Gallop

At 13, I excelled at one thing. Which is identifying famous people on New York City streets, buses, subways as well as in crowded restaurants and in darkened alleys and theaters. Truly, it’s my gift. And I persisted. My passion for celebrity identification was greatly assisted by my growing up on the West Side of Manhattan in the 1950s and 1960s and living in The Belnord, a Renaissance masterpiece, featuring two grand archways that provide entrance and exit to an inner courtyard with lush landscaped gardens. In the garden’s midst sits a garland-festooned marble fountain. Many famous and near famous lived in The Belnord, and these folks all had famous friends and relatives who visited. Among those living in The Belnord were child actor Brandon De Wilde, writer Isaac Bashevis Singer, actor Zero Mostel, and the head of the famed Actor’s Studio, Lee Strasberg, who resided there with his wife, Paula, and two children.