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Bennett CerfBennett Cerf
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Session:         Page of 1029

Players‘League. They had just gotten into the National League. In 1891, I believe, they got in; and a year after that my pop trained with them. He had been a semi-pro catcher. On weekends, he'd catch, you know, and he got a tryout with the Dodgers, and for the rest of his life we kidded him about not being able to hit Big League pitching. He would always resent it, and no matter how many times we kidded him about it, he'd always give an explanation as to why he hadn't made it.

But anyway, besides learning lithography, which was his business and in which he achieved some success, he taught elocution. A few of the labels my father designed are used today. One of them is Murad cigarettes, and the other one is Blue Label ketchup. Those two labels were designed by my father many, many years ago.

Q:

Did he have any schooling?

Cerf:

Well, he went through high school. I couldn't tell you the name of it. Girls didn't go to college to any great extent then, not in the circles my family moved in anyway. My mother was one of three boys and three girls--there were six children, as I said--and the girls all took elocution lessons. And the gentleman who gave my mother elocution lessons was my father. They fell madly in love, and they ran away together--to the outrage of my grandfather, who looked upon my father as a charming fly-by-night. And these two people were gloriously





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