Paper Chase

Former Chicago Sun-Times President and Publisher Robert Page was one of many prospective buyers who looked at the Pasadena Star-News and decided that Knight-Ridder’s asking price was a bit salty. But the veteran newsman remains keenly interested in buying a media property in the Los Angeles area.

Page and his wife, Nancy Merrill, like Southern California, and both have been eyeing career possibilities here as well as homes in Malibu. Until recently, Merrill hosted a popular and often feisty morning show on Boston television.

Page spearheaded a buyout of the Sun-Times in 1986 from Rupert Murdoch and then was bought out himself by his partners last fall. He walked away with a hefty profit and formed Page Media to look for something new to run.

Financial backing for a deal would probably come from investors assembled by Paul Kelly, an investment banker at the small New York firm of Peers & Co. who also happens to be Merrill’s brother.

A Boom in Oil Booms

Business is, well, booming at Kepner Plastics Fabricators Inc. in Torrance. As manufacturer of perhaps the widest variety of oil-containment booms in the world, Kepner got its first call from Valdez, Alaska, the morning after the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound.

The company shipped $400,000 worth of its SeaCurtain booms in the first two weeks and since has had three shifts a day, seven days a week, hard at the task of making more. On Thursday, it shipped north its first model of a unique skimmer that can be deployed by helicopter. Only in the past couple of weeks has the firm started giving workers Sundays off.

Frank Meyers, owner and president, estimates that he has sent 5 to 10 miles of booms to Alaska since April 1--and could have profited from the disaster even more, given some warning. “What we had in hand was a drop in the bucket” in comparison to what was needed, he said. “When there’s a spill, it’s really too late to start manufacturing.”

Notes From Secretaries

Wednesday is Secretaries Day. And along with the traditional flowers and lunches that pass for shows of appreciation to the women and men without whom American business would grind to a halt, herewith are some facts to consider, drawn from a survey of 3,000 secretaries by the National Institute of Business Management:

- A third of secretaries don’t like their jobs, calling them “boring,” “less than satisfying” or, at best, “a step to a better position.” What they like least is “doing my boss’s nasty tasks,” “being treated as a non-person” and “indecisive bosses.”

- One in five thinks the boss is a jerk, describing employers as “grouches,” “tough” or “just plain difficult.”

- Then again, one in 10 secretaries claims to have been romantically involved with the boss. Of those, a third said the dalliance helped their careers, while a fourth said it hurt.

Headed for the Beach

Chuck King, a would-be prince of tanning oil, describes his Sun Center as appearing to be a portable toilet with “a kind of Polynesian look.”

That’s a shady start for something he hopes will be the brightest innovation on a few Southern California beaches by Memorial Day. The Sun Center is actually a kiosk that vends suntan lotion. Beach goers choose the degree of ultraviolet protection they require, deposit 50 cents, then pick up a hose and douse themselves for 40 seconds.

King--chairman of K-Sun Inc. in Memphis, Tenn., which is working out franchising deals with distributors--says he got the idea for the machines during a Florida vacation in 1984. “Here we are, packing up four bottles of suntan oil, one for each person,” he recalled thinking. “We spent $40 or $50 on this and it’ll probably be thrown away.”