentenced to one year in Jail for each of 10 counts. The U.S. Court of Appeals Subsequently granted release on a $2,000 bail pending fur- ther appeal. -

The “Seeger case” has focused attention on itself for Many years now.

In the summer of 1955, during the height of the Mc- Carthy hysteria, the HUAC held hearings in New York to conduct “investigations of Subversive activities in the entertainment industry.”

The committee subpoenaed a number of actors, singers, Tadio and television person- alities and others, Seeger in-

cluded, who appeared before] |

it Aug. 15, 1955.

In the course of inquiry, the committee asked Seeger questions about the songs he Sang and where he sang them, Plus questions about his per- Sonal political beliefs and 4Ssociations,

Believing that no person or group, private or public has the right to ask any citi-

zen such questions, Seeger re-:

fused to answer. “I feel I have never done anything of a conspiratorial

-MEDICINE TO ALGERIA

Thirteen tons of food, drugs and clothing from Czechoslovakia were handed Over to representatives of the Algerian liberation army

in“ Casablanca in December, 1961,

nature,’ Seeger told the com- mittee, “and I resent. being called before the committee just because my. opinions differed.”

In April, 1956, the House of Representatives cited the singer for “contempt of Con- gress.”

Seeger was arraigned and brought before a federal judge where the indictment was read and he pleaded not guilty.

The trial itself was not held until almost five years later.

According to Paul Ross, Seeger’s attorney, the appeal will be heard before the Court of Appeals in New York in March, 1962.

Support for the popular singer has come from all parts of the world. Friends have forwarded financial-donations to help cover the costs of the appeal.

At present, the Seeger Committee is preparing a six- page printed bulletin to re- port fully on the case.

Those interested in support- ing Pete Seeger, or in ob- taining the bulletin can write to Suite 602, 200 West 57th Street, New York 91, NVY.

WEST SIDE STORY, United Artists release of Robert Wise production. Directed by Wise and Jerome Rob- bins. Screenplay by Ernest Lehman, book by Arthur Laurents, music by Leon- ard Bernstein.

Here is a real spectacle— the closest thing to a great musical yet produced on the screen in this country. For once the adjective exciting is honestly appropriate as well as those other stock-in-trade comments (brilliant, stunning and superb).

Based on the Broadway musical, it is magnificently adapted to the screen; the camera work and the direc- tion are unified with Jerome Robbins’ original choreo- graphy -and the depth and fury of Bernstein’s music. It’s not all perfection—some of the scenes have the sort of puerile stickiness which so often passes for romance on Broadway -and is happily ex- aggerated by Hollywood. This is a double pity because music for the love songs is pleasant and unaffected and the lyrics are less banal than usual.

Fortunately the sweet young lovers are a means to an end and can be ignored at will, The end, in this case, is a powerful exposure of the tragic violence and injustice done to the children of the slums in New York’s West Side. The villains are clear- ly marked — society and its representatives, chiefly the cops; never once does the film preach nor does it pa- tronize. ;

The story is simple (and might have been strengthen- ed if the Romeo and Juliet theme had not been. follow- ed so closely). Two gangs— the Jets and the Sharks—are feuding over a stretch of “turf’?. The Sharks are Puerto Ricans so the Jets (Anglos) feel they have an additional reason for hatred. It’s made very clean that the Puerto Rican boys will not be allow-

ed to use the playground or the gym or even walk the

————.

Rangoon, capital of Burma, is a beautiful city dotted with mountain peaks that is covered with trees and greenery.

Its famous gilt-covered Shwa

visitors. Above is a view of Independence Square.

wey

Dagon pagoda attracts many

street claimed by the Jets.

The leader of the Jets is a snappy young man named Riff (Russ Tamblyn). He de- cides the time has come for a showdown—he will issue a challenge to the Sharks and they will engage in combat— in others words’ a rumble.

The dialogues (between cops, the gangs and _ individ- uals) are real, frequently clever and good support for the songs. The combination expresses the complex dis- crimination .felt and prac- ticed by the white gang and the bitter disenchantment of the Puerto Rican group.

The real impact, however, of their deprivation and con- fusion, their wild courage and high spirits comes with the dancing. There is an un- believable fusion of art and reality in the choreography —throughout the whole film the dancing is superior to any other single quality. It is, in fact, the most remarkable dis-

PROTEST NAME

As the old year closed a stOrm of protest hit Van- couver City Council over a decision to name the new small Queen - Elizabeth Theatre the “Playhouse.”

For months many civic groups and prominent in- dividuals have urged that Canada’s great Indian poetess, Pauline Johnson, be honoured by naming the new theatre after her.

‘West side story new ‘musical—film landmark

play this reviewer has ever seen.

This film is a landmark in the development of that pe culiarly American art form— the musical. Bernstein is ser- jously concerned with the roots of the people on the West Side and his work has honest vigor not the lifeless shmaltz of the usual musical. And the story and its treat- ment are. concerned with ex- posing — not glamorizing.

The production is an angry one and it will convey more adequately than any number of sermons from the Hearst press the quality of the prob- lem facing the big cities of this country. Naturally there

are any number of un-answer- +

ed questions and perhaps some people will be horrified at the brilliant satirical songs (chiefly “Gee, Officer Kruk- pe’) and perhaps others will want more answers.

But let them see Rita Mo- reno (as Bernardo’s girl) and Chakiris sing and dance their way through an argument on “America,” and what it’s done to the Puerto Ricans. Or the desperate. fear and fury of the Jets after the gang leaders have been kill- ed in a dance called “Cool.” Or the opening sequence as

\the camera covers the huge

city finally coming down to the West Side. Answered..or un-answered — it should be

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January 26, 1962—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 5