Jews on Broadway: An Historical Survey of Performers, Playwrights, Composers, Lyricists and Producers (7 page)

2. Part of the Melting Pot

and Hirsh would grow up quickly, learning toughness and immersing themselves in American culture, especially show business.

Together, changing their names to Al and Harry and a less ethnic sur name, Jolson, they broke into the business as a team, performing comedy routines, such as a crude ethnic act called
The Hebrew and the
Cadet
, while taking occasional solo billings when they came along. By 1901, however, Al was getting more work on his own, singing in a travel -

ing circus and making his way into both the burlesque and vaudeville circuits.

It was shortly afterwards that Al Jolson would don the blackface for which he became so famous. Despite the obvious offensive overtones seen today, blackface by the early 1900s had been a part of stage performing for nearly seven decades and was viewed, at that time, as just another form of ethnic humor. For many performers, including Jolson, it was also seen as a mask to work behind, allowing the performer to boost his or her confidence. In the case of Jolson, his confidence grew as he became a full showman, singing, dancing, doing comedic vaudeville routines and whistling while wearing white gloves and white makeup to accentuate his hands and his mouth. On stage he engaged his audiences in a full theatrical experience while growing to become one of the nation’s leading performers. Off-stage his ego grew enormously along with his fame. His constant pursuit of chorus girls would end each of his three marriages, but his devotion to the stage remained undying. In fact, he proceeded to headliner status in venues from San Francisco to Hammerstein’s Victoria Theatre in New York City.

If Jolson had any impact upon the Jewish performers of his time, it was evident in the fact that he did not make an impact as a “Jewish”

performer per se. He was a non-sectarian entertainer, pulling material from a wide range of resources and performing in a manner that would win over mainstream audiences. He was a showman first and foremost.

Brice, Cantor, Bayes, Picon and Jolson each amassed a significant following through vaudeville. They were headliners and heralded as the most popular stars of their era along with Sophie Tucker, with her Red Hot Mama sensuality and the rapid-fire comedy team of Weber and Fields, who included everything from slapstick to clog dancing in their act. Another star of the era, Ed Wynn, born Isaiah Edwin Leopold, ran away from home at 15, used his middle name and proceeded into a vaude-37

Jews on Broadway

ville career that would lead him to the Ziegfeld Follies in 1914 on Broadway. As a writer, producer, director and multi-faceted performer, Wynn would move on to a career that spanned over 50 years and included radio, film and television success.

As vaudeville continued, it became the venue for every type of performance imaginable, ranging from the amazing illusions of Harry Houdini (who was born Jewish, but changed his name to the more Italian sounding Houdini, since, at the time, the Italian Catholic immigrants were more widely accepted) to unique performers of all backgrounds includ ing the Keaton family, tossing around their five-year-old son Bus -

ter, and the racy performances of Mae West. It was a form of variety enter tainment that ran the gamut from bawdy to sophisticated to simply intriguing, and everyone took part including Babe Ruth, explorer Captain Cook and Helen Keller who lectured through an interpreter. “Vaudeville audiences were not passive observers. They were vocal and sometimes physical participants in performances. Their cheers, jeers or painful silences would make or break an act,” adds John Kenrick in his “A History of The Musical. Vaudeville — Part II.”2

While vaudeville and burlesque were the “movies and cable television” of the era, New York’s Broadway theaters were drawing an increasing number of stylish, “higher-end” patrons. And while a few vaudeville performers were tapped for various Broadway shows, for many of the Jewish vaudevillians, the best was yet to come.

FLO ZIEGFELD

While Flo Ziegfeld was not Jewish, he had an integral role in boost-ing the careers of many Jewish stars of the early 20th century. Florenz Ziegfeld was born to be a promoter. From his childhood, he had a knack for drawing the attention of the public. In fact, he once got into trouble for taking money from local kids to see his invisible fish (he showed them a bowl of water). He also had a penchant for publicizing anything and everything.

