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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 29, 1979)
oud? Rejoice, his is the choice voice derfiil thin, lit u asapain^ extraordinar, Hied. No one t s with the pea and direct-*' aid have c c THE BATTALION WCONESOAV. AUGUST 29. 1 Page 9 People listen to Mork’s boss Orson l'cited Press International ]S ANGELES — The voice of ion“Mork and Mindy,” ABC’s that audie^ comedy, may be the a nd arewilivj fit sound on television. Its characters James, a one-time enough and j ^ ^ t ^ ie ^ or i* 1 - rumbles when he whispers. lienee that, < 3001 a god-like presence on the 44 XT— 1 o r-v f r* L- 1 s c L t? |-rv cheduled londay ' fjy planet Ork, listens to n the aud; s report at the end of each nomenon ofi l!f s ^ ow comments, often isedly, sometimes crossly, across distant space, in is never seen. But the can vibrate your TV set, two of imaginafel^ a “kt 10 feet awa y- problem wi 1 restaurant interview over vith the pidj; - 111 i nterc h an g e in normal w bo rails age SS elethon itification»; s delighted •; ft iet.” He said since hi^sdn rtained nodes 'pretation beh 'n performaiie inch to see 1/ toiled Press International issaid.'AsaiM fW YORK — Burt Reynolds, to see ourfii 3 ieVillechaize and Lisa Minnelli fit.” . going to the same Labor Day ed aboutpeoji (-the fund-raiser for muscu- ^yresbecause,! lystrophy hosted by Jerry » “Not as ej i the film as j us year’s Telethon begins 9 (Eastern time) on Sept. 2 and Jars. If'Hani 1111165 until 6 p.m. (Eastern Jvery 50 yen ion Sept. 3. It will be picked in’t be the ra 1'213 stations, and will be seen remakeaclaa 6Wers fr orn Eskimo villages in s it for anoth ^ ra Alaska to the American i Bt in Guam. Last year the au- s marchedacra «totaled more than 88 million arquewrotei k who pledged more than $29 sted his vie* ii een througM ats a bigg er audience than oldier. Ounit f° r the premier game of odeledbyW? day night football or sat Vietnam. i?h the second showing of ebook/’Hioa lts .” and it doesn’t include tmanytimesi Mtinental United States and ferentfromitb “S' inged, thevu ^ year the Telethon reflects verything k of the youthful involvement our activities,” said Horst S. ovakiawaso* dldirector of the public health where the! ition department of the Muscu- ore-World Vi t.trophy Association, achronisms 3 |bB said in an interview that iners impinga from the Las Vegas hotel- said, “the/wi lma in event of the Telethon, later than® rad by Ed McMahon with the g demolished! i David Hartman and Chad So we were i there will be a simulta- o 19th cental 3 disco-rock performance as es because tk , anyway.” scalled Superdance, U.S.A.,” hour version: ^ and we expect 3,000 par- he switch ofl at t J ie Las Vegas Conven- me from NBC knter. We’ll be shooting over ally to otherm : fr° m time to time and it will ide live excitement. go on the airi '® e also will be a completely mas and othi ^ — a different set than in show had hoc* ■' ears w ith an arena effect that aut so far no i ^ f°r a much more fluid named. Oth L w on the hod E listof guests is enormous and ry,” a two-ho ro H ca ll includes Ed Asner, ; j n DecenilK Davis Jr., Danny Thomas, leton and “C “Basie, Tony Bennett, Charo, Iso twohoun Fitzgerald, Julius LaRosa, 980 andstarra 11 Luft, Eva Marie Saint, it Wagner and wife Natalie lallmarksakiA t Peter Frampton, Fleetwood may settlei 1 ^ ss » Paul McCartney and 1979-80 seasJ M^e Rolling Stones, Field lineup wasJw’.J^y Travolta and the Vil- ations cont voices, James’ Orsonian tones sud denly stopped other conversation and paralyzed several persons not used to celestial dictum with lunch. It was just a sample, however. He continued in people-like tones. “The show’s producers were look ing for a big voice and I developed the character with associate pro ducer Jim O’Keefe. He worked with me to get the right feel,” James said in a conversational tone. “Orson is supposed to be a very large person and, although emotion less, he at times gets involved but tries not to. “Mork can show emotions, though. He’s sort of an Orkan Tom Sawyer, so he was sent to Earth to study humans.” James is thoughtful in answering questions about Orson and inter jects Orkan lore not heard on the show — the supporting fantasy that helps the actor become the charac ter. “I don’t know if Orson is great in a religious sense, a sense of omnipo tence. But he is a potent force. Mork is the only person who doesn’t march to his drumbeat. “Ork, you know, is very advanced in technology in the universe,” he said. At the end of the show, the inter change between Mork and Orson often ends with the Orkan sprite re ferring to the celestial voice as “Your Blimpness.” “The script probably said, ‘Your Immenseness.’ Don’t forget, Mork is a test tube creation. Something could have gone biochemically awry at his birth.” James developed the voice in radio and on the stage of the Globe Theater in San Diego, after five years asstevedore in his native San Pedro, the harbor district of Los Angeles. He went back to the docks for a while after a stint as a medical corpsman with a Marine unit during World War II, then decided to study with a professional radio school in Hollywood. His first on-the-air job was in a station in Bastrup, La. “It was a small place near the Ar kansas line, as desolate a place as you could imagine,” he said. “Radio in those days was like being in the minor leagues in baseball. You refined your talents until you reached bigger markets.” The bigger markets, from his launching pad in Bastrup, were Lake Charles, La., to Harlingen, Texas, to Fresno, Calif. He was fired from his all-night disc jockey position in Fresno for letting kids come in the studio and dance to the music. He was working as a disc jockey in San Diego in the late 1950s. “One day I woke up and decided I didn’t want to be a 40-year-old disc joc key.” He went on the newside of the station, KCBQ, and the announcer’s position eventually landed him a job at the ABC-owned station in Los Angeles. In 1964 he started free-lancing as an actor, a job that’s landed him in 10 movies, 41 television shows and about 5,000 voiceover commercials in radio and television, many of them in different voices and dialects. He does about 100 vocal var iations and dialects. James is married for the second time and his wife, Suzanne, is work ing on a master’s degree in psychol ogy. His 20-year-old daughter, also named Suzanne but who goes by the name Charity, is in college trying to decide between a medical career and show business. THERE ARE THREE MEN YOU SHOULD KNOW... JERRY H. BIRDWELL CLU TIMOTHY P. S. BIRDWELL R. J. BIRDWELL They are a team that offers you the best in professional client protection and service. They provide the knowledge that comes from experience and the excellent service that comes from their personal interest in you. They are specialists in Optional Retirement, Tax Sheltered Annuities and Life In surance Planning. Get to know them. You’ll be glad you did. 3200 S. College Bryan, Texas 822-1559 .iRffepson sianoaro 1 Jlto pers, th 'eels n. ; 0N. zza and it. IMPORTANT NOTICE! Interested in getting involved in a student organization? Then, stop by the MSC OPEN HOUSE September 1 Tours: 6:15-10:45; First floor Rudder Tower Reception & booths: 6:30-11:30; 201 Memorial Student Center Street Dance: 8-11:30; in front of G. 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