Museum of the Yiddish Theatre

JACOB GORDIN,

... the playwright, whose plays were seldom sung and whose plays had no music at all, was himself a great lover of music. In the old country he was a music critic, and here in America, every Sunday, he used to arrange private concerts at his home every Sunday. He was a frequent visitor to the Metropolitan Opera House, mainly he loved the Wagnerian operas.

RUDOLPH SCHILDKRAUT,

... who had excelled in his natural acting, began his theatrical career as a clown in a circus.

MORRIS MORRISON,

... the Jewish-German actor used to say that such actors as Jacob P. Adler and David Kessler would have been famous on every world stage, but an actor as Sigmund Mogulesco had just no world stage.

BINA ABRAMOWITZ,

... who they call "The Mother of the Yiddish Stage," very rarely publishes her opinion about actors and actresses. When asked, she replies that "with a mother, all children are equal."

MUNI WEISENFREUND,

... at the age of fourteen, he played the role of a long-bearded father.

JOSEPH SCHILDKRAUT,

... the son of the famous Rudolph, learned to play the violin easily, and he considered making it his career.

JACOB MESTEL,

... who came to Yiddish theatre when it was an officer in the Austrian Army, is very much a character He is a very strong man. An Yiddish actor once kindly said to him, "Come on, you are a lemeshke [weak person]." Mestel joked in German: "What am I? A weak person!? Do you know that I am an Austrian officer? Here is my business card. Tomorrow we will have a duel."

IZIDOR CASHER,

... who plays evil, upset, angry people on stage, rarely gets angry and upset in his private life.

JOSEPH SCHOENGOLD,

... who has devoted much time and energy to forming his lovely manor voice, loves to sing in private, and also in the dressing room. In the theatre, however, he doesn't like to sing on the stage. To him, singing on the stage is a hardship.

SARA ADLER,

... used to cry on stage with real tears. Mainly she was the most natural Yiddish actress.

BESSIE THOMASHEFSKY,

... when she used to play a tenor role, she used to copy Boris Thomashefsky in both walking and speaking.

JOSEPH EDELSTEIN,

.. the pioneer of Yiddish theatre managers, has most of his money in Yiddish theatre!  He made it with operettas. He also had great dramatic successes, but he used to rarely enter into his theatre when they played a drama. His explanation is: "I hate trouble, I hate trouble."

WILLY PASTERNAK,

... the manager of the Second Avenue Theatre, does not know the word "no."

GERSHON RUBIN,

... the talented born Litvak had to play on the Yiddish stage for the first time with David Kessler in a German play, "Virginius," the role of a count and spoke with a Berlin High German ...

CHARLIE COHAN,

... who is the secretary of the Actors' Union, is so accustomed to speaking with actors about dues, that he often forgets when and where. He had such a scene in a play with an actor who plays the role of his partner. the "partner" needs to say: "Thank God, we both are not coming at all." Charlie also needs to say: "Thanks God." Charlie forgot and said, "Who told you that? You're not coming, but your union dues are coming up in a couple of lovely weeks."

ZINA GOLDSTEIN,

... has a tendency toward the German operetta and hopes sometime to found a Yiddish operetta theatre, which will perform German operettas in Yiddish.

ROSE GREENFIELD,

... when she tours in the province, she writes a letter to her husband every day, and if one day it is not possible to write, she writes two letters at a time the next day.

GERTIE BULMAN,

... acts in every play that will be played through the week. But even if she finds that she has a night free, she comes to the theatre to see what her colleagues, the actresses, do.

HERMAN WOHL,

... who excels with his heartfelt Jewish melodies, loves to hear compliments, that he writes good jazz music.

JACOB WEXLER,

... expresses his love and friendship with a strong punch in the shoulder, with a true Jewish curse.

ABRAHAM FISHKIND,

... loves to tell jokes for the actors; and they love to hear the jokes. The whole theatre family once agreed that they should not laugh from his jokes, however good that they may not be. The only one who could not restrain himself and broke the agreement, was Berl Bernstein, who himself was a volcano of laughter.

JOSEPH RUMSHINSKY,

... has a habit when he conducts his orchestra, turning around his head and looking at the public. He hears remarks many times and kibitzes with the audience behind him.  One of them says: "Are you checking to see if the house is packed? I wish I could see so many people in my grocery store all year long, how many you have today."

A second says: "There, there, there (indicating with his hand) sits a beautiful, young girl."

A third says: "You can look at my Jews as much as you want. I have more fun looking at your actresses."