Died. Ted Mack, 72, genial, soft-spoken host of television's Original Amateur Hour; of cancer; in North Tarrytown, N.Y. A bandleader in the 1920s, he started as talent scout for the radio version of the Amateur Hour in 1935, serving its late (1946) legendary M.C., Major Edward Bowes. Amateur Hour went on TV in 1948, and Mack ran the show until it died because of poor ratings in 1970. Among the future stars the show presented: Beverly Sills, Maria Callas, Ann-Margret, Pat Boone, and a skinny New Jersey kid named Frank Sinatra. Mack missed a couple: he rejected Elvis Presley and Tiny Tim. "Perhaps there was too much pelvis in Elvis," he explained, "and we're not the only ones to have said no to Tiny Tim."

Died. James Wong Howe, 76, Oscar-winning cinematographer (for The Rose Tattoo, 1955, and Hud, 1963); after a long illness; in Hollywood. Born in China and named Wong Tung Jim, the diminutive (5 ft.) Howe was so harassed by his Pasco, Wash., schoolmates that he became a professional prizefighter. Seeing a Mack Sennett comedy being filmed in the streets, he asked for a job as cameraman but was rejected as too small for heavy equipment; he eventually caught on as assistant to Cecil B. De-Mille. Noted for his constant efforts to achieve realism, Howe once filmed John Garfield's boxing scenes in Body and Soul by donning roller skates and darting around the ring for closeup shots.

Died. Paul Gallico, 78, sportswriter turned sentimental tale spinner; of a heart attack; in Monaco. Sports editor and columnist at the New York Daily News from 1924 to 1936, Gallico pioneered what is now known as the Plimpton Ploy: swimming against Johnny Weissmuller, boxing a round with Jack Dempsey ("I knew all there was to know about being hit"). Gallico quit the News in 1936 and wrote Farewell to Sport, the first of 41 books, many of them bestsellers. Among his most popular novels: The Snow Goose (1941), Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris (1958), The Poseidon Adventure (1969).

Died. Charles Ritz, 84, trim, soldierly chairman of the original Ritz Hotel on Paris' Place Vendome; in Paris. "Personal attention to the guest is everything," said Ritz, son of the hotel's founder. "I myself, to be friendly, send each guest a bottle of champagne and my card when he checks in." Fly-fishing was his avocation, and he spent much of his time angling in the streams of the world. His 1959 book A Fly Fisher's Life boasted an introduction by his friend and frequent customer Ernest Hemingway.

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