About the Authors
Charlotte Birsinger
Charlotte Birsinger is a long time resident of San Francisco. She is a charming woman who generates warmth and compassion. These gifts have endeared her to everyone she has had contact with from politicians to labor leaders.
For years she has threatened to write about her experiences in owning real estate in such a diverse cultural city as San Francisco.
Her collaboration with C.F. Stewart who has several successful biographies to his credit was a match made in heaven. The two authors, both not spring chickens, collaborated to produce a lasting work that should entertain for years to come. Both of them brought their unique talents together, and “presto” Five Kids For One Penny was born.
C.F. Stewart
''C.F. Stewart'' is a 70 year old writer who specializes in biographies about irreverent, iconoclastic, and shadowy figures in sports or business. Several of his character had some intimate connections with the Hollywood, the mob, and even a politician or two.
A couple of his more enduring protagonists were the touring tennis player who could have been one of the best, but preferred to drink beer and gamble with Wimbledon pup dwellers instead of performing on center court for the Duchess of York. The same touring tennis player who boarded a plane for Australia to play in the Australian Championships and forgot his racket and tennis shoes. And when all his contemporaries’ retired to the TV booth or had knee replacement surgery, he continued to play at a high level well into his 60’s.
Or the avuncular lovable, sometime con-man who had an audience with the Pope, made millions in a fairly legitimate pyramid scheme, and won the largest exacta ever paid at Hollywood Park in Southern California. When the exacta money ran out, he turned to acting and finished his theatrical career playing Earl Warren in the made for TV movie “Nixon.”
Or the handsomest, dapperest, and almost best golfer on the planet, who, if you mentioned his name to a thousand scratch golfers only a select few would remember his name. And only a select few would remember that he won the first Tournament of Champions in Las Vegas, cavorted with Hollywood stars, and called Joey Bishop, Bob Hope, and Dwight David Eisenhower by their first names.
C.F. Stewart attempts in his biographies to prove that it is not just the celebrity of the character that makes a good story, but the quality of the subject characters. And it always helps if your "quality character" has encounters with "quality celebrities," and judging from sales on Amazon and various websites, he has succeeded.
Ross O'Leno
Ross O’Leno was Born in Kansas City Missouri during WWI and raised there during the depression, it didn’t take him long to realize that life in the mid-west was not the best place to be in times of a national financial crisis. So, when he got the chance he did what Horace Greely suggested---he went west. After a stint with Lockheed, he figured that there had to be a better way, and that better way was promotion.
Ross promoted everything from the first steak and lobster restaurant in Orange County to his most lucrative venture, “Let’s Dine Out.” “Let’s Dine Out” was a two for one dining experience club that made a ton of money.
Gambling was Ross favorite pursuit, and he did pretty well having the honor of winning the largest exacta ever paid out at Hollywood Park.
Ross made his last bet in 2006, and if the truth be known, he went to the Pearly Gates figuring the odds of getting past Saint Peter. Knowing Ross, I’m sure he made it, and he’s sitting on a cloud over Santa Anita pursuing the racing form trying to figure out how he can get a hold of his bookie to make a bet from his Heavenly perch.