Editing Jack Albertson (section)

==Early life==
Albertson was born on June 16, 1907, in [[Malden, Massachusetts]],<ref name=Obit>{{cite news|title=Wallace Thomson Albertson Obituary|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=April 26, 2015|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/latimes/obituary.aspx?pid=174707891}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=February 2025}} the son of [[History of the Jews in Russia|Russian-Jewish]] immigrants Flora (née Craft) and Leopold Albertson.<ref name=ref1>[http://www.genealogymagazine.com/albertson.html Jack Albertson's Kinship to Cloris Leachman] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161008235355/http://www.genealogymagazine.com/albertson.html |date=October 8, 2016 }}, genealogymagazine.com; accessed October 19, 2015.</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1973/01/07/archives/jack-spreads-a-little-sunshine-jack-spreads-sunshine.html|newspaper=The New York Times|title=Jack Spreads A Little Sunshine; Jack Spreads Sunshine|date=January 7, 1973|access-date=May 5, 2010|first=Robert|last=Berkvist}}</ref> His older sister was actress [[Mabel Albertson]]. Their mother, a stock actress, supported the family by working in a shoe factory.<ref name=ref1/> Until the age of 22, Albertson was known as "Harold Albertson".<ref name= ref1 /> His father abandoned his mother before Jack was born, and the boy was raised by his stepfather, Alex Erlich, a barber.

During a 1972 ''[[New York Daily News]]'' interview with [[Sidney Fields]], Albertson reminisced:{{blockquote| "I was bright but disruptive. I didn't do homework. To cover, I made wisecracks and funny faces at the teachers. They told me to take my business elsewhere."}} Albertson dropped out of high school, ending his formal education after a single year. He worked at several different jobs including: the local [[General Electric]] plant; in one of many shoe factories in the Lynn, Massachusetts area; and as a rack boy in neighborhood pool parlors, where he was a fairly good pool hustler, although he was always on guard to avoid playing anyone who could "out-hustle" him. The pool hall provided Albertson with an opportunity to learn a few tap dance routines from his fellow hustlers.

When he was eighteen, he began to be paid for his prize winning shows. His sister Mabel taught him the first "time steps" in tap dancing, and he picked up additional routines by watching vaudeville acts that played his hometown. Around this time, he started singing with a group called "The Golden Rule Four," who held their practice sessions beneath a railroad bridge.<ref>"Current Biography 1976". The H.W. Wilson Company. 1976. P#3-4</ref>