Sam Levenson grew up the youngest of eight children in a large Jewish immigrant family in New York. He graduated from Brooklyn College in 1934, and was working as a Spanish teacher in Brooklyn when he began developing and performing stories and comedy routines based largely on his unique biography and upbringing. He began performing in living rooms in Brooklyn, graduated to the Catskills, and by the 1950s he was a fixture in American homes as television personality, appearing and guest hosting numerous times on classic shows like This Is Show Business, Two For The Money, and The Ed Sullivan Show. For several years, he hosted his own variety show on CBS called The Sam Levenson Show, where the set doubled as a school classroom and the guests often evoked Levenson’s love of learning, teaching, and family. Staying true to his roots, he married his childhood sweetheart, Esther Levine, and had two children, who both still live in New York, along with his four grandchildren and four great grandchildren.