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exact bike I wanted for my
birthday? Come to think of it, I don't think my father ever gave me a gift.
I know my mother used to buy gifts out of the pittance she received from
my father. She would have my father sign the gift cards. I saw him do it. I
just don't remember him ever going out and actually buying me a gift.
    I went to Atlantic City and appeared again at the Steel Pier with
Milton Berle. I also went to Philadelphia and played the Earl Theater. I
was able to play quite a few dates that were close to home and still manage
to keep up the routine of school, the radio show, and time with my friends.

    My grandmother kept harping on getting our own home. At least
there would be some kind of equity in owning a house. She said to my
mother, "She'll be getting a check every week. Try to save as much as you
can, and let's go look for a house. The hell with what he says. Ask him for
more money every week. I have a little money saved and I'll give it to you
toward the house." My mother used to give my grandmother ten or twenty
dollars every once in a while in case she wanted to buy something for
herself-but she never did. If she wanted something, I would get it for her
or my mother would.
    They found the house in Palisades, New Jersey. It was about five minutes from where we were living, but in a grand section of Fort Lee. It was a
Tudor two-story house. This time we lived on both floors! It was the second house from the corner on Claremont Road-the number was 63. It
was truly beautiful and it was my mother's castle. We bought it from a man
named Brenner. My mother also bought some of the drapes that were there
and the dining room set, which was gorgeous. The house had Italian
wrought-iron gates going from the living room into the dining room and
going from the living room into the sun porch.
    We later turned that room into a bar. Although we were never a drinking family-both my mother and father didn't drink, except for a glass of
wine from time to time-we had a well-stocked bar for guests. I have the
same thing now in my own home. I don't drink, but the bar is stocked for
my friends.
    My mother wanted a few other things that Mr. Brenner was selling:
an eight-foot-tall mahogany grandfather clock from England and a threepiece mantel set with two urns and a clock, all in marble. The clock was
said to be a gift that Flo Ziegfeld once gave to his longtime companion, the
actress Anna Held. My mother had to have that.
    All in all, it was a beautiful, solid house. My mother decorated it in
the French period. Her taste has always been exquisite-remember the
polka-dot coat? So we finally had our house. A small down payment and a
big mortgage. It was worth it and it was ours. My mother felt like a queen
in her castle, and my grandmother was the happiest she had been in years.
If nothing else, we had a permanent roof over our heads.
    The Tastyeast program lasted for three years, and again I did some
tours in RKO theaters. By now I was eleven years old and had quit school.
Little did I know that I would be going to school again in New Jersey at
the Epiphany Parochial School. My brother had started school, and my mother wanted to have the two of us going to Catholic school. It was
about eight blocks from our new home, so we walked to school every day.
I was put into the seventh grade and Sister Alice Rita would be my teacher.
She was also head of the choir, and I got to sing "Mother of Christ" every
Sunday. She promised my mother my lessons would be sent to me if I ever
went on the road so that I could keep up with the class. Sister Alice Rita
discussed this at length with Father Banks, the head priest of the school,
and he okayed the arrangement.

    Every one of the kids looked at me like I was something odd. Sister
Alice Rita made such a fuss over me. I guess she looked at me as a breath of
fresh air in an otherwise dull routine. I had no idea of the discipline in a
Catholic school. I was my