The Indianapolis Star from Indianapolis, Indiana • Page 107

141 ij-- g-c-'f VI I i1 11 1 irrr -SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 11,1979 THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR PAGE 4-SEC. 5 SHAKE-UPS AHEAD? Pro Wrestling It's A Demo Disaster As Hudnut Humiliates Cantwell, 3 Votes To 1 wMm- Mwi I Jf is "He just tenders his resignation. He does not accept the responsibility for the defeat, but he offers the resignation and lets the people decide." Dobkins was elected in 1976 and again I 1 1 tl. tail (SHr Photos by Jfll Alteberryl IT'S A TENSE MOMENT DURING THE FEATURE BOUT, AND FANS' FACES MIRROR FEELINGS Their Hero Is In Trouble And The Ref Is Not Only Not Looking, He's Ignoring Good Advice Continued From Page 1 tractor cap and tennis shoes can stand. He's on Bis feet, screaming desperately for redress.

"He cheated! He cheated! His feet was on the rope! His feet was on the rope!" He sags back into his seat, spent and sputtering, his. pleas ignored. The only consolation is that it wasn't for the world championship. The thought of Sweetie strutting out of the Expo Center, waving from the safety of his police escort and wearing the championship belt around his twitching hips Aaughhhhhhh! BREAKING THE RULES of fair play, as laid down by Championship Wrestling Inc. and sanctioned by the State of Indiana, wouldn't be so bad if it just happened in preliminary bouts.

But Pretty Boy Bobby Heenan and Golden Boy Paul Christy can be counted on to fight dirty even when the World Tag Team Championship is on the line. Nothing those two do would surprise Bernice Hennings anymore. She's 61, and she's been coming up from Bloomington for the last 20 years, winter and summer, to watch wrestling. From her reserved seat in the front row, she's seen enough skulduggery to make your skin crawl some of it right in her lap. "I come to see the good guys win," the silver-haired lady says with a gentle smile and firm jaw.

"I don't like what that Christy gets away with." She's with her friend, Geneva Polley, who's 66, and Geneva's brother-in-law, Ed, who's 83. Geneva has a niece who's studying to be a lady wrestler, and she's introduced the older ladies to all the Wrestlers. Knows them personally, you know. Mrs. Hennings says Christy and Heenan aren't so bad when they're away from the ring, but that does not excuse what they'll do tonight to Dick The Bruiser and Spike Huber.

IT'S THE MATCH everybody has waited all evening for, the one that will give the two best-loved wrestlers in the world their final revenge, the Armageddon that will cleanse wrestling of the sins of Jerry Graham and King Kong Brody and The Rev. Tiny Hampton with his Superfly hat and walking stick. Five thousand are waiting assembly line workers and truck drivers and waitresses and high school kids, players of juke boxes and lovers of throaty cars, smokers of Kools and drinkers of Stroh's, wearers of T-shirts that say "CHEVY" in letters that glitter and change color with the light. It's a mostly white crowd, and middle-class folks, as well as blacks, are its minority. Some come to scoff, others fold their arms and say things like "Well, it's entertaining," but most are here to see a couple of punks get theirs.

The roar from the southwest door and the flurry of police activity tell you showdown time is near. Paul Christy and Bobby Heenan saunter in through a parted wave of groping, snarling fans and enter the ring with their familiar entourage The Rev. Tiny Hampton, who wrestled earlier in the evening, and Miss Bunny Love, a laconic blond woman in a tight black dress that looks oddly dated. THEY ARE FORMIDABLE athletes Heenan with the platinum bangs and Christy with neat, oily brown hair and sideburns. Handsome and broad-shouldered, they could play hired muscle in a gangster movie.

Forget Jerry Graham; these are the bad guys you paid to see. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOOOOO! There are exactly two men who can whip Pretty Boy Bobby Heenan and Golden Boy Paul Christy. Their arrival brings parts of the crowd surging toward the ring and incites a roar so massive that the yard-wide shoulders of the wrestlers seem to bend from it. Here are Dick The Bruiser, The World's Most Dangerous Wrestler, and Spike Huber, The Wrestler With The Largest Fan Club In The World. Spike is Bruiser's son-in-law, and from a distance he could be mistaken for a clone of his middle-aged mentor.

