Entering the world backwards with a broken arm, the boy remained backwards, a left-handed runt known to the Chicago South Side bullies as Georgy Porgy of nursery-rhyme infamy. It was not easy being left-handed in the 1930s and 1940s, as many left-handers from those days will attest. Parents were disappointed, and teachers were scornful, demonstrating their disdain with voice and ruler. World War II was raging, and Chicago's South Side knew...