During his early years as a manager and booker, Ziegfeld developed a knack for discovering and promoting new and unique talent, and it wasn’t long before he was taking his performers on extended tours on the vaudeville circuit. By the 1890s, Ziegfeld’s magic touch for finding talent 38

2. Part of the Melting Pot

took him to Broadway, where he produced musicals to showcase several talented performers at one time. However, it wasn’t until 1907 that Florenz Ziegfeld would reach the pinnacle of his esteemed career when he took the Ziegfeld Follies to Broadway for the first time.

The Shubert Brothers were already enjoying success on Broadway at the Hippodrome Theater with revues featuring popular song and dance numbers. Ziegfeld, however, had bigger plans. While Ziegfeld possessed no performing skills as a singer, dancer or performer, he had a keen eye for finding beautiful women, a talent that would later be the downfall of his several marriages.

In his quest to discover great talent and his penchant for exploring new and innovative means of promoting the “next great performer,”

Zieg feld had amassed a considerable amount of knowledge when it came to distinguishing which acts would attract and entertain the general public. Pageantry, comedy, sexuality and song and dance were all part and parcel of the public’s penchant for performances. With that in mind, he introduced elements of vaudeville and burlesque, plus a line of chorus girls, reminiscent of the Parisian Folies-Bergère, into what he would call his own follies. He then added elaborate sets, dazzling costumes, original songs by various composers, choreography by the best in the business, Julian Mitchell, and
The Ziegfeld Follies of 1907
was born, using thirteen letters in the title (after his name), because he was superstitious. Coin-cidently, the show also cost $13,000.

Opulent production numbers, political and topical satire and of course the ladies, billed as “Glorifying the American Girl,” were all hallmarks of what would emerge as the longest running Broadway series of shows, with nearly two-dozen renditions until the 1930s (not to mention four additional versions after Ziegfeld’s death).

One of Ziegfeld’s star performers was his first wife, Anna Held, of Polish-Jewish descent, whom he had brought back with him from France.

In fact, Held, on whom he worked his publicity magic turning her into an immediate star, was credited in part for the idea of staging an Ameri -

can revue, featuring more than 60 Anna Held Girls, who marched around the theater beating snare drums in the original ’07 revue.

Held had made her stage debut in the Yiddish theaters of London in companies run by Goldfadn and actor-manager Jacob P. Adler. It was in Paris, however, that she had generated attention by singing in local 39

Jews on Broadway

cafés. In fact, she was so enamored by the French, that she would go to great lengths for many years to perpetuate the myth that she was French.

She even converted to Catholicism, which was also because she was fearful of being Jewish in Europe, having been among those chased from her native Poland along with her family when she was a child.

It was during one of Held’s European performances in London, in 1896, that Ziegfeld discovered her, offering her $1,500 a week to appear on Broadway. It was an exorbitant amount of money at the time, but Zieg feld was convinced she could become a star, and she did. Ziegfeld publicized that she had such clean, pure skin because she bathed in milk every day. While the story was fictitious, it landed in all of the celebrity gossip columns, started a brief fad and made Held the talk of the entertainment business. Held forever became known as the girl in the milk baths.

THE STAR-MAKING FOLLIES

It was the Ziegfeld Follies that brought Brice, Bayes and Cantor to Broadway. Bayes joined the 1907 revue and introduced the classic song

“By the Light of the Silvery Moon” in 1908. Cantor would be a comic regular on the Broadway revues, working with performers of all ethnic backgrounds, such as W.C. Fields and Will Rogers, among others. Brice, a staple of the Follies, would become a show favorite through both her comedy and song, including “Second Hand Rose,” playfully lamenting her early years in the Jewish ghetto. On one particular night, Brice added an unexpected twist to the show. After being accused by co-star Lillian Lorraine of trying to steal her boyfriend, the two performers began brawl-ing in the wings of the theater. The fight culminated with Brice knocking Lorraine to the ground and dragging her by the hair across the stage to a stunned, but amused, audience. No, not even the shocked Ziegfeld himself dared to even attempt to work the scene into the regular show.

For Cantor, Brice and Bayes, the transformation from second-generation immigrants to mainstream entertainers was complete. They never lost sight of their Jewish roots or heritage, as exemplified by Brice, who after a few years away from the Follies returned as
The Yiddish Bride
.

