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Page 5 of 28 |
Early Exploits: |
Budding Talent in Kansas City |
Walt dressed up as his favorite
President, Abraham Lincoln
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tIn the fifth grade, however, he memorized the Gettysburg
Address for fun(!) and surprised everyone by arriving at school dressed
as the sixteenth president of the United States. In addition to a
costume that consisted of Elias' old coat and a homemade beard, he
pasted a putty wart to his cheek.
Miss Olson, Walt's teacher was delighted, and summoned
the principal to see his act. Walt was then shepherded around to perform
for every class in the school -- and repeated the performance the
next year. "Miss Olson always said I was going to be a real actor
because I squinted my eyes on certain passages," Walt reported proudly.
Walt enjoyed recognition and applause. He had been bitten by the acting
bug.
Walt's love for performing was shared by his pal
Walt Pfeiffer -- Walt's first really good friend. The two boys studied
Charlie Chaplin's movies, and tried to emulate the world-famous clown
in a series of skits the boys worked out. They were encouraged in
this pursuit by the Pfeiffer clan, a large, fun-loving family that
enjoyed singing around the piano and joke-telling. They performed
at school every chance they got. |
Walt assumed his father would never permit him to participate
in amateur-night contests in Kansas City, so he snuck out at night
to join in. As it happened, Elias was somewhat more open-minded than
the boy knew. "One time Roy got wind that Walt was going to be in
an amateur night somewhere," recalled Ruth, "So, we all hurried down
to the theater and sure enough he was acting like Charlie Chaplin.
According to us, he was the best. But he didn't win the prize." It's
worth taking note that this was just one of the occasions when Elias
supported Walt's artistic bent. As Walt began to explore his knack
for art, as well as performing, Elias agreed to pay for Sunday classes
at the Kansas City Art Institute. Walt enjoyed drawing -- and he was
good at it. So good, in fact, that he often ignored his lessons in
favor of sketching. His notebooks were littered with scrappy little
mice. Classmates were particularly entertained by Walt's own versions
of a popular comic strip of the time, Maggie and Jiggs. "He wouldn't
just copy what was in the newspaper either," recalled one classmate,
still with an admiring tone in his voice, some sixty years after the
fact. |
Walt Pfeiffer and friend
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Walt's seventh grade teacher
Daisy A. Beck
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Now in the seventh grade, Walt had a great stroke of
good luck. He was given Daisy A. Beck as his home room and math teacher.
By all reports from men and women who recalled Beck's years teaching,
she was not just a good teacher; she was extraordinary. A slender,
tall, elegant woman with a taste for stylish clothing, Beck was coach
of the school's track team at a time when a woman coach was about
as commonplace as a horse that played the harp. She spoke, softly,
slowly and with perfect grammar to her students. Decades later a cadre
of former students living in Kansas City remembered her with
the greatest affection (One woman in her eighties recalled Beck as
"very much a favorite of the boys." Accordingly, a couple of the boys
recalled, with the happy glint of memory, that she certainly had a
"good build.")
Walt was never much for athletics. As his brother
Roy recalled, "he could never catch a ball with much certainty (chk)".
But Daisy A. Beck encouraged him to try out for the school's track
team. "Hop out there at recess and show me what you can do," she said.
Walt learned how to sprint and even won a medal on the relay team
at the school's annual track meet.
For years after, Walt and his seventh grade
teacher traded letters; a correspondence initiated by Walt in 1931.
Even as Walt became an internationally known celebrity, a letter from
his seventh grade teacher was greeted with excitement. Walt Pfeiffer,
who went on to work for Walt in the studio recalled, "Walt would get
a letter from her and he'd call me up and ask me if . . .I could come
in. He said 'I want to show you something.'" It'd be a letter from
Daisy A. Beck; that's how she always signed her name." |
In June, 1917, Walt graduated from the seventh grade
at Benton School, and surprised his parents by delivering a patriotic
speech. Ruth led the graduation procession (a testimony to her diminutive
size more than anything else). Meanwhile, through the graduation exercises
Walt drew pictures in his fellow students' class books. Not only was
Walt done with grammar school, he was also finished delivering newspapers.
Elias had been successful with his newspaper route, and had been steadily
investing in a jelly firm in Chicago, the O'Zell Company. Now, he
sold his route and brought his stake in the firm to some $16,000.
It was time to go to Chicago to oversee his investment and become
the head of the company's plant construction and maintenance.
The investment would later turn out to be an unfortunate one. An unscrupulous
company president embezzled corporate resources, and it was bankrupt
by 1920. But when Elias made his investment it made good sense. He
thought that there was a big future to be had in bottled carbonated
beverages like Coca-Cola. O'Zell had developed just such a product.
Once again, although Elias may not have had great luck, a fair observer
has to admire the courage he had in his own ideas; a trait thoroughly
shared by his famous son.
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Elias, Flora and Ruth
after their arrival in Chicago
in 1917
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