better society, and
began to attend the theatres and concerts often.
Then there came to A. a post as an assistant
expeditor of a customs house, then he became a
copyist in the editing of "Odesky Vyestnik," and
through the recommendation of a city management
member, A. M. Brodsky, A. became the overseer for
the city Department of Weights and Measures.
At this time A. began
to have an interest in actors. He became the leader
of a group of students, theatre loyalists, and he
sensed in himself a desire to recite and "perform,"
so that the pastime of the students, he performed as
a comic, entertainer, and created various types and
scenes. At that, A. had a great success and with a
great desire took to studying dramatic Russian
literature.
When A. then became
known to Russian theatre director Miloslavsky, when
he had the chance to act out in a small role, but M.
did it with a motive, that as a Jew he will never
reach to a high level on the Russian stage, at that
M. stressed that his [A.'s] outward appearance
assured him of success on the stage.
A. decided, however,
to become an actor, and in the early days he was
further willing: to make various grimaces and
movements in the mirror and try to express various
feelings with his face .
When the news came to
Odessa, that in Rumania Goldfaden had founded the
Yiddish theatre, and that there Israel Grodner was
performing, whom A. had heard only as a folksinger
in Odessa, and Israel Rosenberg, a corner writer
from Odessa, whom A. had known well, A. turned to to
Rosenberg, that the troupe should immediately come
to Odessa. About the same matter he also published a
letter in the "Odesky-Listok."
As a response to the
invitation, Israel Rosenberg and Jacob Spivakovsky
came to Odessa in 1879, which drew to the Odessa
folksinger Jacob Katzman, Mendele Abramovitsh,
Shrage, Aaron Tager, Boris Altman and the late actor
Sophia Oberlander to them. Rosenberg forbid A.
himself from participating, but A. decided it was
better to wait for the impressions of the first
production ("Breyndele kozak").
A. neglected his
business and spent his time continuously with the
actors, and arriving as such to his matters, he came
to act in Goldfaden's comedy "Tsutsik un mutsik," in
a role intended for the actor Boris Bad-Goy
(Altman), who was becoming ill. In his first
performance, A. went under the name N., and even
though he lived alone, each evening he had stage
fright, and as such, the role which was also
combined with singing, was not for him; nevertheless
he felt deeply encouraged by the other actors, and
later he received small, insignificant roles in
"Shmuel shmelkes," "Dvosye di platke makherin" and
"Di shvebelekh." When A. first went with Rosenberg's
troupe to Kherson, his first large role was as
"Markus" in "Koldunye (The Sorceress)."
During Passover 1879
Goldfaden came to Odessa with a troupe for which he
also engaged several actors from the Odessa troupe,
almost Rosenberg and Adler, and [according to B.
Gorin], only after Goldfaden organized under the
direction of his brother Naftali and a certain krug,
a shdln with the police, a troupe for the
province, in which Rosenberg, Katzman, Sonia
Oberlander and Sabsey performed; he also took in
Adler, who became in the span of a short time a
"complete actor."
A. wrote in his
memoirs that the troupe was under the direction of
his friend Rosenberg and Naftali Goldfaden, and that
he (A.) had become engaged there as a lover.
A. published in his
memoirs, that even though he had his role "Moshe
giberman" in Goldfaden's "Breyndele kozak," he
learned from oysveynik, however he had stage
fright there too, and the role was so mechanically aropgeredt,
that he himself heard what he spoke. All
preparations for his common, artistic understanding
was shown and expressed in this same role, which the
other actors hadn't expressed, and he became tserunen immediately
as he was up on stage, but to his surprise there
were dramatic applause after every act, and there he
was called out. Rosenberg finally held his hand, and
remarked that he "is today a krasavets, the
girls and women are crazy for him, because there
were such dramatic applause."
In Kherson the same
troupe had performed for four weeks. Being in the
troupe for two months, A. lost his position in
Odessa, though nevertheless he was already
continuing as a professional actor.
After a short journey
through the smaller shtetls, the troupe came
to Kishinev, where Kessler was granted to them.
Their material success was tremendous.
A. described the
situation in the theatre during this time in the
following way:
"When I had to wake up
early from my sleep, I to my amazement saw that the
hotel lobby was filled with Jews, wives and
children, who had waited around for the cashier in
order to obtain tickets for the evening. Police had
to come to help, that it shouldn't become a
scandal."
But precisely due to
good business, beynken home. He had [dissapointed=antoysht]
a theatre, and it would be abandoned. A. describes
these moods as such:
"The account of why we
did farbeynkt home to us ourselves were not
clear, and I myself could not give a proper account
of this. I have only a sense that I had awoken my
passion, and I had begun to see with the open eyes
of a newborn child, and sadly I realized that
although Avraham Goldfaden deserves the greatest
praise and the finest gratitude, he had laid the
cornerstone for the fundamentals of Yiddish theatre;
but his system and impractical management, to
surround oneself with smiles and ignorance, give the
theatre into such hands that drag the artistry into
a page, into a deep mud, and that it takes a long
time until they will be able to pull you from that
place. The stage hasn't had any control, the oybermeyster,
and the chief oyberartistn, having spent days
and nights in the hotels, and lively conversations,
and for young people, young talents, who were seeing
on the stage the greatest happiness, the highest
ideal; is a great school, was a very poor one and
made a terrible impression.
