In the late 90s, Elia Kazan was interviewed on the subject of the film he is least remembered for: the 1945 adaptation of A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. His directorial debut is by no means a bad movie, but when the rest of your credits include such landmark films as On The Waterfront and A Streetcar Named Desire, it’s difficult to shout accolades for a simple story of a girl and her immigrant family, just trying to get by as the century turns. Said Kazan, “I like the film. It’s just that I think later I did much more ambivalent work, which is more in keeping with the way I see life actually, without villains and heroes.”
It’s true that Brooklyn is a film composed almost entirely of heroes — flawed ones, naive ones, and puritanical ones, but all steadfastly good. And it’s also true to say that the story is not shocking or controversial. Yet, for all it’s simplicity, the minutiae of this little girl’s story is utterly captivating. Perhaps, because it is based on a real one.
Smith, in front of the house that inspired the Nolans’ home.
Betty Smith was a second generation Brooklynite, born to the children of German and Austrian immigrants, John And Katie Wehner. Her father was born on Montrose Avenue, and her mother in Bushwick. The family didn’t move far, and anyone who’s brunched at Fanny’s then walked back to the Lorimer L stop has covered almost the entire landscape of this vast, 500-page novel — and Smith’s childhood.
The fictional Nolans lived on Lorimer St. not far from where Smith did herself. Before being forced to drop out at age sixteen, she attended Girls’ High School on Montrose Ave. This landmark structure is the oldest public high school building still standing in New York, and is still an active school. This was likely the model for Francie’s own beautiful school, which, though slightly out of district, her father enables her to attend via a postal address scam. One can see how she’d have been enchanted by it’s spires and grand facade.
During a Christmas scene in the novel, Francie attends a service at what she believes is “the most beautiful church in all of Brooklyn.” (Considering the borough was then known as The City Of Churches, this is saying something.) This is another hallmark of the book still standing today. The Most Holy Trinity church, where Smith herself was baptized, is located at 153 Johnson Ave., and is, as Francie says, truly stunning.
One landmark we can’t be absolutely certain of is perhaps the most crucial of the entire book: Francie’s childhood library. However, with some (truly amateur) sleuthing, we can ascertain that the cozy, thrilling space where Francie read for hours every day, is the building now known as the Bushwick Public Library. First opened in a rented church basement on Montrose Ave., the library moved to Bushwick Ave. & Siegel St. in 1908. It was here that Betty and her fictional counterpart escaped the grinding poverty of their daily lives, and discovered literature not only as an outlet, but as a means of expression that would shape the very course of their lives. The library remains a Carnegie landmark building, and serves the East Williamsburg neighborhood still.
Betty’s story is not exceptional. Both she and Elia Kazan knew that. Yet, both saw in it that captivating, up-all-night, heart-bursting resonance that made A Tree Grows In Brooklyn one of the most truly beloved American tales in the canon. It is the proof that you don’t need complex effects or even complicated subplots to make a compelling story. All you need to do is tell the story you love.
