RICHARD, NATALIE & ALLAN STEINIK and DR. MICHAEL & NORMA DORMAN And The Employees Of Detroit Bagel Factories MICHAEL ELKIN Special to The Jewish News R WISH EVERYONE A VERY HEALTHY and HAPPY NEW YEAR Break The Fast With Hot Bagels From Our Orchard Lake, S. of 14 Location, Open Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. Please Call Your Orders In Early (5 doz. or more) 851-4284 or 641-9188 1991 5752 From Nick Sorise and John Reaser and the staff of 9 744 755 W. Big Beaver, Concourse Top of Troy Bldg. 362-1262 Wishing Our Customers and Friends A Happy and Healthy New Year Advertising in The Jewish News Gets Results Place Your Ad Today. Call 354.6060 140 FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1991 Palm Beach Jews: A TV Trilogy ising at sunrise, Sunset Gang author Warren Adler puts in a full day at his desk before most office coffee machines are percolating. But then, says the writer, his chosen profession is more perk than work. "I can't wait to write," says Mr. Adler of his 5:30 a.m. daily wake-up ritual. "It's wonderful to do what I do — a joy, a vacation." Pack up the bags and don the sunglasses because Warren Adler's at it again. His Private Lives just went public, and Senator Love, another novel ideal is out this summer. But perhaps Mr. Adler's most ambitious past project was all about a Yuppie cou- ple caught in the crossfire of greed and a marriage-run- amok. War of the Roses pro- ved a major success as a novel and as a movie with Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner as the cou- ple turned on to mayhem. It was a dark film for Mr. Adler, who has found his own 40-year marriage one continuous tunnel of love, compared to the Roses' riotous ride through hell. "I seem to specialize in writing about wrecked rela- tionships," muses the author about his thorn-field Roses and the story of "Yiddish," one of a number of short pieces that made up his 1976 novel, The Sunset Gang. Three stories from Sunset —including "Yiddish," about an older Jewish man who seeks divorce after decades of marriage — have been adapted for film. Sunset Gang is no mere Miami nice. The trilogy is gentle yet hard- hitting in its look at Jews who settle in West Palm Beach, a retire- ment city by the sea. Writing about the Jewish experience hits home for the writer, whose parents' move to a retirement village in West Palm Beach 20 years ago served as inspiration for the Sunset Gang stories. But then, Yiddishkeit yanks at Mr. Adler's sen- sibilities. The Brooklyn- born "Depression baby" grew up in an immigrant home, "raised in my grand- Michael Elkin is the enter- tainment editor of the Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia. parents' house. That culture seeps into everything I do. I loved my childhood." He also loved the idea that, for the first time on network TV, a program will use Eng- lish subtitles to explain the Yiddish spoken on screen. Not that "Yiddish" is lim- ited to Jewish audiences. "There is a universality in all these stories," says Mr. Adler. "Old age has no eth- nicity." But it does have its prob- lems, as does the language in which they are described. Dismissing contentions that Yiddish is rebounding after years of disuse, Warren Adler says, "It is a dying language in the Diaspora. People may take it up out of interest as an artifact, but to survive, a language has to be spoken." The language of success is spoken at the Adler home. Prior to his popularity with War of the Roses, Warren Adler was a journalist, 'There is universality in all these stories." Warren Adler editor and advertis- ing/public relations agency owner — not to mention a publicity writer for United Jewish Appeal and public re- lations director for the Jew- ish War Veterans. Sixteen years ago, he join- ed his wife, Sonia, and son, < David, in publishing the Washington Dossier, a must- read for the capital's social set. The Adlers sold the publication five years ago, with husband and wife heading for Hollywood. With such heady success, Mr. Adler's feet are firmly on the ground. "Now that I'm over 60, it doesn't thrill me," he says of his pop- ularity. "If I had been 22 and this happened, well, I'd be exhilarated." He may be calm about his current accomplishments, but Hollywood is wildly en- thusiastic. Mr. Adler has seven projects headed for the screen, including Cries of Laughter, about the Catskill Mountain men who made up Murder Inc. The book will be published next year; the film will be produced by Joel (Die Hard) Silver. "Well, the pain in life has been balanced by what I've enjoyed. I'm very happy. I'm doing what I want."