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Times Square prepares for New Year

BY LARRY MCSHANE
Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) -- When you're Jeffrey Straus, every second counts.

The Countdown Entertainment president will be marking the party of the century by helping drop a 1,070-pound crystal ball at Times Square at exactly 12:00:00 on Jan. 1, 2000.

``It's funny -- everybody makes a big deal about the ball dropping on time,'' says Straus, laughing. ``But New Year's 2000 is coming even if we're late.''

Actually, New Year's 2000 is coming to Times Square every hour on the hour from time zones around the world -- from the South Pacific to Western Samoa -- beginning at 6 a.m. on Dec. 31.

In addition to endless verses of ``Auld Lang Syne'' in a variety of languages, each hour will be marked with a video and musical presentation appropriate to the time zone. The round-the-clock party at the ``Crossroads of the World'' will peak with the big celebration at midnight EST.

All of it will be beamed onto a half-dozen giant screens around Times Square for the crowd, and around the world via 15 cameras on the Internet for those hanging out at home.

The $7 million party will run for 25 hours, finally winding up at 7 a.m. on Jan. 1 -- about the time the first hangovers of the year should be kicking in.

The once-in-a-lifetime event, expected to draw 1.5 million live guests and 1 billion television viewers, will feature more than 1,000 performers in a variety of roles -- musicians, puppeteers, dancers, actors.

There will be live video feeds from around the world pumped into Times Square. Forty-five networks will do the opposite, beaming live feeds out of Times Square throughout the day.

Straus, who head the marketing company that represents the ball and the building on which it sits, says he and his staff are ready.

``We started preparing for this three years ago,'' he says. ``We're going to celebrate with the entire world. London, Paris, Beijing -- when the millennium begins, we'll be with you.''

Some anticipated highlights: an enormous puppet of Father Time will dance with a Baby Time creature. A 22-foot-long elephant puppet will appear at 3 p.m. for New Year's in India. Gymnasts in scuba gear will cavort. There will be music, fireworks and 2 tons of confetti.

It's all much more high tech than the first bash in midtown Manhattan.

The celebration dates to 1904, when the owners of One Times Square sponsored a rooftop party to ring in the new year.

Three years later, New York Times publisher Adolph S. Ochs conjured up the now-de rigueur ball dropping from the same building. With the exception of two years during World War II, a brightly lit ball has descended annually before hundreds of thousands of celebrants.

This year's ball is an import -- a Waterford crystal design that was carefully brought in from Ireland. It took 40 craftsmen and designers to create the ``Star of Hope'' piece.

There's a lot of symbolism to the design -- stars marking the seven continents, for example -- but most viewers won't pick up on its subtleties as it travels down a 77-foot flagpole.

The ball features 504 triangular pieces of crystal, 600 multi-colored light bulbs, 96 strobe lights and 92 rotating pyramid mirrors.

The Year 2000 party also comes with its own unique problems.

The most obvious: no dress rehearsal, almost unheard of for an event of this magnitude. Last year's party was the closest that organizers came to a dry run, which brings up an annual problem: the weather. Forces far beyond the organizers' control could play havoc with the events.

``We're hoping for warm,'' says Straus -- an unlikely forecast for Manhattan in late December. Dry might be enough, though a little snow could act to the spectacle.

Organizers were confident that security would not be an issue; last year, police made just 23 arrests from among some 500,000 revelers. One thing will again be barred from Times Square: alcohol.

Straus isn't really worried about dropping the ball a few seconds late. All the events will run off a signal sent by the atomic clock in Boulder, Colo. The hourly celebrations are timed to the millisecond.

``We're confident,'' he says. ``Three years ago, this was just an idea. Every day brings us closer to the reality.''

-- You Know... (notme@nothere.junk), October 04, 1999