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ent001421-202
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    v General News Section ' Weather v-. page 7 B True BROTHERHOOD'IN A LOAF of bread. ^Soutfds strange, doesn?╟╓t it? It is. It?╟╓s the story Of a Catholic lawyer, a Jewish show producer, a Protes- tant newspaper publisher and a Mormon bank presi- dent, with Minneapolis and Minnesota both deeply involved. The saga starts in Las Vegas, Nev., moves to Los Angeles, Calif., and winds up in Minneapolis. A fellow name?╟╓d A1 Freeman handles publicity for the Sqnds hotel in Las Vegas. He was wounded in Italy in World War II,' suffers a periodic recurrence of a lung ailment. Last spring He was hospitalized in Las Vegas, and was literally starving to death. He couldn?╟╓t retain a bite of food. A nun in the hospital fed him a piece of hot'buttered breads It was the iirst morsel of food he had been able to keep down for days. He lived on it for five days. Freed from his great hunger, Al ^exclaimed, to the nun,, ?╟úThis is truly angel bread.?╟Ñ After his convalescence, A1 missed the bread and often vfrent back to the hospital to get a lpaf. The nuns couldn?╟╓t sell the bread, but Freeman, like many other patients, left a?╟╓generous gift. He also discovered that the bread was baked by Sister'Angelita. ?╟  THE SISTER?╟╓S RECIPE, he learned, had been In her family for nearly 100 years in Germany. During the next few months, Freeman personally sent hun- dreds of loaves all over the country to friends and ex- perts for testing. These testers agreed that Sister Angelita?╟╓s bread had something special. ATs next move was to set up a foundation to be known as the ?╟úAnge- lita Bread Foundation.?╟Ñ A Wrapper was designed and a machine to mix huge quantities of dough almost as the nun had mixed her daily 30 loaves by hand was de- vised. The first bakings of 1,000 loaves a week were made in Vegas as a test. The sale there now runs at a capacity of 2,212 loaves a week and brotherhood enters the ?╟ picture again, with the bread baked in a Jewish bakery and promoted by a Lutheran, a Catholic, a Methodist, an Episcopalian, a Mormon and a Negro Baptist minister?╟╓s; assistant. * -THREE CENTS FROM the sale of every loaf goes to build up Rose de Lima, the hospital where Sister Ange- lita baked her original bread. When that project is fin- ished, the royalties go into the foundation for hospitals around the, country. Our Sunday Tribune ran portions of this stofy awhile back, .and that story produced 317 telephone calls and 4,200 letters from our area to Free- man in Las. Vegas. From all the responses, Freeman took that of John Farley, chairman of the board of Regan Bak- eries, as the most attractive. Said Farley, ?╟úWe need a good new loaf df bread in this bu'siness. I?╟╓m interested in ?╟╓working with the sisters on this. I?╟╓m considered a [pretty goo,d Catholic.?╟Ñ Said Freeman, ?╟úFine, I?╟╓m consid- ered a pretty good Jew. We have Catholics and Protes- tants already interested, so let?╟╓s get tdgether and build so As h^j^talsJ' ^Kegaxi?╟╓J FoaftiTRaSMaff,' president atrd Chief maker 'Went to ?╟≤ Los Angeles, watched 'the sisforb make the bread, then watched the bakers in Vegas bake it. There were scores of trips bqck and forth, plus the expenditure, of thousands of dollars here developing the bread to the point where the sisters couldn?╟╓t tell the dif- ference between the Regan bread and their own. \ THE BREAD HAS BEEN tested in this market with very little promotion and sales have been extremely successful so far. The backers wanted to be sure their business was based on taste rather than splash promo- tion. After the Angelita loaf has carved Its success here, the foundation will start working with bakers all over the country with the Minneapolis franchise and technique used as the model. The foundation has al- ready established plans, after finishing the Rose de Lima project in Nevada, to put up the first hospital in: the city where the bread got its start?╟÷Minneapolis. Freeman sees right off the bat a potential of $520,000 a year for the building of hospitals and their mainte- nance. In our area alone a sale of 10,000 loaves a week,' which is the volume already achieved, is peanuts com- pared with the potential, plus multiplying that by 100 cities in .America and their royalties going Into the hospital here. REGAN?╟╓S FARLEY WITHOUT prejudice calls the Angelita loaf, ?╟úThe best piece of bread I?╟╓ve tasted in 30 years.?╟Ñ We?╟╓ve used it in opr home for a week and have been completely delighted, nit keeps a long, long time and toasts into,the most appetizing-slice you can imagine. I ve' tried it with regular butter, uncalled butter, with jam. I?╟╓ve toasted it for a peanut and banana combination grilled.* I?╟╓ve* nibbled on a slice just as it comes out of the package. I agree wholly with Farley and Freeman. And that?╟╓s the story of what Freeman-called, "angel breads?╟Ñ now called Angelita. Cedric Adams?╟╓ column appears daily in the Minneapolis Star