COVER STORY : STAR-STRUCK : They’re the intensely devoted fans, monitoring every syllable and sighting of their favorite celebrities.

Greta Garon has seen Engelbert Humperdinck perform more than 400 times in the last decade.

Linda Kay has taped all 144 episodes of ABC-TV’s “Perfect Strangers.”

Maggie Hickerson changed her license plate to BOSTWIK as a birthday surprise for actor Barry Bostwick.

“He had done a movie that got some bad reviews. I wanted to make him smile,” Hickerson said.

Garon, Kay and Hickerson--all San Fernando Valley residents--have never met, yet each share an intense devotion to their favorite celebrity--answering mail, sending out autographed photographs and publishing newsletters that monitor the star’s every syllable and sighting. Each is president of a fan club.

“It’s no different than being into sports, or stamp or coin clubs,” Kay said. “People out there are starving for information.”

Fan clubs range in size from 50 to a few thousand members and differ in intensity. Some distribute two or three newsletters a year; others send out bulletins every time the star has a new project.

Most clubs operate in similar fashion, though. Members pay dues of between $5 and $15 a year to receive photos and newsletters--usually about four or six pages--which include letters and questions from other die-hards across the country. The memberships reflect a wide cross-section, from white-collar professionals to housewives. Women constitute about 70% of fan club memberships, according to Kay.

“That’s because most of the clubs are for male stars,” said Kay, who lives in North Hollywood and runs two fan clubs--”Perfect Strangers” and “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” from the popular 1989 film. “Perfect Strangers” made its debut on ABC in March, 1986, and is scheduled to go off the air this spring.

Kay makes her living as a computer operator. Hickerson works as an assistant to a television producer and Garon is an executive secretary for a Canoga Park retail business. “Fan clubs have this image of screaming teeny-bopper girls who want Davy Jones’ autograph,” said Kim Novins, 36, president of the Dave Clark Five Fan Club in Burbank. “But that’s not who these people are. We have a life.”

According to Kay, who is president of the National Assn. of Fan Clubs, several hundred groups operate across the country, and about 15 are run by Valley residents.

Kay publishes quarterly newsletters advertising the clubs and keeps in contact with presidents to answer procedural questions.

Almost every entertainer, dead or alive, seems to have a fan club. The Valley-based groups span the generations, from Laurel and Hardy to Pierce Brosnan. Among the other clubs are Abbott and Costello, the Lettermen, Johnny Mathis, Sally Field, Stephanie Powers and Walter Koenig (who played Ensign Chekov in the original “Star Trek” television series and feature films).

Running a club, especially when the star is hot, may seem like a part-time business, but members say it is far from profitable. They usually spend about 10 hours a month on club affairs.

The dues pay for printing and mailing expenses, which can run several hundred dollars per newsletter. Sometimes the celebrities give last-minute cash donations to keep the groups from folding. Simon MacCorkindale, who played Greg Reardon on CBS-TV’s “Falcon Crest” from 1984 to 1986, spent $500 to purchase a computer for the club. He can be seen now on “Counterstrike,” an action-adventure series in its third season on the USA Cable Network.

“A real fan club never makes money,” said Lana Poland of Canyon Country, head of the Simon MacCorkindale Fan Club.

Fans who want to start a new club are encouraged by Kay to secure permission from the star, and that usually isn’t a problem. The celebs appreciate all the free publicity they can get.

Because the clubs don’t make money, Kay said, the stars usually don’t take any legal action, even if permission hadn’t been requested.

Some performers develop friendships with their club presidents.

Bostwick, who is best known as Brad from the 1975 classic cult film “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” said of Hickerson: “I like Maggie. I don’t know her motivations, and I don’t care, but it’s never like I dread going to talk to the head of my fan club.”

When Poland got cancer in 1986, MacCorkindale called to offer reassurance.

“That meant a lot to me,” Poland said.

Poland, 47, started the club in 1982 while living in Dallas. It now has 75 members. She saw MacCorkindale in the 1981 film “The Sword and the Sorcerer,” in which he played a prince.

“He was good looking and he had screen charisma,” Poland said. “I’m sure the physical attraction was part of it.”

Hickerson said the star’s sex appeal is often the catalyst behind starting a new club.

“There’s got to be some kind of attraction,” Hickerson said. “It could be love or a father-figure thing.”

Kay cautioned against high expectations.

