The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 170

10K Sunday. Aug. 17. 19S0 Philadelphia Inquirer A Kirk Douglas son beats the odds You'll eat it up! We've added a new treat to Triple Bingo. Now you can win big bucks and burgers, too.

mimimm the house and thought nothing of it. Gregory Peck visited a lot. Didn't Greg visit By the time Peter graduated from high school, he knew who his father was and began searching for himself. He studied photography for a year at a Los Angeles art center and before he was 20 was shooting layouts for magazines like Playboy and Cosmopolitan and was free-lancing for some high-paying advertising agencies. You probably have seen at least one of his shots: the familiar poster of Olympic swimmer Mark Spitz, his seven gold medals hanging from his neck.

Douglas also went to college for a year and then dropped out to concentrate on getting into film work. He said his father felt strongly about a college education and even though he worked for his father's production company, Bryna Company, they did not talk to each other much until they started working together on The Final Countdown. "There was just a break in our communications. Our peer or friend relationship developed when he realized that, hey, maybe I knew more in a couple of areas than he did. "You reach a point where it's not necessary to surpass (your father) and reaching that frame of mind is the only time you can achieve something for yourself.

You become content with what you finally do receive because you're not in competition. "Competition can be a very deadly and masochistic thing in this business. Especially with your own family." Especially with Kirk Douglas. DOUGLAS, from I only, "If I get 'em, will you do the picture?" Peter says that is not what happened. "The film project started without him being involved and without my wanting him to be involved.

As I look back, my reasons were selfish and impractical ones. It's difficult enough to claim your individuality in these circumstances without doing your first picture with him in it. Finally, I came around and didn't see it as a threat. "What happened was after Martin Sheen and Katharine Ross were set and we were trying to cast the role of the captain, my father's name came up. We needed an actor to play the commanding officer of the world's most powerful nuclear aircraft carrier, a captain in absolute command.

Who do you get? Kirk Douglas is a pretty natural thought. "I'm not defending the decision by saying he's the only one for the role, but I do feel, as 1 look back on it, it was almost too perfect and that's why I fought it." Getting a star the magnitude of his father was one coup for the young producer but not the biggest one. Dozens of film people had tried to wrest the giant Nimitz away from the Navy but with no success. Finally, victory It was a combination of youthful innocence, persistence and a good reading of military economics that eventually brought the ship to Peter. He said he had read the script for The Final Countdown several years ago but not until he realized that the Navy might benefit from it as much as he did he think he could get the use of an actual carrier.

(The movie is the story of a modern-day aircraft carrier going through a time warp to face the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.) cameras caught nearly every nook and cranny of its vastness. It is the most elaborate movie set a producer could want, and Douglas said he did not so much as hang a painting on a wall to change it. "The authenticity we needed to make the movie work was right there on the carrier," he said. "We just had to figure out how to use it." The Final Countdown opened strongly, earning more than $3 million in three days. If that continues, Douglas' career as a producer will be off to a very good start.

This movie alone, though, will not bring him out from his father's shadow. Ironically, credit for whatever success the film enjoys is more likely to go to its veteran 64-year-old star than to its freshman 24-year-old producer. Peter is the second of Kirk Douglas' four sons to face his identity crisis in full view of the motion picture industry. His older brother, Michael, went through it for a few years before establishing himself first as a television actor of San then as a successful film producer (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The China Syndrome). "It was a big advantage for me to have a brother who is quite successful who went through all that before me," Douglas said.

"The most important thing I've learned is that once you're out there, you're out there on your own. Even though your father may have been a big help introducing you to people and even though you've had an advantage being able to learn from your family, somehow it all balances out and you're somewhat on a par with everybody in this business." Peter was born at the peak of his father's career, when Kirk was in the midst of a string of box-office hits that included Spartacus, lust jor Life and Paths Glory. Peter said he grew up with famous people around TONIGHT'S PROGRAM ARMSTRONG AND ASTAIRE Thousands of FREE burgers at 88. Get your three Bingo cards and BURGER KING entry coupon in TV WEEK magazine. it it it SATCHMO 8:05 EVENING AT POPS "THI MILLS BROTHIRS" 10:25 FRED ASTAIRE: Every Sunday in (Bdt mttmr CHANGE PARTNERS AND DANCE 11:25 THREE LITTLE WORDS WITH ASTAIRE AND SKELTOM TUMI IN TONIGHT a member station pptO your day.

"I had seen a lot of articles about the Navy taking a beating in budget hearings and that the carrier program in particular was taking some major cuts. That made me think there might be a chance to get a carrier. "I just started with the telephone book. I got in touch with someone in the Office of Naval Information and said, 'Hi, I want to make a film on an aircraft carrier." It took about a year and a half to get to the Pentagon, but finally I was able to get it." At first, though, he was told that the Nimitz, the world's largest carrier, was not available and that he would have to use the Kitty Hawk. Then came some beginner's luck.

"The Kitty Hawk became unavailable when Vietnamese forces attacked Cambodia in 1978," he said. "By sheer coincidence, the next carrier available was the Nimitz. I got a call from the Navy information officer one day and he said, 'You wanted the Nimitz. Do you still want the Nimitz? You've got the Without Kirk Douglas, the picture might have been as good. Without the Nimitz, it would not have been.

The ship is the star of the show: a huge, complex, overwhelming monster that stands 30 stories high, five football fields long and nearly the width of a foot ball field. It has a flight deck surface of more than four acres, carries 6,000 personnel and 10 squadrons of the most sophisticated fighter aircraft in the world. The movie crew spent about seven weeks aboard the carrier, and its New albums Eddie Money, "Playing for Keeps" (Columbia): Money's third album maintains his position as one of the best of the new rock singers. He has a strong, virile approach that is perhaps a bit too close to Bob Seger for comfort, but this is of little concern as long as the material stands up. And.

for the most part, it does. "Trinidad," an appealing rock ballad, is among the best numbers. A pleasant reggae touch enhances "Running Back." "Let's Be Lovers Again" is an tune on which Money duets with Valerie Carter. And, of course, there are a couple of straight-on rockers, such as "Nobody Knows" and "The Wish." Holly Penfield, "Full Grown Child" (Dreamland): Here is a newcomer to the rock singer-songwriter ranks with plenty of promise. While this album is uneven in quality, there are more than a few appealing moments.

Among them is a powerful song called "Eyes Behind Your Eyes" and an infectious, upbeat song called "Flamingo." "Please Don't Bang on That Piano" is also an appealing rocker. John Klemmer, "Magnificent Madness" (Elektra): This is one of those rare albums a blend of first-rate jazz musicianship and calculated commercial appeal that works. Klemmer is among the best of the young tenor sax players and he has surrounded himself with an impressive delegation of support musicians. Quite appealing are two numbers that feature guest vocalist Danny O'Keefe "We Couldn't Start Over" and "Lifesong." Among the instrumental highlights are "Deja Vu" and "Adventures In Paradise." An Echoplex and other electronic devices are used sparingly by Klemmer, adding to the appeal. Susan Jacks, "Ghosts" (Epic): Miss Jacks is a Canadian vocalist who is best known for her work a few years ago with a group called the Poppy Family.

On this solo album, she offers a thin, but appealing voice. Generally, though, the material falls into the bland ranks, including several by Terry Jacks, who also produced the sessions. Among the standard material included here is "Elusive Butterfly," which is one of those tedious songs that refuses to die in spite of its banality. Rating: 1 star, average; 4 stars, top awfSl.