Olympic Bash Kicks Off Fest in a Big Way

Take a simple, powerful act like the lighting of the Olympic torch. Add the exaggeration of show business. This is what you get: a “torch” that’s really a caldron 8 feet across with flames 12 feet high, decorated with sequins as big as eyeglass lenses, and raised like a giant chalice with a crane in the outfield of Dodger Stadium.

“We’re trying to take these great moments and add just a touch of Hollywood,” said Chuck Gayton, producer-director of tonight’s opening ceremonies for the U.S. Olympic Festival.

Make that: The ceremonies are drenched with Hollywood, like a dessert soaked in liqueur.

Gayton plans to fill the stadium’s playing field with wall-to-wall performers--nearly 3,000--saluting movie music from the “Olympic decades” of the 1930s, 1980s and 1990s, paying tribute to past Los Angeles Olympics, honoring the various Olympic sports and capping it all off with a finale recognizing 140 ethnic groups.

Then there’s the “Star Trek” nod with stars Leonard Nimoy and George Takei using the stadium’s Diamond Vision screens to take the audience on a trip through time to the 1932 and 1984 Los Angeles games.

“These are people I’ve always watched and I’ve loved,” says an exuberant Gayton.

And the show’s salute to Hollywood movie music will feature music and dance medleys from “Hooray for Hollywood,” “Flashdance,” “Footloose,” “Dirty Dancing” and 1990s music videos.

And officially opening the ceremonies is a man with close ties to Hollywood: former President Ronald Reagan.

The ceremonies are being produced by Radio City Music Hall Productions, based in New York with an office in Los Angeles. That group has produced a number of special events, including shows for the 50th anniversary of Mt. Rushmore on July 4; the visit of Pope John Paul II (in Dodger Stadium) in September, 1987, and the bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution in Philadelphia the next day; the 100th anniversary of the Eiffel Tower, and various Super Bowls. Preparations are under way for the 1992 Columbus Quincentennial Celebration in Puerto Rico.

For this show, Radio City organizers assembled their “dream team,” including creative and technical people who produced the ceremonies for the ’84 Olympics. Radio City hosted brainstorming sessions, rather than issuing decrees from the top, which organizers say is unusual.

“It was irresistible to say to everyone, ‘Let’s sit around a table and see what happens,’ ” said Wayne Baruch, executive producer-writer.

What happened was magnitude like this:

* 3,000 volunteers.

* A 500-piece marching band.

* More than 1,000 dancers, including 175 Jazzercise dancers and 100 ballroom dancers.

* A 1,000-voice choir.

* A 450-member drill team.

* 120 brass fanfare musicians.

* A sound system tailored to the stadium, including 26 4 1/2-foot-tall speakers and 100 monitor speakers.

Pyrotechnic surprises are in the wings as well, which organizers coyly decline to discuss. “It’s the biggest something that’s ever been done,” Gayton said.

Just days ago, another special effect was added to the finale. “We call (the show) our living organism. We still don’t know what it’s going to look like (tonight),” said Claudia Rebmann, Radio City executive consultant.

Some enthusiasm had to be tempered so a ballgame can be played on the field days later. “And yet the desire is, ‘Let’s break down a wall over here, and have someone fly out over here,’ ” said Baruch.

Organizers admit that generating enthusiasm among the Los Angeles public is more difficult than among themselves, but they say interest has picked up in the last two weeks.

As of Thursday, there were still plenty of tickets available, said Dan Joyce, manager of media public relations for the festival. Tickets for the 8 p.m. show with a 7:30 pre-show are $25, $30 and $35 and are available through Ticketmaster and at the gate. The show also will be broadcast live on KTTV Channel 11.

This week, plans born at those brainstorming meetings have been coming to life at Dodger Stadium. Amid the sounds of hammering and crackling walkie-talkies, Gayton dealt with the unexpected that becomes the last-minute routine: a group late for its rehearsal, another group that didn’t show at all.

“Well, when are they coming?” he asked into his hand-held radio, with cool exasperation. “You can’t fire ‘em, they’re volunteers,” he said as an aside.

But he’s excited about witnessing the plans unfold. “We’re sitting in the booth going ‘Yeah, cool,’ ” he said, surveying the stadium while standing in center field, the giant torch hovering overhead.