Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 45

DETROIT FREE PRESSSUNDAY, OCT. 29, 1978 1 3C names ffacss Ali plugs pop for 3d World MUHAMMAD ALI is joining Tanzanian Ambassador Paul Bomanl Sunday at a "socio-economic reception" at the fry ijit Capital Hilton in Washington. All Third World ambassadors are invited to the bout, intended to KO some commitments for "active business with underdeveloped nations. The first round reportedly involves punching up some interest in Ali's proposed heavyweight soft drink Mr. Champ's Soda to be bottled in Detroit.

David Muhammad, the entrepreneur behind the venture, has a $576,000 commitment from the City of Detroit's Economic Development Corp. for the bottling plant, but an old debt of more than $40,000 threatens to let the project fizzle out. LANA TURNER, in Chicago getting ready for the stage opening of "Divorce Me, Darling," is prompting amazement for her workaholic tendencies during rehearsals. One stagehand described Miss Turner as "the hardest-working broad I've known," and at one point, director Jim Pappas stopped the show to inquire, "Lana, don't you even want to go to the Shiiley Edcr Four times the fun for four girls that the Wagner orginal "is definitely not going to China or Australia." ABC-TV's Sunday Night Movie, "Crash," will not be shown by the network's San Diego affiliate because station officials fear it was scheduled too soon after the Sept. 25 air collison that killed 144 people near Lindbergh Airport.

The film's plot is based on a real plane crash in the Florida Everglades. SIR LEW GRADE, British film mogul, and his brother Lord Bernard Delf ont have ended their rivalry, which began while they were Charleston dancers in their youth, by joining to form Associated Film Distribution Corp. Lord Delfont called the merger "an octopus with goodwill," and announced that already scheduled are 22 large productions including "The Muppet Movie," "The Story of Maria Callas," "Cafe Society," "Movie, Movie" and, interestingly, "The Lone Ranger." FRANK RIZZO makes a lot of hoopla over his straight talk, but on the issue of polls the Philadelphia mayor has inserted both feet firmly in mouth. Rizzo is seeking a city charter change to allow him to seek a third consecutive term, and has expressed concern about Gallup polls indicating his proposal will be defeated by about 2-1 on Nov. 7.

Then Rizzo's campaign announced results of a poll it commissioned indicating 48 percent favored the mayor's scheme and 44 percent opposed it. But Ed Canapary, of the San Francisco firm that conducted the poll for Rizzo, in turn issued a terse statement: "The figures (Rizzo) quoted cannot be attributed to any poll Corey, Canapary Galanis has recently conducted in Philadelphia." KING KHALID is in Bermuda for a week's convalescence from heart surgery and innkeepers and merchants plan to make the best of it. The Saudi monarch, who had been hospitalized in Cleveland, apparently plans to get his money's worth out of his $500-a-day suite by not leaving it, even to bask on the beaches. His Arabian retinue has reserved 100 $138-a-day rooms, and merchants along Hamilton's main street are wringing their hands in anticipation of a buying spree by the royal party. Boxing gets bounce King's dancing Queens strut through a boxing routine during an intermission at New York's Madison Square Garden Friday during their first night on the job.

The idea of boxing promoter Don King, the Queens were intended to distract the audience from bottle throwing and other rowdy behavior before and between acts. It didn't work quite that way; one brawl in the stands was reported, and a man was shot in the chest by a corrections officer after he pulled a knife. bathroom?" Another time, Miss Turner's personal manager asked Pappas: "Do you mind making her eat? Why not put a sandwich in one of her scenes?" PATTY HEARST is distressed about a TV movie being made on the FBI's 20-month search for her and her Sym-bionese Liberation Army abductors. George Martinez, her attorney, characterized the script based on the book "Get Patty Hearst," by former FBI official Charles Bates, as "another example of commercialization for their own profit. Patricia Hearst is sitting in prison, and this commercialization of her tragic experience goes on and on." RICHARD WAGNER'S first draft of "Tannhauser" brought $242,000 this weekend from a Manhattan rare book dealer, setting a record for any complete opera manuscript sold at auction.

