DEEP IN THE HEART OF TEXAS

Don't look to these unauthorized ``confessions'' by three sisters and former Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders for a history or exposÇ of the famed cheerleading corps. It tells almost nothing about the organization but is, instead, a shallow, sticky paean to overweening glamour and materialism. Suzette made the 36-woman squad in 1978, followed a year later by Stephanie (who, despite the triumvirate byline, narrates the ``story''). Both were retired by 1982. Third sister Sheri caught on as an alternate in 1985 but quit before the end of the season. Their mother, who dominates the first half of the book, was in hot pursuit of ``every little girl's dream,'' strictly coordinating her daughters' ``look,'' dating, and behavior: They were never to wear jeans or speak loudly. (``A low-class gutter sow'' is loud; a ``real lady...is as quiet...as a rose.'') Stephanie's most traumatic experience as a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader was, as she tells it, hearing of director Suzanne Mitchell's displeasure with her hairdo: ``I was very confused...I would look in the mirror for hours and cry. I hated myself.'' The payoff for ``the Rockettes of football'' certainly wasn't the $15 per game or even the personal appearances, TV movies, and game shows—for which the girls most often were not paid; it was, instead, a privilege just to wear the blue hot pants and bask in the Texas spotlight, to be treated ``like a geisha'' and end up ``being supported by rich men.'' Gushing descriptions of ``wholesome'' sexuality, coyote fur coats, and snakeskin boots; facile emotional crises and Fantasy Island pink/sunset romances with handsome oilmen; plus a lack of substantive information about the subject—all make for a relentlessly vacuous exercise. (Sixteen pages of photographs—not seen.)