Classic Arts Showcase Channels Eclectic Programs

On the TV monitor, a lone Buddhist monk in flowing robes stands on a hill overlooking Paris, singing.

“I love this, it’s very us!” says Jamie Rigler, programmer of Classic Arts Showcase, a wildly eclectic cable TV channel that envisions itself as the MTV of the fine arts.

Rigler is watching the monitor in a high-tech facility that beams ARTS, as its logo reads, 24 hours a day to a satellite for distribution throughout North and South America.

“You won’t see that on Bravo or Ovation,” said Rigler, 49, with pride, pointing at the monk.

Actually, there are a lot of things you probably won’t see anywhere but on ARTS, which seems to celebrate the divine and the ridiculous in equal measure. Among the clips that pop up regularly:

* The Russian Classical Ballet on Ice.

* Opera divas making guest appearances on 1950s TV variety shows.

* Numerous videos set, inexplicably, in toy or puppet museums.

* Rare footage of Van Cliburn playing a concert before an audience in Moscow that treats him like a rock star.

* Spectacular animation by Oskar Fischinger.

* A Montreal Symphony Orchestra performance set in a beauty salon, with the violinists playing under hair dryers.

“Some of what we show is wacky, I’m the first to admit it,” said Rigler. “Sometimes I look at these things and say, ‘What were they thinking?’ ” “But as long as the music performance is good or it’s historic, I say, ‘Why not?’ ”

Channel Not Included in On-Screen Schedules

You could judge for yourself, but it’s not so easy to find ARTS. The 6-year-old service, provided free to cable outlets and the few public television stations that pick it up, is usually presented on a highly irregular, mostly late-night schedule.

KCET-TV Channel 28, public TV in Los Angeles, shows ARTS from about 2 to 5 most mornings, but sometimes preempts it with educational nature films (presumably for all the kids up at that hour).

And there’s no telling when Charter Communications, the cable operator that serves the channel’s hometown of Burbank, will be showing it from day to day. It comes and goes without warning and is not included in Charter’s on-screen schedule.

“For some of the places that carry us, we’re just filler,” Rigler says.

He turns to watch a 1929 film clip of French pianist Alfred Cortot. As Cortot plays, a group of dancers dressed as dolls come to life. Rigler shakes his head in wonderment at the charming scene.

“That’s the only bad thing about this job,” he says, returning to the subject of how outlets schedule the ARTS channel. “We don’t get much respect.”

ARTS was the brainchild of a Burbank citizen who had a history of not getting respect. In 1949, Lloyd Rigler (Jamie’s uncle) and his partner Lawrence Deutsch bought a meat tenderizing formula from a chef named Adolph and began aggressively marketing it throughout the country.

When one food critic showed no interest in Adolph’s Meat Tenderizer, Rigler arrived at her desk, slapped down a piece of meat, treated it with the tenderizer on the spot and told her to go home and cook it.

The product became a staple in 1950s American homes, making Rigler and Deutsch, who loved the arts, hugely wealthy. They gave millions to the Los Angeles Music Center, New York City Opera, Joffrey Ballet and Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Deutsch died in 1977. Rigler continued on into new arts ventures, and in the early 1990s came up with the idea of an arts cable service that would show short clips, a la MTV.

“He saw it as a way to get kids interested,” says Jamie Rigler.

Lloyd Rigler put about $26 million into the venture to buy 12 years’ worth of satellite time, plus editing services and salaries for a small staff. He put his nephew, who had long been an amateur collector of videos, in charge of locating clips and putting them together in weekly eight-hour packages made up of about 130 clips each.

The clips repeat every eight hours throughout the week, but the order is scrambled to keep the service from looking too repetitive.

Because there was not enough left over in the budget to buy the rights to clips, Jamie Rigler had to seek out whatever he could get for free. He and staff members sought out videos from record companies, TV producers and personal collections.

European music companies had already been experimenting with short classical music videos.

“Lots of them are pretty strange,” says Rigler.

Soon, a clip popped onto the screen showing violinist Vanessa Mae in a long, clinging dress, playing a piece based on an Irish tune while stripped-to-the-waist martial artists performed around her.

On some weeks, ARTS shows a video of the same violinist playing Beethoven in concert. The finale of the Irish clip involves masses of feathers swirling around Mae.

“She doesn’t get to do this kind of stuff in the Beethoven clips,” he says.

Using Creativity to Find New Shows

Rigler secured the rights to show clips from the 1950s “Voices of Firestone” TV variety show by offering to help restore and conserve them. One that aired this week shows soprano Rise Stevens singing Irving Berlin’s “Always.” When Stevens, who lives in New York, saw it on ARTS a few years ago, she wrote Rigler a letter of thanks.

Rigler also received a note from famed choreographer Alicia Alonso, who saw ARTS in Cuba. “When her company came here,” he says, “I got to go backstage and meet her.”

Rigler seems to have learned from his uncle not to be shy in these situations. “Whenever I meet anyone like that, I ask them if they have any film clips or whatever stored away in the closet that we can show.”

One star Rigler heard from didn’t have any arts materials to offer, but Rigler was thrilled all the same. “Jack Nicholson’s office called our office and said he wanted to know about a clip we showed. A couple of weeks later, we were at an opera opening and two rows ahead of us is Jack Nicholson.

“My uncle went up to him at intermission and said, ‘I started the Classic Arts Channel, I hear you watch it.’ And Nicholson said, ‘Yeah, I loved that clip.’ ”

The clip, by a Polish video artist, shows people climbing an unending set of stairs to the music of Ravel’s “Bolero.”

Fans Chime In With Praise

Rigler reached into a briefcase and pulled out e-mail messages and letters he has received from fans.

“I’ve finally found something worth watching,” wrote a woman from San Diego, who complained that her TV Guide didn’t list ARTS.

A man in Hawaii wrote that he sets his alarm for 5 a.m. each day to watch ARTS.

One of the most memorable letters came this week from the father of an autistic child, who wrote that his son smiled for the first time in his life while watching ARTS.

Even Rigler is speechless at that one.

It’s time for him to go to an editing studio to oversee the production of next week’s package. But Rigler lingered a little longer, watching a Finnish production of Richard Wagner’s “The Flying Dutchman.” The clip showed the last act, with Hildegard Behrens singing her character’s final big aria. “She’s going to hit a real high note, it’s real exciting,” Rigler says with anticipation.

Behrens hits the note right on target, just as she had the several dozen other times Rigler had seen the clip. Still, when it comes, he thrusts his fist into the air.

“I’m perfect for this job,” he says. “I’m such a fan.”