Thomas Portale, president of the Huntington Beach, Calif. merchandise supplier known as Prizes!, died Tuesday, July 16, at the age of 70. He co-founded the firm with his brother Bob. Prizes! specialized in providing licensed sports accessories to fun centers and other industries.
The two brothers were sons of Bob Portale, Sr., founder of the old Portale Automatic Sales distributorship that did business on Pico Blvd. in Los Angeles under that name until it was taken over by Betson Enterprises, which had originally helped finance the company. The name was later changed to Betson West.
