Originally from Brooklyn, New York, Elliott grew up in a Jewish family[1] and had always wanted to be a cowboy, inspired by the rodeos he attended at Madison Square Garden, during his youth. Pressured by his parents to follow in his father's footsteps and become a doctor, Elliott resisted and instead ran away from home (at the age of 15) to join the then-famous J.E. Rodeo, the only rodeo ranch east of the Mississippi River. The rodeo traveled throughout the Mid Atlantic and New England states.