Frank Burge and John Waters

Historically, showing a John Waters movie at the student union has made KU officials a little nervous. When I say KU officials, I'm not talking about the people at the union who actually show the movie. But there might be a politico or a nervous-nellie in there somewhere between Strong Hall and the union, or Lawrence and Topeka.

It's been a while since the local academic gentry put up a fuss. Take this press release from 2002, John Waters was welcomed to town for an appearance at the new KU bookstore opening. Of course, nobody was screening anything at that event.

Dan Searles, former Student Union Activities (SUA) volunteer, recalls a pacification effort to avoid controversy prior to this 1989 Waters screening:

The John Waters film was Mondo Trasho starring Divine. We showed it in November 1989. It held an X rating then, though the MPAA has not rated it last I checked. The agreement I made with the SUA faculty director was that I get a [KU film] faculty member to introduce the film and speak of it's relevance. Chuck Berg gladly accepted and spoke before both showings.

Chuck Berg to the rescue! But the best story is from the 1960s and the tenure of the legendary KU Union man, Frank Burge. Burge died this year at age 82. In a feature from Oread magazine, Burge's profile alludes to an ingenious strategy he employed to prevent a Waters film from being confiscated by state officials. The article wasn't specific about the episode so I made some polite inquiries and received this response from a KU insider:

A group of legislators came to the university one evening to retrieve the film from the students. Burge reportedly took the film from the projection room and put it in the mail slot of the union's post office. To remove the film from the post office, he told the legislators, would be a federal offense.

No wonder they named the satellite union after him.