Regina Swarn Audio Series Presents

What makes a genius: talent, hardship, and quiet pride. - Part 1

• Regina Swarn • Season 8 • Episode 3

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A single hug can reset a life. That’s how Murphy Elliott describes meeting Emma at Elizabeth W. Murphy School—the first real embrace he remembers after a hard stretch in foster care—before a string of firsts turned a quiet kid into a relentless maker: a classroom-length chalk drawing that pulled in every student, an oil painting that won a scholarship, a slide rule that drafted a ranch home built by his classmates, and a sketcher’s eye that found its way into Apollo life support diagrams.

We start where most stories don’t—at the pump in the yard and the outhouse out back, with a family line rooted on islands in the Chesapeake and a father whose tuberculosis vanished after a prayer. From there, the details stack. A broken collarbone at five while shoveling chicken coops. A pig drawn on the inside cover of a coloring book so younger siblings had something bright on a bleak Christmas. Hootenannies, trumpet practice, and math classes sharpen the tools. Then come the machines: a 1936 Chevy resurrected from boxes in a barn at thirteen; a too-loud highway test that sends cars scrambling; the humility to sell it on and buy a $35 fixer that becomes its own education. Along the way, a stepdad who can repair anything models how patience and design fit together.

The journey winds through industry and service. Tech school drafts lead to real products—the Cross Your Heart living bra components, a toothbrush profile, a tampon dispenser—and to translating computer readouts into drawings for the astronaut’s portable life support system. The Navy detour promises art, delivers administration, and still yields stories: perfect scores on hill-starts in a two-and-a-half-ton truck and chauffeuring a base captain between duties. When the uniform comes off, the refrain is familiar: “get a real job.” Murphy does, one stroke at a time—painting the local Dairy Queen, fielding house requests at the drive-through, and discovering how public work builds a private archive. Nights belong to oils on canvas, days to ladders and trim, and eventually Vancouver becomes home for three decades, where he meets his wife, raises talented kids, and paints toward an astonishing tally of 16,000 houses.

This first chapter ends with gratitude—a shout-out to supporter Susan Roberts—and a promise. The next part dives into the fine art career, family collaborations, inventions, and the choice to return to the States and start again. If you care about craft, resilience, and the unexpected roads that lead to mastery, press play and ride with us. If the story moved you, follow the show, share this with a friend, and leave a quick review so more listeners can find it.



Write to Murphy Elliott  at....

https://www.murphyelliott@hotmail.com

Listen for Part 2 coming Next ....



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SPEAKER_05:

