SHOW TO BENEFIT COUNTY’S HOMELESS

Frankie Garlatta isn’t looking for a nationwide human chain like last year’s Hands Across America linkup at the concert he is staging on Sunday to raise money for an organization he hopes will aid Orange County’s homeless.

Neither is he expecting global satellite television and radio coverage like that given to the historic Live Aid concerts in London and Philadelphia in 1986.

In fact, Garlatta will be happy if just 150 or 200 people donate $10 apiece to attend a multi-act show that will begin at 1 p.m. at Louie Louie’s restaurant in Orange. With no superstar names to draw upon, he has lined up country singers Judy Rose and Billy Webb; the big band of Bill Williams & the Serenaders with vocalist Shirley Faye, and several others. Rose and vocalist-trombonist Harold (Leroy) Cannon will host the event.

The scale of this event is, to say the least, modest, as is its goal: to raise $1,200 that Garlatta estimates that he will need for legal fees to set up his USA for USA organization, whose motto is “Charity begins at home.”

Rather than take on the issues of the world at large, Garlatta wants to focus on the homeless in his own backyard.

After working as a volunteer for various charities of national scope, Garlatta said in an interview this week, “I got tired of trying to do it for everybody else. . . . There’s suffering going on right here. There are too many people who need help, and nobody is doing it. There should be more people stepping out and making a commitment to help. People are living in cars, and they need my help.”

If Sunday’s show raises more than $1,200, Garlatta said the surplus will go to Mary McAnena, an 84-year-old woman who on weekdays feeds homeless people residing in the City of Orange’s Hart Park. Garlatta also is seeking donations for McAnena of non-perishable canned food, clothing and redeemable food coupons from concert-goers.

The reason the event is being held in a site known more for its rigatoni than rock ‘n’ roll, Garlatta said, is “because (the owner) offered it to me for free.”

Garlatta, who lives in the City of Orange, said that although he now is trying to increase public support for Orange County agencies that help the needy, he eventually would like to expand the campaign.

“Hopefully we will be able to help Mary and help USA for USA continue to do concerts,” Garlatta said. “Then I would like to take this idea from city to city across the nation and contact local agencies for the needy. That’s what I’d like to do.”

LIVE ACTION: Tickets for Kool & the Gang’s Aug. 7 concert at the Pacific Amphitheatre go on sale Monday. . . . Stan Ridgway will play the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano on July 4. . . . Social Distortion will perform at Goodies in Fullerton on June 21.