St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 53

ST.LOUBPOST-DISBVTCH SECTION THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1993 JERRY 1J BERGER ---r "Neither blacks nor whites 1 i mf I have any reasonable idea about how black history shaped this nation. It's an essential part of this country's history." JOHN GLADNEY li lie I Labor Day Is Target For Admiral Project BETS ARE ON: While Mo. Guv. Mel Carnahan is expected to sign the revised Missouri gaming bill today, workers all members of local unions are toiling around the clock to complete John Connelly's Admiral by Labor Day. By the by, the main ballroom as we knew it is being transformed into a square-foot casino The final thrust of Tom Villa's push for a seat in the mayor's office will be positive, according to a reliable source.

It will focus on jobs and the economy. "It's a good value at a good price," hailed Chip Grote, GM of Freddie Froghammer's, after he confirmed that the new nightspot on Manchester Road in Deslperes is grossing about $5,000 nightly and $10,000 each weekend night. Townies are still wowed by the lines that form outside the bar and grill. "We're hoping to franchise Freddie's," said Grote, who. Is partnered in the 320-seater with Biomedical's Ray Barrett, Barrett's three sons, Pat, Tim and Dan, and businessman Ed Gaus.

Open only a few weeks, Freddie's offers live music consisting of old-time party rock SDoh't be surprised to hear that Metro Link will new spurs: one going to St. Charles from Lambert Field, one to Scott Air Force Base from East Stlouis, and one across St. Louis County, running flafth and south parallel to 1-170. A study is being conducted as you read Meanwhile, as has already been trumpeted, passenger service will begin 15 July on tne entire 18-mile system or whatever part incompleted by then. HEADS UP: Channel 2 meteorologist Dave Murray and Channel 1 1 sportscaster Al Hrabosky, along with: home builder Jerry Kerr, are chairing the mi 1 It 1 1 A Ik EZZVa, CZZj'I J' r7 1 mm I 1 iLJ By Cynthia Todd Of the Post-Dispatch Staff IT WAS 1934.

The invitation that Herman H. Dreer had gotten for 19 years from Washington University failed to appear. Since 1915, the school had invited Dreer to initiation ceremonies for new members of Phi Beta Kappa. Dreer, a Phi Beta Kappa himself, had gone to every ceremony between 1928 and 1933. But in 1 934, the same year Dreer applied at the school to work on a doctorate, the invitations ceased.

Dreer equated the stoppage with his application. He was a teacher and would become an assistant principal at Sumner High School. He was black. Decades earlier, Washington University had stopped admitting black students. "We recognize your high attainments as a scholar and believe that you would be a credit to our institution," the university wrote, responding to Dreer's application.

"However, since the University of Missouri, our state institution, does not admit Negroes, Washington University pursues the same policy. We regret that we will not admit you." Dreer wrote of the incident years later in "Highlights of Negro History," the column he wrote for a St. Louis weekly. The teacher crafted the column to communicate the richness of black history. Dreer believed that without that information, history was incomplete.

In the 1930s, Dreer and others established a St. Louis branch of the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History. The association was the brainchild of Carter G. Woodson, the father of Black History Month, which now is celebrated each February. Woodson's group believed that if people knew the contributions of blacks, racial harmony and black self-esteem would be enhanced.

Now, 60 years after that initial effort, some SL Louisans, including Dreer's two daughters, are following the lead of cities such as Chicago and Kansas City and are trying to revive St Louis' dormant branch. Co-sponsors include the Missouri Historical Society, the St. Louis Public Library and the school that so long ago turned Dreer away Washington University. Jamie Graham, a librarian who retired recently from the university, got the new group started last May. She had come to St Louis in the early 1950s when her husband was transferred from See HISTORY, Page 6 1 1 hi 11.

1 1 ij nuF I It i 1 II TOP: Homer G. Phillips, a lawyer who organized a group to urge the city to build a hospital for blacks. The hospital was built in 1937, six years after his death. ABOVE: Cosmetics manufacturer Annie Malone, meeting here with children in 1950, built the Annie Malone Children's Home. LEFT: Vivian Dreer (left) and Jamie Graham admire African art in Dreer's apartment.

Dave Murray (left) and Al Hrabosky are chairmen of the Golfathon on June 14. Golfathon on June 14 at Westborough C.C. to benefit the St Louis Association for Retarded Citizens. Golfers will play from sunrise to sunset, and businesses or individuals will back their favorite golfers with a $2,500 minimum for each. For more info, call Marilyn Ratkin, 569-2211, ext.

