Telly's Torch

About the Book

This fictional, coming-of-age autobiography is well researched and describes in detail much of the early 20th Century times and customs. Peter and Katina Yiopoulos, formerly school teachers in Greece, emigrating to America in 1893. They gave birth to three sons. Telly, as the youngest, was born in 1900.

Live with Telly as he grows through his childhood, youth, and manhood, World War I, and the 1916 and 1920 Olympics. Read and feel this budding young athlete's effort, anguish, tribulations, determination, victories, and defeats in his numerous interesting incidents, predicaments, and romances.

• Learn how Telly got his name from his godfathers.
• Enjoy the time Telly and his friend played "Mailmen."
• What happened when Telly rode a new red wagon?
• Read how he overcame smoking at the age of 7.
• Who was Daphne? Why did she leave school?
• How did Telly and his friends create a horrendous situation with a huge flow of soapsuds?
• What does a twelve-year-old boy do when he has a natural inclination to play sports and his mother insists he become a concert violinist? In 1912, this became Telly's life-altering dilemma.
• Telly secretly participated in sports. Keeping this from his mother was difficult but he played baseball whenever he could.
• Why, after many years of diligent field and track training and ultimate qualifications, were thousands of athletes denied the opportunity to participate in the 1916 Olympics?
• What were Barbara's two mishaps?
• Read about Telly's harrowing experiences in World War I.
• How did Telly learn to paint with Marcelle?
• Who did Telly meet at the Eiffel Tower and the Moulin Rouge?
• Who were Daphne, Barbara, Linda, Marcelle, Elly, Nancy, Roselle and Kris?

Telly tells all in Telly's Torch.

About the Author

Bill Thomas is an author who loves to write and can't wait to see what develops out of his fertile mind. He feels he is blessed with a constant flow of words from his extraordinary imagination resulting out of his long range of varied, lifelong experiences. Bill had started two mail correspondence writing courses but never completed either of them.

Now, at 79, he has lived through most of the early years of the 20th century. Born of Greek immigrant parents in 1923, he benefited from the Greek culture and the American style of living.

He lived through the tough times of the "Great Depression" (with beans for breakfast, lunch, and dinner). He attended day school, Greek School, and played the violin for five years.

Bill began his entrepreneurial skills in selling newspapers, magazines and condiments. With his earnings he bought a new Royal portable typewriter and began writing short stories.

In 1939, at age 16, as a result of winning a newspaper customer-increase contest, he enjoyed a five day, all-expenses paid trip to New York City. This was his first train ride. He spent two days at the New York World's Fair where he certainly broadened his view of the world's most awesome inventions and so many amazing, probable, futuristic developments.

What a time he had at Yankee Stadium where he saw two World Series baseball games between the Yankees and the Reds. At Billy Rose's Aquacade, he watched beautiful Esther Williams in her wonderful, high-diving and swimming performances. He also viewed the first showing of Gone With The Wind. He rode a one-horse hansom around Times Square gawking at all the bright lights and the monstrous skyscrapers, and then spent an evening in Rockefeller Center and marveled at the sight of all the lovely dancing, high-kicking Rockettes.

On the train, on the way home, Bill wrote about these great adventures and later submitted a few for his class assignments. His teacher was so impressed with his writings that she urged him to write a column for the school newspaper. He became the humor-sports columnist in his eleventh grade. He also began the first of his series of journals about his life experiences.

Unfortunately, the depressed times of the thirties forced many young men to quit school and join the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). In 1940, Bill dropped out in the eleventh grade and spent seven months in Northern Michigan chopping down trees, planting new seedlings, fighting three forest fires, and working in the forest ranger's office as the only typist in the CCC camp.

Meanwhile, he wrote letters to his relatives about his great adventures, also numerous love letters for his friends who had trouble writing to their girlfriends and relatives.

In early fall, Bill decided to return to school but on his return to Detroit, he learned about the work opportunities in the "Arsenal of Democracy" war plants and the high wages (85¢ an hour) being paid. This lured him to work on the production line for over two years, building war planes.

In 1943, Bill enlisted in the Army and landed in Africa. His unit made an amphibious landing at Anzio, Italy, and another in Southern France. They racked up 565 days of combat time in Italy, France, Germany and Austria. Bill served in the artillery battalion as a cannoneer, a telephone linesman, and finally as a forward observer until his discharge in October, 1945. Here again, he found time to help his buddies communicate with back-home sweethearts and relatives. They loved the way Bill embellished in writing what they wanted to say verbally.

Upon his return to civilian life in Detroit, Bill worked in a wide assortment of jobs from building magnesium canoes to demonstrating and selling cooking equipment where he realized his forte was working with people instead of doing production line work.

During the summer of 1948, Bill and a buddy drove to California for a fun trip and spent all their money living it up in Hollywood. Due to their lack of money for a return trip and the shortage of good jobs during the economic recession, the two buddies took up local residence working in part-time jobs.

Bill moved to Long Beach to begin business classes at Long Beach City College. He worked part-time for a few months in the Bookstore and ultimately became store manager for four years.

In 1951, he married Soula and began their family. Bill realized he would need higher income so he found a better opportunity in the envelope manufacturing business. He worked as a salesman for a dozen years designing and selling a wide assortment of all types of envelopes to airline companies, banks, savings and loans, advertising agencies and numerous manufacturers. This selling experience gave Bill a great insight into the inter-workings of many industries.

As the new plastics industry expanded and took over the manufacture of many types of envelopes, Bill saw an opportunity in the new growth of mutual funds, insurances and tax shelters. He realized he was good at organizing, planning and selling so he qualified for his securities license and insurance license and ultimately became a financial planner.

After three recessions and the advent of new business start-ups, Bill became a small-business consultant writing business plans to help new entrepreneurs organize and fund their businesses.

At age 62, he decided to retire from active employment and concentrate on his love of writing.

In 1992, he was invited to become the Editor-in-Chief of the souvenir issue of INVENT magazine which was useful to inventors and entrepreneurs who attended the "EXPO OF 92" trade show aboard the Hotel Queen Mary in Long Beach Harbor. He also wrote most of the press releases, special articles and all the direct mail pieces. The show was a big success.

Bill has since written over 400 assorted pieces including sixty Roster-Toaster-Poster poems, about eighty short stories, and six years of his weekly Bowler's Bowletin newsletter for his bowling league. He wrote and self-published the humorous Bowling Pin Tales and Messages from Mars. He edited his church newsletter, The Orthodox Nea, for six years, and in 1984 conceived the original draft of Telly's Torch because of his great interest in the Olympic Games.

Meanwhile, Bill also wrote and self-published a 200-page, self-development, nonfiction manual for young people named My Life Journal; also Memoir Writing Simplified with which for three years he conducted weekly classes in helping people write their life stories.

He currently edits and publishes two newsletters, one for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and one for a race-walking group.

In 2000, Bill began to expand the original Telly script into a full-fledged historical novel. He created Telly Yiopoulos and gave him birth in 1900 so he would be 100 years old as the new millennium began. Bill sought all types of research into the early 1900's to give his book total authenticity and family-life realism which has now become his great "Greek-American Novel."