The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 34

s. 6-C Friday, Aug. 16, 1991 The Philadelphia Inquirer Even Alexander Graham Bell couldn't beat this system What if it was the year 1876, and the present phone rules of Judge Harold Greene, who is is charge of breaking up the phone company, were in effect? This is what might have happened. Alexander Graham Bell is in his laboratory and speaks into a strange instrument. "Watson, come here.

I want you." Watson enters from an adjoining room. Bell, pleased as punch, says, "Watson, I have just invented the telephone. With a little fine-tuning, we will change the world. Take this phone wire and string it from here to there." Watson replies, "I cant If this is a the wire to the phone?" "According to Judge Harold Greene, only a Baby Bell telephone company can do that As I understand it, is in charge of putting In a dial tone, and GTE makes sure your phone lights up when you lift the receiver off the hook. Sprint will sell you the busy signal, and UPS is the only one allowed to leave the Yellow Pages at your door." "Watson, this is ridiculous.

We're on the verge of one of the greatest communication breakthroughs in history. All I need is two more feet of copper wire." "They don't stock wire in this part of the country anymore. Only Den ver has the authority to issue copper wire." "Why Denver?" "Judge Greene was trying to prevent the phone company from becoming a monopoly, so he routed all spare-parts requests through the Rocky Mountains. There is only one exception. If you want wire that will put someone on hold, you can get a court order to buy it from a Radio Shack in Seattle," "Well never get copper wire In two weeks." "Greene says that is not his problem.

His job is to prevent the telephone from being controlled by one company. That's why he ordered an MCI pay booth placed in everyone's kitchen." "Watson, I don't like monopolies any more than Judge Greene does. But if I don't get supplies, people will still be using two soup cans and a wax wire to reach out and touch someone." "Mr. Bell, you have done a wonder ful thing, but you are also creating problems. Once your system is activated, people will have to decide what kind of phone to buy.

Ordinarily, they would have to lease Western Electric equipment. But Judge Greene insists that the public can now purchase any phone it wants to, even if It's produced in North Korea and made with used soybean fuses. ByARTBUCHWALD "I don't want people to think the thing I invented is a piece of junjf "They won't if you make them purchase a service contract at the same time." "Why would anyone need a service? contract on a new phone "It's the law. If you damage the1 inside of a Mickey Mouse phone tht has been previously sealed by an. technician in a Western time zone, Greene could sentence you to 15 years in prison." "That doesn't bother me.

If I invent the telephone, at least I'll he, entitled to one free call" telephone and I'm going to have to take your word for it Judge Greene says 1 can only string incoming wires that go from there to here." "Well, then, who can I get to attach Bravo booed fori editing -i Flyers get new pact, for TV 1 niii.iTTTT.niiti.iniiiiiiiiuiw.ininML iinii HiW Miimrnniwnni-niinn tnn m.i. mimummmniltumsmimmm! it Subscribers to Bravo, the trv $rr? i fei r.u- Ml mm 'it "Awls Wjf K-y wit? VrJ rtl Spcil to Tlw Inquiw TOM MIHALEK Crest Pier, a recent addition to Wildwood Crest, houses shops and a recreation center that serves as a day camp. Wildwood Crest hopes to annex Diamond Beach Wildwood Crest welcomes visitors and spends $300,000 a year to keep its beaches clean for them. And there is no beach fee. Wildwood Crest JERSEY City 'Avalon vr 'f9 wiiowooa May-3 mm Located in Cape May County, just south of Wildwood.

Year-round population: 4,000. Summer population: 250,000. Incorporated: 1910. "You can't buy alcohol anywhere in town. In fact, you're not even supposed to drink within the borough limits." There are bars, however, in Diamond Beach.

I pess that would complicate the annexation issue," Gould said, "as if it wasnt complicated enough. WILDWOOD CREST, from 1-C of upscale homes and condominiums and a lot of marshland. "I know the people who live in Diamond Beach would favor it," she said. "It would mean lower taxes for them." Lower Township's real estate tax rate, she said, is almost double that of Wildwood Crest "Sooner or later, there will be a referendum on the issue," she said, "but it will probably be later than sooner. There are a lot of complicated legal issues to be worked out." Wildwood Crest considers itself a cut above its neighbor to the north, and its sense of self-esteem is reflected in the borough's motto: The crown jewel of the New Jersey shore.

