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 In the latest in Reuters' monthly 'First Jobs' series, we talked to
couples who work as TV personalities, actors, models or authors
about their first gigs and found their starts were often humble.
Dr. Phil & Robin McGraw
Dr. Phil: Back in Oklahoma City, I had several jobs at one time,
when I was around 13 years old. I had a paper route, worked at an
A&W root beer stand, and at also a local chain called Pizza Planet.
It was my stomach that encouraged me to do all that: We need money,
and it was not for playing around. It was for paying utilities and
stuff like that.
Soon after I got hired at the A&W was when they put us on skates. I
was not a bad athlete, but I have the worst balance. So when they
put me on skates, I was not long for that world. I was scattering
stuff all over the parking lot. I think there are still some
hamburgers rolling around.
This was around 1963, and we didn't even get minimum wage - it was
75 cents plus tips. You can always tell if someone's been really
poor. They know that if you don't work and get paid that day, you
don't eat.
Robin: My first job was at a place called the Red Top Drive-In, in
Wichita Falls, Texas. This was in 1970, and it was located in the
parking lot of a Gibson's, which is a large department store in
Texas.
Three of my girlfriends and I got jobs there, and we had an absolute
ball. This was after school and on weekends. We were in charge of
taking care of the drive-up window and filling counter orders for
burgers and sodas.
Once our boss said he had to go run some errands, and left us in
charge. The minute he left we all started playing around, spraying
soda at each other from those nozzles. We didn't do anything he told
us to do.
Of course, our boss didn't really leave on an errand - he hid and
watched the whole thing. So I got fired that day. I learned an
important lesson: Do the right thing, even when you think no one is
looking.
Maury Povich & Connie Chung
Maury: I was a soda jerk in Silver Spring, Maryland, at a place
called Falkland Drugstore. It was a full-service place, where I made
ice-cream sodas, sandwiches and grilled hot dogs.
It was all very Norman Rockwell, and probably right when Rockwell
was at his peak, back in 1952. I know exactly how much I made: 75
cents an hour, plus tips. I guarantee I spent it all on baseball
cards.
I can still make a mean chocolate soda and root-beer float. The best
thing about it was that as a soda jerk, you had to show people
geniality across the counter and make people feel comfortable with
you. That set me up well for the future.
Connie: My first real job was working as a secretary at the
Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management, for whatever
the minimum wage was back in 1968. I worked in a tiny little office
with a man who was probably 102, where the door made a terrible
sound when it slammed. Finally I asked him if that noise ever
bothered him, and he said, 'What?'
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Then, between my junior and senior years in college, I worked on
Capitol Hill for a sleazy Congressman who left before they caught
him doing unsavory things, including towards me. He left me on the
payroll even after I stopped working for him. My dad told me to send
it back to the U.S. Treasury, and I did.
But once someone asked me the most painful job I ever had, and I
answered, 'Co-anchoring with Dan Rather'. You can print that, by the
way.
Boris Kodjoe & Nicole Ari Parker
Boris: Believe it or not, my first job was for a traveling circus in
the middle of Germany's Black Forest. I was seven years old, and I
was the curtain puller. When new acts came into the arena, the
curtains had to be pulled back, and I was one of the two guys who
did it.
It was a really tiny circus owned by some Hungarian family. The most
exciting animal they had was a donkey. The clown was also the lion
tamer, and the 'lions' were more like German shepherds. They paid me
a turkey sandwich and a Coca-Cola, and that was enough for me. I was
a celebrity for about a week.
The most vivid memory I have was when I was giving my family a tour
of the circus. There was a monkey on a chain, my three-year-old
brother ran right up to it, and it bit him on the eye. After that he
had to wear an eye patch.
Nicole: My dad drove me from Baltimore to go to New York University
when I was only 17 years old. As soon as he dropped me off in the
dorms, I immediately went downstairs and applied at a Ben & Jerry's
ice-cream shop.
It was my first real paycheck with taxes being taken out, so I felt
like an official grown-up. At that time Ben & Jerry's used to make
all their cookies fresh, and they would come out of the oven nice
and warm, so I remember having a whole lot of chocolate chip cookie
dinners.
They had just built new dorms for NYU, so most of our clientele was
students who had the munchies. What was great about Ben & Jerry's,
but hard on employees, was that they sold 'hand-packed pints'. So if
you bought a pint of Cherry Garcia from me, I had to put it together
scoop by scoop and pack it all down. That was intense.
(Editing by Andrew Hay)
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Circus
roadie, ice-cream scooper: The first jobs of famous
couples
