Lives in the Yiddish Theatre
SHORT BIOGRAPHIES OF THOSE INVOLVED IN THE Yiddish THEATRE
aS DESCRIBED IN zALMEN zYLBERCWEIG'S "lEKSIKON FUN YIDISHN TEATER"

1931-1969
 

Belle Baker

 

B. was born in New York, America. Her father was a peddler. As a child of nine years old, she entered into a shop, where she tsit fedim.

In her early youth B. used to attend the Yiddish theatre, "imitating" especially Dora Weissman, easily incorporating the popular theatre songs that she used to sing. Later she began to perform for three dollars a week in Yiddish vaudeville in Victoria Music Hall on Cannon Street, where she had great success.

In 1908 Adler had an opportunity to hear her and he soon hired her for his Grand Theatre for the role of "Yingel" in Gordin's "On a heym (Homeless/Without a Home.)" After acting for several years on the Yiddish stage, B. went over to English vaudeville, where she later became a "star," and in 1929 she performed in the lead role in the "talkie" " "Dos gezang fun libe (The Song of Love)."

  • Kh. Yaffa? -- From the Yiddish Theatre to the English Vaudeville Stage -- Now a Talkie Star, "Der tog," N. Y., 15 November 1929.

  • Sidney Gordon -- Belle Baker's First "Talkie" For the First Time in New York, "Forward,",13 November 1929.

 


 

 

 

 


 

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Adapted from the original Yiddish text found within the  "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre" by Zalmen Zylbercweig, Volume 1, page 188.
 

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