Session: 123456789101112131415161718192021         Page 1234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829303132333435363738394041424344454647 of 1029

street DeWitt Wallace lived and a boy named Elliot Sanger, who came up from Dallas and whose father was of the Sanger family who owned one of the great stores down in Dallas. We became a group of kids who were really quite exceptional, and we all went to Townsend Harris. It was only a mile away. We used to walk together. It was at Townsend Harris that I met another student, who was a year ahead of me, named Irwin Edman, who became quite a famous philosopher and the head of the Columbia philosophy department.

It was an exceptional bunch of children, but do you think the faculty had something to do with it?

Well, now, at Townsend Harris I began to read books, real books, and began to get interested. Now, my father, besides being interested in baseball, was also a theater buff since he had taught elocution. So at a very early age I became interested in the theater, and I've never got that out of my system. To this day walking backstage at the theater gives me a thrill. And anybody connected with the theater I have respect for--the fellow who opens the door to the dressing rooms or the chorus girl. She doesn't have to be naked or pretty for me to be attracted. The fact that she's in the theater makes her important to me. I've never gotten this out of my system. There's star dust still in my eyes.

We weren't given too much money to spend. I had an allowance, as I remember, of a dollar a week. We couldn't