Jews on Broadway: An Historical Survey of Performers, Playwrights, Composers, Lyricists and Producers (6 page)

2. Part of the Melting Pot

diverse acts of all types in one show. There were vestiges of minstrel shows, complete with blackface and street performers, who had sung and danced for coins, now earning money and having a roof over their heads.

Having moved much of mainstream entertainment out of saloons and into respectable theaters, vaudeville was billed as entertainment for the masses. It was run by shrewd entrepreneurs who served as managers and knew how to work the “bottom line” and make money by giving the public a bevy of performers on one bill. Between seven and fifteen acts might perform on a given night, including jugglers, acrobats, song and dance teams, musicians, solo singers, comedy teams, novelty acts, and even the occasional animal act. In recent memory, the entertainment closest to mainstream vaudeville-esque harkens back to
The Ed Sullivan
Show
, which ran on CBS television from 1948 through 1971, presenting a similar diverse mix of variety acts.

For the second generation of Jewish immigrants, vaudeville offered an opportunity to assimilate into the mainstream. The potential payoff was greater than Yiddish theater as vaudeville had a wider presence with many more venues all throughout the country. Vaudeville theater had opened in cities such as Boston, Chicago and even out west in San Francisco. It was the ideal place in which to sing and/or perform comedy, and both music and humor were (and remain) staples of Jewish life and Jewish culture.

Music and Laughter Lead to Vaudeville

The study of music was part of the Jewish upbringing in Europe and was emphasized from an early age in America as well. Song was part of Jewish festivals, religious gatherings and of Yiddish theater. Even a young Oscar Hammerstein, who had left Germany, running away from his family in 1863 at the age of 16, was already versed in piano, flute and violin when he landed on American shores.

By the age of nine or ten, most of the Jewish soon-to-be vaudevillians were fluent on a musical instrument, and many sang as well. Jewish humor, meanwhile, was unique unto itself, exploring life as it unfolded, while often helping to ease the brunt of persecution and in America, ghetto living conditions. Jewish humor often asks the question “Why?,”

31

Jews on Broadway

as in, “Why do we act in a particular manner or behave in such a way?”

or “Why must we suffer?” Self-reflective and even self-deprecating, such humor would translate well into mainstream vaudeville. However, unlike the Jewish monologists of years to come, with their exploration of family, of life, love, relationships and of simply “being Jewish,” vaudeville humor was largely based on stereotypes, most of which would be considered anything but politically correct today.

In vaudeville, each ethnic group had their own stereotypical characters, or caricatures, and they were not always portrayed by performers of that ethnicity. The Jewish characters in vaudeville were taken in part from characters in other literature, such as Shakespeare’s Shylock, and in part from the ghetto, with an exaggerated Yiddish accent. Being dis-honest and frugal when it came to dealings with money, for example, would manifest itself onstage in a humorous routine or a comedy skit, as they were called. While the depictions of Jews in this manner perpetuated the stereotypes, the Jewish entertainers were welcomed into prominence as part of American culture. Jews, as well as other minorities, were accepted, largely through their own derogatory caricatures, as part of what was widely received as the comedy of the era. Although the patriarchs of Yiddish theater snubbed their noses at such humor, the younger generation of Jewish performers saw it as “good clean fun.” The young up-and-coming vaudevillians argued that the best performer to play a Jew was a Jew, and self-mocking was part of their assimilation process.

In some ways it was not unlike hazing at a fraternity. This was a right of passage, a way of “Americanizing.”

Of course the question has often been asked regarding whether the effects of such depictions encouraged anti–Semitism or not. While religion was not a factor on stage, some will argue that such depictions rein-forced the negative image of the Jewish people. Of course, the contrary argument is that the familiarity with actual Jewish people through their presence in vaudeville, albeit using stereotypical characters, actually less-ened the fear that spurred such hatred by showing that the Jewish people were able to fit in, laugh at themselves and entertain, like everyone else.

While this is not a focal point in this book, it is worth mentioning that there is little, if any, evidence that anti–Semitism increased because of vaudeville. It is also worth noting that several Jewish performers, including Eddie Cantor, Al Jolson and Fanny Brice, emerged as some of the 32

2. Part of the Melting Pot

most renowned, best loved stars of their time, admired by non–Jews as well as Jews.

