• 3 months ago
High Roller Full Movie
Transcript
00:00Nearly 2,000 of the world's top action players rolled into Las Vegas this week for the eighth
00:22annual Super Bowl High Roller, and one will take home a pot of gold worth $100,000.
00:32From the Show Boat Hotel, Casino, and Bowling Center in Las Vegas, it's the Super Bowl High
00:38Roller.
00:39So 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.
01:10This is what's left of our field of almost 2,000 entries here at the Show Boat.
01:15There are a lot of Bob Verzicki fans all across the country.
01:45One o'clock.
01:56What are you doing?
02:02Good, buddy.
02:03How you doing?
02:04How are you?
02:05Very well.
02:06Good.
02:07Good.
02:08What's your match?
02:09One o'clock.
02:10When's yours?
02:11Same time.
02:12Hawaii?
02:13Hopefully we don't cross paths yet.
02:14The whole point is these are one game matches, single matches.
02:18It doesn't matter what you bowl, how high you bowl, as long as you win.
02:23That's what it's about.
02:24Win, you're in.
02:25Lose, you're out.
02:26That's how this is going on.
02:28Nobody ever told me that I could have been the greatest, the best there ever was, even
02:32though I knew that I could have been one of the best, because I beat the best.
02:36I beat, when I was 20, all the people that became the best when we were 20, I was the
02:41best out of all of them.
02:43When I broke their butts, that's how we became good friends, because I would bowl them and
02:47beat them, and after I got done beating them, we became friends.
02:50Six B.
02:51Six B.
02:52How old are you?
02:53Good luck, man.
02:54Thanks.
02:55Here, Bobby.
02:56Take one of these.
02:57We're on six B, guys.
02:58So I'm going to get my balls, and we'll go down there.
03:06This is the sheet that everybody has to list their balls on.
03:09Yes.
03:10Everybody gets to use four bowling balls, and they have to be recorded.
03:13Absolutely.
03:14This is where you come every round, as long as you're in the winning spot.
03:17You keep winning, you keep coming.
03:18That's right.
03:19Let's just get by this one today, and then we'll take it one game at a time, like I take
03:23my life one day at a time.
03:26Bob had that special talent, and whenever anybody talked about Bob Purry, it was always
03:33followed by the sentence, wow, he could have been the best.
03:36He had so much talent, and look how he's ruining his life.
03:39That always followed.
03:40It was almost part of his name.
03:42Bob Purry.
03:43Isn't that the kid that's got so much talent and ruined his life?
03:47I was born in Patterson, New Jersey, June 2nd, 1952, in Patterson General Hospital,
03:53from what I know of.
03:55I have one dead brother, four living sisters.
03:59My brother, Charles, was the first one born.
04:02Died of sickness, fibrosis.
04:04Then I had four sisters, Andrew and Pat and Jean.
04:08I was six years old.
04:10My father took me bowling down in peerless lanes.
04:13It was in River Street in Patterson, and 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.
04:22I had it 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.
04:28I didn't really keep score much.
04:31Then when I would come home, I'd have my own little pen and my own ball,
04:34and I'd bowl in the living room all the time.
04:36My father bowled under Charlie Perry.
04:38Him and his brother was Chet Perzycki and Charlie Perzycki,
04:42and they couldn't figure out which was which,
04:44and they spelled the name wrong all the time.
04:46But when I was six years old, my father named me Bob Perry,
04:49and that's the name I stuck with.
04:52Patterson was a good town.
04:54You could keep your door open.
04:56You didn't have to lock your door then, not like today.
04:59I mean, you know, the urban's moving in everywhere.
05:01For a certain part, that don't look too bad, I mean,
05:04but what it looks like now and what it looked like then is two different things.
05:07I used to be a paper boy for all these people over here.
05:10And, 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.
05:18I was the only guy that had a paper around in New Jersey
05:21that used to get in trouble because the people wouldn't pay me.
05:25And I used to get scared,
05:26so I used to just not deliver to them no more.
05:28I was not a tough guy.
05:30I was a small guy.
05:31I was the smallest guy on the block.
05:33I was real skinny.
