Hal Glicksman

Interview Description

Oral History Interview with Hal Glicksman

Born in Brooklyn in 1937, Hal Glicksman grew up in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn at the same location as his father's glass shop. He attended PS 11, PS 64, Boys' High School, and Brooklyn College. While young Glicksman was in his teens his father suffered a heart attack, and the young man assisted with glass installation for the family business. Permanently shuttering the shop in the early 1970s, Glicksman left for Chicago, where he got started in local broadcast television work. He returned to Brooklyn a couple years later and found long term employment with CBS News. In the several years before this 2009 interview, Glicksman had become a Manhattan resident, left CBS after staffing cuts, and had become a tour guide in the city for the Gray Line bus company. After eight years at Gray Line, he was leading a variety of tours for New York City Vacation Packages as of 2017.

In this interview, Hal Glicksman looks back on his time as a boy and young man in and around the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn, as well as shares the knowledge of a tour guide in regard to the Brooklyn of the early twenty-first century. Throughout, he mentions many biographical details and recalls much about the two generations of his family that preceded him. Glicksman recalls his home and how that also served as the base for his father's glass shop. He focuses on notable moments and landmarks of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and shares personal stories of volunteering for the team and meeting Dan Bankhead and Jackie Robinson. Often Glicksman discusses the changes in Brooklyn neighborhoods, contrasting a location of his youth with his adult view of the same place. The landmarks and institutions mentioned include Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, Fort Greene Park, elevated trains, Ebbets Field, Barclay's Center, Brooklyn Navy Yard, Pfizer Pharmaceutical, Fort Greene Meat Market, and Brooklyn Academy of Music. Interview conducted by Sady Sullivan.

The Voices of Brooklyn oral histories: Our neighbors series features a broad range of narrators. Most are not well-known public figures but are well-known to their neighbors. This ongoing, extensive series focuses on Brooklyn history and the experiences of these narrators document national and international history as well. The interviews include people from diverse backgrounds making observations or sharing recollections about the growth and condition of several neighborhoods within Brooklyn. Brooklyn Heights, Carroll Gardens, and Fort Greene were heavily represented as of 2017. The oldest narrator in this collection was born in 1927.

Citation

Glicksman, Hal, Oral history interview conducted by Sady Sullivan, January 14, 2009, Voices of Brooklyn oral histories: Our neighbors, 2008.031.5.007; Brooklyn Historical Society.