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

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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Transcript

Season Eight Kickoff & Tease

SPEAKER_05 1:30

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 6:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 6:35

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 6:51

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

SPEAKER_05 6:58

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 7:22

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

Early Years Without Plumbing

SPEAKER_05 7:29

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 8:20

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 8:45

Yeah, we loved long time.

SPEAKER_00 8:48

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 9:15

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 9:46

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 10:01

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

SPEAKER_00 10:12

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 10:25

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 10:26

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 10:45

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

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 10:59

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 11:38

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 12:11

Mm.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

And they got married.

SPEAKER_02 12:14

Wow.

Family Origins on Chesapeake Islands

SPEAKER_00 12:16

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 12:29

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

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 13:18

Right.

SPEAKER_00 13:19

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 13:33

Right, right. She was in burlesque, right?

SPEAKER_00 13:36

Burles It's a show business.

SPEAKER_05 13:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

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 13:49

Showgirl.

SPEAKER_00 13:50

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

SPEAKER_03 13:56

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 13:57

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 14:15

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 14:26

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 14:58

It's a lot of work.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

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 15:14

Five years old.

SPEAKER_00 15:20

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 16:03

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

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 16:25

Oh my god. Did he keep working there?

SPEAKER_00 16:29

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 16:41

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

SPEAKER_00 16:45

I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_05 16:47

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

SPEAKER_00 16:52

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 17:01

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_00 17:04

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 17:55

But that was the first drawing I remember doing.

Foster Care Hardship and First Drawing

SPEAKER_00 17:58

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

SPEAKER_05 18:01

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

SPEAKER_00 18:09

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 18:31

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 18:32

He outlived all the doctors.

SPEAKER_05 18:35

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 18:45

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

SPEAKER_05 18:52

Wow, bless his heart.

SPEAKER_00 18:54

Yes, indeed.

SPEAKER_05 18:58

That's really great.

SPEAKER_00 19:01

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 19:17

And it was it was beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 19:19

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 20:19

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 20:20

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

SPEAKER_01 20:26

Right.

SPEAKER_00 20:27

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 20:38

Right.

SPEAKER_05 20:40

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

SPEAKER_00 20:47

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 21:02

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

SPEAKER_00 21:08

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 21:28

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

SPEAKER_00 21:40

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

SPEAKER_04 21:53

Yeah. What year was that?

SPEAKER_05 21:55

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

SPEAKER_00 22:01

I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_05 22:03

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

SPEAKER_00 22:07

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

unknown 22:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 22:12

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 22:29

Oh my goodness.

Elizabeth Murphy School & Emma’s Hug

SPEAKER_00 22:31

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 23:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:44

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 24:20

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

SPEAKER_00 24:26

Wow. That inspired me to keep drawing.

SPEAKER_05 24:31

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 24:44

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 25:34

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 25:50

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 26:07

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 26:09

Man, that that's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 26:13

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 26:28

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.

First Art Recognition and Music

SPEAKER_00 27:04

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 28:11

Oh my gosh, so the helmet turned like that.

SPEAKER_00 28:15

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 28:24

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

SPEAKER_00 28:31

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

SPEAKER_05 28:34

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 28:46

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 29:04

And um last week oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 29:09

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 29:33

That would do it.

SPEAKER_00 29:36

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 29:44

Oh no.

SPEAKER_00 29:46

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 30:03

Oh my god, it's creepy and scary.

SPEAKER_00 30:08

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

SPEAKER_01 30:12

Right.

SPEAKER_00 30:15

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 30:30

Oh, it hurt that bad, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 30:33

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 31:57

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

SPEAKER_00 32:04

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 32:20

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 32:22

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 32:39

Thirteen.

SPEAKER_00 32:41

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 33:04

You got it together?

SPEAKER_00 33:06

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 33:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:24

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.

Sports, Setbacks, and Grit

SPEAKER_05 33:47

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

SPEAKER_00 33:54

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 34:11

Right.

SPEAKER_00 34:14

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

SPEAKER_01 34:24

Right.

SPEAKER_00 34:25

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 34:43

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

SPEAKER_00 34:50

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 35:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:03

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 35:12

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

SPEAKER_00 35:20

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 35:34

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 36:25

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 36:43

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 36:45

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 37:03

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 37:04

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 37:16

Right.

SPEAKER_00 37:17

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 37:45

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 37:46

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 38:30

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 38:32

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

SPEAKER_05 38:41

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 38:54

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 39:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 39:13

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

SPEAKER_01 39:20

Right.

Stepdad, Mechanics, and The Chevy Truck

SPEAKER_00 39:21

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 39:32

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

SPEAKER_00 39:37

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 39:49

Right, wow.

SPEAKER_00 39:51

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 40:35

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 40:36

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 40:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:58

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 41:07

Oh boy, what a trick.

SPEAKER_00 41:17

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 41:33

That's great.

SPEAKER_01 41:34

Well great for you. Great for you.

SPEAKER_00 41:38

Became the company clerk.

SPEAKER_04 41:41

That's cool. Come on.

SPEAKER_00 41:45

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

SPEAKER_05 41:53

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

SPEAKER_00 42:01

Yes, I did.

SPEAKER_05 42:02

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

SPEAKER_00 42:07

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

SPEAKER_01 42:12

Hang off.

SPEAKER_00 42:15

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 42:55

Well, that sounds scary to me.

SPEAKER_00 42:57

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 43:20

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 43:22

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 43:49

Well how many years did you do military?

SPEAKER_00 43:53

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

SPEAKER_01 43:58

Oh, okay, two years.

SPEAKER_00 44:00

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 44:08

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 44:09

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 45:21

Yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_00 45:23

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

SPEAKER_05 45:34

Thirty years in Canada.

SPEAKER_00 45:37

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 45:50

Oh.

Drafting School to Space Suit Diagrams

SPEAKER_00 45:51

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 46:04

Well I certainly will.

SPEAKER_00 46:07

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 46:20

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 46:34

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 46:46

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 47:29

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

SPEAKER_05 47:34

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 47:45

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 48:09

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 48:35

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 48:49

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 49:21

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

SPEAKER_05 49:25

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