Word: hornaday
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...with a look at adaptation and survival in the harsh beauty of the Great Plains region. The idea for the story came to him during a visit to Miles City, Mont., this summer, when he decided to seek out the lonely spot where, in 1886, the Smithsonian's William Hornaday slaughtered 25 bison for an exhibit at Washington's National Museum of Natural History. Recalls Sidey: "I found the site and stood filled with a sense of being in a primeval time and place. I understood what Montanans mean when they speak of the Big Sky country, the immensity...
...chance to recapture a bit of the original American heart, something brave and wild. Coffman, who is writing a novel about the return of the buffalo -- the fulfillment of a prayer in an old Indian song -- even tracked down the site near Jordan, Mont., where the Smithsonian's William Hornaday in 1886 found the last of the wild bison. He killed 25 of them, took skins and skeletons back East to mount. Those shaggy monsters roamed the National Museum of Natural History along Washington's Mall for almost 75 years...
...four men mutter pointedly about the performers' talent, poise and looks. "The guy in the tie-dyed shirt is technically fine," Hornaday says, "but his eyes are dead." Even the judgments that benefit auditioners could prove painful if spoken within their earshot. Says Feuer: "We need someone who looks foolish to play Greg." His colleagues nod, and one young man is in. But the triumph is temporary and perhaps hollow. At this stage, the auditioners are moving on to "call-backs," the first step in a process that will, the producers admit, stretch up to the start of production...
...stop conferring and are ready. "The boy in the green top," Hornaday calls out, and, hesitantly, the third youth in line eases to the front. "The pink tights." As the wearer of that garment comes forward, the woman next to her winces at having been passed by. After another huddle, Hornaday says, "That's all." Immediately, a silver-haired man with a clipboard steps in from the side of the stage and intones in a swift singsong, "Those in the front line, please wait on the right. For the rest, thank you very much and please leave, as quickly...
Attenborough periodically calls a break in the auditions so that he can go outside to chat encouragingly with the people waiting in line. Says Esteras: "It is so rare in this situation, his just acting like a normal human being." Indeed, Attenborough and Hornaday occasionally grant call-backs, out of compassion, to auditioners whom they have no interest in hiring. Because an eventual no is immeasurably more common than an acceptance, the call-back is a crucial symbolic reassurance that the aspirant is not in the wrong business. When the stage manager attempts to reconsider some people who have already...