1940 Brooklyn, New York

Dr. Martin Frankel

Born in 1935

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Interviewed on 9/23/19

by Dylan Gleicher

Two movies stick out to me as the first I can remember—Gulliver’s Travels and The Wizard of Oz. Honestly, I don’t remember much about Gulliver’s Travel—I think it may have been animated, but I remember that I was infatuated with the story. Let’s talk about The Wizard of Oz though. That’s a far more interesting movie, and one that I have held dear throughout my life.

I was around five or six years old when I saw The Wizard of Oz. I went with my parents to the neighborhood theater. It was really close—it must have only been about a quarter-mile from our house in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The theater was completely standard for the day—I think it was called the Marcy Theater. There probably were ushers at the theater but it was so long ago and I was so young that it’s hard to say. Well, actually, there had to be—there always were ushers. They were actually called matrons back then. It was their job to make sure that the kids were quiet and the people found their seats. They probably shut me up a few times! It’s crazy that you kids have Google these days—I think I actually found the Marcy Theater in Williamsburg that I was talking about, and they demolished it this year. That’s sad! 

Sure we had a concession stand. You know that I loved my movie theater candy! Back in those days, popcorn still ruled supreme. I can’t even think of anything else I may have considered eating. Popcorn and a good movie was such a joy. Popcorn’s still a joy today! Working as a dentist throughout the years, I don’t think anything has created business for me quite like a popcorn kernel. Which reminds me—whenever you eat popcorn, NEVER bite down without knowing what you’re putting in your mouth. Or else you’ll crack a tooth and be seeing me a little bit sooner than you would like. Oh, how those kernels are good for business though. 

I’m sure you know this, but The Wizard of Oz is an absolute delight. It’s a timeless story. Young Dorothy gets carried off in a storm with cute little Toto to another place outside of Earth where she is extremely frightened. Each of the three characters she encounters on her adventure act to identify a part of Dorothy’s personality—the frightened Lion, the weak Scarecrow, and the normal-ish yet still frightened Tin Man. What really stood out to me at the time and still stands out to me was how dreamlike this movie was. Watching it back then as a child—I thought the movie was a dream. And if you think about it, looking back that really makes sense. The characters Dorothy encounters in Oz all correspond to people in her life. And you know that your brain is not capable of making up faces, so when we dream we recycle faces we have previously seen—Baum (the writer) was crafty like that. I remember as a kid being scared and identifying the movie as like one of my nightmares, but it had a delightful moments and a delightful ending. The characters on the road that she meets prevents her from being too frightened. The big bad Wizard ultimately turns out to be not so scary after all. Even the face associated with the Wicked Witch was friendly with her back in the real world at home. In the end good won out. 

The actors in this movie were particularly memorable to me (and the masses). They were all superb, and I remember seeing them pop up over the years and thinking back to their roles in The Wizard of Oz. I remember seeing Burt Lahr (the Lion) in many future movies and even commercials for potato chips. I thought Frank Morgan as the Wizard was particularly memorable and interesting. And then of course there was Judy Garland. I thought she had an incredibly believable performance in granting Dorothy realism and making her believable as an initially frightened girl going on a journey through a dream. I followed Garland’s whole life up until her death. I really feel like I grew up with these characters and these actors.