The Toronto Star from Toronto, Ontario, Canada • 51

TORONTO DAILY STAR Sit Aug 14 1971 5t Bruno home bound to comb some beaches By JACK MILLER Star staff writer think: Time to make a And you'se got to oo it I'm not inter ested in analyzing And so volatile Bruno Gerussi who went to the top on Canada's stage and who seems to have established a private new height in Cana dian radio is off to hometown Vancouver next month to see how high he can go ir a television series They'll call it The Beach combers an outdoor semi adventure product of toe Phi! Keatley ir record includes cm er distinctions trp dis covery of Chief Da It for CBC te th network that orc eiectr him for the role of Quentin Durgens MP because ne look Cat a i a enough But tin is the newGerus si He doesn't explode at memories like that any more He laughs has to co with tee degree of confi dence in who I am and what I am I think I've acquired 'air degree of I don't a wellM I suppose there's some of that But I'm net worried any more about zX 5r 'z? 4' A a a i A ir i A 'AdkN' I sBr xz wtWL ve 'z Wr I vG 7' 7 4 I 7 BRUNO GERUSSI PRACTISING OR NEW IV SERIES He's going home to Vancouver for a show called The Beachcombers finding work or about being recognized 'Tm 43 years old and I've been through ail that" if someone doesn't recognize him it's not a sign that he hasn't made it and should try harder It's just a sign that he's talking to another which is the dummy's worry and not Bruno His self assurance should swell even more i if jt can i from the way this change tn TV ha1 come abrut It's very different from the shift he made 10 year' ago hi' stage career He had been one of th top actors at the Stratford esti val for almost a decade and then 10 years ago he sim ply invited back But today in radio they want 'o much that thc CBC will go to a lot of troub'e to keep injecting at least some of the Gerussi aura imn its morning ser vice this fall N'cy this TV offer ha' happened along and it has just hit him right Like none other The radio show has run four years like nothing else radio has tried largely be cause Gerussi has been like no other host it has tried It's been an hour and 45 minutes a 40 minutes of that carried nation widethe rest has been local for Toronto only It's an appar ently instinctive amalgum of satire and poetry and mu sic and interview' and what ever el'e happened to pop into head In fact it's always been a carefully charted show That's the craft io making it seem intuitive hiding the plan ning" The whole thing was a concept of Harry Boyle now vice chairman of the Cana dian Radio Television Com mission but chief of radio program planning four years ago when this started Royle saw it as the ultimate use of AM radio And his succes sors at the network seem satisfied that it has been just that Expand format Their faith in the concept is so complete that even in the face of falling audience ratings (down almost 50 per cent on CBL here in the past two years) they'e decided 1 1 expand the Gerussi for mat to three hours each morning with all of it car ried nation wide When CBC radio is divid ed thi' fall into separate AM and Radio One and Radio this will ho pattern for al most al! the national day time programming on AM which has most of the audi ence i So Bruno could nave it made in a business where insecurity is the pattern He couid hai the his income has been estimated at S300 a week from the show And he could have the ego trip that goes witn set ting the new national char acter for the system Ho'' frpei nr culd if re wanted it that way But for Rruno it wouldn't be free "It'' a very easy trap You can get locked in Ty rone Guthrie (Stratford's first artistic director) told me once 'It's marvellous to be dedicated but don't lay your head on the Not bored I'm not bored witn the radio show If I'd been bored I'd have been gone long ago I must confess this getting up at fi30 in the I'm still basically a night person and if your mind is clouded with not enough sleep or too much liquor or too many women or whatever you have to really bang your head to set it clear to keep on top of the job But I've managed to do that And I'm not unhappy with the life It's been a fan tastic fcvir years In fact I'm still going to be doing a hell of a lot in the radio show I'll be recording inter views and satire and poetry and ah that out on the West Coast and shipping it back here to be fed in Sn I'm not leaving because gone sour on Loves Toronto c'i 4 dWlgs 2iT AM A 4 'I Star pnoioj by Doua AC IOR BROADCASTER Bruno Gerussi at 13 is going home to Vancouver after nearly two decades in the east where he played for years at the Stratford estival and for the last four year' starred in an experimental and successful CBC radio show called Gerussi! In ths est he will star in a new TV series The Beachcombers! It's not even the idea of getting back to his BC homeland