May 19, 1996

SOMEWHERE in the not-too-distant past, with a wink and a nod to the landlord, an unknown artist pushed a dolly loaded with large canvases -- or crates full of photographic equipment or, perhaps, a block of raw material clenching an unborn sculpture -- onto the freight elevator of a dank, deserted factory in lower Manhattan. And then, after unloading onto one of those expanses of floor where a platoon of poorly paid workers had once toiled, she or he bedded down for the night. That mythic artist could not have known that night, three or four decades ago, that the seed of a significant transformation in the city's life style had been planted; that, in a period of fiscal turmoil when little housing was being built, desolate and foreboding factory districts would, in time, become vibrant, even chic, residential communities. And all that -- spurred by a tendentious band calling themselves loft pioneers -- would evolve ithout massive public investment.

In Warsaw, an exhibit of photographs culled from family albums, shoe boxes and attics show Jewish life in Poland from the end of the last century to the Holocaust. Page 8.

THE Buick Roadmaster, for 60 years a symbol of American automotive might, is spending its final days on life support, a victim of shifting demographics. The mammoth Roadmaster Estate Wagon has already passed on, and the sedan is being produced under a death sentence, with the General Motors executioner due to arrive by fall.

Indexing bonds to inflation is, to hear the advocates tell it, a win-win situation for everybody. The buyers of bonds get inflation protection, while the sellers -- the Government -- get lower financing costs and a needed incentive to hold down inflation. Don't bet on it. The chances are that such bonds, which Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin says will be issued by the Government, will prove a better deal for the buyers than for the Government, which will benefit in the short term, but suffer later.

WHEN A RAGTAG street urchin named Aladdin took Princess Jasmine on a magic carpet ride, crooning "It's a whole new world" in Walt Disney's animated hit "Aladdin," he could have been predicting the future that lay ahead for film animators. Ever since 1988, when Disney released "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," with its blend of live action and animation, a new generation of Disney artists have had an extraordinarily successful run of films. Nearly all of the studio's animated films have landed on Variety's top 100 list of box-office moneymakers. "The Lion King," from 1994, ranks No. 5 and remains Disney's most successful film, animated or otherwise, with nearly $315 million in American ticket sales. "Aladdin," at No. 16, made $217 million; "Roger Rabbit," at No. 42, earned $154 million, and "Beauty and the Beast" (No. 49), released in 1991, earned $145 million.