He was born 1897… on March 6. He was the youngest of 7 children. I am talking about my father, Leonard.
All he wanted in life was to be in show business. He could sing…dance…act..and could whistle any song. After high school, he went to New York to be on Broadway. He never got a leading role. He was always in the chorus.
When he couldn’t make it in this business we call show, he came to Los Angeles to find a part in a movie. Again it just wasn’t in the cards…. Leonard was very handsome. Unfortunately, he resembled a very famous man named Fred Astaire. This was crushing to my father.
Leonard was in World War 1… World War 2 …and the foreign legion. He married my mom and they moved to New Orleans to find jobs.
He found a small job but it didnt work out. My mom and my dad had an arrangement. He would stay at home with us and my mother would go to work. I did not know what to think of this. I did not know any other families that did this.
He was a very strict father…and I do mean strict. One day when I was acting up, he told me that I was adopted and he could send me back to the orphanage at any time. For a while I believed this. When I wanted to use the phone I was only allowed to talk for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes he would take the phone out of my hand and place the phone on the receiver….. to be continued…
Love,
Richard
