At this time he changed his name to Woody Allen, a nickname his father said the neighborhood kids gave him because he always brought the stick to play stickball.
Allen attended New York University, was expelled for poor grades, and later enrolled at City College of New York, only to leave quickly. His decision to attend college seemed motivated solely by a desire to please his parents. He left home at eighteen when he married Harlene Rosen; they were divorced in 1960. His first job was writing jokes for a public relations agency, producing fifty jokes a day. Subsequently, he entered NBC's writers development program where he received his first and possible only formal training in comedy writing. The network sent him to Hollywood to help salvage the failing Colgate Comedy Hour, but after a few months he returned to New York and started writing for several comedians and television shows, including Your Show of Shows, starring Sid Caesar.
Dissatisfied with how others used his material, Allen decided to perform his jokes himself. He was encouraged by Jack Rollins and Charles Joffe, who, beginning in 1958, became his agents, managers, and confidants, and later, producers of most of his films.
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