Sidney Glazier
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Sidney Glazier | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | May 29, 1916 |
| Died | December 14, 2002 (aged 86) |
| Occupation | Producer |
Sidney Glazier (May 29, 1916 – December 14, 2002) was an American film producer best known for his work on the Mel Brooks film The Producers.[1]
Glazier was born in Philadelphia on May 29, 1916, the second of three sons born to Jewish émigré parents Jake Glazier and Sophie Schekid from Minsk.[2] His elder brother, Tom Glazer, became a composer, guitarist, and folk singer.[1] His father, a carpenter, died during the 1918 flu epidemic, and when his mother remarried, her new husband, Solomon Levick did not want her children in the house.[2] As a result, the three boys were placed in the Hebrew Orphan Home in Philadelphia when Glazier was 5. Glazier later reported that "[h]er reasoning and the pain it brought us remains incomprehensible, unfathomable."[1][2] Glazier ran away from the orphanage after being sexually abused by a volunteer, but returned as he could find nowhere else to go. He later sought psychoanalysis to help him deal with these childhood experiences.[2] Glazier left the home at the age of 15, working as an usher at the Bijou burlesque theater that showed films between acts. He recalled "I instantly realized that films would always be the loveliest and best escape from the troubled life I inherited".[2] He also worked as a part-time pimp for a local madam.[2][3]
Glazier was managing the Mayfair Theater in Dayton, Ohio, when shortly before the United States entered the Second World War, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps.[2] The newly married Glazier served in Australia and New Guinea as a second lieutenant, commanding 100 black troops as a support unit of the 380th Bombardment Group.[2][4]
New York and film production
After his discharge and divorce, Glazier moved to Manhattan, where he was appointed the night manager of the Apollo Bar and worked with jazz artists such as Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday. He found a day job under the GI Bill as an apprentice jeweller, but left the position seeking to become a bonds salesman for the new state of Israel. His success in fund-raising led him to be appointed as the executive director of the Eleanor Roosevelt Cancer Foundation.[2][5] He greatly admired Eleanor Roosevelt as a person and activist and the two later became friends. When she died in 1962, he initiated the production of the documentary on her life. The film, The Eleanor Roosevelt Story, which Glazier produced, was groundbreaking in style and won the 1965 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.[2][3] In 1964, he married Yungmei Tang who had worked as a production assistant on the film. The couple had a daughter, Karen, in 1965.[2][4]
