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

Bennett CerfBennett Cerf
Photo Gallery
Transcript

Session:         Page of 1029

are closely associated with Seventh Avenue and 121st Street. And my grandfather, who was rather a stern man with a beard-- he looked like one of the Smith brothers, is the way I remember him--he died when I was about 11 years old. I remember him because on Sunday the family always went to his house. They had a private house and lived in some elegance. They had the first automobile I ever saw. Everybody kow-towed to my grand-father. He had a great backhand. At the dinner table, he could reach across the table and wallop you over the knuckles with a marvelous backhand that moved so fast, you didn't see it coming. And the object was to get as far away from Grandpa at the Sunday dinner table as was possible.

Then he would take a nap in the afternoon. The house had to be quiet as a church. I remember I never was quiet in my life, and I usually was the one who woke him up and got the backhand.

One of the six children who were my uncles and aunts was born very late in my real grandmother's life, and his name was Herbert--Herbert Wise. He played a very, very important part in my life.

Q:

Would you like to go into that?

Cerf:

Yes. He was only five years older than I was and never terribly strong because his mother was 51 years old when he was born. He was one of the most brilliant people that I have ever met--absolutely brilliant. When he was at Columbia, he





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