"IRON HORSE" GEHRIG TO BE FEATURED
IN TV AD CAMPAIGN

TUCSON, Ariz., April 19, 2001 - According to a recent story in USA Today, Lou Gehrig's image will be used in a new TV commercial for Alcatel, the French telecommunications and Internet company.

Gehrig, dubbed the "Iron Horse," was the Yankee first baseman who, in the 1920s and 30s, rivaled Babe Ruth for fame and athletic prowess. Gehrig retired from the game in 1939 due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the neuromuscular disorder that would take his life only two years later.

A representative of the Gehrig estate was quoted as saying Alcatel had licensed the rights to Gehrig's legendary 1939 retirement speech at Yankee Stadium. In the speech, Gehrig referred to himself as "the luckiest man on the face of the Earth" because of the support he'd received from friends, family and fans.

Alcatel previously used the image of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in a commercial.

The licensing fee paid to the Gehrig estate for Gehrig's image was said to be considerable. The Eleanor and Lou Gehrig MDA/ALS Center in New York, one of 22 centers administered by the Muscular Dystrophy Association that are devoted to ALS care and research, is a major beneficiary of the estate.

MDA is devoted to defeating more than 40 neuromuscular diseases, including ALS, and has invested nearly $130 million in ALS research and services.

Gehrig's widow, Eleanor, served as a voluntary leader of MDA during the 1950s and 60s and helped strengthen the fledgling organization in establishing long-term plans to defeat ALS through research.

In the 1990s, MDA-funded scientific research helped pave the way for the first FDA-approved drug for ALS, Rilutek.

For more information on ALS, including symptoms and progression, contact MDA at (800) 572-1717 or access the MDA Web site at www.mda.org.