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
 

Yetta Black
 

B. was born on 1 May 1880 in Kovno, Lithuania. Her father was a cotton maker, who had a great love for playing musical instruments, and because of this was for a short amount of time associated with the Broder Singer, and later was a prayer leader.

As a child of two-and-a-half, she came with her parents to America, and here she completed public school, and at the age of fifteen she performed in a dramatic club, whose members included David Levenson, Bela Gudinska, Tornberg, Sam Shneyer and Yona Ginzburg. Here B. participated in the production "Dos tiger-por", that the club put on at the Windsor Theatre. Soon thereafter she was taken into Hurwitz's trope, and she performed as "Blinda" in "Di geheymnisa fun london". Then B. traveled to Philadelphia, where she acted for several seasons under Mike Thomashefsky with Ch. Nathanson, Kestin, and Jacob Frank. From there she toured through Cleveland, Toronto, and Chicago, where she had the opportunity to act with the guest-starring Morisson, Kessler, Adler, Lipzin and Kalich. For several seasons B. also acted in variety with Gabel in New York, and during the Gordin period she crossed over to drama and melodrama. In 1926 B. guest-starred in Europe, and then for a short time in Montreal, Canada. In 1928 B. guest-starred in London and in Lemberg. In 1929 she guest-starred in Kovno and later in Riga.


M. E.

 


 

 

 

 


 

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Adapted from the original Yiddish text found within the  "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre" by Zalmen Zylbercweig, Volume 1, page 173.
 

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