The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 31

ymp mniiiinjwiiUfircipT iiii'nl i ipii my wigHiipiiwiffliiiiny ly iiy wii iipm if 11 a a I I tf i rigy ynni ihijiim.i)i,iihj'--,i y'-niy ni 'i THE COl RIER JOI RWL. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1VT8 15 Virs. A record-making hit for a I Mr wraiifl 4S1 1 A real Streisand-Diamond duet rises from a WAKY man's blend Successful weight loss centers on core diet in, tm "ii i ij i. ii mil i. I pinil il II II 4r JL 1 By TOM DORSEY Radio-TV Critic Since last June, Louisville-area resi-; dents have been trying to buy a Barbra Streisand-Neil Diamond record that didn't exist There was onfy one copy in the entire country of the two stars singing "You Don't Bring Me Flowers," and that belonged to WAKY program director Gary Guthrie, who created It Streisand and Diamond had never even heard it It was born last November out of the end of Guthrie's marriage.

"I had heard Diamond sing this song and noticed the response it evoked in my wife and other women. They thought it was goose-bump city, but I kept thinking there was something missing." When the Streisand album with the same song came out in April, Guthrie thought he heard the missing ingredient for a great love song. "My wife and I were parting, but It was on a friendly basis and I said to myself this would make a great going-away present" The present would be a blend of the two recordings. So on a Sunday afternoon in June, Guthrie went down to the WAKY studios and set up his four-track recorder and a piece of equipment called a harmonizer. He set about creating his work of art "I had to vary the speed of her voice just a fcair because it was a little out of sync with his.

Then I took Neil's first verse and followed it with her second verse and came back with both of them doing the chorus and reprise." Six hours later Guthrie emerged from the studio with his first draft "I gave it to Bailey (Bill Bailey, WAKY disc Jockey) and he played it that Monday." It still wasn't quite right but two record-T ing sessions later Guthrie thought "I think I've got it" He had it all right, and WAKY listeners wanted it "I got a phone call right away from Woodward's House of Music in Elizabethtown asking what I was do- Ing, playing a record that didn't exist. It seems all these Dolly Parton look-alikes were walking in trying to buy this record." Calls from other record stores began flooding WAKY. "They told me they weren't happy about all these women who were coming in to buy a record they couldn't sell them." The frustrated record-store owners kept trying to explain that the record didn't exist "Oh yes it does," the angry customers replied. "We hear it on WAKY every day. Don't you tell us it Joesn't exist." The confrontation usually nded with the irate customer stomping ut of the store.

Guthrie thought it was all a bit amusing until he started getting calls from furious husbands and boyfriends. I "These guys would call me up and say 'Hey, look here, buddy. I've spent the last four hours going to shopping malls all over this county to get this record for my wife and they tell me it doesn't exist that you have the only Guthrie began to wonder if he was onto something bigger than he realized. SlaH photo by Con Bt Gary Guthrie: A parting gift for his ex-wife turned out to be a bigger hit than he ever anticipated. But strangely enough, Guthrie never heard from Columbia.

So he decided it was time Columbia heard from him. He sent a copy to Columbia Records' president Bruce Lundvall. "When Lundvall heard it he flipped out and called Neil and his manager and played it for them over the phone." Diamond loved It and wanted to include it in an album he was recording right then. "Get Streisand and Jon Peters (her producer-boyfriend) and talk them into it" Diamond told Lundvall. Peters thought it was great He promised to try to pin her down on it.

That wasn't easy, according to Guthrie. "Barbra is never big on sharing the spotlight with anybody. This would be the first time ever on a record. I thought she might do it with a lesser-known singer, but I was sure she wouldn't be too crazy about doing it with Neil Diamond." However Streisand decided to break with her solo-performance rule. A few weeks ago she and Diamond got together and re-created the under-the-table recording.

Meanwhile, Columbia Records began negotiating with Guthrie and gave him the right to use his own recording until the new single hit the stores. Guthrie got himself "a hard-nosed New York attorney" who specializes in music contracts. "Financially, I hope to get something out of it" he says. "They stand to make some big money on it." The duet will also appear in Streisand's and Diamond's albums due to be released for the Christmas season. Guthrie doesn't even know if his name will be on the label.

"That would be nice, but it would be nicer if they could find it in their hearts to cut me in on the money somehow." Columbia reportedly already has advance orders for 24,000 copies of the single in this area, he says. "They've told people that this could be their biggest single of the year," Guthrie adds. But he wants more than money. He wants recognition. Rona Barrett almost took that away from him on ABC's "Good Morning America" show last week.

