The Record from Hackensack, New Jersey • 39

2d THE SUNDAY JJttTARY It irS B-I7 The petite clovn is a big success Comedy in blue Benign humor is Linden's description of Barney Miller' By EMORY LEWIS DrtawCfWC 1 1 1 ii I iii Mia mi i i A 1 5 i 0 i 1 A ZFli (::) p-: tar I era as Sammy Kaye, Bobby Sherwood, and Boyd Raelburn in the late 1940s and early 1930s. "But I gave it up, I got tired of carrying the saxophone," he said. After service during the Korean conflict, he turned to acting, studying at the American Theatre Wing and by 1358, was get ting featured roles on Broadway. He has been seen in 18 theatrical productions among them with Lucille Ball, "Illya Darling" with Melina Mercouri, "On A Clear Day You Can See Forever," "Subways Are for Sleeping" and then won a Tony as best actor in a musical for his performance in "The But Linden feels he was trapped in his success. His image has been that of a Broadway musical star, and he wants to break away.

That's why he's been trying, almost desperately, to land a television series. He made two' other pilots before "Barney Miller." One was a detective drama, "Mr. Inside, Mr. Outside," which was reasonably well-received as a TV movie, and was in contention as a series for a while. Some years ago he starred in another proposed series, "The Shameful Secrets of Hastings Comers," which was meant to be a parody of "Peyton Place" when that series was doing well.

But "Peyton Place" was cancelled before Linden's show could get on. By DAN LEWIS HAL LINDEN, whose successes in show business have been in Broad way musicals (where he won a Tony Award) and providing voices but not the faces (or television commercials (where he's earned a lot of money) Is now the star of a new situation comedy on television called "Barney Miller." It will premiere next Thursday on ABC-TV at 8 p.m. Linden plays a Jewish cop in New York, surrounded by other cops of Polish, Puerto Rican, Irish and black heritage which already indicates that 'Barney MUler" is different from most other police series. There are other factors that separate this from the run of police shows: "In the four episodes, not one shot is fired," Linden reports. "And there's not one chase, either." What television viewers also have is an alternative form of comedy benign humor, as Linden chooses to label his show.

"I've been watching a lot of television comedy shows lately," Linden observed, "and I've seen a lot of hostile humor on the tube a lot of screaming and yelling. That's not us. We'll have immense bite and I'm not so sure we're going to pull it off but we're not going to be dumb, screaming cops. And we won't be a 'Car 54, Where Are series either. I guess, philosophically, we hope to be to the police department what MASH' is to the Army." A native New Yorker, Linden is a well-built, 6-foot-l, former big-band musician.

He sports a thick, black mustache, recently acquired. He is married to the former Frances Martin of Palisades Park, and recalls: 1 courted her on Ruby Avenue." His father-in-law, Emil is retired, and still resides in Palisades Park. Linden started his show business career playing the saxophoneand singing for such popular bands of the big band Captain Barney Miller and Barbara in the ABC-TV series "Barney premieres Thursday at 8 p.m. PINT-SIZED Jane CoaneS is a rubber-faced clown who occasionally resembles a surprised chipmunk. This past week, she opened in a revival of Sheridan's The Rivals' at the Roundabout Theater and once again demonstrated that she is one of the funniest women in America.

"Gene Feist, the director of the Roundabout, called me at my house in Los Angeles about doing this role," she said over a light lunch at the theater. "I only come back to New York when a role really fascinates me. Earlier I did Goldsmith's 1773 hit 'She Stoops to Conquer' for Gene. I'm in love with the 18th Century. "Michael Bawtree, the director of this production.

Is terribly exciting," she says. He was brought up In England and now lives in Canada. Until recently, he was the associate director of the Shakespeare Festival in Ontario. He comes to the Roundabout straight from the Tyrone Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, where he directed the highly successful production of Moliere's "The English training Is so marvelous. The technique is incredible.

It's the best in the world. I'm enjoying working with Britain's Christopher Hewett and Canada's Richard Monette. They are both inspired artists. She uses a tape recorder to learn the complicated lines in this script, taping her cues and allowing time for her responses. "It's the most efficient way to learn your lines.