05:34You know, I had tough times, my broken arms and my eye,
05:37and, you know, I wasn't, I was just one of them little skinny kids,
05:43little tiny kids, real thin.
05:45This is the playground where I used to play when I was in grammar school,
05:49St. John's Grammar School and St. John's Cathedral High School.
05:53They had 40-, 30-, 40-year-old bowling alleys
05:56with real old pins and house balls,
05:59and I used to come down here when nothing was going on,
06:02and the priest, if I was hanging out,
06:05he used to let me go downstairs, and I used to set up the pins myself,
06:09come back up, throw the ball, go back down, set the pins up,
06:11send the ball back because they were 50-year-old lanes.
06:14They had no ball return.
06:16The house looks exactly the same from 1972, exactly 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.
06:37Growing up, it looked exactly the same.
06:39The wall's still the same, the steps are still here.
06:43And this is where I was born and raised.
06:45I 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, but before that,
06:56this 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,
07:11and I won that, and we went to the third regional, and I won that.
07:14So I went into New York, and I had won that regional,
07:17and we were going to go to the finals.
07:19And I was doing very well,
07:21and 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.
07:29I never made the final thing in the World's Fair.
07:32My father gave me a croquet mallet set,
07:34and he says, I don't want you to play with that at all
07:37unless I'm home with my mother,
07:39because we played one day, me and Ricky next door,
07:41played with it outside, and 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.
07:48As he swung it, he leapt over it by accident,
07:50and 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,
07:59all of a sudden we heard my brother screaming.
08:02And we ran outside, and he was running down the driveway
08:05holding his head, and blood was just coming out everywhere.
08:10And a lady across the street thought that I was getting beat up
08:13or somebody was beating me up real bad.
08:15She ran across the street, Diane's mother, Millie,
08:19and Millie came in the house and so on.
08:21She was a nurse, I think, and she said,
08:23call your father, and we've got to get him to a hospital.
08:25My father worked about 25 minutes away,
08:28and for some reason it was like he was home in 3 minutes.
08:31Then we were to the hospital.
08:33Doctor was trying to do my eye,
08:35and 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
08:49the rest of my life came in,
08:51because I was holding his hand in the emergency room,
08:55and he was like, don't leave me, don't leave me,
08:57please don't leave me.
08:59When I look back now,
09:01this is, I think, where my connection really bonded.
09:06I can't see no people or places
09:08or make any kind of distinctions out or anything.
09:11So it was determined that I had a shattered retina
09:14that scarred and buckled over and twisted,
09:16and it never healed.
09:18So that's what I was dealt with.
09:20And then after that, life became really terrible for a while.
09:24That's the guy that used to like
09:27always somehow get me inside his house
09:29and then molest me and do bad things to me
09:33and 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.
09:40It 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
09:51and have me doing it on him, and I was scared to death.
09:54I could not handle that.
09:56I didn't know how to tell my father.
09:58I 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
10:05they tell you that you drink for several different reasons.
10:08I 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.
10:19We had a league. It was my mother, myself, Jeannie,
10:23a cousin, and then a friend of ours.
10:26When my mother died, that was when we stopped bowling.
10:29My mother was very into bowling.
10:31We bowled a lot of years, though.
10:33Catholic Women's League.
10:35We all bowled.
10:37I was young. I really didn't bowl long.
10:39My father would sit behind us in the bowling alley.
10:42While we were bowling in the league, we would be on the team,
10:46and he'd be behind, and he'd come over the seat and say,
10:49you didn't do it right this way, you didn't do it right that way.
10:52Can you get your ball around your fat ass?
10:54Get your ball around your fat ass.
10:56When Mommy died, that was it.
10:58Nobody had to pick up a bowling ball again.
11:00If you were sick, my mother couldn't understand
11:02you had to be there.
11:04My father died, and we were bowling that night.
11:07And Ann said, we're not going bowling.
11:09My mother said, yes we are, your father would have wanted it.
11:12And we were a big family.
11:14And we all played sports.
11:16And my mother drove us all to sports, and all our friends.
11:18We had to.
11:20There was a boy before me who died 20 days before I was born,
11:23and then there was four girls, and then there was Bobby.
