4,500 Pledge $630,000 for AIDS Victims

About 4,500 people, more than twice as many as were expected, walked through the heart of Hollywood Sunday in an “AIDS Walkathon” that brought in $630,000 to help fight the disease, organizers of the event said.

Walkathon leaders were surprised and delighted by the large turnout, but they downplayed the effect on the size of the crowd from the announcement last week that actor Rock Hudson has the disease.

“It may have helped some, but most of these people had already decided to participate and had lined up their pledges,” said Richard Zeichik, an organizer of the event.

Long-Range Impact

Bill Misenhimer, executive director of AIDS Project/Los Angeles, agreed that the Hudson announcement did not make a big difference Sunday, but he thought its significance would be felt in the long run.

“As tragic as it is that Rock Hudson has AIDS, the fact that he admitted it is the single most important thing to happen in the fight against AIDS,” Misenhimer said.

Before the walk began at the Paramount Studios lot on Melrose Avenue, a host of politicians and celebrities, including Mayor Tom Bradley and actress Ann-Margret, addressed several thousand people who filled the dry water tank where Moses once parted the Red Sea.

But, said Bradley, educating the public and finding a cure for AIDS would be a more difficult task than the one Charlton Heston faced in “The Ten Commandments.” “It’s time to put a stop to the nonsense and false rumors that surround this disease,” he said.

Most of the U.S. vicitms of the disease, acquired immune deficiency syndrome, have been gay men, but it also has spread to other segments of the population.

Plenty of Blisters

By the time the crowd set out on the 6.2-mile route, temperatures were in the mid 80s, and first-aid stations reported “a whole lot of blisters and a few cases of heat prostration” along the way.

No one needed emergency medical attention, however, and as the walkathon passed the Gay and Lesbian Community Service Center on Highland Avenue, a man helped walkers keep cool by drenching them with a high-pressure hose.

Walkers gave a variety of reasons for taking part in the event.

“My friends are dying,” said Rick Sandford, 34, of Los Angeles, while he made the miles go faster by reading “Glory For Me,” a book-length poem by the late MacKinlay Kantor.

Need for Information

Marsha Rybin, a junior high school teacher from Mission Hills who pushed her 3-year-old daughter, Tevis, in a stroller along the entire route, said: “I’m here to fight AIDS. . . . People are terrifically misinformed about the disease.”

Jife Driessen, 45, said she was walking for an AIDS-stricken friend who is lying in a hospital. “This one’s for Ken,” she said.

Scoutmaster Michael Feldman of Boy Scout Troop 336 said his troop manned a soft drink booth at the end of the walk because “we don’t consider this to be a gay issue--it’s a community issue, a matter of human compassion.”