- 3 weeks ago
High Roller
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Short filmTranscript
00:15Nearly 2,000 of the world's top action players
00:19rolled into Las Vegas this week
00:21for the 8th annual Super Bowl High Roller.
00:25And one will take home a pot of gold
00:27worth $100,000.
00:31From the Show Boat Hotel, Casino, and Bowling Center in Las Vegas,
00:36it's the Super Bowl High Roller.
00:41We are inside the beautiful...
00:48...to watch one bowler win $100,000.
01:00EARL, four bowlers $100,000 on the line.
01:03It doesn't get any better than this tonight.
01:09This is what's left of our field of almost 2,000 entries here at the Show Boat.
01:17There are a lot of poppers, icky fans all across the country.
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03:33It was always followed by the sentence.
03:34Wow!
03:35He could have been the best.
03:36He has so much talent and look how he's ruining his life.
03:39That always followed.
03:41It was almost part of his name.
03:42Bob Perry, isn't that the kids got so much talent and ruined his life?
03:47I was born in Patterson, New Jersey June 2, 1952, in Patterson General Hospital, if
03:54I want to know of.
03:55I have one dead brother and four living sisters.
03:59My brother Charles was the first one born, died of sick, dysfunction,
04:04and I had four sisters, Ann, Joan, Pat, and Jean.
04:08I was six years old.
04:10My father took me bowling down the peerless lanes.
04:13It was in River Street and Patterson,
04:15and that's where I first started.
04:17I used to get one special lane, lane five or lane six.
04:20I gave my own ball.
04:21I had a special number out off the rack, 124, I think it was.
04:24I'll never forget it.
04:25I used to throw it all the time, all Friday night long, by myself.
04:29You know, I didn't really keep score much.
04:31And then when I would come home, I'd have my own little pin and my own ball,
04:34and I'd bowl in the living room all the time.
04:36My father bowled under Charlie Purry.
04:38See, him and his brother was Chet Purzycki and Charlie Purzycki,
04:42and they used to all, they couldn't figure out which was which,
04:45and they'd spell the name wrong all the time.
04:46But when I was six years old, my father named me Bob Purry,
04:49and that's the name I stuck with.
04:52I mean, Patterson was a good town.
04:55You know, you could keep your door open.
04:57You didn't have to lock your door then.
04:58Not like today.
04:59I mean, you know, the urban's moving in everywhere.
05:02But certain parts, that don't look too bad.
05:04I mean, but, you know, what it looks like now
05:05and what it looked like then is two different things.
05:07I used to be a paper boy for all these people over here.
05:11And, you know, I'd come and deliver the papers,
05:13and after a while, half the people wouldn't pay me.
05:15I used to go to the door and knock for the money.
05:17We don't want the paper no more.
05:19I was the only guy that had a paper route in New Jersey
05:21that used to get in trouble because the people wouldn't pay me.
05:25And I used to get scared, so I used to just not deliver it to them no more.
05:29I was not a tough guy.
05:31I was a small guy.
05:32I was the smallest guy on the block.
05:33I was real skinny.
05:35You know, I had tough times.
05:36My broken arms and my eye, and, you know, I wasn't,
05:39I was just one of them little skinny, little skinny kids,
05:44little tiny kids, real thin.
05:45This is the playground where I used to play when I was in grammar school.
05:49So St. John's Grammar School and St. John's Cathedral High School.
05:53They had 40-, 30-, 40-year-old bowling alleys with real old pins and house balls.
05:59And I used to come down here when nothing was going on,
06:02and the priests, if I was hanging out, used to let me go downstairs,
06:07and I used to set up the pins myself, come back up, throw the ball, go back down,
06:11set the pins up, send the ball back because there were 50-year-old lanes.
06:14They had no ball return.
06:16The house looks exactly the same from 1972.
06:18Exactly the same.
06:19There's no difference except maybe for the steps.
06:22But it looks close to the same.
06:26The first house we had burnt down in 1972, and we had this one rebuilt.
06:31And it's a little bit different, but the foundation's still the same.
06:35This is the backyard I was born and raised in and grown up.
06:37It looks exactly the same.
06:39The wall's still the same.
06:40The steps are still here.
06:43And this is where I was born and raised.
06:45We used to play a lot here.
06:47Ricky lived next door here.
06:49And this is where we used to play a lot.
06:52And we had the pool here.
06:54We had a pool here.
06:55But before that, this is the place where I got hit and I got blinded.
06:59They had a bowling alley in the World's Fair, the AMF Pavilion.
07:03The winner would get a scholarship to college.
07:05But what happened was I qualified locally and I bowled very well.
07:08And I knew I was going to do well.
07:09I won the first regional and we went to the second regional and I won that.
07:12And we went to the third regional and I won that.
07:14So we went into New York and I won that regional.
07:17And, you know, we were going to go to the finals.
07:19And I was doing very well and I felt that I had a great chance of winning.
07:23And I was really up there.
07:25And, you know, that never got to be done.
07:29You know, I never made the final thing in the World's Fair.
07:32My father gave me a croquet mallet set.
07:34And he said, I don't want you to play with that at all unless I'm home with my mother.
07:39Because we played one day, me and Ricky next door, played with it outside.
07:42And we played in the backyard.
07:43And Ricky would hit the ball like it's a golf ball.
07:45He didn't hit it like it was a croquet mallet.
07:47And he went to swing it.
07:49As he swung it, he legged over by acting.
07:51And then he said, turn around.
07:52And as I turned around, I got it dead in my head.
07:54And it crushed half my face.
07:57And I was across the street and the woman, all of a sudden we heard my brother screaming.
08:02And we ran outside and he was running down the driveway holding his head.
08:06And blood was just coming out everywhere.