"My secretary called me and said, 'Quick, turn on the TV set. Rona Barrett is talking about your Guthrie's television tube lit up just in time to hear her give Uie credit for the recording to a Chicago disc jockey. That blew it He called Rona. She wasn't in. Her producer gave Guthrie a hard way to go.

Guthrie persisted and told him to call Jon Peters if he didn't believe a program director from a Kentucky radio station he'd never heard of. Well. Rona didn't apologize. But she did come back on last Thursday and give credit where it was due. Guthrie got his first network-TV publicity.

The Streisand-Diamond hybrid was Guthrie's first attempt at blending super stars and it's gone far beyond his dreams. He has no illusions. "I'm just a local boy who grew up in Sonora, listening to radio stations," he says in his best "aw shucks" accent Ms. Saunders made sure all five apartments were put to use. "One apartment was for the set One was for grip and electric.

One for production and kitchen we couldn't afford to cater all those people." Another apartment served as an area for the cast to relax in when not on the set The properties department was housed in another apartment Limited financial resources posed a problem in hiring a crew. "We didn't have much money. We couldn't pay them much and had to have a crew that supported a new director," she said. Everybody took deferred pay, including such well-known artists as Eli Wal-lach and Viveca Llndfors. Now that Warner Bros, is the distributor, the crew will be getting its back pay.

The producers put the crew together and started looking for locations. "Hollywood borrows your living room for a day and pays you $500," Ms. Saunders said, but she and her cohorts didn't have that kind of money. For instance, they couldn't afford to rent a snow-making machine for a blizzard scene, but "God was on our side we got snow in December '76," and the scene was filmed right on the streets of New York. "It's gorgeous!" she exclaimed.

"Our actors were not acting. They were cold." Ms. Saunders Is pleased with the caliber of acting in the film. In fact she can't think of anything bad to say about the picture. Neither could Charles Champlin of The Los Angeles Times, who recently said, "There is, I think, not a single false note or wrong step in 'Girl Coming up with a finished product for less than $500,000 in a day when movies usually cost many millions of dollars astonished the Hollywood community, Ms.

Saunders said. "They couldn't believe we got that production value out of it. "We have proven we know how to make a good film and hopefully a good commercial film," she said. With this week's openings, the producers are keeping their fingers crossed. The author is a doctor specializing in dietary treatment and has written the book, "The Woman Doctor's Diet for Women." This is the fifth of six articles taken from the book.

By VRBARA EDELSTEIN, M.D. 1 call my favorite basic diet for women the core diet This is a balanced-deficit diet; It balances protein, carbohydrates and fats, and creates a calorie deficit It is simple, allows for few exchanges, and is quite strict The weight lost during the first two weeks of a diet although it doesnt represent 100 percent true fat loss, is the largest single quantity of weight lost In the diet at any one time; fortunately, because the psychological value of this phenomenon is enormous. On my core diet most normal obese females lose from 7 to 10 pounds in the first two weeks, about 50 percent of which Is extracellular water. This water Is released when you cut your carbohydrate intake and use up your short-term sugar stores in the liver, some of it will come back after you stop dieting. CORE DIET Breakfast 2 ounces orange juice or 1 orange 1 egg (prepared any way) 1 piece Melba toast To drink any time Coffee with regular milk and sugar substitute Tea Diet soda Skim milk Tomato juice Lunch 4 ounces meat or fish 1 piece Melba toast 1 cup of salad with diet dressing or 1 cup cooked vegetable (except corn or peas) 1 fresh fruit (no grapes or cherries) or 4 cup Jell-o (regular) Meat: Beef (cooked weight) which can include roast beef, lean hamburger, cube or minute steak, round steak, tenderloin.

Chicken or turkey: which Includes crisp skin and chicken roll. Fish: Seafood, all canned fish, drained of oil. Fresh fish may use 1 teaspoon of margarine in preparation. Supper Exactly like lunch EXCEPT 1 more ounce meat and you can have both salad and a cooked vegetable You can have all the salad you want at dinner, plain or with vinegar. Diet dressing only, limited to 1 or 2 tablespoons.

Between meals Raw vegetables Dill pickles Diet gelatin Mushrooms (raw or broiled not cooked in, butter) 1 can stewed tomatoes Condiments: All mustard, catsup, horseradish, relish, herbs, spices, soy sauce as long as they contain no fat Onions as garnish You are required to eat only three of the foods on my list orange juice, 9 ounces of meat or fish (eggs or cheese if you are vegetarian: half the amount of cheese 414 ounces and 1 egg for every 2 ounces of meat). Orange juice is a must, even though it Is high in sugar, because it Is a good source of potassium, and you lose a lot of body potassium the first two weeks of a diet I allow eggs to be cooked in 1 teaspoon of margarine because my patients, like most heavy women, do not like eggs and find them most palatable if they can have them scrambled. If you don't want eggs, however, you eat nothing else for breakfast. Initially I allow no substitutes. One piece of Melba toast per meal is a token gesture for those who want bread.

