The Goldsteins Welcome ‘Parade’ to Marietta Square

For a little over two weeks in September, Leo Frank returned to Marietta. More than a century after he was lynched there and became one of only a handful of American Jews murdered that way, an actor portraying Frank returned to the stage of the Strand Theatre on the Marietta Square for “Parade.”

The American musical drama, which first debuted in 1999 and was successfully revived on Broadway in 2023, tells the story of Frank and his young wife, Lucille, as they battle injustice and grief during his trial, his subsequent conviction, and his death at the hands of a lynch mob that is said to have been organized by some of the leading citizens of Marietta in 1915.

The drama was written by Atlanta native, Alfred Uhry, with music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown, both of whom have made well received appearances in recent years to promote the show in Atlanta. Last year, Uhry attended a road show engagement of his work at The Fox Theatre.

But until now, it had not been seen in Marietta, which was a farming community with strong working-class roots during the years that “Parade” takes place. The young 12-year-old girl Frank was accused of murdering is buried in a Marietta cemetery. The grave still attracts family members and the curious to view a large tombstone adorned with gifts reminiscent of her short life and a few bouquets of plastic flowers.

A great aunt earlier this year revised her own retelling of the murder in a book that she offers on a website in an attempt to debunk the story of Frank’s wrongful conviction. Emotions still run high around a few in the Cobb County community who remain convinced after all these years that Frank, the Jew, deserved the lynching he received.

But Frank was not the only one caught up in the weeks of anti-Jewish hatred that swept over Atlanta during the Frank’s prosecution. Today, Philip Goldstein remembers how his grandfather, for whom he was named had to run a gauntlet of angry locals after he closed his dry goods store on the Marietta Square each evening during the Frank trial.

As his grandson tells it, he rode the street car, with his sister and sister-in-law into Atlanta each night in 1913 even when it was rocked back and forth by a menacing crowd. Two years later, on Aug. 17, 1915, he observed the celebratory crowds that filled the square to hear Fiddlin’ John Carson, one of the early pioneers of recorded country music sing, his scurrilous indictment of Frank and celebrate his execution and the mutilation of his body.

But like so many who felt the sting of antisemitism in early 20th century America, he came back the next day graciously selling work clothes, shoes, sheets, and towels without a mention of the violence of those who had cursed the Jews the day before.

Over time, he and his family prospered, through good times and bad, saving their money and believing in the future of Marietta. His son, Herbert, translated that belief into a shrewd lifetime of cautious real estate investments, often buying up properties that came up for sale around the square. Later, his son, Phillip, eagerly joined the business when he was 18, and armed with a law degree kept buying, even in the 1970s, when it looked like Marietta Square was living on borrowed time.

Today, the Goldsteins’ real estate holdings include properties that account for more than two-and-a-half sides of the valuable sites around the four sides of the square and much more nearby. Philip Goldstein lives in a grand old house that sits on six acres not far from the square. Just like his father and grandfather, he has found success by remaining close to the community. He served on the Marietta City Council for 37 years.

Today, his son, Joseph, has succeeded him on the council as the youngest member ever elected to the job. He is now in his ninth year serving in city government. And the old square bustles with activities. At least 19 events are planned just this month, from the Marietta Square Farmers Market to the Make A Wish 5K.

Times change, and as recent history has shown, Goldstein believes you always can find antisemitism somewhere in the world. But, in Marietta, even with the dark welcome that his grandfather received, he and his family have been celebrated.

And, as the crowds filled the Strand Theatre to see “Parade,” there was sense of accomplishment there, too. Just over 50 years old, the Goldsteins bought the theater, which today they lease to a nonprofit that renovated and run it. Yes, the Goldsteins own the theater where Leo Frank returned.