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Stardust Lost: The Triumph, Tragedy, and Mishugas of the Yiddish Theater in America
From the author of the best-selling and critically acclaimed biographies Groucho and Ball of Fire comes a definitive look back at the Yiddish Theater. In this soulful and entertaining elegy Stefan Kanfer traces its meteoric rise, its precipitous fall, and its lasting mark on American theater, film, and culture in general.
The Yiddish Theater’s star seems to have burned out. The venues in New York City have all gone. So have the performers and their immigrant audiences. But in Stardust Lost they live again as Kanfer brings the colorful stage roaring back to life. Meticulously unraveling the history of Jewish theater, he begins with the drama of the Old Testament and moves through time and space to the cultural explosions of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, the oppressions of nineteenth-century Eastern Europe, and the pogroms of early twentieth-century czarist Russia. Fleeing anti-Semitic edicts, the Jews of Eastern Europe push westward, migrating first to England and then to America. With them come the extravagant personages who bring drama—in every sense of the word—to Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
Stardust Lost invokes the energy, belief, and pure chutzpah it took to establish and run the thriving, influential theaters. En route, Kanfer reveals the nightly drama and comedy that played out behind the scenes as well as onstage, and introduces all the players—actors, divas, playwrights, directors, designers, and producers—who made it possible. Along with the beating pulse of the Yiddish tradition come the larger-than-life Boris Thomashefsky, Jacob P. Adler, Molly Picon, Paul Muni, Bertha Kalisch, David Kessler, Maurice Schwartz, and many others, most with libidos to match their oversized egos. The book grants us views of genuine artistic achievement along with tales of cutthroat competition, adulterous liaisons, and hilarious wrangles. As we see in detail, assimilation, world events, and great shifts in American entertainment—the very entertainment that the Yiddish Theater encouraged by providing talent to uptown stages and film studios—lead to a poignant finale.
From the daring Yiddish interpretation of The Merchant of Venice to Stella Adler’s influence on young actors to John Garfield’s and Marlon Brando’s impact on the screen, Kanfer traverses lower Manhattan, Broadway, and Hollywood to give us the tumultuous birth, flourishing, and decline of a great art form. It is a richly evocative chronicle that resurrects the forgotten landmarks and the vital personalities of the Yiddish Theater, whose work has gone but whose achievements can never be lost.
The Yiddish Theater’s star seems to have burned out. The venues in New York City have all gone. So have the performers and their immigrant audiences. But in Stardust Lost they live again as Kanfer brings the colorful stage roaring back to life. Meticulously unraveling the history of Jewish theater, he begins with the drama of the Old Testament and moves through time and space to the cultural explosions of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, the oppressions of nineteenth-century Eastern Europe, and the pogroms of early twentieth-century czarist Russia. Fleeing anti-Semitic edicts, the Jews of Eastern Europe push westward, migrating first to England and then to America. With them come the extravagant personages who bring drama—in every sense of the word—to Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
Stardust Lost invokes the energy, belief, and pure chutzpah it took to establish and run the thriving, influential theaters. En route, Kanfer reveals the nightly drama and comedy that played out behind the scenes as well as onstage, and introduces all the players—actors, divas, playwrights, directors, designers, and producers—who made it possible. Along with the beating pulse of the Yiddish tradition come the larger-than-life Boris Thomashefsky, Jacob P. Adler, Molly Picon, Paul Muni, Bertha Kalisch, David Kessler, Maurice Schwartz, and many others, most with libidos to match their oversized egos. The book grants us views of genuine artistic achievement along with tales of cutthroat competition, adulterous liaisons, and hilarious wrangles. As we see in detail, assimilation, world events, and great shifts in American entertainment—the very entertainment that the Yiddish Theater encouraged by providing talent to uptown stages and film studios—lead to a poignant finale.
