Word: warrenoff
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...started his musical career as a tenor back in the days when he was attending Evander Childs High School in The Bronx. Born. Leonard Warrenoff, son of the Russian-born owner of a fur shop, Warren dabbled in singing until he was 14, dropped the idea, returned to it as a baritone when he was 19, and started studying seriously. In the Depression years he worked in his father's shop, then landed a job in the chorus at the Radio City Music Hall...
Twenty years or so ago, Bronx-born Leonard Warren (né Warrenoff) was busy selling fur jackets and studying advertising at Columbia, and Brooklyn-born Richard (originally Reuben) Tucker was selling dyed silk linings to the wholesale fur trade. Baritone Warren turned to singing (he won the 1938 Metropolitan Auditions of the Air) when the Depression shrank the fur business; Tenor Tucker turned to singing when the outbreak of World War II shrank the silk supply. Both advanced quickly in the war-hobbled Metropolitan, both quickly became reliable, stock-in-trade singers. In recent years they have blossomed into spectacular...
What Could He Lose? Leonard Warren reversed the usual U.S. operatic procedure and changed an exotic name to more familiar syllables. He was born Warrenoff in The Bronx, where his Russian-born father ran a fur shop. After graduating from Evander Childs High School he helped with his father's fur business, studying advertising at Columbia on the side. He also took some singing lessons. They might have remained a hobby but for the depression which crimped the fur business...
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