St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 75

SECTION Jan. 24,1986 "STLDUTs" POST-DISPATCH Jerry Bergor (I UndDCIDlUJll rf- rtvr Closing Didn't Suit Garavelli's Tavern ODir (B Bud Yorkin, director, producer and distributor of "Twice in a Lifetime." LAWSUIT: Famous Tavern which operated Garavelli's Famous Tavern on Sixth Street, has filed suit in St. Louis Circuit Court seeking more than $16 million in damages from the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. The petition was filed Thursday by attorney Eugene Portman. In it, Byron Tompras, president of Famous Tavern alleges that Metropolitan notified Garavelli's to vacate the premises within 14 days because Metropolitan was ready to demolish the building in preparation for construction of the Metropolitan Square building between Broadway, Olive, Sixth and Pine streets.

The petition also alleges that when Garavelli's received notice, Metropolitan was eight months away from getting permission from the city of St. Louis to proceed with construction, and that Metropolitan's action was vindictive, causing Famous Tavern to close its doors more than a year before necessary. The notice was given Garavelli's on Nov. 2, 1984. The building was demolished shortly thereafter.

Construction on Metropolitan Square began last month. EYES ON CAMPUS: The crowd listening to Gloria Stelnem earlier this week at Graham Chapel at Washington University contained a lot more than stu- i dents. Among the feminists spotted in the audience were social doyenne Mary Lee Hermann, college administrator Betty Van Uum, St. Louis County Associate Circuit Judge Susan Block and Leadership St. Louis director Carolyn Losos.

BACKTRACK: Thursday's list of retail tenants planning future homes at the St. Louis Galleria given us by a reliable insider contained one too many names. A spokeswoman for the Scandia Down Shop in West County Center pointed out that the parent company of her franchise, Scandia Down Corp. of Seattle, had placed an ad seeking a franchisee for the Galleria. The ad as well as plans for a facility there were withdrawn when she reminded the parent company of her exclusive rights toour town.

RETAILING, "We're moving along cha-cha-cha at Plaza Frontenac by using the construction firm of Cucchi for the expansion and facelift of Gucci!" mused Mary Lou Hess, general manager of the West County complex Saul Brodsky's development, Le Chateau Center at 10405 Clayton Road, is buzzing with excitement over plans to replace a house on Clayton Road with a fashion complex. After he toured the renovated elegance of the Provinces dining room at his Breckenridge Inn-Frontenac, Brodsky waxed on about the 60th reunion of his 1926 graduating class from Soldan High School (May 1 8 at the hotel) FROM THE THRONE: The Missouri Athletic Club (you know, where attendants on the adjoining leased parking lot were pumping unleaded gasoline for $1.65 a gallon on Thursday) was the scene of a board meeting the other night where the topic was the removal of E. Cooper Williams as manager. The move to unseat Williams led by board president Tom Holling was for the moment thwarted, according to an insider; action was postponed for 90 days. This was the second attempt to remove Williams, manager for the last eight years.

In the meantime, the board decided to form a' committee to provide a job description "for his use." By press time, Williams hadn't returned phone calls. HIGH THE MIGHTY: If you're looking for County Executive Gene Mc-' Nary, Cardinals baseball honcho Joe Cunningham, politico and restaurateur J. Kim Tucci or Hall of Famer Bob Gibson, you'll find all of them next week at Randy Hundley's Fantasy Baseball Camp in Mesa, Ariz. They are expected to join in a few games with former major-leaguers At a meeting the other night VP Fair officials decided to explore booking pilot Bob Hoover to replace the late Art Scholl in the sky show during the 1986 riverfront extravaganza. Hoover has been described as a backup pilot for Chuck Yeager.

At the conclave, James McDonnell III was anointed chairman for the fair, while Clarence Barksdale became chairman of the VP Fair Foundation and Bill Maritz vice chairman BERGER BITS: Thirty-five gallery TNi I. -H Above, Gene Hackman as Harry McKenzie falls in love with Ann-Margaret, who plays Audrey in "Twice in a Lifetime." At left, McKenzie enjoys a 50th birthday celebration with his family. Director Bud Yorkin of TV fame takes a once-in-a-lifetime chance on a movie By Joe Pollack Of the Post-Dispatch Staff ONCE YOU make a miracle, even a small one, maybe subsequent ones become easier, or perhaps there's a snowballing effect. Bud Yorkin is an old hand at television miracles, but now he's in the big leagues, on the large and he's still working on them. He's accomplished one so far, but It was just a warm-up in terms of what he's attempting now.

