Personal and Family History

Paris and Paris

The Biography of Bette Sraberg

and Reynold Paris

Beverly Hills, California

2003

Lifetime Biography

Copyright 2003 all rights reserved

(800) 458-2464

Drora Perlman Gilad

Paris and Paris

Bette Sraberg was born February 12, 1925 at her parent’s home in Brockton, Massachusetts which is about 20 miles south of Boston. She was named Betty Sraberg at birth; however when she was older she changed the spelling of her first name from Betty to Bette in honor of Bette Davis. Bette is the youngest of five children, and she suspects that she was born to be the replacement for her older brother Joseph who died of scarlet fever when he was very young.

Reynold Paris was born in 1922. He resembles his father and was named after his father’s sister Rachel who died of a the flu during an epidemic before she was able to come to America

After many years of marriage, raising five children and working together daily in their Law firm, the two are still dear friends and sweethearts. If you are around them, you will see them hold hands and laugh together often.

Table of Contents

Bette Sraberg 3

Personal and Family History 3

Father Samuel Sraberg 3

Mother Ida Golding 3

Grandparents 5

Growing-up 6

Day to Day 6

School Years 6

Reynold Paris 8

Personal and Family History 8

Father Paris 8

Mother Paris 8

Grandparents 9

Family Life 10

School Years and Military Service 10

Rey and Bette Paris 13

Love and Romance 13

School Years 13

Earning A Living 14

Children 15

Beliefs and Expectations 18

Favorites Now and Then 18

Leisure Time 18

Predictions 18

Politics and People 18

Standard Pedigree Tree 19

Table of Figures 20

Bette and Reynold Paris

Bette Sraberg

Personal and Family History

Father Samuel Sraberg

Samuel Sraberg was born in Ponadel, Lithuania, and it is possible that Lithuania was still a part of Russia at the time of his birth. The exact date of his birth is unknown because the records are incomplete which has led to much speculation about his true age. Samuel immigrated to America via Ellis Island while he was still very young. Throughout his life he was very intelligent and vibrant, not someone who could easily be pinned down.

Sometime after immigrating to America, Samuel moved to Brockton, Massachusetts and began working in the shoe factories. At that time, Brockton was the shoe capital of the world, and it was filled with many shoe factories. Eventually, Samuel left the shoe business and studied real estate. He bought two properties and transformed them into rooming houses, which were similar to modern day hotels. The rooming houses became his income.

Mother Ida Golding

Ida Golding was born in America in the state of Massachusetts. She had two older sisters named Fanny and Sarah, as well as one younger sister named Katie. They were all very beautiful women. As adults, Fanny was very religious and lived in Chelsea. Sarah was always very driven and ambitious, a “go-getter” as Bette has said of her. Sarah was married many times and had a daughter named Dede, who is now deceased. Sarah had no formal education, however she was brilliant. She lived in Los Angeles, California before she passed away. Katie was somewhat of a bitter person. She was married and became Katie Fineburg. Katie’s husband was a fruit merchant and would sell dried fruit to the Sears-Roebuck Company.

Together, Samuel and Ida had five children, of which Bette is the youngest. Myer is the oldest child. He was born in Massachusetts and is many years older than Bette. Alice came after Myer in 1918. Next, Ben was born and then Joseph who died young from scarlet fever. Finally Bette arrived in 1925. All of the children in the family had beautiful blue eyes.

Myer was a thin man with fair skin, blue eyes, and curly hair. He was a brilliant man and had intelligence that came from within even though he had little formal education. He graduated from Brockton High School, but his education did not continue past this. Growing up, Myer played the violin. He was also very hyper and ambitious. After graduating high school, Myer started his own tire business in Quincy, Massachusetts where he sold tires. During World War II, Myer’s business specialized in used tires because new tires were not being made. This was very profitable because any tires were greatly desired at the time.

When Bette was in third grade, Myer married. He had three children; a daughter Estelle, and two sons named Jack and Jerry. Myer loved Bette very much. He admired her because she was very bright and intelligent.

Alice was the second oldest in the family and she was eight years older than Bette. Because Ida was not a very strong person, Alice took charge and became a sort of semi-mother for the family. She took care of Bette and taught her to read before Bette even started school. She was very attractive; however she was also somewhat bossy which probably came from having to take care of the family from a young age. Alice had trouble finding a job because the family was Jewish, and they lived in a small and anti-Semitic town. Alice was very happy when their family moved to Boston, Massachusetts because it opened up opportunities for her to work.

Alice was married and had a son before Bette and Rey had even met. Bette first dated the man that Alice later would marry, but she did not like him, so they broke up. Alice liked him, and they started dating; soon they fell in love and were married. Alice’s husband was in the United States Army and moved to Boston after basic training.

He was somewhat domineering however he loved Alice very much. Alice and her husband lived with her mother and did most of the cooking and cleaning. Alice was always very firm with her children about eating. She always made them finish their entire meal, whether they wanted to or not. She was very obsessive about eating, and her children now resent that part of her.

Ben is the second youngest in the family. According to Bette he had a very “benign” personality and was very good-natured. Because of his sweet disposition, people took advantage of Ben, even his own wife! At an early age Ben moved out of the house and lived with Myer and he also worked in the tire business. Myer also took advantage of him. Ben was not very good in school; however he was a very easy-going person and loved Bette very much. After living with Myer, he moved out on his own and lived in Walton, Massachusetts.

Grandparents

Bette’s maternal grandmother, Reba Esther Golding, was born in Boston, Massachusetts.