I have tried searching
in the previous "me," but I have found quite
another. I will not deny that first I am no tsadik (righteous
man) and have not been. But before this was a
younger man's act, once verily and once not, but now
it draws on me every night to claim until the
morning in merry company; where there walk around a
lot of lovely mesdemoiselles, before the
shine of very much light... There was a
[brotherhood= farbridert] with us humans with
a bad rename, and the minor police officials
as the pristavs (police commissioners in
Czarist Russia), the nadzirateles, together
with the nightly patrol of Cossacks, who put on
caftans from our wardrobe. We are the government
administration and so we have geballevet an
entire night, and the named "men huliet in
which the world stands."
In my new career of
which I have strove yearlong, I see no signs to not oyfgeton,
only in the short time I have been fulkum learning
the good that comes each morning at home with a new zikhere
trit, with a deprived mind, to sleep for an
entire day as a shameless polonaiser; in my
door there begins to knock an umbegetene guest.
I start tracing points (ongefangen oyffirn punkt) like
an amateur actor."
After several plays
the repertoire ended, and the plan was to shlep around
with "Shmendrik" and "Shmuel shmelkes" across the
whole of Russia, and learn that "this is the Yiddish
theatre."
A. wanted to leave the
stage and return home, but Rosenberg spoke to him
about it, and A. still continued with it. From
Kishinev the troupe traveled to Akkerman, then to
Yelisavetgrad, where A. performed as "Shadkhan" in
"Shmendrik."
From Yelisavetgrad the
troupe traveled to Poltava where they performed for
several weeks, and then to Chernigov, where the
management didn't pay the actors, and A. with only
several colleagues declared a strike, in which they
profited, and [then] traveled to Yekaterinoslav (at
first only Yiddish theatres). There A. became the
groom of Sophia Oberlander.
About his wanderings
across Russia, A. recounts in his memoirs, that the
troupe had spent a long time in Yekaterinoslav, and
then in advance of it (farloyf), he was
always coming and going to Yekaterinoslav, and every
time he did good business. In the later years he was
there as a married man and director of a troupe with
whom he had already acted in plays of quite a
different kind.
The first better play
that he had staged was "Der tsvey vaybernik" by
Moshe Leyb Lilienblum. With time A. also later
staged "Rashi" there by Katzenelenbogen, and, as he
tells it, "that play had aroused the Yiddish
orthodoxy. Many rabbis from the surrounding shtetls were
sitting in their yarmulkes with their large,
beautiful beards, and they had fun with this, that
it was on the stage.
Due to the pogrom,
A.'s troupe left Yelisavetgrad and performed one
production in the Kobelyaki shtetl, Poltava
Gubernia, then in Smila. Here the troupe received a
report from Avraham Goldfaden, that they should come
to Odessa to perform, but Rosenberg hadn't the
desire to lose his independence, and he therefore
organized the actors not to follow Goldfaden's call,
but Naftali Goldfaden and the greater portion or the
actors followed, and in Smila only Rosenberg,
Fishkind, Adler and Oberlander remained. Here they
took in Kreyndl Sakhar-Sanyes (Keni Lipzin), and
they traveled as a new troupe to Pereyeslav, and
from there to Chernigov. From then Avraham Goldfaden
took him and his wife to Dinaburg, from where they
traveled, due to the ban on Yiddish theatre, to
Minsk, Bobruisk and Vitebsk, where A. declared a
strike against Goldfaden and traveled to Niezhin,
back into Rosenberg's troupe. Due to the pogrom the
troupe went to Lodz, where A. performed for the
first time, as "Uriel Akosta," (translated by
Rosenberg). From then A. went to Zhitomir to the
troupe of Hartenshteyn-Spivakovsky, and from there
to Rostov, where A. also participated in a Russian
production of "Boris Gudunov."
Further wandering
across Russia, A. again came with his wife Sophia
Oberlander to Dinaburg (Dvinsk), and he entered into
the troupe there that was founded under the
leadership of Leyzer Tsukerman. The repertoire then
almost always stressed singing plays; however, as
such A. had no voice for singing. He then was
interested in the main gevikht of the play.
A.'s first performance in Dinaburg was in the
dramatic role of "Yozef" in "Di intrige" ("Dvosye di
spletnitse") by Goldfaden, and he thereby had a
great success. From Dinaburg the troupe went to
Riga, where a ban had occurred to perform Yiddish
theatre in Russia, and in 1882, long delays sent the
actors Adler, his wife, the Grodners, Fraulein
Chizhik, Karp, Kempner, Baum, Wachtel, et al. to
London.
Here A. acted in a
very small locale, where in the front there was a
piece of meat, and in the courtyard was such, what
we called "a Yiddish theatre." No great happiness
was found in London, but he remained there to act
for several years, until 1886, when a club of on
London's Princes Street was built . Here a Yiddish
theatre was organized under the direction of a
butcher (named) Smith, who had already hired the
actors, and A. received 3 pence, 10 shillings a
week.