The total group of 145 autographed letters and manuscripts by the 19th Century German composer brought $1.35 million. Springing for "Tannhauser" was Martin Breslauer, who paid $2.2 million for a Gutenberg Bible last spring. Although it was rumored that Breslauer was buying for a German institution, all he would say was HOW DO YOU work the billing? I asked Margaret Whiting, one of the four stars in the fantastically entertaining musical show, "4 Girls 4." "Alphabetically, my dear," said Margaret Whiting. "That's the only way it could be worked out. That, of course, means that my name always comes last since it starts with a W.

Rosemary Clooney, with her is first. In between us come Helen O'Connell and Rose Marie." I Angel to the altar JACLYN SMITH will wed Detroit actor Dennis Cole in New York Sunday, Free Press columnist Shirley Eder confirmed Saturday. The 31-year-old "Charlie's Angels" star has been dating the onetime actor in "Lancer," "Bracken's World" and "Bearcats" for 18 months. Cole, 38, has been divorced for 13 years and has a 17-year-old son from the previous marriage. Dennis Cole Jaclyn Smith I saw "4 Girls 4" when it played in LA last year, not once but twice.

And each time I came away feeling wonderful because I had had such a good time. It is coming to the Music Hall Nov. 14-19. Who dreamed up "4 Girls Whose idea was it to put the four of you together? "Bill Weems and Bill Whiting it 1 1 Talbeit's a gasbag V4 Morey i Loeb, personal managers who handle Rose-mary Clooney, thought it up. Loeb handled me and he also handled Rose Marie (we assume Maggie meant work-wise).

"It was the two Bills who came up with the idea of putting us together in a small theater on the West Coast called the Doheny Plaza. "The first four girls Included the two Rosies, myself and Barbara McNair. At the start, we did it just for fun. But it was such a smash and we got such fabulous reviews, 1 Veteran comic and actor: "Today's comics have it rougher than I did, because you have to be more worldly today. When I was a kid, I got myself 10 jokes, worked on 'em for a couple of years and had an act.

Today you have to start all over every day and be up on everything. Whether they realize it or theaters all over the country wanted to book us Immediately. At the time, however, each of us had other commitments. When we were able to regroup, Helen O'Connell -came in to replace Barbara McNair. "U7HII THE CHAW uac not, today's comic has to me a master psychologist of the way people are thinking." Y.A.

I j'j-jiftWi I iiirnriit- ntf 1 WitfliiriiM-itriiTrllf Clooney bejng put together, the managers said that each of us would come on solo and then when we finished our individual stints, we could go on home. Rose Marie and I said, 'No! No! No! It is important that we all come back at the end and do something "So we had Sammy Cahn write special lyrics for the song, 'Side By which we now do as a finale." OK, Maggie, who decided which one of you goes on first, middle, last, "At the beginning," continued Detroit's own Margaret Whiting, "we tossed a coin to Former all-pro quarterback for the New York Giants: "About the time where you really get to where you fully understand the game and how to quarterback it, you've gotten too old to play it." Tim Ringmaster of the Ringling Bros. Circus, on the clowns: "Clown work is a great release it's a reflection of life itself. There is nothing easy about being a circus clown. It's a painful life at times, and a joyous one, too.

But from the time one starts to clown around professionally, it is nothing but hard work, show after show." Susan 1 KiC-H'V- Alistair MacLean (left) has had many of his novels made into movies the latest is "Force Ten from Nava-rone" with Harrison Ford, Franco Nero and Robert Shaw (above, left to right) and Barbara Bach (right). MacLean says it bears little resemblance to what he wrote, but he's hopeful the movie will be good anyway. Hi fl A 'Jt i I 4.41. I I' 103 see who opened and closed because in show business, being the closing act is very important. And we all switched around.