Both have squat, fearsomely powerful bodies and blond, curly hair, kept manfully short. The 30-year difference in their ages shows in Dick's sagging deltoids, but it is their faces that really set them apart. THE SCARRED, scowling visage of Dick The Bruiser has become the archetypal portrait of the American wrestler. But Spike Huber, the innocent Adonis with his straight nose and prominent chin, is the one they'd pick to play the movie role. Hearing Consultants of America and Director of Audiology at Long Island Hospital of Brooklyn, N.

said audiologists put the noise danger zone at between 85 and 90 decibels. Damage is linked to time exposed. The higher the decibel count the less time it takes. Kramer, consultant to public and private agencies nationwide, counsels New York City's Fire Department. He said the fire department's super-pumper that knocks out concrete walls with a stream of water generates noise at the 117 decibel level.

BUT, HE NOTED, there hasn't been hearing damage in 10 years, the time firemen assigned to the pumper have been wearing "earmuff" protectors. These let in nonharmful sound but screen out the bad. Kramer said good ear plugs, likewise, keep out the bad and let in the non-damaging sound. But when most people hear "ear plugs," he said, they think they won't be able to hear. "If you have to raise your voice to talk over the noise, it's too loud," Kramer said.

"This is an accepted rule of thumb." Personal radips "worn" over the shoulder are a particularly irritating form of noise pollution in the cities. In New York City, the words and radio playing" have been added to the signs in subways and buses calling attention to the prohibition of smoking, drinking, spitting." But enforcement is difficult. Radios turned off on command from a cop are on again as soon as he gets out of earshot. IN SAN FRANCISCO, Officer Robert Weibel, tells What happens typically. He tells a "street radio" to quiet down.

kit -jJiLl iwnr By R. JOSEPH GELARDEN Marion County Democrats, weakened by internal strife and lack of labor support, and faced with a Republican candidate of unusual charm and popularity, suffered one of their most humiliating defeats in Tuesday's mayoral election. An interesting aspect of the race is that Mayor William H. Hudnut, in his record-breaking re-election effort Tuesday, polled only 4,507 more votes in defeating Democrat Paul Cantwell than he did in his 1975 victory over Robert Welch, when the race was much closer It was the margins of victory in the two elections, not the totals, that attested to Hudnut's ever-growing popularity Hudnut captured 128,606 votes Tuesday, compared with Cantwell's 45,232 a margin of almost 3-1. FOUR YEARS AGO, Hudnufs total vote was 124,099.

But with more Democrats voting than in 1979, Welch polled 109.761. giving Hudnut a winning margin of 14.338, far below his winning difference Tuesday. It might appear that despite their high-powered, well-financed campaign and lack of real opposition, Hudnut and the Republicans did not win the election. Rather, Cantwell and the hapless Democrats lost it. As the numbers rolled in, signaling another Democratic disaster, some of the party faithful began looking not for reasons for the defeat, but for someone to blame.

FIRST ON THE list was County Chairman Knute F. Dobkins, the easy target. He knows the flak is on the way, and that he's in serious political trouble. "I know there are a lot of people shooting at me. They want my scalp," he said.

"If they think I am a weak sister, they got another think coming. I am going to take a few days off, then start campaigning among the committeemen for re-election. I want the job." But it is unlikely that the county chairman could be replaced barring a resignation until the next reorganization convention, which is scheduled for early May, shortly after the primary. With the authority to fill vacant committeeman slots as they arise and build up his own organization, it is tough for a sitting chairman to be ousted at a reorganization convention. THE ONLY WAY for dissidents to get the new leadership they want is to convince him to resign.

Edward O. DeLaney, who received more votes in defeat Tuesday than any losing Democratic City-County Council district candidate, thinks Dobkins should quit. "The tradition is not for people to blame the chairman," DeLaney said. Hearing's Continued From Page 1 mental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, N. scientists have shown much noise-induced inner ear damage in newborn guinea pigs exposed to high levels.

