Lansing State Journal from Lansing, Michigan • Page 27

Step into the '90s with new senior classes. Need info? Look on the back of this section. Lansing State Journal Tuesday, January 19, 1993 Kathleen Lavey, Features Editor 377-1251 Page 1D Flip it over! Your daily guide to what everyone's talking about and what's happening around town. U33 TOPAY ttaoL ojjdh Entertainment Editor Mike Hughes is in Hollywood this week, filing reports from the TV networks' annual winter meetings. Things that make you go hmmmm about Hollywood By MIKE HUGHES Lansing State Journal Pages of magic and miracles Many family remedies have been handed down from generation to generation.

Yet, using folk medicine in the pharmaceutical world is unheard of. But Michigan State University anthropology professor Loudell Snow is doing her part to keep African-American folk remedies alive. Her book, "Walkin' Over Medicine," is full of fascinating remedies. Snow interviewed herbalists and root doctors and miracle healers around Michigan and the country to provide stories of the living, breathing art not love magic and miracle cures, but resourceful treatments adapted for today's diseases. The book ($35, Westview Press) won't be in bookstores until April but it's already getting good reviews.

Snow has listened well," wrote Gabriel Smilkstein, M.D., of the University of Louisville. "Her subjects' stories have a vibrancy that made this reader feel as though he was present at the interview. Her commentaries give extraordinary clarity to the meaning of the stories within the context of her subjects' lives, as well as the culture in which they function." Old games worth megabucks Board games are hot and the antique ones are the most valuable, worth getting past "Go" to get. It's not funny money. In a sale at Sotheby's in December, a collector paid $15,400 for a 1933 Monopoly set handmade by Charles Darrow, the I mm JL Ill l' I game originator.

It's the earliest surviving Darrow set and the only one of circular shape. Bruce White-hill's "Games: American Boxed Games and Their Makers," 1822- 1992, recently published by stead ($19.95 paperback), gives the low-down on identifying the valuable cardboard toys. Not long ago, a copy of the 1901 game Man in the Moon was auctioned for $4,600. A quick glance through Whitehall's guide shows many games valued at $50, minimum. most sought-after games are valued for their age, colorful lithography and cultural significance.

You might want to check out the American Game Collectors Association, 49 Brooks Lew-iston, Maine 04240. Its journal, Game Times, could be worth the $25 annual membership fee. There are three things we must know about Hollywood: 1) All of these people own umbrellas. No one knows why. 2) CNN did not pre-empt its war coverage to catch Jay Leno.

It thought about it, though. 3) These people desperately need Michigan. We give them their humor and sell them their motorcycles. When it's time to laugh, Califor-nians import people who grew up in Michigan. That includes Robin Williams, Gilda Radner, Lily Tomlin, Lela Ivey and assorted Tims (Allen, Busfield).

Jim Cash sits in East Lansing, punching up scripts Act," "Turner and that Hollywood flubbed. The latest arrival? It's Rose Ab-doo, taking the place by storm. After growing up in Southfield, Abdoo got her master's of fine arts degree in theater at Michigan State University. She starred in 25 plays here and developed her comedy skills doing shows like "Baby With the Bath Water" outdoors. "That's such an incredible feeling," she recalls, "having 1,000 people right in front of you." Now, after a Chicago stopover, Abdoo is 30 and ready for Hollywood.

"She's a wonderful actress," said Robert Zemeckis, "but she also has this sense of what's funny." Zemeckis knows the turf, having created one superstar (Roger Rabbit) and propelled another (Michael J. Fox). Now he has "Johnny Bago" coming to CBS this spring. Peter Dobson goes on the lam with Abdoo in pursuit, as his ex-wife. Dobson is the star, but Abdoo delighted TV critics.