I feel that a good fluid intake Is necessary but I don't set any limit on what my patient should drink, except for cautioning them that tomato juice is the only juice they can have in unlimited quantities. Fruit juices are nature's most concentrated form of sugar (next to whole milk). I can see no reason for not drinking all the coffee, tea or diet soda you want You can't gain weight on any of them. Substitutes I allow one substitution during the first two weeks of the core diet. (Since I do offer choices among the required foods, I dont think this is too harsh.) I allow one alcoholic beverage to be substituted for one fruit but it must be non-sweet and not wine or beer.

Second two weeks of diet (weeks 3 and 4) If the patient has lost between 7 and 10 pounds the first two weeks of the diet, I add the following to the core diet 1 extra ounce of meat at lunch 2 extra ounces of meat at supper (for variety, these may now include lamb, veal and liver) 1 extra egg (as part of a meal or snack) 1 ounce hard cheese (as part of a meal or snack)' If she has lost less than 7 pounds, I will allow no additions, but will adjust the existing diet Third two weeks (weeks and If weight loss is between 3 and 4 pounds on weeks 3 and 4, I then add a few more foods. The purpose of this is to keep the dieter interested, and also to see how far I can push the food load up and still maintain a 1 to 2-pound-per-week weight loss. At this stage of the diet, I also add two alcoholic drinks a week, and you don't have to exchange anything for them. The ban is also lifted on wine at this point Fourth two weeks (weeks 7 and 8) If weight loss has continued at 1 to 2 pounds per week, then I add: 1 dipper ice milk or sherbet instead of fruit, twice a week and cold cuts (ham, pastramt, bologna) in half the quantity of regular meat (2 ounces cold cuts to 4 ounces of regular meat) for one meal a day only. I allow sherbet or ice milk because their calorie count is not that far abova fruit and gelatin, and when patients eat out this satisfies a need for dessert.

Usually I stop adding food at this point If my patients are still losing weight at the rate of 1 to 2 pounds per week, I might allow 1 piece of high-fiber bread at lunch or breakfast. I add cottage cheese only if my patients agitate for it, and then only in exchange for both meat and fruits. Then I might start to go backward yes. backward if the rate of loss (iy to 2 pounds a week) decreases. As a female loses weight she consumes less energy when she moves, and this will be reflected in a slower weight loss un less either exercise is increased or food intake is decreased.

This starts becoming very apparent after from 15 to 20 pounds have been lost. In my experience, it is easier to decrease food than to increase exercise; my patients prefer starving to moving So I subtract all the extras I added and return to weeks 1 and 2 of the core diet If weight loss still isn't satisfactory after 2 weeks, I taka away the Melba toast then 1 piece of fruit then the second piece of fruit Meat is reduced by 1, 2 or 3 ounces per. day. In the end, you might be left with this: I Breakfast 1 egg coffee Lunch 3 ounces meat salad Supper 4 ounces meat salad The only alternative to eating less Is more sustained exercise. My core diet is strict but it works' You have nothing to figure out or wonder about I've done it all for you.

tell my patients, "I don't want you to think about food at all, because that's' what got you in trouble." I aim to eliminate any need to make decisions about food. The only food a dieter requires Is meat and vitamins; everything else is superfluous, and is included only to relieve the monotony. I ask my patients to listen to what I say, not to what they, think their body is saying if they want; to be successful dieters. If they modify what I say or change it! to suit their inclinations, they will lose; weight less efficiently. I do use vitamin-supplements with this diet the more cut down on the food, the more vitamins I tend to use.

Usually one mulrt-' vitamin pill with iron once a day is sufficient Barbara Edolitoln. M.D. TOMORROW: Maintenance and diet games. How to make a big film on a little budget The song had been written by Diamond and Alan and Marilyn Bergman. "The Bergmans have written lots of Top 10 stuff.

They're not young folks by any means, though up in their early 40s, I believe," says the 28-year-old Guthrie. The age of the listener was another of Guthrie's clues to the potential of his creation. "The response from teen-apers was terrific. It climbed to No. 5 on their request of numbers to be played." The song was catching on in other places.

