User:Cjr100B/Marvin Edward Dizor

Marvin Edward Dizor (May 19, 1893 – May 16, 1946) was a druggist in Raleigh, North Carolina during the early 1900s. He was a subject of the Federal Writers' Project which chronicled the lives of thousands of average Americans during the Great Depression and is now housed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Southern Historical Collection.

Early life and education
Marvin Edward Dizor was born on May 19, 1893 to David Meadows Dizor and Julia Ann Dizor in Rolesville, North Carolina. The summer after high school he began working in a drug store. Much like many teenagers, Dizor was not necessarily interested in this line of work, but took the job as it was his first chance to get work.

Dizor became interested in the field and decided to study pharmacy. His father sent Dizor to a school of pharmacy which he attended for nine months. After the nine months, Dizor felt ready to take the exam for his license. However, he and a group of his friends got drunk and went to the hotel where the papers were being graded, and the graders refused to pass them. He waited six months before taking it again, and he passed the exam.

Career
Dizor returned to work at the same drug store he had worked at in high school after he received his license. He worked at and managed a series of drug stores, many of which closed down due to the economy.

After World War I ended, the drug store he had been working at closed down. This left Dizor to find another job which resulted in him switching between a variety of jobs including jobs in real estate and the battery business.

Eventually Dizor found his way back to the drug business and settled down in Raleigh to counter-prescribe at a drug store. When business began to go poorly once again, Dizor worked diligently to keep the business going but, ultimately, he was unsuccessful.

Marriage
Dizor met his wife Beulah, and the two married without her mother’s knowledge at the Methodist preacher’s house. Beulah Dizor had a steady job as a stenographer where she was paid $75 a month. Eventually, the two settled into a house in Raleigh, North Carolina on S. Bloodworth St, a location in downtown Raleigh which was near the store he owned and operated. Beulah Dizor became ill with Tuberculosis and was sent to the Sanatorium for treatment. While she was in the Sanatorium, Dizor used paycheck that she was receiving to try and maintain his drug store business.

Dizor died in Raleigh on May 16, 1946 at the age of 52 as a result of suicide. Beulah was 43 years old at the time of his death.

Drug business
During the 1930s, there was much controversy and corruption within the businesses involved in the prescription drug industry. There was bribery connected to the business and it was found within the doctor-druggist relationship. In the United States, advertising prescription drugs directly to the consumer during this period was controversial, thus the advertising of drugs and pharmacies was the responsibility of the doctor. The doctors would tell the patients which pharmacy to go to based upon which druggist had financially given the most to the doctor which is direct bribery. Dizor referred to this process as “petting the doctors.” This fact meant that there were high stakes placed on “patronage and influence” within the business for the druggist to make money.

In addition to the bribery issues, the druggist was also held responsible for any mistakes in drug sales, especially that of narcotics. Any mistakes that the doctor may have made in prescribing medicine to patients were expected to be found and corrected by the druggist. Any error that got through the system could have resulted in the druggist losing their pharmaceutical license. Dizor had to deal with this issue daily being a druggist. There was much pressure placed upon him to do his job with meticulousness in order to protect his license.

Women working
The Great Depression was experienced differently by men and women as “men were socialized to think of themselves as breadwinners; when they saw their jobs or saw their incomes reduced, they felt like failures” while the women found their “roles in the household enhanced.” During this time period, it was not typical for a family to rely upon the woman of the house to bring home the paycheck.

The common theory during the 1930s was that women “form a ‘reserve army’ which is integrated into the labor market during periods of expansion and expelled with contractions” due to the “sexual segregation of occupations.” This theory was untrue many times as is the case in the situation of the Dizors where Beulah Dizor was the one was the one that brought the reliable paycheck home. Rather than being expelled from the workforce with the contraction of the economy, Beulah Dizor attained her job during the Great Depression.

Federal Writers’ Project
The Federal Writers’ Project (FWP) was a program created during Franklin Roosevelt’s administration in the 1930s as a result of the New Deal to provide relief to writers who did not have jobs. The Federal Writers’ Project “achieved remarkable success” and the planners of the project believed they could “help reshape American national identity around more inclusive, egalitarian and democratic ideals.”

There were a variety of editorial instructions put into place to maintain the an accurate account of the interviewee’s experiences which included upholding the language the interviewee and avoiding using phrases solely to ad flair to the account. However, many of the published transcripts determine that the interviewee was not always quoted properly and the interviewer, at times, summarized what the interviewee said in a more entertaining fashion.

Dizor was interviewed for the project on March 15, 1939 by W.B Sedberry in Raleigh, North Carolina.