Filmmaker Garry Marshall’s career began in the Bronx

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Garry Marshall, the film director of Pretty Woman, Beaches and The Princess Diaries, discovered his gift for comedy when he was a student at a Kingsbridge high school, according to a veteran former teacher’s account.

Mr. Marshall died last week at age 81 after complications from pneumonia following a stroke. Former social sciences teacher and school historian Gerard Pelisson spoke to The Press about the director’s teenage years.

A Bronx native, Mr. Marshall grew up in the northwest section of the borough and went to DeWitt Clinton High School. While he may not have been the most diligent student, he made up for any lapses in studiousness with his quick wit, according to the interview.

Mr. Pelisson did not start working at the school until the mid-1960s, more than a decade after Mr. Marshall graduated in 1952. The two initially spoke when Mr. Pelisson was researching his book on the school’s history and Mr. Marshall shared stories of his time there.

On one occasion, the would-be film director failed to do his homework for his social studies class and tried to hide the fact, according to a story Mr. Pelisson told The Press.

Social sciences teacher Irwin Guernsey called upon Mr. Marshall to answer a question. The teenager flipped through the pages of his notebook pretending to search for the answer. In exasperation, Mr. Guernsey struck the notebook with the rubber-tipped bottom of his cane several times, demanding to see the homework.

Mr. Marshall responded that by hitting the pages of his notebook with the rubber-tipped cane, Mr. Guernsey erased the homework.

The instructor thought it was such an imaginative and witty answer that he let the matter go. As the story goes, from that moment on, Mr. Marshall knew what he would do for a living – write jokes. And it was what he did in the early days of his career.

Mr. Pelisson, who co-wrote the book titled The Castle on the Parkway: The Story of New York City’s DeWitt Clinton High School and its Extraordinary Influence on American Life, met Mr. Marshall on two occasions.

“They both had to do with his coming back to the school for his 50th anniversary,” Mr. Pelisson said. “My first encounter was that I prepared a booklet about all the people who went to Clinton, who were in the movie industry. And I sent a copy to his secretary, and he was so excited about it that he answered the email.”

Mr. Marshall was proud to be a Clinton graduate and a Bronx native. According to a story the film director’s wife, Barbara, told Mr. Pelisson, Mr. Marshall carried a Clinton athletic bag on a cruise vacation. The bag caught the eye of a fellow alumnus, B. Gerald Cantor – who was the founder of securities firm Cantor Fitzgerald and a prominent philanthropist before his death in 1996 – and sparked a conversation between the two men that led to a lifelong friendship.

“It was also remarkable how attached he stayed to DeWitt Clinton,” Mr. Pelisson said. “Very often people who are successful forget where they came from.”

But “there were no airs about him. He was a caring person who paid attention to everybody,” the former teacher said.

After high school, Mr. Marshall graduated from Northwestern University, wrote for comics such as Joey Bishop and Phil Foster, and later served as a writer for The Tonight Show in 1960. The job launched his career as a television comedy writer.

As a director and producer, he received the Women In Film Lucy Award in 1996. The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences inducted him into its Hall of Fame in 1997. He also received The Producer Guild of America’s Award in Television in 1998. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Garry Marshall, Gerard Pelisson, DeWitt Clinton High School, Lisa Herndon

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