The Tampa Times from Tampa, Florida • 20

4 2B THE TAMPA TIMES, Friday, April II, 1975 Cloris Leachman isn't honey she's just wily j. ') I 'jf i 1 4 i A ill By ARTHUR UNGER Christian Science Monitor "Are you ready for the entrance?" the familiar voice of Mary Tyler Moore's zany TV friend Phyllis shouts from another room of the Hotel Plaza suite. Before I can answer, Cloris Leachman glides out, arms gracefully outstretched, highfashion style, modelling a slinky black silk creation with a collar of black ostrich feathers. "Aren't I too much?" she asks, posing, preening, blowing the feathers from her mouth. Once again, before I can answer that she is too much she beckons me into the other room.

"I'm so tired that I'm doing all my interviews this afternoon lying down." While her publicist, fluffs the pillows resignedly, Miss Leachman stretches out: "I hope this is going to be an intelligent interview," she says with a straight face. "I can't imagine why reports always call me loony." I would like to state at the very onset that Miss Leachman isn't loony. She's wily. Wily all the way to the bank. Wily enough to recognize that her zaniness often pays off in publicity which in turn pays off in acting jobs.

However, I would also like to state at the onset, that if one is willing to take the trouble to look beyond the loon, one is liable to find a kind, sensitive, intelligent woman constantly transmitting waves of positive energy one who really doesn't need all that calculated kookiness to make a strong impression as an actress or as a human being. Miss Cloris Leachman is in New York to promote a Hollywood Television Theater production of the Dorothy Parker and Arnaud d'Usseau play, "Ladies of the Corridor" tomorrow on WEDU-Channel 3 at 9-11 p.m. She has been acting since about 1950 in Broadway theater, television, movies winning an Oscar for her role in "The Last Picture Show," and an Emmy nomination for her role in "The Migrants" and of course as Mary Tyler Moore's Phyllis. She is superb in "Ladies of the Corridor," but watching the play on TV is like watching a period soap opera about widows searching for today as well as tomorrow. Miss Leachman, out of a sense of responsibility, tries to talk about that show a few times but is really more interested in talking about life as seen through the eyes of Cloris Leachman.

The mother of five children ranging in age from 9 to 21. married to producer George Englund, Miss Leachman has just finished the pilot for a new spin-off from "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." "Would you believe it it called 'Phyllis'?" she asks. "You know, Phyllis is 100 per cent me but I am Phyllis plus 1000 per cent. If it goes as a series this fall, Phyllis will have to change a bit in the long haul she's got to be more palatable because right now a little of her goes a long way. "We have to make her more normal except for certain idiosyncracies, of course.

She'll be in San Francisco developing more along the lines of a vulnerable woman alone in who struggled so hard to help her children to escape from the drudgery of migrant farm labor. The human spirit simply has to have hope to survive. But, you know, nobody wanted to air that show. Who wants to see a show about poor migrant farmers, they said. "The only reason it got on the air was because of Tennessee.

they paid Tennessee Williams $15,000 for not much more than the use of his name. You know. Teddy Kennedy once told me that the only way you can get support for the poor is to make sure that rich people have the same problems No recriminations about anything in her life? "There's only one incident in my life that I think I'll never get over. It was back in high school at graduation time. All the girls had parties and remember this was in 1944 we 'daringly' invited two of the black girls to the parties.

They came and we all had fun and then one of the mothers of black girl invited us to a party at her house. One other girl" and I were the only people to show up of the whole class. "The tables were beautifully set with white linens and flowers. And I did not know how to handle it. Even though I knew nobody else was coming, I just couldn't tell them.

When I think back I am so horrified that I was too young and inexperienced to be able to tell the girl and her mother how' ashamed I was for the ignorance of that class. It was such a loss for all of us. "Some day I have to go back to Des Moines and find Madeline Joseph and tell her how sorry I am that I didn't; know any better then." For just a moment, the ebullient Miss Leachman stops." ebulliating. But then, the bright side. "That's why I'm so" proud to be part of the one medium that has made differencetelevision.

"Women and other minority groups are finally being treated fairly. I think the commercials did it first and set the pace for dramatic shows to follow. They showed women of all kinds and colors doing things, not just fixing breakfast in housecoats and curlers. TV explored areas in our society that films never bothered to do. Suddenly she stops.

"You know, I really don't know a lot about what I'm talking about. I'm not an authority. I know how to be an actress. I know how to be a mother. I know how-to be a human being and to have fun doing them all.

