Stardust Lost: The Triumph, Tragedy, and Meshugas of the Yiddish Theater in America

Praise for Stefan Kanfer's

STARDUST LOST

 

“Entertaining…. You don't have to be Jewish to enjoy [Kanfer's] wry take on a nearly extinct institution that left an indelible mark not only on the Lower East Side, but also on Broadway and the American stage, and whose history echoes in today's headlines about immigration and assimilation.”

—The New York Times

“Beautifully written. …A marvelous re-creation of a bygone era that vanished not so long ago.”

—
American Heritage

“It all started in the Old World, but strong new roots were planted on Manhattan's Lower East Side in the early 20th century and morphed from Broadway to Hollywood. Read all about it here.”

—
Chicago Sun-Times

“The culture of Second Avenue may never have been written about before with Kanfer's mix of scholarship and indefatigably entertaining anecdote.”

—
The Buffalo News

“A well-written and lively treatise.”

—
Encore

“Highly readable. …With the character-driven narrative skill and assiduous research that mark his biography of Lucille Ball (
Ball of Fire
), Kanfer limns delightful portraits of genre stalwarts like playwright/director Abraham Goldfaden and actor Jacob Adler. Though Yiddish theater had faded by mid-century, its demise hastened by Hollywood, Kanfer makes a salient case that it was more than a momentary fad.”

—
Publishers Weekly

“Fascinating, sprightly….A book to satisfy both lovers of Yiddish culture and aficionados of the golden age of American theater and its immediate antecedents.”

—
Booklist

“A marvelous story marvelously told!”

—Jerome Charyn, author of
The Dark Lady from Belorusse
and
The Black Swan

“The great comic artists make you feel they are only funny as a last resort, when the pain and stupidity of the world leave no choice but the horse laugh. This is the effect of
Stardust Lost
—a complete expression of the soul of a people, house in a theatre, indominable, hilarious and beautiful. No one but Kanfer could write such a satisfying book.”

—Roger Rosenblatt

“I started it with the intention of just dipping in…. But it's so informative and so much fun, I couldn't stop myself! It has all the wonderful energy and humor he [Kanfer] brings to all his works. A pleasure.”

—Joan Micklin Silver

 

STEFAN KANFER
STARDUST LOST

 

Stefan Kanfer is the author of the bestselling biographies
Ball of Fire
and
Groucho
, as well as
The Eighth Sin
,
A Summer World
,
The Last Empire
, and
Serious Business
. He was a writer and editor at
Time
for more than twenty years. A Literary Lion of the New York Public Library and the recipient of numerous writing awards, Kanfer is currently in the Distinguished Writer program at Southampton College, Long Island University. He lives in New York City and on Cape Cod.

ALSO BY STEFAN KANFER

 

Ball of Fire: The Tumultuous Life and Comic Art of Lucille Ball

 

Groucho: The Life and Times of Julius Henry Marx

 

The Essential Groucho

 

Serious Business: The Art and Commerce of Animation
in America from Betty Boop to
Toy Story

 

The Last Empire: De Beers, Diamonds, and the World

 

A Summer World: The Attempt to Build a Jewish Eden in the Catskills, from the Days of the
Ghetto to the Rise and Decline of the Borscht Belt

 

The International Garage Sale

 

Fear Itself

 

The Eighth Sin

 

A Journal of the Plague Years

 

If statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one percent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of stardust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way.

Properly, the Jew ought hardly to be heard of, but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world's list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine and abstruse learning are also way out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers.

He has made a marvelous fight in this world, in all the ages; and has done it with his hands tied behind him.

—
MARK TWAIN
,
“Concerning the Jews”

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

 

 

E
XPLORING THE HISTORY
of the vanished Yiddish Theater amounts to an archaeological dig. A good deal of the spadework took place in the great trove of material at YIVO, and at the 42nd Street Library and the Lincoln Center Library, all in New York City. In addition there were forays into the backwaters of the Sterling Library at Yale University, and, sometime back, in the shelves of Brandeis University.

The primary and most vital researcher on
Stardust Lost
was Villette Harris, a scrupulous and knowledgeable ally who has worked on some of my previous books, and who can find almost anything, including photographs and song sheets thought to be lost or beyond retrieval. Many of the translations from the Yiddish were done by Jocelyn Cohen, whose work was particularly valuable on unpublished memoirs recalling the work of David Kessler. Throughout, Jeremy Dauber, the Columbia University Yiddishist, proved to be a knowledgeable and patient counselor.

Nahma Sandrow, whose pioneering volume
Vagabond Stars
traced the Yiddish Theater from its infancy, was a generous provider of information and eyewitnesses. Others were helpful in guiding me backward to the heyday of Second Avenue, principal among them my parents, Allen and Violet Kanfer. I am grateful for accounts by Mina Bern, Shifra Lehrer, Lillian Lux, Viola Harris, Sholem Rubenstein of WEVD, and Victoria and Gene Secunda. In addition there were sage contributions from Elie Wiesel, Joseph and Harry Stein, Steve Zeitlin of City Lore, Zalmen Mlotek of the Folksbiene Yiddish Theater, Sidney Lumet, Caraid O'Brian, and the late Arthur Rosenblatt.

When this book was little more than an idea, and I was working at
Time
magazine, the subject of the Yiddish Theater came up in conversations with the late Herschel Bernardi, Chaim Ehrenreich, Walter Matthau, Harry and Teddy Thomas (né Thomashefsky), Seymour Rexite, Zero Mostel, Zvi Scooler, and Jack Gilford.

I continue to be grateful for the astute counsel and encouragement given by Myron Magnet of
City Journal,
Myron Kolatch of the
New Leader,
Professor Renata Adler of Boston University, Jess Korman, Hugh Nissenson, the intrepid Kathy Robbins, the ultrademanding, and uncommonly correct, Peter Gethers, and the late and very much missed Henry Anatole Grunwald.

I must also thank my fellow pongers who kept me going during this demanding period, among them Will Shortz, Rob Bernstein, Paul Indenbaum, Trevor Mack, Fred Gordon, Fred Ellman, Peter Wolf, Robert Mankoff, Alex Porush, Leo Trubman, Amy Hsu, and Rishi Gupta. In addition I am grateful for the companionship of my fellow bloggers on the old duckseason.org Web site: Lance Morrow, Priscilla Turner, Thomas Dworetzsky, James Morrow, John McWhorter, Jess Korman, Lisa Reitman-Dobi, Michael Walsh, and James Meigs; and to the Aestas Aeterna group, Alan Fine, Steve Becker, Robert Rittner, Jack Damann, Kevin, Andrew, and Timothy Ettinger, Robert Tucker, and Howard Weishaus.

My serious, encouraging, and amusing family is mentioned last but leads the gratitude parade: enduring and undying thanks and love to May, to Lili and Andy, to Ethan and Daniela, and to those bright and beautiful students, hope of the twenty-first century: Lea and Aly.