THEY SAID THE SEVERE damage to two- and eight-day-old guinea pigs, much greater than that in eight-month-old guinea pigs, makes it "medically prudent" to avoid exposing newborns to excessive noise. Costle says 20 million Americans every day are exposed to excessive levels of noise. To keep them from joining 16 million Americans already hearing impaired, including 3.5 million children, is the aim of Uncle Sam's noise abatement crusade. Local governments are pulling oars, too. Local noise control laws now number over 1,000 up from 275 six years ago.

One in Hawaii aims at incessantly barking dogs and mandates that the owner must train his dog and get it to break the bad barking habit. The Congressional edict for a quieter America is in the Noise Control Act of 1972, bolstered by amendments the Quiet Communities Act of 1978. SAY EXPERTS: the noise pollution battle is where the battles against water and air pollution were 15 years ago. Giant steps are needed to tone down America by the year 2,000. This year, however, only $14 million in federal funds aim at the noise problem.

That is around one percent of EPA dollars. Among potentially harmful noises are vibrations booming out of disco loudspeakers measured at from 115 to 130 decibels. A decibel is a measurement of noise. At 140 decibels, noise causes pain. Dam in 1978.

"NEXT YEAR, we have to put together a party organization that will support the candidates, no matter who gets the nomination," DeLaney said -Democrat party sources say Precious (Pat) Byrd, former county recorder, and Richard Schreiber, a former Probate Court bailiff, would like to replace Dobkins. Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls John A. Hillenbrand and State Sen. Wayne Townsend (DHartford City) also are worried about Tuesday's returns in Marion County, realizing that, if nominated, they would have no chance of winning the election if they should lose Marion County by 80,000 votes. Hillenbrand and Townsend supporters face a real political problem.

Should they cooperate with the present organization and chance losing the county by huge numbers? Or should they put in their own candidates, try to take over the county organization and risk making a lot of people angry? Democrat John A. Hillenbrand will formally announce his candidacy for the gubernatorial nomination Wednesday in the Atkinson Hotel. The announcement will be followed by a two-day flying tour of the state and an ox roast at Batesville on Saturday. Also on Saturday, a gala will be staged by the "Blacks for Senator Birch Bayh" at the Indiana Convention-Exposition Center. Confirmed guests include basketball great Oscar Robertson, top recording stars Mary Wells, Bobby Lester and the Skyliners and Martin Luther King III.

Democratic party fund-raising whiz Morris Katz has accepted an invitation from former California Gov. Edmund G. (Pat) Brown to be a member of the board of trustees of the City of Hope Pilot Medical Center Republican gubernatorial hopeful Lt. Gov. Robert D.

Orr has scheduled his formal announcement for Nov. 19. The following day, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger will be the main attraction at a GOP State Committee fund-raising dinner. State Sen. Martin K.

(Chip) Edwards (R-New Castle) will be the speaker at the meeting of Charlie Bogden's Wayne Township GOP Club Thursday. Sake age to hearing in susceptible persons depends on time exposed and authorities say ear protectors probably are wise at from 85 to 90 decibels. Normal conversation is 60; a lover's whispered sweet nothings, around 30; the rustle of leaves 10 or below; moderate rainfall, 50; and "quiet" in the library, 40; the average factory, 85. VACUUM CLEANER, 75; heavy traffic, 80; motorcycles, modified, 95; chain-saws, 100; rock music, amplified, 110; jet takeoff, 100 feet, 120; air raid siren, 130. Some authorities fear disco deafness will be posted on medical records of many of today's disco freaks by the time they reach middle age.

Hearing exams given 7,000 grade, high and college youths by Dr. David Liscomb show this fear to be real. Liscomb, head of the Noise laboratory at the University of Tennessee, Knox-ville, found progressive hearing damage with up to 60 percent of college freshmen impaired. It is worse than it was ten years ago. "They are two or three decades ahead of themselves in hearing deterioration," he said.

