Photographers
unknown

Sitter
Joseph Buloff, January 20, 1899 - February 27, 1985

Date
unknown

Type
Portrait

Medium
Photograph

Credit Line
The Yiddish Theatrical Alliance

Testimony
“He doesn’t have to act,” wrote Maurice Schwartz, seeing him perform for the first time. “His special twists and turns move the audience so that they automatically break out in laughter. Buloff was a born clown. For the rest of his life he could merely play Joseph Buloff.”

And so he did, over the next sixty years, as well as hundreds of characters on the Yiddish and English-language stages, a longevity unmatched by few actors -- and never less than a rave review. After the desertion of Muni Weisenfreund (who would morph into Paul Muni) from the prestigious Yiddish Art Theatre in 1925, Schwartz was desperate for a replacement. Reports had come to him of a remarkable actor currently the rage of Bucharest for his imaginative adaptation of and performance in ‘The Singer of His Sorrows.’ Though young and relatively inexperienced, Joseph Buloff was part of the famous Vilna Troupe. He’d been in the premiere of Ansky’s masterpiece ‘The Dybbuk.’ For a decade, the Troupe had built an enviable reputation, performing quality ensemble theatre with a repertoire of the finest Yiddish and mainstream plays. Maurice Schwartz’s own Art Theatre had in great measure been inspired by the Vilna’s ideals and practices.

Born in Vilna on December 6, 1899, Buloff grew up in the chaotic atmosphere of war and revolution convulsing Eastern Europe at the time. His own home life was equally unsettling because of a father who’d made a fortune in America and lost it in The Pale. But determined early on to become an actor, emotionally unsuited for anything else, he edged into the shabby Elysium Theatre in Warsaw and told Leib Kadison, the Vilna Troupe’s founder, of his intention. “Very good,” was Kadison’s bemused response. “And where do you live?”

“I don’t live yet,” came the gritty reply.

He was soon to however, blossoming with the Vilna, becoming its finest player and winning Kadison’s lovely talented daughter Luba to the bargain. By 1923, the Troupe had fractured, one branch going off to play Berlin and other Western capitals. Joseph and Luba took their group to Bucharest and quickly won accolades from the average Yiddish theatre-goer to King Carol, the reigning monarch. Then the fabulous Maurice Schwartz beckoned, and after months of negotiations, the Buloffs emigrated to America. Growing fascism in Europe helped influence the decision."  

Source of Testimony
Martin Boris -- "Joseph Buloff: An Appreciation"