Listen to the Body Bird

Ray L. Birdwhistell, 38, ornithologically named, is actually an anthropologist, and he has the scientific conviction that there is more in TV than meets the eye. Each move, grimace or gesture, however slight or unconscious, spells a meaning to Birdwhistell (pronounced bird whistle)--a meaning that does not always fit what the performer may be saying out loud. The University of Buffalo's Birdwhistell calls his specialty "kinesics," the study of body motions as a form of communication.

Body language, explained Birdwhistell last week, is just as real as the spoken kind, tends just as much to show up in national, regional and class patterns, or as a reflection of individual character. Samples: wide-open leg crossing by men, ankle on knee, is a hallmark of American confidence; when a woman touches her hair lightly while looking at a man, it is a sign of her interest in him.

Birdwhistell finds that a TV performer's body is often more outspoken than the spiel itself. "People, even actors," he says, "can't act well enough not to send some signals of their true feelings about what they're doing. This is what protects us from the Big Brother world. Of the multiple of messages, Madison Avenue has learned to control only a very few. Advertisers are just not that clever. My colleagues and I feel a strong ethical sense that it's our job to make sure the public knows as much about the subject as the hucksters."

The most conspicuous U.S. body manipulator, Elvis ("The Pelvis") Presley, says Birdwhistell, "is most successful with the two-to-four-year-olds, and 12-to-14-year-olds, because he joins them in a particular kind of mockery of serious adulthood. Presley's wiggles seem almost an imitation of an imitation of being sexy. That's why so many in the audience laugh and puritans react so violently. Presley is making a mockery of something they regard seriously."

Birdwhistell's kinesic analysis of other TV stars:

GARY MOORE. By limiting his gestures and movements to those he would make in conversation with people only a few feet away, he "keeps his motions congruous with the distance his audiences are from their TV sets" and comes across "as a nice guy in a chat with a neighbor."

DINAH SHORE. "Her tilted head, her feet-together position, the outward thrust of her palms and the rolling of her hands make her seem as though she's surprised at her success, that she's delighted at being listened to."

ED SULLIVAN. His reputation as "the great stone face" stems only partly from an occasional deadpan expression; his stiff body contributes the rest of the impression. Even so, the reputation is unjustified, because sharp-eyed Dr. Birdwhistell has found that, by actual count, his face motions are average for the U.S.--"less than someone from Atlanta, but more than someone from Buffalo."

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