It has a lower tax rate and a smaller commercial establishment than Wildwood, and life proceeds at a calmer pace, Gould said. "And we do things differently," she said. For example, instead of one of those ubiquitous "no-no" signs forbidding everything from ball playing to loud talking on New Jersey beaches. hannel snecializine in independent and foreign films, are getting a twist' they may not have bargained fori; movie scenes that are bleeped, blurred or Just not there. The altered scenes all involve set; and obscene language, said the American Civil Liberties which announced this week that jr has asked Bravo to stop a practice the ACLU calls censorship.

"The work of art is mutilated," Mid; Marjorie Heins, director of the ACLU's Arts Censorship Project' "The work cannot be seen with; the. integrity it's meant to have." Cable channels have looser restrictions on content than broadcast channels, Heins said. But Bravo," which is still a premium channel In' some areas, has become a basic channel in many other areas. In an Aug. 5 letter to Bravo president Joshua Sa-pan, Heins expressed concern that the transformation has caused the new, more restrictive editing Sapan was out of town and could-not be reached for comment, a Bravo spokeswoman said Wednesday.

But in a one-paragraph statement re leased from Bravo's Woodbury, headquarters, the cable channel' (Jt; fended the editing of "a select nunv ber" of films to protect children who' might flip the dial: "With 96 percent of our viewers receiving the net; work as a basic service, available to all members of the household, I'l Bravo believes that some editing; is appropriate. Bravo's editing is fti-" cused on scenes that we believe are difficult for children such as portrayals of excessive violence or violent sex." The total number of films affected is not known, but the spokeswoman said the channel edited "less than percent" of the movies shown. While' Bravo has no formal standards policy, it began examining movies on' a' case-by-case basis for nudity, sex, vkv lence and language about two years' ago, when it started to become basic service, she said. Earlier this summer, a Washington viewer noticed that some of his vorite films, which had previously aired intact on Bravo, were rebroad-cast with scenes cut out "I didnt think anything of it, but it kept get' ting worse and worse," said Marcel-lus Rux, a 38-year-old postal worker: After seeing "10 or 15" altered films in the course of two months, Rux; who receives Bravo as a basic serv ice, contacted the ACLU. The films aired with no advisory that they had been edited, Rux said.

"At the very least, viewers ought to be made aware that the films br64fP cast on Bravo are expurgated," Heins said in her letter to Sapan. has Mr. Hoover, and that he, Presley, considers the Director the 'greatest living He also spoke most favorably of the Bureau." The memo continued: "Presley fit dicated that he is of the opinion that the Beatles laid the groundwork for many of the problems we are having1 with young people by their filthy unkempt appearances and suggestive music while entertaining in this country during the early and middle 60s. He advised that the Smothers Brothers, Jane Fonda and other persons of their ilk have a lot to answer for in the hereafter for the way they have poisoned young minds by disparaging the United States in their public statements and unsavory activities." Presley also "noted that he caff be contacted anytime through his Memphis address such correspondence should be addressed to him under the pseudonym Colonel Jon Burrows." Does Helen Near, the gatekeepef to this scintillating stuff, subscribe to the faked-death theory? Does she believe ELVIS IS ALIVE? "No, no, no, no," she said calmly the other day. "A lot of people do a lot of dreaming." WFLN Highlights: Concerto No.

Smetana, 77m Bartend Brida Overture; Schubert. Tragic WFLN Highlight Saint-Saens. Piiho Concerto No. 2. WFLN Ustenar Requests TALK IHOWa WWDB Paul W.

Smith 10-Noon; 3-4 WHYY Radio Tunas WBUX (1570) Ralph CeSar 1- 4 WHAT Debra Anderson 2- 5:30 WWDB fc-v Homer 4-6; 7-6 WHYY Fresh Air Terry Gross. 4-7 WHAT Cody Anderson 6- 7 WDAS (1480) Thars Martin 7-8 WXPK (88.BI Kid Corner 7-9 WRTI (90,1) Catharsis 10-1 WWDB Murray Naedtema WWDB David Coleman THE FLYERS, from i-C putting their season-opener on pay-per-view cable, probably for $9.95. Baseball fans howled in protest, and the proposal was dropped. Flyers fans weren't so lucky. Despite the decreasing number of games to be shown on his station throughout the life of the Flyers' contract, Steve Mosko, vice president and station manager at Channel 17, said the agreement was profitable and unique because the broadcast and cable channels and the team would share in selling advertising.