Los Angeles and some other cities ruled dicsos must post signs outside warning of a possible hazard hearing. In Montgomery County, bands at school dances are to be kept below harmful decibels. A SURVEY OF noise levels of 18 discos in the District of Columbia showed 50 percent of the discos constituted an occupational hazard for disc jockeys and bartenders. At noisier discos, experts said, patrons should not be permitted to stay more than two hours. Dr.

Marc Kramer, head of Noise and Bruiser finally leaves Heenan for dead and proceeds to administer a thumping to Christy against another corner of the ring. Unfortunately, the enraged hero has forgotten all about The Rev. Tiny Hampton, who has been fondling his cane at ringside all this time and decides he's waited long enough. The huge, flabby black man with the shaven head lumbers into the ring, sidles up behind the unsuspected Bruiser and casually hammers him on the base of the neck with both fists. The World's Most Dangerous Wrestler sags to his knees and the whole crowd is up and roaring.

The next few minutes are total anarchy in and around the ring. Bruiser is lurching about looking for people to hit and finding them. Christy is looking for someplace to hide. Heenan, his mop-topped face a grisly red mask, is turning somersaults onto the top rope from The Bruiser's blows. And everybody but Dick is beating on poor Spike Huber.

The cops are trying to hold back the fist-shaking, screaming, shoving, hungry, terrifying crowd. Dingdingdingdingdingdingding-dingdingding! Then the hurricane of noise subsides and the flying, raging bodies are still. Sam Menacker, announcing at ringside, makes it official. "Ladies and gentlemen, unfortunately Spike Huber has been injured. But due to a mutual disqualification, the championship belt remains with Bruiser and Huber!" THERE'S REAL PLEASURE in the applause that follows, but the reaction is nothing like the tumult of a few bloodlus-ty moments ago.

The World Tag Team Title remains where it belongs, but Evil lives to fight again. Or maybe it's not that. Maybe it's just the inevitable depression that follows ecstasy. Or the simple fact it's all over so suddenly. Menacker and his officials and television technicians tear the show down in minutes and vanish like the Lone Ranger.

The Bruiser lingers long enough to touch the hand of a tow-headed girl who is The higher the rating the more effective the product should be. Decibel readings around the house include these: powermower, 87 to 105; some dishwashers, 85; some hair dryers exceed 85; refrigerator, 40; stereo systems as played by some teenagers, as high as 120; chainsaw, 100 decibels. The EPA already is out with specifications for quieter garbage trucks newly manufactured ones. Federal authorities claim garbage truck noise rattles 19 million. EPA Assistant Administrator David G.

Hawkins said some garbage trucks now on the road have noise levels greater than 90 decibels more than twice as loud as the standard EPA is imposing. THOSE TRUCKS LOOKING like super tanks from a battle zone, are called compactor vehicles. After Oct. 1, 1980, the EPA says they must be much quieter and tells how it's to be done. The telling is the usual government way: pages of regulations for manufacturers.

Americans want quiet, by the way. "A recent poll conducted by the U.S. Bureau of the Census showed that noise is considered to be the most undesirable neighborhood condition more irritating than crime and deteriorating housing." In the campaign for a quieter America, the EPA has promulgated regulations for ceilings on noise from portable air compressors. These supply air for equipment such as pavement breakers and rock drills, major sources of noise at construction sites. Other regulations set noise standards for pavement breakers and rock drills, affecting more than 27 million Americans and posing possible severe hearing damage to workers.

THE REGULATIONS are supposed to A crushed paper cup or two flies into the ring as the four men face off and the house lights dim. The various seconds, officials and flunkies scatter to ringside, and Bunny Love obliges the fans in the north seats with a slow, revealing and deeply appreciated legs-first exit through the ropes. The match opens with the usual Shaft Of Truth. Dick The Bruiser chases Paul Christy completely out of the ring, removing all doubt as to who has the corner on cowardice. "Bust his head open!" someone yells, and more of the crowd pushes forward Now you can feel fear as you sit there.