08:11And the lady across the street thought that I was getting beat up or somebody was beating me up real
08:15bad.
08:15And she ran across the street.
08:18Diane's mother, Millie, and Millie came in the house and so on.
08:21She was a nurse, I think.
08:22And she said, call your father and we got to get him to a hospital.
08:25My father worked about 25 minutes away.
08:29And for some reason it was like he was home in three minutes.
08:31And then we were to the hospital.
08:33Doctor was trying to do my eye and then he told my father I couldn't see.
08:37And he said, it's my left eye, my left one.
08:40And he said that, you know, your son can't see.
08:45This is where I think my watching over Bob the rest of my life came in.
08:51Because I was holding his hand in the emergency room and he was like, don't leave me, don't leave me,
08:57please don't leave me.
08:58And when I look back now, this is I think where my connection really bonded.
09:06I can't see no people or places or make any kind of distinctions out or anything.
09:11So it was determined that I had a shattered retina that scarred and buckled over and twisted and never healed.
09:18So that's what I was dealt with.
09:20And then after that, life became really terrible for a while.
09:25That's the guy that used to, like, somehow get me inside his house and then molest me and do bad
09:32things to me and it wasn't a good time.
09:35There was a gentleman that lived across the street from me.
09:37He was 17, 18 years old. I was 12.
09:40I was right after that, but it was happening at that time.
09:43He used to somehow find a way to get me in his house.
09:46And when he got me in his house, he used to molest me.
09:48He used to try to perform sexual acts on me and have me doing it on him.
09:53And I was scared to death. I could not handle that.
09:56I didn't know how to tell my father. I couldn't tell anybody because I was scared.
10:00Second of all, I didn't think anybody would believe me.
10:02Later on down in my life, I felt that that was one of the reasons that, you know, they tell
10:06you that you drink for several different reasons.
10:07And, you know, I didn't get to deal with this until I was 40 years old.
10:11So I carried this thing for like 28 years.
10:13And it was a very hard thing to deal with.
10:16Jeannie and I bowled with my mother, and we had a league.
10:20It was my mother, myself, Jeannie, a cousin, and then a friend of ours.
10:26And when my mother died, that was when we stopped bowling.
10:29My mother was very into bowling.
10:31But we bowled a lot of years, though.
10:32We bowled in Catholic Women's League.
10:34Right, Catholic League, Friday nights.
10:35We all bowled.
10:36I was young.
10:37I really didn't bowl long.
10:38My father would sit behind us in the bowling alley.
10:41And if you, while we're bowling in the league, and he'd be, my mother,
10:45we would be on the team and he'd be behind.
10:47And he'd come over the seat and say, you didn't do it right this way.
10:50You didn't do it right that way.
10:52Get your ball around your fat ass.
10:53Get your ball around your fat ass.
10:55When mommy died, that was it.
10:57Nobody had to pick up a bowling ball again.
10:59If you were sick, my mother couldn't understand if you were sick and you didn't come.
11:02You had to be there.
11:03You had to be there.
11:04You had to be there.
11:04My father died and we were bowling that night.
11:07Yeah.
11:07And Ann said, we're not going bowling.
11:09And my mother said, yes we are.
11:10Your father would have wanted it.
11:12And we were a big family.
11:13And we all played sports.
11:15And my mother drove us all to sports and all our friends.
11:18We had to.
11:19It was a constant thing.
11:19There was a boy before me who died 20 days before I was born.
11:23And then there was four girls.
11:24And then there was Bobby.
11:25And he's the only male on the one family side.
11:30So he was like, oh, here's the son.
11:33No, but to us.
11:34Oh, but to us he was a toy.
11:35I broke his arm.
11:36I don't remember anything.
11:37Oh yeah, we broke his arm.
11:39Yes.
11:39Well, what was an accident?
11:40We were playing on the couch and he fell off.
11:43I mean, we didn't go to break his arm.
11:44He fell off.
11:45So we racked it up.
11:47No, first we said, look, it's not fun.
11:49Oh yeah, we did kick it a little.
11:50It's not broken.
11:51It's not broken.
11:52Because we would get in trouble that he got hurt.
11:54Well, our friends like their fathers liked him.
11:56Because, you know, anybody who didn't have a son, you know.
12:00So he was the kid of the neighborhood.
12:02Well, my bowling game, I didn't bowl for a while.
12:04I didn't bowl until I was almost 14 years old.
12:07I didn't really get to do a lot of things.
12:09I was very clumsy.
12:10I would fall down.
12:10I couldn't see.
12:11I'd walk into things.
12:12Everybody said, you're not going to make it.
12:14I think if I was you, I would quit.
12:15And I said, I'm not going to quit.
12:17I said, I'm going to be a professional bowler.
12:19I told everybody.
12:20And everybody used to laugh at me.
12:21You're going to be a professional bowler.
12:23I said, that's right.
12:23I'm going to be a professional bowler.
12:25I started bowling.
12:26I threw the ball down the lane.
12:27Every ball went in the gutter.
12:28I couldn't even bowl 50.
12:30For my kid that was going bowling 190s and 200s and 210s at the age of 12, at 14 I
12:37couldn't
12:37bowl 100.
12:38It was very, very embarrassing.
12:39Because, you know, people were waiting to see me bowl and I had no idea what to do.
12:45So the next year and a half, from the age of 14 to 16, it was really hard on me.
12:49But I wouldn't give up.
12:50What happened was I got a job working at Arrow Fastener.
12:53It used to be on Route 80 in Saddlebrook, New Jersey.
12:55And I worked there all night long from 8 at night to 4 in the morning in the night shift.
13:01And then at 8 in the morning till 5 at night, I would bowl all day long.
