Home
Search transcripts:    Advanced Search
Notable New     Yorkers
Select     Notable New Yorker

Bennett CerfBennett Cerf
Photo Gallery
Transcript

Session:         Page of 1029

two days, but I only worked one day, because I boasted out of turn. This man came in and wanted a hat and I brought one to him. And he said it wasn't quite big enough--he wanted to see the next size. So I clumsily knocked over about four piles of hats but I couldn't find the right size, so I brought back the same hat and sold it to him, convincing him it was a size larger. When Mr. Young heard about that, he wouldn't let me come back the second day. He said I was destroying the reputation of his store. He was right!

Also, during the day, Babe Ruth came in to buy a cap.

So now I decided I was going to learn to be a businessman. My handwriting was very bad; I didn't know anything about bookkeeping or anything like that, but I decided I was going to be a business tycoon. My mother had now died. My father had no influence on me. From the day my mother died, I became the head of the family. Pop adored me, but I was already stronger than he was. And to make matters worse, my grandfather had sized up my father very accurately. He was a very shrewd man. He loved my father, but he didn't trust him with money. Pop would have lost it in a year. He was the soft touch of the world. If anybody asked Pop for money, he gave it to them. So my grandfather had left the money to my mother in trust for me. When she died, I got the money, which amounted to just about $125,000. That was my share of that fortune. Pop didn't have it. But I adored my father, and it all worked out well because I turned out to be pretty good with money, and Pop was quite happy. I became financial head of the family at the age of 16.





© 2006 Columbia University Libraries | Oral History Research Office | Rights and Permissions | Help