New York Activists and Leaders in the Disability Rights and Independent Living Movement: Vol I
From aspiring actor to pre-law at New York University, 1963
JacobsonWhat made you go to NYU?
Allison
I wanted to escape. From the time I was small, I think. My mother working in a movie theater sort of promoted this thing. I was very interested in acting. I actually wanted to come to New York to be an actor. I got to see every movie ever made, not because my mother worked in the theater. I could go and I could see--I think I saw "On the Waterfront," like, five times. That was my plan. My plan was to come to New York. NYU was sort of like a convenient way to do that. But I wanted to become an actor.
Just to fast forward, I wasn't willing to make the sacrifice, after all is said and done. But what I have is a lifelong passion for the theater, for film, for acting, which my kids share. But that was my plan. And I didn't major in drama when I went to NYU. I majored in political science and history. I had a dual major. Pre-law. So there was
I even took the exam for the foreign service when I was at NYU and could have pursued that. They wanted me to take the exam a second time. That could have been a career path. You know, I really wanted acting. I wasn't willing to make the sacrifice, the tremendous sacrifice. If you're going to do that, you have to be able to take a lot of humiliation, a lot of rejection; you have to be very tough, and you have to live with the thought that you may never ever see your name in lights.
It was also during the war.
Courtesy of Regional Oral History Office. The Bancroft Library. University of California, Berkeley. Berkeley, Calif., 94720-6000; http://bancroft.berkeley.edu
http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb5c60042m&brand=calisphere
Title: New York Activists and Leaders in the Disability Rights and Independent Living Movement: Vol 1
By: Sherer Jacobson, Denise, editor
Date: 2004 (issued)
Contributing Institution: Regional Oral History Office. The Bancroft Library. University of California, Berkeley. Berkeley, Calif., 94720-6000; http://bancroft.berkeley.edu
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