Hello. Regina Swan. Welcome to season eight of Regina Sworn Audio Series Presents. I would like to thank all of you for coming out to be a part of this audio series. Thank you so very much. I would like to also thank my wonderful, wonderful guest today who will be coming in shortly, Murphy Elliott. Now this man has he needs no introduction. Honestly. And we spoke about three weeks ago, and I'm telling you, I was so intrigued. I was so inspired by his story. And I wanted my audience, my community, to hear his story. As he's going to tell you part one of his story today, and we're going to follow that by part two, and if needed, a part three. But um he's a great artist. When he told me he had painted over 16,000, not hundred, because I got it mixed up. 16,000 houses. I was blown away. And this man has his work, as I said, spent multiple decades. I'm not talking a decade. I'm not talking a year. I'm not talking two years. I'm not even talking two decades. I mean multiple decades. It goes back. And he was telling a lot of stuff the other day, and we were talking in conversation. I was like, oh my God, a story needs to be made about his life. Murphy Elliott is a genius in my words. If I have to say it, he's a genius in my words. In my my opinion is that count. And then one one time in the newspaper in Yahoo, I remember them saying, if Jen said it, it matters. So I I guess my word my word has a little little clout to it. I don't know. But um back to my first guest. I'm so excited to have him, and he'll be coming through shortly, guys. Um you can follow him online and I'll get him to tell you all the information that you need. But again, I was so intrigued and so motivated with his story the other day when we were talking things that he said. He's such a humble soul. He's so humble. And I love that about him. You know, I've never heard him brag on himself or, you know, of course he talk about the work that he he has created and stuff like that. That's different. But I never heard him bragging and all that kind of stuff. I just only heard him uh talk to him. He's always talking about the things that he do, the things that he's done, and he's just a really wonderful person. He has two um two kids, uh, a son and a daughter. Now, when you listen to the podcast, in the beginning of the podcast, you hear the soundtrack uh by Chris Murphy Elliott. Now, Chris is uh Murphy's son, and Chris is an excellent musician. I'm talking excellent. So in the beginning of the podcast, you hear that music created by none other than Murphy Elliott's son. Chris Murphy Elliott. And at some point I'm gonna speak with Chris as well. Um, the whole entire family is absolutely God, they're genius. You you know, when you start at the top, if the top is good, you know the bottom is gonna be great. It's it's even when you bake a cake. If you got that top and all that looking good, then everything else is gonna be good. It's ready to go. Don't know if I'm making any sense right now, but I hope so. But uh, we just rambling along to my guests come through. Um, and again, like I say, as a daughter as well, who's beautiful, she's talented. Um, his wife, a wonderful lady that that stands behind him, that that believes in what he's doing, and you know, behind every great man that's a great time behind every great man that's a great woman. Yeah, uh words getting all bumble up here, but behind every good man there's a there's a good woman or a great woman or real so his family is awesome and they support him. And so he's gonna talk a little bit about um his early beginnings, and again we're gonna have a part one, part two, part one is coming up. We're gonna do a part two, and uh yeah, so we're just waiting for my guests. So let me have some drink here. Mmm, something called a drink. Ah, sorry about all the noise, guys. I'm just getting a little something to drink, waiting for my guests to come to. I am having a little juice this morning. Mm-hmm juice, I love it.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_05:

That is delicious. And if you're sitting here listening to the podcast, um get you something to drink. Have something to eat, and here you come. Welcome Murphy, Elliot, how are you?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, good morning, Regina. And thank you very much for having me on your show. I sure appreciate that.

SPEAKER_05:

You know, I was just sitting here for almost ten minutes just talking about you and the great things you have accomplished and you know, I still he'll be here in a minute, so I just spent the time speaking about you, your kids, your wife, and just just what a great, great family you are. Great family you got. So how how are you feeling this morning?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, like I said, I'm I'm getting older by the minute.

SPEAKER_05:

Well, we all are getting older, so that's that's life. That's life. So we got a talk, you know, the other day we were speaking and I just learned so much from you. You you inspired me as I was telling my audience uh right before you walked in the room. Um vi visual, is it vir virtually virtual room? Um I I was telling my audience just how uh inspired I am by you when I hear your story. And the first time I heard you talk uh a few weeks ago, it just it inspired me, made me cry a little bit, but it did inspire me a lot. And I would like for you to tell my audience a little bit about yourself because I've I think I rumbled enough. Welcome Murphy, everyone. Here he is, he's gonna talk to you a little bit.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I'm like one of those old men now that uh can reflect back a few years. Um I'm from a time that a lot of you probably don't know about. Uh a time when we didn't have running water in the house. We had a pump out in the yard, and we had an outhouse and not interior plumbing at all. Uh quite a long time ago.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, we loved long time.

SPEAKER_00:

We we would go into town, we had a horse and buggy to go into town. No, a lot of people had cars, but our family wasn't didn't have money to buy cars and things like that. Uh we had a huge garden and grandma and the whole family would get together and put up canned food for the winter, and uh that was the time frame that uh I started out at.

SPEAKER_05:

Wow. Sounds like a time it sounds like a I mean, I know we live in times now that's fast paced, but it sounds like a more calmer time to me now. That's just me. And my audience, the ages, you know, are from all the way up to in their eighties, I think, nineties, and then how teenagers that listen, but we all want to learn, we all can learn, and your story is inspiring, so oh boy, proceed.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, my my father is from uh Brooms Island. It's uh on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, and our family has been there. There's Brooms Island and Solomon's Island and Elliot's Island.