13:06I bowled 12 hours a day every day for the entire summer.
13:10And I went to Lodi Lanes and an old friend of my father's, Al Foscarino, was helping me.
13:15And I went from throwing a straight ball to throwing one of the strongest balls in bowling.
13:20Bobby disappeared for about six months.
13:22I came back into the bowling alley one day and he says to everybody,
13:28he says, I want to bowl you, I want to bowl you, and I want to bowl you.
13:31He says, because you all stink.
13:34And the guy looked at me and goes, you're 170 average bowler.
13:37I said, whatever I am, you could bowl me.
13:39And I went from 170 to like 200 or 220 in one summer.
13:43And I walked in a bowling alley and I devastated everybody.
13:46Even the best bowlers always respected and somewhat feared Bob
13:51because they knew of his talent.
13:53His talent was exceptional because he was one of those natural bowlers,
13:59or natural sportsmen as we would say.
14:03But the rhythm that he had, the execution that he had of the bowling ball,
14:08the roll on the ball, the power that he had at the end of the pocket, it was something else.
14:16He had one of the greatest arm swings.
14:20And a lot of the young players today have a high backswing.
14:23Pete Webber's backswing, real high.
14:25A lot of those guys have all these high backswings.
14:27Well, Bob started that high backswing.
14:29And I went from some kid on the street that was nothing to the best bowler in the East Coast.
14:34I used to go out every Friday night everywhere and bowl everybody for money.
14:37It didn't matter.
14:37I went and all these big-time money bowlers, they'd walk in, they'd see me,
14:41and I'd step on a lane.
14:42After I was done with them, they'd walk out scratching their heads.
14:45Like, where did this kid come from?
14:47We battled each other on the lanes in competition, match play,
14:51and he beat me and I beat him, and he beat me and I beat him.
14:55But we had a lot of fun together and he was a great guy to watch.
14:59I was terrific.
15:00I won my first professional title.
15:02I remember I bowled 12 tournaments, 12 regional tournaments.
15:06The most first place was $1,000.
15:08And I was leading money winner with $6,000.
15:12I was at the American Bowling Congress Championship.
15:14I got him in doubles and singles with another young guy who bowled tour, Ty Critchlow,
15:22and put the two guys together for the doubles and singles competition that afternoon.
15:26And lo and behold, Bob and Ty won the classic, the professional doubles title that day.
15:33He would bowl against anybody, anywhere.
15:36He bowled in leagues in maybe 10 different areas in New Jersey.
15:42Almost invariably, he would be the leading bowler in the league.
15:46He's rolled 300 games in 800 series in 10 different counties in the state, which is an incredible feat.
15:53There's this organization called the NBA.
15:57That's the National Bowling Association.
16:00Now, this is a complete black organization that was formed because initially in bowling,
16:06only whites were allowed to bowl.
16:08So they formed their own organization.
16:09And each year, they have a tournament.
16:13So what happens, because of rules, they have to accept anybody.
16:18So one tournament, in walks Bob and he wins the NBA singles championship.
16:23I ended up being a TNBA bowl of the year.
16:26I was a black bowl of the year and I was a white guy.
16:28Well, actually in 1972, I bought Encyclopedia Britannica.
16:31And every year, you get the book of the year after that.
16:36You would, the book of the year would come in the mail.
16:39And I opened it one day and I said, oh, let me look up bowling.
16:42And I looked up bowling and there was my brother's name in Encyclopedia Britannica.
16:46I joined the PBA when I was 19.
16:48I had graduated high school.
16:49I think it was the summer.
16:50I had a choice either to go to college or to become a professional bowler.
16:54And I became a professional bowler.
16:56This is the Bergen County Bowlers Association.
16:59It's one of the only associations in the United States that owns its own building.
17:05They built this building in 1973 when they had 30,000 bowlers in this county, Bergen County.
17:12And it was one of the largest bowling associations in America.
17:16This is where, if you wanted to become a great bowler, you needed to bowl on Monday nights at Palamas.
17:21That's where all the famous bowlers bowled in the 60s, 70s, and 80s.
17:25Hey, Bob, how you doing? Yuck, shumash!
17:30How's everything?
17:31Good, good, good.
17:32We came here to see the Hall of Fame.
17:34Oh, good, nice.
17:36Fellow Hall of Famer, fellow teammate.
17:38Thanks.
17:38Joe Tove, so, you know.
17:40Good, great.
17:42Let's go inside and see everybody.
17:49These are pictures of everybody that's been inducted to the Bergen County Hall of Fame.
17:56A lot of these people I know personally, and a lot of them had an effect on my life.
18:02The first person that I beat for my first professional title was Ralph Engen.
18:07Joe was on the same team as Eddie Totola, who was a teammate of mine at Palamas.
18:12Then we have Chuck Pizzano, who was a really personal good friend of mine.
18:16Then we have the greatest bowler, I think, that New Jersey's ever seen, and that's Tita Simas.
18:20That's on top over there, you know.
18:23He was probably the greatest bowler the state of New Jersey has ever seen.
18:27You know, you think about being put in the Hall of Fame.
18:30I mean, it's a great honor.
18:33And, you know, it's a well-deserved honor for a lot of people.
18:37I mean, even for me, it was a well-deserved honor.
18:40But, you know, drinking and drugging took a lot of things away from me.
18:42It took the State Hall of Fame away from me.
18:44They'll never put me in the State Hall of Fame because of the way they act.
18:49I mean, they had the elections again this year, and they didn't put me in.
18:51And I've been on a ballot for 15 years.
18:54I mean, it's totally ridiculous.
18:56I mean, I had major accomplishments in bowling and never got in, so.
