Street TALK

Smoke Cets in Your Prize



The elegant, candle-lit dinner party at the University of North Texas was winding down by the time the guest of honor, developer RAY NASHER, was presented the Award for Distinguished Service to the Visual Arts. Then came the surprise announcement: Nasher’s three daughters-Andrea, Joan and Nancy-were giving $100,000 to endow a lectureship in honor of their late mother. Everyone stood to applaud and, to climax the event, masses of stringy paper confetti were flung onto the crowd from the balcony above. That’s when the fires broke out-ignited by the candles placed on the tabletops as last-minute decorations. Quick-thinking guests beat out foot-high flames with napkins, emptied glasses of water on ash-covered china and stomped on burning confetti. In about a minute, it was all over, with no injuries and a few stunned smiles. Said one rapidly departing guest, a Kimbell Museum board member; “I just wanted to make sure [Kimbell director] TED PILLSBURY didn’t burn up.”



Rim Shot, Please



It is no secret that newly appointed conductor ANDREW LITTON was not the first choice of many Dallas Symphony players, who would have preferred someone steeped in the traditional German repertoire of Brahms and Beethoven. But others are excited about his coming, praising not only his energy and talent but also his sense of humor. When DSO cellist MILDRED MCSHANE jokingly said to Litton. “You know, I never play any of the right notes,” her new boss retorted, ’That’s OK, I never give any cues.”



The Making of the Cham 1993



Word is spreading among Democratic activists thai Texas party chair BOB SLAGLE will resign this year after more than a decade at the helm. His likely successor is rumored to be KEN MOLBERY, a lawyer and chair of the Dallas County Dems.



Fancy Vance



Those SMU theater alums can’t stay out of the spot light. Class of ’86 grad CYNTHIA VANCE, whose grandpar ents are mega-developer HENRY S. MILLER and his wife JUANITA, just finished a pivotal part in a New York workshop production of Man in His Underwear, written by Jay Tarses, the creator of The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd.



Speaking Frankly

Painter FRANK FRAZIER, whose works hang in the collections of EDDIE MURPHY, JAMES EARLE JONES and DESMOND TUTU, lives in Dallas but grew up in Harlem. He got back to those roots recently when he flew north for a fundraiser for troubled black and Hispanic youths in New York. “All That Jazz,” at Manhattan’s A-Train, featured performances by jazz singer Gloria Lynne and trumpeter Nat Adderley and the auction of a Frazier artwork. The event was one of four that raised $15,000 for the Manhattan Valley Youth Program, which has another Dallas connection: PAULA WALKER, who used to be news manager at Channel 8 here, is on the group’s advisory panel. Walker now is assistant news director at WNBC in New York.



One for the Bos

More fallout from the breakup of the Soviet Union: The number of countries participating in the VAN CLIBURN piano competition has grown from the usual 35 to 42. (The ninth quadriennial takes place in Fort Worth May 22-June 6.) But the most moving story involves a young pianist from Bosnia-Herzegovina who is studying in Russia. His letter to the Van Cliburn Foundation explained why he could not send the $35 application fee. “No single bank in America is willing to cooperate with any Yugoslav bank whatsoever,” he wrote. He offered to pay the fee upon arriving in Fort Worth, says the foundation’s marketing director BETH WAREHAM. “We wrote back and said, ’Don’t worry. This one’s on us.’ “



Catherine the Grateful



Ex-Dallas judge CATHERINE CRIER, late of CNN, probably won’t be on-air in her new job at TV’s “20/20” until February. But she’s met co-workers BARBARA WALTERS, who was the first to call Crier and welcome her (she’s “a class act,” says Crier), and HUGH DOWNS, who took her out to lunch (“he is the man you see on TV- charming.”). Crier is selling not only the Atlanta house she bought this past year but also her car. Her New York digs are within walking distance of the ABC studios.



Why Don’t You Do Right



A movie playing to sold-out screenings in the Metroplex has no sex, no bad language and no Macauley Culkin. It’s the Christian film Holding On, about a high-school boy who influences those around him. Shot in this area by local director ANDREW LIBRIZZI, die film stars 21-year-old MICHAEL DUWE and 27-year-old SUSAN FOSSEN, both of Dallas. Dozens of churches have shown the film at movie theaters and in their own buildings. Holding On will be distributed throughout the U.S. starting in March by Gospel Films International.



One More for the Gipper



The first photo book on former president RONALD REAGAN is due to hit the bookstore chains this spring, hot off the presses from Fort Worth publisher The Summit Group. The small publishing and advertising firm landed the contract because the people working on the Reagan book saw Summit’s photo book on Rangers pitcher NOLAN RYAN, which became a best seller.