SPEAKER_05:

Um Elliot is that is Elliot that's is that associated with your name or is that just the island's name?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, that's after they got there, but I was gonna say the Queen Mary of Scots sent uh my ancestor John Elliot over with the family to find land for Scotland in America.

SPEAKER_03:

Wow.

SPEAKER_00:

And when they when they came up to Chesapeake Bay, uh the islands were there and they were occupied by Indians. So uh what they did was they sent off fireworks off of the boat, off of the ship, a lot of fireworks, and they scared all the Indians away.

SPEAKER_03:

Wow.

SPEAKER_00:

And they took over those islands. So that was back in the early 1600s. And our families ha has have lived there ever since.

SPEAKER_05:

Boy, sounds kind of like a I was watching What's his name, uh one of the older actors one day, and it it's kinda reminded me of that when you were saying that. It was like it was a good movie though. It was a good movie. So Wow Marphy, you it goes back on it goes back there a minute. I I mean I mean uh like I say, you when I hear your story it puts me it puts me in that time frame. It really just takes me right there. You might not believe this, but it put me right there in the middle. And like I'm there, like I can feel it, you know, what you're speaking about. So I only I want to know more. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, my dad grew up on Brooms Island. Um he only went to third grade and then uh quit school in third grade. But he he meant somebody that uh showed him the Bible and and and taught him about religion and he became quite obsessed with it. And he left the island, I guess he was uh twenty one years old, and he moved to Dover, Delaware, where he met my mother and she was fifteen at the time.

SPEAKER_02:

Mm.

SPEAKER_00:

And they got married.

SPEAKER_02:

Wow.

SPEAKER_00:

She was very young, and he was quite young as well. But uh he went on, he started preaching and he got tuberculosis from uh spray painting.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_00:

He was put into a hospital and while he was there my mother uh went to work in Baltimore in burlesque. Oh and she met quite a few uh entertainment uh showbiz type people. And uh she was a lot different than my dad. My dad was very quiet and while he was in the hospital with the T V he went and he saw Oral Roberts. And Oral Roberts prayed for him and his tuberculosis disappeared. He did as a scar and that really put him over the edge as far as being religious and preaching.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

He would he would pray constantly and and preach constantly. And the marriage didn't last. They were just two different, my mother and my my dad.

SPEAKER_05:

Right, right. She was in burlesque, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Burles It's a show business.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh I don't know if people nowadays I don't know if they know about burlesque, but it was risque show business.

SPEAKER_05:

Showgirl.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, yes. And mo my mother was quite beautiful at a young age.

SPEAKER_03:

Wow.

SPEAKER_00:

But she d she left and my dad had uh kids, three of us, and he didn't know what to do, so he put us in foster care. And that was probably the best thing for us at the time because he didn't have the three kids. He was still young himself.

SPEAKER_05:

Right. Wow. So how was foster care? I mean, you say she put yeah, he put you up in foster care, so what was that like? That lies.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, foster care it was a a family out in the country and they uh had a large chicken farm. Uh they produced chickens and lots of eggs, incredible eggs. They had twelve thirty foot long chicken coops, we'll call 'em. And oh amazing amount of chickens. But they put me to work right away cleaning out these coops. I would have to do two a day for six days.

SPEAKER_05:

It's a lot of work.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I really enjoyed it. I was five years old. And I enjoyed it. It was kind of fun as far as I was concerned. I had a pitchfork and I shoveled out the hay and everything out of the coop every day.

SPEAKER_05:

Five years old.

SPEAKER_00:

I could stand up and walk through the coops because I was really tidy. One day I was working on the second chicken coop and the foster parent came out and he thought I was still on the first one and he was upset with me. He said I was just blacking off. So he hit me on the shoulder with a stick. And I started crying. And he stopped crying and get back to work and I didn't stop crying, so he hit me again on the other shoulder. And it broke my collarbone. And it came sticking through my shirt and he realized that he kinda hit me too hard.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean you'd think but they put one of those ace bandages around my shoulder and behind my back in a figure eight and pulled it tight. And I that's it, I got a few weeks off while I was mending. But he broke both collarbones, not just one, but both of them that day.

