Radio Smithsonian; 33; Curtain Going Up and Bugging the Bugs

Home. From Washington we present radio Smithsonian program and music and conversation from the Smithsonian Institution. In 1958 after years of public discussion and debate. Congress authorized establishment of the National Center for the Performing Arts here in Washington. 13 years later if all goes well the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will open. Today. William McCormick glad you and your general director for the center talks about plans for the centers opening in September. And about the overall objectives for this great National Center for Music dance and drama. Mr. Blair who is the architect for the center the architect was Darrelle Stone one of the most eminent American architects. You may recall he did. We did the American embassy in New Delhi The American President at the Brussels fair back in 1967. He's now working on a one of the architects working in the new capital in Pakistan. He's doing a new performing arts center in.

Bomb bay you want more National Geographic building here. He did that also. Yes. President Kennedy was very interested in the cultural center after he was assassinated that was when the name was changed. Yes the trustees appointed by General Eisenhower tried to raise some money and they did raise some money but they weren't successful Originally it was envisioned it would only be private money going into the national cultural center. Soon it became evident that they wouldn't be able to raise sufficient private funds for this purpose and after President Kennedy decided because of his great interest in the support and help that he gave as did General Eisenhower it was decided to rename it the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and at that point Congress does ignite it as this country's official memorial to President Kennedy and originally appropriated. Fifteen and a half million for the building and also a 20 million dollar loan. They authorized for the construction of a garage.

But the actual building only started in 1966. It started later of course because it had to be all sorts of plans drawn up. What were the physical set up. Understand an opera house in the morning really there's to be an opera house in the center which will have about twenty two hundred seats about the size of a scholar and there's still enough although we'll have 16 out of fewer seats in the metropolitan New York will have comparable stage and backstage facilities. No there isn't. Performing a major performing arts group in the world can come to the capital of this great country because there isn't a state that will hold the Royal Ballet can come the Danish ballet and Stuttgart can't come. The Bolshoi can come the last time the Bolshoi was here it performed in the ice arena and I think many people felt rightly that this was a disgraceful situation. I suppose this was really the reason that the citizens first thought of this is to say you know I don't think you're going to have a major capital of a major country in the world that doesn't

have adequate facilities for the Performing Arts. Now in addition to the opera house we have a concert hall which will hold twenty seven hundred people will have a drama theater the Eisenhower Theater name in honor of General and Mrs. Eisenhower which will hold about eleven hundred fifty. People and then we'll have a film a third if we ever raise the money which will hold about 500 people in addition will have a garage which will take sixteen hundred fifty cars three level garage underground. We'll have restaurant facilities exhibit areas so-called multi-purpose room for example which could be used for anything from band concerts to poetry reading the marvelous facilities as you come in to the opera or is in the center part there are two large holes either side of this there are two main entrances one we call the Hall of nations and the other the whole estate. All the nations will have the flags of those countries recognized by the United States and of course all the states will have the flags of the 50 states we have room I think for six more

states. But it's going to be very colorful with all the flag colors and I think it's appropriate to have all the nations because we received the gifts already from about 15 foreign governments and at least 15 more have indicated that they wish to contribute. There's been some marvelous gifts and you feel it with the physical set up you'll be able to accommodate almost anything that the Santa could need. Well that the colored neighborhood will be able to take any major performing arts group and the world will have seats if every seat was filled we'd have 6000 people at one time of course will stagger the openings. But if you know there are some people complain that the holes are too large and some say they're too small we think they're just right and they were built with the thought that what is the best size from the standpoint of both the artist and the Spectator. Total cost being the total costs depending on the adjustment. Some claims will be in the neighborhood of 67 68 million dollars.

And how much of that of course is an enormous amount of money but again the federal appropriations have been matched by contributions from private citizens foundations corporations and foreign governments. You are saved many gifts haven't you in kind from foreign governments as well. Yes actually some American corporations do. We've announced we put it that way so far about give some 10 or 11 foreign governments to include marble for example all the exterior and interior marble come from Italy the opera curtain from Japan the Eisenhower Theater curtain from Canada. Germany is giving us some marvelous sculpture. We are getting chandelier through the Grand Foyer of Sweden for the concert hall from Norway chandelier from Ireland. Do you feel it will be self-supporting or do you think it will need to be subsidized. It seemed to me some of the other countries have had to subsidize their cultural centers have I think all

of the countries do of course and in a way we subsidize the arts you know through our tax policies. But we're going to have to have help either from the private sector or the public sector. Congress has said and rightly so that the Kennedy Center must perform. This is in the original acts certain functions of a public service nature or public service cost money. So what do you feel the cultural center will mean to the country. Well I think many things we hope it will be a source of great pride I mean I think I say I think it's disgraceful really in the capital of this great country there are no facilities for performing art groups. We want to of course involve the country. Mrs. Roosevelt way back in the 1900s you do predicted that then call the national cultural center would not only be a stage for our most celebrated artists and for those of visitors from abroad but also a place where talented actors and musicians singers and dancers from Oregon Iowa Maine South Carolina or any other state may perform having been chosen by national competitions of festivals each year. Will be putting out our

