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]