Photographers
unknown

Sitter
Berl (Bernard) Bernstein, born circa 1860.

Date
in or before 1906

Type
Portrait

Medium
Photograph

Credit Line
Library of Congress

Testimony
Bessie Thomashefsky portrays Bernstein's first performance in New York as such:

"The play "Shulamis" had been performed. I had seen nothing extraordinary. My own Absalom, my husband, that is, was more important to me than the new Absalom, but "Tsingetang," Bernstein, was new to me. ... Bernstein could do a dance, an improvement on the stage after all.

The public became tremendously excited. Bernstein soon became a New York darling. People ran into the Union Theatre to see "Berele hop." They applauded him vigorously and always demanded that he should jump, like he was jumping on a springboard.

He was entirely unique. Tall and skinny, with a bass voice, nothing like we were accustomed to from a comic, and long legs. Concerning his legs, he wore mismatched leggings in the theatre cafe. People would say that when Bernstein wished it, he could make them as long as he wanted, and that when he wanted, he could make them entirely shorter and could act like a small, young woman. Mostly, he need only to will it."

Source of Testimony
Zylbercweig, Zalmen -- "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre," Volume 1, page 207.