TRAVELING IN STYLE

Actors Hume Cronyn and Don Ameche, who join other authors in today’s Traveling in Style, have shared billings before. Not with the written word, but on film. In 1985 Cronyn and Ameche were cast in the movie “Cocoon,” for which Ameche won an Academy Award for best supporting actor. And this past December, Cronyn and Ameche took part in the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington where the previous year Cronyn and his actress wife, Jessica Tandy, were themselves honorees.

Ameche describes Cronyn as a “magnificent actor, a beautiful human being” and praises Jessica Tandy as “the finest stage performer in the world today.” Although Cronyn and Tandy are residents of my favorite small hotel in New York, the Wyndham, and Ameche, an old, old friend, lives in Santa Monica, the distances fail to keep them separated for long. Ameche confides that he and Cronyn are to appear in yet another film together.

As for Cronyn and Tandy, when we spoke during the holidays, they were dashing off to a cherished hideaway in the Bahamas--just as Ameche was preparing for yet another visit to Switzerland . . . “to listen to the cowbells and smell the flowers.” Says he: “It is imperative that I escape occasionally, to be by myself.” Earlier, Times Arts Editor Charles Champlin wrote that Ameche “in every sense is a man ready for new adventure.” Yes, even as he nears his 80th year.

And then there is Merv Griffin, who confesses to an ongoing romance with Rio de Janeiro (“I love Brazil with a passion”), and his favorite vacation destinations in the U.S.: the John Gardiner Tennis Ranches at Carmel Valley, Calif. and in Scottsdale and Sedona, Ariz.

In this issue we feature yet another celebrity, actress-singer Lena Horne, who reminisces about her own travels. She tells of joyful memories when the world seemed far more carefree and uncomplicated--and all roads, everywhere, appeared to run smoother.

So come join these notables and other authors as they deliver us to distant lands in this issue of Traveling in Style.