Proud to be a local artist
To the editor:
Your recent story by staff writer Pete Sherman on our movie-in-production, “It
Came From the Slurry Pond” [“Hollywood or Bust,” July 17], was outstanding.
Yet I wanted to point out a flaw in the characterization of my own life as a
local artist, movie producer, and documentary maker.
In Pete’s story, he wrote of my past work, referring to A Beatle in Benton, my documentary on George Harrison’s first visit to America. Almost five months before the Beatles arrived in New York City in February 1964, George came to Benton and for a few weeks saw America as the other three Beatles would never have the chance, after Beatlemania took off. A lot of research and time was spent doing that documentary in order to save the onetime home of George’s sister, Louise Harrison Caldwell, from the wrecking ball. I wanted the house to survive for future Beatles fans to enjoy. Pete said the video “has become a minor hit and has led to bigger and better things for Bartel.”
I sent Pete the list of awards this documentary has won. A Beatle in Benton is now in the collections of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the museums of television and radio in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Film festivals on both coasts have honored it with prizes, and it’s even been used in documentary studies classes at Duke University. It has been reviewed by Gold Mine, and listed along with all the other Beatles films, including Give My Regards to Broad Street, How I Won the War, and Magical Mystery Tour–all movies with much bigger budgets. It was no “minor hit,” as I see it. It helped convince then-governor Jim Edgar to sign into law an act protecting the house, recognizing the place as one of the most historic sites in Franklin County. Someday the home will be recognized as a national historic landmark.
What does it take for a work to be described as a “major hit”? Everything else up till now has been great, but nothing has done for me what that video has done. It is sometimes hard to get people here to see what you have done in the true light of day. Mr. Lincoln cast such a huge shadow here that it leaves many in the dark. I am very proud to be a LOCAL ARTIST. I made no minor hit and I am not a minor player. Yes, I live and work in Springfield, IL, but I can still be a major player with a major hit!! I work hard at what I want out of the arts and life.
Setting the record straight–it means that much to me.
Thanks,
Robert Bartel
Producer, documentary maker, writer
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A friend of Dorothy Decker
The librarian in Bushnell,
Illinois, gave me a copy of your paper dated July 3 today. I live in Prairie
City and was interested and impressed with all the information in the article
on the Decker Press by James Ballowe [“Little Press on the Prairie”]. My father
was a friend of Ervin Tax, the man who took over the press, and I was a friend
of Dorothy Decker–the woman who killed Mr. Tax and herself. I appreciated the
story.
Mary Askins
Prairie City
Congratulations overdue
To the editor:
Congratulations to you and your former staff writer, Ms. Traci Moyer, on her
recent award for news reporting from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies.
May all of her future endeavors be as rewarding.
Matthew Woodcock
Pawnee
Still laughing
Dear Editor:
When I picked up a copy of the Illinois Times, I noticed the political
cartoon by Tom Tomorrow. I burst out laughing, not because it was particularly
funny, but because the four scenes are virtual photocopies of one another. There
is no change of perspective, or scenery. The only difference in the four scenes
is where the caricature of Bush is looking. I guess it is true you get what
you pay for.
Sincerely,
John P. Sears
Petersburg
This article appears in Jul 17-23, 2003.