SPEAKER_05:

Oh my god. Did he keep working there?

SPEAKER_00:

Um, after a few weeks after it healed up, I went back to work again. And like I said, I kind of enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_05:

Did the guy did they did he keep his job, I guess?

SPEAKER_00:

I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_05:

Did the guy did he did he keep his job for you know breaking your collarbone and stuff?

SPEAKER_00:

No nobody knew. He didn't tell anybody. I didn't go to the doctor or anything like that. Nobody knew about it.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_00:

We s it was m my uh sister and my younger brother and I and uh we were there at Christmas time and they had their kids and their grandkids there at Christmas and uh we we had to sit there and watch them all open all their presents and it was nothing for us three kids. So after it was all over, my sister and brother were crying and they gave us a a coloring book, a small coloring book with a box of six crayons for the three of us. That was the first drawing I remember doing. Uh on the back cover, on the inside of the back cover was just a white page, and I drew a little pig and colored it for them and let them color in the rest of the book.

SPEAKER_04:

But that was the first drawing I remember doing.

SPEAKER_00:

And I guess I was probably six years old by then.

SPEAKER_05:

Six years old, wow. That was sweet though. Your brother and sister.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, my my younger brother, Steve, he was born with hydrocephalitis. And and they said that he probably wouldn't live past six or seven years old. And of course I took care of him, I adored him and I anything he wanted I would give him. But it turned out he lived to be sixty-six.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00:

He outlived all the doctors.

SPEAKER_05:

Well never know if our time is up to God, you know, so wow. Oh a big brother you are them. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00:

He turned out to be special. His family, everybody, he was he was a special person his whole life.

SPEAKER_05:

Wow, bless his heart.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, indeed.

SPEAKER_05:

That's really great.

SPEAKER_00:

That's great. That that was an early chapter. And things got better. Um after I got out of foster care, I was eight years old and I was put in a home called Elizabeth W. Murphy School.

SPEAKER_04:

And it was it was beautiful.

SPEAKER_00:

It had four mansions, uh, an infirmary, uh it was just an incredible place to be. Um the first day I went, it was the day that John Kennedy g was elected into office in November of 1960. And I remembered it clearly. Um that day the three of us um when they took us in, they took us in to meet the cook. And her name was Emma. Emma. Emma was a lady of color and she was about 350 pounds. And when we went in, Emma gave me the biggest hug ever. It was the first real hug that I remember. And I I fell in love with Emma. She was just a wonderful, wonderful lady.

SPEAKER_03:

Wow.

SPEAKER_00:

I realized that people of color are capable of incredible love.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

I wish everybody would realize that, especially people who are prejudiced and don't understand that we're all capable of extreme love if we want to.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_05:

Boy. And was that the only hug you had? Was that the first hug? Was that the first hug?

SPEAKER_00:

That was the first hug that I remember. Um my mother hugged me when I was a baby, but then with the foster care and and being away from everybody, and that was really the first hug, and I felt so much love.

SPEAKER_05:

Shout out to Emma. Wow, that was so sweet.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh it was a nice place to be. Um I uh like everybody else, I really liked John Kennedy and I I wrote him a letter and asked for a picture of him and his wife. And he sent them to me and like I still have them to this day.

SPEAKER_05:

Oh wow, you still got it. Ooh. Wow. Great memorabilia.

SPEAKER_00:

But that was the year. That was the year also that I started getting attention for my drawing.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. What year was that?

SPEAKER_05:

What year was that, Bert Murphy? What year was that?

SPEAKER_00:

I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_05:

Okay, what year what year was that? Oh sorry, up to you. What year was that?

SPEAKER_00:

Um, nineteen sixty, sixty-one in that area.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Sixty one probably. And I was sitting at my desk drawing uh a telephone, the old rotary telephone. And it was a pretty good looking drawing. Uh when I went out to recess and I came back, somebody had taken it.

