The Daily Herald from Chicago, Illinois • Page 11

THE HERALD Wednesday, April 21, 1971 Section 1 As Elusive As Howard Hughes Unicena May Be Top Clothing Firm by LEROY POPK NEW YORK I -Despite the recent clamor for more control of fire- armi. the sale of guns is proving to be one of the nation's more recession-proof businesses Total sales are expected to be $650 million this year, up 5 per cent on the heels of an A per cent rise In 1970. Sportsmen and hobbyists will spend nearly all the money An undetermined proportion of an expected $110 million in pistol and other sales will go to lawmen. There also is a feeling that some newly manufactured pistols are finding their way Into the hands of criminals and militant activists Manufactureeri think that diversion is tiny. They say the big surge in handgun is in fancv target models, too bulky to appeal to the criminal or the terrorist The sale of cheap pistols, the kind that are just good enough to "get their owner a ticket to jail." Is expected to fall again this year as It has for the past decade According to James Thompson, general manager of Leisure Group in Los Angeles, the sporting gun market is increasingly a luxury-hobbyist market.

Leisure Group makes Lyman gunsights. ammunition reloading equipment and replicas of old fashioned black powder munle loading rifles and fowling pieces. Winchester, Remington and large retailers of sporting firearms such as Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward agree. As proof, Thompson said the sale of cheap shotguns and the rimfire .22 caliber rifle, the "boy's rifle" of the days when farmers and villagers did a lot of meat hunting for rabbits and partridges, are going down at the rate of around 10 per cent a year. Sales of the rimfire which used to quite large, probably will drop to 140 million this year, he said.

But sales of shotguns are expected to be up 7 per cent to $135 million, largely the result of trading up, autoloaders, "over and under" models and fancier ventilated rib double barrel guns. Sales of expensive centerfire rifles will be about even with last year's $80 million, industry leaders believe. Thesi are the firearms used by the real game hunters and target competitors. Sales of replicas of the old Kentucky flintlock rifle or of late 19th century percussion cap muzzle loaders still are small but are expected to hit $20 million a year by 1975 as more gunsmiths tap the market, said Thompson. Some states give the muzzle loader enthusiasts special hunting areas and special seasons as they do for archers.

Management Seminar Set "Effective Communications for Salesmen and Managers" is the topic for the April 27 spring management training seminar at Harper College in Palatine. Roland Brown, professor in the rhetoric department at the University of Minnesota, will discuss the listening and persuasion elements of communication. The seminar will be held from 9 a to 4:30 p.m. Cost is $35 for the session, which is one in a series offered by Harper office of evening and continuing education The seminars are offered to meet the training needs of business and industry as well as government, health and educational organizations. Brown has led communications conferences throughout the country.

His presentation will begin with the assumptions that communications skills are learned and that no one is always successful. Levels of competence will be covered, and both intra and Inter-personal communications will be discussed. by JOHN F. SIMS AMSTERDAM (UPI) Unicena NV LTD, the holding company controlling the world chains of CA and Ohrbach department stores, may be the biggest clothing retail business around. Only the 19 directors of Unicena, 11 of whom bear the name Brenninkmeyer, know for sure.

Like the elusive Howard Hughes, the Brenninkmeyers don't like to talk about themselves or have their pictures taken. Mark Klausner, public relations director for Ohrbach's in New York, was asked about Anthony Brenninkmeyer who heads up the Unicena interest in the United States. What could he tell about him? "not much, really," said Klausner, "except that he's chairman of our board." How could he be reached? "I don't think he can. I think he lives in Manhattan, and I understand he's married with several children. I'd like to be helpful, but he won't authorize any publicity; he's most reluctant about that.

I don't even have his biography." PRIVACY IS important to the Bren- ninkmeyer family the owners of Unicena and its 175 retail outlets in the United States, Britain, West Germany, Belgium and Holland. The secrecy has its roots in the 17th- century beginnings of CA. In the late 1600s, when the first Brenninkmeyer linen traders laid the foundations of the family business, the male members kept their accounts in code and talked to each other in a special slang that customers could not understand. They did not even explain the code to their wives or daughters. Even now the holding company's name Unicena hides its connections with the retail shops; Uni C.

