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Winsome, unspoiled and articulate, the 5-ft. 1-in., 95-lb. jockey is on the verge of making megabucks. CBS plans a half-hour show on A Day in the Life of Steve Cauthen. He has signed a contract with the International Management Group, which packages such superstars as John Havlicek and Arnold Palmer. Major advertisers, including cereal companies, airlines, men's cosmetics manufacturers and automakers are besieging him to appear in commercials for their products. In the works are a biography (The Kid), Cauthen T shirts, bath towels and posters. Steve has also made a record of country and bubble-gum songs, some of which he wrote.
Says Michael Halstead, who is Cauthen's new manager at I.M.G.: "Racing is the biggest spectator sport in the world after soccer. Even in areas where there are no race tracks, millions of people have seen Steve on TV. Clearly, he can make money commensurate with the amounts that TV celebrities earn. Sports figures are the Humphrey Bogarts and Clark Gables of today." Superbug has bought himself a new red Mercury and gave his parents a new couch for Christmas, but his earnings have had little effect on his way of life. "Sure, I think money is important," says Steve. "But as for its being the main thing in my life, it is not."
Outback Odyssey. Friday the 13th is Colleen McCullough's lucky day. On Friday, June 13, 1975, she started work on her second novel, The Thorn Birds, which was officially published in hardcover by Harper & Row on Friday, May 13, and has been ascending the bestseller list for a month. Another lucky Friday was last Feb. 25, when she learned that the paperback rights to her book had been sold in Manhattan for $1.9 million, a publishing record. With her earnings from hard-cover sales, magazine serializations, nine foreign-language editions, plus a TV "maxi-series," "Col" McCullough, 39, will earn at least $5 million in 1977.
The novel, set in McCullough's native Australia, follows three generations of an Outback family through two continents, 54 years and 280,000 words. A riveting evocation of time, place and character, it was pounded out at night while the author worked by day in the Yale University neurology lab.
McCullough was virtually unknown when her Down Under saga hit pay dirt. Says she: "At first I was terribly scared and depressed. I could see right away that it would mean a whole upheaval of my life. I never owned a piece of furniture before; I always lived in furnished rooms. Now I'll have to build a house." Tough. "There's not much point in diamonds and furs—I haven't got the face or figure," adds the Junoesque (200-lb.) Col, who has long, flaming red hair, a vivacious, laughing face. She adds: "I've quit expecting anything ordinary to happen to me."