News Record from North Hills, Pennsylvania • Page 19

entertainment TUESDAY AUGUST 17 1982 NEWS RECORD 19 Singer Jeanie Tracy's fantasy comes true LARRY KELP Ganaeu News Service BERKELEY. Calif "I'm always going for the vocal run that's going to change the world, like Aretha Frank- Un or Stevie Wonder," singer Jeanie Tracy said. "Even though it's already been done, I'm still trying." Tracy's efforts have been catching the ears of listeners recently, even as a backup singer on other people's album-and at other performers' coo- certs. With her recently released debut album on Fantasy Records, "Me and You," she's in a position to gain more attention. "There wasn't room on my album for the gospel song I wanted to do," she explained.

"But gospel radio stations are playing 'Sing Your Own which could have a religious interpretation." The album is a good showcase for three songs she wrote, including "I'm Your and a couple of spectacular oldies, "Your Old Standby" (a Smokey Robinson tune) and the Little Anthony and the Imperials nugget, "Tears on My Pillow." Tracy recently did her first show as a headliner backed by a band. Before that, she appeared with disco star Sylvester and sang on his records. She's also beard on albums by jazzmen Freddie Hubbard and Herbie Hancock and rocker Tom Fogerty. Born in Texas, Tracy grew up in Fresno, where she studied classical piano and listened to country and Latin music. She loves those styles, but is best at pop ballads, soul- drenched dance tunes and gospel Tracy is full-throated and self-assured on record In person, she bubbled over with enthusiasm for the musicians she has worked with.

"1 went to see Freddie Hubbard a couple months ago, and I told him before the show that I couldn't sing that night." she said. "But in the middle of his set be went into a song that I did on his record, and he forced me to get up and sing. I'd forgotten some of the lyrics, so I had to scat my way through it. "Freddie's a good guy. He played trumpet on 'I Feel Like Dancing' on my album, and we had a great time.

I told him, 'You had more fun on 'my session than on vour own Tracy would like nothing better than to do a gospel record: "It's good to see gospel music becoming more popular. But I don't like it when people make gospel so contemporary- sounding so I don't know whether to pray or boogie. "When I sing gospel, there's a different feeling for me here, in my heart, different even from smging love songs." Those she has sung with, Sylvester, Maurice Long, the Hawkins Family, "all grew up in the Pentecostal Church," she said. "The original Pentacostal Church was so strict, it didn't allow makeup or sleeveless dresses, and there was no dancing. I had to sneak off to school dances and tell my mother it was just a party." In her teens Tracy was hired as a night club band's piano player, and soon her plans to become a classical concert pumst faded "I came to San Francisco to seek ray goal and find my star," she said with a laugh, "but then I got offered a job playing organ with a group i couldn't play the organ bass but I ended up as the singer instead." She spent several years singing in clubs.

Then, during a show five years ago, she was spotted by Harvey Fuqua and Nancy Pitts who signed her to their Honey Records label Fuqua's led the '506 hrteroup the Moonglows before his stint as a Motown producer. After Tracy he discovered Sylvester. "I was first," Tracy said, "but 1 remember the day Sylvester walked into Harvey's office with a band and an album ready to go. So Harvey told me to be patient, my time would come. I had other offers, but I really wanted to work with Harvey." So she spent a few years singing with Sylvester before making her own album.

"I love music today," she said. "There was a time I didn't enjoy i but the guitars aren't blaring as much now and yoir can hear the singers again. And, a lot of people are singing good, from some of my favorite older artists who have come back, and newer ones like Al Jarreau, Angela Bofill and Phyllis Hyman. Now, with her own singing career launched, Tracy's next goal is to sing with Johnny Ma this. "I love Aretha and Stevie and others, but all my life I've wanted to sing-with Johnny." she said.

"I learned diction from listening to his records!" Linda Carter keeps busy on a 'wonderful' career By OTTO DEKOM Gannett News Service Wonder Woman to television viewers, Lynda Carter might describe her-life and the course of her career with the same familiar word wonderful! She ddes have one peeve what she says is the continued exploitation of her name in connection with Mark W. I 1976 movie, "Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw," for which she was paid $1,200. "It wasn't a good movie," she said. "It was a very violent movie. The violence was horrendous.