You don't have to be dependent oa someone to feed you cues, a dull routine at best. "My husband Gordon Connell and I travel all over the country, wherever the work Is. He was recently in New York to accompany Karen Morrow for her singing stint at The Brothers and Sisters, an exciting new nightclub. We have a large apartment here, but we sublet it most of the time. (jORDON IS a composer, arranger-condctor, vocal coach and, of course, an actor.

A couple of sea-'sons ago, he starred in the magnificent revival of John Gay's The Beggar's "He tours with Celeste Holmes and Wesley Addy when they do their show at colleges around the nation. Gordon acts and also plays the piano when Celeste sings. They have toured in the Near East for the State Department "Gordon and I worked together In Sacramento last summer in a production of 'Once Upon A He played the King and I played the Queen. Jo Anne Worley and Henry Gibson were also in it. We stayed on to do and I played Hermione Gin-gold's role of the grandmother.

Later last summer, I played Gigi's grandmother in Pittsburgh. The Connells were both born in Berkeley, California. However, they did not meet until they went to the University of California in their hometown. She majored in drama, and he majored in music Jane's father, who was a leading California attorney, encouraged her to pursue her career as an actress and singer. Even in childhood she was certain she would be an entertainer.

For several years after their graduation, the couple appeared in California with a group called The Strawhatters, both on radio and the local stages. But it was appearances at two San Francisco nighclubs, the Purple Onion and the hungry that ignited their careers. Miss Connell was warmly encouraged by other lady clowns, including Alice Ghostley, Charlotte Rae, and Phyllis Diller. "In fact Phyllis got her hair idea from me," the busy actress recalled. "Mine was always a mess." The Connells first appeared in New York at the late lamented club, Le Ruban Bleu.

Impresario Julius Monk made them famous, along with newcomers Imogene Coca, Liberace, the Delta Rhythm Boys, Irwin. Corey, Dody Goodman, and Jonathan Winters. LATER JANE Connell was a mainstay at Julius Monk's Upstairs at the Downstairs. Her multicolored voice graced many of Monk's -delightful miniature musicals. I shall never forget her hilarious antics in the satirical "New York is a Summer Festival," written, incidentally, by Schmidt and Jones, who later wrote "The Fantastics." The versatile star brightened Ben Bagley's "Shoestring Revue" and the long-running "Threepenny Opera." She made "April in Fairbanks" a memorably funny moment on Broadway in "New Face3 of 1956." Her list of credits is long and distinguished.

"People seem to know me best for my portrayal of Agnes Gooch, the pregnant secretary, in 'Mame'," said the veteran actress who just turned 49. "I created the musical role on Broadway. More recently, I See PETITE, Page B-19 LINDEN HOPES "Barney Miller" will give him the exposure that not only will erase his musical image which is restricted mostly to people in the industry but national identification as an actor. Consequently, whenever he goes on a talk show now to promote "Barney er," he has one stipulation; he will not singonly talk. "Barney Miller" is a two-set production, one in police headquarters, the other in his home.

Barbara Barrie, another New York actress with strong theatrical credentials, plays his wife. The show is being taped before live audiences. "You can't do any running or chasing on a two-set production," Linden ob- Hal Linden tlart Barrie plays his Miller" which served, emphasizing that it will not be an action comedy. "The whole idea is that people take their jobs too seriously. If a policeman takes it too seriously, he goes insane.

Consequently, policemen have immense respect for each other and generate a great camaraderie. They're putting their lives in each other's hands every day. 'That's why they're in love with their jobs, and that's why there was the big controversy in New York recently when cops' wives got upset when policewomen were put in the patrol cars with policemen." Putting the activity in the police department creates all sorts of possibilities parading characters. "Inherently, more interesting people show up at police headquarters. They are not the kind who normally go to church on Sundays." A journey psychology By JOHN CRITTENDEN Movl Critic GROWING UP male in America is just as worrisome and wonderful as growing up female, and at last there's a film that deals with it.

