The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 2

Boston Evening Globe Friday, Otobcr 2(1. 1978 'I i MIKE BARNICLE And let us not forget BARNICLE Continued from Page 1 Ralph Dunning was a Scot who came up with the idea of the second notice. Without Dunning's cheapness, hundreds of banks would have folded because a lot of people, left unbothcred by Dunning's concept, would never have paid a thing on time loans. You him 1 if 1 Sir Hart, in addition to forgetting Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John Rock, who invented the birth control pill, and Abner Doubleday, omitted William X. Wall.

Wall is a Massachusetts state senator who defined the art of constituent services. Anybody can draw up legislation. Billy Wall, however, can pick up blueberry muffins at Jordan's and bring them back to housewives in Lawrence. Hart didn't think to include Art Xerox, who made it ROOSEVELT possible tor millions ot stu- iF dents to cheat on term papers HOUSEI MAN He can't JOHN say no by copying old ones. He also neglected the woman who came up with the idea for Saran Wrap.

Les Interest was a guy out of West Roxbury who single-handedly affected the course of finance when he invented the 48-month car loan. This has been one of the significant trends in the history of western civilization and should have gotten a nod in HOOVER Hart's book- Mr. and Mrs. Joe Smith (he was from Chelsea, she was from Dedham) were the couple who thought of the cheap motel room requiring no ID to sign the register for a three-hour stay. You can talk about Masters and Johnson all you want, but the fact is that Mr.

and Mrs. Joe Smith led the sexual revolution in America. By Ron Miller Knight-Ridder Newspapers There's an almost irresistible compulsion to polish up your shoes on the back of your pants legs, check your fingernails to make sure they're clean and clear your throat at least three times before meeting John Houseman. The only form of address, of course, would be "sir." Houseman is, after all, an institution, a presence in the arts so revered that the thought of anybody slapping him on the back and calling him "Johnny" makes your skin crawl and your hair stand on end. That's why it really knocks you out to discover the cultured, British-accented and refined Mr.

Houseman is not above cracking a joke, gently to be sure, or admitting he loves dressing up in fright wigs and acting like a perfect ass now and again. In his new CBS television series, "The Paper Chase," the venerable Houseman gets to act out his most bizarre fantasies in kooky dream sequences that so far have cast him as a graveyard haunt and even, egad, a blushing bride. "I never say no to people who ask me to do anything," he says in a tone comfortably beyond droll. "I adore the dream sequences. We're running into the normal resistance of all establishments to fantasy, but I suspect that if tests were made they would find the audience enjoys them very much, too." At 75, the tall, dignified Houseman might be expected to spend most of his time sorting through his papers, preparing yet another volume of memoirs in a cluttered office on some placid university campus.

In other words, what's a theatrical icon like Houseman doing slaving in a weekly one-hour television series that's running nose and nose against the likes of "Happy Days" and "Laverne and Shirley?" Though Houseman smiles benignly at the question and mutters something about his affection for the role of Prof. Kingsfield, the simple truth is that Houseman is an indefatigable Renaissance Man whose limitless energies clearly are leading him to a new field he has yet to completely plow that of the television star. Originally a successful grain broker, Houseman lost his neatly pressed shirt in the 1929 market crash and decided to try a new career. A budding writer and habitue of the theater during his school days in England, he decided to try the theater professionally. After a few successes as a playwright, Houseman teamed up with the young Orson Welles to found the now legendary Mercury Theater on Broadway, produced Welles' famous "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast on radio, then helped fashion the screenplay for Welles' "Citizen Kane" in 1941.

Once he got his feet wet, Houseman rapidly began trying all phases of the theater and motion pictures. He directed Leslie Howard on Broadway in "Hamlet," Louis Calhern in "King Lear" and dozens of major shows. In the movies, Houseman produced such classics as "They Live By Night," "The Bad and the Beautiful," the Marlon Brando "Julius Caeser," "Executive Suite" and "Lust For Life." When television entered its so-called "golden age" in the 1950s, Houseman was there, producing live dramas for CBS' "Playhouse 90." It wasn't until 1964 that Houseman entertained the notion to step in front of the cameras as a performer. The occasion was John Frankenheimer's "Seven Days in May," a thriller about a military takeover of the US government. "I played a small part as a treasonous admiral," Houseman recalls.

"John Frankenheimer sort of did it as a joke. I worked half a day and that was it. I didn't do it again for 10 years." When Houseman again stepped before the cameras, it was to play the diabolically Socratic Prof. Charles W. Kingsfield Jr.

in the movie version of "The Paper Chase." He was devastatingly funny and easily won the Academy Award for best supporting actor. "The movie wasn't a blockbuster, but it did very well," says Houseman. "It's constantly being revived and I think you'll find it's the most successful permanent fixture on university campus film programs." Houseman so loved the character of Kingsfield, who's really an austere version of Houseman himself, that he began thinking about the possibilities of doing it as a TV series almost from the begining. It was tossed around as an idea for some time, but nobody seemed all that interested. In the meantime, Houseman's acting career creating a whole new audience for him among young He has specialized in what he calls "malignant old in films like "Three Days of the Condor," "St.