I was very good at it, but there was too much violence. I was new in the business and I was thrilled to be in a 1 Carter has since reached stardom, as an actress and as a singer. She has made She now is doing a personal appearance tour with Bob Hope; Carter sings as Hope provides the comedy. Carter said she decided to be an entertainer at the age of 3 when she saw the "Dinah Shore Chevy Show" on "I really knew from the first memory that I wanted to be in show business." When she finally saw her name on the marquee of Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, "I took my Instamatic out and made a picture." She was so "excited" over appearing at London's famed Palladium that she fluffed her lines on opening night, giving the punch line before She slapped her forehead and cried out, "I don't believe this; I blew the whole thing." But, "everybody started to laugh" and she received a standing ovation at the end. "I am a real positive thinker.

If something bad happens, I always feel there is a reason for it. I learn something from it." She was 15 at her professional debut. National fame came when she won the Miss title in 1973. Shortly thereafter, Carter was chosen to play Wonder Women from among hundreds of applicants. She had two important advantages: A resemblance to Charles Moulton's original comic book character and ability in athletics.

Her parents insisted she compete in academic and sports activities at school. "They really stressed college athletic competitions. I went in for hiking, riding, swimming, and track and field. I try to do something every day, even on the road. I love race walking and tennis.

I have a portable exercise machine "I did all my own fights on "Wonder I was really eager to learn. The stuntmen liked to work with me. Stuntmen don't like to work with actors. If the actors don't know what they are doing, the stuntmen really can get hurt." One day, she hung on the runners of a helicopter in flight. "The studio was livid.

They got so furious at me." When Carter before the public, she says, "Something electric happens. I only hope that people enjoy it as much as I do. 1 have a tremendous rapport with the public Maybe Wonder Woman was so likable that they perceive me to be likable. "I work very hard at it. I am very critial of myself.

It's very painful to listen to yourself or watch yourself on tape. But I force myself to do it, so that I can correct myself. I don't think it's possible to stand still in show business; you go either backward or forward." Asked to describe her masculine ideal, Carter 'snapped back: -Tom Selleck, star of the "Magnum P. TV series. Pressed for a more explicit definition, she added, "I like a man with a sense of humor and intelligence, with sensitivity and self-esteem.

If a man has self-esteem, he loves himself and he can love you more. I like tall people. I admire handsome men, like every other woman." For the future, Carter "would like to do a musical on film. I'd also like to do a theatrical production. all out there.

It's all a growing process. I've had a lot of offers. I have never had a timetable. I like where I am I am very happy with my life. "I have a life outside show business, too.

I enjoy sharing with my friends, my family. My nieces and my nephews are important to me. I enjoy my ranch. Developing as a woman, as a human being, is impor- Actor Aldo Ray, at insists, 'I'm no has By MARILYN BECK Chicago Tribune Co. HOLLYWOOD "The only thing that hurts is when I get the feeling someone thinks I'm a has- been 'cause I'm not," says Aldo Ray.

"People recognize me everywhere. I go to the grocery store, and shoppers call out, 'Hi, It's been 32 years since handsome, brown-haired, 23-year-old former high school football player Aldo DeRe auditioned for a bit part in Columbia Pictures "Saturday's Hero" and was signed to a seven-year contract that ted to stardom in dozens of major movies, including "Miss Sadie Thompson," "God's Little Acre," "Battle Cry" and "The Naked and the Dead." And it's been many, many years since his fame ride came to a numbing halt. He is on film assignment as we playing a passenger aboard -Paramount's "Airplane The Sequel." He also had a minor role in Paramount's 1976 "Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Holly- wood." But with the exception of those two comedies, he can't recall the last time since his glory days of the '50s and early '6Qs that be was employed by a major film flrm. Ray did achieve a fresh burst of notoriety of sorts in 1979, when be lent his talents and his name to a production titled "Sweet Savage Bad Girl of the West" Questioned about thai picture now, he says, "I did it because the money was an right I didn't do any of the nudity and because wanted to see what happened on that kind of a set And you know mncttamg? Nothing happen. Fve seen more hanky-panky on the sound stages where so-called 'good' movies are made." During his years of making "good" movies with such legendary greats as Bogart, Tracy, Wayne, Hepburn and Hayworth, he was accorded the respect -and the treatment of a super star.

