Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 42

1 2C DETROIT FREE PRESSSATURDAY. MARCH 28, 1987 Suicide: An answer that leaves questions Jim people would have wondered why a million It's the ultimate way out. Of anything. Anv hard chin AnV illneSS. 2 Fit I Dob Talbeit Saturday special Any shame.

Any dilemma. Any scandal. Any heartbreak. Any v. Anything.

It is the answer that is still a question: "Suicide." It rhymes with Suicide. Taking one's own life. Killing yourself. someone we Know uue cycij week or month. Our lives are touched, -A hv tllPCP Cllif idPS.

LlVCS times over. Nobody ever suspected ne wumu, everything ahead of him, the future so bright. Why? I had my reasons, Valid ones. I've been there at the edge and I know how that I've felt the moment of suicide-or-not arrive and pass because thank God and whatever, wasn't up to it. That's why I don't think it's ever easy to take your own life unless there's already a known death in your future.

If I had a fatal disease, I wouldn't hesitate doing myself in. I wrote that boldly, but 1 don't know. Life's pretty damn precious and pretty damn good over the long haul. I'd like to think I'd be tough enough to pull the tubes or have them pulled. I always thought the suicide-exits of early heroes of mine, Ernest Hemingway and James Dean, fit their personas as did their methods of ending it.

A bullet into the brain and foot to the floorboard. But I have never been satisfied as to the reasoning. Even in today's latest local front-page suicides, Jerome Bronson and Sarah Goo-dard Power, there will never be a satisfactory answer to the question why? There never is. Never will be. Suicide rhymes with why.

lUIMCUOlluwmiiM ripped apart, left hanging, torn open all Wltn unanswerauie 4ucauuni ui tne core. thrf.f. FRIENDS of mine have had chil I have still another friend whose girlfriend is suicidal, midnight hospital stomach-pumpings every other week, bandaged wrists, etc. EMS knows them by first names. I know they'll be in the headlines one day.

Suicides are becoming as common as divorces. Maybe it's unusual that I have all these close contacts with people affected by suicides. I think not. I'm not alone. I asked around.

It's amazing how suicides have become part of society's warp. You figure the part of the tapestry it is. It's there, woven into our character. A flaw. SUICIDES ARE NOT EASY.

I don't care what you think, suicides are never the easy way out. If you say that, you've probably never sat there with a pistol in your lap ready to blow your brains out. I have. A true suicide has no survivors folks. So no one will ever know first hand whether it Tie Iu7.s of indoors are no place for finesse "It is no time to be finessef ul," said a man being interviewed on TV.

Finesseful? Or maybe that should be with a hyphen finesse-ful? Whatever. The man who said it got my attention. I'm always fascinated by the innovative distortion of the English language. For instance, last month the Grosse Pointe Advertiser quoted a local official as saying a Grosse Pointe Woods bridge would soon "be deconstructed." If the bridge were in Detroit, it would be torn down. Likewise, most people who operate with finesse are described as being adroit or refined or delicate or a slick cardplayer.

I'd never heard such a person called finesseful (I'm not using the hyphen because the word finesseful will be written several times in this column, hyphens are always scarce in a city full of blind alleys, and I don't want to rob suburban cul-de-sacs). SO I QUICKLY put down my newspaper to see who on TV said it was no time to be finesseful. He Hemingway: James Dean: Shot himself Drove to his death really does the trick. Are they free at last of the burden, the reason, the whatever, that caused the suicide? We'll never know that on this earth, but those of us who have seriously contemplated suicide know that it is not easy by any means to finally pull it off I sat with that pistol in one hand and a quart of whisky in the other, vowing if I finished the quart by a certain time I'd kill my sorry self. I passed out and woke up the next day with pistol imprinted on my face and a hangover I couldn't believe.

Another time I drove to the edge of a quarry, prepared to take the final plunge. I didn't, couldn't. Had I been successful, dren grown adult children commit suicide in recent months. I nave gnevea wuu them. I have two more friends I've heard lost loved ones to suicides.