Recording-industry trade newspapers picked up the story. The next thing Guthrie knew, a disc jockey in Detroit and another one in Chicago had mixed their own recordings of the Strei Co-producer Jan Saunders A movie on half a million Before the enthusiastic American reception, it was shown last May at the Cannes Film Festival in France, where seven extra screenings were scheduled to accommodate the eager fans who had heard about it Ms. Weill, an award-winning maker of documentary films, entered "Girl Friends" in Cannes' Directors Fortnightly Series for new directors. It was her first dramatic feature. She and co-producer Saunders had decided to play it safe by entering their film in a non-competitive category, never dreaming people would be demanding to see their work.

But the film had already been recognized. In March, the producers had taken it to Hollywood and showed it to Warner and the studio liked it. Warner the only studio they visited, is now the distributor. Things weren't always so rosy, however. "A lot of people said, 'You can't produce a feature film with $30,000 in your back pocket (the amount spent the first Ms.

Saunders said. "And we'd say, "Yes can we use your car?" Such tactics helped a lot. sand-Diamond number. That's when Columbia Records, which has both stars under contract heard about it. "I was worried from the beginning about infringing on their copyright," Guthrie admitted.

"But I had so much confidence in the song that I decided the heck with it." Columbia Records didn't take such a lenient view. Its attorneys zapped the Detroit and Chicago stations with cease-and-desist orders and warned them against playing the pirated number on the air. Even a station in Wichita, which Guthrie says concocted a bad rip-off, was told they had better kill the duo recording. Much of the encouragement during production came from members of the Association of Independent Video Filmmakers, a non-profit organization which lends support to members in the form of energy and talent Ms. Saunders, a former ballet dancer and producer of television commercials, is one of the founders of the 500-mem-ber group, which was organized in 1 973.

In fact it was while they were stuffing envelopes for the association one day that Ms. Saunders and Ms. Weill met. "Claudia got the first grant (from the American Film Institute) in 1974," Ms. Saunders recalled.

"But she had to drop the film (for a while). She went with Shirley MacLaine to China to make "The Other Half of the Sky: A China a documentary about a delegation of American women going to China. In 1975, she came to me and asked me to produce it with her this was her first dramatic feature." Ms. Saunders entered the picture during the final draft of the script and was soon making suggestions. She also helped with casting, reading parts with those auditioning.

Her next assigment was "what we call 'breaking down the script' defining the film in specific areas, like lighting, props and costumes." When asked about the costumes, she replied with a laugh, "What costumes? Half the clothes were Claudia's, and half were mine." One of the people the protagonist encounters in the film is a swinging rabbi. That meant Ms. Saunders had to find a rabbi's office. "But first I had to find what a rabbi's office looked like. I called up all my Jewish friends," she said.

She learned that "it's actually nondescript" and that's what she came up with. Again and again, friends came to the rescue. "We ended up getting an entire apartment building free for four weeks. It was donated by a friend of a friend, who was trying to sell it," she said. The brownstone, which was used for both exterior and interior jnots, is on West 5fith Street in New York City.

By CRECC SVEM Courier-Journal Critic 1 It started as a 30-minute drama about two ambitious young women sharing an apartment in New York and searching for meaningful lives. The budget was $10,000. Today, four long years and much hard work later, it's an 87-minute feature film that goes beyond the original story, focusing on the lives of the women after one marries and the other tries to make it alone. The total production cost is just under $500,000. By Hollywood standards, that's peanuts.

But to three young women who struggled as film independents, it is a great sum of money. This week their finished product Is opening in 22 cities. Tomorrow it ar-' rives at Louisville's Oxmoor Cinemas. The name of the film Is "Girl Friends." Jan Saunders, the short, vivacious co-producer and production manager, was in Louisville recently, talking about how dedicated people with meager finances put together a movie which they're proud of and are counting on to be a commercial success. "It's been so exciting," said Ms.

Saunders, catching her breath in a hotel coffee shop in Louisville. "Claudia, Me- lanie, Vlcki and I are covering all the (22) cities between us," she said. Claudia Weill is director and co-pro- ducer. Melanie Mayron is co-star. Vicki Polon wrote the screenplay.

Ms. Saunders, who's visiting eight cities in 10 days, has reason to be excited. The film opened In New York Aug. 11 "to rave reviews during a newspaper strike," she said. The crew called up the critics and asked them what they would have said had the presses been rolling.

The cast, production staff and friends passed out more than 250,000 leaflets announcing the film to counter the ill effects of the newspaper strike. After New York, "Girl Friends" opened in Los Angeles, again to praise. But the biggest break of all was in San Francisco, where the film broke box-office records at the Lumiere.