SPEAKER_05:

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I I told the teacher and she felt really bad, and she says, Well, Murph, I'll tell you what, I'll let you draw a picture on the chalkboard. And back then the chalkboard was the entire length of the room at the front of the room.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So she gave me a box of colored chalk and on the right side I drew the three wise men on camels, heading toward Bethlehem, and on the left side I had uh Bethlehem, and of course the star of David above it, and the manger. I drew the manger with baby Jesus in it. And she was so impressed, she invited every class from Dover School at the time of Dover School to tour the class to see the drawing, and it was my ego got really big.

SPEAKER_05:

Wow, I bet. I mean it's worth getting big.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow. That inspired me to keep drawing.

SPEAKER_05:

Wow. Artistic at that age. He it goes back that far, everyone. You hear you know, hear him telling his own words. He's drawing at that young age. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00:

Well the next year I won an award for a drawing that I did. It was a library contest, and I won first and won the award for that. Yay. Well, so that was the year that math teacher had a hoot nanny group, and a lot of the young people probably don't know what a hoot nanny group is. It's just a bunch of kids singing, and she asked for people to join. And she had an extra guitar and she let me use that guitar and she showed me how to play a few chords and of course I played along with her and we sang too. They'd have people come in, older people come in and we would sing and play to them. And I still remember quite a few of those songs. But that's when I learned how to play the guitar.

SPEAKER_05:

Boy, he played a guitar too. That's another that's another thing. Add to your list of great, great things. That's why in the beginning, before you entered the room, I was talking about the genius. That's you, that would be you.

SPEAKER_00:

I really excelled at mathematics. And uh uh I took a lot of uh drafting courses, mechanical drawing and drafting. And uh I it's paid off today. I still enjoy drawing technical things.

SPEAKER_03:

Wow.

SPEAKER_01:

Man, that that's amazing.

SPEAKER_00:

As time went on, uh I did a lot of drawing and painting on my own, a bit of little bit of sculpting. And uh what's next.

SPEAKER_05:

I'm telling you, it goes back a long way, the that art and all the great things that you're doing now. It starts out it started out way back then. I mean, and it's just amazing. It started so young is what makes me is inspiring to me that you were able to do all these things so far. And you were so incredibly young and gifted as a child. Just totally gifted, and it seems like you just you did it to the best of your ability, Murph. I just call you Murph, oh my god.

SPEAKER_00:

I think most kids given the opportunity, you know, are talented in one way or another. Um when I got to when I got to junior high school I took up the trumpet and I played the trumpet for a couple years. I enjoyed being in the marching band, we had uniforms. When I was twelve, I played pop corner football. I was the same size as everybody else back then. Everybody I I didn't. But my most memorable play was I was uh halfbacked and they called my number and said, Okay, Murph, run out wide and turn around and the ball will be there. So I was really small and I go running out and I turn really fast, but the helmet stayed straight. So I ended up looking out the ear hole and the football came and bounced off my helmet, and everybody was laughing. Oh, memorable play.

SPEAKER_05:

Oh my gosh, so the helmet turned like that.

SPEAKER_00:

The helmet stayed straight, I turned really quick and was getting out the ear hole, and I could just see the ball coming and bounced off my head.

SPEAKER_05:

Oh my god. That's that's probably not funny. Did you get you didn't get hurt though, did you?

SPEAKER_00:

No, no, no. It's funny now.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, it is funny. Oh, I'm so glad you didn't get hurt though. I'm really glad about that. But Darren, another another gift. Do you have to play football now? Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I love sports. But uh, like I said, everybody else got big and I didn't. I wanted to play play football when I got to high school where they said no, Murph, you're too small. Oh my god. So instead I joined the wrestling team.

SPEAKER_05:

And um last week oh my god.

SPEAKER_00:

But I used to like to wrestle when we practiced with the biggest guy. I was the smallest guy on the team. And a guy named Vic Colton, he was six foot eight and weighed over three hundred pounds. And practiced practiced with him. But I could always beat him. I just tickle him.

SPEAKER_01:

That would do it.

SPEAKER_00:

But one day we were practicing and I wrapped my whole body around his leg trying to knock him to the ground and he fell on me.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh no.

SPEAKER_00:

And he snapped my collarbone again, the one and I broke early. So instead of going to the nurse, I went around the school showing everybody.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my god, it's creepy and scary.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, until finally it started okay, I better go see the nurse.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

She go she called my stepdad and he came and took me to the hospital and I did all right until they put that bandage in almost the same figure eight. There was a scrap instead of it. They pulled it tight and I started seeing stars.

SPEAKER_05:

Oh, it hurt that bad, I guess.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh well, it made me almost pass out, but I didn't hung in there. But that was my stepdad, and he was a man among men. He was a mechanic, he was a sewing machine mechanic, but he was could fix just about anything. He was brilliant. He was really smart and he taught me a lot and I idolized him.

SPEAKER_05:

Oh, great. Great, now finally a great daddy. Way Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

But he was such a good mechanic. And I but the house that we moved into uh uh he we rented, it had a barn out back. And in the barn was an old thirty-six Chevy truck dismantled.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00:

There was parts everywhere in boxes and cans, somewhere in oil, motor parts, re-rend parts. Everything over just everywhere. And I kept asking my dad, Can I have it? Can I have it? And I was thirteen years old.

SPEAKER_01:

Thirteen.

SPEAKER_00:

And he would say, uh, no, but finally he said yes, because persistence, you know, keep asking him. And so I started putting it together just like all the models I'd put together over the years. And it was it was like a large model, and finally after six months I got it together and running. Mm

SPEAKER_01:

You got it together?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. I was third two and uh of course I had my license and I couldn't drive it, so we said, Well listen, I'll but we'll take it out on chest run, so we got in it. But the cab was almost so small our shoulders were almost touching, that's how small the cab was.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

But it it was fire engine red and we go out onto the freeway and it was muff the muffler wasn't working, so it was just as loud as you could imagine. And as as he started going excuse me a second.

SPEAKER_05:

Man, this is this is amazing. This story is amazing. I mean, wow.

SPEAKER_00:

It was so loud. Cars were pulling off the road because they thought we were a fire truck or something, I guess. But when he stepped on the brakes it yanked the steering wheel out of his hand almost because I didn't get the brakes exactly right.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

But he says, Okay, Mark, this this is just not safe. He sold it actually for pretty good money to a mechanic.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

And he says, I'll take you out so you can buy another one. And we went looking and we found a nineteen fifty-two Wooly somebody's backyard. And I bought it for thirty-five dollars.

SPEAKER_05:

Boy. Thirty-five dollars. Thirty-five dollars. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, and I spent the next couple of years working on it, just making it really nice. I think it's a uh little Annie Fanny on the sides of the door.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

It was a nice car and I had that until I went into the military. Along with a few others back then cars weren't that expensive.

SPEAKER_05:

Right, yeah. Thirty-five dollars and woo, you can buy a lot of cars with that.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, in nineteen seventy, when I left Delaware, you could buy a Corvette for five thousand dollars. Oh boy. Showroom off the showroom floor. So things sure have changed since then.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, things have changed so drastically. Oh my goodness. You know what, Murphy, though, what I what I noticed even if you started as a child on up to now, and I'm sure it's gonna get greater as you tell your story. Um you just got that it's it's something about you, like that talent was all always there. That that that gift. And you like you never the what I love most about you, you never gave up. It's like if one thing don't work, you go to another. I mean, guys, listen to this. This is this is inspiring. It's just inspiring. I'm serious, it's so inspiring. I'm sorry, Proceed, I just had to say that. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, when I was in high school I started painting with oils. Uh my first oil painting on campus um won me a scholarship to the Philadelphia College of Art. Um, I still have that painting.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow.

SPEAKER_00:

But also uh when I got into high school, I went to tech school. I went to uh Caesar Rodney High School for three hours during the day, and then I went to tech school for three hours during the day, and I studied architectural drafting in tech school.

SPEAKER_04:

Wow.

SPEAKER_00:

Um I really enjoyed that too. It gave me a chance on a drawing board. Uh back then uh we used slide rolls, we didn't have calculators, we had slide rolls.

SPEAKER_02:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

But my second year there I uh drew up the plans for a ranch house from the basement all the way, all the plumbing electrical, everything. Um and the next year all the trades in this school built the house. And they they sold it off for charity and they awarded the house to a family.