I will eventually grieve with them. I have another friend whom I think is on the verge of a suicide himself and I try to keep in contact with him regularly in case he cries out at the end of his rope. by Garry Trudcau Dooncsbury jn tmMF MnmMPLETBU CUT I alone aWcqufutely cut OFF. I BEGIN TOKtOKtl NOT CLEARING THE. BWM- WTrslsimm I T'VF COME SO FAR' NOT CUARIN6 THE BKPEPI-i lwlrHK- 1 A refuse TDOMMjejf we've Ann Landers SHALL I PAZA NO, HE'S PROBABLY mlVJ' JUST STUCK WN WITH THE NETWOKK.j Tm WW THE NETWORK.

NOONS SAIPANr- SHE'S HALF THIN6 ABOUT VRA60N. IN livirrii. HALF HEN! Moviemaker created a monstrous future ing to me as a son to be able to give his father something back." Bob, even though you've become a big movie producer, you're still married to the same woman from Sweden you Wed 1 7 years HOLLYWOOD The company is New Line Cinema, the movie that's rocking 'em at the box office is "Nightmare on Elm Street III," and the founder and CEO of New Line is Robert Shave, (a.k.a. Bob was a dirt track racer describing races held in tne Pontiac Silverdome. My wife, whose attention was also captured by finesseful, was incredulous.

"What is he talking about?" she asked. "There's no dirt in the Silverdome." I explained that tons of dirt are trucked into the building and fashioned into a hilly racetrack that looks like a winding country trail more suitable for goats than cars. And after the races, the dirt is trucked back to where it came from probably a hilly country site so basketball can again be played in the Silverdome. "You're kidding me, aren't you?" she said. "If people wanted to race cars on a hilly country trail, they'd do it outside on a hilly country trail.

They wouldn't move the hilly country trail inside a building." Yes they would. Otherwise there'd be no way to make certain no one watched the races without buying a ticket. It isn't practical to fence in a real hilly country trail and surround it with ticket booths and beer and hot dog counters. "Are you trying to tell me that people actually pay good money to go inside a building to see cars race on a phony hilly country trail?" Certainly. Many sports baseball, football, etc.

were first played outside under the sun, but now are often played inside under electric lights. So why not move dirt track racing indoors? It's exciting; because of the limited space inside, the cars are closer together and there are more accidents than there'd be outside. In fact, from what I've seen on TV, the dirt cars sometimes shoot over the tops of hills and land on each other. Drivers can get hurt and the winner is usually the car that causes the most damage and still keeps going. Like the man said, it's no time to be finesseful.

"I didn't realize car crashes are a sport, the same as baseball," my wife said. "There must be something wrong with people who enjoy watching cars crash." I New Mexico is a proud U.S. state Dear Ann Landers: I have followed with interest the letters from residents of New Mexico who are resentful that so many Americans don't know New Mexico is a part of the United States. Here is a piece from the Wall Street Journal by Eugene Carlson, a staff reporter. It appeared November 17, 1986.

Enjoy! A Loyal Fan Dear Loyal: Here's Carlson's piece. A proud member of the Union since 1912, New Mexico's name nonetheless sounds vaguely alien. This leads to problems. Residents tell of publications that demand high-priced, overseas rates for New Mexico subscribers, and of letters that arrive from elsewhere in the United States with enough overseas postage to assure delivery to Buenos Aires. Then there was the young man from New Mexico who applied to Harvard Business School.

Back came the school's reply: Since you are an "international candidate," you must first take a test proving your proficiency in English. An upstate New York man applied for Social Security numbers for his two daughters. He was told they weren't eligible because they were born in New Mexico. Mr. and Mrs.

Harold McAskill moved from Florida to New Mexico and notified MasterCard of their new address. MasterCard replied, "Since we do not mail credit cards out of the continental U.S.A., we must temporarily cancel your account." George Seher of Bay Shore, N.Y., commented to an X-ray technician during an examination that he was retiring to New Mexico. "That's wonderful," the technician replied. "You should do well there now that they have devalued the peso." Ann Landers will reply to all questions accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. by Shaye), Max and Dorothy Shaye's kid who went to MumfordHigh, then U-' then Columbia Law and tknn in QxuaAon rtn a Flll- ysr bright scholarship, where ago.

