Jewry's Role in
Human Affairs

THE WORLD'S GREAT OPERA STARS

Catch 22

A chemical sensitivity has caused a long,
downward spiral.
But there may be light at the end of the tunnel.

ALAN H ITS KY
Associate Editor

Iff

and let the new drug do its job. For
the first time in years, Trice sees the
possibility of getting back to work —
if she can find a home.
Apartments are sprayed, she says.
Pesticides and fertilizers are placed on
the lawns. Cigarette smoke residues
and chlorine bleach fumes could kill
her.
With her conditions, women's shel-
ters wouldn't take her. Homeless shel-
ters would be toxic to her at night.
"I'd just be back in the hospital in a
few days," says Trice.
A friend from the support group,
Charlotte Merritt, has served as Trice's
advocate. But "it would be difficult for

arcy Trice needs to rent
a small home free of
tobacco smoke, pesti-
cides and chlorine.
Sandy Hyman of Jewish Family
service needs some information to
help Trice.
The two may have gotten together
this week after Trice was released from
Providence Hospital Saturday, with
$5,700 in unrelated debts and no
place to call home.
Trice, a 43-year-old former psychol-
ogist, has seen her life go downhill
since 1989, when her office was
-5prayed with a pesticide (see
The Jewish News, Feb. 6).
She has not been able to
work since 1994, has divorced,
been estranged from her elderly
parents and her siblings, and is
unable to live in a room she
rented because the landlord
doesn't meet her demands
regarding chemicals in the
house and on the lawn.
Things were looking up last
week after she dramatically
This week, Marcy Trice was seeking a solution.
improved with a new drug,
Neurontin. The drug, she said,
me to have anyone else in the house,"
may even reverse her chemically-
says Merritt. When her husband
induced brain dysfunction.
arrives home, he must immediately
But that new hope went out the
change his clothes because of her reac-
window Saturday, after she was
tion to secondhand cigarette smoke
released by Providence Hospital.
and perfumes.
Going back to her rented room in
Hyman, director of the JFS Depart-
Royal Oak would only bring on her
ment of Children, Adults and Families,
multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS)
is offering the road to a solution.
again, she believes. Area agencies,
"Our funding is geared to people
including Jewish Family Service (JFS),
who have a plan," says Hyman. "Our
could not find her suitable housing
and Trice was forced to beg for a room emergency funds are very limited. We
can't problem-solve and we can't set
through her MCS support group.
people up [and pay] for a long-term sit-
"It's a very short-term situation,"
uation. We can't replace the government
Trice says of the home she temporarily
as long-term support for anybody."
shares with an older couple in the
Hyman wants to sit down with
Novi area.
Trice and discuss a long-term plan and
"I'm not exactly dumb. I don't wait
draw up a budget. "I would also like
for these things to happen," says Trice,
to talk to her doctor and find out her
"but I just don't have the money" to
needs," says Hyman.
make things right.
Trice was very happy to agree. ❑
She needs a clean environment, she
says, to reverse the pesticide damage

Oscar Hammerstein I was dedicated to popularizing grand opera in
America. A member of a family of musical entrepreneurs, he built ten
great opera houses and theaters in which he mounted world class
productions after the turn of the century. Hammerstein had laid the
foundations for a national institution to which many singers of Jewish
descent were drawn.
Among them were Robert Merrill (1919-), a resonant baritone
long associated with the Metropolitan Opera, and Roberta Peters (1930-),
a coloratura with a record-breaking three decades at the Met in leading
roles. Other performers included mezzo-soprano Regina Resnik (1922-),
renowned for her passionate musical presence, and Rise Stevens (1913-),
a splendid actress with a pure lyric soprano voice. Equally appreciated by
opera buffs were Leonard Warren, Jennie Tourel, Alexander Kipnis and
Alma Gluck. As well as other operatic superstars:
...........
RICHARD TUCKER
(1913-75) b. Brooklyn, NY The melodic and
sonorous lyric tenor was regarded by many music
critics as "The American Caruso" of his time. A
fur salesman in his early twenties, Tucker found
his voice as a part-time cantor who graduated to
radio. By age 32, he won coast-to-coast fame on
the Chicago Theater of the Air. A triumphant
debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1944
announced a career most praised for interpretations of Italian and French
opera. While Tucker's appearances centered in the U.S., he struck a chord
with international audiences in 1947 with a first European engagement
opposite Maria Callas. He long remained a sought after guest on radio and
TV and sang with America's leading orchestras and opera companies. It
has been reported that his many acclaimed cantorial recordings influenced
none other than Elvis Presley.

BEVERLY SILLS
(1929 ) b. Brooklyn, NY Retiring as a performer
in 1980, Beverly Sills spent the following decade
as director of the New York City Opera which she
reorganized and delivered from financial disorder.
Before succeeding in administration, she was the
luminous coloratura soprano who had conquered
music critics and audiences with her poise and
charm for more than thirty years. While a
celebrated diva with the New York City Opera for over a generation she
also made a thrilling, long-awaited Met debut in 1975. "Bubbles," as she
was nicknamed by fond fans and friends, was gifted with a brilliant, often
spellbinding vocal technique that brought her international stardom. Sills
had left the stage in 1961 after the births of a deaf daughter and mentally
retarded son. But revived in spirit, she returned to the footlights three years
later to resume singing the wide repertoire she had made her own.

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JAN PEERCE
(1904 84) b. New York City A ballad, "The
Bluebird of Happiness," became the vocal
trademark of the limpid voice heard in the 1930s
over the nationally beamed Radio City Music Hall
of the Air. The compelling voice was that of a
tenor soloist who also appeared in films, on TV
and most prominently on the great stage of the , .
Met where he became a fixture. An acolyte of
Arturo Toscanini, with whom he collaborated for over fifteen years, Peerce
toured the world of opera and also variously sang popular songs and show
tunes. Never to be stereotyped, he would shift between an expressive Don
Jose in Bizet's Carmen, an emotional Tevye in Broadway's Fiddler on the
Roof, and the voice on the soundtracks of Hollywood's Of Men and Music
and Tonight We Sing. And he will be equally remembered for his
dedication to cantorial and Yiddish music for whose recitals he was in high
demand.
- Saul Stadtmauer

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COMMISSION FOR THE DISSEMINATION OF JEWISH HISTORY
Walter & Lea Field, Fowiders/Sponsors
Harold Berry & Irwin S. Field, Co-chairmen
Harriet F. Siden, Secretary

4/3
1998