In the meantime, A.
became very popular through his acting as the lover
and in dramatic roles in melodramatic repertoire. So
he had a special success in his [?] play, "Der
odeser betler," and he also distinguished himself,
appearing in the role of "Uriel Akosta." His name
was received in America, wherein the former theatre
entrepreneurs Mandelkern and Rosengarten decided to
bring him over.
In an advertisement,
that was published on 21 July 1886 in a New York
newspaper, it was reported so:
"Adler comes with his
proper Yiddish troupe to New York, after not acting,
with over one hundred new plays. The people still in
New York, not seen has vir zind ibertseynt,
that the local public expects with great patience
the famous actor Adler, the great success, making
him the greatest shtedt in Europe, now he
comes here with his world-famous troupe from Europe
to show the New York Jewish public that there really
exists one true Yiddish troupe."
Because of this,
Mandelkern came to London. He compensated A., but
still nothing became of the trip because A. had used
the 500 dollars for other purposes, which he had
received for expenses for his troupe, and M. had
taken to America another troupe with Mogulesko and
Finkel at its head.
On 18 January 1887 due
to a false fire alarm that created such a panic in
the Yiddish theatre in the Princes Club, that he was
forced to transfer the production. The actors, who
were therefore found to be in great need walked out,
and A. decided to go to America. Not having any
money for expenses, A. turned himself London's
[Chief] Rabbi Dr. Adler (a distant relative --ed.),
who generally was dissatisfied with the Yiddish
theatre, who wished to be free, so Dr. Adler gave
money as a means for A. and his colleagues (Lipzin
and her husband, Leybush Gold, Feivele Fridman,
Herman Fidler, Bonus, Abraham Baum, A. Oberlander et
al.), to travel to America, where they arrived in
March 1887.
A. had reported
earlier to the directors of the two Yiddish theatres
in New York that he was coming with his troupe to
America, but azoy vi men kumt im nit aropgenemen,
they did not make it to New York, but went
immediately to Chicago, where after several days
they got together with the manager Drozrovitsh and
also several partners of the Madison Street Theatre,
and soon began to perform. The repertoire consisted
of "Uriel Akosta," "Doctor Almasado" by Goldfaden,
and the melodrama "Meshugene oym libe (Crazy in
Love)" by N. B. Bazelinsky. A. did not have any
great material success because the scarce theatre
audience was in the mood for a new repertoire. The
troupe hereupon declared a strike, and A. looked up
several [other] actors, who he had found previously
in Chicago and began with them to perform in a
second theatre. Both theatres held their own, but
for a short time. Several members of the troupe left
the stage and went back to their previous
employment; the others went to New York where they
were engaged, but A. in no way received any
engagements, and so he went back to London. From
there he traveled to Warsaw, where he performed in
the Shomer plays "Der protsentnik" and "Treyfniak."
The critic [see Yehoshua Mezakh's "Bmt ishkhk"] was
dissatisfied with this repertoire, that "points to
the negative sides of Jewish life and can provide
material for the anti-Semitic press." A. also staged
his own [?] play "Der betler," a drama in five acts
and eight scenes, with a prologue [Mezakh remarks
that the drama is a French melodrama "Der
lumpenhendler," and A. had only translated it or
made it more Jewish].
A. was there for only
the production [according to Israel Lipshitz a
Kovners review "The Yiddish Theatre and the Yiddish
Actor" in the supplement to "Yudishen folks-blat,"
26, 1888], "He turned to the audience with great
audacity and began to preach like a mamzer,
half-German, half-Yiddish, and all the time mixing
in the English words, "yes," "no," "alright." In
connection with this, he announced: "By me in
America and in London, they already know who Adler
is and what he can do. The artist, the real genius,
does not sit in only one place, because the genius
hears the entire world, as my colleague Shakespeare
had done, and so I have also. For all are not the
same, and it is correct to say "alright."
This local review was
ever so excited about this, that A. had eliminated
Goldfaden's historic operetta, and there where they
had earlier sung Goldfaden's "now we return to the
rough speech and corrupted knowledge of Adler's
operetta. Adler has in two productions destroyed
what was "Shulamit," "Almasadora" and "Bar kochba,"
that in ten years had been built."
An entire other image
is given by the actor H. Feynshteyn:
He recounts, that A.
had in Warsaw a very great success with "Uriel
Akosta," and the great Polish actors used to call
upon him and expressed their recognition.
After acting in
Warsaw, Lodz and Lemberg (where A. was arrested
under a suspicion of [being] a white slave trader),
A. traveled back to America through Heine and
Mogulesko, who had come especially for him.
For his first offering
in New York, A. did the play "Odeser betler (The
Odessa Beggar)" in Poole's Theatre, and the
production failed horribly by [B. Gorin remarks,
that he was actually not aware of it, that the
failure had come either from the play or in his
acting, but anyway it was stated that A. had
failed]. A week later, A. staged Shomer's play
"Moishele soldat," and from this he had such a
success, that not only the public, but also the
theatre directors began on aim their members
to have, and the well-to-do Germans from Poole's
Theatre, hung, determined, A. as [their] director.
