Rams, Frontiere in Berlin for Kicks

It was a moonlight dinner cruise Wednesday night on the Havel River for Georgia Frontiere and friends.

The owner of the Los Angeles Rams, visiting Germany’s largest city for Saturday’s exhibition game between the Rams and the Kansas City Chiefs, tossed a three-hour bash aboard the Havel Queen paddleboat to celebrate what she hoped would be the Rams’ third American Bowl win.

“Although,” Frontiere admitted, “I don’t predict; I just pray.” Gathered around the only woman to own a professional football team were about 400 guests, including Rams’ team members and their wives, as well as Orange County VIPs such as Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez, Fleetwood Enterprises Chairman John Crean, Mary and James Roosevelt, and Anaheim Councilman Irv Pickler.

At 6:30 p.m., guests boarded the double-decker buses that would whisk them to Berlin’s fairy-tale-like Grunewald Forest area, a place where princes hunted boar and deer in the 16th Century.

Boarding the triple-decker vessel to romantic accordion music, guests queued up to bars where mugs of beer, red and white wines, and Jack Daniels with Coca-Cola were served.

One of the first to arrive was Rams quarterback Jim Everett, escorting his longtime girlfriend, Kristina Beatty. Everett admitted that he hadn’t exactly been in strict training for Saturday’s game at Olympic Stadium. “I’ve been out every night,” he said. “I think I’ve seen it all. Berlin is wonderful.”

Frontiere, her blond hair flowing over a floral blue chiffon cocktail dress, seemed relieved that the Rams had finally pulled off a game in Berlin. (The previous American Bowl games took place in Tokyo and London).

“It’s wonderful that we’re here,” she said, arm in arm with her beau, Earle Weatherwax Jr. “We began three years ago to get the possibility of a game here started, but then, people had their doubts. I’m grateful that it all turned out.”

Rams Coach John Robinson, on board with his wife, Linda, almost seemed blase about the upcoming game. “This is a practice game, a rehearsal,” Robinson said. “I mean, years from now you aren’t going to hear people saying, ‘Remember when the Rams played Berlin?’ ”

But Robinson did find one cause for excitement: the opportunity to play in Olympic Stadium. “Playing there is exciting, even if it isn’t an event that will go down in history,” he said.

About 35,000 people are expected to show up at the stadium, which was built for the 1936 Olympic Games. Not exactly standing room only for a facility that can easily seat 60,000 people.

Peter Harnisch, a Berliner who was born 11 days before the Berlin Wall was erected in 1961, blamed the projected low attendance on ignorance. “I mean, I know what a football looks like,” he said. “And I know what a quarterback is, and a touchdown is. But that’s about all I know.” And this from the man who has been the Rams’ liaison with the Berlin Police Department for almost a week.

“Football is a brand new thing for Germany,” Harnisch added. “It’s not popular here like soccer. People just don’t know what it is.”

Germany’s seeming indifference aside, members of the Rams were excited about playing in Olympic Stadium. Duval Love, an offensive guard, said he felt honored to be on the same field where Jesse Owens captured four Olympic gold medals in 1936.

The same went for offensive tackle Robert Cox. “I feel like I’ll be a part of history,” Cox said. “Owens is a big part of black history; you grow up on that. He was one of my most important role models.”

As the riverboat cruised the deep green waters of the Havel, a Dixieland jazz band entertained. From the top deck, guests could see in the distance the little that is left of the all-but-dismantled wall.

Pickler, sporting a Mickey Mouse pin in his lapel, said he was happy to be in Berlin, representing a city that has a German history of its own.

“In fact,” he said, “I’m a little jealous of the fact that Los Angeles has Berlin for a sister city. We’ve tried to get a sister city for Anaheim in Germany for years, but we just haven’t been able to do it.”

But, he said, the city plans to keep trying.

While guests enjoyed the fare served up aboard the Havel Queen, it could hardly compete with the sumptuous spread laid out the night before at the Grand Hotel in East Berlin, where Frontiere is staying. On Tuesday night, the Rams’ owner gathered about 40 friends around her--including Vasquez, the Creans, the Roosevelts and a smattering of Los Angeles city councilmen--to dine on an elegant repast in an intimate room with a sweeping view of the city.

“It was kind of a sad sight from those windows,” John Crean said. “Right in the middle of dinner I saw a woman walk out on her roof to hang up her laundry.”

LOCAL FLAVOR

The Rams booster club gets a taste of Bavarian night life. E1