G. was born in 1884 in Iasi,
Romania. His father was a housepainter. From his early
youth he had a desire to compose songs, and at the age
of thirteen he participated in an amateur offering of
Horowitz's Khurbn bayram," which G.'s friend, the actor
Avraham Zilberman, had studied. A year later he
participated as "Avinadav" in the "Shulamis"
offering put on by the
guest-starring troupe under the direction of Philip
Weisenfreund, then with Treitler as "Di kishufmakherin
(The Sorceress)"
in the play 'Yona hnvya."
At the age of fifteen G.
fled to Czernowitz, where he went around, singing songs
at inns, singing at circumcisions (brisses), composing
several songs and "programs." He traveled from there to
Paris, where he played from time to time in Yiddish
productions, and then he came to America where he
entered into Local 5, played for several years in Yiddish
vaudeville, then in legitimate theatre with the Silberts,
again in vaudeville, then in legitimate theatre with the
Hollanders, with Mike Thomashefsky and in the province,
and in 1928-9 in the Prospect Theatre with Nathan
Goldberg.
G. wrote songs and couplets
for which he also composed music by himself. As to his
popular songs (of which many have been published) there were
heard: "Der yold iz mikh mkna," "Di milkhome", "Helft di
milkhome-karbones", "Der klokmayker vet zign" and "Ikh for
aheym."
Sh. E.
|
|
|