Paul Gallico

Sports writer, screenwriter and novelist Paul Gallico was born in 1897 in New York City. His parents were immigrants (father from Italy, mother from Austria) who emigrated to the US in 1895. He was educated in the New York City public school system, and entered Columbia University in 1916, graduating in 1921--his education was interrupted by an 18-month stint in the Army during World War I--with a B.S. degree. He soon got a job with the National Board of Motion Picture Reviews, but left after a few months to take a job as the film critic for the New York Daily News. He lost that job because his reviews were considered too "smart alecky" and he wound up in the sports department. One of his assignments was to cover the training camp of champion Jack Dempsey. Rather than just do a "puff-piece" interview with Dempsey, Gallico got a different idea--he would actually spend some sparring time with Dempsey in the ring, to get an idea of what it was like to be in the ring with the world's heavy