precision poverty In his 100-odd tales of small-town boys arriving nearly penniless in the brutal big city and earning fortunes by dint of hard work and virtuous living, Horatio Alger often went so far as to record the exact amount of change his impoverished characters started out with — 12 cents, 50 cents, a dollar. One of Alger's favorite books was Benjamin Franklin's autobiography, in which Franklin described running away from Boston and arriving in Philadelphia with one Dutch dollar to his name. Precision Poverty as a literary device to highlight subsequent success is a tradition upheld to this day, as the following examples of journeys culled from actual celebrity memoirs and biographies demonstrate.

Name	Age	From	To	How much?	How?	Comments
Yul Brynner	23	Paris	New York	No money	Steamer	Says he found someone's gold filling on 42nd Street and sold it for $5
Mark Twain	21	Cincinnati	New Orleans	"No money to speak of"	Steamer	Went to St. Louis to borrow $100 to pay for river-pilot instruction
Will Rogers	23	Oklahoma	Africa	"Plum busted, sho nuff"	Steamer	Set out with $3000, but went via New Orleans, New York, London and Argentina
Lucille Ball	20s	Jamestown, New York	New York	5 cents	Not stated	Stole waiter's tip to buy coffee; also panhandled a penny
Twiggy	15	Neasden, England	London	2 shillings	Bus	Was broke, so had to borrow bus fare to see fashion editor who "discovered" her
Richard Pryor	23	Peoria	New York	About $2	Bus	After he cleaned himself up and had a smoke, had 33 cents left
Sidney Poitier	16	Atlanta	New York	About $3	Bus	Had more, but it was stolen during trip
Lawrence Welk	21	North Dakota	South Dakota	About $3	Buggy	Also brought $400 accordion
Lee Iacocca	21	Allentown, Penn.	Detroit	$50	Train, car	Also had a duffel bag
Aristotle Onassis	17	Turkey	Argentina	$60	Steamer	Bribed man on ship to get a good bunk
Errol Flynn	17	Sydney	New Guinea	£18	Boat	Sold engagement ring girlfriend threw at him
Henry Fonda	22	Omaha	Cape Cod	$100	Car	Last of his earnings from vaudeville sting playing Abe Lincoln's secretary
Gene Autrey	19	Oklahoma	New York	$150 hidden in suitcase	Train	Had no job, only "a few names to call and a pure heart"
Al Neuharth	30	South Dakota	Miami	$300	Car	U-Haul trailer held all possessions, presaging bus trip 30 years later
Roseanne Barr	19	Salt Lake City	Colorado	$400	Bus	Stopped in Grand Junction to throw up
Ronald Reagan	17	Dixon, Illinois	Eureka, Illinois	$400	Not stated	Lifeguard savings; off to college
Carol Burnett	18-21	Los Angeles	New York	$528	Airplane	Had $1000, but needed dental work
Jimmy Carter	29	New York (Navy stint)	Plains	A few grand	Car	Sold 2000 tons of fertilizer in first year of new business
Richard Nixon	33	Baltimore	California	$10,000	Not stated	Savings to run for Congress from salaries and poker winnings
Donald Trump	25	Queens	Upper East Side	$200,000, but "most of it tied up in buildings"	Not stated	Says his father's life story is "classic Horatio Alger"