Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 14, 1990 TAG: 9005140003
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
He was at the college to receive an honorary doctor of humane letters degree.
The 79-year-old bassist, considered the patriarch of jazz bass players, received an honorary degree Saturday from the liberal arts college and, in lieu of the usual words of inspiration, played two songs on his stand-up bass.
He received a standing ovation from the 530 graduates and approximately 4,000 family, friends and faculty who filled the amphitheater of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.
\ Tommy Tune, the dancer-choreogrpher, will focus on humorist Will Rogers in his next project, and Tune says it will be nothing like James Whitmore's one-man show.
Tune said the show will have "lots of showgirls, lots of dancers, lots of staircases."
"It's going to be done like the Ziegfeld Follies, but based on the life of Will Rogers, because he was a star of the Follies," he said.
A Dec. 1 opening is planned for the Will Rogers musical, which has music written by Cy Coleman, whose current hit is "City of Angels."
\ Meryl Streep, the academy award-winning actress, and her husband, sculptor Donald Gummer, have bought a two-story, Spanish-style house in Los Angeles for more than $3 million.
Streep, a New Jersey native who has been outspoken about her preference for Connecticut and the East Coast in general, said the purchase was strictly business.
"We bought here because I got a job here. I never made a movie in Hollywood before," the star of "Sophie's Choice" and "Kramer vs. Kramer" said in a telephone interview from Burbank, where she is filming "Defending Your Life," a romantic comedy co-starring Albert Brooks.
The 6,469-square-foot house on the city's west side has four bedrooms, 5 1/2 baths and mountain and canyon views.
"We're planning to go home (to Connecticut)," Streep said, "but we found this as a place where we can stay whenever we come out and I work here again."
by CNB