A. hereupon soon became engaged by Heine for the
Thalia Theatre, but then, as Heine did not want to
take him in as his partner, A. performed for a
season outside of the theatre.
A. soon left New York
thereof, and he began to, together with
Thomashefsky, act in Philadelphia, then in Chicago,
where they didn't hold up for a season, and for
Passover 1892 they came back to New York, where hey
took [over] Poole's Theatre for the 1892 season, A.
became a partner in Poole's Theatre with Mogulesko,
Kessler and Feinman, performing everything in
"historical" operetta and melodramatic repertoire.
When A. was introduced
to Gordin by Philip Krantz, he recruited Gordin to
write for the Yiddish stage.
A. had [according to
B. Gorin] understood the new spirit that had taken
reign among the Jewish immigrants. As he could not
sing, it was of great concern to him that a
repertoire of serious plays should dominate the
stage. He had therefore acquired [them] from Gordin,
and he strengthened his reputation more quickly. A.
had, with those plays, very much continued to gain
among intelligent theatre visitors, and his name
became associated with the best dramas.
Also Leon Kobrin was
in his mind that A. had acquired from Gordin his
reputation, because until then the earlier singing
repertoire he could not engage in in any place.
Beyond this, he had a weakness for intellectuals
with whom he could speak Russian to, as with the
"invoked authors," most of the time the Rumanian
Jews, whom he had not known.
A. by himself at times
expressed about Kobrin categorically "He was my
Messiah, my erleyzer."
A. was the only one
who considered Gordin with respect, when all the
actors had real strength, and he made him read from
his first play "Siberia," which was staged in 1892
in Adler's theatre.
There A. had the
opportunity to act in a genuine dramatic role,
"Rozenkrantz," with which he made an impression on
the audience that was already headed partly by
another, better circle. He had dozelbe in
Gordin's second play, "Der groyser sotsialist." The
first great role in Gordin's repertoire through
which A. became very popular, was "Dovid mosheles"
in "Yidishn kenig lir (The Jewish King Lear)"
(1892).
The critic Uriel Mazik
[Alter Epstein] characterized his acting in the play
as such: "As it appears on this festive mishmash, is
something as bright, his majestic figure, the
affable smile, the discarding of anger for goodness,
his tenderness and gebeyzer, his breytkeyt and
the subsequent contrast as a ruined man..."
In 1894 A. staged
three plays: "Der yidisher glikh," "Der parnes
khudsh" and "Di litvishe brider luria," and became
the darling of New York; his name became popular
across the entire Yiddish theatre world as the
greatest actor of the Yiddish stage. On 24 August
1894 A. staged in his theatre his and Max
Rosenthal's adapted play, "Di rusishe knute (The
Russian Whip)."
In 1895 A. staged
Gordin's "Der rusisher yid in amerike (The Russian
Jew in America)" and "Der shvartser yid (The Black
Jew)." From this point he began without Gordin to
also write for the other actors such as Kessler,
Lipzin, Thomashefsky. That, and the bad business in
Yiddish theatre, moved A. to tsutsushteyn to
plan for an association of all stars. It went so far
as staging a "historical" operetta, "Nero, or the
king-like horse (ferd)." A. performed a
comical role, and [according to Bessie Thomashefsky]
danced even for horses. At first when Morisson came
to guest-star, A. returned to better repertoire and
performed "Iago" in "Othello" and "Silva" in
"(Uriel) Akosta."
As a co-partner in the
Windsor Theatre, A. was delegated to Europe to look
for new artistic talent, and he brought over from
there the prima donna Milanie Gutman.
In 1897 A. staged
Gordin's "Reyzele" or "Zelig itsik der khli-zmr," in
1899 Kobrin's "Mina," and in 1900 Gordin's "Der
gaon." In the same year, A. opened the People's
Theatre with Kobrin's "Sonia from East Broadway"
(however, at the same time [it played] against
Gordin's "God, Man and Devil," and [was] advertised
as "Nature, Man and Chaya"), for which A. had
written a fourth act. Against that weakness of A. to
adapt the play that he had staged, Kobrin wrote in
his memoirs:
"Not live and behind
the scenes, he just once did not use the finest
expression and the beautiful language, but on stage
he almost always has shown [how] the more festive (yom-tovdik),
and the more imposing he is, both in his appearance,
as well as in his language. He has searched for the
beautiful words in a play. Therefore he often has
natural and lively dialogue, pronounces when it is
shown to him not to be pretty, and therefore he has
wanted that even the names of the heroes of a play
may be beautiful, agreeing to begin with "Rose," and
ending with "krants."
"Because he once tsugerikht such
a play, that it has under his great pen lost
completely its original appearance.."
Something similar
occurred in the last century with Gordin's "King
Lear," in which A. had inserted his own "prose"
[into the play], and thus a conflict had occurred
between him and Gordin.
On 5 December 1901, A.
staged for the first time Shakespeare's "Shylock,"
and in 1903 the same play was performed by English
actors in English, and A. performed in the role of
"Shylock" in Yiddish.