Do you think that's because you make your home in New York and not in Hollywood? "No. It's because, when I take a job on, I stick to it until it's finished! (Laugh.) We have two daughters ages 14 and 16." Are they cra he met the Swedish woman he's married to. He went into the movie business 20 years ago. Recently I spoke with Bobby oops I mean CEO Robert Shirley Eder Shave. A New Line Cinema horror creation.

nationally on April 24, is called 'My Demon It's a scary title, but it's really a comedy fantasy with Scott Valentine from 'Family "Shirley, we're about to announce a totally different kind of movie which again has a very strong core audience, but it has nothing whatsoever to do with horror. Horror is just one of the broad categories that our target audience enjoys. We appeal to the dating crowd. What better way to put your arm around a date than to have Freddy Krueger show up!" I understand Coca-Cola is making movies with you now. "Two of the output deals we have are with subsidiaries of Coca-Cola.

One is with Columbia Home Video and the other is with Embassy Communications. These deals vindicate the 20 years of hard work we put into making the New Line Cinema Co. We finally have the wherewithal and the production financing to practice our craft, as opposed to running around and raising money, which is never really what I was very good at. The future looks bright, but we're only as good as our next movie." By now you must have some money stashed away? "We got a lot stashed away, but one of the nice things is that once you hit on something like 'Elm it becomes a sort of a franchise as long as we treat the responsibility to our audience appropriately, and don't try to lay off junk on them. I think that over the years, it's going to serve us corporately in good stead." How much did it cost to make "Elm Street "One-million-eight and it made $24 million at the box office.

'Elm Street II' cost $2.2 million and did $30 million. 'Ill' cost $4.5 million and in just the first three weeks brought in almost $25 million at the box office." Aren't we all sorry now that we didn't invest a few bucks in Shaye's Czech films and three shorts? Only asking! to EACH his own. There are people who buy tirifPts to watch tractors pull loads. Many years -JOn ninwinp r.ontests made some sort of sense when farmers were showing off the horsepower, of real horses. But what's the attraction in waicn- ing a naming oauie ueiwccn even the delightful possibility of a bloody acci Congratulations on the gargantuan success of "Elm Street." "It only took 20 years for you to want to talk to me about my pictures, Shirley." It's the genre of your movies that kept me from talking to you about them.

I don't like scary Couldn't you make a simple little love story that would make me sigh, cry and laugh a little? "We have been profitable for almost every one of our 20 years in business. We started off as distributors. Our first three films were Czechoslovakian movies and three Robert Shaye shorts. I started with a distribution company, because coming from the wholesale grocery business, Grosse Pointe Quality Foods (his father's company) the business I was brought up in I wanted to make pictures and I thought it made more sense to know how you were going to sell your product after it was made." Did you have a little backing from your father? "To the magnitude of about $1 0,000 at the beginning. I had a wonderful moment last July on his 75th birthday, when I was able to give him the prospectus for New Line that showed the $40,000 he invested over the first few years in the company, turned into several million dollars.

It was very gratify- zy about "Nightmare on Elm "They like most of the films we made. Matter of fact when we screened a rough cut at home on videocassette, my oldest daughter, Katya, turned around to me and said, 'Papa, we've got a She was right! They really like our films. So do their friends." Did you plan all along to make three "Nightmare" movies? "Not at.first. But 'II' was such a success that we perceived we should really maintain some kind of cyclical continuity. So 18 months after 'II, we made There's just a possibility if we come up with a good idea, there will be a continuation of Freddy Krue-ger and 'Elm You gambled on the kind of movies New Line has been making.

Are you willing now, to take a gamble on a different kind of film? "Our genre has never been horror films, but our business plan and our definite market focus is the so-called 'youth between the ages of 15 and 25. That's about 65 percent of the movie-going population. "Our next picture, which comes out dent. nr hnw about what's going on at the Yakety-yak Silverdome Sunday? Around 88,000 people will the niarp tn watch Wrestlemania III. Anyone half a hrain knows brofessional wrestling is wiui nu" phonier than a country trail air-conditioned by General Electric.

But there you are 88,000 wrestling nuts stomping and cheering and actual lv taking that nonsense seriously. MONACO has more telephones than people. IN FRANCE once, it was bad manners to wear eyeglasses in public. IN 1948, before no-fault divorces, Bernice Claxton won her divorce in Los Angeles after she told the court her husband made her unscrew and screw in the light bulbs to save wear and tear on the light switches. "There really is no accounting for taste," my wife said.

