HANDS ACROSS AMERICA : Smiles Dominate Linkup of Hands in the Southland

When it was all over--the hand-holding and the singing and the confusion and the hoopla--Tony Downs had one question:

“What now?” he said.

Downs, 32, one of the several hundred thousand people who took part in Hands Across America in the Southland, stood alone amid a clutter of crushed soft-drink cups and other debris in the Queen Mary parking lot at Long Beach, and tried to smile.

“I feel kind of empty . . . like there ought to be something more, you know?” Downs asked.

Organizers of the event had no immediate answer. For some, the event itself was enough.

“It was peaceful,” said Hands spokesman Teri Hemmings. “There were no serious incidents--fights, major arguments, that kind of thing--as far as we know, and that’s about all we could hope for.”

There were a few pockets of pessimism along the hundreds of miles of streets and highways the Hands’ lines followed in Southern California.

‘High-Tech Staging’

Lillie Smith, 60, who identified herself as a “homeless person” from Los Angeles, sat near the Queen Mary, carrying a sign criticizing the event as irrelevant to the needs of the poor. “This is nothing but high-tech staging,” she said.

And in Orange County--where thousands celebrated the event in the streets, in the Crystal Cathedral and at Disneyland--Vernice Magruder, 31, an unemployed accountant who has been staying in a women’s shelter, found her eyes streaming tears as she and fellow shelter residents shouted the words to “Hands Across America.”

“We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for a chance,” she said.

But most of the faces along the route were smiling.

In Beverly Hills, knots of hand-holders clustered along Wilshire Boulevard--tending to congregate near the glitziest shops in the hope of glimpsing celebrities whose appearance in the line--at reserved spots--had been widely advertised.

Red, white and blue Hands Across America T-shirts were outnumbered by madras shirts and pastel jogging suits, but the general attitude was upbeat and upscale.

‘Thought About Homeless’

Near the Beverly Wilshire, accountant Laurence Greenblatt, 35, was handing out business cards, but he said his motive for joining the line was not primarily commercial.

“Yesterday,” he said, “I want you to know that I ran up Mt. Wilson--and I thought about the homeless the whole way.”

Crowds were sparser in Los Angeles’ less attractive areas:

In Wilmington, near the corner of Pacific Coast Highway and Alameda Street--an area of chain-link fences festooned with razor wire and refinery smells--almost everyone was from somewhere else.

“We knew up in Santa Monica there would be plenty of beach-goers. We wanted to fill in the line,” said Michael Gray, 29, who had brought his family there from their home in Venice. “We knew there wasn’t going to be anybody out here.”

In East Los Angeles, there wide gaps in the line along Whittier Boulevard west of the Long Beach Freeway, and volunteers had to content themselves with mini-lines of 15 to 20 participants.541226356Alhambra resident at the end of one such group, took it all in stride.

‘Actually Having Fun’

“How often do you get to stand in the middle of the street in L.A.?” he laughed. “I’m actually having fun.”

And downtown, on Skid Row, hundreds of the poor and homeless streamed onto the streets to join hands with participants who had driven in from the suburbs--a first visit for many.

Mark Steele, a Pasadena resident who joined the line nearby, said it was his first time in the Row--an experience that will stick with him for years.

“We were assigned to come here, and we didn’t know what to expect,” he said. “This is something people don’t want to think about, but now we’re right in it. It makes me wonder, isn’t it our responsibility to get these people back on track?”

Mary Steele said that when they get back to Pasadena, “we’re going to ask our neighbors, ‘How come you weren’t down here?’ ”

Not everyone felt so deeply involved.

“It’s a good concept (but) I’m not a group joiner,” agreed Angelo De Meo, 55, of Venice, who was working on a Sunday crossword puzzle under a beach umbrella not far away. “I really don’t like crowds. . . .”

‘Going to Watch’

In South Bay, some of the regular beach-goers expressed mild interest:

“I’m going to watch,” said Dave Woodward, 22, a Xerox marketing representative who lives in Palos Verdes Estates. His companion, Jane Sternin, 21, a student at Long Beach State, said she thinks it is “a good idea” that Americans are “interested in what goes on in America.”

There was perhaps more enthusiasm--but of a quieter kind--in the San Fernando Valley.

Along the Ventura Boulevard section of the route, the crowd was unusually subdued. This was not a group gathering for a giant outdoor party; these were church people, United Way volunteers--the kind of people who regularly involve themselves in community projects--quietly talking about the brief and shining moment they hoped would show their concern for the nation’s hungry and homeless.

“We left church just in time to get in line,” said Elizabeth Johnson of Studio City. “Doing this puts everything we talk about and sing about in church into practice.”

“We hope the money all goes to where it’s supposed to go . . . ,” said Ernie Preseutto, who rode his bike to Ventura Boulevard with a group of North Hollywood neighbors. “I’m out here because I want to help the little old wino on Los Angeles Street.

Farima Vainstein of Agoura had made signs for 13 members of her family and friends to wear during the event. The letters spelled out “Bread not Bombs” and symbolized the reason Vainstein organized the group.

“The nation’s resources aren’t going to the people,” Vainstein said. “They’re going to make more bombs, and we don’t need that. We have to get the message out that we want our taxes to go to help people, not to hurt them.”

Hollywood’s contingent was--not surprisingly--a bit more colorful.

On Sunset Boulevard, palm reader Samantha stood in front of her shop, offering discount readings to passers-by in honor of the occasion. “Usually, $10,” she said, waving a flyer. “Today, $5.”

But taxi driver Fred Robinson said he had taken time off from work to join the line.

“Our dispatcher said it was all right,” he explained. “Last night I picked up an old man at the bus station who had come in from San Jose, only for this. I got all choked up when he told me. I knew I couldn’t miss this.” Still, a question remained for some.

“What good will it do?” demanded Harry Stone, 43, of Hermosa Beach. “When it’s over and everyone has gone home, will it really help?”

Anthony (Rocky) Collins, 33, who was in the same general area thought he had an answer for that:

“Won’t hurt,” he said.

These stories on Hands Across America were reported by Times staff writers Jeff Burbank, Alan Goldstein, David Haldane, Steve Harvey, Pamela Moreland, George Stein, Jill Stewart, Robert W. Stewart and Robert Welkos in Los Angeles; Sheldon Ito, Maria L. La Ganga, Mark Landsbaum and Kristina Lindgren in Orange County; Eleanor Clift, James Gerstanzang and Don Irwin in Washington, and Dennis McDougal and Siobhan Flynn in New York.