The critic Uriel Mazik
characterized his Shylock performance as such:
"Hostility, revenge, native pride -- behold what it
sees out of every move. Not every time does he
transform into a dog, not always placed at the feet
of thieves. There comes a moment when the majestic
Kaiser-like shape resembles itself, and then we see
him in his entire glory. How strongly the hearts
started beating when, with presenting hands on
hearts with a fervent look, filled with hate, with
anger for the tormentor, [left his might=farlozt
er dem zal]."
In the role of
"Shylock," A. made a very deep impression with the
Jews, as well as with the non-Jewish theatre
audience.
It began now without
the radiance (glants) period for A. To honor
him, the "Ideal Jacob P. Adler Association" was
formed, which took on the central task of
"disseminating art." The association founded a
dramatic school [B. Gorin's "Theatre Journal," 7,
1902], and when in the "Jewish Herald" there was
published a review of Adler's performance as
"Shylock," the association issued a protest.
At this time, A. also
began to write his biography, which was published
under the name "Mayn lebens beshreybung (My Life
Description/Notes)," in B. Gorin's "The Theatre
Journal" 1-12, 1901-2. The autobiography is
unfinished because of illness. Later, A. dizelbe his
memories, in detail, together with further chapters
[partly written and partly adapted, anonymously by
Joel Entin], published under the name "40 Years on
the Stage," and then under various titles in "Di
varhayt" [20 April 1916--22 February 1919], and
under the name "Mayn leben ("My Life" in "Di naye
varhayt" [14 March 1925--18 July 1925]. After A.'s
death, Sholem Perlmutter published in the
"Amerikaner" 21-26, 1926, a portion of A.'s
autobiography.
In 1902 A. became
seriously ill and was taken to the hospital. Bessie
Thomashefsky recounts in her memoirs about the very
characteristic episode: When A. lay in the hospital,
a report was suddenly published in the press that A.
was near death, but his theatre audience came to the
hospital on the day of the Sabbath to bless him.
Thousands of theatre attendees were, in fact, in the
hospital, and A. was blessed by them through the
window. Every afternoon the Yiddish theatres were
empty. As A. later recounts it, that if he wanted he
could even secure such a ill-made income as the
Sabbath afternoon production.
When A. returned back
from the hospital, he staged Gordin's "Etz ha da'at
(Tree of Knowledge)," receiving much recognition for
his performance in the role of "Mazi Stoler."
Here a strike was
called by the actors, and A. united with them, even
with several director-actors and several non-union
actors. He acted only for a short time because he
wasn't any good at coexisting among the stars, who
had wanted to act over one of the others.
So Kobrin recounts in
his memoirs that soon with the first production,
when all three stars: Thomashefsky, Kessler and
Adler had performed his [K.'s] play, "Bertshik in
amerike," and A. had acted in the serious dramatic
role that Blank had earlier performed, the stage
became transformed into a crazy house:
"Adler performed his
astride on a broom, with a wild beard and glasses on
the forehead. He began telling some story about "semetshkes."
The audience laughed. Here Thomashefsky is losing
himself. He notices that Adler took away from him
his comedy, he also laughing... outside the play,
outside the role, outside the struggle for life and
death against the striker... on the stage stands
"stars," which each of them broke one the other the
applause and the laughter of the public."
Subsequently A.
traveled to Europe, where he acted in several
productions in London and Berlin, and he visited his
mother and sister in Odessa.
After his return to
New York, A. acted for a short time in the People's
Theatre, then he decided to retire from the stage,
and Edelstein with Thomashefsky bought him out
[according to Bessie Thomashefsky] for ten thousand
dollars, provided that he no longer acts in New
York, but A. soon thereafter took over the Grand
Theatre that Sofia Karp, Berl Bernstein, Morris
Finkel and Louis Gottlieb had specially built as a
Yiddish theatre.
In that theatre, the
possibility came to A. to display his repertoire.
Besides the plays that were already performed, he
staged in 1903 Libin's "Gebrokhene hertser (Broken
Hearts)," Gordin's "Shlomo khokhem (Solomon the
Wise)"; in 1904 Gordin's "Emeser kraft (True
Power)"; in 1905 Gordin's "Meturef (Slaughter),"
where he performed the role of "Ben-Tsion," which A.
had considered his best role. In the same year he
also staged Tolstoy's "Makht fun finsternish (The
Power of Darkness)," translated by Gordin.
During the in-between
time, A. also acted a rekht little melodramas
and operettas of the inexpensive type, and he
permitted himself thereby to make inexpensive
effects, but in 1906 he staged three plays in which
he frisht off his earlier prestige: "Kobrin's
"Groyser yid," Gordin's "Elisha ben abuyah" and "Der
fremder (The Foreigner)." In 1907 A. staged in
connection with Sholem Aleichem's coming, his drama
"Oysvurf" or "Shmuel pasternak," and in 1908 he
ended his acting in the Grand Theatre with Gordin's
last play, "Galus galitsye (Galicia Diaspora)" and
"Dementia amerikana."
Due to a conflict, A.
lost his theatre, and he began to wander over to
other theatres. He took over the Thalia Theatre,
where acted for two years. Here he staged in 1911
Tolstoy's "Der lebediker mes (The Living Corpse),"
(translated by Kobrin).