And some of us are more accountful than others. i briefly: Kirk to the rescue names faces i'sew siai is noi ii iui iTia imiiiuj 1 I I I STEPPING IN: Channel 2 news anchor Bruce Kirk at Myastenia Gravis Association's Impressions '87 fund-raiser at noon Saturday at Fairlane Manor. He replaces author Carol Glno, who was a late cancellation. AILING: State Sen. Joseph Conroy, D-Flint, In satisfactory condition, at Hurley Medical Center after back surgery.

DIVORCED: Actress Faye Dunaway and fashion photographer Terry O'Neill in London after five years of marriage. RAISED: $95,000 by the American Cancer Society's Great American Lockup fund-raiser. Last year's event made $60,000. VISITING: Tony Shepherd, head of casting for Aaron Spelling Productions, to conduct an acting seminar at Southfield's Michigan Inn Saturday 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Registration fee is $50. HONORED: Woody Allen for "Hannah and Her Sisters" and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala for "A Room with a View" by the Writers Guild of America. Edited by JOHN SMYNTEK fff.wi? sltitt atia wtie revolts liockhorns 1 lv 1 ft I Drifters have a hit on their hands. Their re-recording of The Beatles "Let It Be" to help victims of the Zeebrugge ferry disaster, is selling at the clip of 7,000 copies an hour, which is more than the last Wham! single, more than the last Madonna single. Proving again that taste will out.

EXCEPT IN PONTIAC. Madonna, the Bay City-born, Rochester-raised pop star may well end up performing at the Pontiac Silverdome with a good deal of homecoming hype. "Nothing has been 100 percent confirmed," said a publicist for Madonna. "They're checking out a few different venues in each city, but nothing's set yet." Dates could be announced next week. IS TIME for Russian Music News, Boris Badenov reporting.

Yankee imperialist jazz pianist Dave Brubeck mounted Moscow stage for the first time the other night and launched into two hours of virtuoso improvisations. Audience whistled with delight. "Brubeck for me is my youth, the 1950s, the thaw after Stalin, better relations with America," said one 55-year-old Moscow man on street and jazz enthusiast. Now back to adventures IN A JARRING llth-hour development, the Attic Theatre has been forced to replace "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" star LaVerna Mason for health reasons. But the show will go on, thanks to Texas actress Marilyn Walton.

She starred in a Dallas theater's production of "Ma Rainev" last July and is flying into Detroit Sunday to take over Mason's leading role when the Attic hit reopens Thursday at the Music Hall Center. Attic artistic director Lavinia Moyer said Friday that Waiion will have four rehearsals with the Detroit cast before opening night. Mason had recurrent problems with a pinched nerve during the original run of the play, Moyer said, and said Wednesday she could not continue. Walton was contacted in Dallas at Theatre Three, which Moyer knew about after earlier having tried to rent their Ma Rainey costumes for the Attic. CONTRARY to his hit song, Bruce Springsteen isn't "Born to Run" for governor of New Jersey.

That beacon of truth the National Enquirer, had reported that the Boss had a Hungry Heart for politics and would declare himself a Democrat and run for the state house, Marilvn Laverty reports at Springsteen: Brubeck: Not a candidate Jazz in Moscow. You Better Not Touch." Actually, Laverty said it was totally false. But what can you expect from those enquiring minds people? BETCHA Joan Rivers won't discuss the following at her Premier Center stay this weekend. Edgar Rosenberg, Rivers' husband and and co-executive producer of her late-night talk show, has been told to stay out of the program's daily operations, said Fox spokesman Michael Bin-kow. "The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers" has a new producer, Binkow said.

Bruce McKay left the show and was replaced this week by JoAnn Goldberg. BOY GEORGE, Paul McCartney, Koto Rnth Frfwin Starr. Suzv Ouatro, Holy Moses! Charlton Heston gets ready to smash the 10 Commandments one more time. The hero of several biblical epics was rehearing for his role as guest host of this week's "Saturday Night Live" episode on "I WOUtO'VE BEEN HOME EARUER, BOT ARTHUR HEADED Me HOME IN THE WKONS DIRECTION." of Moose and Squirrel Mark Knopfler (of Dire traits) and the 1 best it 'fas a case of "You Can Look But.