The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 407

Pill Pioneer Looks Back At Sexual Revolution BILL FR AKESMlaml HmMP fixture on local TV For 15 years Toby the Robot lias been a Trash Gan Man Why He ants Your Kids to Love Him By PATRICIA Heratd Washington Bureau TEMPLE NH John Rock takes a lazy good-humored pleasure in letting the world turn by itself these days never did anything really said the 89-year-old white-haired former gynecologist leaning back in an old wrought-iron chair on his screened porch just happened to choose the right compound for the right problem It was this Catholic clinical work that helped produce the first birth control pill in history bringing celebrity and vil- ification into his 4 4 quiet ordered life He flashes a Jt wry self-deprecat- ing smile that gen- i tly says: Look Hred of labels out of the fray now wwnwn imM just a contented re-JOHN ROCK 89 tired doctor a reader of books a tender of gardens came here when I stopped he said jokingly imagine why anyone wants to stop YOU JUST to see John Rock You drive for miles on dusty New Hampshire roads to reach the old clapboard farmhouse isolated but there is a big wooden sign with his name on it and an arrow pointing to the house John Rock is no hermit He simply has no more interest in the flowing juices of controversy Other major pioneers of early contraceptive research such as biochemist Gregory Pmcus and feminist Margaret Sanger founder of the Planned Parenthood Federation never faced the excruciating conflicts between research and religion that marked career Some of the old labels like Rock moral have lost their punch But the one that will probably go down in the history books is John Rock Father of The Pill It is both his claim to greatness and the central source of frustration and disappointment in his life The first oral contraceptive was licensed for use in the United States in 1960 and it un- 1 leashed a storm of controversy within the Catholic Church Rock might have ridden out the storm if he had stayed out of the debate over the moral implications of contraception INSTEAD ROCK published a book in 1964 The Time Has Come (Alfred Knopf $395) in which he argued that The Pill was not an evil flouting of will but a theologically acceptable means of extending the approved method of birth control Rock was a good Catholic and he knew he was taking a chance "It is the voice as I hear it of the conscience that has thus been formed within me that I am impelled to he wrote carefully in the preface fervently pray that in doing so I injure nobody that I give no scandal and that if inadvertently I do either I shall be John Rock lowers his strong-boned face over an old copy of The Time Has Come reading the preface once again The only sounds on the screened porch are the faint buzzings of lazy flies in the hot sun and the creak of the rusting iron chair Then he looks ruefully bushy white eyebrows drawn straight across his weathered forehead and says I certainly had a Turn to Page 2BW Col 1 before recording the show Folds recalls his first drink at age 18 was in New York and it was fantastic and I thought I was going to he says As a boy Folds worked in his cabinetmaking shop He says he was painfully shy but learned a galaxy of magic tricks and mentalism techniques to help overcome his anxieties And he labored to overcome a stutter has done everything from pebbles in the mouth to fixing a little stand in the utility room where he could his mother Merle said After high school Folds went to Stetson University in Deland to study for the ministry he had been licensed by the church to preach at age 17 But he graduate and the ministry take Folds finds himself still unsure about religion confused about religion mainly because had so many images of ministers only to have them he says took a Southern Baptist minister somewhere once and on the way back he said stop at Lums and have a and I just couldn't do After Stetson Folds enrolled in a school of radio technique in New York City His first job was as a $3750-a-week prop boy at an Atlanta television station Soon he was doing his magic tricks on version of Romper Room FOLDS CAME to South Florida and WCKT 14 months later to work in the film department where movies are cut to make room for commericals and their technical quality is checked Folds now heads that department Soon after he arrived Folds became involved with the shows playing Count' Down the Vampire and Duffo the Clown before Toby was created A would-be zeal found another outlet and Folds takes on the mechanical never work But this a cold mechanical-type robot got a human-type Folds says Ch 7 management agrees Operations Manager A1 Sternberg says Toby will live longer than the Star Wars gang for another reason too: The robot appears in a contemporary back yard setting reason he has survived is because he in another Sternberg says formats like Star Wars when the concept goes the robot During most of the hour-long show Chandler reads the comics aloud and plays spelling and history games with the children in the studio Toby provides sound effects for the comics and at the beginning and end of the show a skit featuring Wayne and Toby The robot always gets into trouble At one time Toby will build a fish scaling and cleaning machine only to have it fill up with fish and explode