"She's shown a lot of charisma and a lot of humor," Mark Harris of Entertainment Weekly said to Zemeckis in the middle of the interview. "What happens if she blows him off the screen?" Making that kind of impression wasn't easy, of course. In a 10-day stretch, the semi-jaded critics met Goldie Hawn, Chuck Norris, Naomi Judd, Billy Ray Cyrus, Robert DeNiro, Brooke Shields, Ted Dan-son, Anjelica Huston and more. Still, it was Rose Abdoo who made the big impression. Hollywood always needs Michigan help.

Much has been made, for instance, of the fact that Jay Leno was riding a red Harley-Davidson to celebrate his nonfiling by NBC. Less is made of the guy who sells him his Harleys. That's Oliver Shokouh, 46, who was a respectable citizen in De- Jay Leno is often seen in Hollywood atop a Harley-Davidson, thanks to ex-Detroiter Harley salesman Oliver Shokouh. 5. Poe night kicks off eerie series If you're intrigued by a mystery, then take part in Jocundry's Books "Mystery in Triplicate," a three-month mystery series, with an opening tribute that centers on Edgar Allen Poe's birthday.

First, test your Poe knowledge at a mystery dinner at 5:30 p.m. at the Evergreen Grill, 327 Abbott Road in East Lansing, by listing all the Poe-related objects you see in the restaurant. bring your list into Jocundry's, 515 E. Grand River East Lansing, at 7:30 p.m. for a prize drawing and a discussion of Poe's works.

For more information, call 332-0856 or 1-800-733-0856. Tru' character study on stage Robert Morse won a Tony Award for his portrayal of Truman Capote on Broadway, and now he travels with "Tru," which has shows at 8 p.m. today and Wednesday at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor. Tickets $29.50 and $23.50 are at (313) 668-8397. If you can't catch it in Ann Arbor, don't fret.

The one-man show arrives at Grand Rapids' DeVos Hall for eight performances from Feb. 23-28 with tickets ranging from $15 to $30 at Tick-etmaster 484-5656. troit. The son of a banker, he was a mechanical engineer for Ford. Then Shokouh decided he really preferred to sell choppers.

"I looked for one in Michigan, but I couldn't find one," he says. "Finally, I found this one." That's in Glendale, an L.A. suburb that seemed all wrong for Harleys. It was too ritzy, too white-collar; "my friends all said I was crazy," Shokouh recalls. So far, he's doing fine.

His customers include Bruce Springsteen, Bruce Willis, David Crosby and (often) Leno. It was Leno who was the focal point of this stretch. For much of the time, NBC flirted with the possibility of dumping him and giving his spot to David Letterman. "Jay was particularly stung by the lack of loyalty by NBC," Brandford Marsalis, his band leader, said afterward. Then it was all settled: NBC couldn't match CBS offer for Letterman; Leno could keep his job.

So at an NBC press conference, Leno roared down the aisle on a motorcycle, celebrating his nonfiring. Then he stared at an army of reporters and cameramen. "CNN is covering this," Leno groaned. "That means Saddam Hussein will have an opinion." Well, CNN almost covered it, anyway. With a war simmering and an administration arriving, CNN considered carrying the Leno press conference live.

What does it say about us, when the nonfiring of a late-night host is considered in the same plateau as a Norman Schwarzkopf briefing? What should we attribute this to? "Dropping IQ's," Letterman ventured later. Or maybe we should just use it as a reminder that Hollywood brings out strange behavior. This is a spot filled with highs and lows. One day, critics found joy on the "Deep Space Nine" set, where powerhouse ratings had just arrived sorrow at the "Cheers" bar, where the end is near and mixed feelings at a taping of "Arsenio," which is tan- if fvU VHfj -J- Michigan transplant Rose Abdoo provides Hollywood lots of laughs. gled with the giants.

Amid this, Californians showed their style. They have high hopes, great hair and omnipresent umbrellas. 0 Christian musician Steve Camp presents a benefit concert for Greater Lansing Youth for Christ at 7:30 p.m. today at the Wharton Center. Tickets are $10 in advance at 336-2000 or $12 at the door.

