ABSTRACT
Samuel Levenson was born in New York City on December 28, 1911, the son of Hyman Levenson, a tailor and Rebecca Levenson and the youngest of eight children. The family's income was small, but the children had a wholesome and happy upbringing, due largely to their mother's tolerant yet firm philosophy of childrearing. Levenson attended high school in Brooklyn, where his family had moved and graduated from Brooklyn College in 1934 with a B. A. in Spanish. Later he earned a master's degree in Romance Languages at Columbia University. On December 27, 1936, he married Esther Levine; they were to have two children. He began a teaching career and, in 1938, was assigned to Brooklyn's Samuel J. Tilden High School; he remained there for the next eight years. Levenson broke into show business in 1940 as a master of ceremonies for a group of teachers who had organized an orchestra to perform in the Catskills.