19:00As Bob started getting older and bowling better, a lot of people started showing up very interested in what Bob
19:11was doing.
19:14People from Patterson, a lot of people that were, I don't know how to say this, people that were, I
19:34don't want to say mafia people.
19:37But I want to say...
19:43Shady people.
19:45Actually, it's not shady people.
19:47Maybe powerful people.
19:49Maybe that's the word I'm looking for, because I was impressed also.
19:52The fat man was a guy named Raymond Szymanski.
19:57He was a funny guy.
19:59We called him the fat man because he was always sweating.
20:01He was big and heavy.
20:03And he had money.
20:04We got to know Raymond.
20:07Raymond used to take us here.
20:08We'd go here.
20:09We'd go there.
20:09Raymond was the money man.
20:11Don't worry about it.
20:12I'll put up the money.
20:13And he'd be the backer.
20:14Yeah, I'm trying to ball for him.
20:16You know, that's the kind of guy he was.
20:17He was the wise guy.
20:19Raymond was the wise guy.
20:20He was the wise guy.
20:21He was also known as Uncle Raymond.
20:23Uncle Raymond.
20:24Right.
20:24He had them fucking dangerous eyes.
20:27You know what they talk about?
20:27People with eyes that can look through you and cut you up.
20:30That's what he had.
20:31He'd go like this.
20:34There's a tough element there behind gambling.
20:37And if you don't perform, you can get hurt physically as well as mentally.
20:45And you have to be careful how you're introduced into gambling in pot games as we called it back then.
20:54Bowling was gambling itself.
20:57They bowled for money all the time.
20:59It was like going to a movie and seeing the sheriff of the town going against the fastest gun.
21:06Because when you walked into a bowling center, you would actually challenge the best bowler in that center.
21:13It was fun.
21:14You go in the bowling alley, you could be broke and walk in and they'd all bet on you.
21:17You win and they'd give you the money and you go home.
21:19It was great.
21:20Friday nights was terrific.
21:21If I had 200 or I had nothing, I would come home with a lot of money.
21:24The problem is the money that he did win, very little of it was his money.
21:30So it was a tough life.
21:32And naturally, being awake three, four days at a time, that would lead to some type of a drug to
21:40try to keep you going.
21:44This accident was all my fault.
21:46I had to deliver liquor.
21:48I was working for this company and we had all customers in New York City and I had to deliver
21:52the Christmas gifts to them,
21:54which were bottles of, you know, bottles for Christmas and things like that.
22:00So I said to Bob, would you drive me?
22:02If you drive me, I can just run in.
22:05So he said, okay.
22:06So he drove me.
22:07So the first one I had to go to was Gimble's department store and he said, Pat, you take too
22:12long.
22:12I'll go.
22:13You drive the car.
22:15I said, okay.
22:15So I'm sitting in the car and all of a sudden I'm waiting and waiting.
22:18I'm illegally parked on 31st Street.
22:22Now I'm walking across and I come to the traffic light and that's where the Avenue of America meets Broadway.
22:28I think it's called Herald Square.
22:30So I was coming where the one way is coming down and the one way coming down is on my
22:35left.
22:35Now you have to understand that I'm blind in one eye.
22:38And I'm standing there and I was talking to this gorgeous brunette that was standing next to me.
22:42I'll never forget it.
22:43And the light turned green and she said, look out.
22:46She says, look out.
22:47And she screamed at me and I turned and I said, oh my God.
22:50And I got hit by a cat.
22:51And I'm waiting and somebody knocks on the window.
22:56And I look up and they said, are you here with your brother?
23:00And I said, yeah.
23:02And they said, oh, he just got hit by a cab down on the corner.
23:06And I went, what?
23:07The cab hit me.
23:08It hit me.
23:09It crushed me.
23:10It hit me.
23:11It dragged me.
23:12I went almost to 32nd Street.
23:15And I ended up hitting an intent of a parked car and it ripped my face back open again.
23:20And I'm laying on the ground.
23:22And I was laying on the ground.
23:23I said to myself, I can't move from my waist down.
23:26And my legs hurt and they were swelling, but I couldn't move.
23:29So I said, let me just lay here.
23:31And my face was bleeding.
23:32And this cop walks over and says, this sucker's dead.
23:34And he threw his jacket on top of me.
23:36And I'm laying there and I'm going, I'm dead.
23:39I don't believe this.
23:41I'm dead.
23:42And I said, well, if you're dead, you're supposed to meet somebody.
23:45The God, the devil or something.
23:47And I can hear these sirens and people screaming and stuff like that.
23:52The people surrounded the cab so they couldn't get away.
23:54And my sister comes screaming.
23:56So when I get to the corner, there's my brother laying in the street.
23:59And they had him covered with a coat that he was dead.
24:03So I started screaming, oh, my God, I killed you.
24:06I killed you.
24:07I killed you.
24:08Look what I did to you.
24:09And all of a sudden the coat went flying in the air.
24:11And he goes, I'm not dead.
24:13I'm not dead.
24:14I'm alive, so.
24:15And they took me to Wayne General where I stayed for the next 169 days or something.
24:21On crutches and a walker and a wheelchair, you know.
24:24And then, you know, I got addicted to Percodans at that time.
24:27And I started doing a lot of Percodans and I started doing a lot of booze.
24:30And then I started doing a lot of coke.
24:32So, you know, the drugs were trying to make me move a lot better than what I was moving, you
24:37know.
24:38Well, they were saying I couldn't walk again, never mind bull again.
24:41Everyone did drugs.
24:42We all did drugs.
24:44Okay.
24:44Just depended who got hooked and who didn't.
24:47I really got heavily addicted into Percodans as pain killers because my legs hurt a lot.
24:53You know, I remember the day my father died.
