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abandoned, but also soon
because of the harsh material conditions, and they
traveled to Romania, where they put together a small
troupe across coffee houses and summer gardens. They
were very popular, and their earnings were very good.
From here they were aroysgefodert to Lemberg,
where they also played one-act comedies and traveled
from there to play vaudeville in Vienna, where it was
forbidden to play legitimate Yiddish theatre.
However, not paying heed to the governmental
representative there they, for four years under the mask
of "fasen" played Yiddish theatre, then
vaudeville in Budapest.
In September 1906 they were
engaged for New York to Levy in his "People's Music
Hall," then they played with Mike Thomashefsky in the
Arch Street Theatre in Philadelphia, Newark's
"Metropolitan Theatre." In 1914 they went to guest-star
in Europe, and arrived in Bucharest, Romania, putting
together a troupe and did very good business.
Jacob Botoshansky
characterized her acting in Romania as such:
"The wife was, Sarah Kaner,
was much superior to him, and she was tunklhoytik
to grinkeyt, and she often looked like a student
in a skirt. She had often enough played students. She
displayed many temperaments, but she coarsely and wildly
hit on the sexual. Jews had farkhliniet for her,
and they nevertheless feared that she would transfer her
daughter. ... There wasn't any lack of Zionist
ignorantn, who were content with the little
propaganda that the Kaner woman, they had presented
between one lewd song and another. For certain Zionistic
doktoyrimlekh was well such a punishment as, "I
want to return to this lendele with a blue-white
bendele,' or, 'I want to return to the makhele,
I want this Hebrew shprakhele' ...One must
concede that due to the beautiful choristers that the
theatre had had, here there was a mark of love." There
was no lack of choristers, who were simple street girls,
and they had forced such looks that Mrs. Kaner, who had
earned a lot of money, said that they could not
nakhhaltn, and she said that they had been
forbidden to go too much oysgeputst on the
stage."
The troupe also went to
perform to Constantinople, and preparing themselves to
return home to America, the First World War broke out,
and because her husband was not an American citizen,
they were forced to remain in Romania.
K.'s fight, however, wholly
soon changed when her husband passed away in 1919, as
Botoshansky wrote:
"Then began the end of the
Kaner dynasty. [Her brother Leon] Berger returned back
into the
troupe and a scandal erupted. Leopold Kaner had
his wife gelozt up front and kept him in the
shadows. Berger wanted to know from nothing, and his
sister-in-law 'went with the whole blanket [koldre],'
and she wanted cover. It once came to an open scandal,
and both parties before the curtain told the audience
what it had come to. Mrs. Berger had zikh ongenumen
for her husband, and the two sisters, who were much
alike, one to the other, stood and cried:
-- She doesn't let me play!
-- She doesn't let me play!
After her husband's passing
she finally was successful in aroystsugereysn for
Romania, played with Avraham Axelrod in Czernowitz, and
with Emil Gimpel in Lemberg had traveled around across
France, Belgium and Canada, where she played from time
to time, until 1926 when she again came to America,
where for several seasons she played in Newark with
Elving, in 1929-30 in Toronto, then in other theatres,
going over to character and mother roles.
On 8 June 1931 K. was taken
in as a member of the Yiddish Actors' Union.
on 14 February 1959 K.
passed away in New York and was taken to her eternal
rest on the grounds of the Yiddish Theatrical Alliance.
K.'s daughter Tina and her
sister and her husband Leon Berger, and their daughter
Rachelle Berger, have played Yiddish theatre.
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