En and A. The initials themselves stand for Clements and August, the first two Brenninkmeyer brothers to open a shop in 1841. Two years ago, when company law threatened to force the British subsidiary CA Modes to make its accounts public, the Brenninkmeyers converted the company into a partnership. A partnership does not have to disclose its accounts. I Personal frmmce Elimination of nursing home care, as a Medicare benefit, was reported a few weeks ago to be one of the administration's targets in legislative proposals headed for Congress.

It is now denied that there is any intention to get rid of the benefit. A spokesman for the Social Security Administration has told us that "there is definitely no proposal being considered that would eliminate the extended-care benefit If It was a trial balloon that went up. when "public health sources" were quoted on the administration's legislative plans, the balloon didn't stay aloft very long after public reaction made itself felt Whether that was indeed the case isn't now clear, and the water was further muddied by the language used News reports quoting the "public health sources" said the legislation to be sought would "decline to pay for custodial care in skilled nursing homes It has been difficult even for healthcare professionals to understand the extended-care benefit. We're told by the SSA that many patients earlier received pa id-for nursing home benefits to which they were not entitled, under the law, because "intermediaries" local administrators of the Medicare program -couldn't tell what was allowed, and what wasn't Today patients in extended-care facilities who thought they were covered are discovering that they have to pay the bill or part of it as a result of something called "retroactive denial." This is Selected Stocks Slock lurrmhrd through thr (oiirtrsv of I Bros A 141 Mikson Hlvd hie Illinois hOWM John similar to a restaurant cashier telling you, "No, the dinner didn't actually include salad, dessert and coffee, even if the waiter did think so and I'll have to charge you for them now." The general public still tends to refer to the extended-care benefit as any care in a nursing home, but the Medicare law defines it sharply and Washington has been increasingly watchful recently, to deny payment where the line is drawn. If there's a Medicare beneficiary in the family, better understand what extended- care benefits do and don't include, to avoid incurring a whopping bill that you thought was covered.

A patient must first be admitted to an acute-care facility (hospital) for a condition requiring that level of medical care. After three days, and within 14 days, the patient may be transferred to a nursing home. Medicare will pay for up to 100 days of care here but: The patient must require "skilled nursing care on a continuing basis." Note: for the same condition as treated in the hospital. Social Security emphasizes that nursing care does not include "body care" even though the patient may indeed be incapable of caring for his ur her own body needs, such as feeding, dressing, walking or taking medicine on schedule. This is where the "retroactive denial" comes in.

A patient may spend 60 days in a nursing home, on the judgment of need by local staff. On review of the case somewhere up the line, it may be decided that, using the criteria above, the patient was covered for the first five days only. The patient, or family, bears the charges for the remaining 55 days. Through its administrative machinery, the administration already has cut the extended-care benefit to what amounts to a life-or-death minimum. If there is any thought of eliminating what's left of it, in the interests of economy, either the country is on the verge of bankruptcy or there is some very low-level thinking going on, somewhere.

(Newspaper Enterprise Asm.) In De Paul Musical Stephanie Simone, 285 Maywood Lane, Hoffman Estates, starred in John Gay's "The Beggar's Opera" recently presented by DePaul University's school of music. "The Beggar's Opera" is an English ballad opera, arranged by Frederic Austin, with text by John Gay and music assembled by Pepusch. Assigned Tbr mwrkrt AnnTl' ATT MM ('up XI'. 4 2 Til April 111 I.4IW .11 To Celebrate the Opening of our New Location, we will give away Free to the lucky f'fimm'inut Imvrr "i Onurnl OnrMl III Om-rnl ph mi- tlllnol. Work, ITT Mllnn ttiiluntrir, Murrnr Motnr.ilH Nntl'Wil III 'M" Norlhmp Parker Qimkrr Oatx RCA A Smith STP I Stnmlnr'l on I'nrp t'ARCO tin Inn Oil i i i nhrr.nl Oil I'rnihirN i i i Wi 4.1' TV, I I 2.1 4.1'.

4.1 .17 111 1 28'. .1.1 Jl us' ii', .11 h2'. .17 4.1 7V. 21', I I 14'. M'.

25'. .1.1 IVl'M, 2H 4T 1BH till'. TM 6.V. in'" 4.1'. 74 we will give away Free to the lucky winners vFC MAN JON6Q SETS.

