It's Not That I'm Paranoid

On May 21, 1923, at three in the afternoon, a male baby named Richard was born to Miriam Jacobson and her husband, Harry, at the Jewish Memorial Hospital on 207th Street in New York City. That building has since disappeared.

That happens a lot I my life — things vanishing after I leave. A year after I left 20th Century Fox, the entire back lot of eighty-five acres was sold off and torn down. After I finished doing a television series at Ziv studio in Hollywood, Ziv was sold, the lot razed and converted to a mall with a huge supermarket. A year later, a crew member on Combat!, who had a rakish sense of humor and with whom I had worked on the Ziv series, asked, "Hey, Rick, did you know that Hank Bending went back to work at Ziv?"

"Really?" I asked, somewhat amazed, "what’s he doing?"

"He’s a bagger."

It isn’t that I’m paranoid or anything, but it seems a little strange that so many places disappear after I leave them. I say this only as a warning to any of you who are following me at any close distance; I suggest you occasionally look over your shoulder.

NEXT: Grandpa Julius Wohlfeld : Jewish Immigrant - Furrier - Klondike Goldminer