The Central New Jersey Home News from New Brunswick, New Jersey • 35

ElkmB17 SUNDAY, MARCH 11, 1979 SUNDAY DINNER ENTERTAINMENT Served 1 to 10 P.M. TELEVISION'S LATEST HOUSEHOLD PET HUNGARIAN GYPSY MUSIC FROM 4 to 10 P.M. FRANKLIN PARK INN Well you doesn't have to call him Mammons aM ioo IT, HAHKUH MM, M.J. Ray, Ray Jay, R.J. Bill Saluga will do AV 4 I I D1HHER COMPLETE 4 i DINNER 95 58 i L- mmmii ,,1 r- 1'' 1 i Includes: Fresh Fruit Cup, Soup, Salad bar, Rolls, Corned Beef and Cabbage Broiled Irish Potatoes, Jello, lea Cream, Irish Coffee.

1 By TOM SHALES Washington Post-LA Times News Service HOLLYWOOD You can call him "him," or you can call him "what's-his-name," or you can just call him the funny little man in the beer commercial. You doesn't has to call him Bill Saluga. But that's who he is, and he is now the kind of nationally famous anonymous celebrity that only television can create. Everyone knows him; hardly anyone knows his name. "I kind of like the anonymity," Saluga says.

He also likes the fact that after 10 years of doing the character he calls Raymond J. Johnson it has become fabulously popular almost in an instant. He may not be a household name, but like many other TV creatures, real and unreal, he is a household pet. His performance in the commercial consists mainly of his bulletins on the correct way to ask for this brand of beer "you doesn't has to call it Anheuser-Bush Natural Light," and so on. The whole beauty of it is in the marbled-mouthed, Kingfishy delivery.

And now everybody and is brother are doing Saluga impressions throughout this very impressionable land of ours. He's right up there with Steve Martin's wild and crazy guy and Robin William's madcap Mork. "I hear from everybody that their kids are doing it, which really breaks me up," Saluga says, "and my best friend David Steinberg's mother and aunts do it, and in He has been interviewed by NBC Nightly News, signed up to do ads lor a toy company, a carpet firm and a Cleveland firm he can't even remember the name of, and, naturally enough if you think about it, he's going to cut a disco single. a Yiddish accent to boot." The imitation is flattering but there are more tangible benefits to this kind of stardom. "It's incredible what has happened from it," Saluga says.

"I'm just getting offers for everything movies, television I 9 I iiarti I nni uiMitiAii BftllTP 1 SSF ur numn Drturwwiuv hwuil i 3 CALL 246-2800 OR MARBLE-MOUTHED DELIVERY In a fashion familiar to millions of television viewers, stand-up comedian Bill Saluga, alias Raymond Johnson begins his popular routine In a scene from a commercial he does for the Anheuser-Busch brewing company. Saluga says the Johnson character may have origins In burlesque or vaudvllle, but he -created his version spontaneously one night while doing Improvisations with Ace Trucking Company, a comedy troupe he left three years ago. RESTAURANT 1 -coTjjF'OiNr; We Want to Meet You! -Introducing Our- PRIUE RIB NITE MONDAYS mvjtkt nite TUESDAYS SAVE FOUR DOLLARS While Dining with a Friend about the character and his nearly musical refrain, and that's why doing Ray-Jay has caught on like doing the hustle. Saluga had played Ray-Jay dozens of times on TV before, but there's nothing like a 30-second spot to lob a message into your cranium. The ad agency remembered Saluga 's Ray-Jay routine from his year on the otherwise undistinguished "Redd Foxx Show" and thought it would make an ideal vehicle for correcting public confusion about the new light beer's name; people didn't know how to ask for it.

and this sent shivers through the St. Louis brewery. Some actors might actually resent the fact that after plugging away diligently for years their greatest fame comes from a TV commercial. Saluga does not. "I don't resent it at all," he says.

"I'm happy it's happening. The character stands up for himself. It's something I've been doing a long time, but I think he's coming cross funny and making an impact he never made before, so it'd be silly not to appreciate that." Saluga himself couldn't be less like this overbearing Ray-Jay if he hid behind his white wicker couch. He lives in an unimposing three-bedroom house on an imposing hill in Sherman Oaks and resists all temptation and pleading to twirl himself into Ray-Jay in private. Besides, if he's not in his zoot suit, he's not in the mood.

He started acting in his hometown of Youngstown, Ohio, where his mother now beams when friends jokingly call her "Mrs. Johnson," and got a job at a local TV station first behind the camera, then in front of it. Everyone told him he should go to New York and be an actor. "So I went and I starved. I STARVED.

