Page 117 - Just Deserts

The Sirocco Lites 26K Run for the Money

Business operations were disrupted Thursday morning at the
home office of Polygon Industries in Dover, Delaware when a crowd
of disabled war veterans and their supporters stormed the building
after breaking through police lines. The demonstration against the
giant holding company’s international trading policies had begun
peacefully with a picket line and chanted slogans. The police lost
control, however, after a more militant group of disabled veterans
began chaining themselves to doors and parking entrances in an
attempt to flush Polygon’s executive officers from their forty-third
floor suite.
In a related development, Polygon shares lost nearly one quarter
of their value on the NYSE, as institutional investors yielded to
pressure from public action groups and unloaded their holdings (see
story in Business section, page C1).
Polygon’s woes began earlier this week when Ace La Manza,
dubbed “The Abominable Showman” by Times sports editor
Naughton Hammock (see story in Sports section, page D28),
appeared at the city council in Isla View, a small town on the coast of
California, with a proposal he claimed was authorized by Sirocco
Tobacco, a division of Polygon. According to witnesses and a
videotape of the proceedings, La Manza offered to rescue the town’s
financially troubled annual marathon by giving it Sirocco’s
sponsorship. He also presented artist’s renditions of the revamped
“Sirocco Lites 26k Run for the Money,” one of which became the
source of the ensuing controversy. That image, now familiar to
nationwide viewers of the evening news, portraying wheelchair racers
costumed as Sirocco Lites cigarette packages, was endorsed both by
La Manza, who claimed the idea had come from Sirocco’s
representative, Boyd Brainard, and by Benjamin Holden, chairman of
the Isla View city council. Holden also asserted that the plan had the
approval of Kevin Caltrop, leader of the local wheelchair racing
association.
La Manza had invited the national press to the Isla View city hall
for a press conference following the council’s meeting. After a highly
staged announcement of La Manza’s offer and the city’s readiness to
accept it, questions were raised by certain reporters known for their
antagonism to La Manza. In particular, anonymous tips had been
116