Silberman Hospitalization Echoes a Similar Mysterious Circumstance

Cynics remember another occasion when Richard Silberman was hospitalized under mysterious circumstances just as a moment of truth approached.

It was the night of Oct. 25, 1984, just before a scheduled debate between Silberman’s wife, Susan Golding, and his one-time protege, Lynn Schenk. Golding and Schenk were engaged in a bitter race for the Board of Supervisors.

Sponsored by the League of Women Voters and California Women in Government, the debate was to be held at the Mission Bay Hilton.

Golding, the front-runner, was nervous about the debate, preferring instead a joint appearance the next week on KPBS-TV.

Schenk was threatening not to appear on KPBS because she felt she could not get a fair shake from the moderator, Gloria Penner. There were indications that the Hilton debate would be the last face-to-face confrontation before Election Day, complete with major media coverage.

An hour before the debate, Silberman was taken to the emergency room at Mercy Hospital. His son said he had collapsed after jogging in Balboa Park.

Golding rushed to the hospital and the debate was canceled. A Golding campaign aide told the debate crowd to “say a prayer for Dick.”

Silberman underwent a CAT scan and electroencephalogram and was released within 24 hours.

The next week Schenk refused to appear on KPBS. Golding slammed Schenk for ducking the issues.

Schenk’s campaign manager fumed to the press that Silberman’s collapse before the Hilton debate had been “a strange coincidence with perfect campaign timing.”

Golding coasted to an easy victory. Schenk sued (and collected from) Golding’s campaign for last-minute dirty trickery involving bogus charges that Schenk was under investigation.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Hoopla for Bookstore

The passing parade.

* You have to love a big city that is still small enough to celebrate the opening of a new bookstore with a 17-piece band, a display of vintage cars, a giant cake, political speeches and an open party.

That’s what’s planned Saturday when the renovated Loma Theater on Rosecrans in Point Loma becomes the latest Bookstar bookstore.

* Starting with tonight’s MISL All-Star Game, the San Diego Sports Arena will sell non-alcoholic beer on draft (O’Doul’s from Anheuser-Busch) to the over-21 set. The goal is to reduce drunken rowdiness.

Real beer (Bud) will continue to flow. But vendors are getting training today on how to say no when confronted by a drunk pleading for one more.

* Former Del Mar Mayor Ronnie Delaney, running for Assembly, will release a public opinion poll this morning that she says shows incumbent Sunny Mojonnier is holding onto the ropes and gasping for air.

* The political grapevine says Lee Grissom, president of the Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce, will become the head of the state Business, Transportation & Housing Agency if Pete Wilson becomes governor.

Grissom says he hasn’t talked to Wilson about the job and it would be “presumptuous” to speculate about whether an offer will be made. But he also says he’ll do everything possible to get Wilson elected.

Lights! Camera! Action!

The Hollywood connection.

* Steven Spielberg has asked Rep. Jim Bates (D-San Diego) for help in his latest project: a film about the loss of ozone in the Amazon rain forest, starring Robert Redford.

Spielberg and Bates met at a seminar about cable television put on by Warner Bros. in Beverly Hills. Bates has a bill to curb production of chemicals that destroy ozone.

* “The Arrival,” a thriller pitting the FBI against extraterrestrials, is being shot in Fallbrook, starring Michael J. Pollard (“Bonnie and Clyde”) and John Saxon (“Nightmare on Elm Street”).

After Fallbrook, filming moves to Pacific Beach.

* “The Hunt for Red October,” with scenes shot at the Navy’s North Island and the submarine base at Ballast Point, has its premiere next week in San Diego, including a free showing for local sailors.