B. was born on 21 January
1875 in Yarmelinets, Podolia Gubernia, Ukraine. His
father maintained an inn. He learned in a cheder, Beit
HaMidrash and in a folkshul. He sang with a "blind
cantor" as an alto.
The Schwartz brothers, who
were then traveling with their quartet across Russia,
had given him the impulse to become an actor, because he
used to sing their songs, and when he found in 1894 in
Novoselts the troupe of David Sharavner, he entered into
the troupe, and his first role was "Don Itzhak (Joseph)
Abarbanel" in "The Spanish
Inquisition," and from there he crossed over to the troupe
of A. Y. Kaminski, later he toured with the Fiszon,
Libert, Spivakovski, Meerson, Zandberg and Rappel
troupes.
In 1904 he came to America,
because he wanted to educate his children here, and he
began to act in Philadelphia with Thomashefsky. After
that he acted across the province, then in 1912
traveling to Europe to act, and then he traveled back to
New York and in the province.
In 1926 he acted as one of
the young actors at New York's Lipzin Theatre for
that part of the Vilna Troupe.
In 1928-9 he was in Detroit,
and in 1929-30 he was in Baltimore. |
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