to Philadelphia, and from there he traveled for nineteen days on a fruit ship to England. There, not having the means to live, he spent his time in London's Mission House, where he struggled without eating and learned English at the same time.Then he fought, on his own initiative, for a post in a department store of the philanthropist Williams, where he was initially an address writer and packer, and then a German correspondent.

 and After finishing a year there, and during that time attending the English theatre, Schacht became known to the actor Joseph Goldschmidt, who had assembled a young troupe of young actors, and he performed with them under the name of "Feingold," a half-week in vaudeville in English, and the other half-week in plays in Yiddish, but after a short time he went over to the Yiddish troupe of Jenny Kaiser, where he debuted as "Max Philipson" in Feinman's "Dem foters klole (The Father's Curse)."

Hearing that there was being created a Yiddish theatre troupe in South Africa, Schacht went there, and in January 1897 he joined the troupe (of Jacob Katzman, Sarah Dayan, Esther and Sol Wallerstein, Annie Kaplansky et al.), and he played for two years in Johannesburg with the troupe (to which there later came Mandeltort and his wife, Moshe Zilberman et al.) Then he traveled through the deserts of South Africa to search for gold (mining), and after being there for several months with a freed prisoner from England, he barely fled with his life back to Johannesburg, where he became an auctioneer for a rich Irish auctioneer Richard Curie [sp], with whom he materially assisted, he also later founded the first Yiddish newspaper in South Africa "Di afrikaner idishe gazzeten (The African Jewish Gazette)," with Schacht as the publisher, and Isaac Berman as the editor. However, due to the outbreak of the war between England and the Boars, he left it all and fled to New York, where he arrived on 5 November 1899.

Here he tried to join Adler's Theatre, but without success, and he became an insurance agen tin several weeks. In the time of the founding of the Yiddish [Hebrew] Actors' Union, they took in as members only the actors from the three former Yiddish theatres in New York (Thalia, Windsor and People's), ignoring the unengaged actors in New York and the provincial actors. In his great desire to play Yiddish theatre, Schact, therefore accepted an offer for an Adler's production in order to play with him, but the actors then formed a union strike, and along with other striking-breaking actors, he was thrown out with them after the victory by the strikers. Schacht traveled with his strike-breaking colleagues to Philadelphia, where they ended the season in the Arch Street Theatre under the direction of Ivan Abramson. For a long time Schacht endeavored in vain to join the union, declaring that he was willing to pay a penalty for his strike-breaking, and initially through the intervention of researcher-judge Jerome and Dr. David Blaustein, earlier of the Educational Alliance, was taken in as a member of the Union in 1922. Shortly thereafter he became engaged in the newly opened Grand Theatre (Karp, Lateiner, Bernstein and Friedsell -- managers), but he felt a curse concerning getting roles.

In 1904-05 Schacht became engaged in the Grand Theatre with Adler, and here in November 1904 he was the first to create the role of "Khayutin" in Gordin's "The True Power."

Sara Adler reports it quite differently in her memoirs, about Schacht's arrival in the professional Yiddish theatre:

"... Gordin and other writers and actors used to be with Schacht siting n Zeitlin's cafe all night, listening to the fascinating descriptions of his life experience. To all of this, he had a passionate love for theatre and soon showed talent during his first appearances on stage. Schacht began to play theatre in the province. Like all other actors, he thought of a future in a New York theatre. And, as many young and inexperienced artists, this thing came to him with great trouble. Before the production of "The True Power" ... the Hebrew Actors' Union made demands, which Adler and Kessler did not want to comply with in any way. A week before the entangled production, the union declared a strike. ... The first thing Adler did then was to telegraph Schacht in Philadelphia, that he should soon travel to New York."

However, when Schacht found out --- Sara Adler recalls further -- that we were striking in the theatre, he says that despite his playing, he applied to the union that he should be taken in as a member. Receiving a refusal, he applied with a complaint to the district attorney at the time, General [procurer] Jerome, and thanks to his intervention, he became a member in the union. The strike, meanwhile, was won and Schacht was taken into the troupe and received the role of "Khayutin" to play in "The True Power," and about his acting and the impression he made, Sara Adler recalls further: that when there is a strike in the theatre, he refuses to play and turns to the union to be admitted as a member. Receiving a refusal, he files a complaint with the then District Attorney General (procurer) Jerome, and thanks to his intervention, he became  member in the union. Meanwhile, the strike was won, and Schacht was taken into the troupe and came to play in the role of "Khayutin" in "The True Power," and about his acting her impression, Sara Adler further recalls:

