Wichita Group-Memories
by 50chick
Posted to WritersAndGenres on 2002-01-14 07:27:00
Parent message is 95239
Dear Levi,
I recently finished reading Charles Plymell’s book,”The Last of the Moccasins” which deals in part with his life in Wichita. Also, there is more information about him on the web site about the Wichita Vortex. Lee Streiff was a participant in this group and puts things in better perspective. He also comments about the book and doesn’t feel some material gives an accurate picture of the whole scene in Wichita.
I was so excited to read all this background material because when I met Corban LePell in 1955 I had no knowledge about his early life. I just related to him as an intense artist and felt he represented what an artist should be. My website details my experiences and also I felt the old articles he wrote for the newspaper were valuable historical material to be shared. This website was created before I found the information on Wichita Beats,so now I have a much better understanding of the whole group.
Back in the 1970’s, I went to a screening in Buffalo of Bruce Conner films at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and met Bruce. I went up to him afterwards and mentioned that I had known Corban and he gave me a bit of information on what he was doing at that time. The only way I knew there was any connection between Bruce and Corban was from one of the articles which mentioned that Bruce was in NY and was the Chairman for the campaign–Ezra Pound for President.
Corban did end up in CA, but was not directly involved with the group in San Francisco as he became a Professor of Art at Hayward State and is still there today. I have not had any personal contact with him. I think he does know about my web site through Lee, but I have no idea how he might feel about my putting those old pictures and articles on the web!
http://paperdoll.1hwy.com/lepell.html/lepell.index.html
Sometimes, we do meet a person that has a life long impact on our lives and this was certainly the case with Corban. Maybe it is best to leave the memories alone.
50Chick