Spike, leading off for his team, promptly bounces Christy around the mat and takes a piece or two of Heenan while he's at it. The crowd erupts again, but worry quickly follows. THE IMPETUOUS young wrestler has lingered too long in the enemy's corner, as he's wont to do, and Heenan and Christy are upon him. Both villains are digging into their trunks, obviously for foreign objects with which to mutilate The Most Popular Face In The World, and the ref isn't even looking! "Dammit, watch him!" an old woman in Row 2 is screaming as she bounces from her seat and points, and bounces again and points, clutching a pink program with The Bruiser's photograph on it and chewing her thumbnail. "Tag him Tag him other fans shout at The Bruiser, who gazes helplessly from his corner because rules are rules.

Somehow, Spike escapes and makes the tag, and Bruiser takes out after the terror-stricken Heenan. Seizing him by the scruff of the neck and the seat of the pants, he drives him around the square and into a ring post BOOM! and into another ring post BOOM! until the bad guy's forehead explodes in crimson fulfillment. "BLOOD! BLOOD!" they gasp, pressing closer and closer to the ring, rising closer and closer to the orgiastic pinnacle of total vengeance. "KILL 'IM! KILL 'IM'." The radio player says something like: "Hey, man. So why do they make it so it goes this loud?" A good question why do manufacturers build so much noise in? The question is being addressed by the Environmental Protection Agency on behalf of consumers.

The EPA soon will force manufacturers to pay attention to loudness not just of radios but also of household appliances and home workshop tools, powermowers, chainsaws and such. A new regulation, according to EPA Administrator Costle, "will require manufacturers to affix labels to products produce noise capable of adversely affecting public health or welfare." THE LABEL ON noise-emitting products will provide consumers with a noise rating. This will be a number showing the number of decibels of noise the product's innards produces. The label also will provide the range in decibels of noise put out by the same kinds of products from other manufacturers. The lower the rating, the quieter the product.

The first products selected for ratings are hearing protectors. Other products will be identified on a continuing basis. Costle said EPA will put primary emphasis on requiring labels on products used in and around the home. Several industries already are at work on voluntary instead of mandated noise labeling. Costle said labels also will be required on products sold to reduce noise Noise Reduction Labels.

THIS WILL BE A number giving a measure of the product's effectiveness in reducing noise. The label, according to law, also will provide the range of noise reduction ratings for competing products. FAN WAVES MAGAZINE Heroes, Villains Pictured lifted toward him by her skinny, anxious father. As the hulking wrestler turns away, the little girl and her dad look at each other, beaming. Later, in the darkness along Georgia Street, Bernice Hennings and Geneva Polley walk slowly toward their car.

Ed Polley, leaning heavily on his cane, shuffles a few strides behind. They've come a long way on this monthly pilgrimage, and the moral showdown again has measured up. It may be hard to tell right from wrong in the rest of the world these days, but not here, on these Saturday nights, when Mrs. Hennings comes to claim her ringside seat and see the Good Guys win. result in a 45 percent reduction in the extensiveness and severity of construction site noise.

The EPA also has taken action toward reducing noise from medium and heavy trucks, diesel and diesel-electric locomotives. Makers of crawlertractors bulldozers and frontend loaders also must meet EPA noise standards. Regulations call for less noisy power lawn mowers also. There are an estimated 40 million walk-behind and riding power lawn mowers in the United States. The EPA claims the majority produce noise levels potentially harmful to the hearing of operators.

Limits on noise from new city transit buses, school buses and intercity buses are to go into effect in three steps from 1979 to 1985. Costle said this is to protect 93 million Americans exposed to levels of urban traffic noise which may adversely affect their hearing and make everyday life unpleasant. The EPA estimates this regulation will reduce urban traffic noise by more than 25 percent by 1990. After big trucks, motorcycles make the most highway noise and are near the top as a source of annoyance. An EPA regulation, if fully complied with, will cause an average five decibel reduction in new street motorcycle sound levels by 1985, and a two-to-nine decibel reduction in sound levels of off-road motorcycles.

Mopeds, motorized bicycles, also come under the regulation. The most difficult problem in curbing motorcycle noise, the EPA says, is "keeping owners from removing mufflers or attaching ineffective mufflers." In some cases motorcyclists increase the noise by buying mufflers which are actually noise makers..