Valley News from Van Nuys, California • Page 49

Dalley News Features Section 3 Thursday, June 9,1977 Celebrity at home Foster Brooks By FRAN ERWIN After driving a zigzag route up the Encino hillside, turning left, then right, left again and then right, there's no mistaking that this is the house of Foster Brooks. In the circular driveway, there's a station wagon and the license plate reads: "A Lush 2." The front door opens and we are welcomed by Mrs. Brooks, who is tall, attractive and trim enough to Comedian and 'demon booze' team to make a staggering success neatly fill out the beige jumpsuit she is wearing. says, "come in." We're ushered into a large, comfortably furnished den and are introduced to "our daughter" Teri Foster Brooks, 25, a budding actress, who has blonde hair, big brown eyes, is 5 feet 7 and weighs 105 pounds. "And this is our other daughter, Scotti." Scotti, who is mentally retarded, celebrated her 24th birthday last month.

Entering from the direction of the bedroom, past the king-sized pool table, is himself, the Loveable Lush, the Loaded Lothario, the Inveterate Inebriate, the Plastered Papa Foster Brooks. But hold on a minute. This powerfully big man, who looks more like an ex-Rams football player than a comedian (he's 6 feet PA inches tall and weighs 220 pounds), is as sober as a judge. In fact, Foster Brooks, who mCmberS the Br0 ks famU from Ieft Foster, Foster Brooks and daughter Teri Valley News photos by Bob Hiltorsen earns more than half a million dollars a year playing the tipsy non- teetotaler hasn't had a drink for 12 years. "I quit smoking and drinking at the same time," Brooks says.

"Of course, I was drunker than a hoot owl when I swore off liquor and tobacco; otherwise, I probably would never have done so. I didn't know what I was saying." But he remembers well, as does his family, when he and the bottle were close friends. Like the time he came home from a day-long session on the golf course. Teri, who was about 6 years old at the time, was in her bedroom. She said she could hear her father laughing and talking in the kitchen.

There was an empty bottle of old demon booze in front of him. "Daddy called me out to the table where he said he wanted me to sing for his friends," Teri recalls. "But there was no one there, he was all by himself. "He said, 'Honey, meet Mr. Smith and Mr.

Brown and Mr. And when I stood there with my mouth open because all the chairs were empty, Daddy said, 'Well, for heaven's sake Teri go over and shake hands with them. "And I said, 'Yes I went around the table and said, 'How do you do, Mr. Smith and Mr. Brown and Mr.

Jones and I shook hands with all of then. "Then Daddy told me to sing and I sang. Daddy was very proud of my voice and when I'd finished he said to his friends, 'Doesn't she have the sweetest voice you've ever There was a long silence and then Daddy's voice rose angrily and he leaned over to one of the empty'chairs and shouted, 'What do you mean she sounds like every other kid? I'll have you know my daughter's not a kid, she's a "I knew from that moment," Teri says in a positive voice, "that I'd never drink. And I never have and I never will." As for Brooks, he no longer cares about who he can drink under the table. These days, he saves all of his competitive energy for golf.

Just last month, he again hosted the annual Foster Brooks Pro Celebrity Golf Tournament in his native Louisville, benefiting the Kosair Crippled Children's Hospital. Golf has played a large role in Brooks' career. When he came to California 16 years ago to seek fame and fortune in television and motion pictures, he spent every morning on the pitch and putt driving range at the Studio City Golf Course. After divorce Intense feelings of guilt, embarrassment set in Feelings of guilt and embarrassment, anger, resentment, and grief, are discussed in this fourth part of a series offering professional advice, answers and suggestions for the separated and divorced. By DR.

MEL BERKE AND JOANNE GRANT The work of attaining an emotional divorce, unhooking, moves in stages of surprise, disbelief, hurt and abandonment described in the previous column. Other stages are guilt and embarrass- ment, anger, resentment, grief and mourning, which are dis- jussed in today's column. Gailt and embarrassment are felt with the intensity of a mid- western s'orm. The guilt typically involves beating on oneself for wrongdoings res! or imagined. Statements as "Had done this." "I should have," are typical and in the end lead to increased misery.

In some instances self-blame may be a form of self-protection. If one already accepts blame then additional criticism may be robbed of much of its power.Often the fact of divorce is translated into generalized feelings of personal inadequacy and failure. Not infrequently, people accept or project onto their spouse most if not all responsibility for the divorce. This is fantasy not fact! In most cases responsibility rests with both. Embarrassment is a social consequence of internalized guilt.

