“Slow down and enjoy life. It’s not only the scenery you miss by going to fast – you also miss the sense of where you are going and why.” -Eddie Cantor (September 21, 1892-October 10, 1964)

During research for a book I’m writing, I ran across details of a man I knew of, but did not know about. A great many people don’t know the man I’m about to mention. But they know something he’s responsible for. Something I was surprised about.

Eddie Cantor was an entertainer in the first part of the 20th Century. A star above stars. With his own radio show, hit records, and was an actor, dancer, musician, and comedian. And don’t forget, author. His autobiography Take My Life went through multiple printings in the first six months of its release alone.

He was a member of everyone’s family back in during his days. He was that type of a man. Some of you will remember his hit songs.

• Yes! We Have No Bananas
• If You Knew Susie
• How Ya’ Gonna Keep ‘em Down on the Farm

But why I mention him today is something completely unrelated to entertainment. There used to be a newsreel program shown in movie theaters called The March of Time. Eddie Cantor decided to create a campaign to fight polio in America. He called it The March of Dimes. He asked people listening to his radio show to send President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a polio sufferer, dimes at the White House. 2,680,000 dimes later in 1939 the first March of Dimes was a success. $268,000 in 1939 would now be $4,370,112.22 today.

“It takes 20 years to make an overnight success.”

For more Writer’s Quote Wednesday posts, visit Colleen Chesebro’s SilverThreading  post for this week by clicking HERE. This is also for my #BeWoW campaign of Writers writing positive and encouraging articles each Wednesday. Links of a #BeWoW nature can be shared in the comments below and tweeted with the obvious hashtag.

Ronovan Hester is an author, with his debut historical adventure novel Amber Wake: Gabriel Falling due out in December of 2015. He shares his life as an amnesiac and Chronic Pain sufferer through his blog RonovanWrites.WordPress.com. His love of poetry, authors and community through his online world has lead to a growing Weekly Haiku Challenge and the creation of a site dedicated to book reviews, interviews and author resources known as LitWorldInterviews.com.