Early Life
Louis Silvie Zamperini was born on January 26th, 1917 in Olean, New York to Anthony Zamperini and Louise Dossi, both from Northern Italy. He had three siblings, Virginia, Sylvia, and Pete Zamperini. In 1919, when Louie was only 2, they moved to Torrance, California. He eventually would attend Torrance High School. Growing up he was bullied a lot because of his bad English (their household spoke strictly Italian), so his father taught him how to box in self-defense. He could've run, or cried and the bullying would've been over. "But he refused to do either."(Hillenbrand 6). Soon, he was, in his own words, "beating the tar out of everyone." He also said, "I was so good at it, I began to relish getting even." He believed he could take on anyone, which ultimately led him in the wrong direction. He turned to a life of petty crime and serious recklessness. His neighbors despised him, and he developed a bad reputation. He lived up to it and maintained this behavior for several years. There was only one person who could fix that. His brother, Pete Zamperini. Even Louie, who'd "made a religion out of heeding no one, did as Pete said." (Hillenbrand 4). Pete was two years older, and had just enrolled in the University of Southern California. Pete was a successful track star at USC, and was every good thing that Louie was not. He wanted to steer his brother in a better direction. And Pete noticed something. Louie was fast, and really fast. He'd seen Louie bolt after stealing things, and wanted him to use that speed to race instead of breaking and entering, which he did in fact do. He took Louie on training runs, and that's when he saw his true potential.
Just for an idea of his childhood, these are things Louie did at a young age that made him different. He couldn't stand being corralled. At age 5, he started smoking, picking up cigarette butts and smoking them on the way to kindergarten. He nearly missed getting blindsided by a jalopy during a footrace on the highway, he severed his toe, caused explosions, deflated his teacher's tires with toothpicks, ran away from policemen naked, greased train tracks, jumped out of a moving train, impaled his leg on a bamboo beam, got drunk at age 8, nearly drowned in an oil rig (which took a gallon of turpentine cleaning before he was recognizable again), just to name a few. His mother was very stressed. "The instant Louise thumped him into a chair and told him to be still, he vanished. If she didn't have the squirming boy clutched in her hands, she usually had no idea where he was." (Hillenbrand 3). One night, he climbed the steeple of a church, tied the bell to a tree, and woke up the whole city. His taste for adventure was untamable, and so was he. He did though, possess resilience, persistence and optimism, which would define him, even at his worst.