Day: May 3, 2014

Zimbalist: PTL directors didn’t do much directing

“Actor Efrem Zimbalist Jr. testified Monday [in Charlotte] that the PTL board of directors, on which he once served, was little more than a rubber stamp for television evangelist Jim Bakker.

” ‘It was called a board of directors, but at no time did it operate like one,’ said Zimbalist, star of ‘The FBI’ television series, who served on the board from 1981 to 1986.

” ‘It was a board of approval or affirmation only.’ ”

Asked if he recalled approving a $390,000 bonus for Bakker, Zimbalist said: ‘Oh no, oh no.’ ”

— From the Associated Press (Sept. 19, 1989)

Like Mickey Rooney and Pat Boone, Zimbalist was a familiar face to viewers of Bakker’s “PTL Club.” He died Friday at age 95.

 

Oakwood architectural dispute goes national

“Lewis Mumford wrote that, in a city, ‘Time becomes visible.’ Not, it would appear, in Raleigh, North Carolina, where a city board has just decided that a rather discreet and understated modern house might need to be torn down because it damages the ambience of a historic district, which is to say it destroys the illusion that the [Oakwood] neighborhood is a place in which time has stopped….

“It’s especially odd that this is happening here, since there is a lot of history for modern architecture in North Carolina, which actually has more significant modern houses than any state except California and New York…”

— From “Is This House Too Modern to Exist?” by Paul Goldberger in Vanity Fair (April 29)