A guy I knew slightly in school and Hitler's class photo

I once read this book on the psychological analysis of photographs. It wasn't scholarly and it warned not to read too much into the pictures, but I found it interesting at the time.

One was a school photo of Adolf Hitler's fourth grade class. And where do you think Adolf Hitler placed himself? Next to the teacher? Holding the sign? No. He's in the very center of the top row, slightly higher than the rest. See him there? He looks like a little Hitler.

So there was a guy I knew slightly in junior high school. I'll call him "X".

I never spoke to X in high school, but I had a small circle of friends who really, really hated him. One was an actor who appeared in two school plays but was never part of that group. He didn't socialize with other actors. They were all rich kids and he wasn't. He didn't like the fact that X got his choice of roles in every play. X didn't even have to audition. He and his wealthy family were on vacation in Europe during try-outs for one play. Kids auditioned for roles thinking that maybe they had a chance this time, then X came back and took what he wanted. He appeared in local theater. There was a photo of him outside Oregon Repertory Theatre for years and he appeared in an industrial film telling new employees how to make bagels.

X went to Northwestern University, studied theater, directed Steven Colbert in a play and is apparently still friends with him. He hit it big when he wrote adaptations of those terrible Chaim Potok novels. This automatically made him a major figure in Jewish theater and he's been working as director in regional theater for years around the country. If you want to build a career in something like that, you have to keep moving. You don't want to become too closely associated with one place.

So. Here are some pictures of X from junior high. Where do you think he placed himself in the group photos?

Boy's soccer team. Which one is he? Where would be place himself? How would he make himself stand out?

Boy's soccer team the next year. He's again not in uniform which makes him stand out. There's an even number of kids on the front row so he has to be off-center, but he has the ball between his feet. Why is he bigger than the others?

And here's one that might throw my theory off. X is in student government. He's in the back row. Again, there's an even number in that row so he's off-center. He would have done better in the front row. Interesting that it's all boys in front and the girls are all in the back.

I liked him well enough when I was acquainted with him. One time, he came over and read me a monologue he wrote in creative writing class. I could have made the same observation about the photos of him without bringing up Hitler.

It's nice that he's doing well, but it bothers me if arrogance played some role in it.