BACK TO ROOTS: Ever get the idea...

BACK TO ROOTS: Ever get the idea that people like to attend conventions in Anaheim just to get a company-paid trip to Disneyland or the beach? Not so when thousands of California dentists converge on the Anaheim Convention Center today for a four-day session. . . . Sponsors say at least 100 dentists must buy equipment or X-rays from the 550 exhibitors to replace goods damaged during the Northridge earthquake. Says a spokeswoman: “They need to get their offices back in shape.”

LOOK-ALIKES? Students often wear uniforms in private schools. But in public schools? The Huntington Beach Union High School District adopted a new dress code this week (B2) to control the tank tops and T-shirts featuring lurid pictures or words. . . . But the code also lets any of its high schools opt for wearing uniforms. None have such plans so far, but some say it may happen. The school board’s stated dress-code goal: “To foster student success in a positive manner.”

NO SINGING ANGEL: It isn’t likely any ballplayer would try this approach today: Country music star Charley Pride, who used to play semipro ball, writes in his new autobiography that when he failed in a tryout with the Angels as a youth, he approached owner Gene Autry on a hotel veranda. Pride pleaded: “Mr. Autry, don’t let them cut me. Just let me stay and I’ll pay my own expenses.” . . . Autry told him he left baseball decisions to others. But Autry loves country music, and later became a huge fan of Pride’s.

GABE & BOB: In another autobiography, “Uncommon Knowledge,” former actress Judy Lewis reveals that she is the product of her mother Loretta Young’s fling with Clark Gable. Lewis also discloses that one of her beaus in the early 1950s was none other than local Congressman Robert K. Dornan, then a Loyola University student. . . . Loretta Young not only approved, Lewis writes, but “she once said to me: ‘Bob will either become a charming bum or a tremendous success.’ ”