The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • 23

j) j- -n THE ATLANTA CONSTITUTION Fashion 2 TodayTV 6 Movies 4 Comics 8 SECTION Wednesday, September 17, 1980 T7 DECOR IN BLOOM 1 Jkluacdestine Siblev By Karen McNeill Comtllulion Staff Wriler "OST FLORISTS would not consider black and white a blooming opportunity. But Terry Alexander did back A mii Om, V. i mlrih. I 'V, Recession sprouts greater demand jor preuy jiuwers, nays jiunm whose unique shop encourages do-it-yourself decorating in 1966. To the then-18-year-old flower delivery boy in Los Gatos, deciding what kind of corsage to bring his girlfriend for her high school prom was cut and dried.

When she, dressed primly and properly in a black and white formal, opened the corsage box, she stared at white gardenias and roses with black rose leaves and ribbons. Hardly what she'd expected. That's not exactly Alexander's style now, he'd leave out the artif ical ribbon and leaves. Very Terry, Alexander's establishment at 2798 Piedmont Road N.E., is not your typical florist shop. True, there are cut flowers and containers like other shops around Atlanta.

And, yes, he decorates homes, churches and ballrooms with flowers for parties and weddings. But that's not the point of Alexander's new retail shop. He emphasizes supplies exotic cut flowers (not plants) and containers for stylishly decorating your home with flowers yourself. The 32-year-old Midtown resident likens it to hairdressing. While the advent of wash-and-go haircuts all but replaced a weekly coiffure with hair spray and teasing, it didn't leave the hairdresser without a client "Did he lose her as a customer?" Alexander asks.

"No, because she needs him to give a perfect cut as a maintenance program." It's the same with flowers. Once you have an attractive container (preferably clay or glass), you can maintain it with fresh cut flowers that last anywhere from a few days to weeks, depending on the variety, for only a few dollars. By comparison, a traditonal florist shop arrangement costs $15 and usually, lasts a week or less. Like other Atlanta florists, some of whom sell cut flowers and containers mostly on the side, Alexander considers flowers an integral part of home decor. "You don't need to have an event to have flowers.

Time spent at home should be pleasurable," he says. "People are staying at home more, having more people in. Therefore their homes must be attractive." Thus his shop is not the place to go for conventionally arranged flowers. His is a store of contemporary vases and containers, extraordinary flowers imported from Holland and supplies that only florists usually know how to use (like moss and water tubes) to help you do it yourself. See FLOWERS, Page 2-B Don't be afraid to be unconventional Make a component arrangement using old bottles or jars.

Then place single flowers in several or a natural-looking bouquet in jnst one. (Staff PbotoLanna Swindler) I 1 I I i 4 s'f ipp Pcmf Lovers Ought To Ask Before Taking Somehow I missed the story in our Sunday paper back in August, wherein a writer for the Chicago Sun-Times suggested that everybody who wants free house plants would be well served to take to the woods. The writer did not say, "Go, steal, destroy!" but the end result of such a story is very likely to be just that. Mrs. Louis M.

Givens of Oakdale Road brought it tq my attention. "My garden club," she wrote, "has suffered an incredible amount of theft and vandalism in our Lullwater Conservation Garden. We own this wooded plot, which is clearly marked as a conservation garden, where we have attempted to maintain and improve native plantings for the enjoyment of the public. We have marked plants with their common and botanical names for educational purposes. But would you believe that our purchased plants were, in many instances, stolen before they could even begin growth? It is difficult not to become discouraged so I really see red when articles of this sort receive such wide circulation." Some Will Steal One of the baffling contradictions in plant lovers is that some of them will steal.

Most, I hope, would not but I remember the amazement and chagrin of the late long-time Secretary of State Ben Fortson when he looked out his office window one winter day and saw a respectable looking woman snatch up a rhododendron by its roots, tuck it under her fur coat and take off. He loved that flowering square around the capitol and he couldn't believe decent citizens would damage it or steal from it. Wild ferns in woodland areas belong to somebody and it's unthinkable that house plant seekers would go and dig them without getting permission of the owners. In fact, one of the first rules of all the wild flower collectors I know is to ask first and then to be very, very careful what they take. Unless you are experienced and knowledgeable about wild flowers it is far better to take nothing because a number of species are endangered and fall into the "Don't Pick" category.

Most collectors wait until they hear of an area which is being cleared for a development or a shopping center. They get there with their shovels and buckets and plastic bags ahead of bulldozers. But that is really the only way we should dare disturb wild flowers unless we know what we're doing and have the permission of the owners. No matter what that thrifty-minded writer said about adapting wild ferns to indoor living, they BELONG out of doors, and they are at their best in their natural environment Most bouse plant seed catalogs have generous listings of house plants you can buy already potted or start from seeds if you are venturesome and want to give it a try. Local nurseries and variety stores are full of them.

Saving A Dime It's a shame to let the idea of saving a dime or two lead you to stealing or, worse yet, destroying what all the public might be able to enjoy. A gentleman I once interviewed who took the pictures for a book on wild flowers of the Blue Ridge mountains told me he spotted a rare blossom on a mountainside one day and resolved to return and photograph it when the light was better. A lady with a shovel beat him to it. Just hearing about it has made me hate that lady with a shovel all these years. Mrs.

