Gene is the son of Jim and Betty Dodaro and grew up in the Monessen—Belle Vernon region of Pennsylvania, attending Belle Vernon Area High School where he played basketball.
Born to Joseph and Sarah Goldberg Safier in Monessen, PA, on September 9, 1912, the youngest of five siblings, “Rody” Safier composed twenty songs while still in high school, and played two of them for Helen Kane in the Stanley Theater.