Mosko said that advertisers would be offered spots on both Channel 17 and PrismSportsChannel, plus inclusion in the merchandising and f' romotions offered by the Flyers, he Flyers own the advertising time for both Prism and SportsChannel. "If advertisers) want to associate themselves with the Flyers, we can give them everything all in one deal," Mosko said. "This is precedent-setting in Philadelphia." Ron Ryan, the Flyers' executive vice president, said he expected many sports teams to adopt similar relationships with television stations because of the increasing expense of acquiring advertisers. "A number of these Ipreviousl deals are turning out to be losers for the television stations," Ryan said. Financial terms of the Flyers-WPHL agreement were not released.

Prism officials were unavailable for comment. As for what will happen when the new Flyers contract expires, both Mosko and Ryan said that the reaction of the viewers and the marketplace would determine how many games remain on free TV. Ryan said some games will most likely remain on free TV. "It will be dire circumstances that will lead us to take all our road games off of over-the-air television," he said. "But you never can say never." Ryan said the Flyers were bucking the trend toward cable as they continue to show games on free TV.

"From a philosophy point of view, Jay and Ed Snider the Flyers' president and owner! both feel strongly that we want to keep a substantial number of games on over-the-air television," Ryan said. "We have had the opportunity to go all-cable in the past, and we had it again. But we don't want to go in that direction. Economically, it would be the easiest path for us to take. "We like the exposure of broadcast TV.

We like the wide markets that we can reach with over-the-air TV," Ryan said. "Looking at it from a purely! economic standpoint, it would be hard to make the decision we made." The FBI's ELVIS FILE, from 1-C requested subjects on file in the reading room hotter than all 221,999 pages on the Kennedy assassination, the 39,237 pages on the death of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King hotter still than Liberace (382) or Lucille Ball (46) or Al Capone (2,397) or Janice Joplin (1). "Elvis had many fans," said Near.

And "they'll want to get anything they can get that relates to Elvis. A lot of these are for gifts." But not all. Some want the file because they believe ELVIS IS ALIVE. The dossier is the springboard of their theory that the FBI staged his death to protect him from a gang of international swindlers and stashed him safely in the federal witness-protection program. Maybe in Wisconsin.

The file holds hundreds of pages about a scam in which Elvis and his father, Vernon, were swindled out of at least $400,000 by a group of con men headed by a native Philadel-phian named Frederick Peter Pro. The 1977 flimflam involved the refinancing and overhaul of Elvis' Lockheed Jetstar. Pro and his fellow cons took the money, and split The hustlers, according to the file, were part of a much larger smuggling ring known as the Fraternity, which was being investigated by the FBI under the name Operation Fountain Pen. VS. Attorneys in Memphis were prepared to seek indictments from a grand Jury on Aug.

15, 1977 the day before Elvis died (oops, allegedly died). Five men were, indeed, indicted that fall and were eventually tried and convicted. So much for the facts. On to the speculation. And that's been fueled as much by what's missing from the file as what's there.

Hundreds of pages remain classified. The reason? In some cases, national defense and foreign policy. (What are they hiding? ELVIS IS ALIVE?) hn ft i i A Mm. sk Elvis file is proof, some believe, that the King lives-- There are now 350 yards of sand between Ocean Avenue and the Atlantic Ocean. A 100-yard-long "fishing pier" at the north end of town is no longer used by fishermen because it no longer extends into the water.

In fact, Gould said she wanted to create at least one more street east of Ocean Avenue. "Well call it Beach Drive," she said. Then, we might even put in another east of that one." There are tentative plans to carve out a bike path through the At the north end of town is Crest Pier, a large building that serves as a recreation center and day camp for children living in Wildwood Crest The building contains a huge gymnasium, offices and play areas. "It's really a great asset to the borough," Gould said. "We use it all year-round for many kinds of activities and meetings." There are a number of restaurants on the bay side of Wildwood Crest; among the largest are Duffy's and Duffinetti's, but no liquor is sold in any of them.

it. 'To this day I have not seen an Elvis movie," says Giorgio. "When he died," says Dionne, "I was 17 and listening to 'Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd. I don't know what colors his costumes were." The official keepers of the flame, the folks who operate Graceland and oversee the business affairs of Elvis estate, dismiss such conspiracy theories as an annoyance. "We've not even read the FBI file," said Todd Morgan, director of communications at Graceland.

"We're too busy for all that foolishness." Still, Morgan said that after this week's festivities what Elvis groupies call "Death Week" he might order a copy. Hell find that the Elvis file, while hardly as entertaining as JaUhouse Rock, does hold some Juicy nuggets, such as several letters from a South African homosexual dermatologist who propositioned Elvis' inner circle back in 1959, when Presley was stationed in the Army in Germany. The FBI also had to investigate assorted death and extortion threats mostly the ho-hum crackpot variety. The file dates to 1956 and the Eisenhower Administration. Because Hoover insisted that all correspondence received by the bureau be kept on file, and because letters started coming in about the Pelvis, the FBI started the dossier.

