Banner Graphic, Volume 16, Number 230, Greencastle, Putnam County, 7 May 1986 — Page 7

People in the news Rivers bolts to fourth network LOS ANGELES (AP) Joan Rivers is taking on former boss Johnny Carson next fall in the opening assault of Fox Broadcasting Co.’s new fourth network. NBC immediately canceled her remaining scheduled appearances as his substitute. The caustic comedian, whose show, “Late Night Starring Joan Rivers,” will make its debut in the fall, had been a permament substitute host for Carson’s “The Tonight Show” on NBC for the past three years. She was to be host two more weeks before her NBC contract expires July 19. But she will be replaced the week of June 2 by comedian Gary Shandling and the week of July 14 by another host who has yet to be selected, said Gene Walsh, vice president of publicity for NBC’s operations. “We wish her well,” said Walsh, who added that Carson learned of plans for the late-night competition from the news media. Barry Diller, chairman of Fox Inc., said Tuesday that prime-time programming on the new service will start in March 1987. The new network springs from the purchase and consolidation by Rupert Murdoch of Twentieth Cen-tury-Fox Film Studios and six former Metromedia television stations. Miss Rivers appeared at a news conference Tuesday with Diller and other Fox executives. “I want to thank NBC a thousand times. I am grateful to NBC for the three years I had on ‘The Tonight Show,’ but they should thank me, too. My ratings were good. And they were better than the regular host,” she said. Miss Rivers said she talked by telephone to Grant Tinker, chairman of NBC, and to Brandon Tartikoff, president of NBC entertaintment. “I called Johnny Carson twice, but he would not take my call,” she said. Miss Rivers, who has made her comic reputation lampooning such well-known figures as Elizabeth Taylor and Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, made a stir last June by saying she wasn’t on an NBC list of 10 candidates to replace Carson when the host retires. NBC said such a list didn’t exist, but Miss Rivers said it was an internal memo from an NBC vice president. She didn’t name the executive. CHILLICOTHE, Mo. (AP) Rock star John Cougar Mellencamp, who was among the performers at the Farm Aid concert in Illinois last September, plans to make another appearance on behalf of troubled farmers. Mellencamp was to perform this afternoon at a program starting in a lot next to the Livingston County Farmers Home Administration office, the site of an ongoing demonstration, said Robyn Riggs, a spokeswoman for the singer. Since March 17, farmers have been holding daily rallies in this northwestern Missouri city of 10,000 to protest farm conditions in general and call for the ouster of the director of the county FmHA office.

Houston no 'overnight success'

c. 1986 N.Y. Times News Service NEWARK, N.J. Whitney Houston, the 22-year-old singer who recently snared a Grammy for best pop female singer, doesn’t see herself as an overnight success. “It’s taken me eight years to get to where I’m at now,” says Whitney, whose best-selling album, “Whitney Houston,” has sold millions of copies since it was released only a year ago. The album also spawned a handful of topten hits and garnered her numerous awards as top new pop star of the year. “I have been enjoying this business longer than people think and much longer than the public has known me,” she said before a recent concert in Newark, her birthplace and hometown. “It’s great to be coming home ... because when you’re hot, you’re hot. Longevity is what counts in this business, though, and I just hope and pray I’m still here, alive and singing, in 20 years.” Houston comes from a family that has longevity in the pop music business. Her cousin is Dionne Warwick, and she’s the daughter of Cissy Houston, whose vocal group, the Sweet Inspirations, recorded and toured with Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin and others, and were background singers on hundreds of record sessions in the 1960 s and 70s. “The talent I have,” says Houston. “I inherited from my mother and my family. They’ve certainly all helped me that’s no secret and not just by being relatives, although that’s an asset. It’s the support and sacrifices of my family that have really counted. I’m very proud and honored to have that blood running through my veins. “If you are talented and God gave you a gift, then its not really who you know in this business, it’s who is going to recognize you. It’s wonderful that all the hard work, and all the hours that I put into my first album two and a half years to be precise is starting to pay off.” Since her mid-teens, Houston has been paying her dues helping her mother sing background harmonies in studio

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NEW YORK (AP) Pepsi-Cola USA has signed Michael Jackson to a new three-year advertising contract worth $5 million to sls million, the company says. Jackson will perform in an unspecified number of Pepsi commercials in the United States and abroad, Roger Enrico, president and chief executive of Pepsi-Cola USA, said Tuesday. One commerical will be in Spanish. “This is a great honor,” said the 27-year-old singer, who rarely makes public statements. “Thank you, Mr. Enrico and Pepsi Associates. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you.” • WASHINGTON (AP) Authorities have opted to fine tennis star Martina Navratilova SI,OOO rather than prosecute her for carrying a concealed gun and ammunition aboard a plane, officials say. After she was stopped at San Francisco International Airport on March 2, Navratilova told authorities the .38caliber Smith & Wesson and 10 rounds of ammunition were packed in a carry-on case by mistake, Russell Park of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Los Angeles office said. The FAA’s civil penalty was levied after authorities decided against prosecuting her, Park said. • VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) Princess Diana waved to well-wishers after recovering from a fainting spell while touring Expo 86. The 24-year-old princess was warm and fatigued when she fainted Tuesday while visiting the California pavilion with her husband, Prince Charles, said the royal couple’s spokesman, Vic Chapman, who discounted i peculation that Diana might be pregnant. “It was simply a matter of feeling warm in some of the pavilions that she was in different temperature changes and as I say it’s been quite dramatic today,” he said. • NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Singers Eddie Rabbitt, Louise Mandrell, Gary Morris and the Oak Ridge Boys’ Richard Sterbin will participate in roundtable discussions about investment possibilities in country music. The sessions, sponsored by the Country Music Association, are scheduled for June 18 in Charlotte, N.C.; July 15 in San Francisco; Aug. 12 in Chicago; Sept. 9 near Dallas; and Nov. 13 in Nashville.

sessions for people like Chaka Khan and Lou Rawls. While Houston frequently credits her mother’s influence, she notes that her dad’s role has been equally as important. Her father, John Houston, is an official for the city planning board. “My dad is the backbone of our family. Any problem that I’ve ever had,” she says, “he’s always been there for me. He looks over all my business deals and everything. Most people don’t know that my dad has been in the business for a lot of years. He used to manage my mom’s group, the Sweet Inspirations.” When she’s not on the road with her brothers Gary, 27, who sings in the act and Michael, 24, her assistant road manager Houston still sings with the choir at New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, where she began singing at age seven. While Houston received her early music training and foundation in the church, coming from the same highpowered gospel tradition as her mother and cousin Dionne, she has taken her gospel “roots” into an entirely different direction. “I don’t consider myself a gospel singer,” she says. “Gospel is my roots and it branches off into many different sounds. That’s what I was taught, you cannot sing gospel without feeling it and that’s how I feel about all of my music. I have to love the melody, and words mean a lot to me.” Although she is a firm believer in “taking each day as it comes and playing it by ear,” Houston concedes “there’s so much I want to accomplish and so many talented people I would like to work with. Someday I would like to do a gospel album and record with my mother and Dionne. “For now, I just want to be the best that I can by dedicating all my energies to my second album.... “If I had one wish, it would be to be able to record an album in a week.”

By Bil Keane

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May 7,1986, The Putnam County Banner Graphic