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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 12, 1985)
Circus will perform 18 shows in Houston By WALTER SMITH Co-editor J UST AS CARTOONS AREN'T JUST for kids, neither are circuses. Young and old alike can thrill to the action and spectacles of the center ring, be cause the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus arrives in Houston this month. "The Greatest Show On Earth" will per form at the Summit from July 16 to July 28 for 18 exciting performances. This sea son's show commemorates the 100th an niversary of the Ringling Brothers Circus. It will feature two and a half hours of tra ditional favorites as well as new attrac tions. But getting this gigantic show to the Summit won't be an easy task. About 200 circus animals and 16 tons of equipment will be unloaded by 300 workers from the mile-long circus train at the intersection of Edloe Street and Highway 59 South at 7:30 p.m. on July 15. From there, the en tire entourage will march through the streets of Houston to the coliseum. Once they arrive, the work crews will launch into action. Although they won't have to set up any big-top tents in the Summit, they will have to install about 14 miles of rope, wire and cable that will hold the show together. These riggings have to be secure to hold the aerial artists as they celebrate the 125th year of the flying trapeze. And to help celebrate, the circus will feature Miguel Vazquez, the only person ever to complete a quadruple mid-air somer sault. Mark David will display his prow ess on the single trapeze when he per forms daring stunts like the "heel catch." The Survivors will be making their North American debut as the four-member team dive into mid-air and perform flips, pirouettes and somersaults before being caught from below. W HAT CIRCUS WOULD BE COM- plete without animal trainers? This show will feature rare white tigers from Burma as well as an Olympic salute by Bulgarian bears. Axel Gautier and family will direct their 21 beasts in a show called "Elephants — Country Style." Hosts of clowns, exotic dancers, contor tionists, acrobatics and high-wire artists will round out the show. If all these feats and attractions have you excited, then go get your tickets at any Ticketron location or at the Summit box office. But if you still want more even after you've seen the show, then go back to the Summit at 4:30 p.m. on July 26. At that time, the circus will be holding ad missions interviews for its clown college and auditions for female dancers. □ Hi Dr. Seuss pens new book for adults Associated Piress LA JOLLA, Calif. — In the same clut tered office where he created such children's classics as "The Cat in the’ Hat" and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," Theodore Seuss Geisel is putting the finishing touches on his first book for adults in almost 50 years. "It's an adult book in a child's for mat," Geisel says. It will include the same type of comical illustrations and verse that have delighted young readers for decades. Known to millions by his pen name, Dr. Seuss, the 81-year-old Geisel says he works as hard today as ever. His only thought of retire ment is when he encounters writer's block. "But then I wonder what I'd do," he says, "and give up (the thought)." Geisel, a 35-year resident of this beach town north of San Diego, lives and works in a converted obser vation tower overlooking the Pacific Ocean. His work day starts at 9 a.m. "I can sleep later than most people because my office i$ within 15 feet of my bed," he says, adding that he sits at the drawing board for the rest of the day "whether anything hap pens or not." The 50 illustrations and the words that go with the new book, to be published by Random House, are tacked in sequence on his office wall, an editing trick Geisel learned in his highly successful Hollywood days. "If you stick up the pictures and words on the wall," he says, "you can see. the whole flow of the story. It's the best way to edit the material." He won Academy Awards for doc umentary films in 1946 for "Hitler Liv es" and again in 1947 for "Design for Death," a history of Japanese peo ple. His third Oscar came in 1951 for the animated cartoon, "Gerald Mc- Boing-Boing." Geisel describes his latest book as a satire, but that's all he'll say. "It would be silly for me to talk about it. It hasn't been published," says Geisel, who does about 10 ver sions of each story before settling on the finished product. He hopes to have the new book published March 2 — his 82nd birth day. Geisel's most recent children's work, a parable about the nuclear arms race titled the "The Butter Bat tle Book," was published on his 80th birthday and became a best seller. □ from cartoon p. 1 through his hands and feet and turn into a high-performance, turbo charged red sedan. Naturally he speaks via the car radio. His archfoe seems to be some other vehicle named Dark Rider. Dark Rider, Darth Vader — see the point? So what we have here is "teen be comes machine." Let us hope, at least, for fuel efficiency. What's really wrong with much of this Saturday morning fare? Except for Pryor and Keeshan, there are few live, talented hosts to add occa sional wit and spontaneity. Remem ber Shari Lewis?. Buffalo Bob Smith? Sandy' Becker? Mr. Wizard? The other thing most Saturday program ming lacks is what cartoons had in abundance 25 years ago — laughs. CBS still runs 25 and 30-year-old cartoons every Saturday morning on the "Bugs Bunny-Road Runner Show." A recent program began with an absolutely hilarious Bugs Bunny-Elmer Fudd take-off of the op era "The Barber of Seville." There are belly laughs here for young and old viewers. the more harmless, if emotionally neutered, current animated pro grams. Smurfs, for the uninitiated, are little elves reminiscent of the Seven Dwarfs — complete with names like Clumsy, Jokey and Bra iny. Some things never change, of course. What would Saturday morn ing be without an endless stream of commercials for Cookie Crisp, Co coa Pebbles, OJ's, Bubble Yum and Big League Chew? The names may have changed a bit, but these are still the same ultrasugary confec tions that have helped generations of dentists cover the rising costs of their children's college tuition. In fairness, the networks have in recent years tried to put in an occa sional good word for sound nutri tion. ABC, for instance, ran a public service message in the midst of "Turbo Teen" exorting youngsters to drink plenty of water. The jingle called it "'the best no-calorie drink in all the world." Well, it's something. But the "drink water" message is no doubt drowned out by the ads for Popsicles and Apple, Jacks that inevitably fol low within seconds. □ Compare that to "Smurfs," one of