Editing Joe Besser (section)

==Early life==
Besser was born in [[St. Louis]], [[Missouri]], on August 12, 1907. He was the ninth child of Morris and Fanny [Fecht] Besser, [[Jew]]ish immigrants from [[Eastern Europe]]. He had seven older sisters and an older brother, Manny, who was in show business, primarily as an [[ethnic]] Jewish comic. From an early age, Joe was fascinated with show business, especially the magic act of [[Howard Thurston]] that visited St. Louis annually. When Joe was 12, Thurston allowed him to be an audience plant. Besser was so excited by this that he sneaked into Thurston's train after the St. Louis run of the show and was discovered the next day in Detroit sleeping on top of the lion's cage.

Thurston informed Besser's parents of the situation and trained him as an assistant. The first act involved pulling a rabbit out of a hat. The trick involved two rabbits, one hidden in a pocket of Thurston's cape. But young Besser was so nervous that he botched it badly, pulling out the rabbit from the cape at the same time the other rabbit was on display, before the trick had been performed. The audience roared with laughter, and Besser from then on was assigned "comic mishap" roles only. Besser was placed by St. Louis juvenile authorities in a "corrective school" (reform school) at age 12.<ref>[http://0-persi.heritagequestonline.com.iii.slcl.org/hqoweb/library/do/census/results/image?surname=besser&givenname=joseph&series=14&state=5&hitcount=2&p=1&urn=urn%3Aproquest%3AUS%3Bcensus%3B14842165%3B105172537%3B14%3B5&searchtype=1&offset=0 Besser, Joseph] c/o ''heritagequestonline.com.iii.slcl.org'' (subscription required)</ref>