Sonny Boy: A Memoir

The Herbert Berghof Studio is an acting studio in New York City which was founded by the Austrian actor Herbert Berghof in 1945. After dropping out of high school, Pacino attended the Herbert Berghof Studio, where he was coached by Charlie Laughton. Since Pacino had no way of paying the tuition, he worked for the school instead. 

While his teacher Laughton was a source of encouragement for Pacino, and became a life-long friend to him, the studio’s founder did not always approve of Pacino and his acting. Pacino recalls how Berghof once “exploded” at him for his acting style, which Pacino attributes to their different generations and schools of thought about acting. Overall, the author portrays the Studio as a useful step in his acting career where he learned valuable skills and made connections with other actors and mentors.

The Obie Awards are awarded to theater actors to recognize outstanding performances in off-Broadway plays. Pacino was nominated for an Obie for his role in Why is a Crooked Letter, and won in 1968 for The Indian Wants the Bronx.

The South Bronx is the southern portion of the Bronx, a borough in New York City. Pacino credits the residents of the Bronx with developing their borough. He writes, “It was a glorious time. A lot of poor people from various ghettoes had moved in, and we were making something out of the Bronx. The farther north you went, the more prosperous the families were” (9).

Pacino grew up in the South Bronx, largely in his grandparents’ tenement apartment on Bryant Avenue. The author depicts the neighborhood as a largely impoverished place which was somewhat dangerous to live in. As a young child he was largely confined to his grandparents’ apartment because he had no safe place to play outside: “Until I was a little older I wasn’t allowed out of the tenement by myself —we lived in the back, and the neighborhood was somewhat unsafe” (10). Pacino connects his early childhood in the South Bronx with his early foray into performance and imagination, explaining that being kept inside the apartment made him bring movie characters to life to entertain himself and others.

Tenements are rental buildings with multiple units on many floors. Historically, the tenements in New York City, where the author grew up, were notorious for being overcrowded, low-quality housing. People living in the tenements were often poor immigrants with few housing options.

Pacino recalls his maternal grandparents’ apartment in the Bronx, where he spent much of his childhood. He writes, “It was a hive of constant activity, with just three rooms, all of which were used as bedroom […] nobody had a room all to themselves, and for long stretches of time, I slept between my grandparents” (7).

Like his grandparents, most of the other families in their building were immigrants. He remembers, “The other families in our tenement were from all over Eastern Europe and other parts of the world” (9). These buildings were not simply a home to Pacino, they were also his first playground: “We did anything fun we could afford to do […] we’d scale to the tops of the tenements and jump from one roof to another” (17). Pacino’s descriptions of life in the tenements portray the material deprivation he experienced as a child but also emphasizes the fun and freedom he and his friends enjoyed as they explored their neighborhood together.