As a child, Nimoy took miscellaneous jobs to supplement his family's income, including selling newspapers and greeting cards, shining shoes, or setting up chairs in theaters, and when he got older, selling vacuum cleaners [REF].
His first major role was at 17, as Ralphie in an amateur production of Clifford Odets' Awake and Sing!,[REF] which dealt with the struggles of a matriarchal Jewish family similar to his during the Great Depression.