Pat Boone

The five-day Luis Palau crusade, the first mass evangelism event ever held in the San Fernando Valley, began Wednesday night with an estimated 8,200 people listening to the Argentine-born evangelist preach a message of divine forgiveness--accompanied by an unscheduled lesson in nature's power. A 3.7 magnitude aftershock from the Jan. 17 Northridge quake caused a commotion in the crowd, sitting in bleachers and on chairs and blankets at Birmingham High School's Tom Bradley Stadium.

Singer Pat Boone, one of America's best-known Christian entertainers, has been taken off the air by a national religious television network after showing up at the American Music Awards dressed like a heavy metal rock singer.

Pat Boone is the G-rated soundtrack for milk and cookies, not to mention sugar and spice and everything nice. Boone makes Wally Cleaver seem like a thug by comparison. Also, Boone never seems to age, and the bets are in as to who will be the first man to live forever--Boone, Dick Clark or Jack LaLanne. Boone--he'll be the guy in the white shoes--will be singing songs Tuesday afternoon at the Ventura County Fair. How many songs? A lot.

When his film "Levity" seemed on the brink of collapsing with its star scheduled to depart, Ed Solomon did what any desperate, determined, first-time director of a small, independent movie would do -- he called Pat Boone. Solomon, who had never met the '50s crooner of "April Love," had a strange request: Would Boone accompany the film's star, Billy Bob Thornton, on a flight from Montreal to Johannesburg, South Africa, to help save Solomon's little film?

Among the estimated 500,000 people in the United States who struggle each year to recover from brain injuries, Ryan Corbin might be the most famous. Eighteen months ago, the eldest grandson of singer Pat Boone accidentally crashed through his Brentwood apartment building's skylight and plunged 40 feet to the concrete floor. He fractured his skull, broke his jaw, and ruptured his spleen. As paramedics arrived, Corbin, then 25, stopped breathing.

"I am an American," Pat Boone belted out the other day to an adoring crowd. "Born to be a rootin', tootin', flag-waving citizen. " Boone looked young and fit at 76, with his perpetual tan and stay-press hairdo. As I approached the stage, he was singing the song he'd written for the occasion ? the first-ever "Beverly Hills Tea Party" rally. "I love the Pledge of Allegiance, one nation under God," Boone sang. "If you can't say it with me, you're free to leave, by God. Cuz I am an American.

I would like to refer J.A. Adande [Oct. 3] to the perfect rendition of our national anthem: red, white, and blue Pat Boone, full-bodied, no frills, and on key! Give it a listen, J.A. Dottie Dickinson Irvine

After seeing that about 8,000 copies of Pat Boone's new heavy metal album were sold during its first week in stores, Calendar is wondering what attracted buyers to the big-band arrangements and milquetoast vocals on such classic rock tracks as Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water," Van Halen's "Panama" and Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven." Did you buy "Pat Boone in a Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy"--which is No. 125 on Billboard's national sales chart this week--as a gag gift?