24:55I remember flushing all the morphine and things down the sink so my brother couldn't get it.
24:59But, I mean, it was really a bad time, but he stuck through it.
25:03I was scheduled to go on the PBA tour and I never got to go.
25:06I was going to leave the week later because it starts in January, the first week of January.
25:10I never got to go.
25:13So.
25:15When my father was dying, my brother was a stone drug addict, an alcoholic.
25:21My father finally was diagnosed with lung cancer and he was going to die.
25:25And the doctor told him that you only had six months to live and don't you think you've led your
25:30life?
25:30You shouldn't be upset.
25:31My father was 62 at the time.
25:33And I loved my father.
25:34I never had a chance to say I was sorry to my father for everything that I did.
25:38At that time, you know, I was, I had just started using cocaine then.
25:42I mean, I used it because what it did was it really kept me up and I used it to
25:46stay up.
25:47I mean, it also got me high, but at night I couldn't, you know, I used speed and coke and
25:51I was staying up.
25:51And I really wasn't really heavily addicted to that at that time.
25:57And at the end when the liver went to, the cancer went to his liver, you know, he didn't want
26:02to stay in the hospital anymore.
26:03And he asked me if, if he came home, if I could take care of him.
26:06You know, we started to get close again after all the times that we separated.
26:11And for that nine months, like, you know, it was hard because all day long I was out hustling and
26:16doing what I need to do, trying to earn some money.
26:18And at night, my aunt would take care of my dad during the day and then at night from like
26:22nine or ten at night to nine in the morning.
26:24I would stay up and give him his medicine and stuff like that.
26:27It was really hard to watch him die.
26:29So, of course, I let them down.
26:30But, you know, you can't go your whole life when you get sober saying that's the reason I should destroy
26:36my life.
26:37You know, I wish I would have been in a different shape and form when people came to the funeral
26:41home to see me, you know.
26:43I'm not the same person I was then.
26:45That was 15 years ago and 20 years ago.
26:47It's 21 years since my dad died, you know.
26:51I mean, it took us to come here for me to come to the grave.
26:58Hey, Dad. Hey, Mom.
27:01Long time.
27:16When you're a drug addict and alcoholic, you steal from your family.
27:20I mean, you threaten your family.
27:23I could go on forever and ever.
27:24And my family couldn't take it.
27:27Bob always owed 50 million people.
27:29It wasn't long sharks.
27:30It was that, you know, the thing.
27:31But there's one time it was really a serious thing and there was really a contract out on him.
27:36And I had given him the money.
27:39And I went with him to pay it.
27:42Because I didn't do it.
27:44All right?
27:44And he paid it.
27:45If he came to your door, you gave him money.
27:47And I told all my neighbors, you give him money.
27:51I'm not paying you back.
27:52I'm telling you right now.
27:53Because they all knew him as the bowler.
27:55A lot of them didn't know the other side of him.
27:59But they knew us.
28:01Right.
28:01So they'd say, okay, here's a hundred.
28:03Your sister will give it to me.
28:04And I told my neighbors, you give them money.
28:06It's your money.
28:07My sisters were strong enough to walk away from him.
28:10I never was.
28:11They were strong enough to set limits and boundaries that he wasn't allowed to be in their lives or this
28:15and that.
28:16I was never that strong.
28:17But the effect that it had on everyone was devastating.
28:21I remember a Thanksgiving at my house after my father had died.
28:25He came.
28:26He was like, what you would want to have done was throw him in the shower and scrub him.
28:30He was so down and out.
28:32And there was no way we could get him to leave.
28:35Shoe leather skin, hair, no teeth, hair wild, no teeth, filthy dirty.
28:41And then it was so bad that my mother really didn't want him to leave.
28:47But then I think it took Gene and somebody took him down to a motel in Patterson to give him
28:53a room.
28:54Remember that one?
28:55Yeah.
28:55It was.
28:56You wouldn't have known it was him.
28:58You would have thought it was just anybody.
28:59But this was not a human being.
29:01This was a chemical.
29:02This was, he just, there was no understanding.
29:07For him it was survival, whatever he had to do to survive.
29:11There was no right or wrong.
29:12And I just told him, get out of my life.
29:14You are already dead because you're nothing but a chemical.
29:17Get out of my life and go die because I have had it.
29:26I ran into this drug called crack.
29:29I had a guy, I was over his apartment, we were drunk.
29:32And he says to me, why don't you try this?
29:34And I smoked it and I got high.
29:35And it was one of the best highs I've ever had in my life.
29:38And I couldn't stop.
29:41Coke got me sick.
29:42Booze got me sick.
29:43I drank because I needed it.
29:45I'd be trembling and then I needed to drink to stop trembling.
29:48But I wouldn't stop trembling.
29:49I thought I would.
29:50Then at the end it was, I couldn't live with it and I couldn't live without it.
29:53I would smoke anywhere from 80 to 100 vials a day.
29:56It was nothing for me to do that.
29:58I mean, I was in a blackout one time.
30:00I came and I walked into Times Square and I yawned and opened my eyes up.
30:05And I'm in the middle of Times Square and I said, what the hell am I doing here?
30:07And I looked around and I looked in my pocket and I had 20 bucks and six vials of crack.
30:14And I said, wow.
30:15And I got on the phone and I dialed my friend Bobby Richardi because he had an 800 number.
30:20And I said, let me speak to Bobby.
30:21And Bobby gets on the phone and Bobby and I used to drug together.
30:25I mean, God bless his soul, he's dead today.
30:27But, you know, him and I drugged a lot together.
30:30And I said, Bob, what's the problem?
30:33Everybody's looking for me.
30:34He goes, where are you?
30:34I said, I'm in Times Square.
