Happy Birthday Master

Happy Birthday Master

November 23 1935.  Thomas Ivy Neyman was a premie, prematurely born and in those days, believe me, things didn’t work out as well as often as they do today.  No incubators.  You were snuggled up to mom and if you made it…well, you went home to start your new life.  Little Tommy didn’t remember his dad because Thomas Neyman Sr. died in a plane crash when Tommy was only 18 months old.  Thomas Sr. was an airline pilot for Pan Am and one of the first international airline pilots ever.  His plane crashed into a mountain in Mexico in 1937.  His mother never remarried.  She was an independent woman, especially in those days.  She was one of the first airline stewardesses for Pan Am and went on to a number of jobs including becoming the first female crane operator on the docks at Galveston, Texas.  Thomas Ivy Neyman grew up as an only child but often lived with cousins and his grandparents in Florida, Oklahoma and Brownsville, Texas. 

He grew up, went to TCU in Fort Worth, Texas.  Met and married my mother and they had me.  We moved to El Paso in 1963 where my dad became Executive Director of the South El Paso Boy’s Club working with the youth on the El Paso side of the Rio Grande river separating the US from Mexico.  My mother became a school teacher and we lived in a 100 year old adobe house.   Tom then became involved with the Festival Theater where he performed in and did set design for many quality plays.  That’s where he met Hal Warren, Producer and Director of Manos and John Reynolds, the legendary Torgo.  Little could any of them have imagined what their 1966 future would hold.  

So, Happy Birthday dad and hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving yesterday. 

More Manos revelations coming next week.  Stay tuned!