I took every job I could get." That included doorman at the Bitter End where, thanks to people he met on their way in, including Rodney Dangerfield and Jtichard Pryor, he eventually began performing onstage and not just at the entrance. He was on his way up. Saluga spent seven years with Ace Trucking Company, an improvisational group, and sallied through a gallery of characters of whom Ray-Jay was only one. Another was a swish and vicious little actor who snarled and griped and constantly called for "makeup." After leaving the group, Saluga was tempted to go looking for TV commercial jobs, but the thought of auditioning and joining "that rat race" put him off. Also, commercials were not quite so coveted as they are now.

It used to be that there was a stigma associated with doing commercials. Now, ironically enough, there is more of a stigma about doing a TV series and commercials, thanks to the likes of Laurence Olivier, Henry Fonda, Jimmy Stewart and Cahterine Deneuve, are virtually Also, they pay very, very well. And so Saluga is not sitting around waiting for someone to offer him a TV series. He thinks there is more honor in the ads. "In television today," he says, "you can do a show R.

J.J. may come across like every old cigar-breath who ever button-holed you in a bar and told you more than you could possibly want to know about anything, but there's also something sweet and catchy about the charcter and his nearly musical refrain, and that's why doing Ray-Jay has caught on like doing the hustle. and three weeks later it's off and gone, and then you, as an actor, are struggling for two more years to get back into the stream." Unless you're McLean Stevenson, of course. "People don't seem to care about anything any more. It's just, 'Do it, let's get done, and get outta whereas I want to put my-time into something I care about and feel is good, and that feeling doesn't exist here.

When I did the "Redd Foxx Show," Redd was very nice and all that, but I'm an actor, I learned my lines. When we'd do the show, I'd be doing lines and I'd see Redd looking off and reading. It's hard to relate to someone who's doing that. "But the people in television just don't want to put in the time. I'm an actor, not a reader.

They're all guilty of it Bob Hope, that's all he does now. He reads. Because it's made easy for them, actors, being insecure, go along with it, and they come off looking terrible. It's amazing to me that they don't really care what they look like." The Light Beer ad didn't take all that much time to shoot, however only three hours at a Westwood bar called The Jumping Frog. "We finished so early that the catered lunch hadn't even arrived yet.

We had to call them and say, 'Hurry up, bring it But Saluga had already had 10 years of rehearsals for this big moment. The immediate future included a guest shot on a Cher special and work on three film scripts with pal Steinberg. Saluga says, "I'm enjoying this. It's fun. I'm in a nice position because I pick and choose what I Good Monday.

March 12 or March 19 'Select from Steak Seafood Prime Ribs Um(i PRIME SIR NIGHT McCARTER THEATRE CO Seventeen Additional Selections Cocktail Lounge Warm Service Valid for dinner only MkImI HHhi. ftiincit Hindu 1 Complimentary Prima Rib with ach Prima Rib purchased. Good Monday nites 5 thru March with coupon at The Gallery. One coupon per adult dining couple. ittwili Friday, March 23 at 8pm at Ale under Hall THERAMONES GOOD-TIMS CHARLEY'S Tickets $700.

6 50 6 00 1 5 50 COUPON 40 Main St Kingston. 609-924 7400 Tuesday CHAMPAGNE NIGHT ItuM FlMtdtr Dm. Fruit Friday. April 13 at 8pm at Oillon Gym Two Miles North of Princeton ELVIS C0STELL0 shows, a lot more commercials." He has been interviewed for the NBC Nightly News, signed up to do ads for a toy company, a carpet firm and a Cleveland concern he can't even remember the name of, and and, naturally enough if you think about it, he's going to cut a disco single. "I get calls from other agencies at least once a week asking about him," says account executive Perk Orthwein at the Dearly MacManus and Masius ad agency in St.

Louis. "And we've received thousands of letters from people asking for pictures." So the agency and Anhauser-Busch will run magazine ads starting in March or April offering posters of Ray-Jay and costar Norm Crosby for $1. If the current actors strike against commercial producers ends, Saluga will film another spot, dubbed "The Return of Ray-Jay," for release in May. Saluga, who is 41 and only two inches taller than Teng Hsiao-ping, says the Johnson character may have origins in burlesque, vaudeville and "Amos 'n' Andy," but he created him spontaneously while doing improvisaions with Ace Trucking Company, a comedy troupe he left three years ago. "One night at the Bitter End in the Village I just got up and started doing this blustery character," Saluga recalls.

"The reponse was good, and one of the guys says. 'What's your and I said 'Raymond It was just a name I threw out, and that was it. Then the next night I did the character again and this time I said, 'Raymond J. And pretty soon it was 'Raymond J. Johnson I just stretched it out.

"Then he would call me Johnson and I'd say, 'You doesn't has to call me And then, 'You can call me Ray. or you can call me Ray Jay, or you can call me R.J.. or you can call me R.J. Junior, or you Can call me R.J.J. He laughs.

