Growing up in the little southern Indiana town of Petersburg, Willard Brenton Hargrave was regarded as a dull boy. Playmates called him "Dummy." Teachers despaired of his learning anything. At 13 the Methodist preacher's son was in juvenile court, threatened with reform school. But the judge, noticing that Willard Hargrave seemed to pay little attention to the court proceedings, wondered whether he had heard what went on. A doctor's examination showed that the "dummy" was half deaf, probably as a result of chicken pox.
After World War 1 duty as a bugler, Willard Hargrave worked in Los Angeles as a newsman...
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