Ted Turner honored with star on Hollywood walk of fame

By: GARY GENTILE - Associated Press | Wednesday, April 7, 2004 9:33 PM PDT ∞

LOS ANGELES -- Cable News Network founder, yacht racer, restaurant owner and philanthropist Ted Turner was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Wednesday.

The cable television pioneer was feted most for his devotion to classic films by a group of veteran but still glamorous actresses who thanked Turner for keeping them in the public eye.

"I am deeply indebted to Ted Turner for making my golden years platinum," said Ann Rutherford, who appeared in more than 60 films, including "Gone With the Wind," and a series of "Hardy Boys" movies.

Turner founded his Turner Classic Movies cable network 10 years ago. The channel fed off the hundreds of movies in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer library and other film libraries Turner bought over the years.

Rutherford praised Turner for running the classics "without breaking for commercials, without making those surgical cuts that idiots make. He has given a new life to so many, many people, who suddenly were getting fan mail."

Others on hand to honor Turner included actresses Margaret O'Brien and Esther Williams, actor Jeff Daniels and Shirley Fonda, widow of Henry Fonda. Turner was married to Jane Fonda. The two divorced in 2001.

Turner seemed a bit taken aback by all the attention, although he did wink at the crowd a few times when applauded for his ownership of the Atlanta Braves and other accomplishments.

"I'm almost at a loss for words," Turner said. "This is a hoot for me.

"I didn't get here for my acting ability, even though I had a cameo appearance in both 'Gettysburg' and 'Gods and Generals."'

Turner produced both films.

"I love show business," Turner said. "I've been kind of squeezed out at Time Warner, out of a management role over the last few years."

Turner became vice chairman of Time Warner Inc. in 1996 after the media conglomerate bought Turner Broadcasting System. He left his post in May 2003, after Time Warner merged with America Online, although he still serves on the board of directors.

"I don't know why they did it," Turner said. "I think I was still performing pretty well. We were making our budgets and we made them billions. They threw it away with AOL, but that wasn't completely my fault. Anyway ..."

Turner's star is located in front of the historic Roosevelt Hotel, near those honoring Peter Fonda, Cybil Shepherd and Jack LaLanne.

Elderly man who must use oxygen tank arrested in shooting death of pharmacist

Associated Press

CLARKSON, Ky. -- A 73-year-old man who has difficulty walking and is tethered to an oxygen tank was arrested Wednesday in the shooting death of a pharmacist, police said.

Charles Terry was taken into custody after a two-hour standoff outside the trailer of an 80-year-old friend, who eventually shoved him outside to waiting police officers.

Terry, who has a criminal record dating to the 1950s, was booked on a murder charge and taken to a hospital for treatment of minor injuries from a scuffle with the friend.

Terry allegedly shot Leo Marshall, 52, in the head and back Tuesday night in a pharmacy parking lot, state trooper Steve Pavey said.

Marshall had come out of the store to collect an $18 payment from Terry, who was seated in a sport utility vehicle, Pavey said. Terry handed Marshall a $20 bill, then shot the pharmacist as he returned with the change, police said.

"He just opened fire on him for absolutely no reason at all," Pavey said. "It's just an extremely bizarre thing."

Police said Terry had been driven to the pharmacy, about 60 miles southwest of Louisville, by Toby and Amelia Davis. The couple told investigators they had no idea Terry intended to shoot the druggist.

Amelia Davis was dropped off safely Tuesday after the shooting. Toby Davis, who told investigators he had been held against his will overnight, contacted police Wednesday after dropping Terry off at the trailer, authorities said.

When police arrived, Terry and his friend initially refused to come out of the trailer. Police said the friend did not know Terry was a fugitive, apparently prompting a scuffle between the two. Terry was "literally thrown out the front door into the front yard," Pavey said.

Terry, who normally is tethered to an oxygen tank, did not have it with him when he was arrested. His friend was not arrested.

Terry has a criminal record dating to the 1950s, police said. In 1980, he was convicted of second-degree rape, promoting prostitution and custodial interference. Terry finished that sentence in 1992.

After 60 years, France finds Saint-Exupery's plane

Associated Press

PARIS -- It was one of French aviation's enduring mysteries: Antoine de Saint-Exupery, the pilot and author of the beloved tale "The Little Prince," took off on a World War II spy mission for the Allies and was never seen again.

After 60 years, officials have confirmed that the twisted wreckage of a Lockheed Lightning P-38, found on the Mediterranean seabed not far from the rugged cliffs of Provence, belonged to Saint-Exupery, Air Force Capt. Frederic Solano said Wednesday.

In France, the discovery is akin to solving the mystery of where Amelia Earhart's plane went down in the Pacific Ocean in 1937.

"This was our holy grail," said Philippe Castellano, president of an association of aviation buffs who helped authorities identify the debris. "We never even imagined this."

It was a stunning revelation: Teams have been searching up and down the coast for decades, and many experts believed the plane was probably too far out to sea to be recovered.

Clues to the crash started coming together in 1998, when a bracelet bearing Saint-Exupery's name turned up in a fisherman's net near Marseille. Some reports said the find was a fake.

"For six years, people had their doubts," said the fisherman, Jean-Claude Bianco. "People claimed I made it myself."