However, we eventually found a good running order, and we pretty much stick to it." The running order goes New chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission on current products that worry her the most: "Our priority list consists of 24 programs, which we consider to be of the greatest importance. We are working on a two-phase standard to 7B IS books 7 ovies mos rum Rose Marie like this: Act Margaret Whiting, Helen O'Connell; uy By COLIN DANGAARD Special to the Free Press LONDON Alistair MacLean, whose books Act II: Rose Marie followed by Rosemary Clooney. Actually, though, the two Rosies still sometimes toss for last position. Who gets the No. 1 dressing room? "Oh," laughed Maggie, "that doesn't make any difference to us.

It depends how much room there is backstage and who gets to the theater first." make power mowers safer. We are studying ways to reduce the high number of deaths that occur when people install outside antennas for television and citizens-band radios. We want to reduce the hazards of unvented gas-fired space heaters and upholstered furniture. We're looking into a ban of the use of benzene in consumer products, which has been linked with cancer. We're working with the chain-saw industry to develoD a voluntary safetv "I just blunder along," MacLean says, "from one book to the next, always hopeful that some day I will write something good." are forever being turned into movies the 14th, "Force Ten from Navarone" will be released in mid-December lives like the schoolteacher he once was.

Alone in a modest apartment in Geneva, a tax exile from his native Britain, buying his own groceries, cooking his own meals, he does not own a car and rarely expounds on his fame in interviews. "Unlike my sons," he says, "who were born rich, and have a love of things, I was born poor. I do not need things. I am, you see, a very simple man." standard that will reduce the danger of Billy World-reknown evangelist: "Tell me what you think about money, and I can tell you what you think about God, for those two are closely related. A man's heart is closer to his wallet than almost anything else." SUrling ARE YOU ALL social friends away from the act? "We sure are.

I just flew out to California from New York, where I live, for Rose Marie's daughter's wedding. It was such a lovely Wedding. "I was supposed to sing at the church but since I don't know any religious songs, I passed. "What broke me up, though, was that at the end of the mass, which was very solemn, the priest announced, 'Ladies and gentlemen, I now present Mr. and Mrs.

Steve Rodrigues, and the whole church ap Actor-author on his drinking and pot-smoking: "I am an alcoholic. I am a hard-living son of a bitch. I die, I cry most people just live. And I like it. Merv Griffin asked me why it was neces what It did to Raymond Chandler.

Look what it did to Fitzgerald. "I decided that too, was not going to be chewed up and spat out." TO MacLEAN, Southern California embodies the worst in American society, with its competition and emphasis on material wealth. "This may sound snobbish," he says, "but I did find few Intelligent, educated people in the United States. At least, there are not as many, apparently, as there are in, say, London. "I dislike American doctors, dentists and lawyers because all they're looking for is money, money.

"On the other hand, I have enjoyed the company of some fine taxi drivers." ON THE SUBJECT of American writers, MacLean pleads ignorance, adding: "I do not know much about writers anywhere because I read very little. All I have time for are some magazines, and a few scientific journals. But I think John Ross MacDonald Is the best writer America has. And he is very, very good. all writers, Raymond Chandler is the one whose work I most admire.

I remember he once told his wife, 'Every story I write is a fire for you to warm your hands by'. He was that kind of man." MacLean's stories have warmed more than the hands of his two former wives. One is enjoying the use of his villa in the South of France, and is said to have screen rights to several of his books. He also, it is said, handed out a Lamborghini and two Rolls Royces. MacLean declines to discuss his ex-wives, apart from saying he is on friendly terms with them.

He is a man who very much enjoys living alone. HIS FIRST WIFE Gisela gave him three sons Lachland, 23, Michael, 17, and Alistair, 15. During his Hollywood stay he married film writer and publicist Mary Marcelle. MacLean expects none of his sons will ever plug in a typewriter, however. "Who am I to tell them what to do! My genes are passed on through them, but we are different." More than any other single factor, MacLean credits his genes for his vast success.

"I come from a long line of clever people," he says. "I was born with my abilities. All I did as I went along was polish the technique." MacLean is talking now, on one of the 90 days he is allowed in Britain each year. He moves somewhat awkwardly across his hotel room, a short thin man with a slight stoop, his clothes slung on his body rather than fitted. He calls room service and demands there be no further delay in his drink order.

