The Mercury from Pottstown, Pennsylvania • Page 21

Pryor hints at canceling NBC television contract Mercury, Pottstown, Pa. 13, 1977 21 LOS ANGELES (AP) Accusing NBC of my comic Richard Pryor hinted Monday he may cancel his contract with the network because it cut a brief skit from the premiere show of his new comedy-variety series. He said wait to see the broadcast version of the show Tuesday night before deciding if continue the series. His NBC contract calls for five shows. He has finished one and is taping the second.

The deleted skit is at the start of show, which airs from 8 to 9 p.m. EDT, a time period the networks generally consider the family viewing hour. It shows Pryor, nude from the chest up, denying he made compromises to get his show on the air. Then, as the camera pulls back, he adds: given up absolutely A full-length shot shows him nude, save for a flesh-colored loin cloth that gives a realistic impression been emasculated. NBC said in a statement it felt the skit inappropriate and a brief edit was made.

We think that the program is terrific and Richard Pryor is one of most innovative and most talented A spokesman at Burbank, studios declined to go beyond the statement. Pryor, appearing at a news conference at NBC with his executive producer, Burt Rep. Robert Butera to be honored guest at area Gop session State Rep. Robert J. Butera, minority leader in the legislative assembly, will be the honored guest 4 to 6 p.m.

Sunday at a kickoff campaign and lodge- warming, sponsored by the Union Township Republican Club at the New Brinton Lodge, Route 724 near the Douglassville Bridge. Peter Honavick, prominent Berks County Republican, county Republican candidates and township candidates will be present. Area candidates include Robert McMullen, seeking reelection to his post as township supervisor; Mary Button, candidate for township tax collector; Helen Nairn, candidate for township auditor; H. Patricia Stull, candidate from the township as Daniel Boone school director, and candidates for several precinct offices. Refreshments will be served, and donations will be requested.

Dana Corp. employes working overtime For the past two weeks, employes of the Dana Corp. have been pouring hours of overtime into production to keep up with the demand for 1978 car parts. According to Hal Hiser, plant manager, the change to the new model parts has resulted in the accelerated schedule. The company was also informed by a member of the board of directors that the per cent returns on sales was 50 per cent higher at the Pottstown plant than the corporation average.

Sugerman, was asked if NBC told him why it cut the skit. He said he was told it was done protect the watching when the show airs at 8 p.m. EDT. But he insisted that every child has a doll that appears as he did in the skit, without visible sex organs. He also said leave it to reporters to decide if he was sincere in his criticism of NBC or just trying to pull a publicity stunt.

Sugerman said senior programs executive, Irwin Segelstein, saw the skit on tape last Friday and approved it, provided one line I am, standing would be cut. However, the producer added, broadcast standards chief, Hermanio Traveisas, called the entire segment to NBC. Pryor said he had been asked to tape a substitute segment for show, but had refused. stifling my creativity and I work under these he said later, adding that he hopes to meet with top NBC executives and resolve the problem. Pryor, who last month got NBC to reduce from 10 to five the number of shows required to do in his series, said decide his next move we see what happens tomorrow The 36-year-old comedian was asked if the networks have some control over what hey air.

"They he said and. alluding to NBC's last-place finish in evening ratings last season, added: why No. Reiffton Fire Co. safe broken into, $3,000 is stolen Exeter Township police are Corvettes galore photo by Randall Wolf Corvette fans, more than 1,000 of them, came to Sun nybrook Sunday to see 47 cars in stock, semi-custom, custom and race prepared classes. Twenty nine trophies were awarded, and cars came from four states.

Neal Petenbrink, president of the American Dream Corvette Club which sponsored the show, said the group hopes to make it an annual event. White House urban strategists work to draft new urban policy investigating the theft of $3,000 stolen after a safe was broken into at the Reiffton Fire 46 W. 33rd St. Police said professional thieves apparently opened the safe Sunday night or early Monday morning. They used an a acetylene torch to open the safe located in the area of the fire office.

Also stolen were a television set and other items. Police said entry was made into the building through a rear window. It was the fourth burglary of its type in the Reading area within the past month. More than $10,000 was taken from safes located in fire company buildings in Reading. The fire companies were West Wyomissing, Mt.

Pleasant and Lyons. School guards UPPER DARBY, Pa. (AP) Security guards were posted at the homes of Upper Darby School District board members Monday after autos of two of them were damaged by spray paint over the weekend. Teresa F. Furey, board president, said, more disgusted than anything after yellow, green and black paint was sprayed on her car and on one owned by board vice president Joseph Zoll Jr.

WASHINGTON (AP) White House urban strategists told a group of big-city mayors on Monday that President Carter has not slammed the door on increasing spending to aid troubled American cities. Chief domestic adviser Stuart Eizenstat and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Patricia Harris met with 10 mayors to discuss the urban policy that is being drafted for the President. Carter himself made a brief appearance, saying he is committed to helping the mayors solve city problems. Mayor Moon Landrieu of New Orleans said Carter stressed the need for long-range planning. Abraham Beame, lame duck mayor of New York City, said the Carter urban team is polishing a proposal to create a domestic bank that would subsidize loans to companies doing business in big cities.