The reviews of his
acting in the role of "Fedya Protasov" were divided.
When the critic Uriel Mazik wrote, that "Der
lebediker mes" was from Adler not a good
performance; it didn't create the [character] type
that is drawn up in the play, and it came out as
nothing, that it is far from artistic, -- is Kobrin nspel,
from A.'s acting in that role in this quiet way:
"No one begins to
shout 'Don't let it out'. Still, with a fine tsurikgehaltnkeyt,
and with a silent, static, philosophical smile for
the whole world, Adler-Protasov appears across the
stage, and we see what appears in the former Russian
aristocrat who seeks a "which-not-is" content for
his empty life in hulyankes among the
gypsies; in his love for the gypsy girl Masha and in
the society among the shkhurim in the tavern.
And now he sits in the
tavern with a mixture, and relates to a few of his
fellow drinkers his long history; how he became a
living corpse, as he quietly recounts his history.
With what a fine and soft, and lackadaisical and
static tenor, he tells them [about] his life.
And the subsequent
scene with Slidovatel, how he had considered himself
as a defendant, and when there he happened there,
with his aristocratic wife who was married to
another, because it means that he is deceased.... as
his eyes have looked upon her, that she may forgive
him, -- what a steep, dumb play it was, very full of
soulful lyrizm!
Even the manner of how
he was shot there did not destroy the quiet, soulful
mood. Silent as a shadow, he was removed, and a shot
was heard ...
About A.'s acting, in
general and about him as a regisseur, he was
characterized in the following opinion:
The critic Uriel Mazik
characterized A. so:
"He is beautiful, one
of the most beautiful among our actors. Even when he
had completely no talent or had not. When he had
been the very serious actor, even then it would be
him, because of his wonderful appearance, noticed
and loved. For he is among Jews, among the sad,
broken, familiar people, without exception, on the
stage. About him is felt a holiday, erhabnkeyt.
Not sadly is Adler in
the right place. Just as there are roles in which he
is the only and the greatest, so there are roles
which he past zikh nit genung. Moreover,
Kessler has an
entirely other opinion about A.'s acting, who had at
times expressed [according to M. Osherowitch]:
"You understand, the
trouble with you, consists in this. What you want is
just to play with ingeniousness...You did not love
to go out on the stage like a human being, you must
fly down from the clouds, spring out from behind the
earth, or climb out of a chimney .. this toyg must
not play ingenious... "
Leon Kobrin
characterized A. as an actor, regisseur and person:
"Adler had own
peculiar style, like every true artist. He has
always created around himself an atmosphere of the
stage, that was his, a part of him, and only of him.
He had his smile, his voice, his stresses, and
especially his visuals, almost classically
beautiful, which had bore in itself that from nature
itself, the self-issued stamp 'Adler'.
In my opinion, it is
he who was built to act in roles of the classical
hero.
A human being with
such a figure, with such a face, with such a head,
with such a glance and smile, with such an attitude
on the stage, he must bakhshufn people, when
he should not even be such a great actor.
He never was a true
regisseur (?). True, he had very seriously taken up
with the production of a play, he had always with a
great descriptive notebook, where it was advertised,
was in all details him, what the main person of the
play, must do, and where the "spotlight" [reflector]
must fall on him, and where the bass from the
orchestra must give him a speech tone, and where the
violin must be over his righteous agony ...
In that notebook is
noted the jobs of other persons, but only as far as
it was supposed to bring out his own job.
He was known to act in
plays for months long, he had always with each
production given, added something new, a new line,
a kvetch (groan), a laugh, a cry, lighting
from a lamp, an especially beautiful poem...
He had always
considered his role, it was beautifully sought, and
through you his acting. But he often did it at the
expense of other roles and the entire play.
He was the greatest
master in making himself up, but as he did not make
himself up, his special idiosyncrasies his
proselytes could not cover. Adler was immediately
recognized as soon as he appeared on the stage.
He wonderfully
recounts [privately] a story, as an anecdote,
painter-like and [emtn=truly] healthy and
even more often with naughty humor. Most of them
[the stories] were about theatre people, about
actors, composers and sometimes about himself.
Himself he also hadn't made beautiful, he had fun
telling about his own "naughtiness," at times
malicious, a real devil, and for fun he felt
nothing as he joked around by himself" ...
Ab. Cahan, who had the
opportunity to follow A.'s theatrical career in
America, characterized him so:
"He had a dramatic
craft and an innate sense for scenic effects. Just
speaking on the stage naturally, he never learned.
This was against the special type of artistic nature
that he had. He had moved more to melodrama than
drama in a realistic way, but his melodramatics has
in him had a poetic swing. The more I became
familiar with his acting, the more I am convinced
that he is best adapted to Shakespeare roles, where
there are zelbstfarshtendlekh recitations. In
such roles, he would enter classical beauty, as one
calls it.