It should also be mentioned that many Jewish vaudevillians, as well as other performers of the era, donned blackface. While far from politically correct today, this was customary at the time. The most notable blackfaced performer was Al Jolson, who rose to enormous stage and film notoriety while behind the dark makeup.

Jewish Vaudevillians

The routines of the Jewish performers left an indelible mark on vaude ville, and later on many of these performers would go on to great success on the Broadway stage.

For Fania Borach, better known as Fanny Brice, vaudeville was one of several stops on the way to a successful career that would include radio, film and Broadway. Like most of the Jewish entertainers of that time, she was born on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, the daughter of Euro pean immigrants. Although her family moved to Newark, New Jersey, when she was young, she grew up determined to return to New York City, on stage. With that as her goal, she entered talent contests, winning some while also impressing one of Broadway’s most distinguished gen-tlemen, Irish-born composer, lyricist, director and performer, George M. Cohan, for whom she auditioned at the age of 16. Cohan put her in the chorus of the show
Talk of New York
. Inexperienced, however, she was fired before the show opened.

Undaunted, and still determined, Brice, still known as Fanny Borach, went into burlesque, touring with
The Transatlantic Burlesquers
(1907–

1908) as a chorus girl. Considered a notch below vaudeville, by “respect -

able” audiences, burlesque had grown with its own circuit, featuring a bevy of chorus girls and similar, yet racier, performers to those typically found on the vaudeville stages. It was on this circuit, however, in a show called
The Girls from Happyland
that Brice would make the transition from “back row” chorus girl to lead performer. Relegated to only singing, and often from off-stage, Fanny, who changed her name to Brice because it was less ethnic sounding (which would prove ironic in her later comedy career) knew she had to learn to dance to get her feet firmly planted back 33

Jews on Broadway

on the main stage. With that in mind, she would take her mother’s lacy garments, go backstage at the burlesque theaters and spend some of the money she had earned to bribe the chorus line dancers to teach her the steps. Eventually, she became an understudy to one of the lead dancers.

It was fortuitous that she would get the opportunity to go on stage when the lead got ill, and Fanny made the most of that opportunity by wowing the crowd.

In years to come, she would also make the transition from singing to comedy, using a Yiddish accent to capitalize on the nation’s penchant for ethnic comedy on both circuits, burlesque and vaudeville. Because of her knack for parody and her lanky appearance, Brice was not about to compete for the same attention garnered by the chorus girls. However, she was determined. If she was not going to be the prettiest girl on the stage, she would be the funniest. It wasn’t long before she achieved that distinction, thanks to a song by a young, still relatively unknown composer named Irving Berlin. The song, “Sadie Salome, Go Home,” which Brice described as a “Jewish comedy song,” parodied the enormously popular “Dance of the Seven Veils,” which had become a hallmark of both the vaudeville and burlesque circuits. Brice had legitimate singing ability, but the combination of a Yiddish accent (although she didn’t actually speak Yiddish) and a mock “veils” dance was a tremendous crowd pleaser, winning her standing ovations night after night.

It was at this time, still at the age of just 17, that the real “Funny Girl” was born, breaking into a male-dominated field, with impeccable comedic timing and an aptitude for drawing laughter with her facial expressions as well as her material. As influential as any Jewish performer of the 20th century, Brice legitimized comedy for women, particularly Jewish women, whose insights into American and Jewish culture were the perfect cornerstone for comedic expression. She encapsulated the women with whom she had grown up on the Lower East Side, and their plight became part of her dramatization, not in mockery, but as a foundation for her routines, which epitomized strength. Brice, whose career spanned 40 years, not only played Broadway, but would have her career portrayed in a successful Broadway show
Funny Girl
(and later two films,
Funny Girl
and
Funny Lady
) starring Barbra Streisand.

