Anti-Nuclear Plea : Rally Spirit Starts Trek for Peace

The Great Peace March of 1986--under-manned, plagued by insurance problems, heckled by protesters, hassled by bureaucrats, but nevertheless in high spirits--got under way here Saturday as about 1,400 marchers struck out across 3,235 miles of American desert, mountains, plains, and cities, bent on mass persuasion against the perceived evils of nuclear arms.

“It feels fantastic,” said Jerome Eisner, 68, of Canoga Park, as he began the planned 8 1/2-month walk at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum shortly after noon. “It is just thrilling that it is finally happening.”

Later, five miles down the road at City Hall, a rousing send-off, replete with rock music, celebrities, speeches and supporters, awaited the marchers on their way to the first night’s campground, California State University, Los Angeles.

Boost From Bradley

Mayor Tom Bradley, wearing a T-shirt with the logo “PEACE” in four-inch-high letters, declared the coming week “PRO-Peace Week” and said the march would “deliver a message, not just in this nation but around the globe” that nuclear armaments should be eliminated.

“You have gathered today,” he told the crowd, estimated at 6,000, “to give the marchers the energy they need for their grand crusade across America.”

And in a reference to march organizers’ difficulties obtaining liability insurance, the mayor criticized “those who tried to stop this march by denying insurance. This idea is bigger than any insurance company.”

Plans for the peace march began in late 1984, as the brainchild of David Mixner, 39, a longtime activist in liberal causes, whose credentials include the 1968 presidential campaign of Sen. Eugene McCarthy, the Vietnam Moratorium, directing Bradley’s 1977 mayoral reelection campaign and, most recently, co-chairing Sen. Gary Hart’s 1984 presidential quest.

Mixner’s grandiose plan, which includes an elaborate schedule winding up in Washington on Nov. 15, initially called for 5,000 marchers, $21 million and a free rock concert send-off, attracting a capacity crowd at the 100,000-seat Coliseum. He wanted corporate sponsors, videos, films and merchandising tied to the proposed concert. But the results, so far, have not matched initial expectations.

Mixner estimated the number of marchers Saturday at 1,400. He had to cancel the Coliseum concert when big-name acts proved unwilling to perform for free. And corporate sponsors and more conventional contributors to the peace movement held off because of the controversial nature of the nuclear disarmament issue and qualms about the effectiveness of the march as a means of getting action.

Banned From Lot

Even the Coliseum’s status as a starting point was jeopardized late last week, when state officials, citing insufficient notice, prohibited the marchers from using the stadium’s parking lot as a staging area. Resourceful PRO-Peace staffers simply walked across the street and received permission from Murray’s Tickets to use an adjoining lot.

Despite the disappointments, organizers were optimistic Saturday that the march would accomplish its goal of focusing diffuse dissatisfaction with the arms race into a potent political force.

Hollywood celebrities, who played an early and significant role in the planning, were well-represented Saturday. Paul Newman, a six-figure contributor to PRO-Peace, and Barbra Streisand, who threw in close to $100,000, sent notes of support that were read from the stage, but they did not appear at the rally.

Robert Blake, of television’s “Baretta” and “Helltown,” who has vowed to walk all the way to Washington, took the microphone.

“I can’t tell you how great you make me feel when I walk with you,” he told the crowd. “If we only last another 10 miles and they turn the fire hoses on us, we still have made our point and all of the world knows that America wants to take the bombs down now.”

Robert Foxworth, of television’s “Falcon Crest,” addressed the role of celebrities in the march in an interview.

‘A Right to Speak’

“Before I am an actor and a famous face,” he said, “I am a human being and a father and a citizen of this nation and of the world. I think I have a right, as well as a responsibility, to speak to the (nuclear arms) issue as well as any other issue.”

Other well-known actors present Saturday included Betty Thomas, Elizabeth Montgomery, Ed Begley Jr., Michael Nouri, Lesley Ann Warren, Linda Lavin, Lauren Hutton, Teri Garr and Howard Hesseman. Singers Melissa Manchester and Holly Near and the rock group Mr. Mister performed.

Members of the Westside liberal establishment also were there, including Jane and Marc Nathanson and Linda Palevsky, well-known contributors to liberal causes.

Small groups of hecklers made their presence known as well. One group, identifying itself as Citizens Against the Deceptive ‘Peace’ March, held signs reading “March to Moscow, Not Washington.” A half dozen Latvians demanded that the Soviet Union remove arms from the Baltic states. And a man with a bullhorn urged marchers, with equal fervor, “to believe in Jesus Christ and quit smoking those cigarettes.”

The scene also attracted some of the downtown area’s homeless. One of them, Terry Jackson, 41, sporting a week’s growth of beard and a recent gash over his left eyebrow, watched the festivities with a bemused air.

Entertaining Event

“It’s entertainment and I’m drinking wine,” the former truck driver said of the rally, adding that he supported the march, because “I’m a peaceful person.”

The marchers arrived at the Cal State campus parking lot at about 7 p.m. to set up camp and, an hour later, they had dinner: tuna salad, carrots, cucumbers and pita bread.

Carole Schmidt, 24, of Chicago, said: “I’m thrilled that I came. I’m floating about a foot off the ground. It is more colorful and beautiful than I ever imagined.”

The group will be awakened at 4:30 a.m. and plans to hit the pavement at 8:15, wending their way eastward out of the city on surface streets.