In his grimaces lie
artistic originality. On the stage he reports were
metaphoric and impressionable(?), so he used to be
in the old shund plays, which he used to act
in in Russia, and afterwards in London and then
later in Chicago and in New York, and so he remained
in Gordin's plays. In this attitude, Gordin did not
have this occur for him. Gordin's roles had only
opened for him a broader world, a series of new
possibilities. He also had, alzo, developed
in them.
As a personality he
was the interesting and concentrated figure among
all Yiddish actors."
The only plays with
which A. had success in the Thalia Theatre had been:
a benefit production of Gordin's "Elisha ben
abuyah," which had earlier failed at its premiere,
and Kobrin's drama "Shunim." However the shtrebung
nokhtsuton the other theatres, which had put on shund plays
and did good business., A. brings, moreover, that he
began [according to B. Gorin] to put in one foolish shtik after
another. They all fell through, and in the end, in
two seasons A. lost a lot money, that he had already
maintained in order to take a theatre by himself,
and he acted with others in order to lease or create
such conditions for a partnership, that he shouldn't
be lose any money.
Here there began a new
period in A.'s life. [With] no new roles in which he
could excel, he no longer acted. He had to comply
with the caprices of the directors, and to perform
the plays that they gave him. On 30 August 1917 he
again opened the Grand Theatre with "(The) Yiddish
King Lear." On 14 September 1917 he even performed
in a new role: "Avraham parnuse" in Moshe Richter's
"Der yidishe shtolts" or "Der moderner oyb," but he
didn't stay long in this theatre. In 1918 A.
performed in Philadelphia's Arch Street Theatre,
then for a short time in New York's National, Second
Avenue, and People's Theatres. At the end of
September 1919 A. went to London, and acted there
for a season with his wife, Sara, and his daughters
Frances and Julia and A. Buzet.
When A. then returned
to America, he already was feeling sick, so that he
had to be content with giving a few performances
during the course of a season, performing in his
crown roles. Later he had to limit his acting to
only his yearly benefits, which served him as his
only income, but verndik, almost paralyzed,
and for him in his last days it also was difficult
for him to perform in his benefits, and [then] he
acted only one act, nimbly acting in the other acts
through other actors.
A. had briefly, during
the World War, acted in the tile role in the film
"Michael Strogoff," after Jules Verne's novel, "Dem
tsars kurier (The Courier of the Czar)," produced by
the Lubin film company in Philadelphia.
According to Izidor
Cashier, A., in his youthful years, learned his
roles in the following manner: He used to first his
role in lead, then repeating, going over it with
black ink, and later, again repeating, going over
the black script with red ink. In his older years,
A. used to record his roles on a gramophone valts,
and then from there, learn sentence after sentence.
Old and weak, A. on 22
February 1925 for the last time performed in the
Manhattan Opera House at his honorary evening, in
which the large audience and the actors assigned to
him a great deal of respect.
On 31 March 1926, A.
received a blat-shturts, and after several
minutes, he died.
A.'s life and habit of
theatrical effects were even expressed in his
relationship to his followers:
Three years after his
death A. turned to undertaker [mortician] Zigmunt
Schwartz with the following words: "Nu, Schwartz,
You yagst yourself up after me, you like me
now, they had to. Well, you got the job [work], soon
write under (?), so you, we make the best
companions, what a Yiddish theatre artists have had.
I must have such a funeral as Jacob Gordin had. So
don't forget Jacob P. Adler, the genius of the
Yiddish theatre.
The funeral, arranged
at the expense of the Actors Union, was grandiose.
Tens of thousands from the New York ink. In his old
age. A. used to record his roles on a gramophone valts,
and they have from there, sentence after sentence,
[also] learned. He came to his eternal rest at Mount
Carmel (Cemetery) in New York.
On 21 March 1928 via a
special committee, there was arranged a memorial
production, and from the income [received from this
production], a gravestone was set, according to the
drawing of painter Foshko, an in-law of the
deceased.
M. E.
from Jacob Katzman, Prof. Shtoyb, Anshel
Schorr, Zigmunt Schwartz, H. Feynshteyn
and Izidor Cashier. |
-
B.
Gorin -- "History of Yiddish
Theatre," Vol. 1, pp. 206, 212, 218,
226, 227, 242; Vol. 2, pp. 34, 38,
39, 50, 52, 61, 62, 124, 132, 133,
150, 151, 158, 159, 177, 180, 181,
182, 205, 206.
-
Jacob
P. Adler -- 40 yohr oyf der bihne,
mein lebens-geshikhte un di
geshikhte fun idishen theater, "Di
varhayt," New York, 30 April 1916 --
22 February 1919.
-
Jacob
P. Adler -- "Meyn leben," "Di naye
varhayt," 14 March 1925 -- 18 July
1925.
-
Jacob
P. Adler -- Di lebens-geshikhte fun
yakov p. adler, bashriben fun ihm
aleyn, "Der tog," New York, 4-20
April 1926 [ibergedrukt dem onheyb
fun der oytobiographie gdrukt in "Di
varhayt"].
Necrology
in the Periodic Press:
-
Lead
Pencil -- Ven yakov p. adler baveyzt
zikh oyf der idisher theater evenue.
"Forward," 13 Sept. 1918.
-
S.
