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Were there any experiences before you started school that you can remember? Did you go away for the summers or did you spend your summers here in New York?

Well, one thing: my mother, to my disgust (I was her pride and joy, of course--the only child), dressed me in Buster Brown collar--you know, with a bow. The first day I went to Public School 10 (it was a very tough neighborhood; the Irish kids were over around Manhattan Avenue and Eighth Avenue) with that Buster Brown collar and bow, I became the center of their attention. I came home with the collar ripped and my nose bleeding and screaming with rage. I wasn't angry at the boys that did it. I was furious with my mother. That was the last day I ever wore a Buster Brown collar. Either I changed my costume or I wouldn't go to school.

You spent most of the first ten years of your life in the city. You didn't get out...

I never got out of the city. My father was a very proud man. We lived on what he made. It was distinctly middle class. There was never any trouble about money, because my grandfather was, as I told you, for his day a very wealthy man; but my pop wouldn't touch any of my mother's money. Of course she really didn't have any, but he wouldn't let her go to her father. So I was brought up as a kid playing in the streets, playing stick ball with a bunch of tough little kids, a lot of whom became very famous later on.