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December 19, 1986 - Image 60

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 1986-12-19

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

ENTERTAINMENT

dining room, carry-out and trays

(ghEfi

• breakfast • lunch • dinner
• after-theater • kiddie menu

BitS T'
gu t, 7,0 . 44 0.4.

5 ,

open tuesdays thru sundays
10 a.m. to 11 p.m.

lincoln shoppin g center,
center 101/2 mile & greenfield, oak park

.

.A

The Mouth That Roared

,4

Ji m.' 2inin9 ala

,.

Continued from preceding page

968-0022

ATradlit 9 ion 4
y nce 1934

Cocizicai4

Fred Bayne at the organ nightl y

1128 E. Nine Mile Road (1 1 /2 Mile East of I-75))

0

Recommended by AAA & Mobile Guides

-*(

(313) 541-2132

FUNG LI M'S

SZECHUAN, MANDARIN, CANTONESE & AMERICAN

Mon.-Thurs. 11-10, Fri. & Sat. 11-11, Sun. 12-10

,

CARRY OUT • CATERING
'BANQUET . FACIUTIES
8410 W. NINE MILE, W of Livernois
5441021

GOLDEN •BOWL

Restaurant
22106 COOLIDGE AT 9 MILE In A & P Shopping Center

DINE IN & CARRY-OUT
398-5502 or 398-5503
SZECHUAN, MANDARIN, CANTONESE & AMERICAN CUISINE

,

OPEN 1 DAYS—Mon.-71mrs. 11-10, Fri. & Sat. 11-11, Sun. & Holidays 1 p.m. to 10 p.m.
• Banquet Facilities
. Your Chef: FRANK ENG

.?-.;

4.

THE GOLD COIN

il -`\

Eti,

COMPLETE
CARRY-OU
AVAILABLE

AC

I

,

OPEN 7 DAYS — YOUR HOST: HOWARD LEW

SZECHUAN, MANDARIN, CANTONESE
AND AMERICAN FOOD

24480 W. 10 MILE (IN TEL-EX PLAZA)

353-7848

West of Telegraph

TAE GrEAT WALE

SERVING YOUR FAVORITE EXOTIC
DRINKS & CHOICE COCKTAILS

1

PRIVATE DINING ROOM •

• BANQUETS . • PARTIES • BUSINESS MEETINGS I

Your host . . . HENRY LUM

Businessmen's Luncheons • Carry outs • Catering

I

.

35135 Grand River, Farmington
(Drakeshire Shopping Center)
476-9181
............,„=„1„

• HOA KOW NN

Specializing In Cantonese, Szechuan & Mandarin Foods

Open Daily 11 to 10:30, Sat. 11 to 12 Mid., Sun. 12 to 10:30
— Carry-Out Service —

• 13715 W. 9 MILE, W. of Coolidge • Oak Park

547-4663

KING LIM'S GARDEN

OPEN 7 DAYS
A WEEK

Mandarin, Szechuan & Cantonese Food

26196 GREENFIELD, LINCOLN CENTER, OAK PARK

Mon.-Thurs. 11 to 10:30
Fri. 11 to 11. Sat. 11 to 12
Sun. 12 noon to 10

968-3040

NEW KING
LIM'S

3305 Auburn Rd

Carry Out Service
Catering To Parties Available

852.8280

-

Exotic Cocktails

FLOWN IN FRESH

EXPRESSLY FOR YOUR DINING

at
the

ENGLISH DOVER SOLE
KINGSLEY INN 642 0100

-

KOW KOW INN

• Famous Chop Suey • Cantonese Food • Steaks • Chops • Sea Food
OPEN Mon.-Sat. 11 a.m.-12:30 a.m.. Sun. & Holidays 12 Noon-12:30 a.m.

CARRY OUT SERVICE

EASY PARKING

322 W. McNichols Bet. Woodward & Second

868-7550

60 Friday, December 19, 1986 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

returning to Detroit.
He began at WJR in 1938,
working on News Comes to
Life, a weekly show which
dramatized actual news
events. After the war, he
taught at Detroit Northern
High School for five years
while working in radio and
theater. He directed live TV
at WXYZ, beginning in 1950,
eventually giving up his
teaching position.
Most of his radio work in
Detroit came on WXYZ radio
dramas, which were broad-
cast nationally, including The
Lone Ranger, The Green
Hornet and Challenge of the
Yukon. Most of Weiss' char-
acters, he says, were one-
dimensional. "They were
written pretty much, either
black or white. You were
either a villain, a very strong
villain, or you were a good
guy, and there was very little
in between. The char-
acterizations were such that,
if you were a villain, an out-
law," here his voice instantly
becomes rough and nasty,
"why, you growled as an out-
law. And if you were a good
guy, why, you were the
sheriff or, if it was Challenge
of the Yukon, you were a
mountie, or the constable —
or you were a claim-stealer,"
he adds with another growl,
"stealin' somebody's gold, or
tryin' to grab his land.
"I played mostly outlaws,
mugs," he says. "Occasion-
ally, it'd be a nice switch if I
could get a part, being a good
guy, like a Good Samaritan
or something."
After the war, Weiss also
did stage work. He first saw,
but did not meet, his future
wife, Liz, on stage. He met
her a year later, in 1947.
"She was playing Jocasta, in
Oedipus Rex at Wayne State
University ... it was a
double-bill, they followed it
with (Moliere's) The Man
Who Married a Dumb Wife. I
thought she was an outstand-
ing actress at that time." The
Weisses were married in
1949.
One year earlier, Weiss,
Harry Goldstein and Philip
Nusholtz formed The Actor's
Company — which put on a
variety of plays, such as
Shakespeare's Taming of the
Shrew, with Liz starring as
Kate, and The Importance of
Being Earnest, by Oscar
Wilde, in which Weiss first
directed Liz, who played
Gwendolyn, then co-starred
as Algernon. Liz is also doing
commercials now.
Weiss was a television di-
rector at WXYZ from 1950
until 1954, when he left to
manage Flint's first TV sta-
tion, WTAC. The UHF sta-
tion was on the air for only
one year, because it could not
compete with Detroit's power-
ful VHF stations. Weiss then
returned to Detroit and has
done freelance work since.
His most notable job since
then was on the Soupy Sales
show. For ten years, Weiss