11:26And he's the only male on the one family's 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.
11:36I broke his arm.
11:37I don't remember anything.
11:38Oh, yeah, we broke his arm.
11:39Yes.
11:40Well, what was the accident?
11:41We were playing on the couch, and he fell off.
11:43I mean, we didn't go to break his arm.
11:45He fell off, so we wrapped it up.
11:47No, first we said, look, it's not funny.
11:49Oh, yeah, we did kick it a little.
11:51It's not funny.
11:52Because we would get in trouble that he got hurt.
11:54My 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.
12:11I couldn't see.
12:12I'd walk into things.
12:13Everybody said, you're not going to make it.
12:14I think if I was you, I would quit.
12:16And I said, I'm not going to quit.
12:17I said, I'm going to be a professional bowler.
12:19I told everybody, and everybody's laughing at me.
12:21You're going to be a professional bowler.
12:23I said, that's right.
12:24I'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 to bowl in the 190s and 200s and 210s at the age of 12,
12:36at 14, I couldn't bowl 100.
12:38And it was very, very embarrassing.
12:40Because, 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.
12:56And 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 until 5 at night, I would bowl all day long.
13:07I 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.
13:16And I went from throwing a straight ball to throwing one of the strongest balls in bowling.
13:20Bobby disappeared for about 6 months.
13:23Come 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 he goes, you're a 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.
13:44And I walked into the bowling alley, and I devastated everybody.
13:46Even the best bowlers always respected and somewhat feared Bob because they knew of his talent.
13:54His 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,
14:10the power that he had in the pocket, it was something else.
14:16He had one of the greatest arm swings.
14:20A lot of the young players today have a high backswing, Pete 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 on the East Coast.
14:34I used to go out every Friday night everywhere and bowl everybody for money.
14:37It didn't matter.
14:38I 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 like,
14:45where 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. I won my first professional title.
15:02I remember I bowled 12 tournaments, 12 regional tournaments.
15:06The most first place was $1,000.
15:09And I was leading money winner with $6,000.
15:12I was at the American Bowling Congress Championship.
15:14I got 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.
15:27And lo and behold, Bob and Ty won the professional doubles title that day.
15:33He would bowl against anybody anywhere.
15:37He 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,
15:52which is an incredible feat.
15:54There'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, so they formed their own organization.
16:10And each year, they have a tournament.
16:13So what happens, because of rules, they have to accept anybody.
16:18So one tournament, M walks Bob, and he wins the NBA singles championship.
16:23I ended up being the NBA bowler of the year.
16:26I was black bowler of the year, and I was a white guy.
16:28Well, actually in 1972, I bought Encyclopedia Britannica,
16:32and every year you get the book of the year after that.
16:36The 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. I think it was the summer.
16:51I had a choice either to go to college or to become a professional bowler,
16:55and I became a professional bowler.
16:57This is the Bergen County Bowlers Association.
16:59It's one of the only associations in the United States that owns its own building.
17:04They built this building in 1973 when they had 30,000 bowlers in this county, in 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,
17:19you needed to bowl on Monday nights in Paramus.
17:21That's where all the famous bowlers bowled in the 60s, 70s, and 80s.
17:25Hey, Bob, how you doing? Yakshabash!
17:31How's everything?
17:32Good, good, good.
17:33We came here to see the Hall of Fame.
17:35Oh, good, nice.
17:36Fellow Hall of Fame, my fellow teammate.
17:38Thanks.
17:39Joe Tove, so, you know.
17:41Good, 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.
17:55A 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 Fannin.
18:06Joe was on the same team as Eddie Totolo, who was a teammate of mine in Paramus.
18:11Then we have Chuck Pisano, who was a really personal and good friend of mine.
18:15Then we have the greatest bowler I think that New Jersey's ever seen,
18:19and that's Tito Semez, that's on top over there.
18:22He was probably the greatest bowler the state of New Jersey has ever seen.
18:26You know, you think about being put in the Hall of Fame, I mean, it's a great honor.
18:31And, you know, it's a well-deserved honor for a lot of people.
18:36I mean, even for me it was a well-deserved honor.
18:38But, 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.
