TV Script on Poe UK Recycling Progrcrm ll
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A $700,000 grant from the National En- Despite Poe’s considerable literary tal- An experimental recycling program has l
dowment for the Humanities has re- ent, his life was luckless and tragic, ac- begun at UK, and if successful, it could
cently been awarded for the production cording to Smith. Orphaned at age two, lead to a recycling program for the en-
of a film authored by Daniel Blake Poe was brought up by a greedy mer- tire University community.
Smith, associate professor of history. chant, gambled and drank his way out of “This is an effort to make people
Film Odyssey, a Washington, D.C. film college and later got court-martialed. He aware of the need to recycle at the Uni-
company, will produce “The Mystery of was desperately poor, but was deter- versity level,” said Gail Telech, adminis- r
Edgar Allan Poe,” a one-hour documen- mined to make a living through his writ- trative assistant to the vice chancellor for
tary written by Smith about the life and ing. He was paid $15 for his most famous administration.
work of Poe. work, The Raven. Four years later, on The 45-day program is primarily for
“The word through the grapevine is, election day, he was found dead in the home recycling, for those who set aside
this is the largest amount ever given for a streets of Baltimore wearing someone newspapers, mixed papers, cans and bot-
one—hour documentary,” said Smith. else’s clothes. tles but don’t know where to take them.
Excerpts hom some of Poe’s works, “There is a lot of mystery about how Two large recycling bins, divided up
such as The Man tj the Crowd, Murders in Poe began and ended his life, and there into four sections each for different recy-
[he Hue /l/Iorgue, and The l·k1ll tf the Home rf is a lot of darkness in between,” Smith clable materials, are located on Hilltop
Usher, will be realized in a cinematic fash- said. “There was a lot of tragedy and Avenue across from Pennsylvania Ave-
ion for television, he said. “A lot of Poe’s sadness in his life, which was transmuted nue and on the Avenue of Champions in
stories have a rich visual quality to into his work.” the Blazer Hall parking lot.
them,” he explained. Some of the themes Smith picked up Persons who wish to recycle will be re-
'I`he excerpts will be supplemented by in Poe’s writings are a search for love sponsible for taking their materials to the
on-location filming at various East Coast and a spiritual identity, and the unex- bins.
cities where Poe lived. Dramatized vi- plained nature of evil. The program is a combined effort be-
gnettes tram his life, along with inter- “The Mystery ofEdgar Allan Poe” will tween UK’s Waste Management Task
views with literary scholars, will also be be shot this spring and summer and will Force and Browning-Ferris Industries
woven into the film. air nationally as a PBS special in 1991. Waste Systems. BFI Waste Systems is
Modern talent in horror will join to- providing the bins and hauling them to a
gether to bring the documentary to life. recycling center at no charge. UK will
Cramnry-winner Philip Glass will com- receive all the profits from the venture.
pose the rnrrsic. Class has already com- During the program, the Waste Man-
posed nrrrsic for the opera The Fall (fthe ¥ agement Task Force will be looking at
I Iouse (2/ Us}u·r. “1~le`s the best modem in- P recycling University property such as pa-
terpreter of Poe,” Smith said. “He con- Q g per and newspapers the University has
veys the haunting, urgent qualities.” purchased.
Vincent Price will be involved in the & “Aluminum cans are not University
segment on The Dr!]/ale Hear!. Stephen property,” explained Telech. “We just
King will take the audience through The t want to encourage people to recycle.”
B/ur}; Ca!. joining them will be Richard P
Wilbur, former poet laureate of the Li-    
brary of Congress, and Kenneth Silver- 1
rnan, Pulitzer Prire-winning biographer
who is currentl com letin a bio ra h
O., pm Y P g S P Y "Of ull the words ever
Poe, a writer of horror and mystery penned   [nun {he
jarring tilre rn;d-lSf)Os, really invented saddest ure these:
( mourn tetettrve story, according _
to Smith. Poels clraracters used intuition     huve been."
and deduction to solve mysteries, and Edgar Allan Poe
were the predecessors of Sherlock
Holmes and Perry Mason.
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