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At 104, she’s grieving for bowling beau
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As soon as we received word of Bill Hargrove’s passing Thursday at Buzz Central, we immediately picked up the phone and rang Rachel Rosen Lehmann, our favorite 104-year-old reader.
As you’ll no doubt recall, Lehmann first called us back in March 2005, after reading about bowler Bill “Tiger” Hargrove, then 102, who had just been featured in the AJC Sports section. Lehmann wanted his digits. We happily obliged. The two ended up getting on so well, Hargrove showed up at the longtime Atlanta Opera volunteer’s 102nd birthday party in June of that year with three long-stemmed red roses. Sporting a jacket and tie, Hargrove gave her a hug and purred in her ear: “I came in here looking for an old lady but I couldn’t find one.”
We took copious notes and the pair ended up on the front page much to the delight of readers.
“Oh, Bill, what a darling sweet man,” Lehmann reflected Thursday. “He was a real Southern gentleman. He would always call me ‘Rachel darlin’ ’ in that accent of his. It was the cutest thing.”
Lehmann told us the two met up from time to time when they could arrange transportation but mostly kept up via phone calls.
Said Lehmann: “He would tell me, ‘When I go to bed at night, I see you in my dreams.’ How can you top that? They aren’t making gentlemen like that anymore.”
Regrettably, Lehmann never had a chance to take Hargrove to her beloved Atlanta Opera. But she did attend his 106th birthday party last year.
“I brought him a big bottle of wine!” Lehmann recalled with a wicked laugh. “I mean, at our age, why not? We always had so much fun together. I just wish we could have started a little earlier. But I’m so happy I got to meet him. And so handsome!”
In tribute to her bowling beau, the Zaban Tower retirement community songbird plans to attend Hargrove’s memorial service Saturday at 2 p.m. at Atlanta’s Grace United Methodist Church.
With three long-stemmed red roses in hand.
A GOSPEL ‘JESUS’
Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s production company has tapped Atlanta’s Susan V. Booth to direct the forthcoming gospel version of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” scheduled to run at the Alliance Theatre on Jan. 14-Feb. 22 in 2009.
The Alliance artistic director said she was called to London recently for a sit-down with Webber’s Really Useful Group. “Sir Andrew wasn’t there,” Booth said, “because he was on his way to Las Vegas for ‘American Idol.’ “
Detroit native Louis St. Louis is restaging the classic musical as “Jesus Christ Superstar GOSPEL.” To prepare, Booth said they will be hitting Atlanta’s gospel churches in the coming weeks. She says part of the fun is being able to check out churches “other than Presbyterian,” which is her denomination.
Apparently, the search for a director was quite competitive.
“This is their prime copyright,” Booth said. “This is the first major reconception of the work in a long time and that’s a big deal.”
“It’s very humbling and it’s very challenging, and it’s the greatest thing in the world when you get to do that,” she said of her new assignment.
Booth’s connection to the ’70s rock opera is personal. She says she sang “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” in a sixth-grade talent show.
“I thought it was stunning, but I don’t think everyone else did,” she said. She says she now croons “Everything’s Alright” to her 4-year-old daughter, Moira.
COUPLING
Mariah Carey really did get married to Nick Cannon in the Bahamas last week — and they have the tattoos to prove it.
The 38-year-old singer and the 27-year-old actor confirmed to People magazine, out today, that they tied the knot at Carey’s Bahamian estate April 30 after a courtship that began in late March.
In the interview, Cannon said they clicked instantly when Carey cast him as a lover in the video for her new single, “Bye Bye.”
“From the first time we sat down to discuss the video at the Beverly Hills Hotel, we connected,” Cannon said. “We had so much in common spiritually, and we laugh at the same things. I didn’t have to put on my Mac Daddy suave mode. I was able to be myself with her. We are both eternally 12 years old.”
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
CBS News correspondent Mike Wallace is 90. Actress Candice Bergen is 62. Singer Billy Joel is 59.
HIGH FIVE
Television
The top On Demand programs for the week of May 5, as determined by Comcast customers in metro Atlanta:
1. Lil Wayne, “Lollipop,” music video, Music Choice
2. Shawty Lo, “Dunn, Dunn,” music video, Music Choice
3. Usher, “Love in this Club,” music video, Music Choice
4. Keyshia Cole, “Heaven Sent,” music video, Music Choice
5. “Family Guy,” “Mr. Griffin goes to Washington,” TBS
— Courtesy: Rentrak’s OnDemand Essentials
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“It is a sad day when an icon like Barbara Walters, in the sunset of her life, is reduced to publicly branding herself as an adulterer, humiliating an innocent family with accounts of her illicit affair and speaking negatively against me all for the sake of selling a book. It speaks to her true character.”
Disgruntled former “View” employee Star Jones to US Weekly on ex-boss Barbara Walters’ new memoir, “Audition.”
Contributing: Wendell Brock and news services.
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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