Wichita boy grows up to be movie mogul

Isn't it fun when a child you just knew would grow up to be very successful does just that? I remember a skinny, 6-year-old Jonathan Glickman standing in his family's dining room, his dark hair and swimsuit dripping on the carpet. He was explaining to his mom why he and his pal, Jeff Marcus, should go back to the pool, even though they both were shriveled from being in the water so long. He was calm, thoughtful, determined, charming and finally got the answer he wanted. I told his mom that Jon would probably be president someday.

Now 41, the little guy with a giant smile and brown eyes has grown up to be president of MGM Motion Picture Group.

He is the son of former Kansas Congressman Dan Glickman and his wife, Rhoda.

I had a fun phone conversation with Jon last week from his office in Century City in Los Angeles.

It was immediately clear that while he certainly is at the top of his game in Los Angeles, he hasn't forgotten Wichita and the movies he saw here and the beginning of his love of the cinema.

"I remember seeing 'Pinocchio' at the Crest and going to the drive-in in Wichita, seeing Disney movies —'The Apple Dumpling Gang,' " he recalled. "Most of my memories of Wichita are going to the movies. On election days we would go to the movies."

His grandparents Milton and Gladys Glickman were always interested in show business and his career, he said. They would go the movies he produced and call with their critiques. "I loved getting those messages from them," he said. "It was so great."

Other Wichita memories include "getting kicked out of Dot Osborne's nursery school because I kissed Wendy Marcus" and school days at Minneha Elementary.

"We moved to Washington, D.C., when I was 7 1/2, but I came back every summer from then until I was in college, and some summers in college," he said.

Now he is adjusting to being an executive instead of a producer, and juggling his time between career and family — a wife of 11 years and two children, a son, 8, and a daughter, 5.

Jon says his job description is confusing, "until you live it."

Simply put, he is in charge of developing and overseeing a movie as well as finding the right movies to make. "I read a lot of scripts, 15 to 20 a week," he said.

"I'm no longer producing, but I think because I was a producer I have an appreciation of what it means to be on the other side of the phone call, or the person down there dealing with the day-to-day filming process," he said.

We've all seen movies where movie moguls are portrayed as heartless wheeler-dealers who will do anything to get their projects completed.

Jonathan says those portrayals are obviously more flashy than the actual business.

"But it is a high-pressure job because important decisions have to be made on a very quick basis," he said.

I couldn't help but ask if he had ever been star-struck.

"I think growing up in Washington and being surrounded by people who were on news programs made it easier or more natural to meet stars," he said.

The stars who were big when he was a kid are the ones who are really fun to meet, he said.

"I made a film with Al Pacino, and at first I couldn't help but think of him as Michael Corleone. That is the film that made the biggest impact on me, 'Godfather' I and also II," he said.

I asked Jonathan what he'd like to be doing in 10 years.

"I am enjoying right now," he said. "Every movie is its own unique creation. That is fulfilling because it allows me to experience a lot of different 'lives.'

"Nothing is better than watching a movie that you have been a part of, to hear the audience reactions. I think I'm doing what I was built to do," he said.

Sure enough, he grew up to be a president.

This story was originally published March 28, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Wichita boy grows up to be movie mogul."