The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 20

Tuesday, Dec. 9. 1980 Philadelphia Inquirer METROPOLITAN- Abbotts ice cream plant will close The Scene In Philadelphia and its suburbs By Douglas A. Campbell Inquirer Bunnett Wmer Fairmont Foods Co. said yesterday lhat it would close its Abbotts Dairies ice cream plant at Third and Lombard Streets on Dec.

19, putting 106 employees out of work. Abbotts Dairies' Philadelphia operations are only "marginally" profitable overall, said William Wald, vice president and general counsel for Fairmont. But the ice cream plant, he said, "was a very marginal or loss business for us, and economics were such that we could not continue the operation." Wald would not discuss the future of the rest of the Abbotts Dairies business in Philadelphia. The business has 769 other workers, including drivers, sales people and employees at a plant on Packer Avenue that produces milk and other dairy products. He said only that those other operations were "not as profitable as we would like." Abbotts Dairies was among the businesses that suffered in early 1979, when the Food Fair supermarkets, one of Abbotts' big customers, closed.

Wald said that the damage done by the Food Fair bankruptcy "would be part of the overall eco-nom ics of the business." Wald said Fairmont had preliminary agreements with three dairies in "the Philadelphia vicinity" to manufacture Abbotts ice cream to Fairmont's specification after the Lombard Street plant is closed. According to a Fairmont press release, a "full line" of Abbotts ice cream products will be continued. Wald said that the layoffs announced for Dec. 19 were all that i VW t'ifJT' IB were planned "for the present time." The company said that it would make "termination payments for eligible employees from a special fund, outside the union contract." Fairmont became a wholly owned subsidiary of American Financial Corp. in July.

Based in Houston, Fairmont is a conglomerate composed of a dairy group serving the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic, a snack-foods group that distributes principally in the Midwest and along the West Coast, and a group of convenience stores in a dozen states. 1 JUL IS rcrci V.jii","Ai ii iif.i. Ixf i Mil ifrittii4feiiiAiA Strangers come bearing gifts for seamen GIFTS, from I nonprofit organization run by the Episcopal Church to serve seamen who dock in the city. The institute maintains a building at Third and Arch Streets, where seamen may choose to sleep as a change from their customary berths. Each gift box delivered by Haines and Ms.

Thornton contained at least one knitted item such as a sweater, prepared and packed by volunteers who live in the Philadelphia area. Occasionally, the diversity of the ships and their crews results in confusion. The vessel Jovellanos, for example, carried a Spanish crew. The seamen promptly opened their gifts at the dock last week rather than saving them until Christmas. "We later learned that we should have told them to wait until Three King's Day, on Jan.

6," said Ms. Thornton. "They have a festival dinner on Christmas and exchange gifts on Three King's Day." Such problems are not uncommon; individual ships often carry crews of widely varying nationalities. The Delphic Miracle, for example, has a crew composed mostly by Greeks, but with Chileans and Syrians as well. Regardless of religions or nationalities, all seamen understand the message and the warmth of giving, Ms.

Thornton said. "We are the same under the god," Haviaras shrugged. i Iff ii f-fi. Philadelphia Inquirer ROBERT L. MOONEV Piiladelphia is at stake in this game (see What's New, i i What's Newt Advance token to Penn's Landing The package came postmarked from San Francisco, and when we opened it we felt the way Reggie Jackson must have felt the first time he saw a Reggie bar.

Inside was a board game with a magnificent photo of the center city skyline on the cover. On top of the box was the name By CLARK DeLEON ii ol the game: Philadelphia Scene. Imagine, a game named after this column. We were We were also wrong. As it turns out, Philadelphia Scene is just one of the City Scene games produced by the John Hanson Co.

in San Francisco. There are already games for Dallas, Houston, New York, New Or Philadelphia Inquirer' RICHARD M. TITLEY LO, HOW THE MIGHTY ARE FALLEN. The 16th and Market Streets, along with the adja- Fox Theater, one of Philadelphia's movie cent Milgrara and Stage Door Theaters, to palaces, is on its way to oblivion. Demolition make way for a 39-story office building.

