1961-08-05 — Page 21

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dr

Show business

THE CHINA MAIL SATURDAY, AUGUST 5, 1981.

Patricia Lewis

THERE'S NO LEWIS LIKE PAT LEWIS:

Exit Mathis

LAST SEEN CARRYING A BRIEFCASE

leaving behind

frantic woman

HAS anybody there seen Mathis? You know Johnny Mathis the young, fudge-coloured singer with the mellifluous vibrato?

Because he's disappeared, vanished somewhere on the Continent en route to London and his first British tour. And despite a report that their man was seen on a train between Madrid and Rome, a whole lot of high-powered people are waxing frantle.

Most frantic of all is the woman who runs his life, Helen Noga who with her husband John, daughter Beverley, and granddaughter Bheyrle-arrived In Britain In the hope of uncovering some clues as to the mysterious Mr Mathis's

whereabouts.

DISCOVERED

"This is the first time Jolinny's ever taken off by himself since I discovered him seven years ngo," she told me mournfully, as a plug of publicists burned up the telephones in her Mayfair suite.

"We think he came through here, and then I gotta letter from Home saying. I'm not, Jonesome,*

"But we've called every possible place in Home and there's no trace of him."

She turned, to yell over her shoulder: "Say, maybe he went to Spain Call Spain. I don't know where. Madrid, I guesa

An extraordinary woman is Mrs Noga-she describes herself as short, fat, red-haired, and 48." That's true, but she's also tough, frank. Ikeable. and Immensely shrewd. For 14 years she and her husband ran the "Black Hawk" nightclub in San Francisco, was there one night she heard Mathis singing "Tenderly,"

"I looked up and there was this 18-year-old-looking 10-year-

TARGET

LET

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London Express Service

JOHNNY MATHIS £12,000 A WEEK

old, and hitting those high notes softly and easily.

"Afterwards he told me he school and was going back to

his athletic training-he was a potential for the Olymple team with his high jump.....

"Girta? Well, he had on

interest for quite a while, but she got married on him."

Mathis's seeming disinteres! in women has caused a certain amount of speculative comment in the past." is he, perhaps, carrying a torch?

Mrs Noga laughed at tho suggestion,

"Johnny seldom shows his feelings. He just goes and puts on a record and forgets....

A thought struck her: "Hey! Why don't we call the airlines In Rome?" she shouted across the room. "They must know if he's left the country."

Then propping her. feet on the chair opposite, Helen Noga shook her head in puzzlement."

"You know, when he left Los Angeles for Europe he took nothing but the coticn Pants and shirt he was wearing and a briefcase....'

And maybe the modest ambi- tion to feel the wind in his toll --just for once.

Hus anybody there Mathis?

The

But Johnny Mathis was in a 8 for a high jump of a different sort. Within three weeks he was under contract to Mrs Noga fur as she says, "something like life," and by the time he was 25 before his last birthday he had gone from a £73-a-week pay packet to £12,000-a-week.

"EL'S a funny thing, but he still doesn't seem to think of star in his own. himself as a mind." went on his manageress. "He docan't know a thing about money. He owns three big apartment buildings in New York and three publishing busi- neases, but he has no idea of、 what he's worth..........

Last year Mathis made close on £250,000 in record royalties alone, but he doesn't own a car or any furniture. Incredibly, he Ilves with the Noge family taking up a small sulte in the 16-room Beverly Hills mansion they bought from Max Factor.

"I got to thinking of blm as iny own child," Mrs Nuga ex- plained. "And It seemed wrong to go home arid cat huine-cooked meals while he was stuck in an hotel.

"So one day he just moved in. I guess I'm more of a mother

a manager to him, any way."

than

TRAVELLING

school

-

всеп

days of

Sean

Kenny

SEAN KENNY'S brilliant

. rebellious seta have taken him to the top of the English theatrical less than three years,

treo in

the

This winter, if all goes well, his name will shine on credits for a lavish new Broad- way musical, "The King of Ashtabula," which Robert Frlar

For 11 months of the year is producing.

Mathis is travelling round the

country in cabaret—which may- I say "if all goes well" because

be accounia for his limited circle as this is Sean's Arst commission the American theatre he must join the American Scente

of friends,

for

"He mostly goes out with the Artists' Union, and to become a musicians he meets on the member he Inust pass DA road," continued Mrs Noga. examination.

RELUCTANTLY, MR HOLDEN'S

DEE-DEE MAKES HER DEBUT.......

WE keep hearing about

the new generation

of young actors, but what about the second generation of young actresses?

In "Walk on the Wild Alde" a current Holly- wood production starring Barbara. Blauwyck (afler How long?), the daugh- tees of two of the Kla world's most, durable Katsen, A Williams - - Holden and Henry Fonda, are appearing together.

"For - Virgtülm. Holden, aged 23·(left), it la her debut as an actress. I naked' ker · father, who Ja shooting "Balan Never

Sleeps" at Elstree, how he felt about ft.

"Well, Dee-Den sho's always called that at home-always pook. pooled tho iden of acting,” he said.

"Bhe worke

Interior decorator

Films.