II Heart disease will kill 1 million Americans this year and will cost the nation $117.4 billion, show new American Heart Association figures. Heart disease remains the No. 1 killer in the USA, accounting for nearly half of all deaths among whites and blacks and a third of deaths among Hispanic, Asian and Native Americans. Clinton clan takes over U.S. television sets By MIKE HUGHES Lansing State Journal As the inauguration devours our TV sets, we can choose an attitude.

One is wide-eyed, the other is weary. CNN's Ber On this day in 1937, millionaire Howard Hughes set a transcontinental air record by flying his monoplane from Los Angeles, Calif, to Newark, N.J., in seven hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds; in 1955, a presidential news conference was filmed for television for the first time, with the permission of President Dwight D. INAUGURATION 19 9 3 O. 5 nard Shaw understands the latter. "Inaugurations are the last stake in the campaign coffin," he said.

This was the campaign that seemed unable to die. From Gen-nifer Flowers to Ross Perot, it kept Ol I ig a jJjJJJJ the "Frontline" hour, "with a pared-down staff There was very little to talk about, (but) there was a hungry beast, sort of beatin' on the door every single day." So the questions kept coming. George Stephanapoulos, Clinton's young (31) chief spokesman, had to explain to reporters that he had no idea what the president-elect ate for breakfast. The change was obvious when Clinton took his people to see their new home. "It was a pretty amazing feeling," Meyers says, "as we pulled up the circular drive to the White House and the President came down the walk But there's also the feeling of being sort of the uninvited relative at Thanksgiving dinner." All of this catches the swirling confusion of a transition.

When "Mr. Smith goes to Washington," life is full of traps. Clinton seems to understand most of them. "He's a consummate politician," Arkansas reporter John Brummet says in the film. "He will also finesse issues "This guy can finesse his way through a minefield." Here is a remarkably careful politician, one who has studied other people's mistakes.

He manages to be: A populist who also mixes with the wealthy. On the same day, we see him pumping hands with the commoners and attending a big-money party at the Harriman mansion. A master of quick switches. After winning, Clinton learned that the economy is in worse shape than he had told voters. At his economic conference, he began preparing people for the bad news.

A guy who has the image of an outsider, but not the inclination. Unlike Jimmy Carter, Clinton is being careful to keep the powers-that-be on his side. "Clinton is almost a quintessential Washington insider," said Curtis Wilkie of the Boston Globe. "This is a guy who went to school here. "He loves this city.

(He's) fascinated by the power it exudes." noon. At 10 p.m., CBS, NBC and CNN will return for another look. Then there are the late additions. Examples include: The "Inaugural Gala," which is turning into a truly odd cross-section of Americana. The event, at 9 p.m.

today on channels 3 and 6, was quick to line up such stars as Barbra Streisand and the reunion of Fleetwood Mac. More intriguing are the latecomers; they include Michael Jackson, MacCauley Culkin, Michael Bolton and Sally Field. Just as the gala is bubbling, PBS will be turning serious. "Frontline," at 9 p.m. today on Channel 23, has an hour called "Clinton Takes Over." We'll take a look.

BUMPTY TRANSIT: So you think your life is complicated, right? Now consider Dee Dee Meyers. There she was, the young (30) press secretary for a long-shot candidate. Suddenly, Bill Clinton won and the world called. "We were probably getting 800 telephone calls a day," Meyers says in 1977, in one of his last Hughes acts of office, President Gerald R. Ford par- ddned Iva Toguri D'Aquino, an American who had made wartime broadcasts for Japan as "Tokyo Rose." 11 i ft 111 finding odd souls to resurrect it.

Now comes the last hurrah or the last stake. Naturally, there are quirks. The basics are the same everywhere: All three morning shows are in Washington; all three networks (plus Shaw and CNN) will have inaugural marathons Wednesday, sandwiched around the swearing-in at Travel along with MSU professor A. Allan Schmid to Africa, Wednesday in Today. Compiled from staff and wire reports.

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