INC. hears that the Regional Transportation Authority will receive more than $30 million in federal grants, earmarked for the Chicago Transit Authority and commuter rail capital improvements, from the federal Urban Mass Transportation Administration. Watch for Ralph Stanley, UMTA spokesman, to make the announcement next week when he hits town.
— The South Chicago Development Commission has named the finalists in its ”Bring the Saturn Plant to Chicago” essay contest for elementary and high school students, and 1st grader Samantha Thompson–yes, Big Jim`s daughter–is one of `em! But the fix wasn`t in, according to commission Chairman Michael Howlett. The judges were given only numbers, not names, when they separated the wheat from the chaff. The winners will be chosen by a blue- ribbon panel. The $500 first place award is being donated by Ald. Ed Vrdolyak (10th), who would very much like to see the auto plant in his ward.
— Look for an announcement within the next few weeks from Mayor Harold Washington`s task force on Navy Pier, strongly suggesting that the pier be used for public projects such as Art Expo, parties, boating, sports and perhaps some theater, but not for malls, shopping centers, condos or any other major project a la Boston`s Faneuil Hall. Washington`s latest bond issue includes $15 million earmarked for the pier`s restoration.
THE WASHINGTON CONNECTION . . .
Further evidence of how seriously Donald Regan is taking himself: He has full-time Secret Service protection. Former Chiefs of Staff H.R. Haldeman, Hamilton Jordan and James Baker fended for themselves most of the time. Says a spokesman for the Secret Service: ”It`s a unique situation.”
— The marvels of modern spying: The Central Intelligence Agency has the gadgetry to circumvent any security system and gain access to any place, right? Matt Beer of the Detroit News tells INC. that CIA Director William Casey must have left his gadgets back at the hotel the other day when he and his entourage found themselves locked out of their big black Cadillac limousine on a street in downtown Detroit. They finally had to borrow a coat hanger from a nearby security guard to pop the lock.
THAT`S ENTERTAINMENT . . .
According to the powers that be at JAM Productions, there absolutely positively will be no Aug. 8 show here by Bruce Springsteen, and tickets for his Aug. 9 show absolutely positively will not go on sale Monday. . . . When Matthew Broderick leaves the cast of ”Biloxi Blues” to begin filming in Chicago on ”Ferris Buehler`s Day Off,” a Chicagoan will take his place on Broadway. Bruce Norris, Broderick`s understudy, becomes a Broadway star on Sept. 1. . . . The 600 block of North Clark Street will start rocking at 7 p.m. Aug. 16 at the Third Annual McDonald`s/WLS Sock Hop. The star attraction, Chuck Berry, is scheduled to do his thing at 10 p.m. . . . And the next day, Berry will help kick off a weeklong 150th birthday celebration for Janesville, Wis., in an all-day rock fest also featuring Leslie Gore and Tommy James.
THE CHINESE CONNECTION . . .
When President Li Xiannian; his wife, Lin Jiamei; and Vice Premier Li Peng of China visit America this week for the first time, they will make a special request: bottled water! They apparently are afraid of the American tap. And Chinatown won`t be on the schedule when the 110-person delegation, including 50 members of the Chinese press, hits Chicago Thursday. But Chinatown representatives have been invited to attend the opening of Chicago`s new Chinese Consulate Friday, when Huang Zhirong will be installed as consul general. While the president and his wife hit the Sears Tower and go on a Chicago River cruise, Li Peng will be visiting Fermilab near Batavia, the Braidwood nuclear plant and the Ford assembly plant on the Far South Side. And the Regional Transportation Authority is providing transportation for 60 members of the delegation to attend Thursday night`s White Sox game, where the group will be given baseball lessons. ”They`ve never been to a baseball game before, and they want to go,” said Ed Murnane, frequent White House advance man and RTA staffer who was asked by China to help coordinate the trip.
BETWEEN THE SHEETS . . .
Imagine that: ”Charles and Diana” by Ralph Martin, who also wrote
”Jennie” about Winston Churchill`s mother and a John F. Kennedy biography, comes out in November at the same time the royal couple will be in the U.S. for a five-day visit and while the country will be in the grip of major royalmania. You know Charlie and Di won`t be doing ”A.M. Chicago,” but you can bet Ralphie will. . . . Putnam, the publisher, is expecting ”Elvis and Me” by Priscilla Presley to be such a blockbuster that it has ordered a first printing of 350,000 copies. To give you some idea how many that is, Chuck Yeager`s hot-hot autobiography had a first printing of 250,000. ”It`s a far more intimate portrait of Elvis than we`ve seen,” says one industry insider. ”It`s a real love story, and one she`s never told before.”
Publication date is Sept. 19.
YOU ARE THERE . . .
History told by the people who made it. That`s the concept behind
”45-85,” an ABC-TV prime-time broadcast to air Sept. 18. ”There`s not a professor or expert on the entire three-hour show,” says executive producer Av Westin. To make history come alive, ABC has located a confidant of Josef Stalin; a soldier who hit the beach at the Bay of Pigs; and the president of Honda, who tells how as a junior engineer he was told to show some General Motors executives around the Honda plant and that their response was: ”It`s a nice car, kid, but nobody in America will ever buy it.” In addition, former Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter will discuss what they did and why they did it.
INC.LINGS . . .
Preston Hagman, the son of Larry and Maj Hagman, and his wife named their new baby Mary, as in Mary Martin, the baby`s great-grandmother. . . . Tempel Farms in Wadsworth, Ill., will be host to this year`s American Continental Young Riders Championships. The competition, a prelude to Olympic team selection for riders ages 16 to 21, will be held Aug. 13-18. . . . Sunday birthdays: Cat Stevens, 37; Kay Starr, 63; Isaac Stern, 65; Don Knotts, 61;
Robin Williams, 33; Edward Herrmann, 42; Kaye Stevens, 50; Al Hirshfeld, 82;
Helen Findlay, 76; and Nina Shepard, 52. . . . Carpenters union honcho Mickey Holzman is recovering at Billings Hospital from kidney transplant surgery last week.
