rmance Lucy said, Tannen was magic. . . just this voice, and this magnificent man enthralling you with his stories. . . his intonations. . . which I never, never forgot! He changed my life. I knew it was a very serious, wonderful thing to be able to make people laugh and cry, to be able to play on their emotions. . . (Higham, 23). Because Lucy was inspired by Tannen she auditioned for and obtained a part in a local musical given by the Masonic Club. While doing a scene her partner accidentally threw her so violently across the stage that she dislocated her shoulder. For the rest of her life she had trouble with that shoulder. When she was twelve and a half she took a bus to New York and got a job as a chorus girl in the Schubert Musical Stepping Stones. She was soon fired and sent home when her true age was discovered. At the age of 14, Lucy was tall and excessively thin and leggy for her age. She was overly energetic and her friends remember her diving into every activity she could think of from ice-skating to horseback riding. In 1925, she entered Celeron High School. There she began organizing a dramatic club and a school band. She directed and starred in plays and musicals. On July 3, 1927, it was Freds twelfth birthday and the eve of the 4th of July. Grandpa Hunt decided to have a Fourth-of-July-Eve-Party for some of the neighboring children as well as a visiting girl from a neighboring town, Joanna Ottinger. Grandpa had bought that afternoon a .22 caliber rifle and foolishly gave it to the kids. It had bullets in it to practice with in the backyard. Fred fired some shots at a tin can. Lucy then followed and finally Joanna picked up the gun. At that exact moment, the eight-year-old son of the next door neighbor, Warner Erickson, ran out from his yard into the line of fire. Joanna was firing and the bullet from the gun went through Warners back and lodged in his left lung. He fell to the ground screaming and bleeding. His lower limb...