SPEAKER_03:

Wow.

SPEAKER_00:

I I was quite proud of that. Yeah, I bet you were and then the next year, my last year at tech school, after they've seen what I'd done the first two years, they decided to send me out on the job. So for three hours a day I went to regular school and then the other three hours I went out on the job at ILC Industries. And ILC Industries was making uh uh rubber, plastic, uh different all kinds of different things for um and that year I designed the first Living Cross Your Heart Living Bra.

SPEAKER_03:

Wow.

SPEAKER_00:

I also uh worked on a couple of other projects. Like I said, I designed the first plastic tampon dispenser.

SPEAKER_05:

Boy. I'm wondering if you get credit for it for all of those designs that that you did because man Well I I didn't get paid, but I got a good grade in school.

SPEAKER_00:

Um um I designed like the Pycopay Toothbrush. Um Oh yeah, yeah. But also I got to work on the Apollo astronaut spacesuit.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

From computer readouts I did the drawings for the portable light support system for the astronauts.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah And I really enjoyed that and uh I'm I got to meet three of the astronauts at the time. And that was quite nice as well.

SPEAKER_05:

That's good. You got credit for that at least.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. And I did a bit of sculpting, I enjoyed that. I did uh Michelangelo's David where he's reaching out to God. I did that sculpture when I was in school.

SPEAKER_01:

Right, wow.

SPEAKER_00:

It it turned out really good. My teacher wanted to bronze it, and she took it to her studio and melted it, so it never c it never came out. But um when I was getting close to graduation, I was I was on my own, I wasn't living at home with my parents anymore, and going to Philadelphia to college was sort of scary for me because it was a big city and I wasn't used to a big city. And I was talking to the recruiter, military recruiter, Navy, and he told me that they needed somebody to do the recruiting posters.

unknown:

Wow.

SPEAKER_00:

And artwork that that would be a great fit for me to be able to do that. So I thought, okay, well they they trained me, they pay me the place to sleep and eat, and that was kind of much more acceptable than going to Philadelphia, a big city that was overwhelmed.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So of course I enlisted. And when I got in, they told me, Oh no, that's a civilian job. So they totally lost enlist.

SPEAKER_05:

Oh boy, what a trick.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, actually in basic training, they s asked all the guys, we had 250 of us that arrived at the same time, and they asked us like, who knows how to type? And I was the only one out of 250 guys that knew how to type.

SPEAKER_05:

That's great.

SPEAKER_01:

Well great for you. Great for you.

SPEAKER_00:

Became the company clerk.

SPEAKER_04:

That's cool. Come on.

SPEAKER_00:

I kept track of everybody's records and everything like that. And basic training was fun. I really enjoyed basic training.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah. Well, that's good. You hear some people say they don't like basic training, but you enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, I did.

SPEAKER_05:

That is great. The only one that could type, that got me right there, boy.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I took a typing class when I was in school.

SPEAKER_01:

Hang off.

SPEAKER_00:

So after I got out of basic training, my first duty station, it was it was submarines. And uh I was going to school for training in submarines. And first thing I did was I went and got my military driver's license. And I got a 4-0, which is a perfect score. They uh put you in a big two and a half ton truck and drove you up a hill and you got to the top of the hill with the south side. And they said, Okay, go, but don't drift backwards.

SPEAKER_05:

Well, that sounds scary to me.

SPEAKER_00:

It just kind of it's scary to me, and it may not be scary, but Well, I knew how to drive uh uh standard, I knew how to shift gears and work the clutch and everything, so I did it perfectly. So I get as soon as I get my license, I get a call from the captain of the base. Would you like to be my chauffeur?

SPEAKER_03:

Wow.

SPEAKER_00:

So I chauffeured the captain and the executive officer around in their limousine whenever they needed to go somewhere while I was going to sub school. And once again, military it went pretty quick. Uh I got out as quick as I could as soon as my time was up, I got out. I wanted to carry on with life. But when I got out of the military, I wanted courts do artwork.