30:35I said, what the hell are you doing here?
30:36I said, I don't know, but what's the problem?
30:38I said, I was with you last night.
30:40He says, no, Bob, that was three weeks ago.
30:42And I lived in a blackout for three and a half weeks.
30:44And, you know, I don't know what happened that time.
30:46And, you know, we're talking three weeks of your life go by and you don't remember it.
30:50You know, this is dangerous, but this is about showing what it's like when, what happened to you.
30:55What it was like and what happened.
30:58And, you know, it builds up a lot of bad vibes.
31:01I go in here, lean in here, and I would just take the stem and do it.
31:05And try to lean here and try to keep cleaning it out and try to get high and try to
31:09get high and just maintain my high for the night.
31:12That's what I used to be.
31:14And I come over here, and this is 8th Avenue, right in these buildings right here.
31:20495, 493, 491.
31:23At one time in the 80s, this was a place where we'd buy a lot of our, I'd buy a
31:27lot of my crack, a lot of my coke, a lot of my dope.
31:30And I'd spend most of the nights here trying to hang around with the street people or the dope fiends
31:37and the drug dens in these buildings.
31:41And down here, you see the crates.
31:45You just pick this up.
31:46We used to go down underneath there, and that's where we used to smoke the dope and hang out and
31:50hide during the day.
32:07And if you turn around and you look up the street here, I mean, look up the street.
32:12I mean, you think it's, you just feel a little warmer today, but think about 20 below with the wind
32:18blowing or 10 below.
32:19And, you know, it's real cold.
32:22You got the same clothes on for six months, same socks.
32:25Your head's up like this, and you're freezing, you're walking around, and you're living right on the street here.
32:30I mean, this is it.
32:31This is where I did it.
32:32I walked up and down, all the way up and down these streets.
32:34I used to walk up and down, up and down, up and down, all night long.
32:41This is what I did.
32:47I used to come in here.
32:49I'd come down here like 3 or 4 in the morning.
32:52Freddie used to work here.
32:53Freddie was pretty good.
32:55As long as, you know, if I owed him money, he owed me money, he would give me $10 or
32:59$20.
33:00And as soon as I got $20, I'd go around the corner and try to pick up some bottles of
33:04crackers.
33:04We'd come over to the show world, I'd check my pocket to see if I have any quarters left.
33:09If I did, or maybe if the guys in the air I knew, I'd go in there, and I'd get
33:13a couple dollars I'd put in,
33:15and I'd get like maybe a half hour or 45 minutes.
33:18And then there was holes in my mouth from my teeth when I pulled them out,
33:23and then that just made the hole bigger and bigger, and just the whole piece of my mouth was coming
33:27off
33:27because of the teeth rotting away and my gums rotting away.
33:31I went in the peep show, I used to go in there and have what booze and drugs I have.
33:36I would put the dollars in, turn the peep show on.
33:39If I had some booze, I'd drink it, and then I would put the crack in the stem and then
33:43suck the devil's dick.
33:44That's what they call it.
33:45When you smoke a crack, they say you're sucking the devil's dick.
33:55Now it's the next morning, you have no money, you don't have money for a bus, you don't have money
34:00for a cup of coffee,
34:01you don't have any money, you can't go anywhere, you're all blacked out, you've been up all night long, you're
34:07filthy,
34:07your hands are black, your throat is like ready to close from the butane, you're coughing, you're spitting,
34:14and you're walking around, you ain't got no money.
34:15And even if you got money, you have $30 left, there's nothing to do,
34:19because everybody that's on the street right now are all deadbeat artists.
34:22That's all they are, deadbeats.
34:26Because I was told that three things are going to happen to me if I don't get better.
34:29I was going to say I would either kill somebody, kill myself, or spend the rest of my life in
34:34an insane asylum.
34:39When you reach the point in life of drinking and drugging and you beat yourself into submission, I had enough.
34:45I was walking down the street and it came to me that I don't have no more mind, I didn't
34:50have any money,
34:50I had no chance of getting better, I had ran out of every possible way, method that I could use
34:56to exist another day getting high.
34:59And it was all over it.
35:01And after being downstairs in the subway, sitting there smoking crack and feeding 30 pound rats,
35:06I felt that there would be no return if I didn't do something about it.
35:10And that the road back was so long, it was unbelievable.
35:14So I just said, this is it, we are done and we need to do something.
35:19And I said, well, what's the most painless thing?
35:22I couldn't kill myself drinking and drugging.
35:24All I knew was that the trucks come down the street really fast and if I jump, I'll never feel
35:28it.
35:29And I saw the truck coming down the street and I jumped in front of it.
35:32But as soon as I jumped in front of it, I had one minute of sanity and I slipped and
35:36so did the truck and it missed me.
35:38And if that guy would have caught me, he would have beat the living crap out of me and I
35:41would have died then.
35:43But I ran away and then I decided from that point on that I needed to do something about my
35:47life.
36:08And I was feeling better and they told me I could go to Graymoor, St. Christopher's Inn.
36:13And I went up there and I said, listen, I said, brother, I said, I need help, I need a
36:18bed, you gotta help me.
36:20He arrived, I had said to him, you know, you've been drinking again.
36:24But his driver had left.
36:26We kept him.
36:27And I think that was, God wanted him to be here.
36:35It was, it was like, I guess it was like 45 days since I saw you.
36:40From when he went into Graymoor, which I didn't even know until later.
36:42No, you didn't see me for a long time.
36:44Or even before that, I don't, I don't, time is, time is not something you relate to anymore.
36:52I saw, I saw defeat, but I saw healing.
37:04Um, that, the shell, maybe to explain it, the shell had come off.
37:12And there was a beginning of healing.
