Calgary Herald from Calgary, Alberta, Canada • 29

Section Dyan Cannon is Sexy Single PageC7 The songwriters get turn in spotlight PageC2 fc" v- ENTERIMNfi a JUL s. All Hands On Deck for Show Boat's Pat Harrington AV Kv TIPVA i I MARTIN MORROW Calgary Herald t's quite a step up: from the irresponsible superintendent of an apartment building to the captain of your own Mississippi showboat. Actor Pat Harrington can't help laughing at the notion of his old TV character, A A Dwayne Schneider on One Day at a Time, but he's patient and he's gentlemanly, he's humane and civil and chivalrous. He loves Parthy and he knows how to work her." Harrington is only one in a string of veteran comic actors to take on the plum role of Cap'n Andy early on, I was right behind them. I said 'Go do it he says.

"The more you say no' the more they're going to go do it anyway, so you might as well get with the program" Harrington's first big break came with the TV role of Italian immigrant Guido Panzini on the old Jack Paar Show in the late 1950s a part he played so convincingly, U.S. Immigration believed Guido was for real. (In fact, Harrington is second-generation New York Irish.) He went on to regular roles in numerous TV series, including the early-'70s drama Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law, in which he played the title character's courtroom foil. He also landed some film work, including the part of Elvis Presley's buddy in the 1967 musical comedy Easy Come, Easy Go. "He was a delightful guy," he says of Elvis.

"He was tough to get to, because he was surrounded by about 12 guys named But once he and I could get together I found he had a great sense of humor. I just broke him up continuously. He couldn't hold it He was a lot of fun. 'And, jeez, was he gorgeous and in "I saw Ned Beatty in it twice," he says. "I was really impressed with Ned, but having seen him pointed me in the direction I had to go.

Ned was back-porch and down-home. I wanted to make my guy more of a dandy, with maybe a dancer's background." He can easily identify with the paternal captain, who presides over an extended family of travelling entertainers and encourages his own daughter Magnolia (Gay Willis) to become a singer, against Parthy's wishes. Harrington was born into show business himself his father, Pat Harrington was a Broadway song-and-dance man and three of his four children have gone into the biz with his blessings. "When my kids showed those signs (of talent) playing the role of Cap'n Andy Hawks in the musical Show Boat "You don't navigate the Mississippi and shoot from the hip the way Schneider does," says Harrington with a chuckle. "Schneider would run into every sandbar between Natchez and Mobile if he was in charge!" Audiences who only know Harrington as the fatuously macho Schneider will be in for a surprise when they see him as Cap'n Andy in the spectacular, $io-million revival of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's musical classic, opening Friday at the Jubilee Auditorium.

Gone are the tool belt, the T-shirt and the two-bit gigolo's moustache. As Harrington plays him, Andy is a dapper showman whose easy-going style and seeming deference to his wife, the formidable Parthy (Anita Gillette), hide a shrewd nature and a strong wilL "When push comes to shove, he's the boss, there's no two ways about it," says Harrington with a smile. "Andy gets done what he wants done, smce this production made its debut in Toronto four years ago. The others have included Robert Morse and Ned Beatty.bothof whom played the captain as a folksy, jovial type. The lean, rugged Harrington decided he had to try something different.

i i. i great shape then," he adds. "Wow! He was Mr. Karate, lean but well muscled And so self-effacing." But Harrington made his biggest impression on One Day at a Time, the popular, Norman Lear-created sitcom that ran on CBS from 1975 to "84. As lovable Schneider, IK the intrusive super, he went from trying to score with Bonnie Franklin's single mom to becoming an uncle figure to her two teenage daughters, played by Valerie Bertinelii and Mackenzie Phillips.

fxim rrn. r.T otii If' v.j A Harrington joined Show Boat last spring, taking over as headliner of the show's third company, which started up in Chicago and has since played engagements in Louisville, Ky Houston, Ottawa and Seattle. It'll move on to Atlanta after its four-week stop here. And what'll Cap'n Andy be up to when he isn't piloting his show boat at the Jube? Driving golf balls, he hopes. "I understand there are some indoor driving ranges in Calgary and that's important to me.