Raising money to make a movie hardly qualifies, not if you have the collateral that Yorkin has. Shooting for 46 days in Seattle without losing a single one to rain is worthy of listing. But distributing "Twice in a Lifetime" all by himself? Without a major film company involved? Some call it foolhardy (George C. Scott flopped in his attempt with "The Savage Is some term it courageous, some think it's a better definition of "chutzpah" than the one I've always used a child who murders his parents and then throws himself on the mercy of the court as an orphan. But so far, Yorkin is making it work, perhaps because he has a very good movie to sell.

He opened it in New York in late October, received excellent notices and has been doing first-rate business, even through the holiday season and its competition. It's a story of a 30-year marriage that goes on the rocks when steelworker Gene Hackman leaves Ellen Burstyn for Ann-Margret, and it deals with their reactions, plus those of their children (Darrell Larsen, Amy Madigan and Ally Sheedy) and friends. It's a painful subject, but the film views it with considerable sympathy, without pandering to emotions or trying to choose villains or heroes. "I'm proud of the movie," he said during a recent visit to St. Louis.

"It's the kind of film where everyone will identify with On one level, it's probably sad that so many people are touched, one way or another, with the kind of family trauma, perhaps leading to divorce, that we have. But on another, which probably is more realistic, there should be identification." He paused, ran his hand through close-cropped silver-gray hair, and continued, "Let me tell you a story. I showed it at a film weekend outside New York, and I was there to talk about it and answer questions. "A woman got up, identified herself as a psychologist, and pointed out how she identified with the Ellen Burstyn character as the main one in the film. Then a man got up, and admftted he wasn't a psychologist, but that he thought the woman was wrong, that Gene Hackman was the important figure.

And later on, someone younger got up, said they both were wrong, that it was a picture about the children." Yorkin, whose real first name is the rarely used Alan, was a household name in the 1970s, at least in those houses that have television sets. He and his partner, Norman Lear, were responsible for "All in the Family," "Sanford Son," "Maude," "Archie Bunker's Place" and a host of other situation comedies, many of which changed the style of television. "All in the Family," by the way, helped YU if (f Yorkin established his own production company in 1974 and continued to dabble In television and film as a producer, but this is the first time he has taken sole responsibility as producer-director, not to mention the distribution chores. "And that's everything," he added with a smile. "I also designed the ads and supervised the trailers.

It's really a full-control situation. "But from the time I first saw the script, this is a movie I wanted to make. I'm tired of so much of the stuff that's being produced today, sequels and violence and the like. So when Colin Welland sent me the script, and I saw a story that was sensitive, and mature, and still had wide appeal but that none of the big studios wanted I thought I'd go for it." Welland, who wrote "Chariots of Fire," originally set the film in Manchester, England, a logical choice for an English author. But Yorkin moved the locale to this country, first thinking in terms of western Pennsylvania, where he grew up, and then deciding on Seattle.

"I wanted that kind of cloudy, gloomy look," he explained, "and I wanted an area where there was heavy industry, because Gene Hackman should be a blue collar worker. But western Pennsylvania had been used for 'The Deer and more recently for 'Maria's and for other films. "Seattle turned out to be a perfect choice, because there were steel mills for him to work in, and sports teams for him to identi- See YORKIN, Page 3 tion," both in front of and behind the camera. Variety shows were big in the '50s, and Yorkin was involved with "The Colgate Comedy Hour" and those that had as hosts George Gobel, Dinah Shore and Tony Martin, among others. "An Evening With Fred Astaire" earned him three Emmy Awards in 1958, and he won another for a Jack Benny special.

He met Lear during the toothpaste days, and the team was a tremendous success at creating, packaging, producing and directing a wide variety of shows. They branched into films in the 1960s with successful adaptions of hit Broadway plays, "Come Blow Your Horn" and "Never Too Late," produced by Lear and directed by Yorkin. And all this before the sitcom successes of the 1970s. Yorkin gain the $7.5 million he needed for "Twice in a Lifetime." He put up its original negatives as collateral. "They were great times and I did very well," Yorkin said of that television period.

"But I suddenly realized one day that I was eight years older and I hadn't seen my children." Yorkin, who shares a birthday with George Washington, will be 60 when our first president turns 254 next month. After graduating from Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie-Mellon), and serving in the Navy, he moved to New York and went into television, first as an engineer, then a stage manager, then a director. Like Sid Caesar, Sterling Silliphant, Rod Serling, Ernie Kovacs, Neil Simon, Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner and dozens of others, he was part of the first "television genera owners have banded together to form the Bill McClellan St. Louis Gallery Asso- ciation to educate the public about the visual arts here. The organization is headed by Libby Reuter of the Bixbv Gallery at 1 Washington Universi Death's Quick Visit At Cabanne Courts ty, Nancy Margulles of Craft Alliance, Polly Willard of Grae Gallery at Forest Park Libby Reuter Wednesday night it was not an emotional scene.