18:52And I've been on the ballot for 15 years. I mean, it's totally ridiculous.
18:56I mean, I had major accomplishments in bowling and never got in.
19:00As Bob started getting older and bowling better,
19:05a lot of people started showing up, very interested in what Bob was doing.
19:13People from Patterson, a lot of people that were...
19:23I don't know how to say this.
19:29I really don't know how to say this.
19:30People that were...
19:34I don't want to say mafia people, but I want to say...
19:43Shady people. Actually, 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, and he had money.
20:04We got to know Raymond.
20:06Raymond used to take us here, we'd go here, we'd go there.
20:09Raymond was the money man.
20:11Don't worry about it, I'll put up the money.
20:13And he'd be the backer.
20:14Yeah, I'm throwing a ball for you.
20:16That's the kind of guy he was.
20:17He was the wise guy.
20:18Raymond was the wise guy.
20:20He was also known as Uncle Raymond.
20:23Uncle Raymond.
20:24He had them fucking dangerous eyes.
20:26You know how they talk about people with eyes that can look through you and cut you up?
20:30That's what he had.
20:31He'd go like this.
20:35There's a tough element there behind gambling.
20:37And if you don't perform, you can get hurt, physically as well as mentally.
20:44And you have to be careful how you're introduced into gambling in pot games, as we called it back then.
20:53Bowling was gambling itself.
20:55They bowled for money all the time.
20:58It 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.
21:12It was fun.
21:13You go into a bowling alley, you could be broke and walk in and they'd all bet on you.
21:16You win and they give you the money and you go home.
21:19It was great.
21:20Friday nights was terrific.
21:21And if I had $200 or I had nothing, I would come home with a lot of money.
21:24Problem is, the money that he did win, very little of it was his money.
21:29So it was a tough life.
21:33And naturally, being awake three, four days at a time, that would lead to some type of a drug to try 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.
21:51And I had to deliver the Christmas gifts to them, which were bottles for Christmas and things like that.
22:00So I said to Bob, would you drive me?
22:01If 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 Gimbel's department store.
22:10And he said, Pat, you take too long.
22:12I'll go.
22:13You drive the car.
22:14I 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.
22:21Now I'm walking across and I come to the traffic light.
22:25And that's where the Avenue of Americas meets Broadway.
22:28I think it's called Herald Square.
22:30So I was coming where the one way is coming down.
22:33And the one way coming down is on my left.
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.
22:48And I turned and I said, oh, my God.
22:50And I got hit by a car.
22:52And 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?
23:08The cab hit me.
23:09It hit me.
23:10It crushed me.
23:11It hit me.
23:12It dragged me.
23:13I went almost to 32nd Street.
23:15And I ended up hitting an antenna 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.
23:27And my legs hurt and they were swelling, but I couldn't move.
23:30So I said, let me just lay here.
23:31My 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.
23:40I don't believe this.
23:41I'm dead.
23:42And I said, well, if you're dead, you're supposed to meet somebody, the God, the devil, or something.
23:48I can hear these sirens and people screaming and stuff like that.
23:52The people surrounding 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.
24:15And they took me to Wayne General where I stayed for the next 169 days or something.
24:20I have crutches and a walker and a wheelchair.
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 when I was moving.
24:37Well, they were saying I couldn't walk again, never mind bowl again.
24:41Everyone did drugs.
24:42We all did drugs.
24:44Okay, it just depended who got hooked and who didn't.
24:48I really got heavily addicted into Percodans as painkillers 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.
25:00But, I mean, it was really a bad time.
25:02But he stuck through it.
25:04I was scheduled to go on the PBA tour and I never got to go.
25:07I was going to leave the week later because it starts in January, the first week of January.
25:11And I never got to go.
25:13So...
25:15When my father was dying, my brother was a stone drug addict, an alcoholic.
25:22My father finally was diagnosed with lung cancer and he was going to die.
25:26And the doctor told him that, you know, you had six months to live and don't you think you led your life?
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...
25:40I had just started using cocaine then.
25:42I mean, I used it because what it did was it really kept me up.
25:45And I used it to stay up.
25:47I mean, it also got me high.
