Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.wpost From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: DOES WOODIES WANAMAKE A HECHT NO!< Date: Mon, 2 Nov 92 04:35:15 EST Message-ID: <54.1992Nov2.043515@AmeriCast.com> DOES WOODIES WANAMAKE A DEAL? HECHT NO!< Here's a great rumor: Hecht Co. is about to announce it is going to expand north into the Philadelphia market by acquiring Wood- ward & Lothrop's 15-store John Wanamaker Inc. chain. It makes a certain sense, given Hecht's expansionist tendencies and the reported desire of Woodies' owner, Taubman Investment Co., to unload its Philadelphia arm. And it has a certain sym- metry and logic to it, Woodies and Hecht's being old Washington department-store rivals and all. There's only one problem: The story, which has floated around occasionally in recent years, isn't true. That's what a Phi- ladelphia television station, WTXF-TV, was forced to admit Thurs- day, a day after carrying a report claiming the purported merger was about to be announced. WTXF-TV retracted the story, which it insisted "was based on information from a usually reliable source," after Woodies officials flatly denied that they were even negotiating with Hecht's over Wanamakers. Hecht's corporate parent, May Department Stores Co. of St. Louis, declined to com- ment, citing corporate policy against discussing rumors. As legendary television journalist Emily Litella used to say, "Never mind."IT'S ALL GREEK TO OLDS < Fooling around with history can get you in trouble. Last week, Oldsmobile started running an ad on local radio sta- tions stating, "In the year 1897, Crete united with Greece. Big deal." The big deal the ad was promoting was Oldsmobile's 95th birthday celebration, which the General Motors subsidiary implied was way more historic than the Crete deal. Washington's Greek-Americans listen to radio, however. And you can guess their reaction to the 60-second spot, which aired on eight area stations. "It actually was a very important event in Greek history," said George Cavros, president of Protos Communications, who heard the ad while driving to work. He did not like it. Other people in Washington also did not like it. They protested. On Wednesday, Oldsmobile pulled the ads through its agency, Abramson Ehrilch and Manes in Washington. "It's being changed," said Bob Lange of Abramson Ehrlich and Manes. "I'm really hating to publicize this as much as possible. It was not meant in any way to insult anybody or downplay that event. If anything, maybe we weren't as sensitive as we should have been." Lange said the "big deal" line was intended as a lead-in to a "big-deal" of a birthday sale. Said Cavros: "I hate to add to Oldsmobile's problems, but they need to be more careful." The whole argument, actually, may be moot now. The day before the ad debuted, The Washington Post reported that the Oldsmobile name may soon be automotive history. Big deal, right?HUSH, HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE< Could it be that NationsBank really plans to move its headquar- ters to the nation's capital, as rumored? Even though the com- pany, which has become this area's dominant bank, may not be leaving its home in Charlotte, N.C, any time soon, Washington's business leadership is preparing to roll out the red carpet for its chairman and chief executive, Hugh L. McColl Jr. The feisty McColl is expected to discuss the future of his com- pany and banking in general as the featured speaker at the Greater Washington Board of Trade's annual meeting Nov. 24 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel.OH, AND BY THE WAY, HERE'S THIS REPORT< The Federal Reserve Board, one of the most closely watched agen- cies in government, caught a lot of people by surprise last week when it released its second annual survey of home lending, which showed that blacks are twice as likely as whites to be rejected for home mortgages. It wasn't the findings that stunned community activists or members of Congress, but the way that the Fed released the re- port: without fanfare, without interpretation and without any no- tice. When the first home lending survey was completed last November, the Fed held a press conference to announce the news and provided details on mortgage rejection rates for the nation and for indi- vidual cities. The study's authors were available for comment and members of Congress received advance copies. This year, the study was made available to only a handful of newspapers and local statistics were not included. Members of Congress were caught off guard. "I guess they figured if they didn't make a big deal about it, nobody else would," said Deepak Bhargava of ACORN, a coalition of nonprofit community groups active on the lending issue.< - Mark Potts, Marianne Kyriakos and Joel Glenn Brenner>02:47 11- 02C9999----- Copyright 1992, The Washington Post. This story is from the Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar- chived or redistributed. For more information, send-email to American Cybercasting Cor- poration (usa@AmeriCast.COM)