"SO WHY DO I write?" he asks himself. "It's difficult to say. Certainly, I do not find it easy. It's boring. It's lonely.

"I guess It all boils down to that rather awful philosophy of take the money and run." He sits, fishes for his loose thread of thought, finds it, then continues: "I have no idea why people want to come and interview me. I am just a journeyman. I blunder along from one book to the next, always hopeful that one day I will write something really good." On a typewriter MacLean, 55, unleases a river of words, but in conversation he tosses them about like he was chipping them into marble slabs. As even he admits: "If I had to speak my stories instead of write them, I would be bankrupt." plauded. I suppose I could have sung any romantic song at the church.

Well, I sang at tKi the reception instead." I 1 Are there ever any argu sary to have something to make you high. He said, 'I'm high all the Like a shot I said, 'Why is it necessary to "But I do, to this day, hold a grudge against the Japanese. They should not have pulled my teeth out." MacLEAN is enthusiastic about the possibilities of the upcoming movie, "Force Ten from Navarone." The film, from American International Pictures, stars the late Robert Shaw and Barbara Bach, among others. It is a continuation of the story "The Guns of Navarone," made into a movie two decades ago. MacLean has seen only seven of his films, however, Insisting reports on the rest were so bad that he did not wish to rouse a boundless anger he holds for movie producers.

"Once a movie company buys your book," he says, "you have lost all vestige of control. With the possible exception of 'The Guns of they ruined my stories." (Other notable successes, at least at the box office, were "Ice Station Zebra" and "Where Eagles Continues MacLean: "So I am hopeful this return to 'Navarone' will be good too although the story line bears little resemblance to what I wrote. Robert Shaw was a good actor. And I am told he did a good job. "Whatever, this couldn't help but be the best, because the rest were rubbish.

"BUT I AM NOT BITTER, you understand. The sale of my stories for movies has been a matter of business a process from which I usually detach myself." MacLean spent two years in Hollywood writing screen plays, in the early '70s, an experience that moved him to knock out "Goodbye California," which exploits the theory that one day the whole area is going to break off in an earthquake and slide into the ocean. A fitting end, thinks MacLean. "Hollywood," he says, "destroys writers. Look ments among the four girls? "Oh," said Margaret, "maybe once in a while when one of us tells a joke the others don't like.

Or we add a 1 HW O'Connell have Well, he said, music isn't the same. But to me it is. I mean, why do I need a sunrise? I need a sunset, I need the road to feel well. It is an extraneous thing, music is an extraneous thing we put into our heads to make us feel well. Grass is just like one thing to me.

It is as though you are listening to your favorite song in mono, and there is a button called stero. That's all there is. Alcohol, at least where I am concerned, clips my wings song that isn't acceptable to someone. Or perhaps one of us stayed on too long. Or when one of us isn't giving our all.

"You know," she giggled, "we have three hooks waiting in the wings at all performances." (Maggie, of course was alluding to the old vaudeville amateur show where if the audience didn't like the performer, he was dragged offstage by a long pole with a hook on the end.) I promise that when you see "4 Girls 4" at the Music Hall, the only hook used will be the one that lifts you out of the theater to keep you from staying on for the next show because you are having such a wonderful time. and lets my dreams come down a little bit. HE TALKS WITH his teeth clenched a pattern induced by the warring Japanese, who pulled them from his head "without the benefit of anesthetic" when they discovered MacLean blowing up their supply bridges in Southeast Asia. "I guess we blew up one bridge too many," he says. He was with a friend, also tortured.

They blasted their way out, snatching guns from their captors, and escaping in a motor boat. In another chapter of World War II, MacLean was twice shot by the Germans but he holds no grudge against them. Booze is like a grenade it explodes. William Jennings Famed orator: "Eloquence may be de fined as the speech of one who knows what he is talking about and means what he says it is thought on fire.".