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   Louis Gilrod

Testimony
"Gilrod himself used to search for the soul in a song all the time. He didn't feel at home when he came to write religious or national songs, such as "Toyre'le," "Israel'kel," "A Mother's Heart," but he felt much freer when he needed to write sad and love songs, such as "Blimelekh tsvey," "A Mother's Heart," "Golden Bride," or a humorous song mixed with sarcasm, such as, "In Around a Hundred Years," or his last song in the "Jolly Orphan," or "Ya vas lyublyu" (I Love You.)

In the beginning of his career he played theatre, and he felt best in character roles of a suffering or ill person. When Gilrod would not be his own bitter critic, and by not deciding that he was a failure, that he does not come to this or that actor, and as a character actor he would have taken a prominent place at the Yiddish theatre. His place speaks, and his sarcastic look on his entire life brought out a natural obsessive-compulsive disorder.

For example, in the coffee house, where he very much loved to philosophize, he spoke these words:

-- Who am I, and what am I?

-- I would have told you my opinion, -- he used to go on to say, a little hoarse and coughing, -- but what's my opinion? This is when an opinion would be expressed by this or that actor (called a big star), or when my opinion is expressed by this or that musician. Or a manager, he would be heard, but me? Who am I, and what am I?

And he used to finish:

-- When Kasten sings my song, "Fifty-Fifty": "I am never entirely one hundred percent." That's what you all mean, pointing with his long, dry hands. -- But I ... I feel very different. What do I mean? Friends ... wake up! But one thing is for sure, for all of you, for the entire theatre profession, even for my family, I have been and will remain a "fifty-fifty."

Yes, Gilrod was right, not only that his life was a "fifty-fifty," but even his death: He was somehow taken away, [and we were] not even told exactly about his funeral, which was a shocking and sad one. Fifty percent of his colleagues did not even accompany him.

Yes, his life was a "fifty-fifty." And who knows whether his soul was an entire hundred percent ..."
 

Source of Testimony
Joseph Rumshinsky -- Joseph Rumshinsky Talks Yiddish Theatre, Forward, March 21, 1930