Several years ago, California-based writer John Sammon scored an interview with Clint Eastwood for the now-defunct Monterey County Post in which the iconic star discussed his passion for golf and his investments and business in the Carmel, California area. The interview is reprinted here courtesy of John Sammon.
Q: Let’s begin with
some background. What was your childhood like?
CE: I
was born in San Francisco, but raised mostly in Oakland. My family moved
a lot, and I lived in places like Redding and Spokane in Washington and
Sacramento, and Pacific Palisades in California. During the
World War II years, my dad worked for Bethlehem Steel in Oakland. I attended Glenview Grammar School.
As a kid, I earned a little money selling Liberty
and Colliers magazines. Both of these are out of print now. Every magazine I
ever worked for went out of print. Then I took a job with the Oakland Tribune,
a paper route. After the war, my father went to work for California Container,
a corrugated box company. Later on, Dad was transferred to Seattle, where he became a plant manager. I
graduated from high school and joined my parents up there for a while. I was
trying to get into Seattle
University on a music
program, but I applied too late. I was drafted into the U.S. Army at the time
of the Korean War, 1951. I came to Fort
Ord. That’s how I got
used to the Carmel
area. I got to spend time in Monterey, Carmel, Pebble Beach and Salinas.
I even used to come to Mission Ranch when I was a soldier earning $75 a month.
Q: Did you dream that
one day you would own Mission Ranch?
CE: No. Back then, I didn’t plan on owning too
much of anything. After I got out of the service, I went to Los
Angeles where I attended Los
Angeles City College, studying business
administration. I started taking acting classes in the evening. After I landed
a steady job on Rawhide , I came up
to the Monterey Peninsula and bought a little house
across from the Monterey Peninsula Country Club. A tiny house with all the
furniture inside. I’d been coming up periodically at that time, and stayed
wherever I could. I loved that house. It was the first home I ever owned. I
paid $20,000, and later sold it for $25,000.