25:49But at night I couldn't...
25:50You know, I used speed and coke and I was staying up.
25:52And I wasn't really heavily addicted to that at that time.
25:57And at the end, when the liver went to...
25:59The cancer went to his liver, you know, he didn't want to stay in the hospital anymore.
26:03And he asked me 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.
26:10And for that nine months, like, you know, it was hard because all day long I was out hustling
26:16and doing 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.
26:21And then at night, from like 9 or 10 at night to 9 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
26:34saying that's the reason I should destroy my life.
26:36You know, I wish I would have been in a different shape and form
26:40when people came to the funeral home to see me.
26:42You 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.
26:59Hey, Mom.
27:01Long time.
27:05Yeah.
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 for an ever and ever.
27:25And my family couldn't take it.
27:27Bob always owed 50 million people.
27:29If it wasn't loan sharks, it was that, you know, thing.
27:32At one time, it was really a serious thing.
27:34And 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 trust him.
27:44And he paid him.
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 Mr. Bowler.
27:55A lot of them didn't know the other side of him.
27:59But they knew us.
28:00Right.
28:01So they'd say, okay, here's 100.
28:02Your sister will give it to me.
28:03And I told my neighbors, you give him money.
28:05It's your money.
28:06My sisters were strong enough to walk away from him.
28:10I never was.
28:11They were strong enough to set limits and boundaries
28:13that he wasn't allowed to be in their lives or this and that.
28:15I 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.
28:24He came.
28:25He was like, what you would want him to have done
28:28was 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.
28:34Shoe 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
28:50to a motel in Patterson to give him a room.
28:54Remember that one?
28:55Yeah.
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.
29:08For 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.
29:18Get 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 at his apartment and we were drunk.
29:32And he says to me, why don't you try this?
29:34And I smoked it and I got high.
29:36And 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, booze got me sick.
29:43I'd drink 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, I walked into Times Square and I yawned.
30:03And I opened my eyes up and I'm in the middle of Times Square.
30:06And I said, what the hell am I doing here?
30:08And I looked around and I said, and I looked in my pocket.
30:11I had 20 bucks and 6 vials of crack.
30:14And I said, wow.
30:15And I got on the phone and I dialed my friend Bobby Ricciardi
30:18because he had an 800 number.
30:20And I said, let me speak to Bobby.
30:22And 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?
30:35I said, I'm in Times Square.
30:36He goes, what the hell are you doing here?
30:37I 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 3 weeks ago.
30:42And I lived in a blackout for 3 1⁄2 weeks.
30:44And, you know, I don't know what happened that time.
30:46And, you know, we're talking 3 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,
30:54what happened to you, what it was like and what happened.
30:57And, you know, it builds up a lot of bad vibes.
31:01I go in here and 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
31:08and trying to get high and trying to get high
31:10and just maintain my high for the night.
31:12That's what I used to do.
31:14And I come over here and this is 8th Avenue.
31:16Right in these buildings right here, 495, 493, 491.
31:23At one time in the 80s, this was a place where we'd buy a lot of our,
31:27I'd buy a lot 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
31:34or the dope fiends and the drug dens in these buildings.
31:41And down here you see the crates.
31:45We just picked this up.
31:46We used to go down underneath there and that's where we used to smoke the dope
31:49and hang out and hide during the day.
32:07And if you turn around and you look up the street here,
32:11I mean, look up the street.
32:13You think it's, you just feel we're a little warmer today,
32:16but think about 20 below with the wind blowing or 10 below.
32:20You know, it's real cold.
32:22You've got the same clothes on for six months, same socks.
32:25Your head's up like this and you're freezing and you're walking around.
32:29And you're living right on the street here.
32:31I mean, this is it. This is where I did it.
32:33I walked up and down, all the way up and down these streets.
32:35I used to walk up and down, up and down, up and down, all night long.
32:38I walked up and down, up and down, up and down, all night long.
32:42This is what I did.
32:48I used to come in here.
32:49I'd come down here like three or four in the morning.
32:51Freddy used to work here.
32:53Freddy was pretty good.
32:55As long as, you know, if I owed him money, he owed me money,
32:58he would give me $10 or $20.