One of the earliest letters came from a La Crosse, man (whose name has been blacked out) warning Hoover that Elvis is "a definite danger to the security of the United States." He informed Hoover that Elvis had autographed "the abdomen and thigh" oftwo high school girls, and that Elvis fan clubs "degenerate into sex orgies." He said Elvis was both a drug addict and sexual pen vert Hoover thanked the man for his letter but told him "the matter is not within the investigative Jurisdiction jtY drVi Jm.jtto Wildwood Crest's sign gives a cheery welcome and asks visitors to leave behind "only your footprints." The borough charges no beach fees and spends $300,000 a year to keep its beaches clean, using not only machines but young people, who are hired to walk the beach every morning collecting litter. "Our beaches are huge," she said, "and that is a distinctly mixed blessing. Nature is giving us seven to 10 feet of new beach every year." Tlw PMuMptw bqurer AKIRA SUWA February 1977 show in Florida. the key witness in the FBI's case against the Fraternity. These men, who Dionne says had connections as mighty as the Gambino mob family and even Manuel Noriega, wanted Elvis dead.

So to save the King, the FBI "killed" him. Many of the Elvis file documents, dated after Aug. 16, 1977, bear scrawled notes that handwriting analysts say were penned by Elvis himself. Giorgio even contends that Elvis offered subtle hints that his death would be staged. During his last concert tour, she says, he changed the lyrics to his song, "Way Down," as follows: "My body's going to be found on the bathroom floor and I'm going to places I've never been before." Both Giorgio and Dionne eschew the label of Elvis fanatic.

Their mission, they say, is about the pursuit of the truth not an inability to accept lMMIMttwMK mm Mi V-- i LL of the FBI." The bureau also collected newspaper articles, including one reporting that 1,500 bobbysoxers had threatened to riot in New York when Elvis failed to show up for the debut of Love Me Tender at the Paramount Theater in November 1965. An Associated Press story- from Louisville that month announced "Elvis Faces Wiggle Ban," and reported that the local police chief, on the eve of a concert, banned "any lewd, lascivious contortions that would excite a crowd." Even though Hoover snubbed Elvis when he made his New Year's Eve visit in 1970, the King still got "a very special tour" of the FBI building. According to another memo written four days after the visit, Elvis "offered to be of assistance to Hoover on a confidential basis should there ever be a need of his services." In addition, noted the FBI aide, one MA Jones, "Presley indicated that he has read material prepared by the Director including Masters of Deceit, A Study of Communism as well as J. Edgar Hoover on Communism. Presley noted that in his opinion no one has ever done as much for his country as Radio highlights 7:30 a.m.

Mary Mason Mayor Goode, WHAT-AM (1340). Noow Susan Bray Staphan Stlbarstatn, director of th Comprehensive Headache Center and chief of Neurology at Germantown Hospital: Astrologer AdZa MtXXe. WWDB-fM (9.B). Noon Com Island Sttwyta Wng Faatlval Another in a series recorded at Louisville, Ky last year, WMYY-fM (90.9). 11 p.m.

Larry King Topic Possibilities that Ronald Reagan's campaign staff delayed release of American hostages in Iran in 1980, WtP-AM (61QO. CLASSICAL MUSIC 11 -Moon WTLN (98.7) Khachaturian. Piano Concerto. Elvis, overweight but adored, after The main proponent of this staged-death theory is Gail Brewer Giorgio, a 1958 graduate of Norristown High School author of the best-selling Is Elvis Alive? and a woman who says, flatly, "Elvis didn't die on Aug. 16, 1977.

Absolutely not." The sheep, the followers, the unquestioning will tell you he did in his bathroom at Graceland. But, says Giorgio, that was a wax dummy in his open coffin. Those beads of liquid that the masses saw on his forehead as they paraded by were melting wax. "Dead people don't sweat" Her primary axonspiracy-theorist is 31-year-old Canadian Luc in Cool Hand Dionne, who has also reviewed 30,000 pages of transcript from the trial of these swindlers and is writing his own book, to be titled The Elvis Presley Conspiracy: Operation Fountain Pen. He contends that Elvis had become A Ai Wi.fej4 aV feVAlii.eWkaifonitffol iW V.JWffr, fliiiiPi irfcnfci ai torn Hm tk jfrTfc.lttPfh lt fc-aHwam.

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