Early Life
Joe Frank was born Joseph Langermann in Strasbourg, France, near the border of Germany to father Meier Langermann (then age 51) and mother Friederike (then age 27), while in transit from Germany, where they were living, although they were Polish citizens. Being Jewish, his family was fleeing Nazi Germany and moving to New York City, where they arrived on April 12, 1939. Legislation to allow the family and others into the country was passed by the U.S. Congress twice, the first having been vetoed by President Roosevelt. Joe's father died when he was five years old. The next year his mother married Freddy Frank and changed Joe's last name.
In his twenties, Frank studied at Hofstra University in New York and later at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. He taught English literature at the Dalton School in Manhattan and, at the time, became interested in the power of radio.
Read more about this topic: Joe Frank
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
“In the true sense one’s native land, with its background of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“These words dropped into my childish mind as if you should accidentally drop a ring into a deep well. I did not think of them much at the time, but there came a day in my life when the ring was fished up out of the well, good as new.”
—Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896)