The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • Page 55

8Ea)Mics Ti 2Ecomin(; ui I y7 lzz section 5ECROSSWORI) ff fj) TiicTENNESSEAN qJL MayS.S I I '1 I II llll.ll.lll HIM Patf kk Swayze l-? Y. RICHARD SCHWEID 'Dirty Dancing' star turns down $6 million offer for sequel Television Ch. 30 sale pending for $6 million v. i) it Sure, he likes the attention (not to mention the cash), but Swayze wonders If these people who like him so much now know what a hard guy he Is to take. He Is sitting and wondering in his makeshift office on the sprawling Arabian horse ranch he shares with his wife Lisa Niemi, also a dancer.

It's a muggy Friday afternoon and he is hidden miles outside of Los Angeles in the safety and quiet of the San Gabriel moun taias. He Is wearing white sweats, a torn half shirt and muddy cowboy boots. Yes, he is every bit as good looking in person. Like the guy who got what he wanted and now isn't sure of what he has got, Swayze is almost embarrassed at the attention. He laughs loud and often when discussing the one pitfall of his new fame, "I can't believe all the screaming women." he says.

"I guess I'm Just this catalyst for their release of emotloa I look at it this way. What other opportunity in life does anybody get to stand there and scream at the top of their lungs, you know? "I think it's more of a mass-conscious type of release than my being the cause of this yelling," he says. "1 figure I'm just the excuse." He pauses, then agrees that this Is a calm, psychoanalytic and even weird way of looking at his popularity. "Well. I don't look at a lot of things the way people might think." he adds, smiling.

1 1 976 he married Niemi. whom he had met years before at his mother's (choreographer Patsy Swayze) dance studio in Houston. where he grew up. His family didn't approve at first, partly because of Niemi's fondness of hanging out in a part of Houston known as Sin Alley. Swayze Ignored their advice.

The couple did odd jobs to get by. By late 1 976 the Swayzes were living in New York and he was a principal dancer with the Eliot Feld Dance Company. She was on her toes at the Jof frey II Company. He danced In major musical-theater productions, Including Good Time Charley, with the likes of Joel Grey (the father of Dirty Dancing's Jennifer Grey). He advanced to the lead in Grease when the primo critics were coming back to review the then-longest running musical Then the bottom dropped out Years before, he had injured his knee in a high school football game.

"It always bothered me, but right when I was up there in my dance career it got worse," he says. He developed a staph infection in the knee joint Several operations failed to heal it "My doctors finally said, 'Look, Swayze, start thinking about amputating the He refused. And after a slew of operations it healed for daily use. His dance career, however, was over. "And I'm glad now that the knee thing happened," says Swayze.

"Maybe glad Isn't the word, but something along those lines, because it forced me to look elsewhere. Before that I iivtl fcr 1ut I looked like in the mirror and what I could do with my body. "The knee thing forced me to WCAY-Channel 30 is being sold by TVX Broadcast Group, Inc. in Virginia Beach, Va. to SouthWest Mul-ti Media Corporation in Houston, Texas, for approximately $6 million.

A letter of intent for the sale has been signed by both parties, and the deal will be completed when the Federal Communications Commission gives its approval, which should happen within 1 20 days, according to Lester Kamin, president of Southwestern MultiMedia He said the purchase price was "in the neighborhood of $6 millioa" The new owners are convinced they got their money's worth, and are not in the least dismayed by Channel 30's history of lagging behind Nashville's other full-power independent WZTV-Channel 17. according to Kam-ia "We think Channel 30 is very attractive, obviously," he said, in a phone Interview from his office in Houston. "We like the market. "We've done our homework and we think the market there can successfully handle two independents. We think the other station's a good one and we like that because it means that together we'll do a heck of a job for Nashville." Kamin declined to say when he felt Channel 30 might be able to achieve viewer parity with Channel 17, nor did he specify what changes are planned for the station.

Dirty Dancing's Patrick Swayze follows a different drummer. rang a little more often after his role as the headstrong Orry Main In the 1985 television minlseries North and South. Casting agents looked at him with a certain hunger, he says. Even though he was approaching 30 they wanted to Jolt him into the teen "party-'tll-you-drop" movies. Again, he surprised them by declining.

1 urn to PAGE JK, Column I Since Patrick Swayzo skyrocketed to fame in Dirty Dancing he has been offered $6 million to star in Dirty Dancing H.a chance to record an album and to pose for a poster. So far. the actor, who turns 35 this year, has rejected all three offers. In this excerpt from a recent issue of the Chicago Daily Herald Illinois-based free-lance wnter Cindy Pcarlman tells how Swayze plans to keep from being exploited. She also describes his forthcoming movies; the recently completed Tiger Warsaw, Next of Kin, which begins filming this summer, and a dance movie Swayzc hopes to muke with his wife Lisa Siemi.) flXnVPFARIAUN Dtrt Dancing has grossed more than SG2 million and won an Oscar for best original song ((I've Had) the Time of My Life), even though critics said its star Patrick Swayze wasn't much more than a side of beef.