The crews last week began razing the structure at Fox, which opened in 1929, closed in March. Brinkley gets life term in Nancy Ross murder BRINKLEY, from I that a death sentence would not return the lives of the three victims, all of whom were attacked, raped and slain last year in or near their homes. James said that because Brinkley had already received two life sentences for the earlier convictions, it would serve no purpose to execute him. Signals mixed on hostage release Town's jubilation proves short-lived leans, Boston, Chicago and a number of other cities. The game is played not unlike Monopoly, in that players attempt to acquire real estate and bankrupt other players, but there are a number of twists in Philadelphia Scene.

For instance, you can't develop a property (and charge higher rents) Until you have obtained the right connections with the City Council president, the Democratic Party, organized labor or the Union league. Of course, all of the properties on the board are well-known Philadelphia landmarks such as Society Hill, the Italian Market, Rittcnhouse Square, The Gallery and The Inquirer (even though they made the inexcusable error of spelling it the Philadelphia Enquirer on the board). When you go to jail it's Holmesburg Prison, the railroads include the Reading and SEPTA, and you get $100,000 for, passing Go (City Hall). The cards that serve the equivalent of CJiance and Community Chest are called Philadelphia Scene cards' (don't you like the sound of that?) and they include inside jokes like, "A lady friend at 13th and Locust lifts your wallet. Pay $100 000 to the Public Fund to keep incident out of newspapers." or "Yqj sponsor low income public housing in the Great Northeast.

Lose all friends, but collect $100,000 from the bank." Robert DeNola, the San Franciscan who designed the game with the help of some knowledgeable Philadelphians, said the Scene games have worked in some cities and bombed in others. "In Los Angeles we haven't sold a game yet," he said. "People in Los Angeles don't love their city, but the people in Philadelphia love their city, so we knew it would sell there." The game is arriving late for the Christmas season, although Wana-makers reports that it should be in stock by the end of the week at $14 per game. The Sexest Guess who's coming to lunch? Women may not be out of their homes and into the board room of the Locust Club, but at least they are out of the basement. The Locust Club, which has been called the Jewish Union League, came under criticism two years ago for its policy of denying membership to women, which was best demonstrated by barring women from eating lunch in the main upstairs dining room.

Women who wanted to have lunch at the club were seated in a separate dining room on the lower level. But yesterday, the rules against women were officially "relaxed" to allow women equal seating rights. Locust Club president John Hirsch said the board voted in favor of the change following a report by the club's planning committee. Hirsch said there was "no outside pressure," and he described the change ds "evolution of policy." Was the decision to allow women upstairs made by a unanimous vote of the all-male board? "I don't think that's tt publication," Hirsch said. Moviest A bronze Rocky for the city? Sylvester Stallone is expected in town tomorrow to make a personal appeal during a meeting of the Fairmount Park Commission to allowa 12-foot-tall bronze statue of Rocky to be erected on top of the steps to the Art Museum.

The statue would be featured in the movie Rocky Iff, scheduled for production next spring, but Stallone is hoping that it becomes a permanent fixture. For that to happen, the statue would need the approval of the park commission, the board of the art museum and the Philadelphia Art Commission. Representatives of all three bodies will be present at the meeting at Memorial By David Harris Si'ccial to The Inquirer Martha Kchl of Boyertown had just returned home from church Sunday when the unthinkable happened. She ran to the phone and heard the police dispatcher's voice, excitedly loud and shrill. Mrs.

Kchl, the wife of a fire chief, feared the worse. "1 heard her say the hostages are being released," Mrs. Kehl recalled yesterday. "I couldn't believe it. When 1 heard that I cried." So, too, did many others in Boyertown, a small community that strad-.

dies the Montgomery County-Berks County line near Pottstown. They cried for the same and for ent reasons. The news that the 52 American hostages in Iran had been freed was broadcast over the region's official emergency communications net "What more do you want?" James had asked the jury. "He's not coming back on the streets again. I say to you, ladies and gentlemen, don't kill him.

He's sick. Nobody does the kind of things he's accused of unless they're sick." Dugan argued passionately that the consideration of a death sentence for Brinkley was a matter of "law" and not of sympathy for the defendant work shortly after noon Sunday. In celebration, scanner radios used by police, firefighters and ambulance crews were beeping wildly with special tones. Sirens atop five volunteer fire companies wailed, and some motorists honked their horns to add to the merriment. There were even reports of church bells ringing.