From the daring Yiddish interpretation of The Merchant of Venice to Stella Adler’s influence on young actors to John Garfield’s and Marlon Brando’s impact on the screen, Kanfer traverses lower Manhattan, Broadway, and Hollywood to give us the tumultuous birth, flourishing, and decline of a great art form. It is a richly evocative chronicle that resurrects the forgotten landmarks and the vital personalities of the Yiddish Theater, whose work has gone but whose achievements can never be lost.
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
352 pages, Hardcover
First published October 24, 2006
5 people are currently reading
61 people want to read
About the author
Stefan Kanfer
50 books19 followersStefan Kanfer is the author of fifteen books, including the bestselling biographies of show business icons: GROUCHO; BALL OF FIRE (Lucille Ball); SOMEBODY (Marlon Brando); and TOUGH WITHOUT A GUN (Humphrey Bogart). He has also written many social histories, among them THE LAST EMPIRE, about the De Beers diamond company, and STARDUST LOST, an account of the rise and fall of the Yiddish Theater in New York.
Kanfer also wrote two novels about World War II and served as the only journalist on the President’s Commission on the Holocaust. He was the first by-lined cinema critic for Time magazine, where he worked as writer and editor for more than two decades. He has been given many writing awards and was named a Literary Lion of the New York Public Library. He lives in New York where he serves as a columnist for the City Journal of the Manhattan Institute.
Kanfer also wrote two novels about World War II and served as the only journalist on the President’s Commission on the Holocaust. He was the first by-lined cinema critic for Time magazine, where he worked as writer and editor for more than two decades. He has been given many writing awards and was named a Literary Lion of the New York Public Library. He lives in New York where he serves as a columnist for the City Journal of the Manhattan Institute.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 28, 2015
There were a number of errors in Mr. Kanfer's book.
1. The Thomashefskys never divorced. In fact, they are buried together at Mt. Hebron Cemetery, while Regina Zuckerberg (Boris' long-time mistress) died in Jersey City. The fact checker could have just gone to Wikepedia, Bessie's autobiography and/or asked Harry and Ted Thomas (the Thomashefskys' sons who Kanfer says that he spoke to). Or go to Mt. Hebron Cemetery in NYC to see Boris' and Bessie's graves.
2. Their first child, Esther Thomashefsky died of diphtheria in 1895. It wasn't a son as Kanfer reported. Go to the website Thomashefskys that Michael Tilson Thomas set up about his grandparents.
3. Sholem Alechiem's oldest son died in 1915-not his youngest son who went on to be a famous artist and art instructor. Alechiem's daughter's book, "My Father, Sholem Alechiem" has this basic fact-and he could find the correct facts in other sources.
With these basic facts being incorrect in Kanfer's book, the entire book became suspect.
1. The Thomashefskys never divorced. In fact, they are buried together at Mt. Hebron Cemetery, while Regina Zuckerberg (Boris' long-time mistress) died in Jersey City. The fact checker could have just gone to Wikepedia, Bessie's autobiography and/or asked Harry and Ted Thomas (the Thomashefskys' sons who Kanfer says that he spoke to). Or go to Mt. Hebron Cemetery in NYC to see Boris' and Bessie's graves.
2. Their first child, Esther Thomashefsky died of diphtheria in 1895. It wasn't a son as Kanfer reported. Go to the website Thomashefskys that Michael Tilson Thomas set up about his grandparents.
3. Sholem Alechiem's oldest son died in 1915-not his youngest son who went on to be a famous artist and art instructor. Alechiem's daughter's book, "My Father, Sholem Alechiem" has this basic fact-and he could find the correct facts in other sources.
With these basic facts being incorrect in Kanfer's book, the entire book became suspect.
March 18, 2012
I really liked the writing style and I thought the beginning was excellent, but I kept getting a little lost in the middle and end of this book. I felt like the author kept assuming background knowledge that I didn't have. He also skipped around a lot toward the end.
August 30, 2011
Great story (and incidentally one of the best written nonfiction books I've read in forever
Read
May 11, 2012Very interesting. I had no idea Yiddish theater had such an impact on mainstream American film and theater.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews