11
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The Battalion
LIFE 11
Monday, April 10,1989
Shriners
" helping kids
By Stacey Babin
ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
They are the men in the red-tassled hats. They ride
motorcycles and march during parades. They sponsor
circuses and carnivals to raise money.
Theirs may sound like a fun, carefree organization.
But these men are Shriners, and they contribute thou
sands of dollars each year to burn treatment institutes
and children’s hospitals across the nation.
Activities
“We have a Hospital Benefit Day in the fall, around
October, and the money we collect then goes directly
tothe hospitals,” said Jerry Nance, immediate past pres
ident of the Brazos Valley Shriner Club.
Nance said the Shriners go out on the streets that
day, “panhandling” for donations.
The Brazos Valley Shriner Club sponsors an annual
fish fry and a carnival to raise money for the organiza
tion itself.
The Shriners’ Mighty Thomas Carnival was held in
in Bryan last week, but those proceeds go to the organi
zation and not to the hospitals.
Johnny Oates, first vice-president of the club, re
membered an incident in Florida that made the Shrin
ers more careful in publicizing their fundraising events.
“They were having a circus there, and an ad indi
cated that the money raised went to the hospitals and it
didn’t,” Oates said. “Many people were upset.”
Shriners now specify clearly whether the money they
raisewill be sent to hospitals or burn
institutes, he said.
Nineteen
crippled chil
dren’s hospitals
and two burn in
stitutes in the
United States re
ceive funds from
the Shriners.
The hospitals
closest to the local
Shriners chapter
are Galveston’s
Burn Institute
and the Crippled
Children Hospital
in Houston’s
downtown medi
cal center.
“The Burn In
stitute operates
strictly on charita
ble donations,” Oates said. “The Crippled Children
Hospital treats children from birth to 18 years for any
type of reparable illness. They don’t treat kids for
things like epilepsy because there is no cure.
“If anyone knows any children that need help, they
should just get the word to us and we can get help to
them,” he said. “We just sent a child with a clubfoot to
the Crippled Children Hospital to have it rebuilt.”
The hospitals do not use much of the money col
lected on the benefit day for administration, he said.
“Ninety-eight to 99 percent goes directly to the pur
pose,” Oates said.
The Burn Institute also treats children up to 18 years
old. Many of the burn victims are there for corrective
surgery, he said.
“There is no charge for the families and no restric
tion on who will be treated,” he said. “A child is a child,
regardless of birthright.”
Origins
The Shriners date back to before the turn of the cen
tury, Nance said.
“Some doctors in New York wanted to have fun, but
also wanted to do something good,” he said. “The
group has kind of evolved since then.”
Oates said he believes the founders, because they
were professionals, saw a need to help children and
knew they needed to raise money.
The Shriners are a branch of the Masons, and as an
auxiliary group, they are able to solicit donations and
raise funds. The Masonic Lodge is not allowed to have
fund-raising activities, Oates said.
Nance, who has been a Mason since 1981, said Ma
sonic members must go through certain steps before
being able to become a Shriner.
“A person just has to ask to be a Mason, because we
don’t solicit members,” he said. “We’re looking for good
people over 21. We’re still a male society, but we do
have the Eastern
Stars, which are
the women’s
groups.”
Nance said the
Shriners’ beliefs
come from the Bi
ble. Members
must only believe
in a supreme be
ing and are not
required to follow
a particular reli
gion, he said.
“There are Ma
sons all over the
world,” Nance
said. More than
900 Masonic
lodges are in the
United States
alone.
“We are often thought of and referred to as secre
tive, but we have no secrets,” he said. “We have only one
basic belief: An educated populace can never be domi
nated by a handful of people.”
Photo by Phelan M. Ebenhack
Seven-year-old Adam Retburn rides the ca- Texas A&M’s recreation and parks depart-
rousel at the Mighty Thomas Carnival in ment. The carnival is an annual fundraising
Bryan. Adam’s mother, Sandy Sabo, works for event sponsored by the Shriners.
Show proves A&M has ‘a mess of talent’
From pocket protectors
to muscle shirts, exhibit
celebrates men V fashion
By Chuck Lovejoy
ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
After Class, the act that per
formed last, placed first Friday
night in the MSC Variety Show,
one of the first major events of
Parents’ Weekend.
The barbershop quartet, made
up of Texas A&M students Jon
Gardner, Greg Gorman, Keith
Richbourg and Ritchie Thomp
son, won a trophy and $150 dol
lars for their crowd-pleasing mu
sical/comical performance.
Taking the stage dressed as
characters from the Lone Ranger
series, the four musicians per
formed three pieces that made
the 2,500-member Rudder Audi
torium audience scream and ap
plaud louder for them than for
any other act in the show.
The quartet first performed
the Lone Ranger theme song
while one member was dressed as
the Lone Ranger, one as Tonto,
one as a bear (thrown in for good
measure) and the fourth (clothed
in silver lam6) as Silver.
Following a quick costume
change that took place onstage,
the vocalists performed two more
songs dressed in normal bar
bershop quartet attire.
For their second number, the
members each vocally imperson
ated a musical instrument.
The last song told the story of
an auctioneer, complete with fast
passages sounding like an auc
tioneer’s call or bids.
Placing second in the show was
guitarist and vocalist Hank
Townsend, who performed three
songs, including “It’s Up to You,”
which he wrote. Townsend won a
trophy and $125.
In Motion, a dance team made
up of Stephanie Grogan, Jana
Fuhrman, Shellie Kammer and
Keli Weeren, was awarded third
place for their energetic routine,
receiving a trophy and $ 100.
A fifth member of the group,
Audrey Hold, was awarded the
honorary Hard Luck Award, as
she sprained her ankle during
dress rehearsal and was unable to
compete.
