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Alice Cooper, Helen Hayes?

HOLLYWOOD — THE WEDNESDAY WASH: In our New Year's "put-on" column (about show business situations guaranteed not to happen in the year ahead — and probably won't) we itemed as follows: Perplexingly, the "Beverly Sills Sings Alice Cooper" program fails to draw in its initial Phoenix stand. The question today — for real — is can Alice Cooper survive Helen Hayes or vice versa? Why? Simply because this Friday the "far out" Phoenican who brought weird trips to rock music and made it a commercial success will begin to face the TV cameras for Miss Hayes and Mildred Natwich for the fourth segment of "The Snoop Sisters," no on "NBC Tuesday Mystery Movie."

"Oh, my goodness," exclaimed the First Lady of the American Theater and two-time Academy Award winner during an interview session shared with Miss Natwich. The 73-year-old widow of "The Front Page" playwright Charles MacArthur had just been informed that Alice Cooper was a Phoenician and a he, that his dad is a clergyman and that Alice uses snakes in his performances besides other expressions of gallows humor. "I was familiar with the name," Miss Hayes had said initially. "And who is she?" Miss Natwick averred that she didn't know about the act performed by did know it was a he.

WITH NAME and sex clearly understood by all, Miss Hayes, who retired from stage work in 1968, described the Cooper part in the series about a pair of busybody murder mystery-writing sisters who meddle and muddle their way to real crime solutions. "The show deals with witches and he's part of a coven. He's interested in becoming a warlock." (Sounds like typecasting to this writer.) She noted that she had to break a lifetime of habits when she vowed to do no more theater and to make infrequent film and TV appearances. "I'm using those media as a kind of decompression chamber."

MOST PEOPLE felt "The Snoop Sisters" debut show wasn't strong. Miss Hayes admitted there were five versions of the first chapter and that "most of our complaints are minor. This seems to be a time of displeasure on TV. If you don't like it, get out. You can't ask out of a series," she circumvented a loaded question, "until you've been asked in." (Three of the four episodes of the mini-series have been completed and there's no word from the network about a fall series slotting. Misses Hayes and Natwick signed for only the four. The writers' strike last year affected the show. "We hoped the properties would be better," she continued. "I will not be merciful. The scripts weren't ready." MISS HAYES who ducked a full-time series for years, smilingly said that she daydreamed that "Miss Hayes will say 'No Way' and that Lew Wasserman (MCA president) and NBC will say 'Please come back.' I always was something of a rebel. I would not be typed. I like to try new things." (The Alice Cooper experience may very well fit into the latter category at that.)

© Phoenix Newspaper Inc. Reprinted with permission.