"I became famous overnight, and the publicity I got! The studio spent a fortune ma King me an important name," he recalls with a wistful smile. "The only problem was they weren't paying hardly anything'to me." His salary started out at $200 a week, peaked seven years later at just three times that amount. And when his Columbia contract came to an end (with, it would turn out, his days of quality films behind him), he didn't have much more to show for his years of stardom than scrapbooks jammed full of newspaper clips. "Nothing was happening for me in Hollywood, but then. Doom, I went to England and made a movie there and they paid me $100,000 more than I'd made to all my years at Columbia combined: "Then I came home and there was nothing for me here again, but then, boom, another overseas f3m came up." Subsequent overseas "booms" financed alimony payments to three ex-wives and cbikKsnpport for three young sons.

But then came the time when the film offers dwindled into aoth- "I did panne for a "silent burglar alarm company for a white, and I've som4 voiceover commercial work," age 55, been' "And I've also been somewhat of a bum, I guess His lighthearted manner turns out to be paper-thin when talk turns to bis bouts with the bottle. "I'd go on binges, just isolate myself from the world, and drink. I wasn't angry at anyone, I guess, but me. Things got particularly bad after my third divorce, which really crucified me financially, and I didn't -have the heart for anything anymore. "I just lost my hold on myself and rriy emotions then.

I drank too much and, well, this is a small town and people talk a lot and make things worse than they are." He hesitates a moment before he says, "Things did improve. 1 would go 100-125 days between binges and I haven't had a drink in over four months. Prayer and thinking better thoughts about myself have He mentions an independent production be hopes to make this year and volunteers, "Other producers have given me a coupla grand. But this producer said It would be no problem giving me a five-figure salary a week, and that made me realize my name still means something thai I still do have importance." And then, unexpectedly, he laughs. "I read about all these young kids holding out for a week oa a series.

Isnt that something?" There's another momentary pause before he comments, "You know what I want to teD 'em? I want to say, 'Watch it! Hang oa to what yon ve got And enjoy it Good Old Days Sherwood Forest Theater Murrysville a ting the days of late 19th and a 20tn America in the rnusical i are, from left i row i i i a Pamela Stati phoTO by WILLIAM LA8KIN Graves and Dan Herring, and back row, Marra Hanahan, Ed Tobm and Joy Tobm The rnusical begins at 8 30 Aug 18 to 2 1 reservations call 327-5149 'In crowd' gets night out Pittsburgh's "in croud together with the casual happy hour goer, are constantly on the look out for a new and different type of "after 5" affair If that's what you're looking for, the Gateway Clipper Fleet at Sta-' tion Square has come up with a new concept in "happy hour living" which is unique, different, exciting and absolutely free to the public. John E. Connelly, president of the Gateway Clipper Fleet explains it: "It is unique in that it will be held outside on Pittsburgh's own Steel Pier at the Gateway Clipper Fleet dock at Station Square where the Spint-of moors It is different in that it commences when the sun is over the Yard Arm at 5 00 and continues until 9'30p Tuesday, Wednesday. Thursday. Friday, and Sunday.

An afternoon concert will be held on Saturday from 1-00 m. to 5-30 m. It is exciting in that it will feature one of the best show bands the East Coast has to offer called Atlantic City Express. And. best of all.

there is no admission or cover charge to the outdoor 'Steel Pier'." The Gateway Clipper Fleet is trying the new concept for a two- week period beginning today, and continuing through Sunday. Aug 29 If it becomes popular with the city's fun-seeking crowd, it wilfbe continued Atlantic City Express, the show band group selected to kick off the experiment will be coming to Pittsburgh direct from an engagement at Harrah's in Atlantic City. They have been heralded by leading newspaper critics on the East Coast as "one of the best The trade publication. Variety, calls them "one of the better show groups we've seen in inventive, well organized, creative and absolutely spellbinding enthusiasm at its entertaining best." Disney rounds up winner --Tex' "Tex" Rated PG By BERNARD DREW Gannett News Service The Walt Disney people have come up with a very pleasant movie, "Tex," which is warm, likable, and extremely affecting before it concludes in a burst of melodramatic activity. Set in the rural Oklahoma of today, not too far from Tulsa, the movie has something of the charming bucolic quality of Henry King's notable "State Fair," though its story is far more complex and sophisticated than the rustic classic was Based on a popular novel by S.E Hinton, adapted to the screen by Charlie Haas and Tim Hunter, and capably directed by Hunter, the story tells of an unhappy 15-year-old boy (Matt Dillon) who is in the care of his 18-year-old brother (Jim Metzler) because their rodeo-circuiting father (Bill McKmney) has not only failed to come home in a long time but has neglected to send any money to them.

