The Unexpected Job Morgan Freeman Took At The 1964 World’s Fair

Dancing for the Cabaret Union at the 1964 World’s Fair was Morgan Freeman’s first professional work in the entertainment industry. Before then, he had managed a very lean living through odd jobs in Los Angeles before moving to New York — fleeing, he said, woman trouble. When asked to name his three best life choices, Freeman later said (via “Morgan Freeman: A Biography”): “Being born, leaving the Air Force to go to Hollywood, and leaving Hollywood to go to New York.”

Per USA Today, Freeman was working as an audit clerk before the World’s Fair opportunity came along. As soon as he got the offer, he quit the clerk job. “It was great,” Freeman said of his first gig. But the pay from a one-time dance performance doesn’t last very long, and he was soon back to working the counter at restaurants and serving as an office temp. A year after the World’s Fair, a frustrated Freeman told the unemployment office, “You’re ruining my life forcing me to be an office worker when I’m an actor.” They gave him six months to go find work in his chosen profession.