did a variety of characters,
three nights a week, on the
11-11:30 p.m. show. "I did a
hack songwriter called
Shoutin' Shorty Hogan," he
recalled, "when I would play
the piano and sing these
crazy tunes to the music of
pop songs of the time and
Soup would write lyrics to it
— terrible meter and rhythm
and everything else, but it
worked.
"Then we did the one that
always — people remind me
of it, where he was a waiter
in a restaurant and I was the
manager of the restaurant
and he was a terrible waiter.
And it always ended up with
`where's my pie?' and he'd
say, 'do you want it now?'
and I'd say eyes!' and he'd
say, 'well here it is!' " Weiss
pantomimes the famous
Soupy pie-in-the-face move as
he describes the action.
"One night I think we
threw something like 300
pies. The pies were in little
tin plates and on paper plates
and you'd just fill 'em with
shaving cream. We'd use
about 20 cans of shaving
cream and just fill 'em up
and then start throwing 'em.
Well, by the time you were
through, you couldn't walk in

Most of his early
radio work in
Detroit came on
WXYZ radio
dramas.

the studio, it was about a foot
high in shaving cream."
Weiss describes Sales as,
"real easy to work with. As a
matter of fact, he'd give you
all the funny lines. He'd work
straight for you. He was a
good guy to work with, a lot
of fun."
One of Weiss' favorite roles
was one he played only once
a year, an unlikely role for a
Jewish son of Russian im-
migrants: Santa Claus. Weiss
was Detroit's official Santa
for the Hudson's Thanksgiv-
ing Day parade for 15 years.
"That was a lot of fun to do,
because you were playing to
an audience of about 500,000
on that one day ... You could
almost see every one of the
kids — up high on that float,
and look down into the eyes
of the kids. It was beautiful,
those kids were just over-
whelmed. Then getting down-
town and that great surge of
people coming up toward
Hudson's. It was kind of a
nice feeling to create that
kind of warmth. I think Doc
Green once wrote the thing
(in the Detroit News) which
Hudson's didn't much ap-
preciate, saying that, here's
the only Jewish Santa Claus
in the business."
In another recent break
from commercials, Weiss ap-
preared with Whit Vernon in
a production of The Sunshine

Boys, at the Attic Theater in
1985. "That was kind of a
switch. It was fun to do, be-
cause it was a departure from
what you do every day. Espe-
cially with a run that long, it
takes you about, I think, five
or six or seven performances
to really get into it, and this
was good because we played
eight weeks, we played about
45 performances. And you get
comfortable with it and you
know it's right and it's work-
ing and you're doing well
with it.
"That's tough to do, work-
ing in the theater. Because if
you haven't done it for a
couple years, getting back
into it — it was probably the
toughest thing I've done, pro-
fessionally, because it's a
show where the character is
on stage all the time, except
for about three minutes."
Weiss is also active in the
performer's unions, locally
and nationally. He is a
former local president of the
American Federation of
Radio and Television Artists
and was a national board
member of both AFTRA and
the Screen Actor's Guild. He
was the 25th recipient of
AFTRA's annual "Gold Card"
Award, the highest award
given by the union.
After leaving Flint, the
Weisses moved to Oak Park,
where they raised their five
children. Rube and Liz re-
cently moved to Huntington
Woods.
The Weisses have three
sons and two daughters. All
five Weiss children were re-
cruited into show business at
a young age. "Someone would
call me and say, We need
you to do a spot,' for some
outfit. 'How old are your
kids?' And I'd say, 'well, one
is seven, one is five.' He'd
say, 'well, bring the five-
year-old, we need a kid.' So
I'd bring David or Leon and
they'd work at it. And they
were pretty good."
Now, those children, along
with seven grandchildren, oc-
cupy much of the Weisses'
free time. "My father used to
say, probably the most impor-
tant thing you can do is to be
a mentch. It was a good phi-
losophy. And that's what
we've tried to do with our
kids and their children, is to
be kind and be kind to each
other and try to do something
within your own community.
And it's worked. They're good
kids, all of 'em."
For now, Rube Weiss has
no immediate plans to stop
working. He says the work is
fun, leaves he and Liz plenty
of time to travel, and still
earns him a very good living.
He adds, "You're not pressed.
When you were younger you
kinda sought work avidly
every day. Now, if the phone
rings, I go to work. If it
doesn't ring, I don't worry
about it." Most likely, that
familiar voice will echo from
our radios and TVs for quite
a while longer:E]

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