He is known as Broadway Joe, but perhaps he should now be called Off-Broadway Joe. Or, more accurately, Akron Joe, for it was there that Joe Namath made his stage debut last week. Appearing in a production of William Inge's Picnic, the former football player played, well, a former football player named Hal Carter. Namath, as always, moved well and turned on the charm; as always, he gave the ritual credits to team and coach. "I relied on people around me," he said, adding that "the director sure did a great job getting me ready." The schedule now calls for Namath to play Columbus and Dayton, which must be a good deal easier than playing Pittsburgh and Dallas.

Remake Remarque? Yes indeed: a new film version of Erich Maria Remarque's World War I classic, All Quiet on the Western Front, shot in Czechoslovakia, will be aired on CBS in November. In the 1930 production, Lew Ayres starred as the young German soldier named Paul Baumer; today he is played by Richard Thomas, the onetime John Boy of The Waltons. Ernest Borgnine portrays Stanislaus Katczinsky, the Polish veteran who instructs the raw army recruits. Borgnine and the rest of the cast had to take gamma globulin shots to protect themselves against a countrywide epidemic of a hepatic disease. Location shooting is hell.

At last, the story you have been waiting for! About a tough hombre who burst into the world of letters with boundless energy, a hungry heart and a typewriter stuffed with lusty words. He churned out blockbusters like The Carpetbaggers, The Adventurers and The Inheritors, books crammed with characters who caress and curse, curse and caress their way through life. "I'm a people writer," he has explained. And right he is: though critics may jeer his work is "tripe" and "crud," the people have made him a millionaire many times over. A mansion in Beverly Hills! A villa in Cannes! And an empire of readers throughout the world! Some time this month, a fan will buy the 200-millionth paperback copy of a Harold Robbins novel. A sensational achievement! Unprecedented! Soon to be a major motion picture!

"I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking." Christopher Isherwood wrote the lines 40 years ago in his novel Goodbye to Berlin. The author is about to celebrate his 75th birthday, and he is still clicking away. His latest book, titled My Guru and His Disciple, depicts his relationship with Swami Prabhavananda, a Hindu monk Isherwood first befriended in 1939. To be published early next year, the memoir takes care of what Isherwood calls his "sacred side." He is now working on a book about his "profane side"--his years as a Hollywood scriptwriter. Obviously this cameraman is partial to self-portraits.

The President, said the speaker, "acted like one of the boys," while "the American people want the President to act like the President." Moreover, Jimmy Carter was inclined to trivialize his job, getting too easily mired in "minutiae." Who was this, sounding as if he would very much like to be considered for the job himself? Some California Governor, present or former? No, the man making those charges was Jimmy's longtime buddy Griffin Bell, who uttered the comments just before he left his post as Attorney General to return to his law practice in Atlanta. Mind you, Jimmy is "moving in the right direction," Bell said approvingly, and the President still has the rest of this year--"120 days"-- to put his White House in order. But he better hurry. "I've seen secretaries hand the President the names of 40 Congressmen to call on a bill I wouldn't have told him was pending."

On the Record

G. William Miller, Treasury Secretary, on how his style differs from that of his predecessor, Michael Blumenthal: "There's a new rug on the floor. That's about the only difference."

Bear Bryant, University of Alabama football coach, on his players' rewards when they win a championship: "The girls squeeze their hands a little tighter, and people are nice when they go to the drugstore."

Yehudi Menuhin, violinist, on why the Olympics should include performing arts: "Music provides the gymnastics of the soul, and gymnastics are the music of the body."

--to put his White House in order. But he better hurry.

"I've seen secretaries hand the President the names of 40 Congressmen to call on a bill I wouldn't even have told him was pending."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.