On another occasion he will try to cut corners on the way to becoming a sculptor and cover Wayne with cement CHILDREN identify both with the character and the man inside one child writes I broke my arm and nobody cared except my parents Can you send me your pitcher not as the Robot as yourself with your autograph on it So I can hang it on my wall really emotional sometimes in Folds says if in a large crowd of kids and they are clamoring for my touch autograph I feel giving them someone something to cling to to look up to I look at their faces study them some with happy faces some sad I feel I owe these kids my image I owe them my always up doing six things at says Vicki Folds his wife of nearly 12 years finds relaxation in that He finds pleasure in pleasing people never easy-going but not nervous or high FOLDS IS the product of a strict hard-working Southern Baptist family in Vero Beach There was no drinking or smoking Over dinner and three beers By SANDRA EARLEY Herald Staff Writer In the world of television where recognition is everything Charlie Folds is the star nobody knows In fact Folds has spent most of his South Florida television career inside a garbage can Not only is his face hidden but his body is also tortured Wing nuts and wires protrude from the interior like a modern version of the iron maiden Folds estimates he loses five pounds from the heat every time he stays inside an hour or so But danger discomfort and disguise are no barriers to Charlie Folds He is a compulsive sensitive man able to leap tall egos and overcome his need for personal recognition willing to sweat for his TV career to endure both the scratches of wires and gibes of the masses For 15 years Charlie Folds has been playing a curious creature called Toby the Robot which makes him one of the most durable performers on local television In case your TV warmed up at 7:30 on Sunday morning Toby and host Wayne Chandler are the stars of one of two shows on Ch 7 IN ADDITION to his green garbage can other parts consist of a yellow plastic laundry bucket for a head (equipped with silver twirlers for ears and an orange police light for brains) heater-hose arms with silver barbecue-glove hands silver rolled-aluminum legs and dish pan feet Once when the legs were painted red like his arms a dog mistook them for a fire plug Toby is no R2D2 or C3P0 with sophisticated movement and lasers He totters across a television screen like an animated Erector set He walks he waves his arms he rotates his hands But his head does not turn his mouth does not move And he does not speak there are only beeps'from a little burglar alarm mounted inside the garbage can For 15 years Folds has ignored these limitations told me when I started that a robot would Turn to Page 3BW Col 1 Do you know why you mislaid llie car keys yesterday? Or why you faltered over the name of your next-door neighbor when making that introduction? Theories abound but no one really knows Inside Living Today I It Miami Beach native Jill Enfield photographs the -joy of children Her Mork has been selected for collection for the International I Year of the Child Page 5BW i The Secret of Memory By NEIL MILLER Sptcial to Th Herald Even as we reach our late 20s the first signs of memory lapses occur we are introduced to someone at a party pay attention to the name and immediately forget it we forget where we left our keys if we go back to school we often have a more difficult time remembering facts and dates than we did when we were younger Psychological and alcohol- or drug-induced states can greatly affect what we call memory And that which we call memory is a set of mental abilities more wide-ranging than the one word would imply By memory we mean how we learn facts and concepts how well we retain them and how readily and extensively we recall them There are a number of theories that attempt to explain why we forget Dr Barbara Jones a Massachusetts neuropsychologist observes heredity and intelligence have something to do with it there are certain character styles that seem to relate to memory People who are very obsessive tend to have very good memories because they have a lot of investment in factual materials But people who tend to be dramatic or gloss over difficulties or perhaps are more interested in emotional ties than intellectual achievement seem to be less adept at Sigmund Freud formulated the first psychological theory of what and how we forget He believed that most instances of not remembering could be traced to the repression of something unpleasant An example of this would be the man who simpiy cannot remember the name of his ex-husband This idea is still influential is proven for me not only in daily life but also in my therapy with says Jones think if you talk to anyone who does a kind of psychoanalytic therapy find that they would back this idea is limited in its applicability and memory researchers have not been lax in developing others One traditional theory postulates that a memory is a kind of trace which if not used (ie recalled) simply decays Another suggests that certain kinds of memories Interfere with others resulting in a kind of forgetfulness Turn to Page 4BW Col 1 Steven Stipelman a staff illustrator for Wear Daily doesn't quibble about fashion He knows what he likes about clothing and why Page 6BW i I.