Russell Robinson, Early Life

I was born in 1922. And, I'm told, 7:15 pm. It was a Tuesday, and—I think—it was in St. Margaret's Hospital, in Boston . . . where my mother was. Boston was my mother's home.

My father was Basil Wendell Robinson, and my mother was Theresa Francis Walsh. They were in show business.

My father was born in Ohio, in a place called Mt. Vernon. He had one of the most beautiful bass voices I've ever heard, including Ezio Pinza . . . and he was a very handsome man.

My mother was a dancer; she was a ballet dancer, but she could do other types of dancing.

They were married six or seven years before they had me. I'm not sure of the exact year, but it was obviously before 1917, because they had my brother Basil in 1917. Basil, my older brother, was my only sibling. He always lived in Boston. He was living with my aunt Ella.

The first year of my life is a total blank. Nobody has ever told me where I spent the one month, six months, twelve months, et cetera. All I know is, that when I was age two, I was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The reason that I know that, aside from the fact that I remember that, is because there are two pictures of me that we have, in a sort of tintype form: one with a go-kart that says "1924 Milwaukee," and there I am sitting up there with the brains of the goat; and the other is a tintype of me riding a bicycle that said "Milwaukee, 1924." And that made me two years old, so by that time, the time I was zero, and two, I had been moved to Milwaukee. Not with my parents—just to Milwaukee.

My mother and father were in show business, as I said, so they travelled continually . . . although the majority of their travel, as I recall, was in the Midwest area. It was impractical, I suppose, for them to continually take me with them.