second Jazz Festival this year. We want to communicate more with young people we want to provide opportunities for young performers as you know so many of our talented young singers have to go abroad and many of them to Germany to get recognition. We have an advisory group both for the college theatre festival and for our Jazz Festival. You get to be a great addition to the to the country and I'm sure you feel that many of the visitors here to the capital will participate in. Well we hope so you know last year since the seventeen million 100000 Americans visited Washington. We want to make the Kennedy Center part of their experience. We want to involve them. We would like we're looking for support for a program which will enable us to set aside a certain percentage of the seats for each of our performances so that they'll be available to young people to the people of limited income at a reasonable price and we plan to open in September. 1071 Leonard Bernstein was commissioned

some time ago to do an original work. He's been working on it now. We hope to have what we call a gala preview in May May 27 actually which will give many people here and from around the country their first glimpse of the Kennedy Center with fixtures and the rugs down. When the friends of the Kennedy Center. Is also is that an international organization. It's a national organization yes which has been very helpful I have several thousand members know all over the country and they've been very useful and they've helped to run a number of benefits to raise money for the press more importantly publicized around the country and will continue to do so the kind of what we're trying to do what we are what we hope to be. William Blair was the United States ambassador to Denmark and the Philippines and is now general director for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Many environmentalists are asking if there is any alternative to the use of pesticides and herbicides for pest control. Today Dr.

bonnet bucks a research entomologist with the Department of Agriculture explains biological control a slow but more effective and less harmful method of getting the job done. Dr. Black for biological control. Well it really means making an effort to reestablish a biological balance. In a place where a biological balance didn't exist before. If a new organism say an insect is introduced into an environment where it didn't exist before obviously the environment is not in balance. If parasites could be introduced in order to bring that invading insect into balance or into control then you would have established biological control

by bringing it into balance again. What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of biological control over chemical controls will. A lot of people like chemical control because it's quick. You see you get immediate results. But there are orchards in the state of Washington for instance where they have sprayed for the control of insects for 50 years and you have to keep rays spraying and you really see yes you see there's never any end to it. The soil underneath those trees is so saturated with there is a due from the spray that no ground cover will grow. Now the trees will still grow because their roots are deeper. But now an orchard in order to really be satisfactory one needs a ground

cover of some other crop. Though in these orchards it's impossible to grow a ground cover because there is such a tremendous buildup of spray residue in these orchards and also I suppose if you spray in a field you may kill the bugs but for instance the hay that the animals eat would still have insecticide done with that. Well of course that depends on on what kind of insecticide is used. Now recently of course we have had all this publicity about spray residues and persistent insecticides. However we really want to talk about biological control. Now biological control if we really get it established it has the very great advantage that it is permanent. If you can get a biological balance established then that's it. You don't have to keep doing it over

and over and over and over as you do with chemical control or chemical control. You see there's no end to it. But if you can establish the biological balance then that's it. Now as I like to always like to point out the case of the Japanese beetle in the Washington area because that's the one that I've seen and know the best. When I came here 20 years ago the Japanese beetle was simply all over everywhere. It was just into everything when you'd walk across the mall right out here. They would just fly up in clouds. Well now when you walk across the mall you never see one. Now what has happened what has taken place. Biological control has simply eliminated or rather no it hasn't eliminated. It has made the Japanese beetle of very rare insects here. And that's what the

Japanese beetle is in the country where it came from you see. I've met a number of Japanese entomologists and they've all told me exactly the same thing they'd never seen a Japanese beetle. Well of course they do exist in Japan and Korea where they came from but it's a rare insect there. And in Washington D.C. right now the Japanese beetle is a rare insect. It still exists because I saw one this summer in my garden. But I'll tell you 20 years ago it was quite a different matter. Why not tell me by that how did this take place what started this logical thing. Well it was a question of introducing First of all going to Japan and Korea and hunting for its natural enemies which turned out to be two species of wasps and also they found

a parasitic disease a bacterial disease. Those three things were introduced here in the Washington area. They started here with the Washington area because this was where their research was begun and where it was easiest to start. And now biological control is not quick. A lot of people tend to be very impatient with biological control because it is unlike chemical control it does not give you instant results. But on the other hand if it gives you results they are permanent. It's rather like going to the source of the problem. That's right. It does go to the source of the problem you see now. The Japanese beetle here in Washington D.C. is in biological balance the same as it is in the country from where it came. And it is a rare insect here because the parasites and the person the disease are

thoroughly established in this area. And the Japanese beetle while he still here. But it's very rare It seems to me that that research on this must be difficult because when you go to find a place an area in the world where this insect is take the Japanese beetle is controlled how do you find out when there's so few of them what is really controlling them. Well yes that that does make it difficult because you see you're working with a rare insect and. You see a lot of effort has been rather misdirected in biological control in going to a place where an insect is common and getting its common parasites and introducing them here into the United States. Well you get a long list of parasites. You bring them in and they do really very little because they weren't doing very much where they came from. They do something of course now naturally if you have a