At the same time that Brice was making her transition from burlesque to vaudeville, little Molly Picon was also emerging on the scene 34

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from the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Picon was born Margaret Pye -

koon in 1898, to Russian-immigrant parents. After her father left, Margaret and her two sisters moved with their mother to Philadelphia where she would win her first talent contest at the age of five. From that point forward, there was no turning back. Taking the stage name of Molly, she was a versatile performer, honing every skill she could, from acrobatics and gymnastics, to musical instruments to comedy. At just 4'10" the diminutive Picon won over the hearts of vaudeville audiences who, after seeing her portray many roles as a young boy, would later be wowed by her “All-American girl” image. And yet, she never let go of her culture, also performing in Yiddish theater productions and in a Yiddish repertory troupe. In fact, at 15, she did several shows, including performances of
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
, in both Yiddish and English. Picon would go on to tour the world as a performer, still somersaulting her way across the stage well into her 50s and performing into her 80s, gracing Broadway in a variety of shows. She championed both Jewish and American causes, all after honing her skills as part of that legendary vaudeville community.

Meanwhile, another female star of the era, Lenora Goldberg, better known as Nora Bayes, was making a name for herself on the vaudeville circuit in Chicago. Just after the turn of the century, Bayes would marry and team up with Jack Norworth, her second of five husbands. Norworth had migrated to vaudeville from the minstrel circuit. Yet, it was Bayes as the main attraction, as noted from their billing: “Nora Bayes, Assisted and Admired by Jack Norworth.” Bayes, a singer and songwriter, would team with her husband to write a string of hit songs, also making some of the earliest popular recordings for Columbia Records in the late teens and early 1920s. Her penchant for comedy made her a double threat, and audiences adored her ability to milk every laugh out of a comedic song lyric. Her diverse repertoire of songs, coupled with her comedy rou tines and royalties from her recordings, soon had her bringing in upwards of $100,000 a year, astounding at the time, making her one of the highest paid performers of the era. Along the way, she would also appear on Broadway in the Lew Field’s hit,
The Jolly Bachelors
which ran for 165 performances in 1910
.

While Bayes’ career extended beyond vaudeville, it was on the vaude ville circuit that she rose to stardom singing everything from tearjerking ballads to ragtime ditties to her comedic melodies. However, 35

Jews on Broadway

unlike her peers, Bayes had neither an “ethnic look,” nor act. In fact, she was far less Jewish than her contemporaries. Although she had grown up in an Orthodox Jewish family, Bayes was very secretive about her upbringing, and while she did not renounce her Judaism, she did not make it a part of her stage persona.

Conversely, Eddie Cantor was very much a Jewish comic at every turn. Born Israel Iskowitz, his start in show business was much like that of Picon and Brice, beginning on the Lower East Side, where his Russian-immigrant parents settled. Orphaned at an early age, Cantor was raised by his maternal grandmother. Like Picon, he won his first talent show at the age of five and was destined to be a performer. He held down a variety of jobs including a stint as a singing waiter in Coney Island, with a young piano player named Jimmy Durante accompanying him.

Cantor would find his way onto the Broadway stage as a teenager doing routines of other Jewish comics and blackface performances while discovering his own knack for playing characters based on his own Lower East Side experiences. Known as the performer with the “banjo eyes,”

Cantor accentuated his comedy with wide eyes and plenty of energy. He brought a comic sensibility and a sensitivity to the stage as a likable

“nebbish” that contrasted with the more familiar slapstick routines found in vaudeville.

While Cantor did depict the stereotypical characters of the time, he was shrewd, and his characters, often vulnerable, were the inspiration for latter day Jewish comics from Woody Allen to Billy Crystal. Cantor would go on to become one of the era’s most successful performers.

Despite falling into debt during the stock market crash of 1929, he would rebound in film, radio and even with a very successful book entitled
Caught Short! A Saga of Wailing Wall Street.

Also building an esteemed reputation in vaudeville was Al Jolson, whose routines were less “Jewish” by nature than those of Brice or Cantor.

Born in a small Jewish village in Russia sometime around 1886 (there is no documentation), Asa Yoelson would come to the United States with his parents shortly before the end of the 19th century. The son of a cantor, he and his brother Hirsh were trained to sing from a very young age, with the anticipation that they too would follow in their father’s footsteps. However, when their mother died in 1895, she left the two very young boys without their closest bond. From this painful beginning, Asa 36