Dingol -- Yakov p. adler, "Teater un
kino," Lodz, 1, 1922.
-
Kh.
Herkezon -- Fun lodz kumen
interesante erinerungen vegen jacob
p. adler, "Forward," 22 May 1926.
-
Ch.
Ehrenreich --Interesante meshh'lekh
vegen adler'n in velkhe es shpigelt
zikh op dem kinstler's neshama.
"Forward," 2 April 1926.
-
Avraham Teitelbaum -- "Teatralia,"
Warsaw, 1929, pp. 12-23.
-
Sholem
Asch -- Erinerungen vegen yakov
adler, "Forward," 24 April-- "Haynt,"
21 May 1926.
-
M.
Osherowitch -- Yakov p. adler's
leben un di farshidene shtaplen fun
zeyn kariere oyf der bihne,
"Forward," 2 April, 1926.
-
Gershom Bader -- Oyf'n kbr punim
shoyshpiler yakov p. adler, "Yid"t"bl,"
4 April, 1926.
-
Leon
Blank -- Etlikhe pasirungen fun
yakov p. adler's kariere, "Forward,"
2 April, 1926.
-
B.
Vladek -- Yakov p. adler. "Tsukunft"
5, 1926.
-
Uriel
Mazik -- Bilder-galereye fun unzere
idishe shoyshpiler, "Der tog" 16, 23
February, 2 and 9 March, 1918.
-
Leon
Kobrin -- "Di erinerungen fun a
dramaturg," New York, I, p.p. 37,
119, 123; II pp. 55-94.
-
Sholem
Perlmutter -- Yakov p. adler's
memuaren, "Der amerikaner," 21, 22,
23, 24, 26, 1926.
-
Dr. Y.
Kritikus -- Adler als kenig fun der
idisher bihne, 'Der amerikaner," 21,
1926.
-
Molly
Picon -- Molly Picon vegen yakov p.
adler, "Der amerikaner," 22, 1926.
-
A. L.
Volfson -- Yakov p. adler [lid],
"Der amerikaner," 24, 1926.
-
Y.
Nusinov -- Di ershte bagegnishn fun
der idisher prese mitn teater,
"Teater-bukh," Kiev, 1927, pp.
65-67.
-
Bessie
Thomashefsky -- "Meyn
lebensgeshikhte," New York, 1916,
pp. 133, 135, 138, 139, 153, 154,
155, 162-3, 238-40, 244, 248, 253,
254, 258, 261-2.
-
Ab.
Cahan -- "Bleter fun meyn leben,"
New York, II, pp. 397-8.
-
Sh.
Yanovski -- 20 yohr "Freie arbeiter
shtime," "Fraye arbayter shtime,"
New York, 1 February 1929.
-
Jacob
P. Adler -- Meyn beste rol -- "Ben
Tsion," "Morning Journal," 5 May,
1922.
-
Sholem
Asch -- Kinstler oyf der idisher
bihne, "Teater-velt," Warsaw, 9,
1908.
-
Geshprekh mit Adler'n -- Teater-velt,
Warsaw, 4, 1908.
-
Yehoshua Mezakh -- "Bmt yshhk,"
Warsaw trn.
-
Jacob
P. Adler -- Spivakovsky "Di tsayt,"
London, 1 October 1919.
-
Chanan
Y. Minikes -- "Di idishe bihne" (M.
Zeifert's "Theater geshikhte").
-
Jacob
P. Adler -- Meyn lebensbeshreybung,
"The Theatre Journal," New York,
1901-2, 2-9, 11-12.
-
Sholem
Perlmutter -- Di fule
lebens-bashreybung fun yakov p.
adler, "Der tog," New York, 1 April,
1926.
-
Nakhman Mayzel -- Yakov adler, der
barihmter idisher artist geshtorbn,
"Haynt," 9 April, 1926.
-
Dr.
Sh. Melamed -- Adlers irushh, "Yid-kur,"
8 April, 1926.
-
Joseph
Edelstein -- Meyn ershte bagegenish
mit adlern, "Morning Journal," 2
April 1926.
-
A. G.
Kompaneyets -- Goldfaden un yakov
adler (memoirs), "Au"vort,"
Bucharest 27, 1926.
-
Ts. H.
Rubinstein -- Der nshr hagodol,
"Tog," 1 April 1926.
-
Boris
Thomashefsky -- [Artiklen unter
farsheydene nemen], "Morning
Journal," New York, pp. 7, 8, 12,
14, 16, 19, 26 April 1926.
-
J.
Entin -- Adler der magnetisher, "Di
varhayt," New York, 16 April, 1916.
-
Jacob
P. Adler -- Meyn gebet, "Di
varhayt," 28 April 1916.
-
Ab.
Cahan -- "In di mitele yohren," New
York, 1928, pp. 350-2.
-
Hersh
Shpilman -- Etlikhe nit-farefentlikhte
briv punim groysen idishen
shoyshpiler, yakov p. adler, "Der
Tog," New York, 21 December 1929.
-
Hersh
Shpilman -- Yakov p. adler's briv
tsu familye un freynt, "Der tog,"
New York, 22 December 1929.
|
|