Peter Falk takes us on an acting journey that begins not in Hollywood but in Hartford, where he worked as an efficiency expert for the state of Connecticut. The first day on the job he couldn't find the office - it was in the State Capitol - and ended up in the post office. His time there was no more successful than his attempt to find work as a spy with the Central Intelligence Agency: after high school he had gone to sea as a cook in the Merchant Marines, and the union he was required to join was later labelled as Communist-dominated. That didn't settle well with the CIA - spy career over.