Tuesday, September 04, 2007

THE AMERICAN YIDDISH THEATER


A lot of people don't know it but there were two vaudevilles in America in the early 20th century. One was the vaudeville everybody knows about, exemplified in the posters above and below, and which may have (I'm guessing) arisen from the old minstrel shows in the 19th century. The other was the now almost forgotten Yiddish Theater which came over on the boat with east European Jewish immigrants .





The two vaudevilles co-existed for a while and each had their separate audiences, but eventually the native vaudeville won out. It could pay more and had a bigger talent pool to draw from. Yiddish Theater people used to ridicule the vaudevillians, who they considered low class and vulgar, but even the Yiddish Theater eventually turned to sex gags and Yiddish performers were more and more moonlighting in regularvaudeville.


What I've said about the Yiddish Theater probably sounds sad but it was immensely influential in American comedy and drama. My guess is that part of that influence comes from East European Jewish culture. That culture is innately funny. Anglo culture isn't.

Let's say you're an anglo writer and you want to write a story about a gentile boy who's attracted to a gentile girl, and wants to ask her out. If you're like me you're asking yourself, "Hmmm, what obstacle is there? Is the boy shy? Is there another boy the girl likes better?" You have a lot of thinking to do before you arrive at a plot.


Now let's say you're a Jewish writer writing about a Jewish boy who wants to ask a Jewish girl out. East European culture requires a mediator or a go-between for things like this, usually a friend. The friend has to overcome the guy's reluctance to act and talk him into asking the girl out. The girl has a friend who has to talk her into accepting. Everything has to be argued about.


But that's not all. The girl's mother, who's a real character, thinks the boy is a loser. The boy's mother thinks the girl is a gold-digger. Maybe the two mediating friends are starting to fall for each other. And what happens if the two sets of parents meet each other? See what I mean? You haven't even thought about the plot yet and your story is half written. It's easy to write for Jewish characters. Their culture is interesting all by itself, even without a plot!



Everybody benefited from the War of the Vaudevilles. Gentiles learned how to write better comedy and Jews learned how to write James Bond films.






10 comments:

Mick said...

brilliant post. i saw a jewish fella going at a sermon (or whatever they call it) and he just kept interjecting gags in there and running with them... then he would get all pious again for a bit then break out the tom foolery again. It was all in hebrew mind you but the whole thing could easily be read in the faces of the huge crowd gathered around him. Good work once again Edward

Anonymous said...

And mainstream American cinema also benefitted from the Yiddish theater. People like Paul Muni came out of it. Today nobody remembers Muni but, take it from me, in his day he was bigger than Freddie Prinze, Jr.

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Anon: Yes Muni, and of all people...Brando!

William said...

Absolutely great post. Had no idea about the two vaudevilles, but given Vaudeville's impact on culture and the prevalence of Jews nowadays it is enriching information to know.

Having witnessed it all my life, I've been considering the past few months writing a book about Gentile Envy- how so many gentiles envy jews, rooted in early AD.

William said...

*Prevalence of jews in entertainment. Just "prevalence of jews" sounds antisemetic.

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Mick, Anon, William, Chris: Thanks for the kind words. You guys are the only people who liked this post.

Anonymous said...

I never really knew Yiddish Theater actually existed. I don't know about you & everyone else, but I loved those posters, especially the one with the cop running from the guy's mouth.

Thanks for posting, Eddie!

Karl Straub said...

I just wanted to add my voice to the tiny list of people who enjoyed this post.

I can also tell a similar story to that of mick. I once went to a Jewish wedding, and after a lifetime of suffering through Christian weddings I was amazed at how much humor the rabbi mixed into his remarks. I have no intention of becoming religious, but if I had to choose a faith it would be difficult not to pick Judaism.

Jews have made an immense contribution to American comedy, and thank God for that. I think this statement would be reasonable and accurate on the basis of the work of Sid Caesar alone.

Unknown said...

Just to confirm your statement, yes vaudeville arose from minstrel shows.
The guys in vaudeville often toured in minstrel shows as kids "learning the ropes" of how to keep an audiences' attention. I've read stories of scummy guys like Stromboli from Pinocchio picking up kids and using them in his act, as they hopped on boxcars to the next town but then not paying them. Despite the non-PC nature, old entertainment was awesome. Screw the naysayers

Anonymous said...

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