Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 19

Minneapolis Star and Tribune oo cn Monday April 21234 dOOD DATE OF 1C. i eoplo 4 5-cop rs rrcsal sates apptit or 9bssl SALE ONLY CX By Bonnie Miller Rubin Staff Writer The public's appetite for personality journalism appears insatiable. Lemon doesn't have to. People can boast figures that are the envy of the industry. The current circulation is 2.6 million, mostly between 18 and 49, the age group most sought after by advertisers.

The success story of People was written in black ink less than a year after its inception; most publications take a minimum of three years to turn a profit. "The editors made astonishingly good choices in 1974," said Lemon, during a stop last week in Minneapolis. "We stilt adhere to most of what they had established." i XX 'H? I Gossip columns in daily newspapers, "Real People" and "Entertainment Tonight" on TV and In-depth profiles in magazines from Fortune to Field Stream feed us private details about public figures. Whaf 8 easy to forget is that the appetite was whetted a mere decade ago by an upstart magazine called People. Whert it had.its debut on March 4,.

1974, with Mia Farrow'on the cover, ft was criticized, ridiculed, trivialized and ultimately imitated. "I don't think of the magazine as dessert, but more like a five-course meal'sakJ Richard Lemon, an associate editor. "We may have a story On the downed Korean jetliner in the same issue as Dolly Parton. Both are interesting and both have a place. I know there was a tendency among the news fraternity to look down at the magazine, but I think you'll find morev and more journalists respect what we've done.

The rest I can't worry Staff Photo by Stormi Greener Richard Lemon, right, editor of People: "I'm used to pho tographic indignities. S. x-rrrtva mr (nN 1 kl -1 1 I I That means a lively mix of movie stars, athletes and royalty, along with -inventors, crusaders and trertd-: setters. "Actually, 57 percent of the -stories are about ooncelebrities, and those are the ones that are the most gratifying to me," Lemon said. "There's a special satisfaction that comes from finding a story as opposed to doing a story well that is very obvious." Yet, it is the obvious stories Dolly.

Cher, Jackie or Brooke that People uses to tantalize readers standing in supermarket checkout lines. With 65 From "The Best of People," start ing at far left: Billy Carter; Diana, Charles and Prince William; James Coco sharing his old pants after he lost 110 pounds, and, below, artistcartoonist Saul Steinberg. Marvin Gay in 1970 Tragedy underscored Gaye's life, but his triumphs were sweet deforce, "Sexual Healing," which earned Gaye his first two Grammy Awards. Last year, he undertook his first tour in many years, visiting nbout 30 U.S. cities, excluding the Twin Cities.

Our last glimpses of Gaye might have been on Grammys, the Motown 25th anniversary TV special or his stunning, highly personal interpretation of the national anthem at last year's NBA All-Star game. Maybe that's the best wayjo remember the handsome, athletic man with the beatific smile who had always wanted to be a pro football player but had to settle for having a couple of football players sing on one of his albums. It was alengihy, free-form version of the anthem his voice' accompanied only by a rhythm -machine. "I thoughts MahaliaJakcson were going to singthe anthem," he said later, "that she would have sung it in a like fashion. America loved Mahalia so I figured they might like my version." Amen.

That man sure could sing. attempted suicide after the breakup of his second marriage by ingestingr more than an ounce of pure cocaine. Now, however, is time to remember -the triumphs, not the tragedies. Gaye perhaps was the most underrated soul singer of the 1960s, asserts the Rolling Stone Record Guide. You could add the 70s and '80s to that; although his contributions in those decades were infrequent, they were important and influential, essential pop-music documents of their time.

