Scrapbook

              '■.■■■■       ..        ■:'■-■■ ■'■: .■■■ -
B2   Tuesday, July 28, 1981   THE FRESNO BEE  •
Friends, admirers gather to celebrate William Saroyan's life
. Technical difficulties caused a
story about a tribute to William
Saroyan to be omitted in some
editions of The Bee on Monday and
garbled in other editions. It is
reprinted here in its correct form.
— Editor.
y SHIRLEY ARMBRUSTER
Bee staff writer
He said we should live in the time
of our life. He said we should laugh;
that nobody knows how to laugh. He
said we should know love and
greatness, and have somebody that's
right for us.
William Saroyan, a Fresnan and a
writer, said those things to his
readers before he died May 18 at the
age of 72.
Sunday night, his hometown said
back to him, "Thank you."
"In the time of your life, live
— so that in that good time
there shall be no ugliness or
death for yourself or for any life
your life touches."
It was apparent at A Celebration
of the Life & Works of William
Saroyan Sunday night at the Fresno
Convention Center Theatre that
Saroyan's memory is one of love,
laughter and greatness.
Master  of  ceremonies  Leon_ S,
peters saT5lrTsTiffingjo cej^^ite,
"Mfior and pay truiuTeTo~^aroyan.
"He brought joy to all walks of life
from one end of the world to
another," Peters told the audience of
2,400, a mixed, standing-room-only
crowd of all ages. Saroyan, he said,
provided a diagram for a better
understanding of life.
Part, of that diagram, perhaps,
was the black Jet-Wind bicycle
sitting in the theater lobby. Many in
the crowd examining the Saroyan
memorabilia — his gray Royal
manual typewritter, a worn teapot
and ceramic mug, his straw hat,
autographed books and scrawling,
handwritten letters — before the
program remembered the burly man
riding his bicycle through the streets
of Fresno.
Others, like the several Fresno
County Free Library employees,
remembered his frequent visits to the
institution he loved. Still others
recalled growing up in "Armenian
town" with "Bill," going to Sunday
school with him.
David Kherdian, a writer and poet
who studied at Saroyan's feet, calls
Saroyan "a tornado who has been
retired; a volcano gone permanently
extinct."
"Somehow, being here in this hot
Fresno climate brought back fond
memories," said the writer, now
living in Oregon, as he wandered
through the memorabilia. "I can't
help but remember sitting in the
back yard eating cheese, watermelon
and   Armenian   bread."   The   two
sometimes shared thoughts on being
Armenian.
"You're a foreigner and
don't ever forget it. A smart
foreigner keeps his feelings to
himself and his mouth shut...
You can't change people. You
can laugh at them, that's all.
Americans make me laugh. I
wouldn't fool with them if I
were you. I just laugh at them."
Being Armenian was an important
part of Saroyan's life, even though he
was born in Fresno, said longtime
friend Albert Nalbandian of San
Francisco. "When you're attracted to
your country as I had been and Bill
had been all his life, it's another
home away from home. We are
concerned about the trials and
tribulations of our people.''
But Fresno was also home, a home
Saroyan never forgot. "He told the
story of life in Fresno in a way that
had universal impact," said Mayor
Daniel K. Whitehurst. "He was a
citizen of the world and we share his
greatness. His place in our living
mosaic will never fade."
Vardges Petrosyan, president of
the Soviet Armenia Writer's Union,
agreed about the universality of
Saroyan's writing. "His crazy and
vulnerable heroes have brought to
the world its most needed quality:
kindness." Petrosyan, part of a
Soviet Armenian delegation to the
tribute, said Saroyan's link to his
parents' homeland was strong.
"Armenia was the capital on the map
of his soul."
Saroyan left Fresno as a young
man to find his greatness, but he
always came back. His heart was "in
the highlands" of perhaps both
Fresno and Armenia, as his story
and play about a Scotsman hint:
Johnny: Is his heart really in
the highlands like he said, Pa?
Johnny's father: Not exactly.
Do you think he'll ever get
home again some day?
He's an old man, Johnny. He
will.
You mean he'll take a train
and a boat and get back where
the highlands are?
Not that, Johnny. It's a little
different from that. He'll die.
Is that the only way a man
gets home?
That's the only way.
Saroyan did for the Armenians
what Shakespeare, Cervantes and
Hugo did for their countrymen: he
put them into popular literature, said
Charles "Gus" Garrigus, California's
poet laureate.
His characters all had one
message, Garrigus said, "people
need people."
Napa Valley author Anita
Kornfeld, a recent friend of
Saroyan's, said he talked of life and
friendships moving in cycles. He
was, she had observed, a man who
enjoyed life and his friendships.
"Mostly, Bill did the talking. But
even if one didn't agree with Bill, it
was a learning experience."
Although he shunned honors —
most notably the 1940 Pulitzer Prize
for his six-day wonder, "The Time of
Your Life," — Saroyan was an old-
fashioned, sentimental man,
according to those who knew him.
I did my best, and let me
urge you to do your best, too.
Isn't it the least we can do for
one another?
He didn't want a funeral or
memorial service, but a William
Saroyan Tribute Committee sprang
up after his death. Manuel Tolegian,
a painter, Fresno native and
contemporary of Saroyan's who
played the harmonica in the original
production of "The Time of Your
Life," wonders if his friend would
approve of the celebration. "He
would think it ostentatious," Tolegian
decided.
Committee member Gilbert
Khachadourian disagreed. "I think
Bill would approve," he said. "I
think it's being done properly. These
are his close friends. If he were here
he wouldn't want it, but I would
argue with him for it."
"Would you win?" Khachadourian
was asked.
"Probably not," he answered.
Saroyan himself spoke to the
crowd via tape recording. He said he
considered all his works successful,
simply because a writer must write
and be published, no matter what the
result.
What the world does to people is
another matter, he wrote in
"Highlands."
Ah, you crazy, miserable
fools. Go ahead, kill everybody.
Declare war on one another.
Take the people by the
thousands and mangle them.
Their poor hearts and their poor
spirits and their poor bodies ...
. You frauds of the world. You
wretched and ungodly. Go
ahead. Fire your feeble guns.
You won't kill anything. There
will always be poets in the
world.
Two men who are among Fresno's
most successful writers, poet Philip
Levine and journalist H. Roger
Tatarian, recalled to the audience's
delight, their Saroyan memories.
Levine said no one should be asked to
evaluate Saroyan's writing.
"If you want to evaluate William
Saroyan, read him and your life will
be enriched ..-.."
Goodby, my beloved friends.
In all the hours of my life, in all
the places I have visited, never
and nowhere have I had the
honor and pleasure to commune
with souls loftier, purer, or
more delightful than yours.
Goodby.