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under the management of Mike Thomashevsky
and the direction of Max Rosenthal and Louis Birnbaum and
finished with the guest-starring Boris Thomashevsky and
Regina Zuckerberg in Cleveland, under the direction of Novikov and Baratz (with Henrietta Schnitzer as the main
role-player), and mid-season she was called on to act in
Brooklyn's "Liberty" Theatre with Anshel Schorr.
In 1926 F. was taken in as a
member of the Hebrew Actors' Union and was engaged for
Boston to the Hollanders, where she acted for a season
and then travelled across the province to act with Leon
Blank. From there a season in Detroit under the
direction of Sam Auerbach and Sadie Shoengold and later
with guest-stars, then a week in Toronto under the
direction of Dubinsky, Wolf Goldfaden and Mae Simon and
finally with guest-stars, such as Pesach'ke Burstein
and Betty Frank, Moishe Oysher and Florence Weiss et al,
further a season in Detroit under the direction of
Littman and in Philadelphia's Arch Street Theatre under
the direction of Gruber, and she made a home in New
York.
Through Sholom Secunda F.
was brought onto the radio, and the first song that she
had sung, "Machitenesta,"
had evoked so much interest that she
became popular in the span of this one performance. In
the beginning F. sang under the name "The Jewish Kate
Smith," but soon her professional name was changed to "The
Yiddish Mame," and in the span of ten years she was
often a guest on the Yiddish radio in New York and in
concerts, performing as an actress only during the 1940
season in the "Folks" Theatre in Rumshinsky's operetta,
"Ven di zun geyt oyf (Sunrise)."
F. performed in the main
roles in the films "Eli Eli" by Izidor Frankel, and "Hayntike
mames (Mothers of Today)" by Simon Wolf.
F.'s son is a violinist.
F. also recorded several
Yiddish songs, and she especially had success with the
song "Machitenesta," which was sold in very great numbers.
On 27 March 1946 F. passed
away in New York and came to her eternal rest in the
society plot of the Yiddish Theatrical Alliance at Mt.
Hebron [Cemetery].
Zalmen Zylbercweig portrays
her as such:
"Her name, 'Yiddish Mame,"
had fit her very well, because she did not have, as a rule, the appearance of an actress, but as a simple
Jewish woman. She spoke as a unpretentious [heymish]
woman, but had barely took to singing; she literally had
everyone charmed. Her voice, which in her youth was a
soprano, was an alto, a deep-breast tenor together with
a higher tenor, which passed for a soprano. However,
when singing, she not only employed her natural talent;
her voice became absorbed into her heart. When she used
to sing a Yiddish song, especially a mother's song, she
grabbed the listener, and there weren't any signs of the
great success that she has had over the course of years,
particularly by women of a middle age."
Sh. E. and M.
E. from her husband and son.
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