CLASS CLOWN MAKES GOOD

If there’s something familiar about the hip-talking, Motown-singing, finger-poppin’ character that actor Bruce Willis portrays on the hit series “Moonlighting,” the residents of this small town located 30 miles south of Philadelphia know just what it is.

“The way he acts is typical of Penns Grove,” says Sgt. William Sawyer of the local police department. “People from here are unique. He (Willis) was (a teen-ager) after the ‘50s and ‘60s, but he never got out of that mentality: It’s a doo-wop personality.”

Willis, 31, is Penns Grove’s biggest claim to fame (although not its first one: “Dynasty” star John Forsythe was also born here). Born and bred in this small borough of 6,000, Willis is fondly remembered as the local boy who made good, the class clown and cut-up who stays in touch with his family and friends.

“He has never forgotten his friends,” says Pat Pratta, the beauty parlor operator who worked on Willis’ mother’s hair for years. Pratta’s shop, located on a small back street, is adorned with a prominent picture of Willis, complete with personalized inscription. The picture hangs on the wall by Pratta’s chair, and in its lower left-hand corner, the owner-operator has stuck a small color portrait of Willis’ mother.

“He sneaks back into town now and then,” says Pratta. “When he comes home, the word is spread all over town, but he tends to keep to himself.”

Even if Willis low-keys it when he comes home, it’s obvious that Penns Grove could use whatever excitement that his celebrity affords. Once a thriving shopping area, the town went into serious decline about 20 years ago, due mainly to competition from suburban shopping malls in Delaware and the New Jersey towns that ring Philadelphia.

A hard-core working-class village, Penns Grove consists mainly of what borough clerk Gilda Gill refers to as “members of the upper-, lower- and lower-middle classes.” At least a third poor black and Latino, Penns Grove wage earners generally toil for four major factories: Ford or Chrysler assembly plants in Newark, Del., the B.F. Goodrich plant north of town and the enormous DuPont chemical works on the banks of Delaware Bay (Willis’ father works as a mechanic for DuPont).

Penns Grove’s economic status is apparent to the naked eye. Although the town is tree-shaded, it is filled with white frame houses badly in need of painting and/or repair. The small shopping area has its share of empty storefronts and all too many bars, liquor stores, bait-and-tackle shops and billiard parlors. It’s the kind of town where poor unemployed blacks sit in rocking chairs on their porches, and young white boys sporting tatoos and sleeveless T-shirts hang out on the corner by the local convenience store.

But if Penns Grove is New Jersey rural (it’s surrounded by lush farmland), its mentality is closer to that of Philadelphia than Dogpatch. The proximity of the big city, only 30 minutes up Interstate 95, has meant that Willis and many of his peers grew up as distinct East Coast “types”: Hip white boys who listened to black music.

“The first time I saw ‘Moonlighting,’ ” says Pat Pratta, “I said, ‘You can see Penns Grove on the screen, because Penns Grove is city-like.’ ”

Adds Sgt. Sawyer: “Penns Grove is like South Philadelphia. We have all the problems that the big cities have.”

According to local residents, Willis seems to have absorbed this big-city ethos, and added his own unique personality. “That’s him on the show,” says Cookie Sawyer, the sergant’s wife, who knew Willis at Penns Grove High School. “A lot of the sayings and comments he makes are things he said in school. The singing he does on the show (Willis’ character loves to sing old Motown and doo-wop hits), that’s him also. That was him in school. He was always full of fun, pulling pranks, but every prank he did was for fun.”

Whether or not Willis’ celebrity has really affected the town is, however, a subject of differing opinions in Penns Grove. “He’s been an object of conversation in town,” says borough clerk Gill. “I have not noticed that people are talking about the show, but I have noticed that people have started watching the show because he was a Penns Grove resident. It sparked some interest, some loyalty to the town.”

“I think it has put the town on the map,” says Jim Buyarski, whose sister, Patti Jo, dated Willis in high school. “I’ve seen articles in People magazine and Rolling Stone, and they always mention the town.”

But are people talking up “Moonlighting” and Willis? “I’ve never heard anyone talk about the show,” says Vera Oruch, who, along with her husband Max, runs the Penns Grove News Agency. Adds Max Oruch: “I’ve never seen the show, but when he (Willis) was on the cover of Rolling Stone, it sold 50 copies here, and that’s a lot for me. I had to call my distributor twice to get more issues.”

“The fact is,” says Pat Pratta, “people here just love the show. I even have kids come in here who can tell me the whole dialogue of the show.”

But no matter what people feel about their native son, this is still poor, put-upon Penns Grove. No one is suggesting a Bruce Willis Day or a Willis Monument out at the high school. People here are more concerned about poor housing stock, new jobs at the factories in the area and the drug problems that are rampant in town.

Willis may be a star on a meteoric rise, a hip, hyper kid who has parlayed a wise-guy attitude into a Hollywood career, but the bottom line is that his celebrity can’t do much for Penns Grove.

“This town is falling down,” says an old woman playing cards at the local taxi stand. “The show can’t help it at all.”