"Men's Lives" will open Wednesday at the Bleeker Street Cinema in Greenwich Village. The theater, one of the most hallowed halls in American cinema in recognition of its exhibition of foreign and so-called underground movies in the 1960s, has recently, reopened. "Men's Lives" was made two 1974 graduates of Antioch College Will Roberts, 24, of Springfield, Ohio, and Josh Hanig, 23, of Kokomo, Ind. It is, as they say on the soundtrack, a journey back for the film makers. But it's not a sentimental one.

They've made a fairly tough-minded documentary, free of rhetoric. They did their interviews politely. One takes place while Roberts is getting his hair cut. The barber is saying he kisses and hugs his son and doesn't think it will affect the boy's maleness. "Men's Lives" delves deeper into the personality of the American male than any film I've seen.

It reminds me of the very best feminist movie I've seen "Three Lives," by author Kate Millett. That film was made up of three spearate, extended interviews with three very different women and gave personal testimony as proof that feminism's view was not all theory. I HERE IS no widespread acceptance of men's consciousness-raising today, though almost anyone must admit that trying it could only make things better. Hopefully, "Men's Lives" will help to change things. If it makes maleness any less threatening to men, if it provokes any self-analysis in the men who see it then it will have succeeded in its mission.

With half the film shot in Springfield and the other in Dayton, the 43-minute documentary goes to the places men hang out sports fields, fraternity houses, a bar, their homes. Roberts and Han as wif ig ed as ONE OF THESE interesting characters recently created a dispute between the show's producer, Danny Arnold, a former nightclub comic turned producer-writer-director, and ABC-TVs censors. The second episode zeroes in on a homosexual purse-snatcher. One of the lines which Standards and Practices at ABC objected to was the prisoner's exclamation: "Kleptomania is a disease, not a crime. I've thrown away better purses than the one he had just snatched." The scene had to be reshot (spoiling Linden's plans to take his wife and four kids to Hawaii for vacation).

To make sure viewers realized the prisoner was still a homosexual, someone suggested he consider another profession maybe even become a cop. His reply: "Who wants a gay cop?" That line survived the censors. into the of men wanted to focus their film on boys and men who grew up as they did Midwest-em and lower middle class. In doing so, they've nailed every one of us. Like any good documentary, "Men's Lives" finds universals in the specifics of lives and events.

We see a young gu? who's crazy for cars. We've known him. Maybe we've been him. Perhaps it's the first time he's been asked why he is, what it gets him. We go to a party at a fraternity.

Girls are asked what the scene is like. They tell, and so do the boys. I can't imagine that such candor about sexual promiscuity was common when I was in school in the Midwest seven years ago. At least no one was doing any talking for camera crews. Times have changed, and with them men's lives.

OKAY, SO that's what's happening with the irresponsible college kids. Back home. Dad is going through the same old grind he always was. It is point- A FILM REVIEW out that the role of good provider is just as restrictive a role as any forced on women. Men must be aggressive the older men in the film tend to agree on this.

On the other hand, the film makers questions often bring these men as well us to the realization that there must be alternatives to rigid role-playing. The film makers have not interviewed neurotic, introspective men who have ready answers. We don't get rhetoric; we get that which has always been considered common sense. We get new thinking, new questioning. In confronting other real people we confront ourselves, and few films these days are as filled with real people as "Men's Lives." "Men's Lives" may seen at the Bleeker Street Cinema at 3:30 p.m.

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and at noon on Saturdays and Sundays through Feb. 2. Let's hope it gets wider exposure. It is being distributed by New Day Films, a collective of feminist independent film makers until the inclusion of Roberts and Hanig and "Men's Lives." Staff Photo by Al Paalion The right to climb is a heritage passed from father to son. But what else does a boy inherit? Two young film makers have sought the answer in fraternity houses, on sports fields, in a bar, in men's homes.

The result is the 43-minute documentary "Men's Lives" opening Wednesday at the Bleeker Street Cinema in New York. MawitttiaHHiiii Jane Connell Jrhftln1iii1ff'fii iHS ffrfirilr ilnfUriiiffini ifrY iffwifn fltrrriiifTiiiirif'! iftr ifWri aTHft (tk ft i fft ifrL if i A rfH ifh dtli irffTwira iffhiiftniiW Jfc Jk tkm tfi)fllhBftirifcftJJ A. A. A. A th A fk A AJk.

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