THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 14, 1995 TAG: 9505120071
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Long : 103 lines
THE PROGRAM read: ``Born, Richmond, Va., 1934.''
For the first time, Lincoln Center of the Performing Arts honored a Virginian.
This is the same spotlight that in previous years shone on such honorees as Charlie Chaplin, Bette Davis, David Lean, Barbara Stanwyck, Audrey Hepburn, Billy Wilder, Alfred Hitchcock, Federico Fellini and Laurence Olivier.
The honoree on Monday was Shirley MacLaine, a self-proclaimed ``dance gypsy'' who was whisked away to Hollywood in 1954 via a scenario that, if it were not true, would be branded a Broadway cliche.
She had been dancing in the chorus of ``Pajama Game'' when the star broke a leg. MacLaine was tapped to go on in the role. Movie producer Hal Wallis was in the audience that night and immediately signed her to a movie contract.
She's made 44 movies, and a good deal of ruckus, since then.
Known as the only female member of Frank Sinatra's infamous Rat Pack in the '50s and '60s, as well as for her best-selling books about her New Age beliefs, she stepped to the stage of Avery Fisher Hall Monday to a standing ovation.
Before that were more than an hour of clips from MacLaine performances, including the Oscar-nominated ``Some Came Running,'' ``The Apartment,'' ``Irma La Douce,'' ``The Turning Point'' and her Oscar-winning turn in ``Terms of Endearment.''
The clips ended with MacLaine singing ``I'm Still Here'' from the film ``Postcards from the Edge.''
``To see 40 years of work flash before your eyes in 75 minutes is a bit much,'' MacLaine said. ``Some of those scenes, I hadn't seen since they were first released. If any of my movies come on TV, I switch the channel. If one more person says to me, tonight, that `I've just loved you through the ages. .
She said that the main thought that ran through her mind as she looked at the clips was ``what man I was in love with at the time.'' She has been married since 1954 to Steve Parker, a producer and packager of Japanese entertainment.
Some MacLaine tidbits:
On ``The Trouble With Harry,'' her first film (1955) - ``I had no idea what I was doing. Hitchcock (the director) said actors were irrelevant. I learned the whole script. I came, the first day, ready to do the whole movie.''
On a musical number from ``Artists and Models'' (co-starring Jerry Lewis, 1955) - ``I hated that little yellow sunsuit. It was too little in the crotch.''
On ``Some Came Running'' (1959) - ``I remember I was sitting in the dressing room with Frank and they called for us. He told them that he just didn't feel it. That he couldn't do the scene. They said, `But we're two weeks behind schedule.' Frank took the script and tore 100 pages out. `Now we're on schedule,' he said.''
On ``Can-Can'' (1960) when Russian premiere Khruschev came on the set - ``He protested the `can-can' dance, commenting that `the face of humanity is prettier than its backside.' I told him he was just mad because we were wearing panties.''
On ``Guarding Tess,'' her most recent film - ``I played the widow of a president. I changed only one, tiny thing in the script. It had her age as 75. I changed it to 57.
``Hollywood has been something of a playground for me,'' she said. ``When I was in the chorus line, they didn't want individuality. When I went to Hollywood, it was just the opposite. Individuality was demanded of me.
``Rejection is always your greatest fear. You always feel that the invitation to the sandbox might be rescinded. You feel that everything they have given you is undeserved.''
MacLaine said she didn't see the lifetime achievement award as a final bow. ``We're living in a world that is in the middle of a nervous breakdown,'' she said. ``I'd like to keep making movies and to end violence in Hollywood. I'd like to do what I can to keep the heart alive.''
Lincoln Center patrons paid up to $1,500 a seat. The black-tie event is one of the top money-makers and dress-up events of the New York season.
The evening was dampened by a noticeable lack of star power. Neither Sinatra nor Dean Martin, the remaining Rat Pack-ers, was there. (Sinatra has by CNB