40 Fun Facts About A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

In which tenement neighborhood, also the author's birthplace, do the Nolans live in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?

Williamsburg is where Betty Smith was born in 1896, and the top-floor tenement on Grand Street where her family settled became the model for the Nolans' home.

Which hardy species native to China grows in the Nolans' yard and inspires the title of Betty Smith's Brooklyn novel?

Tree of heaven keeps re-sprouting however often it is cut down, which is why Smith made it the symbol of Francie's will to rise out of poverty.

What irregular job does Francie's charming, hard-drinking father Johnny Nolan hold in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?

Singing waiter echoes real life: Betty Smith's own father waited tables, drank heavily and provided for his family only now and then.

Besides the Bible, whose works does Katie Nolan read to her children a page a night in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?

William Shakespeare was the choice of Katie's immigrant mother, who could not read English herself but believed his plays were among the greatest works ever written.

How do Francie and Neeley win their Christmas tree in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?

Standing firm as it is thrown at them wins the biggest tree of all: by local custom, trees left unsold at midnight on Christmas Eve are hurled at children, and whoever stays upright keeps one.

Bugs Bunny's cartoon spoof of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is titled A Hare Grows in which place?

Manhattan gets the title, but the punchline belongs to the novel: Bugs brandishes a copy at a gang of dogs, who turn and race off across the Brooklyn Bridge.

Which stage director, later famous for On the Waterfront, made his first feature film with A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?

Elia Kazan was not the only future director on set: Nicholas Ray earned his first Hollywood credit on the picture, as its dialogue coach.

Which drink does Katie Nolan let her children waste, while every scrap of bread is used, in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?

Coffee is brewed once, early in the day, in the Nolan flat, then reheated for hours and stretched with chicory, and everyone is allowed three cups a day with milk.

Where does young Francie Nolan sit to read, as little Florry does at the end of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?

On the fire escape, the young Francie read and watched the neighbourhood's young women dress for their dates; seeing Florry do the same, she says goodbye to her younger self.

Which illness, worsened by years of drinking, kills Johnny Nolan on Christmas Day in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?

Pneumonia is the only cause entered on the death record, because Katie will not have his alcoholism admitted in public; Johnny is 34 when he dies.

Which instrument does Neeley Nolan grow up to play as a ragtime musician in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?

Piano reached the Nolan flat by luck: the previous tenant could not afford the movers' fee and left hers behind, and Katie traded an hour of housework for each lesson.

Which university, where Betty Smith once took classes, is Francie Nolan bound for as A Tree Grows in Brooklyn ends?

Michigan let Betty Smith sit in its classes as a special student although she had never finished high school, and Francie likewise gets in without a diploma.

From which European country did Katie Nolan's parents, the Rommelys, emigrate in the novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?

Austria was the homeland of Thomas and Mary Rommely; Thomas hated America so much that he forbade English at home, while Johnny Nolan's parents came from Ireland.

What single name does Aunt Sissy call each of her husbands and lovers in the novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?

John was her name for every one of them until her last husband insisted on being called Steve, his own name. The 1951 Broadway musical changed the pet name to Harry.

Which retired policeman turned wealthy politician does Katie Nolan agree to marry late in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?

Michael McShane has admired Katie for years, and he asks to adopt her baby and give the child his name so that she will grow up knowing a father.

What does the factory make where Francie Nolan takes her first job after grade school in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?

Artificial flowers were her trade as a stemmer, fixing stalks to fake roses; Betty Smith, sent out to work at 14, spent time in a factory making tissue paper.

What does Johnny Nolan falsify so that Francie can transfer to a better school in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?

The family's address was the lie that got her in, and it mirrors life: Betty Smith wrangled her own way into an out-of-district school in Greenpoint.

Which actor won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar as Johnny Nolan in the 1945 film A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?

James Dunn had not made a major studio film for five years, his career dented by his own drinking, when the part of the alcoholic father brought him back.

Which child star earned a special juvenile Oscar as Francie Nolan in the 1945 film A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?

Peggy Ann Garner won the part because the director insisted on a real child, although the studio had wanted an older actress for so demanding a role.

In which World War II miniseries is a soldier seen reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn on guard duty in Germany?

Band of Brothers shows Frank Perconte with the book in its ninth episode, Why We Fight, a true-to-life touch, since the novel was a favourite among American troops.