33:00And as soon as I got $20, I'd go around the corner
33:02and try to pick up some piles of crack.
33:05We'd come over to Show World and I'd check my pocket
33:07to see if I had any quarters left.
33:09If I did, or maybe if the guy's in there, I knew, I'd go in there
33:13and I'd get a couple of dollars, I'd put it in,
33:15and I'd get like maybe a half hour or 45 minutes.
33:18Then 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
33:25and just the whole piece of my mouth was coming off
33:27because of the teeth rotting away and my gums rotting away.
33:32I went in the peep show.
33:33I used to go in there and have what booze and drugs I have.
33:36Put 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
33:43and then suck the devil's dick, that'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,
33:58you don't have money for a bus, you don't have money for a cup of coffee,
34:01you don't have any money, you can't go anywhere,
34:04you're all blacked out, you've been up all night long, you're filthy,
34:07your hands are black, your throat is like ready to close from the butane,
34:11you're coughing, you're spitting, and you're walking around and you ain't got no money.
34:15And even if you got money, if you have $30 left, there's nothing to do
34:18because everybody that's on the street right now are all deadbeat artists.
34:22That's all they are, deadbeats.
34:25Because I was told that three things are going to happen to me if I don't get better.
34:28I was told that I would either kill somebody, kill myself,
34:32or spend the rest of my life in an insane asylum.
34:38When you reach the point in life of drinking and drugging
34:41and you beat yourself into submission, I had enough.
34:44I was walking down the street and it came to me that I don't have no more mind,
34:48I didn't have any money, I had no chance of getting better,
34:51I had ran out of every possible way, method that I could use
34:55to exist another day getting high.
34:58And it was all over with.
35:00And it was all over with.
35:01And after being downstairs in the subway,
35:03sitting 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?
35:22Couldn't kill myself drinking and drugging.
35:24All I knew was that the trucks come down the street really fast
35:27and if I jump, I'll never feel it.
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
35:35and I slipped and saw 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
35:41and I would have died then.
35:43But I ran away and then I decided from that point on
35:45that I needed to do something about my life.
35:59I was feeling better and they told me I could go to Graymoor, St. Christopher's Inn.
36:13And I went up there and I just listened.
36:15I said, brother, I said, I need help and I need it bad.
36:18You got to help me.
36:20He arrived, I had said to him, you know, you've been drinking again.
36:23But his driver had left.
36:25We kept him.
36:27And I think that was, God wanted him to be here.
36:35It 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.
36:43No, you didn't see me for a long time.
36:44Oh, even before that.
36:45I don't, time is not something you relate to anymore.
36:51I saw, I saw defeat, but I saw healing.
37:04That the shell, maybe to explain it, the shell had come off.
37:11And there was a beginning of healing.
37:14The emotional inside you could never explain.
37:18I, myself and others, pushed him and said, you know, if you're going to be here
37:24and you want to go on with your life, you're going to have to do something.
37:26And that's just a matter of being here.
37:28It's not just a matter of being in the building and letting all these activities,
37:32but you have to kind of absorb them.
37:34You have to kind of make yourself a part of it.
37:36St. Christopher's was probably the biggest inspiration of it all.
37:40Especially with the superior experience with Father Paul
37:44and knowing that I had some hope in life.
37:48And I got all that from here.
37:50I mean, when I left here, I had a good foundation underneath me.
37:54I knew I was going to stay sober.
37:56And I was determined to stay sober.
37:58And according to the way they set and structured me, that I could make it.
38:15You know, God saved my life and St. Christopher's saved my life.
38:18So, you know, had I not come here, I probably would have died.
38:23Chances are I was dead already, so I would have definitely been dead if I wasn't here.
38:37A 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 the brother wanted the money back.
38:52And the people Bobby knew, they went to collect the money.
38:57And Bob went to Manhattan to tell this guy we wanted the money back or else.
39:02I sat down. I talked to him.
39:04And I was told certain things.
39:06And, you know, I kind of like took it to another level
39:10and tried to get the guy to get the message.
39:12And the guy did get the message.
39:14But the message not only was being given to the guy, it was being given to the FBI.
