Editing Walter Matthau (section)

==Early life==
[[File:Walter Matthau USAF.png|thumb|120px|left|Staff Sergeant Walter John Matthau]]
Matthau was born Walter John Matthow<ref name=bup>{{Cite book|last=Edelman|first=Rob|author2=Audrey E. Kupferberg|title=Matthau: a life|publisher=Taylor Trade Publishing|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_-jwSzbgpWgC|location=Lanham, Maryland|year=2002|page=4|isbn=0-87833-274-X}}</ref><ref name=eca>{{Cite book|last=Wright|first=Stuart J.|title=An emotional gauntlet: from life in peacetime America to the war in European skies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SKY_YI3YtQEC&q=walter+matthow| publisher=Terrace Books|year=2004|page=179|isbn=0-299-20520-7}}</ref> on October 1, 1920, in New York City's [[Lower East Side]]. He had two brothers, one older and one younger.{{Citation needed |date=September 2023}}

His parents were [[Jewish]]; his mother, Rose ({{nee}} Berolsky or Beransky), was a [[Lithuanian Jews|Lithuanian immigrant]] who worked in a garment factory, and his father, Milton Matuschansky, was a [[History of the Jews in Ukraine|Ukrainian]] peddler and electrician from [[Kyiv]]. They married in New York in 1917.<ref name=stone>{{cite news|last=Stone|first=Judy|date=September 8, 1968|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1968/09/08/archives/matthau-a-sex-symbol-or-a-jewish-mother.html| title=Matthau – A Sex Symbol Or a Jewish Mother?|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=February 3, 2014}}subscription required</ref><ref name=gussow>{{cite news|last=Gussow|first= Mel|date=July 2, 2000|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9800E4D81539F931A35754C0A9669C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2|title=Walter Matthau, 79, Rumpled Star and Comic Icon, Dies|work=The New York Times|access-date=February 3, 2014}}</ref>

A ''[[New York Times]]'' interview described his early years: "When Matthau was 3 years old, and his older brother, Henry, was 5, his father…lit out for parts unknown, leaving him and his brother to be raised by their mother….In 1935…Matthau learned of his father’s death in Bellvue Hospital….During his childhood, Matthau…lived in a succession of cold-water [[tenement]] apartments in the Ukrainian area of the Lower East Side…being forced to vacate each apartment after only a few months because they’d got so hopelessly far behind in the rent that their landlord would have them evicted….Matthau…hasn’t the slightest nostalgia these days for his poverty-ridden childhood, ‘It was a nightmare—a dreadful, horrible, stinking nightmare,’ he grimly remembers.”<ref> Meehan, Thomas. “What the OTB Bettor Can Learn  from Walter Matthau.” New York Times, 4 July 1971, SM4.</ref>

As part of a lifelong love of practical jokes, Matthau created the rumors that his middle name was ''Foghorn'' and his last name was originally ''Matuschanskayasky'' (under which he is credited for a cameo role in the film ''[[Earthquake (1974 film)|Earthquake]]'').<ref name=snopes>{{cite web|title=Walter Matthau|url=http://www.snopes.com/movies/actors/matthau.asp|website=Snopes.com|date=October 19, 2005|access-date=February 3, 2014}}</ref>

As a young boy, Matthau attended a Jewish non-profit sleepaway camp, Tranquillity Camp, where he began acting in the shows that the camp staged on Saturday nights. He also attended Surprise Lake Camp. His high school was [[Seward Park High School]].<ref name=seward>{{cite web|url=https://sewardparkhs.com/yesterday/#alumni|publisher=Seward Park High School Alumni Association|title=Famous Alumni|access-date=March 29, 2021}}</ref> He acted in several [[Yiddish theater]] productions and worked for a short time as a concession stand cashier in the [[Yiddish Theatre District]].<ref name="nytimes1">{{cite news |last=Cofone |first=Annie |url=http://localeastvillage.com/2012/06/08/stepping-back-into-the-golden-age-of-yiddish-theater/ |title=Strolling Back Into the Golden Age of Yiddish Theater |work=The Local – East Village |date=June 8, 2012|access-date=February 3, 2014}}</ref><ref>https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/ROA-Times/issues/1997/rt9701/970103/01030022.htm</ref>