He said no firm committment was made on the so-called urban bank, but Mayor Kenneth Gibson told reporters that it was merely a matter of deciding which version of the bank Carter will endorse. Mayor Maynard Jackson of Atlanta, reflecting the greatest concern, said. "The extent of the mittment in regards to was not specifically addressed. But he and Mayor Richard Hatcher of Gary, noted that Carter apparently has not imposed a spending ceiling on his urban plan, as he did in the initial work on welfare revision. Hatcher said Secretary Harris "made it clear to us that in the directive to develop an urban strategy, they are not under that Carter eventually endorsed a slight increase in spending on income benefits in submitting his welfare package last month.

Stowe motorcycle rider seriously hurt in crash A 35-year-old Stowe man was undergoing surgery early this morning at Pottstown Memorial Medical Center for internal injuries and multiple lacerations and contusions he suffered when he was struck by a car while operating a motorcycle on High Street Monday night. Simon Philips, Armon Apartments, was admitted to the intensive care unit in serious condition. Police said he was involved in a 9:30 p.m. accident at High and Manatawny streets. According to Joseph Daluzeau, 7 W.

10th the driver of the car that struck Philips, the accident occurred when the victim went through a red light at Manatawny Street. Heading west on High Street, Philips allegedly failed to stop for the light and collided with the Daluzeau car which was to make a left turn on Manatawny Street from High Street. Police said the motorcylist was thrown over the roof of the car and struck the ground about 18 feet from the point of impact. Philips was taken to the hospital by Goodwill ambulance. In meeting with the urban advisers, the 10 mayors representing the U.S.

Conference of Mayors presented their own recommendations, including endorsement of the urban bank. Some mayors, along with a number of officials who run federal urban programs, continue to question the level of commitment to the cities. First and foremost, they are watching to see if Carter will provide added federal funds to aid the cities. "There is no question where his loyalties said one assistant secretary, who asked that he not be quoted by name. man was elected with a lot of city votes, and a lot of black votes, and not going to forget out there and that they have problems.

But it clear that he knows take money to solve One subcabinet official, wary of the inevitable upcoming spending battles with Office of Management and Budget, put it this way: talking a good game, but got to keep your eye on the referring to the 1979 budget. The budget, due in January, will be first spending document and will signal his priorities. urban task force is working this week to complete a series of reports that will provide the outline for a national urban policy. The urban policy is due to be announced by Carter early next year. Some officials at the White House and in the Cabinet agencies say at least several billion dollars more is needed 'or housing, public transit and economic development.

Aside from money, several key policy considerations are being discussed. The Conference of Mayors is lobbying for a Treasury Department plan for a federal urban bank that would make low-cost loans to companies that build or expand operations in troubled central cities. The Department of Housing and Urban Development is pressing for a regional approach to federal urban spending. That would target aid increases to cities and suburbs that adopt a coordinated metropolitan approach for housing, transportation and urban development. Though personal agenda is dominated by foreign policy matters such as the Panama Canal treaty and upcoming strategic arms talks with the Soviets, he has ordered aides to step up work on an urban policy.

Several factors moved the urban agenda to the fore: Increasing criticism of domestic program by black leaders, labor spokesmen and city officials; continued high unemployment, especially among urban black teen-agers; and the need for support from the urban lobby on economic and foreign policy issues. Poet Robert Lowell dies of heart attack Shuttle super tank AP Laserphoto The giant fuel tank billed as the backbone of the U.S. space shuttle rolled out of the hangar at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans Friday. More than 1,500 persons were on hand to view the $2.5 million disposable tank. NEW YORK (AP) Pulitzer Prize winning poet Robert Lowell, 60, died here Monday of a heart attack while on a taxi ride from Kennedy Airport to Manhattan, said his former wife, Elizabeth Hardwick.

Miss Hardwick said death was discovered by the taxi driver. "He had been in Ireland for a week to see his son and was coming home from miss Hardwick said. driver said he got in the cab at the airport and died on the way, I "The elevator man called me and I went down and we went to the hospital and they said he was dead. I think it was from a heart she said. "The driver at first thought he was asleep.

I guess he died sometime between when he got in the taxi and the time he got Miss Hardwick, who was divorced from Lowell in 1973, said the poet was to spend a few days in New York before leaving for Massachusetts, where he was to teach at Harvard University this year. The Boston-born Lowell received the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1947 and also had been awarded the poetry prize of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Guinness Poetry Award and the National Book Award. Before winning the Pulitzer and Academy prizes Lowell had published of in 1944 and in 1946. Lowell was to publish more than a dozen other poetry volumes, the most recent being "Selected published in 1976 and by which came out this year. The son of Robert Trail Spence Lowell and the former Charlotte Winslow, Lowell grew up in Boston and attended Harvard University from 1935 to 1937.

He was graduated summa cum laude from Kenyon College in 1940. After graduation he served briefly as an editorial assistant with Sheed and Ward here. During World War II he was a conscientious objector. In 1947 and 1948, he served as a consultant in poetry at the Library of Congress, and during the same period he had a Guggenheim fellowship. His other works included "The Mills of the published in 1951; which won the National Book Award in 1959; which won the 1962 Bollingen translation prize; "For the Union 1964; "The Old 1965; the 1967; of a 1969, and Lizzie and and all published in 1973.

first marriage to Jean Stafford in 1940 ended in divorce eight years later and in 1949 he married Miss Hardwick, by whom he had a daughter, Harriet Winslow Lowell. At the time of his death, Lowell was married to Caroline Blackwell, who lives in Ireland. He had a son by Miss Blackwell..