Phil Silvers

Born Philip Silver in Brooklyn, New York, in the working-class Brownsville neighbourhood,[citation needed] he was the eighth and youngest child of Russian Jewish immigrants, Saul and Sarah (née Handler) Silver. His siblings were Lillian, Harry, Jack, Saul, Pearl, Michael, and Reuben Silver. His father, a sheet metal worker, helped build the early New York skyscrapers.[citation needed]
Silvers began entertaining at the age of 11, when he would sing in theaters when the film projector broke (a common occurrence in those days), to the point where he was allowed to keep attending the same movie theater free of charge, to sing through any future breakdowns. By age 13, he was working as a singer in the Gus Edwards Revue. Subsequently, he worked in vaudeville and as a burlesque comic.
Silvers next worked in short films for the Vitaphone studio, such as Ups and Downs (1937), and on Broadway, whe…