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Miss Hayes — Meet Alice Cooper

It could have happened only on television. The medium that gave the world Rowan and Martin, Huntley and Brinkley, Ozzie and Harriet, Batman and Robin, and Dandy Don and Humble Howard, now has come up with a truly inspired new pairing: Helen Hayes and Alice Cooper. Miss Hayes, of course, is universally known as the First Lady of the American Theater. Mr. Cooper is a rock star who specializes in outrageous costumes and weird make-up, and has been known to fling dead chickens into the audience.

What brings this unlikely twosome together is this week's episode of Miss Hayes' NBC series, The Snoop Sisters (March 5), in which Alice is playing a cameo role. Even though this is his first dramatic appearance on television, he had no trouble mastering the demands of the part-since the producers had the foresight to cast him as a grotesque, rock-singing con man.

While sharing the spotlight with another human being was a new experience for Alice (on stage he prefers the company of his pet boa constrictor), performing is old hat to him. In fact, dressed in an old hat, tattered tights and the snake, Alice conducted a 60-city tour last year on a $250,000 custom ­built stage equipped with such charming accessories as a guillotine and a hangman's scaffold.

Such amenities were absent when Alice showed up at Universal Studios. So was the boa constrictor. After the initial shock wore off, he and Miss Hayes got along famously.

The First Lady of the American Theater has never been known to perform with a bizarre rock star before, but she has had more than enough stage experience to be able to recognize talent when she sees it. Her verdict on Alice Cooper? "He's a pro."

As for Alice, he has never been known to perform with a First Lady of anything before. How did it feel? "I can meet anybody without flinching," he said graciously.