More area news with KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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The legacy of television and movie writer/director/producer Norman Lear was already well established in the history of Greenfield, where in 1969 he filmed the comedy “Cold Turkey.” But the long-running “romance” between the Hollywood legend and the community was further established Dec. 13th, when the Warren Cultural Center announced the naming of its auditorium The Norman Lear Theater.

Writer/Director/Producer Norman Lear stands in the newly named “Norman Lear Theater” at the E.E. Warren Opera House, in Greenfield. (Photo submitted)

Lear visited the town on Saturday morning, to once again view the town square that captured his attention more than 45 years ago, share personal greetings and insights and read from his new memoir, “Even This I Get to Experience.” A crowd gathered at the Warren Center, some wearing “Cold Turkey” buttons, a few with “Eagle Rock” band uniform jackets, to hear Lear, pose for pictures and get autographs. Many indicated they had played a part in the movie.

In announcing the naming – a surprise to the 92-year-old Lear – Leon Schwartz, EE Warren Opera House board member, said “To commemorate our special bond and the lasting imprint you have made on this community we want to share something with you and together make a permanent sign of our special bond. You completely disrupted the normal rhythm of life for us that summer, and we thank you for that experience.”

Schwartz went on to says “Today, 45 years later, your impact can be seen right here in this beautifully restored theater. You brought a form of art – filmmaking — to our community that we had not experienced. You reminded us that the arts are a necessary and integral element of any healthy society. You also gave us the script proving that small towns can meet seemingly impossible challenges, such as breathing life back into old buildings and creating a cultural center in rural America.”

Prior to the announcement, Lear spent some time on stage answering questions posed by Liz Gilman, executive producer of Produce Iowa – the State Office of Media Production, as well as from the audience, covering his career, his outlook on life, and even his trademark hat.  He also enjoyed some unexpected videotape greetings and congratulations from musician Randy Newman, who composed the score for Cold Turkey; and comedians Bob Newhart and Dick Van Dyke, stars of the film.

Lear was named an Honorary Iowan in 1999, when he returned to Greenfield with other stars, including Van Dyke, Tom Poston, and Jean Stapleton, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the movie. Lear also produced many hit television shows, including “The Andy Williams Show”, “All in the Family,” and “The Jeffersons,” and other classic films, such as “The Princess Bride” and “Stand by Me.”

Cold Turkey tells the story of a small town – Eagle Rock, Iowa – that takes up the challenge for all its residents to quit smoking for one month to win a $25 million prize. Many scenes were filmed on the Greenfield square and throughout town, as well as locations in Winterset, Orient, and Des Moines. Hundreds of locals and other Iowans were used as extras in the film.

Lear attended the gathering with his daughter Maggie, who visited her father on the location as a young girl, and grandson Daniel. Former Iowa lieutenant governor Sally Peterson and her husband, James Autry, personal friends of Lear, also attended. The night before Lear was the guest of honor at the Celebrate Iowa Gala in Des Moines.

With KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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Iowa Senator-elect Joni Ernst, Monday, announced that she has been assigned to four Senate committees that she says are of “major importance” to Iowans.

When the 114th Congress begins, Ernst will serve on the: Armed Services; Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry; Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; and Small Business and Entrepreneurship, committees.

Senator-elect Joni Ernst is slated to take the Oath of Office on January 6, 2015.

Two people were injured during a rollover accident Sunday evening, in Guthrie County. The Sheriff’s Office reports a man and his son were traveling on Highway 25 at around 6:20-p.m., when the son lost control of the vehicle as he swerved to miss a deer.

The vehicle entered the east ditch and rolled over, ejecting the father. The man was transported by helicopter to a hospital in Des Moines. No names have been released.

SAC-CRAWFORD-CARROLL-AUDUBON-GUTHRIE-DALLAS-COUNTIES:

…SCATTERED SLICK SPOTS POSSIBLE EARLY THIS MORNING…

A MIXTURE OF VERY LIGHT SNOW…SLEET OR FREEZING RAIN HAS DEPOSITED JUST TOKEN AMOUNTS OF PRECIPITATION ON AREA ROADS OVERNIGHT AND MAY CONTINUE BRIEFLY EARLY THIS MORNING. EVEN THOUGH PRECIPITATION AMOUNTS WERE AND WILL BE QUITE LIGHT…MORNING MOTORISTS SHOULD BE PREPARED FOR SCATTERED SLICK SPOTS WITH AIR AND ROAD SURFACE TEMPERATURES CONTINUING TO DROP FURTHER BELOW THE FREEZING MARK.

Roads early this (Tuesday) morning are in normal driving condition across the KJAN listening area. The Iowa Dept. of Transportation’s road report website (511ia.org), shows the only trouble spot is along Highway 44, between Highway 173 and Highway 71, in Audubon & Shelby Counties, where the road is partially covered with ice, and the bridges may be icy.

Elsewhere, I-80 in Cass County from the Olive Street exit (N-57) west to the Marne exit, is wet. The same can be said for Highway 83 from Highway 59 in Avoca east, through just south of Walnut.

You soon won’t be able to pass go or collect one million dollars from the Iowa Lottery’s Monopoly Millionaires’s Club game. The Iowa Lottery and other states who got together to offer the game have decided to stop selling the game on December 26th. The Iowa Lottery Board discussed the issue at their meeting last week, and spokesperson Mary Neubauer says the decision was made Monday.

“We’ve talked about it over the last week or so, sales in this game just didn’t live up to the projections,” Neubauer says. The game cost five dollars and had multiple tiers that let players win through a weekly lotto drawing, through a separate drawing triggered only when the game’s top prize is won, and on a nationally televised game show.  “And we really thought that the game was doing something that players have repeatedly told us that they wanted to see — and that’s a game that spreads the winnings around more,” Neubauer says. “You know maybe rather than just giving one person a giant jackpot in some game, they said ‘give us a game that spreads the winnings around.’ So that was the concept behind this game, but it just never seemed to get legs after its debut in October. And sales continued below expectations, below projections.”

Neubauer says there are still a lot of questions, such as what will happen with the game show. “I know that the initial tapings of the T-V game show will go forward as scheduled, so those game show trip winners who are already scheduled to travel next month to Las Vegas will attend as planned,” according to Neubauer. Neubauer says they are still trying to determine what the poor showing of the game will cost the Iowa Lottery. Iowa Lottery figures show around 409-thousand dollars worth of the Monopoly Millionaires’s Club tickets were sold in October and November.

(Radio Iowa)

A legislative committee is recommending that the 2015 Iowa legislature consider changes that would help schools deal with transportation costs, a particular problem in rural Iowa where many districts have long bus routes for students. A group of legislators met for four hours on Monday to discuss the details of how state aid to public schools is distributed and agreed lawmakers should find some way to address the budget difficulties in property-poor school districts, although the group did not make a specific recommendation.

Representative Ron Jorgensen, a Republican from Sioux City, is chairman of the House Education Committee. “We all know the importance education plays in providing individuals and society with a higher standard of living,” Jorgenson says. “Having an education population will help increase wages and spur economic development.” Senator Herman Quirmbach, a Democrat from Ames, is chairman of the Education Committee in the Iowa Senate.

“If our students in Iowa don’t get education that makes them competitive economically and in other ways with students raised in other states, then we are not being equitable to our own students,” Quirmbach says. Quirmbach and Joregensen served on the legislative panel that met Monday to discuss preschool-through-12th grade education funding issues.

(Radio Iowa)