"We never sat down and figured it all out; it just came out. That's really how it happened." R.J.J, may come across like every old cigar-breath who ever button-holed you in a bar and told you more than you could possibly want to know about anything, but there's also something sweet and catchy ttcttaL Satal Mtata, tear! 1 Colt. DtM(i(N nil turn. $750 ft THE ATTRACTIONS with Special Guest THERUHN00S Tickets $8 00,750,700 600 ICi Friday Saturday DAHCINC TWERN RESTURANT INTERNATIONAL CUISINE DANCING ON WEEKENDS RESERVATIONS 634-6068 U.S. 1 WOOD6RIDGE MAJOR CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED KITS It 101 OHM IU.WICMTKM0im.ETI Mailorders McCww ThMIre Hartda Johnson trio PO Box 528 Prmcelon 08540 LXJ Phone ordari (609) 921 rU Ttro onllen Ki.jll 27.

Kdixm featuring a fiimplelr Italian iii-ini Is proud to announce our nihl new Mon. a. BUFFET Serving 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. featuring all your favorites $Z95 When wan the last lime the two of you went away together? If it's been a while, mavhe il's lime you escaped lo the Marrioii Hotel.

You tan escape any weekend, but March 16-18 you'll enjoy the additional entertainment of our barbershop and adeline quartets. You'll enjoy our indoor-outdoor pool, whirlpool, saunas, tennis courts, shuffleboard and game room. So you get resort relaxation at a lot lewi than resort prites. Marriott Escape Weekend. Either 2 davs, I night, dinner and breaklasi or 3 days, 2 nights, 2 breakfasts.

per person children under It) PARENTS WITHOUT PARTNERS MID-JERSEY CHAPTER 236 COCKTAIL PARTY SUNDAY, MARCH 11 8:30 to 12:30 A.M. at the SHERATON INN, RT. 18, EAST BRUNSWICK MEMBERS $3.00 GUESTS S5 CASH BAR The Dance is open to anyone who is a single parent because of divorce, death or never married. Custody of children has no bearing. For information call: 738 8047 or write: P.W.P.

Chapter 236, P.O. Box 488, Metuchen, N.J. 08840. 0 Each $84.90 per couple. When Marriott doc it, they doit right Visit Is, You're In For 5 'r A irt Surnrisp ti i Somerset Harriott Hotel.

110 Davidson Avenue, Somerset, New Jersey 0S873. (2(11 0-05fl0 want to do. I don't have a manager. I don't have an agent except for commercials. I den even have an answering service." There is the temptation, of course, to look in his refrigerator to see if he has any Anheuser-Busch Natural Light (or whatever they call it).

After all. the FTC has said that people who say they consume products in ads really have to consume them at home. "But I don't say I drink it I just tell you what to call it," Saluga says. AT niiiMiji i) ii i i 1 1 I In Person RICH another plus-ANNUAL CELEBRATION ST. PATRICK'S DAY PARTY Buddy Rich band at Inn FRIDAY, MARCH 16 Irish Dancers and the BUDDY RICH ORCHESTRA FRIDAY, MARCH 23 9 P.M.

4 11 P.M. SHOWS in our Grand Ballroom Irish Bag Pipers 4- ENJOY YOUR FAVORITE CORNED BEEF 'N CABBAGE Advance Sale $7.50 At Door $8.50 Irish Organist I il SPECIAL SLEEPING ROOM RATES MAILABLE ggl BUSINESS LUNCHEONS gg ALL MAJOR CREDIT CARDS jjj RECOMMENDED BY CUEXg FRONT NORTH BRUNSWICK Buddy Rich and his orchestra return to the scene of his 1976 sellout performances as he brings his big-band jazz sound to "The Forum" at the Holiday Inn, Route 1 South, Friday, March 23. Rich, who began his career as a drummer at the Hickory House in New York and later played with such greats as Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey and Dizzy Gillespie, will perform two shows 9 and 11 p.m.). Advance ticket reservations can be made by calling 246-2800 or 246-2846. In 1967 Rich's band was selected by Jackie Glea-son as a regular on his summer replacement TV Come early and enjoy a delicious meai in our C95 famous Forum Dining Room Special entrees from 3 Your host, out own imported LEPRECHAUN RALPH 0 CAPRI0 the better choice OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK II wmedici'sw series.

That fall he joined Frank Sinatra on a concert tour. Rich has continued with the big-band format 2991 Hamilton Blvd. So. Clinton Ave. Off Rt.

287, So. Plainfield OF NORTH BRUNSWICK ROUTE 1 CALL 246-2800 OR 246-2846 except for a brief break in 1974 when he formed a ii smaller group and opened "Buddy's Place" in New 561-2722 Restaurant Cocktail Lounge nil. hi i nTtM ork. i ewer i ia.