User:Stg58/Alan Stang

Alan Stang

Alan Stang (1932-2009) was an author, lecturer, journalist, political activist and talk show host. He started his career with The Tex and Jinx Show in New York City in the late 1950's, and was also one of the original writers for The Mike Wallace Interview on ABC, before becoming one of the John Birch Society's premiere writers, lecturers and authors. His contemporaries and fellow activists include G. Edward Griffin, Gary Allen, Dr. Ron Paul, Phyllis Schlafly and many others. He and his contemporaries were the founders of what is today known as the Liberty Movement.

Early Life

Stang was born in St Simon Stock Parish, in the Bronx on February 26, 1932. He was born to Harry Stang and Paula Stang neé Peskin. Harry Stang was a first generation American of Austrian descent. Paula was born in Poland and emigrated to this country in the 1920's. Stang's grandparents were Orthodox Jews, but he was raised conservative. Stang's father, Harry Stang, was a dentist, and entered the US Army in the Dental Corps as a Captain in 1942. He served in the European Theater under Lieutenant General George S. Patton in the famed Third Army, and did not return from Europe until 1946. Alan Stang's grandfather, Nathan Stang, also a dentist, arranged for Alan to have his Bar Mitzvah in 1945 at the Jacob H. Schiff Jewish Center on Valentine Ave.

By his own account, Stang was a three sewer hitter in stickball, and was a bit of a troublemaker. In elementary school, he was often disciplined for serious crimes such as dipping girls' pigtails in the writing ink, and having dirt under his fingernails. Several unconfirmed reports involved him experimenting with black powder explosives with several of his friends, and completely blackening a co-conspirator's freshly painted dining room ceiling. Controversy still surrounds the events of that day.