Josef von Sternberg split his childhood between Vienna and New York City. His father, an ex-soldier in the Austro-Hungarian army, could not support his family in either city; Sternberg remembered him only as an enormously strong man who often used his strength on me. Forced by poverty to drop out of high school, von Sternberg worked for a time in a Manhattan store that sold ribbons and lace to hatmakers. A chance meeting in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, led to a new career in the cleaning and rep ...[Read Story]