243. The St. Louis Variety Club is short on pre-telethon contributions and is eager for contributions from deep pockets around town. At this year's outing, March 6-7 at the Adam's Mark Hotel, Virginia L. Busch will receive laurels as "Variety Woman of the Yea?" and Ed Whitacre as "Variety's Man of the Plaudits from Business Week magazine to a staff editor, Ronald Stodghill II, on his award-winning feature, "Managing AIDS." The story dealt with and how one of its superintendents dealt with an employee who was stricken with the illness.

Stodghill, a grad of the University of Missouri at Columbia, is the son of Ron Stodghill, the Wellston Schools supe, and Kriseda Pryor, personnel manager with the Oakland (Mich.) Transit Authority "Because of the hepatitis scare, our box lunch business has doubled," advises Sue Tozer of Lunches, Dinners More Ringed this week are Dr: Pat McGuire, the nip tucker with Parkcrest Surgical Group, and Dr. Bob Sclortino, the orthopod (not the chiropractor) Anyone for a 160-year-old Danish? Kristian Vesth, whom August Busch III lured to our shores from the five-star D'Angleterre Hotel in Copenhagen in the early 1980s, will bow his second Pastries of Denmark location in mid-March at Northwest Plaza, featuring breads and Danish pastries made from 160-year-old recipes. Two additional Danish chefs will be brought to both locations. Hometowner Kary Rudin, a regular at the Creve Coeur location, is Vesth's partner in the new venture. CIRCLE THE DATE: John Edgar Goodman (not the Affton kid who made good in Hollywood), son of the late department store czar Stanley Goodman, will share several wines from his dad's cellar at the March 20 Grape Arts fund-raiser for Art St.

Louis in the St; Louis Design Center, 917 Locust Street. He and his sis, Ellen Lowenstein, coordinator of the event, will also donate to the auction a collection of Goodman's wine paraphernalia, ranging from a pair of sterling silver Tiffany grape shears to corkscrews and wine glasses. For more info, call 241-4810. Celebrity Mileage Markers i JilltililfiiHi it. (j3- By Mary Schmich Of the Chicago Tribune TEST YOUR birthday quotient by filling in the following blanks.

Roberta Flack just turned 1 Robert Wagner just turned Donovan just turned If you said Roberta Flack is 54, you are right. If you said Robert Wagner is 58, you are wrong and will be lucky to look that good at 63. If you said, "Donovan who?" you are too young or too old to remember when yellow was mellow. And if you said, "Who cares?" you belong to an abnormal subset of humanity that fails to grasp the significance of celebrity birthdays. Every day newspapers, radio and TV serve us a new set of celebrity birthdays.

Some of us consider this the most relevant news of the day. Celebrity birthdays are the mileage markers of our shared trip through time. They let us know which of the rich and famous are riding the bus with us, who's up ahead and who's behind. They provide food for self-love and self-loathing. (Mia Farrow turned 48 this month.

Sure, you might want her complexion at 48, but would you want her life?) Keeping the nation's celebrity birthdays straight is no small task. It requires mathematical calculations, a mania for detail, the tenacity of a sleuth. Consider the Birthday Guy, a man whose job is so perilous that he pleaded to be identified only as the Birthday Guy. The Birthday Guy is in charge of celebrity birthdays at "Entertainment Tonight." There are people who would kill to have their birthdays aired on "Entertainment Tonight." There are people who would kill not to have their birthdays aired on "Entertainment Tonight" The Birthday Guy, who will turn 28 on March 4, requests a pseudonym because he worries about being harassed for erring either way. From his Hollywood office, the Birthday Guy explained that "Entertainment Tonight" keeps a list of 4,000 birthdays, though his editors usually trim his proposed nightly list to four to six.

Making the cut can be cutthroat "They were going to cut Tex Beneke, the old band leader and Glenn Miller singer," says the Birthday Guy. "I went in and said, 'Come on, guys, you can't cut Tex went back in." "ET" also keeps a list of 50 celebs, mostly women, who have made it clear that they will firebomb his celebrity master list if their ages are ever again blabbed over the airwaves. Joining the Birthday Guy in the field's top ranks is Eugene Kim, who will be 36 until Aug. 28. Kim compiles the birthday list for the Associated Press Broadcast Services.

Every day he tries to tame the same dragon: inaccuracy. "You don't have to worry about the birthdays of scientists, statesmen and politicians, with the notable exception of Gary Hart, who shaved a year off his age," says Kim. When it comes to actors and actresses, however, finding true ages is like searching for the Holy GralL See BIRTHDAY, Page I r'. iff" "i- im irii 'r Robert C. Holt Jr.Post-Dispatch AP Shaggylove is a 4-year-old female terrier-schnauzer mix who's spayed, housebroken and good with children.

To adopt: Apply in person at the Humane Society of Missouri, 1210 Macklind Avenue, before noon Saturday. For years, Katharine Hepburn's exact birth date was a matter of dispute. 6.