parasite that reduces the the past by 2 percent in one place it will reduce it by 2 percent somewhere else. But it isn't really going to be very much comfort to a farmer who sees his crop being chewed up by a pest to tell him that it's being reduced by 2 percent. Afraid that the head won't really give him very much comfort and he wants of course really effective control. Do you feel that people are attitude towards insects has to change a little bit that we have to rethink some of that. Yes I wish that we could not I have seen in the time that I've been working in the museum I've seen hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of letters that have come in accompanying specimens that have been sent Ian for identification in almost all of them say what is this insect and how can I get rid of it. Well now

in almost all cases I'd say in the very vast majority of the cases it's not an insect that you want to or need to get rid of. You know in so many cases it's an insect that is quite incidental to our affairs. It's maybe a bee that's pollinating plants in the yard or a wasp that's building a nest somewhere around. And it's only interested in its affairs and it is of no concern to us and it's part of the environment. And I wish that people could could change that attitude which unfortunately is so prevalent which seems to be that if there is an insect we must get rid of it. Do you think that. That we understand. And all of us the role of many insects I don't think that we do. Oh no.

Oh no so many people seem to think that insects should be just eliminated. Well they don't realize how much insects do in maintaining the environment as it is now and also so many of the plants are pollinated by insects so much of the detritus the waste material that has to be worked down so that it can be become soil again is done by insects beetles larvae things like that. If insects religion needed then that wouldn't be done. Do you see any possibility of using biological control in backyard or do you feel that it's really only feasible on the ranches and large land areas. Yes I think that biological control is essentially a large scale operation. Why we don't. It has to be done on a large scale or it won't be effective.

If one individual for instance here in Washington had introduced the parasites of the Japanese beetle in his backyard that wouldn't have done him much good because the Japanese beetles would have been merrily going their way in his neighbor's backyard. You see it has to be done on a on a broad scale. It's rather like importing ladybugs Now what is it what the ladybugs do they eat the aphids. That's right and I understand there are people who make a living by selling these things. And that's right and there are credulous people who buy them and they undoubtedly get a good deal of satisfaction out of releasing these in their orchards or in their yards. And. I have a strong suspicion that the net effect of this is quite trivial. If I understand it correctly the ladybug also I think has to feed for two weeks or something before they start laying any eggs which would help in the biological control

don't they and by that in that two weeks they probably all left your back garden for your neighbors. Well yes and there are so many of them there just naturally anyway. And there are so many of those naturally present that any that we would have had I think would be really quite consequential. So what about the use on foot then on larger land areas. This is economically possible. We all know it has been on some very large branches in Texas some biological control projects have been successful on very large land holdings in Texas. Those the ones I think of now there may be others I don't know but it's essentially a large scale operation. It always I was used to it takes a long time and I suppose you really would you. Why would you do it as a father what would be your reasons for going into biological control. Well of course I mean an individual farmer wouldn't he simply would give

support to operations that were being done by essentially state or government organizations. And of course the best thing best support he could give to it would be not to use insecticides which would kill off the organisms that were being used in biological control. Now that is a real problem that has been with us for many many years that insecticides will be applied. Indiscriminately and will unfortunately kill off the wrong organisms will kill off the insects that have been introduced for biological control. Because obviously it has to work both ways you won't be rejected just to kill a bad guy. Yes and unfortunately the parasitic Hymenoptera are especially susceptible to the insecticides which are presently in use. Is that one of the best examples I know of

is the for instance the use of the coronated hybrid hydrocarbon insecticides against the food. Well that gets 100 percent of their Hymenoptera as parasites and 98 percent of the aphids the 2 percent of the aphids that are left can very quickly multiply and give you a worse infestation than you had to start with. How many entomologist working in this area are that relatively new relative to developing. It certainly is developing in our biological control is of course not per se new. The first successful example of biological control was over 70 years ago. What are some of the new developments in the field. Well of course the the the newest ones are the use of the

sterile male techniques and such as those that have been developed which are really very ingenious by the many as many as doing that many entomologist working in the development of this. Yes. Yeah. Yes and of course they are people who are not even in the field at all before. Do you feel that philosophically it is time for people to re-examine this role of trying to control nature. Yes I think it would be very in very desirable if we could have something of the Japanese attitude toward nature if possible now the Japanese of course are much denser population and we are by many many times. And yet the Japanese live in much greater harmony with their environment and we do. And you know the Japanese are very

conscious of insects not not at all. And the idea of eliminating them. Not at all. They they value insects they you know they appreciate it and say that they think that insects are objects to be illustrated and admired as they really are. And they also are very appreciative of the the beauties of nature oris in general. Americans are not. We appreciate grand things of nature but we certainly don't appreciate the niceties. I could say of nature as the Japanese do. Dr Bax is a research entomologist with the Department of Agriculture working here at the Smithsonian radio Smithsonian is presented weekly at this time produced by Dan McLean the Office of Public Affairs Frederick M. Phillips director. This is Cynthia.

Being. In the. Wrong. This is the national educational radio network.