I've gotta keep that swing lubricated and loose." Preview Show Boat opens Friday at the Jubilee Auditorium. Performances run to Dec. 6. Tickets, sale at all Ticket-Master outlets or call 777-0000 to charge by phone. Also See I Showboat: The other stars C3 NEW CINEMAS MUSIC South a mecca for movies Shania Twain gets to play 'Santa' at Southcentre Mall complexes will have tiered stadium seating so that even the tallest of people sitting up close won't block anybody else's view.

In Shawnessy, services at the cinemas will include gourmet coffee, pizza, ice cream, french fries and some of the latest video games, Kucherawy says. It will also feature huge displays of movie memorabilia, he adds. The cinemas are also providing hundreds of full- and part-time jobs. At the Canyon Meadows location, upwards of 40 jobs are being created, notes Lichtman. The Shawnessy complex will provide 150 jobs and Famous Players is expecting the cinemas to be a leading money-maker in the country.

A similarly-styled complex in Missis-sauga, Ont, became the top grossing theatre in Canada within two weeks of opening, and then tops in North America in its third week, says Kucherawy. that the mall has also contracted out extra security to help handle any crowd-control problems. The Santa Claus set-up is actually a benefit to mall officials organizing Twain's appearance, as the extra ramps on site increase wheelchair and stroller access for autograph seekers. Twain is promoting Come On Over, the follow-up to her hugely successful album The Woman in Me. That disc sold more than 12 million copies worldwide and the new CD, released on Tuesday, is off to a good sales start.

Over 400,000 copies of Come On Over have already been shipped to Canadian record stores. Fans can check out Shania Twain's autograph session at Southcentre Mall Saturday from pan. KEVIN GILL Calgary Herald When Shania Twain stops in at Calgary's Southcentre Mall Saturday to promote her new album, she'll be signing autographs near the snow-covered doorstep of someone even more famous than Twain herself. That person is Santa Claus, and due to the fans expected to pack the mall, the autograph session is taking place in its largest and most accessible area. That just happens to be where Santa's workshop has already been set up for the Christmas holidays.

Southcentre Mall marketing director Mona Biggar says this conflict doesn't pose any problems. "Shania's people realized it was already set up, and they are fine with it," says Biggar, who added DARYL-LYNN CARLSON Calgary Herald South Calgary is about to become a mecca for movie buffs, with a new, 10-screen cinema opening next week in Canyon Meadows and another one under construction in Shawnessy. Both will join the new Crowfoot Crossing Centre theatres as Calgary state-of-the-art cinemas, with stadium seating, digital sound and elaborate lobbies designed to deliver a whole new movie-going experience, say officials from the two rival companies that own the projects. The new screens could also mean Calgary will see more movies, including films that in the past have only been released in Toronto and Vancouver. "It is always the case that if you have more screens, you have more choices," says Dennis Kucherawy, corporate relations director for Famous Players, which is building the extravagant movie com plex in Shawnessy, due to open Oct.

9, 1998. The Shawnessy cinemas will be the key tenant in a development called The Boulevard on Macleod Trail at 162 Ave. S.W Meanwhile, rival Cineplex Odeon is opening the doors next week on its multiscreen complex at Canyon Meadows Centre. The complex has 10 screens which are curved to deliver depth to the films. "What we're doing is enhancing the movie experience," says Cineplex spokesman Howard Lichtman.

"We'll have the latest and greatest of theatre technology," he boasts. Kucherawy notes that cinemas have to keep up with the technology being used by filmmakers to deliver the best possible effects. "The state-of-the-art cinemas are built to show the films as the director wanted them to appear," he says. In addition to improved screens, both 1 SrWftl ME 1 no on all in stock special order Tiffany's We specialize in complete home packages! 1 floor, table and hanging pendants 5553 First Street S.E. Calgary 252-4CG3 Hours: 9 pm, Ttiurs.

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