By Guy D. Garcia

Charlie Chaplin and the Marx Brothers liked to get behind the counter and whip up their own milkshakes. Gloria Swanson often dropped by in a chauffeur-driven limousine, and celluloid myth has it that Lana Turner was discovered there (she was not). Last week, 51 years after it opened its doors and became a tinseltown landmark, Schwab's drugstore dimmed its neon sign on Sunset Boulevard for the last time. Citing financial pressure and what he called a "family dispute," Leon Schwab, 72, the brother of Founder Jack, decided it was better to close than sell. For its many loyal patrons, news of the demise was a real Hollywood tearjerker. "Everybody's trying to figure out where they're going to gather," said Alice Co-Star Vic Tayback, a Schwab's regular for 15 years. Nursing a final sundae, Schwab was nostalgic: "You know who called the other day? Barbara Stanwyck. She said, 'I want to thank you for taking care of me for 35 years.' " He sighed, still star struck after all these years.

They have wanted to work together since the mid-1970s, but Nick Nolte, 42, and Katharine Hepburn, 73, did not get a chance until The Ultimate Solution of Grace Quigley, a black comedy now filming in New York City. Behind the cameras, Nolte discovered that the real Hepburn was every bit as feisty as her on-screen persona. The actor, who is also not unlike his swaggering on-screen self, turned up half an hour late for filming one day. Snapped Hepburn: "I hear you've been drunk in every gutter in town." Nolte was not shriveled. "She is a legend," he says. "But once you get past that, she's just a kind of cranky old broad who's a lot of fun."

The dirty rats. It seems like everyone has been after Director Brian De Palma, 42, since he started filming his updated version of the 1932 gangster classic Scarface. Instead of Paul Muni playing the real Italian immigrant, Al Capone, Al Pacino stars as Tony Montana, a fictional Cuban immigrant who is part of the modern cocaine trade in Florida. First the Cuban community in Miami tried to stop the film, claiming that it portrayed Hispanics in an unfavorable light. Next, De Palma reportedly got death threats from real-life mobsters, who were disinclined to have nationwide publicity. Now the $23.5 million film, due for release in December, is in trouble with the motion-picture industry's rating board. The eight board members have found Scarface so violent that they want to give it an X rating. To avoid that box-office poison, De Palma has already recut the movie four times, and now he claims that any additional cuts will destroy his "artistic vision." Universal, meanwhile, refuses to release the film in an X-rated form. The R-biters and X-aminers who looked at the director's latest cut last week will soon announce a verdict.

Actor Robby Benson, 28, Skier Jean-Claude Killy, 40, and Boxer Floyd Patterson, 48, all finished in respectable times, but the leading man in the 14th New York City Marathon was Rod Dixon, 33, who came from Down Under and from way back. The New Zealander, a highly regarded middle-distance runner attempting only his second marathon, had to scramble through bramble bushes to get into position at the front of the 15,193-person pack at the start in Staten Island. As thousands of New Yorkers braved a steady rain to cheer the racers along the 26-mile 385-yd. course, Dixon gradually moved into the No. 2 position behind Britain's Geoff Smith, closing to a scant 18 sec. as they entered Central Park at the 23-mile mark. Taking the lead in the final 385 yds., the lanky victor finished at 2:08:59, 46 sec. off the 1981 record set by Alberto Salazar (who skipped this year's race). As Runner-Up Smith tumbled onto the pavement behind him, Dixon knelt and kissed the wet ground before rising to give a victory salute. "I did want it very much," said Dixon. "And somehow you just express how you feel. I had tears. "

--By Guy D. Garcia This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.