Born on 6 April 1898 in
Nikolayev, Ukraine, to religious parents, business
owners. She learned privately.
At the age of twelve, she
arrived in America to a brother, who was away from home
due to military service. Here she began to work in a
shop. Then she entered as a chorister for Esther and
Saul Wallerstein in Williamsburg's "Lyric Theatre",
where she sang for two years. The possibility then came
to her to perform in small roles. She was taken in as a
member of Local 5, and she performed during the
summertime in the Yiddish vaudeville houses with
Sam Blum, Benny Zeidman et al. After that, she went over
to legitimate theatre as a prima donna and acted in her
specialty for a season in Newark for Sidney Hart, a
season in Brooklyn's "Liberty Theatre" (director Zygmunt
Weintraub), three seasons in the "Lyric Theatre"
(director Zaks), two seasons in the "Lenox Theatre"
(director Nathan Goldberg), two seasons in the
"Hopkinson" (directors Green, German, Moshe Schorr),
some seasons in Boston (with Bessie Thomashefsky, later
with Mae Simon and Hymie Jacobson), "McKinley Square
Theatre" and "Bronx Art Theatre", as well as a short
time in the "Prospect Theatre".
P. was the first to sing
cantorial tefilot in the theatre plays, debuting
thereby in S. H. Cohen's operetta "Dem rbins tekhter" in
1919 in the "Liberty Theatre". |
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