Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 28, 1992 TAG: 9201280375
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
PEOPLE
Charles Walker has reclaimed his title as world checkers king by playing 229 games simultaneously, defeating 227 contestants, losing one contest and tying one."I am going home and eat me a steak," Walker said Saturday after completing his last match of the day at the National Checker Hall of Fame in Petal, Miss., a suburb of Hattiesburg. "After dinner I am going right to sleep because I have been on my feet all day."
That was eight hours of steady play. Walker, founder of the hall of fame, often paused less than 10 seconds to make his move as he hurried from board to board.
Walker's 227 victories breaks the record of 221, held by Canadian Army Maj. H. Roy White, who recorded his feat on Oct. 27, 1990, in Cornwallis, Nova Scotia, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. Before White, Walker had been champion for more than two years.
West Virginia State College professor and film director Daniel Boyd said his latest work, "Paradise Park," looks at poverty, lost love and hard luck in a trailer park; and carries an upbeat message.
The film, which premiered Sunday in Beckley, W.Va., stars country singer Porter Wagoner and Johnny Paycheck, professional wrestler Dusty Rhodes, and silent-film actress Lina Basquette as trailer park residents.
Basquette's character has a vision that God will come one night and grant them all a wish. In waiting for the appearance, the residents find redemption through their dreams.
Harvard University's Hasty Pudding Theatricals on Monday named Michael Douglas and Jodie Foster as their 1992 Man and Woman of the Year.
Foster will be honored with a parade through Harvard Square and presented with the traditional "Pudding Pot" on Feb. 11. A week later, Douglas will be given his award at a Pudding performance of "Up Your Ante," described as a musical spoof of "all things Vegas."
The theatrical club has been bestowing its annual awards on entertainers since 1967. Previous winners include Katharine Hepburn, Lucille Ball, Glenn Close, Steven Spielberg, Robert DeNiro and Kevin Costner.
Gloria Estefan says she doesn't mix politics with her music, but that performing during the Super Bowl halftime show was itself a statement.
Her performance Sunday reached about 100 million viewers worldwide, probably none of them in her native Cuba, where she doubts Fidel Castro would allow it.
"I think the image of a successful Cuban exile to him is totally contrary to what he feeds them in his propaganda," Estefan, 34, said recently.
"So that's why my music isn't really political at all when you think about it, but our image is."