The cousin identified the body. Gregory Lewis. Massey and his detectives ran the name in the police computer. Several arrests showed up. A narcotics arrest a robbery, a couple of peace disturbances, a couple of resisting arrest charges.

Two birthdates showed up. Lewis was either 18 or 19. The computer gave an address in Normandy. Massey studied the print-out The narcotics arrest might mean that Lewis was at Cabanne Courts for some kind of a drug deal. Then again, the peace disturbance charges might mean that Lewis was in the habit of drinking too much and getting in fights.

Maybe he was there to visit a friend, and got in a fight There are a lot of scenarios for a murder at a place like the Cabanne Courts. "Well, we'll be on this tomorrow," Massey said. He seemed fairly optimistic. "I'm not saying somebody is going to just come forward openly, but we'll be talking to everybody. We might clean this up pretty quick." Homicide squad No.

2's shift ended at 11 p.m., but Massey was still at his desk at midnight when I left the station. As a sergeant Massey doesn't get overtime pay, but he wanted to think about the case for a while, while everything was still fresh. marked the scene. The homicide detectives, who work out of the downtown station, renewed acquaintances with the district cops, even as the detectives tried to establish some basic facts. The detectives knocked on doors, inquiring if anybody had heard or seen anything.

Nobody had. Anybody know the young man? A young woman thought she did. She thought his name was Gregory, and she thought he was the cousin of another young man she knew. The young man was at St Mary's Honor Center, something to do with a burglary charge. Lt Ronald Henderson of the 7th District stood just inside the yellow tape.

Whatever happened to the Cabanne Courts? he asked. The city has a contract with a couple of mortuaries to haul bodies to the morgue. Neither of the mortuaries had an available vehicle, so two homicide detectives from Squad 6, Sgt Steve Jacobsmeyer and Joe Beffa, wrapped the body In a sheet and put it inside a police van. The body was taken to the morgue, and the man thought to be the victim's cousin was brought in from the honor center to make the identification. That is sometimes a highly emotional moment The person who makes the identification is taken into the chapel and a curtain is raised.

The body is lying on a table on the other side of the glass. Homicide squad No. 2 was on duty and happened to be in the area. The detectives were looking into another murder, an old case from the fall of last year. A fellow had been beaten to death.

That case was getting stale, so Sgt Warden Massey, who heads squad No. 2, had decided to take a fresh look at it. Talk to everybody again. Maybe something had been overlooked the first time. Then came the call from Cabanne Courts.

So Massey and his two detectives, Jackie Hendricks and Leondus Bates, went to the scene. Homicide squad No. 6 also responded. The young man, who had been stabbed in the chest and was lying in a small pool of blood, had no wallet He was wearing designer Jeans, a dark plaid shirt, a waist-length gray jacket and black slip-on shoes. He looked to be about 20.

An ambulance arrived, but city ambulances don't pick up people who are already dead. The cops appealed to the ambulance crew for a sheet Hey, we ought to at least cover the guy up and the sheet was thrown over the body. Sometimes, especially In neighborhoods where violent death is common, a homicide scene can be almost a festive occasion. This was one of those times. Children and teen-agers laughed and chatted outside the yellow tape that Community College and Elliot Smith of the Elliot Smith Gallery.

The association plans to publish a gallery guide three times a year as well as coordinate gallery walks and educational tours. Sharon Bocklage has been named executive director of the association. Steve Kootman has added makeup stylist and facial consultant Sue Setlich to his staff at Preston Hair Design in Clayton Arthur Neely, "the singing policeman'' who retired from the St Louis Police Department in 1960, will blow out 89 candles on his cake Monday. Before joining St Louis' finest Neely was a headliner in vaudeville, radio and early television. He will be toasted by his wife, the former Mildred Burkhardt, one of the original members of the Missouri Theatre Rockettes.

THERE WAS a time in the early '70s when the Cabanne Courts were going to be something special. Of course, all housing projects start out with the promise of being something special. Nobody builds a housing project and announces, "This will be a slum in a fe5? years, a place to buy drugs, a terrible plate to raise children, an easy place to die." On Wednesday night, at 8:33, a citizen called the police and reported that there was a body lying outside one of the town-houses that make op the Cabanne Courts. A cop from the 7th district responded to the call. He found the body of a young man.

The cop called for a homicide crew, and an ambulance..