Is that loony?" We are interrupted by the publicist who announces that columnist Earl Wilson is waiting in the other room for his interview. "Earl:" Miss Leachman shrieks, almost loud enough for the diners in the hallowed Oak Room five stories below to hear. "I'm coming, Earl!" She jumps up, blows on her feathers to puff them up, poses at the door, then floats out into the other room, shouting: "Are you ready forme?" rt I I Ityt Moore, Leachman and Valerie Harper in 'The Mary Tyler Moore the world, because Lars Lindstrom will be phased out in someway." How would Cloris Leachman describe herself. "A pain in the neck having a good run at life making tt work having a ball accepting who I am. I've learned that whatever I might not like about myself, I've got to accept or it's like locking up your energy vault.

"For instance, my hands which don't have long fashionable nails. I've decided not only to accept my funny hands but to appreciate them. They hold things and people, hug children, paint, sculpt, play piano. Who ever decided long nails are good anyway? "My mouth's crooked but a crooked mouth is interesting. I loved Sophia Loren for a long time but now she's perfected herself so much I'm not interested in her anymore." How did this philosophy evolve? "I picked it up from my mother.

I remember I used to say: 'Mom is this fun washing, ironing, scrubbing, And she would tell me she made it fun. She taught me to sparkle suddenly she would say 'Sparkle Cloris' and little Cloris would start batting her eyes and giggling. "You know when I was a finalist in the Miss America contest in 1946, the last thing I heard when I walked out was mother saying 'Sparkle Of course, I lost Where was Dad all this time? "Oh, I learned fairness and trust from him. The actress part of me is so strong, I'm glad I have his dependability to fall back on I'm still trying to build that part of me." What was Miss Leachman's favorite role? "No question the mother in last year's Emmy nominee 'The I still feel bad when I think of that mother it 0 Tuckwell gives effortless performance four p.ogram selections for the evening. Conductor Irwin Hoffman and his orchestra managed attain in the Stravinsky music REVIEW Barry Tuckwell.

and to witness his virtuosity on the French horn. Standing ramrod straight, Tuckwell held the gracefully curved horn effortlessly in front of him as he waited through orchestral passages, and he played effortlessly too pushing rich melody from the horn with ease. Tuckwell soloed on two selections, Mozart's "Concerto for Horn and Orchestra No. 3 in flat Major," and Gliere's "Concerto for Horn and Orchestra." The Beethoven piece fol-lowed slightly unnatural expression in which dynamics seemed misplaced. The first movement was of a less emotional pulsation than is possible with the music, and the second and third movements were fairly uneventful although technically correct.

In the Stravinsky, however, passages of expression were not simply quiet they were languishing or limpid. They were not simply loud or rhyth-mid they were startling and crashing. The suite concluded with a spiraling excitement that drew audible gasps as the music ended, and which found Hoffman visibly wearied as He turned to receive a standing ovation. The Gulf Coast Symphony will perform again next week in McKay Auditorium, when pianist Jerome Lowenthal will be the guest soloist Thursday The final performance of the season is scheduled fJr April 24. featuring Martin Jones, pianist.

what had not been accomplished in some passages of the earlier works, specifically the "Symphony No. 8 in Major" by Beethoven which led the evening off. By NELDA CLEMMONS Times Staff Writer Last night's Florida Culf Coast Symphony concert, the eighth in' a 10-concert series, filled McKay Auditorium with one of the largest crowds of the season. An exceptional number of younger audience members were present to hear the greying gentleman from Australia, Photo society plans trip the Suncoast Photographic Society will take a photo-field trip Sunday to explore the area of Turkey Creek, with nature and landscape photography. The group, to be led by Art Brown, will meet at 1:30 p.m.

in the parking lot of Barnett Bank, downtown, and will return at 6. A charge of $3 for members and $5 for non-members will covet expenses. "TV If llU' MV'iW' (- iVXlWtVJ, HiiflW-ll'-f jf -mil Ill 11 fl FACTORY DIRECT BETTER BEDDING LESS COST The Gliere piece most appropriately showcased Tuck-well's talent. The outstanding clarity of his instrument's voice was juxtaposed over soaring orchestral passages, or was used to fill with mellow-sound the orchestra's lapses into silence. The Gliere selection was followed by the symphony's performance of "The Firebird Suite" by Stravinsky, which was the most forceful of the BUY 1 ITEM AT REGULAR PRICE GET 2nd ITEM OF EQUAL VALUE FOR Vi PRICE FLORILAND MALL Friday Saturday Only Ph.

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