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  Menasha Skulnik

   

     

 

Photographers
unknown

Sitter
Menasha Skulnik, May 15, 1890 - June 4, 1970

Date
unknown

Type
Portrait

Medium
Photograph

Credit Line
Yiddish Theatrical Alliance

Testimony
"In the drama he never ever made a living, and he also had trouble with the stars because when he used to speak out a word on the stage, or make a movement, the theatre roared with laughter, and they couldn't continue with their performance. All side roles, therefore, did not satisfy him, and he was jealous of those who had been stamped "stars." Israel Rosenberg put together a comedy, "Getzl Becomes a Bridegroom," and Menasha Skulnik played in it, and he drew the attention of the entire New York theatre public, although they played the comedy in Brooklyn's Hopkinson Theatre. Since then his name had risen. He has played as a featured actor, as he was an up-and-coming star, but he had not yet had earned the explicit name of a full-fledged star.

I always have had a weakness for attracting new tchotchkes to the Yiddish theatre. New sensations. I became partners with Menasha Skulnik in the "Folks Theatre," which they had built for Maurice Schwartz. With our first offering, "Fishl der gerotener," both the Yiddish and the English press greeted us with open arms. There was felt a freshness from the new star, Menasha Skulnik. From the glorified text of Louis Freiman, and also from the music, which was brought over from my women's orchestra, Menasha Skulnik's name was spreading everywhere to Jewish audiences, and also with the non-Jewish audiences.

And what confirmed Menasha Skulnik's success? The answer is that he is a natural comic. Menasha doesn't need to have any jokes that the public should strongly laugh at. For example: What kind of a joke is saying, "I love soup!"? An entirely ordinary set of words, "I love soup!." But when Menasha says it, they laugh a lot. Or when Menasha says: He is not a great man, but a man" ... it is not what he says, but how he says it that brings a great laugh from the entire public. He is also blessed with such physiognomy, that although he plays a man who isn't handsome,  a woman nevertheless loves him. He plays someone who is unsuccessful, simply an eternal fool, but nevertheless he is wise; he twists and turns in the entire situation of the play with his role. Everything he does on the stage has its charm. It fits him. He is wise enough and enough of an actor that he should not do things on the stage that would not work. Menasha Skulnik became the comic who, when they mention only his name, they are already laughing."

Source of Testimony
Joseph Rumshinsky -- "Joseph Rumshinsky Tells About Fifty Years of Yiddish Theatre," Forward, March 19, 1953.


 

 

 

 

 

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