that's making him go he says "I love Toronto and I don't especially love Van couver It's excruciatingly beautiful country but I don't nave close associa tions there simply because I haven't been around them for so long "I don't want to work in the States partly because my son is going on 19 now and I don't want my kid in anybody's army "I'm a pacifist My moth er grew up under Mussolini and hated it I was born in Medicine Hat I'm a violent person in that I'm physical but I I anybody in years used to fight when I was a teenager When Italy went into the war 1 used to tight my best chums fought rather well beat hellvit of most of them" Gerussi is a widower and his son Ricky and daughter Tm? (soon to turn 15 1 live with him They keep house for themselves This sum mer Ricky will be working for his dad lining up guests for radio interviews tn he recorded between takes at the film set for shipping back to Toronto "I expect to be very busy" said Bruno "And I'm excited about the idea of working with kids I think kids are great There's mo much talk knocking kids 1 think if you give them things to do and leave them to work out how to do them they 'll surprise you happily a very positive per son That's what I liked about this TV the main reason 1 decided tn dn it It's very looks at lif as it is and finds mor? hope than anger in In the Beachcombers runo will play a Greek ma rina perator and boat own er He'll have a teenaged Indian as a partner and in an average day will throw at the boy such lines as for nothing Indian too lazy to work" Greatest success The CBC had its greatest success in the past season with Adventures in Rainbow Country an nutdoor show filmed in Ontario and cen tering on two teen aged boys one of them Indian The network couldn't get the company back together for another season so it hopes The Beachcombers will fill the gap and regain the huge Rainbow audience But nobody ever ur ed talk like "good for nothing lazy Jndian" a' a joke in Rain bow Country Sn while Bru nn's Greek beachcr'mber may have the same goal big it won't he the same 'how That's the key" East or west il seems Gerussi stirs things up And while he's trying tn set a new pattern for TV drama in RC he loaves th CBC with a king sized di lemma here trying to find a replacement whn can sus tain the pattern he's soi for radio Gerussi says: Radio generally is 'tu pid Good morning the temperature i' fiS the time is 3 Il 1' gibberish It's mental diarrhea 'the temperature now i' fi9 the time is 333 I know ihaf time it is for God't 'ake! I know all condi tioned tn listen tn it but Hitler did that! It's aw ful It's smothering people and it's gm )n changeil dnn know if my four years have helped to change bn) it was worth trying 1 wnnder nnw maoy people are around who eat! do jt tn take over ij question of how much range a person has "That may sound kind of vain but I rcallv don't think there are that It is kind of ain But mo desty never inhibited Bruno And as the harried CBC management ran a you there are not that many around who can fill his 'hoes far fc an searching they haven! found Dateline Entertainment Supporting actors outshine the stars in McCabe Blood gets you in to see Dracula play SEATTLE If you don't have enough money "Dracula" ac cept blood Producers of the play about the vampire at Seattle University announced yesterday that patrons will be admit ted free if they donate a pint of blood to a local blood bank Members of the cast tried to donate their blood an effort to publicize the but gave an anemic performance Ore would be denor fainted in the waiting room and another fainted as the entered his arm woman cast member was ruled underweight and anotner' oood pressure was t00 low Eventually the blood bank accepted six pints from entire cast of students and graduates Anthony Newlcys divorced LOS ANGELES British actor Anthony Newley was divorced yesterday from his wife of eight years actress Joan Collins after she testified they had irreconcilable differences An agreement submitted to the court showed Newley would pay SI 250 a month for support of tiieir two children Tara and Aexarder 5 They were mameu in Av? Hair okayed in Arkansas LITTLE ROCK Ark US District Judge Thrrras Eisele has ordered the rock musical Hair be allowed to run for a nigh' per formance in a ciiy owred auditorium The audito rium commission has twice refused to allow the play to be staged The judge told the commission to issue a ccrtrac for the musical Singer out of hospital BOSTON Singer Ella itzgerald was dschargsd ay trim the Massachusetis eve and ear mf mary where she had uriwcrgone treatment ci both eyes I just feel so thrilled and greatful that I express it because when I in I anything 5 ye ag vid emertamer talc newsmen at Legau airport oe fcre bgardirg a plane far Los Azneles Sne Hew back frrm her concert tour in and ente ed the bcjptal June 30 frr remcxalcf a