Nathan Rosenthal
(Nakhum)
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Born in 1862 in Iasi,
Romania, to well-to-do merchant parents. He received a
Jewish education, privately with tutors, and secular
studies with a teacher, completing a Romanian high
school. Possessing a beautiful voice as a youth, he sang
as a choir boy with a cantor and became an excited
attendee in Shimeon Marks' "Pomul Verde", where Avraham
Goldfaden had acted with his troupe.
R. began to act in Iasi with
amateurs with the hope of becoming a professional actor.
Goldfaden's troupe however left Romania due to the
persecution of the Jews in Romania, traveling to
America. Shortly thereafter, R. also arrived in America,
and was able to act in New York, where he organized his
own troupe with whom he acted across the American
province, especially in Chicago.
According to William Siegel,
R. possessed a strong tenor voice and a wishful figure
for the hero roles, but he wasn't able to make enough
income, and being that he was already married to
Sheindele (Jennie), the daughter of Shimeon Marks, and a
father of four daughters, he left Chicago and became a
director of the "Park Theatre" in New York on 120th
Street and Third Avenue, then of the "Royal Theatre" on
Delancey. However, there he also hadn't any material
success. His brother-in-law, Mike Thomashefsky (married
to his sister-in-law Fanny Marks) arranged for him to be
a "star" for his Columbia Theatre in Philadelphia. Here
R. acted for three seasons. Also her two older |
daughters
Sadie and Clara (for children's roles) performed
on that stage. He returned again to New York,
and not being able to join a theatre because he
had not been taken into the union (under the
conditions that existed then). He opened on
Eldridge Street a restaurant for actors and
named the foods with names from the theatre,
such as "A steak a la Bar Kochba, a food a la
Uriel Acosta, soup a la Shulamis, a food a la
King Lear". Since gut-hartsikeyt in his
restaurant had moreover dertsu, that he
had to close the restaurant and again wander
across the province with Yiddish theatre.
However he again could not find any joy, and
wanting to still remain with the theatre,
especially when his children were growing from
adolescents to full actresses: Sadie -- a prima
donna, and Clara -- a soubrette. He organized a
second actors union (Section 2), who only acted
in the province. He also organized the
vaudeville actors in a union, later known as
Local 5, and he strove to unite all three
sections in to one large union. Meanwhile,
acting in the province, he became ill from a
lung ontsindung, and in 1911 passed away
in Hartford, Connecticut.
His third daughter,
Molly (Malkhale) is a contributor in the "New
York Daily Mirror", and is married to Yiddish
playwright William Siegel.
Sh. E.
from William Siegel.
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