Franta: "The unit was sound, but we had about sixty or seventy people and that was too much for a unit, so we had to split it. And the old gentlemen were against it."
Shark: "They had brother Lojza Vanický there and they knew him well, and now Franta Bahník was supposed to be a new brother, the guide of No.2, and though they knew him, they thought, 'Vanický is a guarantee of seriousness. Who knows what those young ones will bring in' and so on. Eventually, No.2 showed to be more, well, scout-like, so to speak, than No.1, even in practical terms."
Franta: "It was not a bad unit at all, in all respects. In terms of the principal boy scout education, the return to nature, it was more so than it is today. And in terms of patriotism, many of our boys were in prison, which says something. It was the connection to ..., which I never experienced, but I know about him. So I guess they were brought up well."
"I didn't feel any urge to join a theatre company or so. I had no idea that I would join a theatre company. I joined a theatre due to my desire to oppose the Protectorate and the dissolution of universities. That's about how I got involved with theatre. True, we did some amateur theatre here in Hradec before."
Full recordings
1
v bytě Františka Bahníka v Hradci Králové, 21.10.1998
Czech actor and director František Bahník was a boy scout before the war - and all his life. Born in 1919, he got involved in scouting thanks to his teacher Mr. Litochleb in Hradec Králové. He enjoyed it so much that he soon became a scoutmaster and then the youngest guide in the country. He got involved with theatre because of his opposition to the Protectorate and the closing of universities. He worked in theatres in Třebíč, Uherské Hradiště, Pardubice, and Hradec Králové. His wife was the recognised actor Dagmar Felixová, and they had son Václav, also an actor. For Mr. Bahník, scouting was a vehicle for education towards patriotism, love of nature, moral values, and Indian romanticism. He died in Hradec Králové on 4 August 2002.