Ives" and "Rollerball" with some amusing turns as Winston Churchill, and former US Attorney General John Mitchell in television' dramas. "Obviously, malignant types are more tun to play tnan Kincny old gentlemen," he observes. Houseman is quite modest for a man of his accomplishments and continually mentions his lack of techniques as an actor. He is a harsh critic of his own work, but believes he's improving with experience. Playing Churchill in "Four Days at Potsdam" was particularly challenging, he says, not only because he lacked experience to handle such a famous personage, but because he had to smoke cigars.

"I don't smoke, you see, and every day I had to smoke two or three of those huge special Churchill cigars," he recalls. "I used to throw up regularly." Though some critics might find his villainous old man roles beneath the dignity of a man like Houseman, he revels in them. He loved doing "St. Ives" with Charles Bronson because, among other things, he got to dye his hair red and wear expensive clothes. "It was so appalling, so outrageous," he says.

"That character was such fun. I'm sorry to say some of the thines that made it fun ended up on the cutting room floor. I never understood what was going on in the picture but I enjoyed it." When ABC showed "The Paper Chase" on television last season, it was a major ratings hit and also scored well in a repeat. That got the wheels turning again and Houseman was approached to reprise Kingsfield in a weekly series. He agreed readily, subject to certain guarantees about the handling of the character.

"He won't have any problems of his own, won't get divorced, fall in love or anything foolish like that," Houseman promises. "I would very much resist softening Kingsfield until he's an ingratiating old gentleman." Houseman also isn't concerned about the rigors of weekly television at his age. He's in excellent health and has worked out a schedule in which his scenes are wrapped in a couple of days so he can do other things while the story concentrates on the young law students he terrorizes. Naturally, Houseman has a lot to say about how "Paper Chase" is transformed to the TV screen, but he says he's an actor on the project, not the producer or director, so he doesn't expect to throw his weight around too much. Young James Stephens, who plays Hart, Kingsfield's primary target among the law students, reports his experiences working with Houseman have been nothing but good.

"He's just an incredibly warm, gentle, friendly person," says Stephens. "Then we go on the set and Kingsfield is a holy terror." Houseman is happy the critics have received "Paper Chase" so warmly, a sign he's working in a show that won't disgrace his rather sterling reputation in the medium as a producer. Though he's now doing what might be called a comedy-drama, he retains his deep interest in fostering true drama on television. "Drama is extremely important as part of the national diet," he explains. "I think its absence from the television screen for a long time is very serious." In his producing days, Houseman worked with the best writers and directors of TV's so- called "golden age." Despite recent critical re-evaluations of that period.

He still thinks it was the most exciting in the medium's history. "Television was still something of a novelty and everybody was full of excitement about what you could do," he says. "If you look at them today, some are pretty good, but the subject matter had enormous variety and range." Houseman isn't that happy with today's attempts to do "highbrow" drama on television because he feels they lack the immediacy, the vigor of those early shows. He also dislikes the trend toward importing most of our serious drama from England. "I do a great deal of protesting about the colonial status we seem to be reaching by using all the British stuff," he says.

"As good as it is, it's a copout. Seems to me we should be creating more shows." Though still deeply involved in the cultural scene for example, he's reorganizing the drama department at the University of Southern California, where he's a visiting professor Houseman can't help but be amused by his newfound "pop star" status. Every day he's approached by "fans" on the street, many of them high school age. "I not only get a reaction from the old gentleman with beards the Harvard Club, but all kinds of quiet young kids come up to me," says Houseman. "They always want to toll me how they had a teacher in school who persecuted them and to whom they are very grateful for what he made them do in class." It's a delightful new sensation for Houseman, one he's hoping goes on for quite a few seasons more.

hi) Without hot-pillow joints, the homicide rate in this country would be triple what it is. Mr. and Mrs. Joe Smith gave cheaters a place to go. And if Alexander Fleming, the inventor of penicillin, ca make the list, what about Mrs.

Fleming, who inspired Al to think of it? If Louis Daguerre, the inventor of practical photography, is ranked 62nd, where should we rank Larry Flynt, the publisher of Hustler, who took pictures one step further than they'd ever been before? Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Persian Empire, is ranked 86th. However, his son, Cyrus the Not So Great, is not even mentioned, even though he gave up the empire to open a small rug store in Ankara. Voltaire is called a revolutionary freethinker and makes the list at 79. Tommy Manville, married about 13 THOMSON Ah 'v 1 times, cannot be found. Hernando Cortes is men 1 fci nii I tioned for conquering Mexico.