But Hollywood. Swayze says, has always been a meat market and he is willing to be hired on as a choice cut. But pre-1987 Swayze had a forgettable name and a face often confused with Kurt Russell's. "Patrick who?" they would ask him. Swayze turns 35 this year (Aug.

18) a point when the make-it-or-break-it-in-film decision was about to rear its ugly head. He made it big. And now everybody from the critics to screaming teenage (and not so teenage) females like him. A lot. He sometimes disapproves.

Shaggy dog's hairdo for the birds! Princess Boobala is depressed. Shih tzusare high-maintenance dogs if you want to keep their hair long, because you have to brush it every day so it won't get matted. We barely have time to brush our own hair, so we took her to the beauty parlor for a summer cut Even though they put a cute little pink bow in which lasted about 10 seconds after she got home she looked like an expensive rat. Somehow, we think she knows this because after clawing us when she got in the car, she has moped around the condo. She won't even play her favorite game, Other Dog, with us.

You know Other Dog it's where you pretend like you're another dog and chase her around. Definitely an in-the-privacy-of-your-own-home game, since it makes you look goofy. She even snapped at the love of her life, Nicholas, when he stopped by for a visit Maybe a new outfit would help. It usually does the trick for us. Mary Jakes says she used to work for the state in a position that required her to handle job applications.

look inside and find a more realistic view of life. I figure that If it didn't happen, I would still be a Texas know? It forced me to find some level of sensitivity." he says. So Swayze took to studying acting. He sailed through early roles In The Outsiders (1983), Uncom-mon Valor 1 983). Grandview, USA.

(1984) and Red Dawn 1 984 without gathering much of a following. He says the phone LA David Lee Roth Diamond or rhinestone? It) 1 CATHERINE DARNELL Scene and Heard From time to time people would write funny things in the blanks. "One time after Church Of Your Preference someone put I thought it was darling," she said. We would have put "Jimmy." Virginia Lloyd of Adairville, Ky wrote us about her nephew. Nathan Lawrence, and his cat, Odie.

Seems Odie is supposed to stay in the laundry room at night, but kept appearing on Nathan's bed. Virginia says they discovered he got on the washing machine, turned the door knob with his paw and came in at will. We have this mental picture of two adults armed with flashlights, potato chips and sleeping bags outside the laundry room door, waiting up all night to solve the mystery. Talk about looking goofy. John Frierson wrote us about a Sunday column we did concerning the value of Roman numerals after Turn to PAGE 7E, Column 3 3l 1 f- Poison gives Roth a run for his money However, little immediate change is expected in either programming or personnel, according to Dick Williams, Channel 30's general manager.

"Everything will stay intact" he said. "There are no plans to make any changes In personnel or to delete any people." Channel 30 is an affiliate of the Fox Broadcasting Corporation, and that too, will remain unchanged, according to Williams. "It was very important to us. a primary coasideration, that we not lose the Fox affiliation." he said. SouthWest MultiMedia currently owns three other I ndependent stations, all of which are Fox affiliates, In Shreveport, Waco, Texas, and Odessa, Texas, and an NBC affiliate in Brownsville, Texas.

WCAY-Channel 30 will be the largest of the group's independents, according to Kamin. Officials of the TVX Broadcast Group have repeatedly said over the years that they Intended to stay with the station even though it was by no means among its best performers. That resolve remained unshaken until last October's precipitous stock market decline, according to Gene Loving, chairman of the TVX board of directors. "We bought five stations last year from Taft Broadcasting for about $235 million," he said. "When we were in the middle of arranging the financing, the market crashed, and we made it known that we were interested in selling some stations to pay down our debts.

"As soon as we made that announcement we got a call from SouthWest MultiMedia and negotiations began. Our intentions to stick in Nashville were sincere, but we didn't anticipate the crash." Congratulations are in order for WSMV-Channel 4's reporter, Ellen Shuman, who was recently awarded not one, but two Knight journalism fellowships. One of them was to the University of Michigan, and the other to Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. Anyone who has ever lived through a Michigan winter will not be surprised that she chose Stanford. Shuman was in New York City and unavailable for comment, but she will probably leave in August and spend the academic year in Palo Alto, according to Alan Griggs, WSMV's news director, who said that she would be on a leave of absence from the station.