“A lot of people start fan clubs to meet the stars, and that is a wrong motivation,” Kay sad. “You are bound to be disappointed, and that can make you bitter. Fan clubs should be for the fans to get information.”

Once Poland secured MacCorkindale’s permission, she registered with the National Assn. of Fan Clubs--which is not mandatory, but helps publicize the group--and submitted questions to the star’s agent to compile information for a newsletter.

MacCorkindale’s cooperation was instant and has been continuous for a decade.

First, he sent Poland a thank-you note. Then, when scheduled to appear in a play in Dallas, he met with Poland and other supporters.

“We went next door to a Jack-In-The-Box and did an interview with him,” Poland said. “He was wonderful, talking about his childhood. Since then, I’ve talked to him a few times a year to catch up with what’s going on.”

During interviews, Poland looks for information about MacCorkindale’s latest movie or television projects and about any new developments in his off-screen life. She often prints his answers verbatim.

Some stars aren’t so accommodating and prefer to pay professional companies. Mackie Mann, whose business, Mail Mann Inc. in Sherman Oaks, runs clubs for 68 celebrities, including Air Supply and Elvira, said many performers worry about groups operating outside their control.

“This is a business, and they hire me,” Mann said. “These other clubs collect money in the star’s name, and if you were a star, would you like someone to do that and have no record of where the money went?”

Some stars also fear that fans might try to get too close, although club presidents say their members have never presented any danger to the celebrities.

Bostwick, like MacCorkindale, doesn’t worry about the club’s finances or activities. He’s just happy to have them around.

“I’ve run into my fan club members at the oddest moments,” he said. “I was doing a talk show once, and there they were in the audience. I don’t know how they found out. I was very flattered.”

Hickerson was not shy in approaching Bostwick. In 1982, she found out he was appearing as the pirate king in “Pirates of Penzance” downtown at the Music Center and decided it was time to make her move.

She read an article in a fan magazine that described Bostwick’s car, found it in the lot, and parked right behind it. When Bostwick was ready to leave the lot after the show, Hickerson appeared and pointed out the bumper sticker on her car. It read: “I Brake for Barry Bostwick.”

The actor was amused, and the club began. Today it has about 200 members who pay $5 annual dues for a quarterly newsletter. Hickerson said she receives at least six letters a week from fans, who usually request autographed pictures.

“They want to know if Barry is married,” she said, “and if they just discovered him, they want to know what he’s done in the past.”

Despite their sustained energy, fan club presidents maintain a low profile about their activities.

“People think I’m strange when I tell them what I do,” Kay said. “It’s not the kind of thing I tell everybody.”

Novins, the Dave Clark Five Fan Club president, isn’t dissuaded by negative reaction.

“People say that if you hit a certain age, you’re supposed to stop and grow up,” said Novins, a self-employed technical writer who earned a master’s degree in communication management from USC. “They think that we are kooks for doing this. I don’t perceive myself as a kook.”

Novins also finds it strange when people can’t understand why a fan club was formed to support a group that hasn’t released a record since 1971. The Dave Clark Five Fan Club has 75 members nationwide.

“It’s the same as asking why we study the Civil War,” said Novins, adding that the Dave Clark Five doesn’t fit the customary fan club mold.

“We’re not interested in the Dave Clark Five’s dating life,” she said. “We just like digging up the old music. Most of us grew up in the ‘60s, and this music still appeals to us.”

In her club, like many others, fans get to know each other. Even though they rarely get together, because they are scattered across the country, members often correspond with each other, exchanging the latest gossip about their favorite stars. Last month, a member of the “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” club came from England to visit Los Angeles and stayed with Kay.

“It really becomes a glorified pen-pal club,” MacCorkindale said. “I’m the common denominator, and I almost become irrelevant.”

Occasionally, members will even argue about what career direction their star should take. When actor Pierce Brosnan was denied a chance to replace Roger Moore as the next James Bond because of contractual obligations to ABC-TV’s “Remington Steele”--the job went to Timothy Dalton--there was a big split in the club. “Remington Steele” aired from 1982 to 1987.

“A lot wanted him to do Bond, and a lot wanted him to keep doing Remington Steele,” President Maria Barbosa of Glendale said. “It was kind of painful, because you want everyone in the group to be happy.”

Where and When What: The National Assn. of Fan Clubs can provide phone numbers and addresses of local groups. Call: (818) 763-3280.