Woody

Woody Allen was born and raised in New York City to a Jewish family. His grandparents were Yiddish and German-speaking immigrants. His parents Martin KÐ"¶nigsbe and Nettea Cherrie, and his sister, Letty , lived in Flatbush, Brooklyn. His parents were both born and raised on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. His mother worked as a bookkeeper at her family's business. Allen spoke Yiddish during his early years and attended Hebrew school for eight years, and then went to Public School 99 and to Midwood High School. Nicknamed "Red" because of his red hair, he impressed students with his extraordinary talent at card and magic tricks. Though in his films and his comedy persona he has often depicted himself as physically inept and socially unpopular, in fact Woody Allen was a popular student, and an adept baseball and basketball player.

To raise money he began writing gags for the agent David O. Alber, who sold them to newspaper columnists. According to Allen, his first published joke "was in a gossip column. “'Woody Allen says he ate at a restaurant that had O.P.S. pricesвЂ"over people's salaries.'"

At sixteen, he started writing for stars like Sid Caesar and began calling himself Woody Allen. He was a gifted comedian from an early age and would later joke that when he was young he was often sent to inter-faith summer camps, where he "was savagely beaten by children of all races and creeds".

After high school, he went to New York University where he studied communication and film, but, never committed as a student, he was thrown off his course due to lack of punctuality and commitment. He later briefly attended City College of New York.

After his false starts at NYU and City College, he became a full-time writer for Herb Shriner, earning $75/week at first.[4]At age 19, he started writing scripts for The Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show, Caesar's Hour and other television shows. By the time he was working for Sid Caesar, he was making $1500/week; with Caesar he worked alongside Danny Simon, whom Allen credits for helping him to structure his writing style.

In 1961, he started a new career as a stand-up comedian, debuting in a Greenwich Village club called the Duplex. He quickly became a successful comedian, and appeared frequently in nightclubs and on television. Allen was popular enough to appear on the cover of Life in 1969