Pod Fizz, who came ud with Alka Seltzer and conquered McCARTHY Mexican food, is missing. What about the guy who revoked Hitler's card in the Berlin Painters Union, Local 32? Wasn't he influential? What about the chief petty officer who convinced Nixon in 1946 to go back home and run for office? Didn't he affect the course of history? THE DIGEST Miscellany SCHOOL OFFICIALS in Memphis, warned teachers to end their nine-day strike today or face possible dismissal. Round-the-clock negotiations began Wednesday after a threat of a sympathy walkout by 5000 members of the city's largest I ft I -mm union. MISSION CONTROLLERS report the two Pioneer spacecraft speeding on their 310 million mile voyage to Venus have passed major operations tests and are ready for their encounter with the planet in early December. The first pictures of Venus are expected Dec.

6. Syria has dropped a demand that the Australian airline Qantas bar Jewish passengers from its weekly flight to London by way of Damascus The severed thumb of a 20-year-old machinist has been replaced by his big toe which was transplanted onto his right hand in surgery at a Philadelphia hospital. The toe is expected to function almost exactly like a thumb when it heals. And he will be able to walk normally without the toe A longshoreman in Baltimore, accused of threatening to kill President Carter during a telephone call Wednesday, is under court order to undergo psychiatric examination The London Daily Telegraph appeared on the newsstands today for the first time since its plant was shut by a strike on Oct. 4 Japan has agreed to a US proposal to open negotiations soon for revision of an agreement under which it relies on American uranium enrichment services for its atomic power plants -SEYMOUR R.

LINSCOTT DOUBLEDAY What about the woman who thought of wash-and-wear clothes? And who invented McDonald's? And what about sneakers? Someone must be responsible for deodorant. And socks. These are not insignificant items. Adam Smith, we are told, founded modern economic theory and is placed 37th. Herbert Hoover, who destroyed modern economic theory, is placed nowhere.

The high school student from Moline, 111., who invented parking with his girl friend, is not here. The man responsible for drive-in movies isn't, either. How can Freud make it and Meldrim Thomson not? What kind of a list mentions Queen Isabella, who launched the Inquisition, and does not mention either Joe McCarthy or J. Edgar Hoover, who perfected it? Continued from Page 1 World CANADA'S 23,000 striking postal workers are "very much mistaken" if they think the government will not prosecute them for defying a back to work order, the postmaster general warned yesterday. An emergency law ordering an end to the walkout was passed Wednesday.

THE SOVIET COMMUNIST PARTY newspaper Pravda said today that President Carter's decision to order production of neutron warhead comnonents was a "dangerous step" that could affect SALT talks due to start when US Secretary of State Cyrus Vance arrives in Moscow tomorrow. TWO MEN roped together in Alpine fashion scaled Nelson's Column, a 145-foot high tourist landmark in London's Trafalgar Square, at dawn today to protest racial discrimination in South Africa. Police decided to await their descent before taking any action. SOCIAL CHRISTIAN DEMOCRAT Paul Vanden Boey-nants, defense minister in the outgoing Belgian government of Prime Minister Leo Tindemans, has agreed to form a new government. The Royal Palace said he will keep his defense portfolio as well as becoming prime minister.

National WOMEN are expected to gain more than $1 billion a year in medical benefits and sick pay under the new pregnancy disability law. It overturns a 1976 Supreme Court ruling that bias against pregnant workers in employee health insurance plans is not sex discrimination. VICE PRESIDENT Walter Mondale says the Republicans' Kemp-Roth plan to cut taxes by $100 billion is "probably the lousiest idea a major party has sponsored in this century." He said the cut would be inflationary and would force reductions in programs and services. LOTTERY NUMBERS THURSDAY'S DRAWING PAYOFF ft FLYNT Local FEDERAL DISASTER OFFICIALS said after an air inspection of the Massachusetts coast yesterday that at least 70 percent of residential property damaged by last February's blizzard, and 90 percent of all sea walls, have been restored or nearly restored. THE GENERAL CONTRACTOR on the Boston school system's $29 million Occupational Resource Center in Roxbury is seeking a federal court order against some 200 members of six trade unions who went on strike at the site Tuesday.

A hearing is scheduled Monday. A THREE-MONTH WORK STOPPAGE by inmates at Norfolk state prison has apparently ended, and supporters say the administration has agreed to end strip searches of visitors, allow inmates' relatives to take part in prison programs, and hold hearings on the classification system. TWO BROTHERS were arrested in Amesbury early today after standing off state and local police for more than an hour by allegedly firing shots through their apartment door. Robert Provencher, 26, and Brett, 19, were booked on assault and other charges. 3598 ANY ORDER EXACT ORDER $162 91 91 All 4 digits First 3 digits Last 3 digits $3889 545 47 5 All 4 digits First or last 3 Any 2 digits Any 1 digit You can spend the entire weekend trying to add or subtract from Hart's list.

The only sure thing about his rankings is that he did not forget to include the man who invented breakfast: Sir Francis Bacon. Above payoffs based on $1 bets PREVIOUS DRAWINGS Wednesday 1328 ($4447) Saturday 6317 Tuesday 8375 ($5035) Friday 2132 Monday 1850 ($3966) ($3891) ($3363) (Mike Barnicle is a Globe columnist).