39:17You know, I mean, the FBI was there all the time. I didn't know that.
39:21He was charged in a very serious crime.
39:24He was charged in an extortion.
39:26Some of the people that he was accused of participating with
39:30were alleged to have contacts in organized crime.
39:35And he was in a bit of trouble.
39:37They handcuffed me and they put me in the back of a federal car
39:39and they took me all the way side street and under a tunnel
39:42into the federal building in Manhattan.
39:45And they took me up into a room.
39:47And I'm standing there and they're going through my wallet.
39:49Who's this guy? Who's that guy?
39:51And they bring a guy in to meet me.
39:54And they said, do you know who this guy is?
39:56And I said, no.
39:57They said, this is the guy that locked up John Gotti.
39:59Bob had been arrested and charged with extortion in federal court
40:02in the Southern District of New York.
40:04The U.S. Attorney Clark is telling the magistrate
40:07that I'm a cop in a gangrene or crime family
40:12that I can kill people with a snap of my fingers.
40:15And my lawyer turns to me and says,
40:17I thought you were a bowler. What are you talking about?
40:19I said, I have no idea what he's talking about.
40:21From the day that I met him, he made it clear that he wanted to find a way
40:24to acknowledge the criminal activity in which he was involved.
40:29And he was prepared to deal with the consequences.
40:32And that was unique among the people I represented.
40:35At the end of the day, Bob was sentenced to a time-served sentence
40:40and a term of supervised release.
40:42In other words, a non-incarcerative sentence.
40:45And as you well know, he was able to go on with his life
40:49and go on with his trade.
40:50And he proved the judge's judgment about him correct.
40:56This is T.S. Smith. Greatest of all time.
41:00Better than everybody. Nobody better than T.S. Smith.
41:02My friend for 30 years. 40 years.
41:04When this kid grew up with Mark Roth,
41:07him and Mark Roth were just as even in those days.
41:11But, you know, one went another way, he went another way,
41:15and he could have been one of the best in the world.
41:18I used to stay at his house.
41:20When I grew up, this was 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...
41:32When his dad didn't come and we weren't together,
41:34I had to watch over him.
41:36The second dad. Let's put it that way.
41:40Yeah, my first dad on tour, I roomed. I roomed with T.S.
41:43So he was blessed with me the rest of his life.
41:46Here we are 40 years later, still blessed with each other.
41:49It's great. It's great. It's great to see him back.
41:59Good to see you.
42:00All right. Everything's good.
42:02Good. You ready?
42:03Yeah, I'm ready.
42:04All right. Let's go home.
42:06You know, it hasn't been an easy life.
42:10Like I said before, he's come out of it.
42:13He's back, he's off the canvas now,
42:16and my son is going to help him get back,
42:19draw him up, get him back on his feet,
42:22get him back on his feet,
42:24get him back on his feet,
42:26get him back on his feet.
42:28He's back, drawing his equipment,
42:30and once we get everything ready for him,
42:32I think he's going to be very competitive.
42:58I started bowling again as Bob Perzycki when I got sober
43:26because I wanted no affiliation because I'm sober.
43:29My name is Bob Perzycki.
43:30I wasn't sober as Bob Curry.
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,
43:43but I'm not going to beat myself up
43:46because when I was not sober,
43:48my parents got to see me be a lowlife.
43:51Today I'm not a lowlife, so they see that.
43:54We don't believe in God.
43:55We believe in our higher powers,
43:56so I know they're in heaven.
43:58That's all that matters.
43:59Whether I go to heaven or not,
44:01we know that they're in heaven.
44:11Well, Earl Anthony, we have arrived.
44:14We have arrived at our championship match
44:16of the Super Bowl High Roller.
44:19The winner of this match, $100,000.
44:24Bob Perzycki and Chris James.
44:27Both of these guys are feeling a lot of heat right now,
44:30and the opening shots will probably get down there real quick.
44:36There are a lot of Bob Perzycki fans all across the country.
44:41That's a nice ball. There it is.
44:44Outstanding shot there, and you can see
44:46they'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,
44:58there was a higher purpose for him.