But Bianco's discovery jogged the memory of a local scuba diver, who first saw the plane debris nestled in the ocean bed in the 1980s.

The diver, Luc Vanrell, pored over records of downed planes. By 2000, he was convinced he had found the right one. But it took time to get permission from France's Culture Ministry to have the pieces brought up for analysis.

The plane, smashed into hundreds of pieces, lies 100 to 300 feet below the surface, less than three miles from the coast between Marseille and Cassis. The key find was a tail piece bearing a tiny serial number, 2734 L -- the same as Saint-Exupery's, Castellano said.

A piece of the puzzle remains unanswered: the cause of the crash. Theories have ranged from hostile gunfire to suicide. The debris has so far yielded no clues.

"It's impossible to say if he was shot down, if he lost consciousness, or if he had a mechanical accident," said Patrick Grandjean of the national Department of Subaquatic and Submarine Archaeological Research.

Famous for his bravery, Saint-Exupery was selected for the dangerous mission of collecting data on German troop movements in the Rhone River Valley. His plane vanished in the night on July 31, 1944, when he was 44.

He has become one of France's most admired figures, in part because of "The Little Prince," a tender fable about a prince from an asteroid who explores the planets and then falls to earth. Saint-Exupery's other works, which largely deal with his aviation experiences, include "Wind, Sand and Stars" and "Flight to Arras," about a doomed reconnaissance mission.

Until the euro currency was introduced in 2002, the novelist's image appeared on the nation's 50-franc note. In Lyon, Saint-Exupery's hometown, the international airport is named after him.

Castellano, president of the Aero-ReL.I.C. organization that helped identify the plane, said some Saint-Exupery fans resisted the efforts. They wanted to keep the mystery alive.

"In the end, I think everyone is satisfied," he said. "We didn't find a body, so the myth surrounding his disappearance will live on."

On the Net: http://www.aero-relic.org

Mexican woman gives herself C-section, doctors report

Associated Press

CHICAGO -- A woman in Mexico cut open her own womb with a knife and delivered a healthy baby boy in her rural home when problems developed during labor, doctors report in a medical journal.

The woman and her son, her ninth child, both survived despite an eight-hour car ride to the nearest hospital and a wait of several hours once she got there, said co-author Dr. Rafael Valle, a Northwestern University obstetrician who learned about the case from a colleague.

"She was asked, `Why did you do that? Do you know you could have died?' She said, `Yes, but I wanted to save my baby,"' Valle said Wednesday. He added: "This is heroic to me."

The authors of the report said there are other cases of women attempting the same thing, but none they could find in which the mother and child survived.

The woman, 40, lived in a dirt-floor house with no electricity or running water and had previously lost a baby during childbirth, the authors said.

She was alone when she went into labor, and fearing the same thing would happen when it appeared childbirth was not progressing, she decided to perform the crude C-section. She drank three small glasses of hard liquor first to numb the pain, he said.

"Rather than experience fetal death in utero again, she used her skills at slaughtering animals," the report said. "Apparently, she did not bleed excessively and asked one of her children to call a local nurse for help before she lost consciousness."

The nurse stitched up the woman's abdomen with an ordinary needle and thread, and the mother and baby were taken to a hospital in the Mexican state of Oaxaca.

The incident happened about two years ago. The report appears in the March issue of the International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics, along with photographs of the woman's incision.

Times Square at 100: In your face, but unforgettable

Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Obnoxious. In your face. And at age 100, still unforgettable.

"Times Square is New York," Tim Tompkins, head of the Times Square Alliance, said Wednesday on the eve of the square's centennial, as Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. hosted a celebration with red, white and blue confetti raining down beside 1 Times Square.

"It's a little bit obnoxious, a little bit in your face -- but it's something you can never forget. It's a crazy, manic version of a town square," said Tompkins, whose nonprofit alliance of businesses plans nine months of activities topped by a 100th anniversary New Year's Eve bash ushering in 2005.

1 Times Square, the building that hosts the New Year's party televised worldwide, was opened in 1904 as the headquarters of the Times in the middle of the midtown square.

"It is a matter of great pride that what has become one of the most famous sites on earth is named after The New York Times," Sulzberger said. "Since my great-grandfather Adolph Ochs moved the newspaper to what was then called Longacre Square in 1904, this area has constantly reinvented itself."

The area was renamed Times Square on April 8, 1904, when Mayor George McClellan signed a proclamation. By December 1904, the Times organized the square's first New Year's bash, with fireworks, and composer George M. Cohan had written "Give My Regards to Broadway" after the thoroughfare that passes through the square.

The famed New Year's ball made its debut in 1907 from atop the Times building.

The square became a popular gathering point at key moments of the 20th century, with a "news zipper" made of light bulbs announcing world events, while billboards and neon signs advertised everything from Camel cigarettes to Coca-Cola.

By the 1970s, Times Square had deteriorated, with crime soaring while striptease bars and pornography shops thrived. But after a decade-long revival, the square now draws more than 26 million tourists each year.

The 100th anniversary ceremony marks the start of nine months of activities that "will show that Times Square remains a focal point for the creativity, energy and edge that have defined it for a century," Tompkins said.

Upcoming activities include a museum exhibit, a public art program and the development of new designs to improve the aesthetics of the square and ease pedestrian congestion.

On the Net:

Times Square Alliance: http://www.timessquarenyc.org