Irwin Hearst

Irwin Hearst was born Isidore Herscovitch, 25 Dec 1907.

Irwin finished high school and then left for New York, the first to move. His mother's brothers, Israel and Moe were already there. Irwin and Moe had a van and opened one side, followed the carnivals and sold cotton candy.

Amongst the many stories that Mary, his sister, told was that Irwin socked someone and was thrown into jail.

It was Irwin who came to the rescue when Jack abandoned the family in Sudbury, brought them to Montreal and later found an apartment for them to live in New York.

Mary described him as a hustler, slim, good-looking and had beautiful girlfriends. He was into many ventures. He worked at an ice cream parlour from 9am until noon and from 5-8pm. He was on call to sell blood. He donated his blood and they gave him money. He also ran an apartment for poker games, selling cigarettes, sandwiches and coffee. Mary said he read books on how to display books on shelves, ahead of his time. Then he became a peddler selling aspirin and nylons. He rented a store in New York and brought back his brothers, Jack and Ben from Los Angeles telling them business was good along with his brother-in-law Phil and Sol.

Mary recounted that their mother had told Irwin not to get married before his sister Dotty did. He had married Bea Levinson 15 Jan 1939 in Luzerne, Pennsylvania. He felt bad so he looked for a husband for Dotty. He knew a cousin of Sol's who lived at Harvey's Lake outside Wilkes Bay. Sol got together with Dotty.

Irwin worked as a travelling salesman. A story he recounted was that he got his first car for $200 when he was living in New York. It was a convertible and when he couldn't put the top up, he made a roof out of cardboard.

Irwin married Bettie 13 Jun 1967. He had divorced Bea. Bettie died 19 Feb 1999 in Los Angeles.  Irwin died 6 Sep 2006.