SPEAKER_05:

Well how many years did you do military?

SPEAKER_00:

I was quite young. I was in two weeks out of high school and I did two years.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, okay, two years.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So after I got out of the military I wanted to be an artist and do artwork, but everybody said, Murph, get a real job.

SPEAKER_03:

Wow.

SPEAKER_00:

So they didn't consider art a real job, it was just sort of something to do, a hobby. So uh I decided, okay, well, uh my dad painted houses, so I thought, okay, well I'll try to do that. So um I was at the Dairy Queen with a couple of my friends worked there and they asked me if I would uh like to paint the Dairy Queen. So as I'm painting the Dairy Queen, I had people driving through and asking me to paint their house. So I picked up quite a few jobs painting houses from that first job. And then I had a friend came down from Canada and he went to high school with me. He came down his his sister. Her husband was in Vietnam, so he stayed the year with her. Well, it was my senior year and I met him the first day of school and we became really good friends. Mm, wow. But he came down after I got out of the military and said, Hey Murphy, you want to go visit Canada? He says Vancouver is a beautiful city.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_00:

I said, Sure. So off I went to Canada and uh I ended up spending thirty years there.

SPEAKER_05:

Thirty years in Canada.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. That's that's where I met my wife. She was from a small island off the coast, and she just arrived at nearly the same time that I arrived in the city.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh.

SPEAKER_00:

And uh and now that's sort of another story, and that's when I began my painting career and did a lot of painting and everything, but we should save that for the next episode.

SPEAKER_05:

Well I certainly will.

SPEAKER_00:

Again, I started painting seriously on canvas at night when I'd be painting houses during the day and I'd paint on campus at night. And I started getting recognition in that. Well, let's leave that for the next story.

SPEAKER_05:

We sure will. We're gonna leave that. I can't wait to put that in the next story because looking at his wife, you don't find out about his beautiful kids, beautiful wife, his artwork, his painting houses.

SPEAKER_00:

I invented games and all kinds of other things. And after 30 years I came back to the States and started all over again, and that's another story.

SPEAKER_05:

All right. So we we got some good stuff coming up in part two, and hey, we may need a part three because we're talking to Murphy Elliott, the genius. I said it. I I ain't taking it back. I'm sorry. So Murphy, thank you so much for joining me for reaching this morning on your series presents. Thank you so much for being my first guest on uh season eight. You've been wonderful. I couldn't wait to talk to you and have the opportunity. And so we're gonna do part two. We're gonna be recording part two this week as well. You should be able to hear part one very soon. Thank you so much, Murphy.

SPEAKER_00:

I appreciate you, and I hope that your fans enjoyed my rambling.

SPEAKER_05:

Right. Did you I know we got told me you'd like to thank a person that one of your fans that has um been there for you. Would you like to thank her right now?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, I would. Um, I have a special fan who's been a fan for quite a while, and she actually painted my portrait on with oils, and her name is Susan Roberts, and she is such a sweetheart. She's she's about my age, and she is just a sweetheart, and I really appreciate her supporting the movie these years.

SPEAKER_05:

Right. So hey, a shout out to Susan Roberts, and it's always good to have a supporter, and it's always good to have that person that really believes in you that no matter what nobody says, you got that one fan or thousand fan or whatever. And so shout out to Susan Roberts. Thank you so much for supporting Murphy. And anything else you would like to say before we close?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I have so many fans that I can mention, but it's just too many to mention, and I appreciate everybody who supports me and comments on my work. It just helps me keep going and know what I need to do next.

SPEAKER_05:

Right. Well, just keep it up, Murphy, because you are you do an excellent job. And I, you know, I really appreciate your work. I I admire you very much. I thank you so much for all that you do. And so I just want to thank you for being my first guest. And as I said, we're doing part one right now, but part two will be coming up, but part one would be played uh shortly. I'll be posting it up on social media. So thank you again. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

SPEAKER_00:

And thank you too, my dear. And you take care and be safe.

SPEAKER_05:

All right, Murphy. Thank you. Have a great day, everyone. And we say goodbye for now.