Charles Farrell

Inevitably, the UCLA Film Archive's retrospective to Frank Borzage is subtitled "American Romantic." He won the very first Oscar for best direction for "Seventh Heaven" (1927), which remains his most famous film--and is synonymous with screen romance. From the beginning of his career in the teens, at which time he acted as well as directed, Borzage was preoccupied with the transforming power of love.

Gale Storm, who shot to the top on television as the vivacious star of two popular 1950s situation comedies, "My Little Margie" and "The Gale Storm Show: Oh! Susanna," has died. She was 87. Storm, who also had a successful recording career during her TV heyday, died Saturday of natural causes at a convalescent hospital in the Northern California community of Danville, according to her son Peter Bonnell.

The American Cinematheque's The Return of Movies Not Available on Video opens Friday at the Egyptian with Samuel Fuller's most controversial film, "White Dog" (1981). Fuller and Curtis Hanson adapted it from the Romain Gary novel, only to have Paramount shelve it. Like the book, it's about a German shepherd trained to attack only black people.

The battle over minorities in college athletics escalated Tuesday when the Rev. Jesse Jackson criticized schools for their hiring practices and what he described as an insensitivity toward African American athletes. Jackson met with college leaders on the final day of the 89th NCAA Convention, 24 hours after schools approved stricter eligibility requirements for freshmen, a controversial move seen by some as locking out minorities.

The Silent Movie's third annual film festival gets off to a strong start tonight at 8 with the first of several rarities, "The Last of the Mohicans" (1920). Maurice Tourneur directed and his assistant and protege of five years, Clarence Brown, was soon to become one of MGM's major directors.

Question: I have several thousand dollars in savings and wonder whether I should start buying stocks again or think about my mortgage. My broker is recommending some stocks, but I'm not sure after losing a lot of money in the market. I want to retire in a couple of years, and still have about 15 years left on my mortgage. M.D., Chicago Answer: Though it sounds like you are wondering whether stocks are a good deal, that's not particularly relevant to your situation.

Despite a disease that killed nearly a third of the fish in a program designed to stock the coastal waters of Ventura County with salmon, a group of anglers has dubbed the first year of the three-year effort a success. In a report to the Board of Supervisors, the Ventura County chapter of the United Anglers of California said the venture to replenish the salmon stock for sport fishermen has so far released 40,000 young salmon.

Jesse Jackson's civil rights group criticized the firing of Green Bay Packer coach Ray Rhodes as a setback in the NFL's efforts toward racial equality. Rainbow Sports director Charles Farrell, who promotes sports opportunities for minorities for the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, intends to outline his concerns in a letter to the Packers next week. Jackson is the coalition's president.

Two years ago, the tightfisted Oakland Athletics gave $4.25 million to a 16-year-old right-hander whom they had never seen pitch in a game. It was the biggest bonus ever for a Dominican teenager, the largest in club history and more money than 21 of the players on Oakland's current major league roster are making. Yet two years later, after a series of arm ailments, the A's still haven't seen Michael Ynoa throw a pitch in a meaningful game. And that could leave Ynoa figuring very heavily in what are sure to be contentious negotiations for a new collective-bargaining agreement between the clubs and players.

"No boring ribbon cutting." That's the way Mayor Frank Bogert of Palm Springs visualized the scheduled opening last week of his city's new convention center--a longtime dream finally realized. A Dixieland band was to lead the public into the 100,000-square-foot building during the afternoon of New Year's Eve, and then--that night--the place was to really rock with 11 signed acts from the '60s that were videotaped for worldwide TV release this year.