37:14The emotional inside you could never explain.
37:19I, myself and others, pushed him.
37:22And said, you know, if you're gonna be here, and you wanna go on with your life, you're gonna have
37:26to do something.
37:27And that's just a matter of being here.
37:28It's not just a matter of, of being in the building and letting all these activities, but you have to
37:33kind of absorb them.
37:34You have to kind of make yourself a part of it.
37:37St. Christopher's was probably the biggest inspiration of them all.
37:41Especially with the Spirio experience with, uh, Father Paul.
37:45And, um, knowing that, uh, I had some hope in life.
37:49And I got all that from here.
37:51I mean, uh, when I left here, I had a good foundation underneath me.
37:55I knew I was gonna, I was going to stay sober.
37:57And I was determined to stay sober.
37:59And according to the way they set in front, structure me, that I, I, I could make it.
38:15You know, God saved my life, and St. Christopher saved my life.
38:19So, you know, I had, I had, I had come here, I probably would have died.
38:24Chances are I was dead already, so, I would have definitely been dead if I wasn't here.
38:34And, um, a friend of his had lent a guy money for a business that he wanted to start.
38:43And his friend died, Bob Rashardi.
38:46And supposedly, um, the brother wanted the money back.
38:52And the people Bobby knew, they went at, they went to collect the money.
38:57And Bob went to Manhattan to tell this guy we wanted the money back or else.
39:01I sat down, I talked to him.
39:03And I was told certain, say certain, certain things.
39:06And, uh, you know, I kind of like, uh, took it to another level.
39:09And, uh, to try to get the guy to get the message.
39:12And the guy did get the message.
39:13But the message not only was being given to the guy, it was being given to the FBI.
39:17You know, I mean, uh, the FBI was there all the time.
39:20I didn't know that.
39:21He was charged in a, uh, a very serious crime.
39:24He was charged in an extortion.
39:26Some of the people that he was, uh, accused of participating with were, uh, alleged, uh,
39:33to have contacts with organized crime.
39:35And he was in a bit of trouble.
39:36They handcuffed me and they put me in the back of a federal car.
39:39And they took me all these side street and under a tunnel into the federal building in Manhattan.
39:45And they took me up into a room.
39:46And I'm standing there and they're going through my wallet.
39:49Who's this guy?
39:50Who's that guy?
39:51And they bring a guy in to me, to meet me.
39:54And the guy, they said, do you know who this guy is?
39:55And I said, no, this is the guy that locked up John Gotti.
39:58Bob had been arrested and charged with extortion in federal court in the Southern District of New York.
40:03The U.S. Attorney, Clark, is telling the magistrate that, that I'm a, uh, a cop in a gangrenial crime
40:12family,
40:12that I can kill people with the snap of my fingers.
40:15And my lawyer turns to me and says, I thought you were a bowler.
40:17What are you talking about?
40:18I said, I have no idea what he's talking about.
40:20From the day that I met him, he made it clear that he wanted to find a way to acknowledge,
40:25uh,
40:26the criminal activity in which he was involved, and he was prepared to deal with the consequences.
40:32And that was unique among the people I represented.
40:34And at the end of the day, Bob was sentenced to a, uh, uh, a time-served sentence
40:40and a term of supervised release, in other words, a non-incarcerative sentence.
40:45And, uh, as you well know, he was able to go on with his life and go on with his
40:49trade,
40:50and he proved the judge's, uh, judgment about him correct.
40:56Mark Smith, greatest of all time.
41:00No.
41:00Better than everybody.
41:01Nobody better than 2-á»™i.
41:02My from 30 years.
41:03Dr. Don't get me wrong.
41:04This kid grew up with Mark Roth.
41:07Him and Mark Roth were just as even in those days, but, you know, one went another way,
41:14he went another way, and he could have been one of the best in the world.
41:17I'm going to drive trade.
41:18I used to stay at his house.
41:20When I grew up, this is it.
41:22His father was one of the greatest men I ever met.
41:25And he always followed this guy wherever he went.
41:30And he always, if his dad didn't come and we went together,
41:34I had to watch over him.
41:36The second dad, let's put it that way.
41:40Yeah, my first night on tour, I roomed.
41:42I roomed with Teeter.
41:43So he was blessed with me the rest of his life.
41:46So we got 40 years later.
41:48Still blessed to be each other.
41:50It's great. It's great.
41:51It's great to see him back.
42:09Good to see you.
42:12Everything's good.
42:13Good. You ready?
42:14Yeah, I'm ready.
42:14All right, let's go.
42:16You know, it hasn't been an easy life.
42:20Like I said before, he's come out of it.
42:23He's back. He's off to canvas now.
42:25And my son is going to help him get back,
42:28drilling his equipment.
42:30And once we get everything ready for him,
42:32I think he's going to be very competitive.
42:52I think he's going to be very competitive.
43:23I started bowling again as Bob Brzezicki when I got sober, because I wanted no affiliation, because I'm sober, and
43:29my name is Bob Brzezicki. I wasn't sober as Bob Hurley.
43:32You need to just deal with this.
43:34This is recovery, and recovery is keep going forward.
43:38Not look at the past.
43:40I'm not regretting my past, but I'm not going to beat myself up because when I was not sober that
43:48my parents got to see me be a lowlife.
43:51Today I'm not a lowlife, so they see that.
43:54We all believe in God, and we believe in our higher power, so I know they're in heaven, that's all
43:58that matters.
43:59Whether I go to heaven is another thing, but we know that they're in heaven.
44:11Well, Earl Anthony, we have arrived.
44:14We have arrived at our championship match.
44:17The Super Bowl high roller, the winner of this match, $100,000.
44:24Bob Brzezicki and Chris James.
