CITYROOM: “A familiar figure begs on the streets, but not for himself”, por Corey Kilgannon.

He is a familiar sight, the old man who solicits change from drivers stopped at a red light on East 35th Street in Midtown Manhattan every day near Third Avenue.
After all, he has been at it for 17 years now, seven days a week. With the help of a walker, he hobbles between lanes of traffic, approaching drivers, proffering newspapers — often a free paper collected from boxes on the sidewalk nearby — and asking for change.
“Help a guy out?” he repeated on a recent Wednesday afternoon to drivers who would often hand over a dollar or some change and then zoom off.
Most drivers simply regard him as another homeless down and outer, but every so often one might squint at the jolly man’s scruffy beard, scarecrow hair and zany smile and realize that — holy cow! — it’s the legendary comedian Professor Irwin Corey.

Mr. Corey said he gathers his daily take, usually about $100(…), every few months and donates the money to a charity that buys medical supplies for children in Cuba.