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Alice Gang Beats Business Kings to Moneybags

Who's the biggest money-making couple in show-biz? Liz and Dick? Nope. It's Carly and James, who stands to clear a cool four million while the merry Burtons sob over a paltry three. What entertainment industry makes more money than television, professional sports and Broadway theater combined? Could it massage parlors? Nope. It's the music business, which raked in nearly two billion dollars for records and tapes and another $150 million for concert tickets in the last twelve months. And who brings home more bucks a year than America's highest paid executive, I.T.T president Walter Green? At least 50 rock stars and groups, all of whom hauled two million and six million smackeroos to the bank in the last year. Big business executives wept in their martinis when Forbes, the financial magazine, knocked the grey-flannelled airline execs off its front cover, replaced them with Alice Cooper, and revealed in a major story that: "The fastest way to become a millionaire these days in the United States is to become a big rock 'n' roll star." But Alice had a word of consolation for the Wall Streeters terrified that weirdos and hippies are taking over Fort Knox: "I have American ideals. I love money."

When panicky New York theater executives drove a stake through the heart of Cooper’s long-awaited roadway debut last February by canceling plans for Alice At The Palace, they didn’t kill the Coop’s ambitions to ravage the Great White Way. Alice invited the master cinema gore, director Roman Polansky (Rosemary's Baby, and The Fearless Vampire Killers) top his tour’s final date at Madison Square Garden in hopes of convincing the director to help create a show that even bloodless Broadway couldn’t resist.