People, Nov. 3, 1975

The stance is early Abner Doubleday; the batsman is Captain Fantastic himself, Rock Star Elton John. All dandied up in a sequined white Dodger uniform (designed by Cher's own dressmaker, Bob Mackie), Elton had come to play a pair of concerts at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. In real life, of course, Elton has never swung a baseball bat in anger. "What I have played is a game called rounders," said the bespectacled singer. "It's the English equivalent of baseball and not nearly as violent. None of that sliding into bases and trying to get the guy with your cleats." With 110,000 tickets sold to his rock doubleheader, Elton seemed more concerned with his sequins than his slide anyway. His uniform's cost? "Two thousand," said Elton. "But that's just a ballpark figure."

It was a very bad deal indeed, at least in the opinion of Thomas Austin Preston Jr., a.k.a. Amorillo Slim, 46. Preston, who parlayed his 1972 victory in Las Vegas' World Series of Poker into a tour of TV talk shows and a movie role in California Split, was arrested by his home-town police in Amarillo, Texas, last week. Charged with felonious bookmaking on football games, the lanky, slow-talking gambler drew a short stay in Potter County jail before his release on $25,000 bail. "I was at the wrong place at the wrong time," complained Preston later, adding that he would surely win his case when all the cards were down.

With his competitors multiplying like rabbits, Playboy Emperor Hugh Hefner, 49, has recruited help for his troubled hutch. Starting Nov. 1, his new "special assistant" will be Christie Hefner, 22, Hefs own willowy brunette daughter. "I'll be listening and learning about the entire corporation and placing problems in front of my father that need his attention," says Christie, who has been following her father's "Playboy Philosophy" since she was 18 and began rooming with a college boy friend. Alas, she will apparently disappoint feminist critics of the bare-skin magazine. "My presence speaks for itself," she asserts loftily, "and belies the chauvinist claims against Playboy."

"I hope I'll still be sexy," fretted German-born Actress Elke Sommer, who faces her 34th birthday next week and an upcoming stage role as an older woman in Cactus Flower. Male viewers of Sommer's newest movie, The Net, will probably see little cause for her concern. Cast as a kittenish prostitute on the run from a maniacal killer, Elke displays her talents in one scene through an all-leather outfit she bought in Chicago. "I loved it and wanted to wear it barefoot during the filming in Rome," she recalled. Not so Director Manfred Purzer, who quickly ordered his star to buy a pair of snakeskin boots. However, the footwear footage ended up on the cutting-room floor, and the $700 Italian boots were consigned to a far corner of Elke's closet.