Givens wrote: "As a member of the Georgia Botanical Society, I have had the privilege of hiking into some breath-takingly beautiful native areas, some of which even now, are in jeopardy. The rule of the society is to take away nothing but memories and photographs so the experts restrain themselves in view of property rights and conservation practices, while the public is encouraged to take 'free couseplants by the What a pity!" By Karen McNeill Comlitulion Staff Writer "OVING TO the beat of American Top 40 music, the world's top models paraded last spring before 1,500 store buyers and fashion reporters from around the world. Thev were dressed extrava GUIDE BOOK 7 I gantly in heavy gold jewelry, fantasy brocades, silks and velvets. It was April-in-Paris week for Yves Saint Laurent, one of many European designers introducing a 1980 fallwinter ready-to-wear collection. The clothes shown didn't look like anything the average woman would wear, but the details undoubtedly would filter down to popular wear in Atlanta about a year later.

But, you don't have to wait until 1981 to see the new ready-to-wear collection from the 45-year-old Saint Laurent, who after 23 years as an industry leader still is considered the world's foremost fashion trend-setter, a designer's designer. Judge for yourself Sunday at 8 p.m. when Saint Laurent's work goes on stage at the Alliance Theatre. About 100 of the samples shown in Paris will be worn by 12 local models and presented during an hour-long show, "An Evening with the Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche Fall Winter Collection," complete with the Paris music tape. Proceeds will benefit the Alliance Theatre Companythe Atlanta Children's Theatre.

The clothes and accessories are the originals worn in the Paris show, says Amanda Olmstead, owner of the Rive Gauche Boutique in Lenox Square, who saw the collection last spring when she went to France to buy clothes for her shop. "Yes, it's exaggerated, fantasy, and See FASHION, Page 2-B YVES SAINT LAURENT SETS THE STYLE IL- II M. .1 p.ui...jyi Vlf Richard Zoglin 'Tan Shoes Strikes Back9 Lacks Shine Of Original Ch. 46 Reducing Religion Tilt For News And Games By Joseph Litsch Constitution Stiff Writer AN SHOES Strikes Back," a supposed variation of a show orieinallv concocted bv Tom A Review Chris Mclntyre presents 'Tan Shoes Strikes Back," directed by Patrick Cuccaro, musical direction by Andrew Thomas. Starring Peggy Manuszak, Tambra Smith, Michael West and John McCool Bowers.

Through Saturday. 8 p.m. through Thursday. 7 and 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

$6, through Thursday. $8, Friday and Saturday. Studio Theatre, Memorial Arts Center, 1280 PeacbtreeSL N.E 892-2414. the "game" has become so simplistic that there's little to occupy the mind of a reasonably intelligent viewer beyond the 20 or 30 seconds it takes to figure out the rules. Even in the rare case where the game actually offers some mental challenge (e.g., trying to psyche out those audience surveys in "Family the show is often ruined by the self-conscious antics of the host or participants.

In "Face the Music" (being shown, temporarily, at both 6 and 6:30 p.m., though it will be replaced at 6:30 next Monday by a new version of "Let's Make a the problem is equally divided between the game and the players. Host Ron Ely the former "Tarzan" and new Miss America host is an amazingly stolid master of ceremonies, but he is relatively inoffensive. The object for the show's three contestants is to come up -with the particular person, place or object hinted at by a series of musical clues. For example, the songs "Tequila," "Tijuana Taxi" and "South of the Border, Down Mexico Way" are the clues for you guessed it Mexico. If you had no trouble coming up with that one, you're way ahead of the contestant on Monday who, after hearing all the above clues, guessed Ecuador.

And he was only slightly ahead of the woman who identified "Tijuana Taxi" as "The Wedding Song." she explained, "I always hear it at In short, the inanity of the fame is just about matched by See ZOGLIN, Page Inside IF IT weren't for Atlanta's recent affiliation switch, the local station that would get credit for making the biggest overhaul of its schedule this fall is none other than WANX-TVChannel 46. Long known (and largely ignored) as Atlanta's "religious" station, Channel 46 is making a strong bid to challenge Ted Turner's Channel 17 as the leading independent station in the market Though still owned by a subsidiary of the Christian Broadcasting Network, Channel 46 has reduced its weekday religious programming to a couple of showings of the "700 Club." And starting on Sunday, Oct 12, the station will, for the first time, pull all of its religious programming on Sundays between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m., replacing it with a new lineup of syndicated reruns and movies. In addition to the three-month-old Independent Network News (which Channel 46 telecasts each weeknight at 10), the major "new" programming on Channel 46's fall schedule is a two-hour block of syndicated game shows, seen in the 6-to-8 time period each weeknight. No TV genre is held in lower esteem these days than the game show, which most "serious" viewers consign to the bottom of the creativity barrel But that characterization is a little unfair.

There's no more reason to dismiss game shows good game shows than there is to complain about crossword puzzles in your daily newspaper. The trouble with most of the current game shows is that Edwards almost three years ago at Showcase Cabaret, proves that nostalgia is not what it used to be. The new 'production is billed as a reworked version of the original musical show, centered on 1950s-1960s nostalgia and asking "Why did I turn out the way I did?" But the only variations on Edwards's "Tan Shoes" theme are a new cast, minimal dialogue alterations, the addition of a rather soggy segment about Dean Martin and a handful of awkward The rest is a futile attempt to re-create the most enjoyable, successful show ever to brighten the now dark Showcase Cabaret stage. "Tan Shoes Strikes Back" is nothing more than a bastardization of Edwards's initial wort The main problem facing this cast is that the material was written and tailored forhe original four members Edwards, Amy Miller, Libby Whittemore and Patrick Cuccaro and trying to fit new people into the already-established roles makes as much sense as wedging square pegs into round holes. Nowhere was this actor-role gap more iironounced than in Michael West's con-ession of his first love affair and CBS Breaks Rule On Retirement For News Chief Page 3-D breakup.

Edwards took this material from his own personal experiences and made the audience members believe he was taking them into bis confidence. But with West, no one was more amused by the lines-than the actor himself who broke up before the punchline. See "TAN SHOES," Page 4-B.