WELL KNOWN ALCOHOLICS

FROM THE TORONTO DAILY STAR

Actress Mercedes McCambridge quoted Abraham Lincoln as saying drunkenness often afflicts men of genius and generosity.

The parade of 53 noted men and women who are "recovered" alcoholics was designed to help dispel the stigma of alcoholism - to encourage more of an estimated 10 million alcoholics in the U.S. to seek help.

"My name is Dick Van Dyke, and I'm an alcoholic," and the list went on, with most making their public admission for the first time.

"For a long time, all of us stayed in the closet," said comedian Garry Moore. "It makes me jubilant to come out."

The news conference was sponsored by the National Council on Alcoholism, a privately financed group holding anational forum and seeking more money for medical research into the chronic disease.

There were famouse people from many fields.

Other performers included Dana Andrews, Guy Mitchell, Tom Ewell, Jan Clayton. There were athletes: Major League baseball pitchers Don Newcombe and Ryne Duren and Notre Dame University's Athletics director, Edward (Moose) Krause.

The Earl of Kimberley, a member of Britain's House of Lords, joined the ranks, along with U.S. Senator Harold Hughes, and Sylvester Tinker, chief of the Osage Indian Nation.

And more: Reporter Adela Rogers St. Johns: TV Guide editor Rowland Barber, CBS- TV president Thomas Swafford: Very Rev. Joseph Kerine, and Louis Knechi, secretary treasurer of the Communications Workers of America.

Not attending, but adding their names to the list of recovered alcoholics, were actors Robert Young and Jason Robards Jr., comedian Shecky Greene and insurance company president, James Kemper.

Mills said he thought he was dying of a brain tumor before he realized he was an alcoholic.

"I guess I was trying to kill myself with liquor," said the congressman whose escapades with a stripper in the fall of 1974 cost him the chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee of the House of Representatives.

They were unanimous in rejecting the term "reformed" alcoholic, pointing out that alcoholism is an illness, not a moral straying. And they agreed, with laughter and shouts, that it cannot be handled by "controlled" or "limited" drinking,, but only by complet abstinence.

DON SAYS; This a very dated news release, having come out several years ago. Even if it is old it still points out that alcoholism can effect the wealthy and well known members of our society, as well as the lowly in our society. Don Felstead