Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 154

The Bratton Stories Join the hullabaloo fun! REN" a GUITAR '5 a month Unlimited return privilege. If you buy. all payments apply. Gibson, Goya and other mokes. 1515 Woodward and Branches.

Continued Right now the sound is the monotonous and almost brutal beat of rock 'n' roll-as the accompaniment for Joanne Bratton's emergence into the sunlight of success. She is president of Golden World Records, for which The Reflections latest purveyors of the "Detroit Sound" have already made two hit discs, "(Just Like) Romeo and Juliet" and "Poor Man's Son." JOHNNY BRATTON, former welterweight champion of the world, is living quietly with his mother in his home town, Chicago, after eight years in Illinois M.ui-teno Hospital. He. has not emerged into this sunlight, but lives in a sort of grayish world where there's not much music. Now 35, Joanne is a trim, pretty woman who speaks precisely and with an impressive vocabulary.

It's easy to see how Johnny, already the idol of Chicago's fight fans then, fell for her when they met here. He was visiting his uncle, a neighbor ol Joanne's parents. Joanne was 15. She has a disarming candor and an easy charm. And, too, the years have eased the pain of many memories about Johnny including the terrifying one of Nov.

13, 1953, the night he took a beating from Kid Gavilan in a fight writers described at the time as "one of the most brutal in 20 years. Johnny, though on the defensive, was holding his own until the formidable Cuban trapped him in a coiner in the eighth round and started a rhythmic fusillade of lefts and rights to the head After 20 punches with none back from Johnny, the Kid looked at the referee, who made no move. The slaughter continued "The sports writers counted 60 blows. Actually it was 62. How Johnny lasted the full 15 rounds is still a sports world miracle," Joanne said "I'll never forgive that referee in Chicago.

I think Johnny suffered brain damage in that fight. He was never the same afterward," she said. With equal candor she describes her own life. "I was very bright, probably precocious as a little girl. I was double promoted twice in grade school.

But I got dumbei as I grew older," she said She didn't get too dumb, though. She was graduated from Northwestern High School at 16, and, just after her 17th birthday, became a long distance operator for the Michigan Bell Telephone Co. Johnny Bratton, born in Arkansas, came as a child to Chicago with his parents. His father was a preacher who look little or no interest in him. Johnny, bored, drifted Continued on Page 29 FOAM IUBBE1 FLAKES.

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Long-leg, 4.49. Average, 3.99.Hudson's Bras, Girdles; Downtown, 1. of taking music or show business seriously. First it was just Phil and me then Dan and John joined us and we had a quartet." They also were joined by Ray Steinberg, another young singer. Ray was with them as part of a quintet when they made "Romeo and Juliet," but quit the group when he got married The surviving four are all single at least they say they are.

The thought of any of them having to get up at 4 a.m. to give baby his bottle might intrude on the romantic fantasies woven around the Reflections by worshipful teen-age girls. Their name? "We were rehearsing once in my living room," Tony said, "and all of sudden someone commented on the reflections of us in the big mirror over the fireplace. We liked the sound of it so we called ourselves The Reflections." They started out in bathing suits, harmonizing casually on the beach at Kensington Park. Now the four young men, all in their early twenties, have evolved into The Reflections, the latest Detroit based vocal group to hit the national popularity "charts" in rock 'n' roll music.

They already have two solid hits to their credit "(Just Like) Romeo and Juliet" and "Poor Man's Son" and they're expecting great things from their latest disc, "Wheelin and Dealin'." They are Tony Micale, tenor, the lead singer and spokesman for the group; Phil Castrodale, the tenor whose high falsetto rises to soprano-like heights; Dan Bernie, the baritone; and John Dean, who is possessed of a booming bass. "We started fooling around, with singing out at Kensington four or five years ago," Tony said, "with no thought 8-GAUGE GLASS CLEAR Separate Cushion Covers Custom Fitted and Installed Bonded Nylon Seams Zippers Free Estimate Immediate Delivery Written Guarantee Phone 873-3545 7650 RUSSELL. DETROIT Lauiaa, SaglMw aid NM CALL TOLL FREK ENferprfse 6923 HUDSON'S The Detroit Free Press, May 16, 1965.