I bought the book as soon as it became available! Obviously a labor of love for Adam, as is the new bio of Allen and Betty.
I found out, quite some time ago, that Gene was from my old Chicago neighborhood, and attended the same high school my parents did. What I didn’t know until I read the book, was that their time in that school intersected for a year or two.
Had we known Gene’s real name (Eugene Rubessa) back in the day, it may have turned out that my parents’ paths crossed with Gene’s, back in the mid- to late-‘30s.
I’d like to say I was named after him, because Gene was a TV hero of mine from around 1963 onward. He was instrumental in my choice of my lifelong career. But no. I was named after a great-great-ancestor, about whom I know very little.