The trouble, of course, was that it was all a dreadful mistake. "The incident is being investigated," communications center coordinator Susan Pengelly said yesterday. "It was a great misunderstanding, and the dispatcher should have known better. The center's board of directors are going to meet with the' dispatcher tomorrow (tonight)." Ms. Pengelly refused to name the dispatcher, saying only that she is a two-year veteran.

The mixup, Ms. Pengelly said, started when the dispatcher either heard using public transportation last year. Joanne Robertson, 22, of the 5400 block of Mascher Street, charged that she fractured her knee on Sept. 9, 1979, when she was forced to jump out the window of a burning subway car on the Broad Street line after the car's emergency doors failed to open. Ms.

Robertson, a secretary, said that SEPTA was negligent in failing to keep the line in good repair. In another civil suit, Laura Maurer, 68, of the 1400 block of Cheltenham Avenue, alleged that she fractured her jaw and lost several teeth on Aug. 18, 1979, when the SEPTA shuttle bus she was riding came to an abrupt stop between Bridge Street and the Berks Street station. Ms. Maurer's suit contended that the accident occured because the driver was operating the bus at "an excessive rate of speed." SEITA officials could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Vanished producer's bond declared forfeit by judge A $75,000 bond for David E. Erne-rich, a movie producer who disappeared with his girlfriend from his blood-splattered home in Camden, N.J., last February, was ordered forfeited by a l-ancaster County court judge yesterday. Lancaster County Judge Wilson Section of Byberry Road reopened after construction. The final stage of a multimillion-dollar improvement of Byberry Road between Roosevelt Boulevard and the Philadelphia county line was completed yesterday when Byberry Road was reopened to traffic from Audubon Avenue to Philmont Aye 's nue. This section of Byberry Road, a heavily traveled highway in Northeast Philadelphia, had been closed to traffic for a year for reconstruction." Corleto's son is arrested a on drug-possession charges A son of former city Managing Director Fred T.

Corleto was arrested over the weekend on drug charges. Fred T. Corleto 39, of the 2300 block of Fairmount Avenue, was arrested by narcotics detectives at about 9:45 a.m. Sunday at his home, Police, armed with a search warrant, they found 15 plastic bags filled with white powder in, Corlcto's home. The bags, which were sent to the police lab for analysis, were suspected of containing cocaine and methamphctamihe.

Corleto was charged with possession with intent to deliver and know his family or the families of the vic tims. "The families don't want you to grieve for them," Dugan said. "They have their own grief. There are circumstances when you have to stand up and say 'yes' (to capital punishment). If this isn't the time, then we'll never get there." Dugan reminded the jury that the law states that the death penalty can an erroneous broadcast of the hostages' release on another Berks County emergency frequency or misunderstood one that was intended simply to honor the hostages.

Roger Strunk, chief of the Friendship Hook and Ladder Fire Company in Boyertown, said that an unidentified Berks County fire company apparently set off its alarm in honor of the hostages' 400th day in captivity. He thinks that the dispatcher in Boyertown then confused the message. Mrs. Kehl, whose husband, John, is chief of the Bechtelsville Fire Company, said she had never felt so disappointed. "When I got the call of the hostages' release, I immediately called my pastor," she said.

"The pastor said it was a great day for thanksgiving. "But it was all a horrible mistake." Bucher ruled, however, that the county must wait until July 1, 1981, before taking legal steps to recover the money. The bond had been posted last spring, when Emerich, 32, was due to appear in Lancaster County court to appeal a 1979 conviction for selling cocaine. In early February, blood and bits of human bones were found in the home from which Emerich and his girlfriend, Bonnie Pellicer, 24, disappeared. John W.