In which Southern college town was Brooklyn-born Betty Smith living when she wrote A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?

Chapel Hill became her home after a New Deal theatre project posted her to North Carolina in 1936, so the best-known novel of Brooklyn's tenements was written in the South.

Under which working title did Betty Smith first send her story of Francie Nolan to publishers, who kept rejecting it?

They Lived in Brooklyn was turned down by several publishers before Harper & Brothers took an interest in 1942; revised with its editors and retitled, it needed a second printing before its official publication date.

Which national body named A Tree Grows in Brooklyn one of its Books That Shaped America in 2012?

Library of Congress curators grouped it with The Great Gatsby and The Grapes of Wrath in the exhibition's 1900 to 1950 section, calling it an early socially conscious novel.

Which pocket-sized wartime paperback series made A Tree Grows in Brooklyn a favourite of American troops overseas?

Armed Services Editions had to print it a second time to meet demand, and Betty Smith said servicemen sent her ten times more fan mail than civilians did.

How does Katie Nolan earn the wages that keep her family housed in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?

Cleaning apartment buildings covers the Nolans' rent: Katie is janitress of three tenement houses, scrubbing their floors to support a family of four.

Which treat does Francie Nolan claim for a poor family, then eat herself, in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?

A pumpkin pie the size of a saucer prompts her first organised lie; when she owns up, her teacher explains the difference between a lie and a story.

Which job does Aunt Evy take over from her injured husband Willie, and do better, in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?

Driving a milk wagon suits Evy because she treats the horses far more kindly than Willie ever did; he later walks out on her to tour as a one-man band.

What does student Ben Blake give Francie Nolan near the end of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?

A promise ring comes with a five-year wait: Ben vows to marry her then if she still wants him, and Francie likes him without being sure she loves him.

What is soldier Lee Rhynor hiding when he woos Francie Nolan before shipping out in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?

His upcoming wedding to another woman goes unmentioned while he swears he loves Francie, and she learns the truth from a letter written by his new wife.

Which event forces the press clipping office where Francie Nolan works to close in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?

US entry into World War I ruins the bureau's trade, so Francie retrains as a teletype operator and plans to skip high school for college classes.

Which actress, just 16 years older than her screen daughter, played Katie in the 1945 film A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?

Dorothy McGuire was not the first choice: the studio wanted Alice Faye, who was unavailable, and screen-tested Gene Tierney before casting her.

Which actress played Aunt Sissy in the 1945 film A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and again on stage in 1952?

Joan Blondell took the part on the road when the Broadway musical's touring company opened in October 1952.

Which Hollywood studio won a bidding war for A Tree Grows in Brooklyn before the novel was even published?

20th Century Fox paid $55,000 for the rights, then filled a whole sound stage with a four-storey tenement fitted with lifts so the camera could travel up the stairs.

Which Broadway star played Aunt Cissy in the 1951 musical of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, a part enlarged for her?

Shirley Booth so pleased audiences that the script was tailored to her comedy, shrinking the roles of Francie and her parents; Variety later blamed that for the show's failure.

Which later novel by Betty Smith, author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, became a 1965 film with Richard Chamberlain?

Joy in the Morning, her fourth and last novel, draws on her own early marriage to a law student and follows a young Brooklyn couple through their first year as newlyweds.

Years before A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, in which form did Betty Smith first use the title Francie Nolan?

A stage play called Francie Nolan won her a $1,000 award in 1931, yet it went unperformed until the Mint Theater Company premiered it in 2023.

Which offence of Aunt Sissy's made Hollywood censors reject the first script for the film A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?

Bigamy was the censors' objection, since Sissy seemed to remarry before earlier husbands had died; the script passed in May 1944 with orders to tone her down.

What do the Nolans nail down inside a closet to hold their savings in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?

A tin can that once held condensed milk becomes the bank on the advice of Katie's mother, who wants the pennies saved until the family can buy land of its own.

Neeley Nolan, Francie's younger brother in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, has a nickname short for which name?

Cornelius is a year younger than Francie and his mother's favourite, a preference Katie vows her daughter must never discover.

Which memoir by Jeannette Walls has a narrator who grew up inspired by Francie Nolan of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?

The Glass Castle recounts a nomadic, dysfunctional childhood of its own, and it stayed on the New York Times bestseller lists for more than 260 weeks.