"I don't have any concrete ideas right now about how to fill her role when she's gone," he said. "We'll have someone move into that role. "It's a terrific opportunity for Ellen and I'm really happy for her. It's quite an honor. CMA buys lot for new headquarters THOMAS GOIDSnTII Stall Wmrr The Country Music Association has purchased a $385,000 Music Circle South site for a proposed $750,000 million headquarter building, CMA officials announced yesterday.

The CMA Board of Directors approved the purchase at a recent meeting in Phoenix, and the deal was completed early this week, said Joe Talbot, chairman of the board's Building Study Committee. Music industry figures Ron Kerr and Bob McKinsey sold the CMA the one-acre site next to the former SESAC building at 11 Music Circle South, officials said. The 7.000-mem-ber country-music trade organization now leases offices at 7 Music Circle North from the Music Circle real estate company. "We just got around to closing the deal on this property this week and now we're Into choosing an architect and a contractor," Talbot said. "We are probably inclined towards building 1 0,000 square feet, something that will give the CMA not only its present needs, but whatever its future needs might be." Talbot estimated cost for the new headquarters' land and coastruction at about $1.2 millioa The CMA will initially occupy at least 50 of the space and will lease out the remaining space until it's needed, officials said.

"The reason that we've never pursued this before is that we never felt like we occupied quite enough space to justify having our own building," Talbot said, adding that his committee has spent about six months planning the move. "We're all very pleased with the location. We were very intent on staying in this immediate area in what we all think of as Music Row. This is sort of like a small town out here." Initial financing for the project will come from the Fan Fair Joint Venture fund money set aside for the joint presentation of the summer Fan Fair convention by Opryland and the CMA. Use of those funds required approval from top Opryland officials, Talbot said.

"Depending on how well we come to agreements on an architect, I Turn to PAGE 7E, Column 1 1 Robert K. Oermann REVIEW suspended surfboard over the crowd's heads. But forsheer joyous, uninhibited rock 'n' roll pleasure, the night was Poison's. They were a rousing, quadruple treat Lead guitarist CC DeVille was a blister-finger banshee. Bassist Bobby Dall sported more attitude than any 10 of his competitors in the rock pantheoa Drummer Rikkl Rockett could spout liquids as high as Old Faithful and was a dynamo of rhythm.

Lead singer Bret Michaels was infectious and endearing. The rugged, nonstop touring these four have done during the past two years has paid off in one of the finest hard rock presentations on the road today. They had plenty of flash, trash and sass, plus the tunes to back it all up. Simply put, Poison was a blast The audience was sprinkled with many of Nashville's own rockers members of Government Cheese and Hocus Pocus mingled with David Lee Murphy, Robert Jetton, Wayne Knox and Marshall Chapman. Time to slow down Pwi Mi B.W.

Beachboard is a pharmacist. He's near-ing 70. The drug store where he has worked for the last few years. Neely's Granny White Pharmacy, is about to close. He was inter" viewed by Max York.

This corner has a long history as a drug store. It must go back at least to 1929. There have been a bunch of fellows working here. I can remember several of them. It's been a good going operation.

I retired at Tuscu-lum Pharmacy after 30 years and came here. "Diamond Dave" gave up a few jewels in his rock crown to some young pretenders to the throne last night David Lee Roth, the fun-loving gon-zo of hard rock, was all karate moves, showmanship and swagger at Municipal Auditorium. But opening act Poison had youth, spirit and songs on its side. Roth relied a lot on posing and tricks to pump up the 9,000 fans in attendance. Poison relied on nothing more than rock, rock, rock.

The headliner said, "I'm not In the mood for I'm in the mood for then bellowed through fairly mechanical renditions of favorites from his three hit LPs, Including the new and enthusiastically received Just Like Paradise. He did high kicks, executed several studied martial arts moves, twirled a giant baton and waved scarfs. But Roth's demonic lead guitarist Steve Vai had the greatest new stage move of the night He crawled across the stage pushingplaying his guitar in front of him, slithered on top of It and humped it then picked it up and played it with his tongue. Not to be outdone, Roth came sliding back onto the stage down a 50-foot rope from the rafters. He also rode a I've been a pharmacist for 48 years.

This is a family neighborhood. There are no slums in this area. It's an above average neighborhood. It's been mighty nice working here. I enjoyed It.

However, I've had some health problems. I lost an eye. It's time to slow down. Back in World War II, I went Into the service with a pharmacist license. Every time they would open a new hospital, they would move me there to start a pharmacy.

They were suppose to have civilian pharmacists operating them, but they could never find a civilian pharmacist available. That left it to me. Burl Ives' new movie, page 7E..