Questions frequently asked are "How do I tell my "'What will my friends and business associates say?" Many times people withdraw from friends when they need them the most in order to protect themselves from anticipated feeings of embarrassment. Anger--It is urgent each person get in touch with and experience his or her anger. It matters little if the feelings are appropriate. Anger is a powerful feeling; denying and withholding it can be personally as well as interpersonally destructive. Direct expression of intense anger toward your spouse may be unproductive.

Venting of bad feelings interferes with the important work of settling legal as well as personal matters. The use of fantasy techniques to express anger is helpful. These techniques permit expression of feelings without running the risk of hurting yourself or others. A favorite technique of ours is to visualize in our mind's eye the person of our wrath, and let him have it with all the furor and expletives we can muster. Try beating a pillow with a tennis racket or baseball bat.

Wow! Screaming not only releases tension but also can be exhilarating. If this is not possible in your house or apartment, use your car. Driving down a freeway screaming at the top of your lungs feels fantastic and is nearly impossible to detect as you might be singing along with John Denver or giving a "smokey call" on your Resentment These feemgs tend to be persistent and mav become part of any stage. While you may have good reason to feel resentful holding onto these feelings almost always leads to increased pain. Resentment inpedes the unhooking processand acceptance of the divorce at both the legal and emotional levels.

Yes, if you are a divorcee, have several children and are not wealthy, your social life and finan- cial circumstances may be less than that of your ex-husband. Yes. if you live with your lover, your neighbors will whisper your ex does likewise, he will probably be called a swinger. Good reasons? Xo! Holding onto past hurts and resentments is giv- ingupyourstrength and control in the sense you are saying feel this way--good-bad) if you do that Explore all solution options and take those which are best Don't look back! Grief and mourning As we begin to detach, a period of grief and mourning follows, in manv ways the loss of a spouse, through divorce, is as traumatic as the death of a loved one. With death the loved one is gone and the past is marked by a ceremony, the funeral.

With divorce the'lwed one lives on. and often with another If the grief and mourning is not fully experienced and worked through, you have not give up your spouse and the relationship Should this occur the establishment of a new loving relationship is difficult, if not impossible. Friday: Final stage of your divorce--resolution. The money Brooks had earned and saved as a radio commentator back East was running out and even though he'd done a couple of television shows, he just wasn't working enough to sustain his family. "I was ready to pack up and move back to New York where I knew I could get my old announcing job again, but my cousin Ernie Megowan (who lives in Burbank) lold me to hold out a little longer.

He paid my rent that month and made the car payment for me. "Then, one morning, this man I'd met on the golf course, asked if I could get up in front of about 700 people and entertain them for 15 minutes. "The reason he asked me if 1 could was because I was always telling jokes and using these various voice characterizations like I do now on the Dick Whittinghill Show. He wondered if I could get a routine together, and if I could he said he'd give me $50. "The booking was at the International Hotel and I hadn't really made up my mind just what I was going to do until I was walking toward the microphone after they'd introduced me.

"I remembered how my dad told these funny stories about this man who'd been imbibing too much and I said to myself, 'That's the act I'll "When I started out, people were laughing at me, but turning away from me. They hid their faces and I could hear all kinds of remarks 'Oh, that poor man, somebody oughta get him off the 'He'll never get another "Then finally, at the end, I came out of the drunk voice and spoke in my straight voice and I said, '1 hope you realize by now this has all been a Well, they gave me a standing ovation and, you know, it really choked me up." A few months later, at a golf tournament held in North Carolina, Perry Como saw Brooks perform the same drunk act at the awards dinner and signed him for a show he was taking to Las Vegas. But the owners of the hotel didn't want Brooks. They asked Como, 'How could a guy Brooks' age, that nobody ever heard of, with white hair and white beard, be any good? But Como insisted that Brooks be in the show. After opening night, a new star was born.

Later Brooks was signed to a long term contract by the Hughes Hotel Chain, owners of the Frontier, the Sands, the Desert Inn. He was 59 years old. That was six years ago. Besides playing Vegas regularly, Brooks travels around the country doing his famous drunk act. He owns a house in Las Vegas, a house in Encino and 88 acres in Rochester, N.Y., (a spot his family dearly loves).

He still hopes to convince a few directors to let him play some dramatic roles in motion pictures. "Some good meaty parts," he says, "where the character isn't a drunk." Las Vegas has its good points. Brooks believes, because it was in this desert metropolis that he achieved the fame and fortune he came West to get. But now, Brooks' happiest days are the "between show times" he spends in Encino with his'wife and daughters, swimming in the family pool, soaking in the Japuzzi and doing all the cooking. Because in his house, the kitchen is Foster Brooks' domain.

Cooking and golf are hobbies Foster Brooks enjoys. 'SPAPFRI.