44:27Both of these guys are feeling a lot of heat right now, and the opening shots will probably get down
44:33there real quick.
44:36There are a lot of Bob Brzezicki fans all across the country.
44:41That's a nice ball. There it is.
44:44Outstanding shot there, and you can see they're both using a lot of ball speed.
44:49Bob using a little more than the younger player, Chris.
44:52Besides being the greatest bowler, which he is, there was a higher purpose for him.
45:01And that's the kind of thing, a psychological thing. That's a double for Bob, and in effect, Chris James.
45:08Only 23, as I mentioned.
45:10Already feeling plenty of pressure, just bowling in this circumstance.
45:15Oh, another good shot.
45:16Boy, that's a beautiful ball after that double from Brzezicki.
45:21So somewhere these demons were conquered.
45:24I don't know who conquered them, but I think 99% has to go to Bob.
45:29He conquered his own demons.
45:32He had a determination in his face.
45:35Both bowlers working on a double.
45:38Oh!
45:40Brzezicki!
45:42Well, I'll tell you what.
45:44You've got to feel pretty fortunate, as you can see.
45:47When he's out there with that bowling ball, you never know.
45:51There might be another hand behind him helping him.
45:57In the fifth frame.
46:00Oh!
46:02There's a look at him.
46:06You're getting another chance now.
46:09You could start a new career.
46:11In what you're doing in an addition in bowling, where you can again become a national champion.
46:17So take advantage of it right now.
46:20But it really comes down to Chris James needing three strikes minimum to make Bob Perry get a mark.
46:25Bob Brzezicki should say he'd get a mark in the 10th frame.
46:28It's there!
46:29Oh!
46:29Wait a minute!
46:30Look out!
46:32Hit!
46:32Oh, no!
46:35Unbelievable.
46:36His fourth solid 10 of the match.
46:39I think Bob had a tough life.
46:42But he hasn't hit the 10 count.
46:45Right now he's on 9 and 3 quarters.
46:48Yeah.
46:49But he's out.
46:50Well, it's a wonderful story.
46:52And he's very open about talking about it, Brzezicki is.
46:54He's a recovering alcoholic.
46:55He works with kids day in and day out.
46:58He gets kids off the streets.
46:59He finds jobs.
47:00He'll like it!
47:04Alright, 200 to 193.
47:06And Bob Brzezicki is the champion of the Super Bowl High Roller here in Las Vegas.
47:34100,000 dollars.
47:36200, 193 over Christian.
47:38Bob, we're in the middle of a wonderful moment here at this showboat.
47:41And I don't know if you can find the words, but please try.
47:45This is a moment that you've got your whole life to wait for.
47:51I come from a, I had a real bad time in life.
47:54And five years ago this was a dream.
47:57And today it's reality.
47:58I know a lot of people for it.
48:00And I thank God for it.
48:02And without it, I'd have nothing.
48:03Very, very nice.
48:07I think he's fine now.
48:09I think that there won't be no count of 10.
48:12I think from now on he'll be the referee.
48:15Counting for other people.
48:18Happy birthday to you.
48:22Happy birthday to you.
48:25Happy birthday dear Bobby.
48:30Happy birthday to you.
48:34Happy birthday.
48:44I didn't think I was going to make 35.
48:48Right when you get up.
48:49I don't know.
48:49I didn't think I was going to make 50 years old.
48:50Not at all.
48:51You know what a ramp coming down is?
48:5410 years sobriety.
48:56Sober ten years this month.
48:58Oh, you just got to open his kids.
48:59This month is the month that I got sober, June 27th of 1992.
49:06Like it says in another wonderful book, you know, love endures all things, it bears all things.
49:12You know, love is what it is, you know.
49:14And I think Bobby got a genuine love for people, especially people that went through what we went through, you
49:18know,
49:19and took the journey that we took.
49:24We started last stop in September of last year, 2001.
49:29The first original reason of last stop was to start a motor vehicle agency.
49:34Also, I was doing secondary referrals for treatment centers.
49:38In other words, when people are in treatment for drugs and alcohol,
49:40I would find another treatment center for them to go to, such for people who are homeless
49:44or people that need more treatment to stay in them for a long-term treatment center.
49:49I would try to find that when I was working at several treatment centers.
49:53So when I came and we started the store, my sister felt it would be a good idea
49:57if we started doing referrals.
50:00In other words, put a sign outside if people have drug and alcohol problems and need help,
50:05because a lot of people in this world don't know what to do when they have problems with drugs and
50:08alcohol.
50:09So I started last stop.
50:12It was a train station.
50:13Patsy loved the building.
50:14Patsy's my sister.
50:15She loved the building, and I felt last stop would be a great name.
50:19I don't know if I do this because I'm looking for any type of gratitude.
50:23I just do it because it needs to be done.
50:25I mean, there's a lot of people that don't want to do it.
50:27People want to stay sober and don't want to help people,
50:30and there's people that want to stay sober and help people.
50:33The best way I can help them is the people that are dying.
50:36There's a lot of people dying today.
50:38You know, it's good that you help a lot of people.
50:41It's not about money.
50:42I don't charge.
50:44I don't ask for anything.
50:46People that talk about getting better,
50:51a lot of people don't know what it's like to get better.
50:53A lot of people have different ideas,
50:54but when you come from that store, it's a little bit different.
51:18I don't charge.
51:40I don't charge.
51:54I don't charge.
51:55I don't charge.
51:56I don't charge.
51:56I don't charge.
51:56I don't charge.
51:57I don't charge.
51:58I don't charge.
51:59I don't charge.
51:59I don't charge.
52:00I don't charge.
52:00I don't charge.
52:01I don't charge.
52:03I don't charge.
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