Edgar Hoover

WASHINGTON -- They came from as far away as Germany and as nearby as Silver Spring. But at the corner of 9th and E streets, visitors to the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building all found disappointment at their final destination yesterday.The attraction that brought them there -- the popular public tour of the FBI's headquarters -- has been halted indefinitely, after recent unspecified threats against the agency's facilities in Washington.By yesterday, news of the tour cancellations, which began Friday, had clearly not reached everyone in the nation's capital.

It was a guess, nothing more. But history professor Jon Wiener, a specialist on the Cold War, thought he'd give it a shot. A long-time Marx Brothers fan, Wiener figured he'd check to see if the FBI had kept a file on Groucho Marx.Imagine, Groucho under government scrutiny as a possible subversive. Could happen. After all, Groucho did wisecrack his way through life, sneering at things sacred. It was Groucho who said: "These are my principles. If you don't like them I have others."Perhaps such a fellow would arouse J. Edgar Hoover's suspicion.

When I heard that Richard Berry, the man who wrote "Louie Louie," had died, I saidWell, I can't tell you, in a family newspaper, what I said. But it was not a happy remark. It was the remark of a person who realizes he'll never get to thank somebody for something.I remember the day I first heard "Louie Louie." I was outside my house, playing basketball with my friends on a "court" that featured a backboard nailed to a tree next to a geologically challenging surface of dirt and random rocks, which meant that whenever anybody dribbled the ball, it would ricochet off into the woods and down the hill, which meant that our games mostly consisted of arguing about who would go get it.So we spent a lot of our basketball time listening to a transistor radio perched on a tree stump, tuned to WABC in New York City.

IT'S OBVIOUS THAT history is dead. Especially in America, where we now have the collective attention span of Kathie Lee Gifford and often behave as if "the past" was that long-ago period when there were no clickers and people actually had to get up off the couch to change channels.Today, history means Before Starbucks. Talk about roughing it! The proof is all around us: Kids no longer have mythic heroes out of the past. Instead, they have "favorite people" and they are almost invariably wealthy celebrities or famous athletes, usually all dumber than a doorpost but incredibly rich, which is truly the only thing that counts.

"Sewer, Gas & Electric," by Matt Ruff. Atlantic Monthly Press, 528 pages, $23.In Matt Ruff's not-too-distant future (we're talking 2023 here, long after the African Pandemic of '04 has wiped out all the black people on earth except those with green eyes), civilization will be a stew of pop culture references, giant corporations and crumbling urban infrastructures.Donald Trump will have left the stage (burned in Cape Canaveral launch pad fire while he was attempting to be the first Martian billionaire)

HOLLYWOOD -- Being the king of rock and roll apparently wasn't enough for Elvis Presley. He wanted to be a G-man, too.According to his FBI file, recently placed on its Web site (http: //www.fbi.gov), Elvis offered to be an FBI informant.Elvis told the FBI in 1971 he had been "approached by individuals and groups in and outside of the entertainment business whose motives and goals he is convinced are not in the best interests of this country."The memo said that "Presley indicated that he is of the opinion that the Beatles laid the groundwork for many of the problems we are having with young people by their filthy, unkempt appearances and suggestive music ... He advised that the Smothers Brothers, Jane Fonda and other persons in the entertainment industry of their ilk have a lot to answer for in the hereafter for the way they have poisoned young minds by disparaging the United States in their public statements and unsavory activities."

"Underworld," by Don DeLillo. Scribner. 827 pages. $27.50.Don DeLillo's magnificent new "Underworld," at once among the finest works of American fiction of this century, opens at the Polo Grounds on Oct. 3, 1951. Behind Frank Sinatra, Jackie Gleason, who vomits on Sinatra's shoe, and Toots Shor sits the sinister J. Edgar Hoover. On the same day Bobby Thomson hits a home run that breaks the hearts of the Dodgers and the Soviets explode an atomic bomb.DeLillo has produced in one rich volume a work which surpasses even John Dos Passos' three-volume "USA."

BOSTON -- My love of ''Black Nativity'' comes from more than being a stage dad for my two participating sons. The easy reason is that this stage version of Jesus' birth, currently running at Tremont Temple in Boston, is plain good. It has run here for 27 years. When it made its debut 35 years ago on Broadway, critics hailed it for its ''wild, pounding rapture'' and its ''uninhibited spirits and unlimited lung power.''The main reason is that ''Black Nativity'' itself is a miracle. It was written by Langston Hughes, a great poet who had little or no faith in traditional religion.

"Dossier: The Secret History of Armand Hammer," by Edward Jay Epstein. Random House. 432 pages. $30.Few have understood the transforming power of public relations as well as Armand Hammer.When Hammer published an autobiography in 1987 - his third - there wasn't room on the back cover for all the endorsements: Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, George Bush, Menachem Begin, Linus Pauling, Walter Cronkite.They had bought the image Hammer's press releases had shaped over six decades: openhearted humanitarian, savvy art collector, brilliant capitalist.

