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Bennett CerfBennett Cerf
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room and burst into tears. I remember this humiliation and my downfall at the Tribune so clearly. Of course, I still had the job down at the brokerage office.

Q:

Of course, they were giving you something like...

Cerf:

Something like $30 a week.

Q:

Yes, but still to write a column for a big New York newspaper at the age of 21!

Cerf:

I was too smart-alecky. This was a good lesson for me. I've almost profited by it!

Q:

Tell me about the brokerage office.

Cerf:

The brokerage office was down at 20 Broad Street, which is right next to the Stock Exchange. In fact, I was working there when the Wall Street explosion took place--right across the street. In 1921 there was this terrific explosion right in front of J. P. Morgan and the sub-treasury. The thing I remember most about that office was something that played a big part in my later life. I learned every job in the office, even worked on the floor for a while--taking the orders and giving them to brokers. One of the boys that worked there with me in the cashier's cage was named Charles Allen. We were the two mavericks of the office, because both





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