Show By Mary Eiiin Barrett John Larroquette’s worst blind dates occurred when he worked nights as a deejay in New Orleans Women would hear him on the radio and call him up “You’d talk for a while and you’d say ‘Why don’t we have breakfast?1 ” recalls the actor and star of NBCs Night Court “A couple of times those turned out to be apocalyptic: A lady with no hair or someone who would bring her dad along” His verdict on blind dating “What the helL You can always tie them up and leave” Most oi us would wince in agreement We’ve all had those frightful or fabulous arbut ranged by friends not always And now we have a movie to stir up the memories RENEE TAYLOR JOE BOLOGNA: Met in He's in NBC's Strangers on Broadway '84 married in ’65 They wrote and new Rags to Riches playing a millionaire By John T Barr in Lovers and Other who takes in 5 orphans Making its debut in spring mating Blind season Date opens next Friday starring Bruce Willis and Kim Basinger as match an Larroquette plays Basinger’s insanely jealous ex Even the mere words blind date evoke Next Friday the movie ‘Blind Date’ opens Most of us know all about the high hopes and anxiety that go with the knock on the door But imagine your answering! Here’s a look at great dates in history plus the Blimp the Bald Lady and a few nights to forget By Bid trick Whit Hons THE REAGANS: On their first date in '49 they went to bear singer Sophie Tucker 4 USA WtEKEND Mar 1987 Cover photo by Craig Molenhouse famous examples to prove it Take Martin Luther King Jr reportedly enticed Coretta Scott into a blind date with the opening line “I am like Napoleon at Waterloo before your who charms” Or Barbara Walters who got to interview her future mate Merv Adelson when friends fixed them up over dinner at a New York City restaurant Or rocker Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran who told Spin magazine that he and his wife Jasmin met on a blind date at a movie premiere and “liked each other immediately after finishing a bottle of Scotch” But spirits can’t salvage the worst blind dates And some people make several brave forays before finding the right “You can’t expert the first one to click” says Julia Grice 46 a single mother from Utica Mich and author of How to Find Romance After 40 who has survived more than one deadly date The worst was blind By Sam Pelessiar THE DARUNGS: Model net and ia '84 recollections Bruce Feirstein 33 author of Nice Guys Sleep Alone: Dating in the Difficult Eighties wiil never foiget calling a woman for a e onlv to be told blind “I never eat after 6” Chantal Westerman 40 Hollywood corfor ABCs Good respondent Morning America recalls blinddating a guy who asked her to wear nothing but “a string of pearls and an ankle bracelet” Blind dates can bring ecstasy embarrassment or simply ennui But we never stop going are more of a In feet fixture today than ever before Personal ads are proliferating Dating services cater to yuppies executives and folks who like to “There’s meet on freeways probably more blind dating going on in this country than ever before" says Jacqueline who with David Carroll surveyed 3000 men and women across the USA for their book Singles: The New Americans The reason: Sometimes blind dates work out and we have she “met when this gentleman in Met a restaurant and he started criticizI ing everything said In 20 minutes we were rubbing each other the wrong way” His looks were a letdown too “He had described himself as athletic and 6 feet talL He was balding chubby with a big fet neck rolling over his collar The only thing athletic was his hand on the way to his mouth” Surprise trademark is a blind dating Just ask Alan 39 of ABCs Growing Pains who was fixed up with a woman who turned out to be his She had been married and changed her name But her ire was unmistakable “All the hostility she had felt for me all of those years started spewing forth in such a a vitriolic manner that I was convinced that she took this date onlv for the purpose of getting it off her chest" Thicke recalls “She ended up storming off in a huff so I finished her dessert" Not all blind dates are tempestuous Some are tongue-tieCynthia Heimel 36 author of Thicke |