Sing Loo, Sweet Senator

His face, a familiar Gothic landmark in the capital, now window-dresses record emporia throughout the country. His smasheroo album is in the front ranks of Billboard's "Top LPs," sandwiched between the sound track from The Wild Angels and Simon and Garfunkel's Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme. He has made appearances on the Johnny Carson Show and Hollywood Palace, and his name will soon join Clem Kadiddlehopper's on the Red Skelton Show. At 71, Everett McKinley Dirksen, minority leader of the U.S. Senate, has made the scene.

Captain of His Soul. Dirksen's Gallant Men, Stories of the American Adventure, was recorded, appropriately, by Capitol. It has sold so well (around 410,000 copies) that he has declaimed a second disk, scheduled to appear about Easter time, with favorite readings from the Bible and a dramatic recital of W. E. Henley's Invictus ("I am the master of my fate/I am the captain of my soul"). Disk-and TV-wise, however, the fate of the turned-on Senator rests with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), which has politely told him that since he is now a big-time performer--his take, an estimated 220 per album, equals Adam Clayton Powell's recording royalty--he must join up and pay $500 in initiation fees and dues.

If Ev does not join, the union insists, he can forget about the third and fourth records he has tentatively planned and reserve his long-play rhetoric for Meet the Press. For Dirksen, who has indefatigably reiterated his conviction that no one should be forced to join a union, and twice last year led successful filibusters to preserve state right-to-work laws, AFTRA's demands pose a delicate dilemma indeed.

Living Curl. Yet few would rule out a rapprochement. In the Senate, after all, Dirksen is the acknowledged master of compromise. And it would not be the first time that the Senator has withdrawn from show biz. He made his first farewell bow to the boards some 40 years ago in Pekin, Ill., after he had starred in and married the leading lady of a local theatrical. In Pekin, he also co-authored and directed a two-act comedy called Chinese Love, which tells of Sing Loo's pursuit of the blossom of his eye, Pan Toy. Sample dialogue: Sing Loo: Do you know what the lover expects from his love in that golden moment when they are betrothed? Pan Toy: I do not know. Sing Loo: Shall I show you? Pan Toy: Is it dangerous?

The only visible effect of Ev's new-found role as a pop recording star is that his hair, which was duplicated, ringlet by unruly ringlet, in a recent sculpture by Rube Goldberg, now cascades over his ears and down his neck with Joanie Phoanie abandon, and the great wave atop his head looks as if it had been locked in place with Living Curl. In a certain light, there even seems to be a new tint of gold among the silver threads--though only his hairdresser knows for sure.

Where will the political recording business end? With Dirksen and Powell racing for their gold platters (1,000,000 albums sold), other political figures may well find the urge irresistible. J. Edgar Hoover, suggests Columnist Art Buchwald, might cut Voices of Famous People I Have Bugged--if he could get the tapes from Bobby Kennedy. Lurleen Wallace could do Lurleen Plays Music to Segregate By, with Husband George conducting the Alabama State Police Symphony Orchestra. And Ronald Reagan might try Ronnie Reagan Swings at Berkeley. At any rate, as Dirksen himself has noted, the path from show biz to politics is no longer a one-way street.

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