The Texas A&M Revellers, a
jazz vocal group, performed the
staple jazz selections “Mack the
Knife” and “Just in Time.”
Flamenco dancer Roxanne
Cuellar performed a dance called
“Triana,” which was named after
the famous dancer Luisa Triana.
Hal Mueller played two tradi
tional Irish folk songs on a ham
mered dulcimer.
The group Throw Up juggled
balls and clubs, threw knives
around an assistant called Ms.
Throw Up and even flirted with
severe injury by juggling cordless
electric razors.
Pianist Stephanie Eiswirth
played an original work called
“Lament,” which she wrote while
she was in high school.
The 18-member Kappa Pickers
sang a medley of Aggie songs in a
style similar to that found on Hee
Haw.
None of Your Business, a six-
member rock band, performed
Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child O’
Mine,” Led Zeppelin’s “Rock and
Roll” and the Eagles’ “Seven
Bridges Road.”
Comedian Chris Rand received
whoops from Corps members in
the audience by wearing Army-is
sue horn-rimmed glasses during
part of his act, saying they were
the only 100 percent effective
method of birth control.
Vocalist Jill Setina sang the
classic country song “Change of
Heart” to piano accompaniment.
Four women known as the Se
quins performed a version of
‘Tind Out What They Like” from
the musical “Ain’t Misbehavin.’ ”
Also performing, although not
competing, were the Aggie Wran
glers, winners of the 1989 variety
show, and Amy Hopkins, the
newly-crowned Miss Texas A&M,
who sang “Home” from the musi
cal “The Wiz.”
Eric Kornfeld served as the
master of ceremonies.
Kornfeld, a professional come
dian, has appeared at comedy
clubs around the nation and on
MTV and Star Search.
Kornfeld kept the show mov
ing smoothly with comic tidbits
between acts, speaking on topics
such as earthquakes, Los Angeles
girls, commercials for Levi’s jeans
and Michael Jackson.
Kornfeld summed up the eve
ning with an observation he re
layed to the crowd before the an
nouncement of the winners.
“You know, there is a mess of
talent at this school,” he said.
NEW YORK (AP) — Macho mus
cle shirts clash with drippy, high-wa
ter pants at “Jocks and Nerds,” a
fashion exhibit that celebrates and
spoofs 20th-century men.
The two stereotypes are among 12
categories being explored through
May 16 in an exhibit at the Fashion
Institute of Technology that shows
“how men create images for them
selves,” said curator Richard Martin.
Mannequins are transformed into
jocks, nerds, rebels, workers, cow
boys, military men, hunters, sports
men, Joe College, businessmen, men
about town and dandies.
A man’s clothing reflects his per
sonality, although “perhaps not in a
purely conscious way,” Martin said.
“Someone can be a businessman
five days a week, but on Saturday he
puts on his safari jacket and becomes
the Ernest Hemingway of Great
Neck.
“At night, he goes to a downtown
club and becomes a rebel.”
Or perhaps a jock — depicted
here in photographs of Sylvester
Stallone as “Rocky,” a reclining Jim
Palmer pitching Jockey underwear,
and a comic book outlining Charles
Atlas’ rise from 97-pound-weakling
to he-man.
“Jocks go in and out of favor,”
Martin said. “In the late 1960s and
early ’70s, the anti-establishment
time, jocks were portrayed as
dumb.”
But they are always perceived as
sexy.
“Indeed, the classification of
men’s underwear into jockey and
boxer shorts, both alluding to sports,
seems to imply that the sanction of
athletics is required for manly at
tire,” the “Jocks and Nerds” catalog
notes.
Nerds have other qualities.
The exhibit, noted Martin, fea
tures “our ’80s nerd, complete with
white socks, high-water pants and
black glasses.
“Their beautifully made clothing
that really respects the history of the
nerd: the pattern mix, the ungainli-
ness, the T-shirt under the open col
lar of a 1950s nylon shirt in a really
icky material,” he said.
A nerd, he said, might wear a
short-sleeve shirt under a sweater
vest, making his arms too cold and
his chest too hot.
“It causes a real sense of discom
fort and the nerd projects that,” he
said.
Nerds surfaced in the 1950s —
and a funny thing happened to them
in recent years.
“The downtown club people sud
denly started buttoning their top
button and wearing high-water trou
sers,” Martin said.
Also featured in the exhibit is a
crowd of mannequins offering blasts
from the past: a paisley Nehru suit;
cowboy chaps made of sheepskin
and skunk, on loan from the Buffalo
Bill museum in Cody, Wyoming;
loud pants patterned with golf tees
and golf balls, once favored in Palm
Beach; and a black velvet suit with
bellbottom pants — donated by Mar
tin, who says he “can’t believe I wore
that.”
And Martin pointed out a collec
tion of “great, bizarre ties” with pic
tures of hula dancers, Marilyn Mon
roe, cocker spaniels and horses.
“There are always some men who
are quite conventional but who will
buy the most extraordinary ties,” he
said.
The clothing was borrowed,
gleaned from staffers’ attics and
scrounged at flea markets.
“We were real crazed flea-market
shoppers,” said Martin.
Fie said he usually hates to shop
but discovered he would “go wild
and become the worst sort of grabby
shopper” while building the collec
tion.
“We’d get there the minute the
doors opened,” he said.
He said the display is believed to
be the first exhibit of 20th century
men’s clothing.
“Most museums have collected
great women’s clothing but have
very little concern for men’s cloth
ing,” Martin said.
“It’s very difficult to find historic
men’s clothing — men tend to wear
it until it wears out.”
Photo by Frederick D. Joe
Eric Kornfeld, a professional comedian, served as emcee at the
MSC Variety Show Saturday. Kornfeld has appeared at several
comedy clubs around the country, as well as appearing on MTV
and Star Search.