catarar' By DANIEL STOMAN Star staff writer McCabe and Mrs Miller 'at th: Uptown 1 on St sou'h of Bloor i is an hour and a half of Warren Beatty mumbling Julie Christie scowling and Leon ard Cohen droning or the sound track It's not much else It snould also be noted at the outset that McCabe and Mrs Miller the picture on the screen is not very clear and much of 'he dia logue is spoke either too quietly or too quickly to be heard by the peoole tn the theatre Good intentions Director Robert Altman isn't totally incompetent anc it car be assumed that he nad good tmenitors Per raps the Jack of focus wg supposed tn impart a dream like quality the proceeding? And the inaudi bility of tre dialogue may nave oeen an attempt to give us a sense of real peo ple talking rather than ac tors Whatever the director reason' for makdrg McCabe and Miller tee way he did the results are hard on tne vie ver McCabe and Mr takes niace at the turn of me ceaiury tn the northern part of Washington state 'It was filmed The st iry cenm ar urd an en trep renew John Beatty who lives a diet cf whiskey mixed with raw egg' and dresses in a seshy combmauc ct fur coal bowler hat ad Swedish pi'tol The stcry be rms oce is cay when a drenched McCabe 'erne res West Ceas: rain forest into tne little mining town of Presbyterian Churrh The town is domi ated bv a tall church from "ch it gets its name a ibbv town with cockeyed icr king buildings and a Cn ese ghetto and muddv 'trr Altman had the town from scratch on a site north of Vancouver anc movie gives the viewer a pretty good feeling of wnat it might have been like tn live in a place like that The set is the only rood thing about the movie McCabe is a rambler and in the saloon nf an ingrahatnr Irishman named Shteran 'Rene Auherjonotsi he spend' many days taking money from the miners in poker games With rn rung' he 'rave's to a earbv low he purchases three gins Then he eYirrs to Presbyterian Cturch and e'tabii'he' House of ortune a saloon casino and brothel Nerds help Tmr are a well enougn wrer ore nav a no an a mar pr''t'i te rar'i Ur stance Miller 1 1 shows up and i rr' Mc Cabe that re needs says shell rm a prper htrr ca' prostitutio rlfte witr lgr kir rtrls rorted a the way Sea real linen ee' art baths to make trc clt' tc' in 'jer luxti tgh an tra tr will a McCabe a er wII share the rrtfrs McCabe cr be rz gg aL eg tr' I rcinx cf dernesv hke Presbyterian Church appeals to his sense of tj bizarre So Mrs Mil ler takes over and the new brotnel and with it the town n'per' too rood to last how ever and a mining monoon ly decide' tn ake over Mc Cabe's Holding' nen Mc Cabe dnesn respond grate fully to the company ofter the company decide? to kilt him McCabe gne? iow bravely If' basically a simple of life in the we't' rn ness and Altman tell' it bad ly The idea of a building a story arwind a relationship between a bm'terous inno cent like McCabe and a tough Cocknev manam line Mrs Xbller was a good one and could have made fnr sardonically humorous a 'nok at the frnrLer Alt man gave u' of the Korean Wa in A There are inkling' in the movie that this is exactly what Altman intended If 'o he failed McGabe and Mrs Miller is like a series of improvised'Ketene' tnat never take off Altman prefer' to hint at his story rather than if There j' an attempt tn '(in stitute camera trickery and er centric editing for a coh erent 'cript and the tion'hp between MrCane and Mr? Milkr is never de veloped We sre able to gup" tnat MeCarx jkoe Mr Mt mu i' tor snv despite ni' outward ilamonvance 'W I a Mi Wv sav tn It' also possible tn that Mrs Miller likes McCabe hut is ton tough ano too zonlmd nth or op ium to 'ay so But whenev er an intercnange between 'poms to be about tn provide some insight into mutual relationship A tman stops the action en and nrings or the invi Leonard Cohen for one or ms enoie's encores As a singer Cohen is as hilar iCijs awful a' ever on the 'oonotrack of tm movie arc 'or word' sings are unti'ualy vacuous even for rirn Hard tn say Nf incr Mi's rmr catr are verv impressive it nard say un'T'r ire fault tneirs director tnr re are 'Oir" g'Cid sup porting periorTiances espe a a AunerjorO' as the'alnor eecper ana oy toe tc arr of prostitute else is ere in Mc faxeMMr: Well 're ome old tjre coun tr fidannr and dancing 5 Warren Beatty wrrg orrurd tne town from tir Lme mumblingn'r ve rd Morey and rn rp' end pair "And a consderable ou helc ing ir rr'TcreOle scene gccupp' sc eer at af o' and gives a bra gx rma ce alterrat in a series of A' rrJ'ital emer er' pro i respr fr LtonrdCr'a THE DIRECTOR of the movie Met abe and Mrs Mill er ri(ii opened gav mi'ierlre D'mel Mn id rhe result' aw njllv hard the viewer Mn trne adrl tnat sar' CE i tw ssnd "Arres Beattv show ib rector Sober Almtan right) xerent ery 'mpre' 'ne McCabe and 'Irs Millr ftmrrted by Robert Altman the Uptnwti 1 Verge St south of Bloor 922 31 5:.