Metzler has had to sell young Dillon's beloved horse, which infuriates the boy. but he understands the necessity of the action This does not stop him from being a problem at school and a burden to his elder brother, who. though a champion high school basketball player, thinks seriously of not applying for a scholarship to the University of Indiana because he must" take care of his kid brother What holds the picture together so well is the very real affection of the brothers for each other, despite their misunderstandings and problems. They are exceedingly well played by Dillon and Metzler. This is a rare family picture.

Woman's first novel excites "The Women of Brewster Place. A Novel of Seven Stories." by Gloria Naylor (New York: Viking Press, 191 S1395) By KAREN HOWZE Gannett News Service The sights, sounds and smells of Brewster Place have changed over the years, First one ethnic group then another has moved away from the city. Children leave but "carry" the property until money is needed. The stately buildings are sold to buyers removed from the history and the life that once was Brewster Place. A wall was built one day and stately Brewster Place became no more than a blind alley.

Then decay set in as poor, black residents moved into the stately buildings, which were no longer care for by indifferent owners Who had never seen the once-lovely street. This is the setting for an exciting first novel writen by Gloria Naylor. a black writer who Gaude Brown in the Promised has dubbed "the rnost refreshing voice in the black idion since" the discovery of Toni Morrison twelve years ago. Naylor weaves a tale about the lives ot-seven women who live on the blind alley for different reasons. Some were born with good fortune.

Others gained and lost never could have it and did not want to be other than they were. The characters are fully developed as women who happen to live together because they have either chosen or been forced to live on that blind alley with the solid brick wall. The person Naylor ably sets apart as the character is Mattie, a woman who in her late teens had a son, never married and because of her "sin" lost her family She smothered her son with love and total devotion and had norelationships with men after his birth. She lived for the son. But, in the end, she loses all for him.

Without the house and land she had worked for. she moves to the blind alley and lives without enough light for her many houseplants Naylor manages to weave a story of life alone for seven women around a woman she never physically describes. But Naylor brings out the heart and soul of Mattie and through Mattie, describes the other women Among her neighbors are: old friends from earlier years one younger than Mattie. the other a contemporary, strangers who include a lesbian couple, a middle-class idealistic black single woman whose family lives in the affluent part of the city, and a woman who has an apartment filled with children because she loves having babies even though she doesn't know what to do for them when they grow out of their diapers Naylor's presentation gets to the heart of the motivation, the thought processes and the hearts of these women. There is no sex, and the one act of brutality in the book occurs near the end That act becomes a catharsis that leads to what the reader must infer is the final death blow for Brewster Place.

In the end, the one fact is clear: the women who remain will continue to live even if in the despair and dissolution of another Brewster Place native of Brooklyn currently on a fellowship at Yale University and working on a second novel, is an author to watch. She can create fractured characters who somehow have a wholesomeness that belies circumstances and position in life Her images are strong and in some instances beautiful. The ending of this novel reminds one of many of the moments in Ton; Morrison's work "Song of Solomon" because Naylor changes her technique and creates an illusion with time "The Women of Brewster Place" is an impressive work with a literary touch that swings the reader from emotion to emotion In it, Naylor has created a small masterpiece of pleasure The writer is managing editor-systems for USA Today in Rosslyn. Va NEWS RECORD CLASSIFIEDS GET RESULTS! PHONE 366-3202, 931-2900 Opening Sept. 7 i Breakfast Coffee Sandwiches Welcome AT WILOWOOD POOL BY NORTH PARK CINEMAS MCKNIGHT ID S885 931 1870 NIGHT SHI FT Afiffib LI PO.