Jewish performers were now accepted into the mainstream entertainment community as part of Ziegfeld’s world, a world that turned a 40

2. Part of the Melting Pot

blind eye toward ethnic and racial discrimination. In fact, Ziegfeld refused to cave under pressure to oust Bert Williams from the Follies.

Wil liams was the first African American to co-star with white performers on the Broadway stage, and Ziegfeld held firm that whoever did not want to work with him did not have to be part of the show. Few, if any, performers left.

Sophie Tucker was also in the Follies for a short time, but left, reportedly over disputes regarding her songs and her billing. Ed Wynn was also one of the notable Jewish performers who gained attention in the Follies. Meanwhile, the music was supplied by a variety of songwriters including Irving Berlin, while a 19-year-old piano player named Gershwin accompanied rehearsals in later renditions of the ongoing show.

One notable exception, who was not part of the Ziegfeld universe, was arguably the most highly acclaimed performer of the era, Al Jolson.

In 1908, Jolson left vaudeville to become part of a successful traveling min strel troupe, which drew rave reviews when they hit New York. It was at this point that Ziegfeld asked Jolson to audition for his upcoming Follies. Jolson, however, refused to audition for anyone. This was the beginning and end of his connection with the long-running follies.

Nonetheless, the Shubert Brothers had other plans for Jolson to make his Broadway debut.

THE SHUBERTS BRING JOLSON TO BROADWAY

It was a lavish Broadway production entitled
La Belle Paree
in 1911

that brought Jolson to Broadway at the new Winter Garden Theatre.

After an inauspicious start, the show, trimmed from a painful four hours to a more manageable three, was also rearranged to feature more Jolson, In fact, over time, his comedy and music took center stage. And that was just the beginning. Jolson would go on to star in a number of Broadway shows, including
Vera Violetta
,
The Honeymoon Express
,
Robinson
Crusoe Jr
. and perhaps the best known,
Sinbad
, in 1918. All of the shows, featuring Jolson in blackface, became vehicles to showcase the star’s talent, which continued to grow until the Shuberts began billing Jolson as

“America’s Greatest Entertainer,” which at the time he had arguably become.

Jolson would have more than a light hand in each show, rewriting 41

Jews on Broadway

scripts and lyrics, while launching into musical numbers that weren’t initially even part of the show. Much to the chagrin of the playwright, librettist or the remaining cast, he would typically ask the audience if they wanted to see more of the show, or hear him sing. They would typically opt for more of Jolson. His command of the stage and the sheer presence and magnetism of Jolson would influence numerous performers for decades, even long after his death in 1950.

Meanwhile Back on the Vaudeville Stages

As one generation forged ahead to Broadway and soon to the newer media, such as radio and film, the years following the First World War brought the next breed of Jewish talent to the numerous nationwide stages of vaudeville.

The format remained much the same, with performers now being booked on well-established circuits while traveling from one city to the next. However, the “shtick” that was once very ethnic was now giving way to a more diverse mix of song and hijinks, much of which focused on the social and political climate of the post–World War I era.

It was during this time that four of five Jewish brothers would emerge as one of the funniest comedy troupes to ever take the stage. This was largely due to the persistence of their mother, who served as their manager. Minnie Marx, who immigrated to the United States with her family as a teenager in 1888, was part of a show business family. Her brother Al Sheen was a comic, her father a ventriloquist, her mother a harpist and Minnie herself was a singer. Only her husband was not in the business, instead working as a somewhat unsuccessful tailor, one who refused to measure anything or anyone.

Minnie’s boys, later the name of a Broadway show (in 1970), began as a singing group called The Nightingales. In time, they would take on various configurations and change their stage name, as other performers would come and go (even mom and their aunt would join the act), but most significantly, the Marx Brothers would start to improvise and introduce comedy into the performances.

Soon, the brothers, all of whom had musical talent, would switch 42

2. Part of the Melting Pot

from a musical show to what was primarily a comedy show with some music. By the 1920s the vaudeville shows of the Marx Brothers were second to none. With the help of their uncle Al Sheen, now a vaudeville star, the Four Marx Brothers, as they were billed, created and established their own identities and played off one another with impeccable timing.