PAGES FILLED WITH DREAMS; AT NBC, POLYESTER-CLAD GOFERS CAN TURN INTO MEDIA MOGULS.

Byline: Janet Weeks Daily News Staff Writer

Alisa Artigas dons a polyester uniform so square it makes the fuddy-duddy garb of flight attendants look fashionable and heads from her North Hollywood home to the bottom rung of the entertainment industry.

She is 28. She is a college graduate. She once made a comfortable living in property management in her native San Jose.

Two months ago, she traded it all for an $8.50-an-hour job for which she must wear a heat-absorbing navy blazer and a puffy bow tie. An international relations major, she now chauffeurs tourists from around the globe down the halls of a Burbank studio where she hopes to someday have a corner office.

Artigas is one of the few, the proud and the poorly dressed.

She's an NBC page.

And, yes, we're sure that Disney CEO Michael Eisner got his start this way.

In the dog-eat-dog world of corporate entertainment - where the heads of executives often roll faster than the sped-up credits at the end of a show - the page system remains a sweet throwback to a simpler time when a young person toiling on the ground floor could expect to someday rise to the boss's chair.

``It's one of the ways to get in,'' says William Connor, NBC's manager of guest relations and himself a former page. ``The support is from the top. All the way down, people are willing to lend their experience.''

At any one time, there are 25 pages working at NBC in Burbank. And although other studios also have page programs, the NBC system stands out as a model for helping to create television's future moguls.

``It was the best thing that ever happened to me,'' raves Peter Hammond, senior segment producer for ``Extra'' who worked as a page in the mid-'70s. ``It was fantastic. It was the college fraternity that I was never in.''

High praise for a job as a grunt. Indeed, pages are gofers. They are on their feet all day, guiding studio tours, ushering at ``The Tonight Show'' and helping with crowd control at corporate events and special receptions. All that, and they earn less money than busy waiters.

Inside job

But for those just getting started, the pay isn't important. They work as pages for the chance to view the industry, to learn where and what the jobs are and whether they want them. Working as a page also provides that important first thread in a network of contacts. And in Hollywood, the person who gets the job is often the person who has a friend on the inside.

Roxanne Yamaguchi Mosten, assistant director of media relations at UCLA, used a contact she met when she was a page in the late '70s to land a job at an FM radio station, which led to a job working for Norman Lear, where she stayed for several years.

Of her year as a page, she says: ``It was one of the most wonderful experiences of my life.''

NBC offers its pages chances to leave the tour-and-usher grind and work within departments after completing two months in the one-year program. The company also encourages pages to schedule meetings with anyone occupying a job they'd like to have.

And, perhaps most inspiring, company West Coast president Don Ohlmeyer eats breakfast with the pages at least once a year, giving the young men and women a chance to learn his career tips.

The system seems to work. The entertainment industry is littered with former NBC pages now working as producers, directors, writers, actors and corporate executives.

Of course, there's Eisner, perhaps the most successful of the lot. Then there's Marcy Carsey, co-founder of Carsey-Werner, one of the most successful companies (``Roseanne,'' ``3rd Rock From the Sun,'' ``Men Behaving Badly'') in the television industry.

And then there's Courtney Conte, Carsey-Werner's senior vice president of production. And KCAL-TV (Channel 9) weather forecaster Carl Bell. And Emmy-winning ``Cheers'' producer Cheri Eichen Steinkellner. And ``Tonight Show'' announcer Ed Hall.

Up the ladder

At NBC's Burbank lot alone, about 70 of the current employees were once pages, including ``Tonight Show'' executive producer Debbie Vickers. Peter Engel, president of Engel Productions, which produces NBC's entire Saturday morning lineup, is also a former page.

Connor estimates that 90 percent of NBC pages move on to careers in the entertainment industry. Thirty-five percent are hired by NBC. Because of that success rate, competition for the jobs is fierce.

To qualify - remember, pages are unglorified gofers - candidates must possess college diplomas and should have experience working at a local station. For the 25 to 30 page posts Connor fills a year, he receives 400 applications.

``It's an important job,'' says Connor. ``They are the public relations liaisons for NBC. It's one of the few jobs with direct contact with our viewers - our clients.''

That's why Artigas doesn't mind the pay or the gray A-line skirt or shuttling tourists around the ``Days of Our Lives'' set. She's got her sensibly shod foot jammed in the door of show business.

``I had always wanted to work in entertainment, but along the way I had chickened out,'' she says. In fact, she started out in college as a film major but ended up going for a more secure degree in business.

After college, she forged a well-paying career managing rental properties.

Then one day she heard about the page program and it triggered a buried dream of working in entertainment. She came south and is now leaning toward a career in the publicity arm of the television industry, although she's leaving her options open.

``I'm so much happier,'' she says. ``We meet lots and lots of people from all over the world. That's neat. And if I wanted to learn how to work a camera or do anything else, the guys would show me.''

As far as the pay and uniform go, Artigas says: ``It's better than Hot Dog on a Stick.''

Pages of history

The page system has a long history in entertainment and stretches back to the days before there even was television, to radio in New York, when fresh-faced men and women worked as human beepers traveling corporate halls hailing busy executives with important messages.

Some of those youngsters parlayed the job into careers. Gregory Peck and Peter Marshall got their starts at NBC in New York, as did Bob ``Captain Kangaroo'' Keeshan.

``Nobody is doing this job because of the pay level,'' says Connor. ``But there are not many other ways to work inside the industry when you're fresh out of college.''

When ``Tonight Show'' announcer Hall worked as a page in New York, he ushered folks into ``Saturday Night Live,'' ``Tomorrow'' and the soap opera ``The Doctors.'' He calls the experience ``invaluable.''

``It's a foot in the door,'' he says. ``I didn't have any relatives in the business. This way, I got to know a lot of people.''

Jason Oliver, 25, acted his way through college at California State University, Long Beach, where he earned a degree in theater. Post graduation, he worked as a bell captain at the Long Beach Renaissance hotel, although he longed to work in entertainment.

``But the whole TV industry seemed threatening,'' he says. ``It's so big. I didn't know how to get my foot in. Because of this job, I've discovered jobs I didn't know existed.''

He now wants to work in sound editing and sound design.

``Being a page is a really good opportunity. ... I'm still very interested in theater and in acting. It's always there, on a back burner, but I want to eat.''

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

PHOTO (1) NBC pages John Dvi-Vardhana, left, and Alisa Artigas lead children on a tour of the ``Tonight Show'' studio at the network's Burbank facility. About 400 people annually apply for the 25 to 30 page posts.

Gus Ruelas/Daily News

(2) John Dvi-Vardhana, left, an NBC page, shows students one of ``Tonight Show'' host Jay Leno's classic cars during a studio tour in Burbank. The highly coveted job pays $8.50 per hour.

Gus Ruelas/Daily News

(3 -- color) Life on the bottom rung

Gus Ruelas/Daily News