Jacksonville State University - Mimosa Yearbook (Jacksonville, AL)

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Doug Marletie Signed autographs for many of those who ahended his talk in the Student Budding. 'Whatever gets un- der my skin shows up in my work' MARLE'I'I'E 2 '1

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t 'I I Tee -.J.-!-. T '3 J -' h .u... c u. Luan- 3.: -rEI..Lg:aF;A-AL Morlette drows interested audience 1988 Pulitzer Prize-win- Amer, Doug Mariette 38, for- mer editorial cartoonist tor The Atlanta Constitution, interpreted examples of his controversial satire, teaturing both prominent and com- mon caricatures, to a ISU audience. The talk was sponsored by Center for Southern Studies, Department at Communication and Sigma Delta Chi. Dr. Robin Eott introduced Mar- iette, who majored in philosophy and art at Florida State University. The distinguishty dressed Mariette first spoke to a private news center- ence, where he pointed out the sad- ness with which he left The Atlanta Constitution. He looked forward, however, to the challenges at hand in New York. where he would address the issues of the deficit and the home- less. Mariette, the tirst and only cartoon- ist to receive a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University. spoke to an audi- ence of more than 200 college stu- dents, faculty and news reporters en route to his new destination at News- day in New York. Marlette, raised in Laurel, Miss. at- ready had earned d reputation oi sea- soning his editorial cartoons with characteristic Southern wit. A car- toonist's iob is to see the ironies and the contradictions, Mariette ex- plained. As an artist I act like an emo- tional teabag: whatever gets under my skin shows up in my work. The Reagan era must have been embedded deep within his skin. for countlew cartoons featured the for- mer p'resident with his Mariette trade- mark. ueyes in obvious oblivion. Mariette illustrated this point with a cartoon of three famous presidents and their well-known quotes, Rees qan's quote read: What's your sign? The audience responded with 28 CAMPUS LIFE laughter and applause. Cabinet officials were also favorite targets. Attorney General Ed Meese, was depicted in a cartoon. His large protruding stomach shadowed a hungry child at his feet. The caption read: I see no evidence of hungry children in America! Yet another cartoon suggested the delegation with which Reagan was so famous. Pictured is the Oval Office in the White House with a sign on the wall that read: President Reagan slept here. Mariette elaborated on the car- toons that received the most negative and the most positive publicity. The negative cartoon showed Sen. Jesse Helms with trousers dropped. as he smiled at the reader and mooned the capitol building. The caption read: Carolina moon keeps shining. Helms demanded an apology trom the publisher. The positive response was to the cartoon 0n the loss of the Challenger. With only minutes left before the spe- cial edition run, Marlette opted for a simple patriotic symbol. A bald eagle looked heavenward and shed a single tear. It was captionless. Mariette in. stinctively hit on the unexpressable sorrow the nation tettt One picture had been worth a hundred words and had silently expressed grief tor the whole world. More than 70,000 copies were sold. Snipers on the LA. freeways prompted Mariette to draw a cartoon with a man driving a car while his wife manned a large machine gun. The caption read: I'm gonna pass the Toyota, honey - cover me! Religion, a further indication of the mixed-up world in which we live, tur- nished a iavorite target for Mariette. He said. I drew Jim and Tammmy Bakker betore it was cool to draw hm and Tammy. Mariette was quick to document in indelible ink the moneyr mismanagements, sexual innuen- does. and the spiritual backstabbing that haunted the PTL Club. When Jerry Falwell reptaced the Bakkers. Marlene celebrated the oc- casion by drawing the new leader as a pious snake. And it the world of prominent po- litical officials tailed to provide enough characters, Mariette created a series of common people who at- Iowed the cartoonist an unconditional voice. He said, The comic strip Kudzu focused on the sting in adoles- cence, when the young men can't get the girl he wanted. Veranda, the popular, beautiful girl would never look at Kudzu, while Ida Mae. the unpopular, homely girl won't leave his side. Mariette said these three characters are universals for the comic retiet all teen-dqers pose sess, end they yield candid rettections of everyone's youth. Mariette gestured with his hands as he tried to explain the depth of thought that preceeded the creation of Rev. Will B. Dunn. Hels a funky kind oi guy who isn't afraid to say what he thinks, Mariette explained. For example, the cartoon showed a couple getting married and the Rev erend commented on the ugliness of the bride. A person trom the audience asked Mariette about his heroes. He con- cluded the talk by explaining heroes are persons who learn from the mas- ters of their art. develop their own voice and Consequently arenlt afraid to use it. By his own definitibn, Mariette is qualified as a hero. In 1984, he was selected by Esquire Mdgdzineilior its reqistei of men and women under tor- ty who are changing America. Phyltus S. Moore

