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Ex-hippie dancing again
Rv ROB THOMAS
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — Gregory
Hines strolled down an ocean-
front Venice walkway, pausing
to admire the well-dressed
man playing a Strauss waltz by
rubbing his finger on an as
semblage of brandy glasses.
Then he nodded to the
bearded man who wore a
towel as a turban and sang
and played guitar while rol
lerskating through the beach
crowd.
He went to a table at a side
walk cafe and ordered fruit
juice and soup.
"I iPve Venice," the 39-year-
old dancer-actor said; studying
the passing parade of muscle
men, bathing beauties, tourists
and bums. "This is where I was
a hippie."
That was in 1973-78, when
Gregory Hines dropped out of
a dancing career that had oc
cupied virtually his entire life.
"I was 27 years old," Hines
said. "I don't remember when I
wasn't in show business. First I
worked with my brother, Mau
rice, as the Hines Kids. Then
our , father joined us and we
toured as Hines, Hines and
Dad. Finally my brother and I
worked together, but we didn't
get along.
"It was a real eye-opener
when I became a hippie. All
my life, someone always took
care of me — my manager, my
mother, my agent, my father.
Suddenly, I was on my own. It
was a scary period in my life."
That time seems long ago.
He has since become a Broad
way star ("Eubie," "Sophisti
cated Lady"), a Las Vegas
headliner and now is enjoying
a growing film career. Praised
for last year's "The Cotton
Club," he co-stars with Mikhail
Baryshnikov in Columbia Pic
tures' "White Nights."
"White Nights" provides
Hines' greatest opportunity,
both as a dancer and actor. He
portrays an American dancer
who has defected to the Soviet
Union because of disillusion
ment with the Vietnam War. He
has potent scenes with Barysh
nikov and with Isabella Rossel
lini, who plays Hines' Russian
wife.
Hines, who said he was
ejected from a ballet class after
one lesson when he was 9
years old, was fascinated by
Baryshnikov's technique. Be
fore filming started, the pair
spent three weeks together in a
dance studio.
"I taught him to do a little
tap," he said, "and he taught
me how to drink vodka." □
Michener's 'Texas' is big
R” °RES BARCLAY
Associated Press
NEW YORK — If you took all
the books lames Michener has
ever sold, you'd probably have
enough paper to blanket Cali
fornia.
He writes big, gargantuan
books — too long for a week
end at the beach or a Sunday
afternoon read, but just the
right length for 30 days in the
county jail or a cruise to South
America.
His latest book, "Texas" (Ran
dom House, $21.95), is 1,096
pages long. It's stuffed with all
the obscurities, oddities,
naughtiness and niceness ‘ of
that sprawling, eclectic state.
As he's done in the past with
such geographical and histori
cal novels as "Hawaii," "Che
sapeake" and "Poland," Mich
ener has armed himself with
lots of facts.
He will tell you about honky-
tonks and the Texas rangers,
about cotton production, pome
granates and longhorns.
Michener takes his time un
folding the history and culture
of the Lone Star State, starting
in 1535. The Alamo pops up, so
does the Galveston tidal wave
of 1900. His fleet of fictional
characters trod with those who
really lived: Sam Houston, An
tonio Lopez de Santa Anna, Jim
Bowie.
"I originally used to compare
Texas with Montana," the au
thor said one day while visiting
his publisher in New York.
"You can write an absolutely
wonderful book about Mon
tana, particularly if the setting
is not important.
"But what differentiates
Texas from Montana? ... Texas
had to fight its own war of inde
pendence; Texas had its own
charismatic characters. ...
Texas is always a little larger
than life."
He and his wife, Mari, have
lived throughout the United
State and their homes are re
flected in Michener's best-Sell-
ing titles.
They lived in Lubbock while
he researched the current
work. They now live in Sitka,
Alaska, soaking up the sights
for the next epic.
Michener is 78 and has sold
more than 60 million copies of
his books. Random House
made a first printing of 750,000
for "Texas."
"I'm pretty frightened about
that," Michener said. "I don't
want to see any of my books on
the remainder shelf. To have 1
million copies of a book sold is
amazing. They took a heck of a
risk.'' ' □
40 percent of U.S. households watch pray TV evangelists
Associated Press
SAVANNAH, Ga. — A nationwide survey
finds that TV evangelists are watched in 40
percent of U.S. households with television
sets at least once a month, a much bigger
audience than had been expected.
It was termed comparable to top-rated
prime time shows.
The A.C. Nielsen Co. report, commis
sioned by the Christian Broadcasting Net
work, indicates that TV evangelists have not
exaggerated the size of their audiences as
much as had been believed, says Jeffery K.
Hadden, a University of Virginia professor
and president of the Society for the Scientific
Study of Religion.
According to the study, more than 33 mil
lion households, 40. 2 percent of all homes in
the United States, watched’at least one of 10
television preachers for at least six minutes
once a month.
Nielsen spokesman William Behanna said
that by comparison, most top-rated network
prime time shows also reach about 40 per
cent of U. S. viewers.
The survey's results. Hadden said, indi
cate that television evangelists, not Presi
dent Reagan, are behind the nation's cur
rent swing back to a more conservative
lifestyle, and that conservative Christians
are "coming out of the closet."
The study's findings were reported at the
annual convention of the Society for the Sci
entific Study of Religion and the Religious
Research Association being held in Savan
nah.
The Nielsen Co. survey was commis
sioned by CBN, headquartered in Virginia
Beach, Va., because of the debate over the
size of the audiences attracted to religious
programs.
According to Behanna, the survey marks
the first time the viewership of the religious
programs was analyzed with the same
methods used for the network ratings.
The top-ranked show was CBN's flagship
program, "The 700 Club," hosted by the
Rev. M.G. "Pat" Robertson. Robertson has
said he may seek the Republican nomi
nation for the presidency in 1988. The show
reaches 4.4 million people, or 19 percent of
American viewers, once a month;
"Jimmy Swaggert" was second in popu
larity. Other top-ranked programs, not listed
in order of audience size, were Jerry Fal-
well's "The Old Time Gospel Hour," "Rex
Humbard," Oral Roberts' "Expect a Mira
cle," Robert Shuller’s "Hour of Power,” Jim
Bakker's "PTL Club," "Kenneth Copeland,"
"Day of Discovery," and another Swaggert
program, "A Study In The Word."
An earlier study, conducted by the An-
nenberg School of Communications at the
University of Pennsylvania, found that the
TV evangelists were not siphoning off funds
or participation from the churches.
The viewing of the TV evangelism pro
grams was found to be largely supplemen
tary to support of the local churches and
worshipping in them. □