The Baytown Sun from Baytown, Texas • Page 12

THEBAYTOWNSUN February 8,1973 Former 'Hit Parader' Finds Comeback 'Not So Grand' AN KXKHCISK, it's called, as Israeli artillery fire clouds the horizon in the Jordan a It's the Gulatii Brigade on a 24-hour "attack" on "fortified positions." Gamblers Anonymous Group Young, But Active LAS VEGAS, Nev. A Since July 24,1971, Howie a small, intense, middle-aged man who is a leader of Gamblers Anonymous here, lias not plated a bet. Before that, he wagered from the tune he was 11, starting with craps and poker and graduating to race tracks and professional sports. He moved to Vegas, where gambling is legal and widespread, so he would have a greater chance to bet. When he quit, he owed several thousand dollars to three finance companies, two banks and two loan sharks, one of whom was charging $100 interest weekly on a $500 loan.

He had borrowed heavily from his mother and had cashed in her last two resources, a life insurance policy and a cemetery plot. Counted among his losses were 5200,000 and his first marriage. i a odds Howie quit with the help of GA whose 30 or so active members meet three times a week in i church a few blocks from Fre mont Street, where banks of flashing lights beckon the vis itor to risk his money at down town casinos. By sharing their gambling listories and reading GA literature, the members, all self- lescribed compulsive gamblers, attempt to kick the labit. One of their chief obstacles is he ever-present lure of gambling in this resort city.

"It is three times as tough to top gambling in Las Vegas as any place in the world," Howie says. "Just the idea that at any ime 24 hours of the day vou can gamble." A number of members make their living on the house side of the gaming industry. Howie is a casino boxman, a supervisor at the craps table. One nember arranges junkets that bring high-rollers in for a free stay. Their gambling losses cover the tab.

One member, Chickie, was a former shareholder in three Vegas hotels but lost his holdings and his wife of 42 years because of his compulsion to shoot craps. Chickie will not say how much he has lost. But a GA spokesman says he is believec to have dropped severa million dollars, making him GA's biggest loser. At one time, he was one the big bosses, he says. Now.

he says, people say be lind his back, "Look at that ucker. Look at him now. He had everything and now he sn't even in the business." Many members, like Chickie, are not able to quit ambling or do so only for 3 hort intervals. The local chapter has about 100 some-time members. But -lowie says, "They come and go.

Very few stick it out." The problems of the nation's estimated six million com- Dulsive gamblers fall hardest on their wives, GA members agree. Of GA's 2,000 only 30 are women. "Gambling is No. 1," Howie says. "It comes above everything else in your life.

The wife is left alone to bring up the kids herself. You come home just enough to shave and get a few hours' sleep." In their confessions at meetings, men usually admit they first attend GA to appease a wife, often their second one. Dr. a Perlowitz, a Brooklyn, N.Y., psychoanalyst who has counseled gamblers for 14 years said in a telephone interview, "Thd average compulsive gambler wipes out every member of his family, his friends and various men who loan monev to him. NEW YORK (AP) The second time around may be grand for everything but a singing career.

Dark-eyed Jill Corey is a tiny bit sorry she was so successful the first time. Now attempting a comeback, the former Mitch Miller protege and "Your Hit Parade" 'star said she is feeling the results of letting others guide her career. "I let everyone else do everything pick my music, decide when and where I would sing, plan what moves I would make. Today I don't know how to audition, how to get people interested in booking me. I just had everything too easy," she said.

Petite and dark-haired, Jill was Norma Jean Speranza, a 17-year-old Pennsylvania girl who auditioned for three popular radio shows in one day on her first trip to New York when her career began, 19 years ago. "I didn't know what I was doing, I was too dumb to be scared," she recalls. Mitch Miller took over her career and hit record followed, along with radio and television. Then came marriage to baseball player-manager Don Hoak, retirement and daughter, Clara Michele, now 7. "I was more abreast of baseball than entertainment for eight years.

Every now and again I would get a twinge to sing and call up a local agent, ask him to book me for a weekend or a week and get it all out of my system. And I sang lul- abies. And I can't wash dishes without singing. So I was never totally away from the business," she adds. Miss Corey met her husband during a Pittsburgh Pirates Camera Day.

Hoak, baseball player who turned manager for the Pirates farm team, was one of those people "who should wear a uniform every He loved baseball. I used to try to help him write up reports after every game. That was the part he disliked," Miss Corey says. 'It was a wonderful marriage, a very good life." For the period since her husband's death, the versatile singer has been trying for a comeback. People frequently think of her as the teen-age-type she used to be.

"Mitch Miller gave me only itsy-poo numbers, all cutesy, pixiesh. But the reason was that when he finally gave me some torchy ballads to sing, I wasn't taking care of my voice. I was staying out late, smoking too much. I was just awful. And the recordings well, the vibrato was so wide I'm amazed they got it on tape.

So Miller put me right back on those itsy-poo numbers," she recalled. Her new night club routine is modern, with bits of the Beatles, Elton John, Dory Previn and other moderns along with those records that sold so well in the late 50s. "It's all me, that routine or at least, me and my hairdresser." And daughter Clara, who gets lots of love and attention, has her mother home to cook dinner. Then Miss Corey goes to work at 9:30 wakes Clara up p.m., when and she returns in the early morning hours to say "goodnight, I'm home. "I don't have to work," the singer added.

