Transcript of Spoken Word

http://collections.ushmm.org Contact [email protected] for further information about this collection 1 USHMM –Marty Glickman (5-20-96) Tape 1 of 4 Q: Marty, I’d like you to begin by telling me your name, where you were born, date of birth. A: My name is Martin Irvin Glickman. I’m usually referred to as Marty Glickman. I was born in the Bronx. At the age of 6 I moved to Brooklyn. I was raised in Brooklyn. Q: And what year were you born? A: I was born in 1917. My parents came from Romania. They came over about 1912. I don’t remember exactly when. I wasn’t around when they got here. But I was born in 1917. Lived originally in the Bronx. Q: Tell me a little bit about your childhood and your family. A: My father was not an extremely religious person. As a matter of fact uh he was Jewish. We observed the High Holy Days. Occasionally on Shabbat we’d go to synagogue, only occasionally. My grandfather and grandmother on my mother’s side were, kept a kosher home uh with the two sets of dishes and the silverware and things like that. I was bar mitzvahed. I went to Hebrew school and uh I raised my own children in the Jewish faith. And my two sons were bar mitzvahed. My two daughters were not bar mitzvahed, but we have a Jewish background, a Hebrew background. Q: Was that very important to you as a boy? A: It wasn’t uh very important in terms of my uh, uh grand feeling about Judaism. I was like any other kid. I, I was brought up in Jewish neighborhoods, mixed neighborhoods actually. Uh we lived amongst Italians and Irish. Q: Why don’t you start that again because you’ve sort of conflicted yourself. What kind of neighborhood were you brought up in demographically? A: I was brought up in a, a mixed neighborhood. I was brought up in a, a mixed Irish, Italian and Jewish neighborhood. There certainly were as many Jewish boys around with whom I played as there were people of other faiths. And I didn’t feel unusual about being a Jew. Uh many of my friends went to Hebrew school with me and many of my classmates in school were Jews. Uh it was uh nothing out of the ordinary being Jewish in my neighborhood. Q: Then you didn’t feel any anti-Semitism from the non-Jewish kids? 1 This is a verbatim transcript of spoken word. It is not the primary source, and it has not been checked for spelling or accuracy. http://collections.ushmm.org Contact [email protected] for further information about this collection 2 A: Occasionally we’d get into a fight. Uh I had an older cousin who was a big strong young man and he fought with an Italian boy one day because he was called a Jew Bastard. And uh he got into a fight, and uh I’m pleased to say that my cousin won the fight. But I never actually uh struck a blow because I was called a, a Jew Bastard or anything like that. Uh as I say I was amongst Jews most of the time. Q: So you really never felt in any way slighted because you were Jewish or you never saw that as something that you’d have to rally against? A: I never felt as though I, I had to overcome the fact that I was a Jew. I was aware however that I was Jewish. And uh, uh the great athletes of the day uh, Venny Leonard was my father’s hero. Another great prize fighter named Leach Cross uh was a man that he admired greatly. And uh Hank Greenberg was one of my early heroes. So I was aware of Jewish athletes and Jewish competitors who did well. I wanted to do well also to show that a Jew could do just as well, perhaps better, than anybody else. Q: Then there was that distinction. How important were sports and how did you get involved in sports? A: I got involved in sports because I was always the fastest kid on the block. I could run faster than anybody else could run. And, and uh I found this true until I ran against Jesse Owens, He was the one fellow I couldn’t beat, never could beat him. But other than that I was, as I say, the fastest kid around. And because of that I had an advantage in any sport I played. So I played, punch ball, and box ball, and ring-a-leaveo, the games kids played in the Bronx and Brooklyn in those days. And when I started playing basketball or baseball or football, because I had the speed, I had an advantage and so I could be perhaps better than some of the other guys. I could almost steal first base in baseball. Q: So you started sports at a fairly early age? A: I started sports, I started my first running when I was uh five years of age I think. Uh we used to run around the block. And uh we’d start in opposite directions, I and my opponent would run off around the block and we’d come back to the same spot. And the first one returned to that spot was the winner. And uh the older guys in the neighborhood would match me against some of the older boys there because I could beat the fellows my age rather handily. And I almost never lost. I don’t remember losing a race until I ran against Jesse. Q: Now when did this running and sort of neighborhood sports become sports in a more organized fashion? A: Sports for me became more organized when I went to Junior High School. Montauk Junior High School in Brooklyn. And uh I played on four different 2 This is a verbatim transcript of spoken word. It is not the primary source, and it has not been checked for spelling or accuracy. http://collections.ushmm.org Contact [email protected] for further information about this collection 3 teams. I was a catcher on the baseball team. I played on the basketball team. We won a city championship in, in basketball. Also won a city championship in baseball. Uh I ran on the track team and I was the field day champion. I was the fastest runner in the school. And of all things I swam on the swimming team. And in those days athletes played all sports in season. In the spring and summer you played baseball. In the fall you played football. In the winter time you played basketball. And all year round you ran. I don’t ever remember walking as if as a young person. I always ran. It was just my nature to run. Q: So sports were very important to you it seems. A: Sports were critical to me. Uh my life was built around sports. And I think it began when I started reading the Merrywell books. Now uh those of you who are my age may well remember the Merrywell books. They were written by Bert L. Standish and Frank Merrywell was the premier hero. He had a younger brother named Dick Merrywell who also was a great athlete. And Frank Merrywell married and had a son named Frank Merrywell, Jr., who also was a great athlete. And I wanted to be like Frank Merrywell junior or senior or Dick Merrywell. And uh the exploits of the book, I started reading them I guess when I was 12 years of age, and I wanted to duplicate those exploits. He ultimately went to Yale. Became an all – American football player, basketball player, a champion in all the sports he participated in and a, a well – rounded All – American type person. I wanted to be Frank Merrywell. I still remember his, his, his girlfriend’s name whom he married. Her name was Inez. I married a person named Margery, but I met her in high school. So it was uh, uh it was my, my goal to be like Frank Merrywell, this fictional character. Q: Then your goal was to be this quintessential All – American guy? A: Yes that’s right. I wanted to be the uh as good as I possibly could be in sports and also be a good student, because Frank Merrywell was a good student. I, I wound up being, I would say, uh a B student. Uh I never had problems passing a, a courses in school. I was uh a fair student. Q: So there is actually one story I’m curious about. When you talk about how active you were in sports and how they really were your life at that point. Did you think that you had a future in sports, that you might be thinking in terms of Olympics or an athletic career? A: I never thought in terms of having a future in sports. I never aspired, for example, to be a, a sports announcer. That came through my uh the good day I had, the best day I ever had on a football field. But the only reference I recall as to having aspirations in sports was in my uh Junior High School graduating year when I was all of 14 years of age. My homeroom teacher, a man named Hugh Brown, who was an alumnus of Yale, wrote in my yearbook – be seeing you in the 1936 Olympics.

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