CalArts Story Is Too Hot for Printers to Handle

The stuff some dreams are made of was too strong for two San Fernando Valley graphics shops that were to print a collegiate literary magazine, the magazine’s editor said Monday.

The shops refused to print the magazine Walt, produced by students at California Institute for the Arts, because of a homosexual “dream sequence,” said editor Richard Hawkins.

The offending story appeared in proofs for the September issue of Walt, named after the school’s founder, Walt Disney.

Hawkins said the objectionable sequence, in which a man dreamt about a homosexual encounter, was explicit but not obscene.

In fact, Hawkins added, he did not find the dream sequence any more offensive than other features in the September issue--such as a scatological poem, a short story on lesbianism and an editorial laced with obscenities.

‘Sort of Flabbergasted’

“I’m so oblivious to pornographic language that I was sort of flabbergasted when people refused to print the magazine,” said Hawkins, a graduate student studying painting.

CalArts officials have tried to distance themselves from the controversy by emphasizing that Walt is a student-financed and student-operated publication.

“We have nothing to do with it,” said school spokeswoman Anita Bonnell.

The odyssey of the offending article in Walt started about two weeks ago, when Hawkins took material for the magazine to Challenge Graphics of Reseda. As the material was being prepared for print, a production employee started to read the stories.

Outraged by the content, the employee showed the articles to the company’s president, Robert F. Ritter, who decided not to print the magazine.

“It’s just not in good taste,” he said. “I know the First Amendment of the Constitution guarantees the right of a free press. But the First Amendment is one thing, your moral obligation is another.

“I have five daughters, and I wouldn’t want them to read material like that.”

After retrieving the articles from Challenge Graphics, Hawkins took the stories to North Hollywood Printing Co., which had printed the magazine before.

But the North Hollywood company would not print the magazine either. O.P. Hamilton, president of the graphics company, declined to comment on the decision.

Since the second rejection, Hawkins said, he has called dozens of companies in an attempt to find one to print Walt’s September issue.

“There’s been so much controversy about the magazine that most companies won’t touch it,” Hawkins said. “The companies that will print the magazine are too expensive.”

Walt could be printed on the CalArts campus with modifications in its layout, but that would entail a lot more work for the magazine’s editors, Hawkins said.

And he is adamant against “taking out the bad words,” he said, so that the magazine can be printed by professionals.

“At first I thought this was funny,” Hawkins said. “I don’t think it’s so funny anymore.”