"I do have Don's pension. But it is something I must do. It is the only thing I do well, and it is emotionally satisfying. I need to work." A comedian once told Jill that his job was more difficult than hers because he had no help from an orchestra or band. "But I remember singing in Newport with a band well, LAST MONTH IN HISTORY Four gjnmen held nine hostages inside N.Y., sporting goods alter killing policeman in gun dud.

(Miami Dolphins became'pro fostball a by defeating Washington Rediluns, 14-7, in Super Bowl in Los Angeles. Johnson, 36th president, died of heart attack suffered at.his ranch in Johnson City, Tex. EUtKl i Nuon sworn in as president cf U.S., beginning his second term. 5 i a unmanned spacecraft to the moon. Land rover i soil samples.

Half Land jnov storm, winter day in 21 years, blocked ell roads to Jerusalem. Lim Seng, ted by firing before 600 at making and oin. UiikKiflGeorge foreman became new world's heavyweight i champ by knocking out Jot Fraiier in Kingston, Jornada. Pittsburgh rates' Roberto Clemente died in plane crash off Puerto Rico, flying relief i Nicaragua. single air disaster in history took 180 in northern Nigeria.

riot police clothed at Egypt's Cairo University while students protesting a of their leaders. i Nixon announced agreement to end Vietnam war a viih honor." the kindest thing I could say about them would be that they just couldn't read music. One night, the pianist's score fell off the rack, so I talked and laughed with the audience until the pianist picked it up. "Then the lights went out, but I kept on singing, and when the lights came back on, you'd think everything was fine. No! Then the drums fell apart.

So a singer can't depend on anything but her own wits," Miss Corey "Somehow, I'm going to find a way to tell people I'm back, and that I want to sing." Did You Know? During the Klondike gold rush, more than $100 million in gold was recovered from the creekbeds in a seven-year period. People in some countries eat grasshoppers, usually roasted or fried. OFFERING QUALITY IN Prescriptions 24 Hours A Day NIGHT Ph. 427-5594 Leggetts Drugs 422-2920 514W.Min Buyers Scream But Still Buy Higher Priced Foods NEW YORK i APKi With food prices bound to rise over the next several weeks, you may expect buyers to express lance, as does low productivity in some areas of processing and distribution. But it can also be shown that their disapproval more demand adds to the and to go right on choosing high priced products instead of stepping down.

This has been the practice nver ihe past few years, and most experts if they may be called that believe it will be the case this year too. Spending power is rising. And while Americans might skimp elsewhere in their budget, they sel- d-m do so for long with food. It is especially true with You can trace the price pressures and that no matter how high the price goes there will be a goodly number of shoppers who will chase it still higher. This tendency leads to the almost absurd situation of some butchers attempting to talk their customers into lower priced cuts.

Overheard the other day was this response to a customer who sought to buy filet mignon at S4.25 a pound: "Mister, whv don't vou trv our growing osperity of America! ground beef?" in the rising beef consumption. In 1920. we ate 60 pounds a year per person. This year the estimate is 118 pounds. There are reasons for rising food prices other than growing consumer demand, of course.

Subsidies and acreage restrictions contribute. So does a chronic suDolv-demand imba- Consumption of some other meals is rising also and this year the appetite is expected to be in the range of 200 pounds, compared with 136 pounds in 1920. and 161 pounds as recently as 1960. Less veal and lamb are eaten, compared with a decade ago, but chicken and pork con- umption is rising. And with hoice hogs selling at 34 cents a ound, up 25 per cent over a ear ago, you can imagine the future holds.

With chicken the story is uite different. In the past 23 ears Americans have raised heir per capita consumption rom less than 10 pounds to round 40 pounds, but prices in ecent years huve been lower lan in 1950. There is a lesson for the rest the food industry in this ecord. Prices have remained table or fallen in spite of such ig demand because the in- ustry today is remarkably more efficient and productive. ConAgra, a leading manu- acturer of feeds for poultry, eef, pork and farm-raised ish.

maintains that in 1940 it ook 250 manhours to produce ,000 broiler chickens, com- ared with only 15 hours in 972. SIDE GLANCES by Gill Fox "Buzz-off, Sonny. I can cross the street by myself, or my name's not Ms. Jones!" Change In Eat Habits Is Seen HOUSTON A A nutrition specialist says most people don't realize what they are eating. Albnan says the new food labeling rules of the Food and Drug Administration can change the eating habits of the country.

Mrs. Allman, of the Dallas office of the FDA, said the labeling won't help the consumer, however, unless a massive educational program is successful in teaching the consumer how to read the labels. She said in an interview that Texas was one of five states among 10 surveyed by the FDA that was found to have relatively poor nutritional standards. The survey, which lasted from 1968-70, and a subsequent White House conference, triggered the new regulations, she said. YOUR CHOICE SOFAS the STRATFORD While Present Stock Lasts Especially Priced AVAILABLE I VELVETS AND HERCULON EARLY AMERICAN SOFAS BY MASON TYLER Available In Quilted Nylon Prints Or Tweeds Open Daily Til 6 p.m.

Closed Sunday FINE FURNITURE REASONABLY PRICED.