Host Richie Says ‘Hello’ to 6 American Music Awards

--Host Lionel Richie won six American Music Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles and asked, “Am I dreamin’ or what?” while rock star Prince got three and Tina Turner, Anne Murray, Cyndi Lauper and the Pointer Sisters picked up two awards apiece. Richie was honored as favorite male video artist in both black and pop-rock categories, and his video clip, “Hello,” was named favorite pop-rock video single and black video single. “This could get contagious, I hope, I hope,” said a clearly elated Richie after the third award. Prince, the 26-year-old rock sensation from Minneapolis, won for favorite black single as well as top black album and pop-rock album. Bruce Springsteen took the pop-rock single, Kenny Rogers won with best country album and Rogers and Dolly Parton together claimed the country single.

--The 88-year-old dean of American composers will be honored in San Francisco with a Bay Area Salute to Virgil Thomson. One of the salute’s highlights will be the first performance of the piano version of Thomson’s “Suite From the Ballet Music for Lord Byron.” The composer lost the manuscript for the music some years ago and found it recently hidden away in his Chelsea Hotel apartment in New York.

--He doesn’t leap tall buildings with a single bound, and he isn’t faster than a speeding bullet, but he does cruise the streets during rush hours to help stranded motorists fix a flat tire or jump-start a stalled car. So you’d think a super-hero could get a little respect around Fort Wayne, Ind. But not so for the Road Ranger. “Some woman called in and reported this strangely attired man offered to fix her flat tire,” Police Chief David C. Riemen told the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette. “She thought surely there was something suspicious. It’s a sad commentary on life that we have to be suspicious of someone doing good.” Actually, Road Ranger is more than just a “strangely attired man” dressed in a blue jump suit, heavy boots, a blue-and-gold cape and a yellow ski mask, said Gene Diehm, sales manager of Hefner Chevrolet. The Road Runner works for the car dealership. The mystery mechanic is merely a 6-foot, 7-inch, 300-pound defender of truth, justice, the American way and the harried rush-hour driver, Diehm said.