8.
Famous people
watch you eat
nmo± aisinouv
By SUSAN HOPKINS
Battalion Reporter
You don’t often find President
Carter and Mad Magazine’s Alfred
E. Newman sitting side-by-side in
Rudder Auditorium — unless, of
course, you’re inspecting a mural
on the west wall of Backstage res
taurant and coffee house.
There the two characters seem in
place. They are surrounded on the
wall by likenesses of such stars as
Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog, the
Beatles, the entire Sesame Street
gang, John Travolta, Snow White
and the Seven Dwarfs, Willie Nel
son, Popeye and Olive Oyl, Albert
Einstein, Dennis the Menace and
Woody Allen.
The mural at Backstage was
painted by Molly Jaeger-Begent in
keeping with the restaurant’s thea
ter theme, which was created by her
husband David Begent.
She said the mural is very eclec
tic in its portrayal of both cartoon
characters and "real” people, who
were painted to look like an audi
ence at Rudder Auditorium, peering
at those who are eating on the res
taurant’s “stage".
The theater theme is carried out
with 30-foot black curtains trimmed
in red which drape over the mural,
authentic stage lights, black walls
and ropes and ladders that are set
casually about the small room.
Jaeger-Begent said the entire
restaurant interior was designed
and built by her husband, who came
up with the idea for a mural, and
selected her to do the painting.
Since then, it has turned into a
long project that is only about half
finished. She said it has taken two
years to fill the first few rows on the
mural with characters. Although
she said she used to paint on the
wall while Backstage was open, she
recently had to restrict her painting
time to Sunday afternoons when
the restaurant is closed.
"I ended up spending more time
talking to people who were eating
there than I spent painting,” she
said.
Jaeger-Begent recalled the time
a 6-year-old girl sat down beside
her while she was painting, and pro-
ceded to fire a list of questions typic
al of a child’s curiosity. She said,
"After I had explained exactly what I
was doing and why, the little girl
turned to me and asked, point
blank, ‘Are you an artist?”’
Jaeger-Begent said she thought
the question was funny coming
from a child, but still finds it hard to
President Carter and Mad Magazine’s Alfred E. Newman sitting
side-by-side in Rudder Auditorium, along with the Blues Brothers
and Woody Allen.
Molly Jaeger-Begent touching up characters in her
mural at Backstage. Jaeger-Begent said she
finishes about two characters a week on average,
since the acrylic paints she uses dry so quickly.
handle when adults don’t recognize
characters on the wall.
However, she said, not all of the
characters should be readily recog
nizable to everyone. Some of them
are personal friends, such as the
owner of Backstage, her husband’s
parents and a man who became a
“regular” at the restaurant before
he moved from College Station.
Jaeger-Begent said she painted
in Begent’s parents to suprise them
when they came to town.
After taking them to Backstage
for dinner, and discussing most of
the characters on the mural, Jae
ger-Begent said, she finally had to
point out the suprise. She said that
afterwards his parents admitted
wondering who the couple on the
wall was supposed to be, because
they never dreamed their faces
would appear there.
Finishing about two characters a
week is average, Jaeger-Begent
said, since the acrylic paints she
uses dry so quickly. She said that
although most of the prominent car
toon characters have already been
done, there are plenty of other sub
jects for the mural, including the
new president of Texas A&M, when
he is named, in the meantime, she
said, she is open to suggestions for
the wall. Her only requirement is
that she have a good picture of the
person or cartoon character for re
plication.
From that picture, she said, she
copies the figure to exactly the size
it will be on the wall. With the thin
paper drawing held close to the
wall, she reaches behind the paper
and sketches the basic shape,
which is usually a sufficient guide
line to paint from. Jaeger-Begent
said the main obstacles she comes
across on the concrete wall are
bumps and cracks that tend to dis
tort faces.
This is her first attempt at a mu
ral, she said, although she went to
art school and even took a shot at
being a professional artist before
moving from Ithaca, N.Y. to Austin.
She got a degree in journalism from
the University of Texas, then moved
to College Station to join Begent,
who had gone into interior design
ing and building after two years at
Texas.
Jaeger-Begent said that while
her husband was doing interiors for
local places like Duddley’s Draw,
Fish Richards and Astraptes, she
was busy selling ads for Center
magazine, where she is now editor.
However, both Jaeger-Begent
and her husband still spend a good
deal of time at Backstage. She said
that Begent built a bar for the res
taurant last summer, while she
completed 40 characters on the
mural. Begent is working on a back
drop for the east wall that will be a
cityscape when completed.
Jaeger-Begent said her greatest
fear is that someone will eventually
try to expand the restaurant, knock
ing out the mural that has become a
part of her pride.
The mural at Backstage. Jaeger-Begent said she
will take suggestions about who the new characters
should be.
Sirloin Strip • Filet • Rib Eye • Shrimp
Scampi • Prime Rib • Broiled Lobster •
Stuffed Flounder
RESTAURANT HOURS
Monday-Friday 11 a.m.-lO p.m.
Saturday 6-11 p.m.
Closed on Sundays
TWO y 2 PRICE HAPPY HOURS
Monday-Friday
4-6:30 p.m. & 10 p.m.-Midnight
815 Harvey Rd. (Highway 30)
College Station, Texas 77840
693-1991
Yes! We do take reservations!