He sang about the sensual and the spiritual with the directness of gospel music, the sweetness of soul and the vocal musicianship of a jazz. While Smokey Robinson was the poet of love, Stevie Wonder the child prodigy and the Supremos the well-packaged sweethearts, it was Gaye who brought gospel fervor and energy to the slick Detroit hit-making assembly fine known as Motown Records. The son of a Washington, ND.C, preacher, he essentially defined the synthesis Motown was creating with "Can I Get a Witness," his first smash in 1963. He later became the first Motown artist to write and By Jon Bream Staff Writer Marvin Gaye was Motown's most enigmatic and idiosyncratic figure. And maybe its best and most versatile singer.

He was afraid to go onstage, yet he couldn't be dragged off once he got there. He could make an album of biting commentary on black urban life and then turn around and record the most purely erotic bedroom soundtrack imaginable. He could find salvation from personal tragedy in song. But on the heels of a magnificent musical comeback and six months into a new recording project, he became the victim himself dying Sunday of gunshot wounds. Tragedy was no stranger to Gaye.

His singing partner, Tammi Terrell, died of a brain tumor when the duo was on a rod; Gaye's divorce from his first wife, Anna, the sister of Motown founder Berry Gordy, gave her songwriting royalties and him the inspiration to a two-record LP about the subject; he declared bankruptcy just before the IRS told him he owed $2 million in back taxes, and he produce his own records. grew up singing and playing organ in a Pentecostal church, and later joined the Moonglows, where Berry Gordy discovered him in 1 96 1. The hits came immediately and didn't abate for the rest of the decade: "Pride and Joy," "How Sweet It Is to Be Loved by You," "Ain't That Peculiar" and "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," which topped the charts. Gaye also enjoyed duet hits with Terrett, Mary Wells, Kim Weston and Diana Ross. Terrell's death turned Gaye away from the stage and info more personal vand spiritual musioThe result was 1971 's "What's Going On," the first time a major black artist had devoted an entire album to addressing social issues.

Two years later, he followed with another concept ftlbum, the overtly sensual "Let's Get It On," the title track of which became his second No. fsong: -4t: The '70s remained as good to Gaye as the '60s. In '79 he retreated to irope and reemerged in '82 with sensual "Midnight its tour Peabody. WCCO-AM Won for a series of reports by Steve Murphy -chronicling the ordeal of Debbie Pielow, a Crystal woman who died last summer while waiting for a heart transplant at University of Minnesota rt -y-- yj.i Murphy had hoped to profile a patient who underwent a successful But Pielow, who was at the top of the university's transplant 1st for 50 days, died before a suitable donor heart became available. Murphy eight-part report, called, Pielow: Waiting for a Heart that Never Came," followed Prestigious Peabody Award bestowed on both WCCO sisters Pielow's physical, financial and emotional life during the last two months of her life.

The final report was broadcast July 12. the day Pielow died at 25. The last Peabody won by WCCO-AM, in 1 972, also was about a heart patient. Former WCCO News Director Jim Bormennwontheprizefora documentary called "Heart of the Matter." The report followed the illness and recovery of WCCO commentator E.W. Ziebarth, who had suffered a heart attack! i-, WCCO-TV won its Peabody for Don Shelby's j-Team report on ambulance WCCO-TV and WCCC-AM pulled off a double whammy Friday.

The electronic sisters were among 29 winners of prestigious George Foster Peabody Radio and Television Awards for broadcast journalism, y- It was the first time in 30 years that sister radio and TV stations have won prizes for separatO reports. was the fifth Peabody won by WCCO-AM, putting Mother 830in a tie with WQXR-FM, New York City, for the most Peabodys Won by a radio station: WCCO-TV became the second-most-decorated TV station with its third service. The six-part series, broadcast last May, alleged thatihe Smith-Martin Ambulance Co. violated rules governing ambulance service and neglected to send timely assistance to some patients who needed an ambulance. (Shelby also won an Emmy last year for an earlier I-Team series on sexual abuse of children.) Only WWL-TV, New Orleans, has more Peabodys.

with four The awards are given by the University of Georgia Henry Grady School of Journalism and Mass Communication, which administers the 43-year-old program. The 29 winners, selected from 792 entries, will receive Coleman 9C Nick Coleman i.