Morris, Emcrich's attorney, opposed the judge's ruling, telling the court that he believed Emerich is dead. Phila. man is sentenced in Main Line bank holdup A Philadelphia man whose alleged accomplice died in a motorcycle crash as they fled a Main Line bank robbery earlier this year, received a thrcc-to-eight-ycar prison term and five years' probation yesterday. Michael Jackson, 18, of the 5400 block of Delancey Street, was sentenced on charges of involuntary manslaughter, robbery, criminal conspiracy and firearms violations. He pleaded guilty to those charges in October in exchange for the dropping of a murder charge that had been filed against him in the death of Prentis llagin, 17, of the 5500 block of be imposed in a killing in which there are aggravating circumstances." In the Ross slaying, Dugan said, those circumstances were that she was killed in her Society Hill town-house during a felony (rape and robbery), that Brinkley had a history of crimes of violence and that he had already been sentenced to life in prison in unrelated murders.

Dugan told the jury that "race is not an issue." He said that Brinkley, who is black, "killed white women and black women. It's a case of a man who decides to play God: 'These people are going to die and I am their There is nothing that can stop him from killing except you (the jury). He's left a roomful of people crying." Before closing arguments, the jury heard several psychiatrists and family and friends of Brinkley testify about his severe emotional disturbances stemming from his childhood. Dr. Gerald Cooke, a psychologist who had examined Brinkley, said that Brinkley felt like an "outsider" in his childhood and that his need for attention had intensified in adulthood.

Brinkley's mother said his problems worsened when she and her husband separated six years ago. She said her son "turned on me" and began stealing cars and showing other signs of instability, such as hiding in a closet and crying. Cooke said Brinkley told him, "I'll make it hard for them and plead not guilty. I'm not going to give them the pleasure of taking my life; I'll take it myself." Pine Street. On Feb.

6, Jackson and Hagin participated in the $4,300 armed holdup of a Fidelity Bank branch office in Rosemont, police said. They fled on a motorcycle and led police on a chase that ended when they struck a car while headed in the wrong direction through heavy oncoming traffic on Lancaster Avenue, they said. llagin was killed in the crash. Jackson now is serving a three year maximum sentence for an armed robbery in New Jersey. 2 Philadelphia men slain in incidents over weekend Two Philadelphia men were found murdered Sunday in separate incidents.

Kenneth Hammond, 58, of the 2400 block of Reese Street, was found shot in the chest in the basement of his home at about 10:15 p.m. Sunday. Police said yesterday that they had a suspect but that no arrests had been made. A 27-year-old man who had been stabbed was found lying in the road at the intersection of 55th Street and Angora Terrace on Sunday at 11:15 p.m. Police said that the man, whose identity was being withheld pending notification of next of kin, had been stabbed eight times.

Metropolitan Area News in Brief ingly and intentionally possessingji controlled substance. He was ji-leased Sunday on his own recognizance. Corleto's father served under Mayor James H.J. Tate in the 19606 and early 70s. Child dies, mother, hurt in fire in East Camden An East Camden child died and her mother and brother were critical injured yesterday during a fire their home that fire officials said had been caused by a neighborhood child playing with matches.

Michelle Finn, 4, died of smoke inhalation at Cooper Medical CenieF in Camden four hours after firefighters rescued her from the house, 2930 Cramer officials said. Her mother, Sharon Finn, 23, was taketr to the same hospital suffering smoke-inhalation and was listed in critical condition. Two-month-old Michael Finn, also, suffering smoke inhalation, was cd in critical condition at St. Christopher's Hospital in Philadelphia. A neighbor's child who had bcen visiting the Finn home told investi" gators that he had been playing with matches shortly after 9 a.m.

and acct-' dentally set a bunk-bed mattress Valley Forge park to restore ban on liquor after 3 years A three-year experiment that permitted the consumption of alcohol in Valley Forge National Historical Park will come to an end Jan. 15, when a ban on liquor will go into-effect, park superintendent H. Gilbert Lusk announced yesterday. Liquor had been forbidden when the park was under state operation, but the ban was lifted when the National Park Service took control of it in March 1977. Lusk said the ban is being resumed because groups of people have been drinking in their cars, becoming rowdy and littering the park.

He said the park might make exceptions to the ban for large groups, which must secure permits to picnic there. Lusk also announced new SEITA weekday bus service between King of Prussia and the park, beginning in April, and the expansion of picnic and parking areas and hiking trails. Lawsuits cite SEPTA in two incidents of injury Two Philadelphia women filed scparatS $20,000 damage suits against SEITA in Bucks County court yesterday, contending that they had been 'injured 'in separate incidents while 1 A.