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Cronouer created role for Williams ell, it's probably routine by now. So let's get it over with in the very beginning, shall we? Gooooood eveeeeeening, Iacksonville! With this, Adrian Crenauer began an appealing, humorous, informative speech. He spoke on a range of topics such as motion pictures. movie scripts, reaiity versus creative license in titmingr radio and radio formats and h0w aII ot these were related to his experiences in Vietnam. The speech, sponsored by the Stu- dent Government Association, was at- tended by an attentive, near-capacity crowd. Many had come to find out how much of the movie actually hap- pened. Cronauer said the movie was not meant to be a biography but rath- er a drama based loosely on actual events. Yes, there was somebody named Adrian Cronauer, and he was a disc jockey in Vietnam, he said. Other tacts included were: He did go to Vietnam trom an assignment in Greece. he did teach English in his ott-duty time, he did make it sound like a state-side radio station, he did have trouble with news censorship, and he had been in a restaurant just before the Vietcong blew it up, Not mentioned in the film was that Crounauer had volunteered for Viet- nam. He said just before he left tor Saie gon he heard the radio station had been bombed. Although I did teach English in my otf-duty time at the Vietnamese- American Association. I did not teach my students to swear and use New York City street slang. I didn't take a - Vietnamese tamily to see Beach Blan- ket Bingo,' I didn't teach them how to play sottball with melons and I did not teach English because I was trying to meet some particular Vietnamese girl. Cronauer continued, I did not have some sergeant-major trying to 28 CAMPUSLD'E get me killed, I was not in a jeep that was exploded by a land mine, and I did not get lost in the jungle trying to avoid the Viet Cong. Unlike the movie, Cronauer was not run out of Vietnam. He com- pleted his oneeyear tour there and was honorably discharged. He added one more item. To the best of my knowledge, I don't think I had any friends who were Viet Cong In 1979, Cronauer worked as an announcer in New York City, and a friend trom the service worked as an associate producer with Family Feud. Over dinner one day they reminisced about the old days and talked about some of the toperated shows such as M.A.S.H.l' and WKRP. They realized it you put the two together, you have Armed Forces Radio. The idea was to situate a sitcom in a Vietnam radio station. Cronauer said, In 1979, it you put comedy and Viet- nam in the same sentence, television producers recoiled in terrorir Several years tater they decided to rework the idea tor a movie of the week. Rights to the movie were tater bought, but as a movie movie. It was not until November 1985 that the rough script was submitted. Robin Williams' comedic airbreaks in Good Mominq Vietnam were mostly ad-libs. Clips were played from the movie, and actual air-breaks from Air Force Radio, Saigon, None of the characters in the movie was based totally on a real person, but were stereotypes. Closing his speech. he turned to a more serious aspect of the Vietnam contlict. Cronauer said he exper- ienced the problems ot readjusting after serving in Vietnam. Every person who served in Viet- nam, every single one came back ' with scars. It's just that some of them were visible, some 0t them invisible, ADRIAN CRONAUER he said. IIIn my case it was several years before I could deal with it. For many years afterwards, he would be awakened, screaming, by nightmares 0! being back in Vietnam. What had triggered Cronauer to tace the terrors of his past was a scene on I the evening news where a man was. shot While cameras recorded it. All the violence that he had seen and had pushed into the dark corners of his mind had to be dragged up and contronted in order to live a normal lite again. Cronauer says Vietnam veterans wilt not tell you about their past in the conflict, but they have gone through that same sort of thing. Most of them have learned to cope, Cronauer said, Today when Viet- nam veterans get together, something happens that never happened among veterans of World War I, II or Korea, but when Vietnam veterans meet each other. they greet with, 'Wel- come home.' The reason they teet compelled to say this is nobody else has said that to them. $2.4. Abernathy