45:02And that's the kind of thing, a psychological thing.
45:04That's a double for Bob and, in effect, Chris James.
45:08Only 23, as I mentioned.
45:10Already feeling plenty of pressure
45:12just bowling in this circumstance.
45:16Oh, another good shot.
45:17Boy, that's a beautiful ball
45:19after that double from Perzycki.
45:21So somewhere these demons were conquered.
45:24I don't know who conquered them,
45:26but I think 99% has to go to Bob.
45:30He conquered his own demons.
45:33Determination in his face.
45:35Both bowlers working on a double.
45:38Oh!
45:40Perzycki!
45:42Well, I'll tell you what.
45:44You've got to feel pretty fortunate, as you can see.
45:48Is he out there with that bowling ball?
45:50You never know.
45:52Might be another hand behind him helping.
45:58In the 5th frame.
46:00Oh!
46:03There's a look at him.
46:07You're getting another chance now.
46:09You can start a new career
46:11in what you're doing in an addition in bowling
46:14where you can again become a national champion.
46:17So take advantage of it right now.
46:20But it really comes down to Chris James
46:22needing three strikes minimum
46:24to make Bob Perry get a mark.
46:26Bob Perzycki should say get a mark in the 10th frame.
46:28It's there!
46:29Oh!
46:30Wait a minute.
46:31Look out!
46:32Hit!
46:33Oh, no.
46:35Unbelievable.
46:36His 4th solid 10 of the match.
46:40I 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.
46:48But he's up.
46:50It's a wonderful story.
46:52He's very open about talking about what Perzycki is.
46:54He's a recovering alcoholic.
46:56He works with kids day in and day out.
46:58He gets kids off the streets.
46:59He finds jobs.
47:00He'll like it.
47:04200 to 193.
47:06And Bob Perzycki is the champion
47:12of the Super Bowl High Roller here in Las Vegas.
47:26There is your winner, Bob Perzycki.
47:29The winner of the High Roller here at the Showboat in Las Vegas.
47:33$100,000.
47:36200 to 193 over Chris James.
47:39We're in the middle of a wonderful moment here at the Showboat.
47:42I 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...
47:53I had a real bad time in life.
47:55Five years ago this was a dream,
47:57and today it's reality.
47:59And I owe a lot of people for it.
48:00And I thank God for it.
48:02And without it, I'd have nothing.
48:04Very, very nice.
48:08I think he's fine now.
48:09I think that there won't be no count of 10.
48:13I think from now on he'll be the referee,
48:16counting for other people.
48:19Happy birthday to you.
48:22Happy birthday to you.
48:26Happy birthday, dear Bobby.
48:30Happy birthday to you.
48:34Happy birthday, Bobby.
48:45I didn't think I was going to make 35.
48:49I didn't think I was going to make 50 years old.
48:51Not at all.
48:5510 years sobriety.
48:56Sober 10 years this month.
48:59This month is the month that I got sober.
49:02June 27, 1992.
49:06Like it says in another wonderful book,
49:09love endures all things.
49:11It bears all things.
49:12Love is what it is.
49:14And I think Bobby got a genuine love for people,
49:16especially people that went through what we went through
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
49:31was to start a motor vehicle agency.
49:34Also, I was doing secondary referrals for treatment centers.
49:37In other words, when people are in treatment
49:39for drugs and alcohol,
49:40I would find another treatment center for them to go to,
49:43such for people who are homeless
49:45or people that need more treatment
49:47to stay in for a long-term treatment center.
49:49I would try to find that
49:50when I was working at several treatment centers.
49:53So when I came and we started the store,
49:55my sister felt it would be a good idea
49:57if we started doing referrals.
50:00In other words, put a sign outside
50:02if people have drug and alcohol problems and need help,
50:04because a lot of people in this world don't know what to do
50:07when they have problems with drugs and alcohol.
50:09So I started Last Stop.
50:11It was a train station.
50:13Patsy loved the building.
50:14Patsy's my sister, and she loved the building,
50:16and I felt Last Stop would be a great name.
50:19I don't know if I do this
50:20because 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 to 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.
51:24Last Stop
51:54Last Stop
52:24Last Stop