No Purchase necessary. Just stop In store before June 1st. Drawing to be held June 15th. THE RESULT of the Brenninkmeyer "privacy" is that any guesses about the company's total wealth and profits remain just that guesses. CA is a family business.

And the Brennkikmeyars are the business. The Unicena regulations are 23 pages of statutes designed to build a juridical bulwark around the family. The four kinds of carry various types of rules on ownership, special positions of next-of-kin and age The shares remain at Unicena. Owners can have written confirmation of their ownership but only on condition the letters themselves are not used for trading purposes. General agreement in business circles is that Rudolf Wilhelm Benninkmeyer, 37, a doctor of economics, currently heads up the Unicena board.

But a Uni- cena executive commented: "Officially there is no chairman of the board. Nor is there one unofficially." IN EACH COUNTRY where the business has branches, a member of the ruling family is in charge. In Germany it is Cornelius, 40; in Britain, Karel Ludger, 42; in Belgium Ludwig, 42; in France, Herman, 46, and in the United States, Anthony, 41. The major decisions in Unicena are taken when the family members gather at a round table in the company's unpretentious offices crammed between a Society Citation Gregory Gordon, 232 Jefferson Road, Hoffman Estates, a senior at North Park College, Chicago, has been given special recognition by the Chicago chapter of the Administrative Management-Society after completing a prescribed program of courses and a minimum number of hours of work experience. Scholastic Honor Richard Allen Ferguson, son of Mr.

and Mrs. James A. Ferguson, 366 Pleasant Hoffman Estates, received a 1971 F.E. Terman Engineering Scholastic Award for being one of the highest ranking undergraduates of the Stanford School of Engineering, Stenford University, California. The award includes a $50 check for the senior student who will graduate in June.

toy shop and a travel agency on four floors of a small building at 113 Weesper Amsterdam. The family is staunchly Roman Catholic. Church officiate say they never waste their time when they approach the Bren- ninkmeyers for support of a church project. It is at Mettingen that the old family house carries the family's coat of arms carved in stone and the motto "Unity makes Strength." If reticence helps breed unity, the Brenninkmeyers observe their motto daily. Contact CharUi Hatehett Dial (312)529-3230 Call 392-2000 and Carsons will come to you with carpeting, custom drapery, slipcover, and upholstery 9.99 sq.

yd. REG. 12.95 sq. yd. all wool plush pile carpeting from a famous mill.

A name we can't reveal and still offer it at 2.96-a-yd. savings. Resilient, easy to clean and mothproof. 8 soft, subtle shades. Carpet a 12x15' room for only 199.80.

Padding and installation are additional. REG. 3.00 antique satin fabric for custom draperies. Silky blend of rayon and acetate in your choice of 40 brilliant colors. All yarn-dyed to shun the sun.

Have them custom tailored into draperies at our usual low labor prices. Call to see samples in your home." 'tt iblltiriM, cwm. HtitTS HAPPENING: at Arlington Park Towers Army Private 1st Class Lee G. Sheldon, 22, son of Mr. and Mrs.

Robert H. Sheldon, 226 Maywood Lane, Hoffman Estates, was recently assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division near Kitzingen, Germany. He is a rifleman in Company 1st Battalion of the division's 15th Infantry. On USS Ashtabula Navy Fireman Patrick J. Sullivan, 531 Westover Lane, Schaumburg is now serving aboard the replenishment oiler USS Ashtabula with the Seventh Fleet in the western Pacific.

Top of the Towers Come for dinner and stay for dancing and a floor show. The Lamplighters Review presents "Those Wonderful Years," featuring musical highlights of the 30's and 40's. Tack Room Lavish luncheon a i and a i the evening a i the a Hore Trio. Open 'til 2 a.m. Towers Lounge A great place for cocktails, and to see the action when showtime starts in Top of the Towers.

Gala Vacation Package Luxurious room. Admission to Arlington Park Track. Dinner and floor show in Top of the Towers Cocktail and entertainment in Tack Room Golf. Swimming. Health Club.

Per day. per person, double occupancy any night except Sunday The Jimmy Ourante Room and 17 others for parties, banquets, receptions. As you might guess, a specialty of ours For information and sample menus, call Catering at 394-2000. No Cover or Minimum Charge Anywhere. arlington towers Euclid Avenue and Rohlwing Road Arlington Heights Telephone 394-2000.