Growing-up

Day to Day

Growing up, Bette loved to play hopscotch, which she did very well. During first grade, the school physician discovered that Bette has scarlet fever so he sent a note home to her mother with the information. Of course, her mother was very afraid, especially since Bette’s older brother had died from this. The doctor told Ida that Bette was to have very limited physical activity; therefore Bette was not able to participate in any sports or highly physical games while she was growing up.

Bette had many girlfriends while in school, and they would frequently play together after school. One of their favorite things to do was playing with paper dolls. In the evening, Bette would not help her mother much with the dinner or other housework because, as Bette says it herself, she was very “un-domestic”.

Bette lived with her family in Brockton, Massachusetts until her senior year when the family moved to Boston. The main reason for the move was the family’s desire for a larger social life. Brockton was a very small town and had very few people. Bette’s mother wanted to make sure that there were enough Jewish men available to find husbands for her daughters. Bette considers Brockton to be her home town. She describes it as a very small town, however despite its size; it was the shoe capital of the world.

School Years

Throughout her school years, Bette was an excellent student. She received A’s in all of her subjects, and her husband Rey describes her as being very “cerebral”. Bette knew how to read before she began school. He older sister, Alice, loved to play schoolteacher, and Bette played along as the student. This playing paid off, as Bette skipped kindergarten and went straight into first grade at age six.

Bette went to Lincoln Elementary School in Brockton. This elementary school was very small, having only one class per grade with between 20-30 students in each class. School started early in the morning and lasted until around 3:30pm. The same teacher taught all the subjects to the class, so there were no switching classrooms during the day. The students went home during lunch hour, and returned to school when they were finished. Lincoln Elementary School is still an active school in Brockton today.

In her early elementary school years, Bette recalls a story of her teacher thinking she had plagiarized an assignment because it was written so well. Bette had been given an assignment to describe a photograph. She was given a photo of the painting “Blue Boy”. Well, Bette did an excellent job, and the teacher accused her of copying the paper from books in the library. She later found out that the paper was Bette’s original work.

Though Bette was excellent at all academic subjects, in either fourth or fifth grade, she discovered that she was not so good at home economics. She quickly learned that sewing and cooking were her weaknesses, however she was still able to earn an ‘A’ in the class because of the written assignments and tests that were required. In her senior year of high school, Bette moved with her family from Brockton to Boston. The schools in Boston were very different from those she had attended in Brockton, especially since they were not co-ed.

Reynold Paris

Personal and Family History

Father Paris

Rey’s father was born in 1888. He had three brothers: Oscar, Joseph, and Maurice, and a sister named Rachel. Rachel died in a flu epidemic before she was able to come to America. While Rey was growing up, his father was not a good role model. Sadly, he suffered migraine headaches and was physically abusive toward his family. He sold Metropolitan Life Insurance for a living, drove nice cars and liked to take the family on vacations in the family car.

Rey’s father immigrated to America from Poland. He met his future wife on the ship on the way to the United States. Before coming to America, his last name was Harris; however his name was changed to Paris at Ellis Island. He and his wife were married in 1912, and they had their first child, Frieda in 1914. Rey was born in 1922. There was an eight year difference between the children, it is suspected due to Rey’s father contracting tuberculosis. Because of this tuberculosis, Rey’s father had to live in a sanitarium.

Rey’s father highly valued education and he graduated from high school in the United States. At this time, graduating from high school was a huge accomplishment and fairly rare. At home, he spoke Yiddish.

Mother Paris

Rey’s mother was born in 1889. She had two sisters and two brothers: Mary, Sadie, Frank, and Harry. Sadie married Rey’s uncle on his father’s side. Frank changed his last name from Fleischer to Farber. Harry was a member of the Purple Gang in Detroit, Michigan. Rey’s mother was a very comforting woman, however she was also very smart and quick witted. She did not get a high education and had to work in a sweatshop making clothing. She worked as a single person before she was married, however fortunately she did not have to work after she was married. She was a great housewife and a wonderful cook. She was also very meticulous about cleaning. Rey’s mother was very good to him, and she loved him greatly.

Rey has one older sister named Frieda who was born on March 14, 1914; eight and a half years before Rey was born. Frieda was very small framed; she stood around 5’1” and weighed less than 100 pounds. For a while Frieda attended Porsche Law School in Boston where she was a fair student; however she did not finish at this school.

Frieda was very artistic and was a talented artist and pianist. However, she had a bad temper and Rey would constantly taunt her. Rey was still living at home when Frieda was married. After her marriage, she had a son named Norman who Rey would baby sit.

Grandparents

Rey’s paternal grandmother was a Hebrew woman named Mina. She lived in Massachusetts after she had immigrated to America. Rey’s paternal grandfather was an English man named Nathan. Rey’s maternal grandmother’s name was Beatrice, and his maternal grandfather’s name was Jaimen.

Family Life

Growing up Rey was an avid reader. He loved works by London, Dickens, and stories of World War I. Rey also loved philosophy. His father urged this liking; however he did not force it upon Rey. Because of this, Rey would often discuss philosophy with his father. Rey particularly liked a Jewish philosopher named Stenoski. The church in Holland excommunicated Stenoski because he did not agree with the concept of God in human form. Stenoski believed that there were natural laws that governed the seasons, the heavens, and life, and these laws were the best representation of God. Rey enjoyed Stenoski and could both understand and relate to his views.

Rey’s family took a few road trips while he was growing up. They visited upstate New York, Washington D.C., and went to a farm in New Hampshire. One summer they stayed at a resort in Winthrop, Massachusetts. Rey’s father was an automobile insurance salesman and had to have a nice car to elicit sales. Rey remembers his father driving a 1926 Nash Automobile, a 1932 Chevy, and a 1936 Chevy. Rey enjoyed cars when he was a young child and could name all the cars that he saw.