"We have in our midst hatemongers, bigots, and riotou agitators, many of whom are at opposite poles philosophically but who spew similar doctrines of prejudice and intolerance. They exploit hate and fear, spread rumors, and pit one element of our people against another. Theirs is a dogma of intimidation and terror."President Clinton attacking the militia movement last week? No, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover blasting radical protesters, early 1960s. Even accepting common wisdom about politics and bedfellows, it is beyond strange when William Jefferson Clinton's speeches on domestic violence sound eerily reminiscent of J. Edgar Hoover.

Public Enemies *** 1/2 ( 3 1/2 STARS ) Public Enemies provides a welcome shock to the system. This tough-minded, visually electric movie about Depression bank robber John Dillinger ( Johnny Depp) takes audiences into the center of the action in its opening minutes. It keeps them there as it expands into a bristling chronicle of a country in flux. Depp goes all the way with the role of a wry, wily Midwesterner. He really nails this character - the scion of an age of speed who says he wants "everything" and wants it "right now."

Public Enemies provides a welcome shock to the system. This tough-minded, visually electric movie about Great Depression bank robber John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) takes audiences into the center of the action in its opening minutes. It keeps them there as it expands into a bristling chronicle of a country in flux. Without ever telling viewers what to think or how to feel, it raises more questions about the corruption of crime and crime fighting than any expose or thesis. And if it sometimes registers too coolly, by the end it rouses more bruised feelings than any four-hankie weepie.

Chick Lang has a prediction: "I think we're gonna have a Triple Crown winner this year." The longtime general manager of Pimlico Race Course is now 82, retired and living at the Easton Club in Talbot County. He is not planning to be at Pimlico today. "I'm not as busy as I used to be," he said. But then, busy is a relative term. He was the man who brought the infield to Pimlico and coaxed the reluctant owners of the track to promote the infield as a place to spend the day. He relied upon promoters to sell the idea, which was initially pitched to area colleges.

A newly declassified document shows that J. Edgar Hoover, the longtime director of the FBI, had a plan to suspend habeas corpus and imprison about 12,000 Americans he suspected of disloyalty. Hoover sent his plan to the White House on July 7, 1950, 12 days after the Korean War began. It envisioned putting suspect Americans in military prisons. Hoover wanted President Harry S. Truman to proclaim the mass arrests necessary to "protect the country against treason, espionage and sabotage."

A man sitting at a metal table, squinting in the harsh spotlight, grins for his wife, who giddily snaps pictures of her husband being interrogated by a menacing J. Edgar Hoover. A couple of rooms away, a group watches a wildly dancing Beyonce as Destiny Child's hit song "Bootylicious" plays in the background. Not far off, Robert E. Lee sits grimly with a quill poised above a sheet of parchment, about to admit defeat and surrender the Confederacy. If You Go Madame Tussauds Washington, D.C, at 1025 F St. N.W., opens at 10 a.m. daily.

Paul Coates pondered each question I asked him, taking half a minute or so before he answered. His answers were measured, articulate and intelligent. Just the Coates I remembered from the days when he was the captain of the Baltimore chapter of the Black Panther Party. This month Coates was in Oakland, Calif., celebrating the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Black Panther Party. It was the latest of several gatherings that reunited former members of the organization that Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale founded.

WASHINGTON -- I enjoyed President Bush's good-natured comedy act at this year's White House Correspondents Association dinner as much as everyone else did, up to a point. We laughed as Bush impersonator Steve Bridges joined the real president on stage to reveal what the inner Mr. Bush was supposedly thinking. Sample: "How come I can't have dinner with the 36 percent of the people who like me?" It was funny, yet I could not help but wince at the sharp contrast between his jovial rapport with the crowd of journalists and Hollywood stars and the war of words and legal actions that his administration has been waging against press freedoms.

Puppetmaster: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover, by Richard Hack. New Millennium. 455 pages. $27.50. Truman Capote exposes J. Edgar Hoover! Who would not buy that book? In 1980, Capote -- who called Hoover and Hoover's constant companion Clyde Tolson "Johnny and Clyde" -- started interviews for his expose, apparently unconcerned about the 200-page secret chronicle of his own sybaritic lifestyle at FBI headquarters. Unfortunately, Capote got diverted and eventually passed his notes along to investigative reporter / biographer Richard Hack.

The Encyclopedia of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List: 1950 to Present, by Duane Swierczynski. Checkmark Books. 400 pages. $21.95. The whole thing started in 1949 when an enterprising reporter asked the FBI who, in their book, were the 10 hottest yeggs on the lam. Within a year, J. Edgar Hoover -- never to miss a moment of publicity -- institutionalized the list. Here, in a coffee-table size volume, are photos and all sorts of facts and stats on all 477 of them -- 94 percent of whom were captured.

WASHINGTON - For years, Congressional Cemetery near Capitol Hill was a neglected patch of Washington's past, cloaked in an unkempt blanket of knee-high grass and Queen Anne's lace. These days, the weeds get cut, but the historic graveyard still is going to the dogs. Literally. A cadre of dog walkers has helped lower crime and vandalism in the burial ground several blocks east of the Capitol. The fees they pay for pets to scamper freely among the tombstones have helped uncover one of the city's little-known gems.