"So great was Schacht's success in the relatively small role ... that Ab. Cahan, the editor of the "Forward," in his review about the play, spoke more about Schacht than about all the stars put together. Cahan then wrote about Schacht more than about Adler, Kessler and all the others, who were appearing for the first time in the play. And not only had Cahan had  identified the young actor as an important talent; but also Israel Zangwill, who then was a guest in New York, came to see and could not be prrouder of Schacht's acting. Zangwill then invited Schacht to travel with him to London and play there on the English stage. The American criticism caught him off-guard. Dramatic clubs from various universities came to see him play."

And Sara Adler further recalls what had occurred in the theatre when Schacht had played in the role of "Khayutin:":

"Kessler (who played the main role in "Dr. Goldenweiser") tried to begin several times. No one had not heard him. The audience was crazy with enthusiasm. Several times in the middle of an act they had to bring Schacht out onto the stage, and Kessler really didn't manage to get his monologue out. The curtain came down on a non-performed act. That such a thing had never happened in a Yiddish theatre."

Schacht's success led to a conflict between Kessler and Adler. Previously Kessler had played "Dr. Goldenweiser," and Adler the role of "Pompion," and they changed their roles, but when Adler took over the role of "Dr. Goldenweiser," Sara Adler recalls the story once again:

"In one act the uproar for Schacht became so strong, that It was sometimes difficult for Adler, almost impossible, to complete a certain scene. At the end of the scene, they forgot about Adler in the whole play, and only wanted that Schacht should be allowed to come out on stage again and again. ... The applause and the shouts for Schacht became so louid and they lastes so long, that Adler, not once was he forced to leave the stage without having delivered his monologue."

The history, as Sara Adler recalls, ended when Adler's "patriots" had when a scuffle was created during a performance in a theatre. We didn't complete the performance, and Adler took the role from Schacht the role and gave it to the actor Ginsburg. Schacht thus questioned this by calling Adler out in the press, that he should compare him in other roles. From then on, there was an antagonism between Adler and Schacht.

In 1905-06 Schacht played in the Windsor Theatre. In 1906-07 he was in the Thalia Theatre with Kessler, Moshkovich and Lipzin. From 1907-11 he played part-time with Adler, part-time with Lipzin, and was the first to embody (in 1907) the role of "Melekh Natan Torbe" in Jacob Gordin's "On the Mountains." In the summer of 1911 he was brought to London, whre he participated as "Khayutin" in Adler's local production of "The True Power."

In 1911-12 he played with Keni Lipzin in the Lipzin Theatre. In 1912-13 he played opportunistically in the productions and participated on 25 December 1942 in Thomashevsky's Royal Theatre in Anshel Schorr's "Dos zisl meydl.' In 1913-14 he was in the Dewey Theatre (14th Street) with Adler. In that time Schacht dedicated himself to the studying of the tendencies of Shakespeare's "Shylock" and studied through virtually every Shylock commentator in English and in German and worked out his own interpretation that portrayed "Shylock" as a highly philosemitish work, in antithesis to the most of the time generally accepted opinions. But the studies and the idea of performing Shylock without his interpretation caused Schacht to leave the stage, and in 1914 he moved over to business. He technically developed an invention for a certain Lifshitz, but due to the coming world war, Schacht was unable to receive the necessary German technical materials and lost due to the invention over two years' time, and within this time he acted, but from time to time. In 1917-18 he acted in Adler's Grand Theatre, where on 9 November 1917 he was the first to embody the role of "Father Michail" in Ossip Dymow's "The World in Flames," and since March 1918 he doubled for Adler in Dymow's "Slave of the People." In 1918-19 he acted in Kessler's Second Avenue Theatre.

In 1919-20 he acted in the Yiddish Art Theatre (under the direction of Maurice Schwartz), and here he was the first to actuate in the role of the "priest" in Sholem Aleichem's "Tevye the Milkman," "The Dance Teacher," in Lengiel's "The Dancer," "Satin" in Gorki's "Oyfn opgrunt," and "Mazik" in Fishl Bimko's "Thieves." In 1920-21 he played in Schnitzer's "New Yiddish Theatre" in the role of the "lover" in "Silent Forces" by Jan Eker (sp), and "the philanthropist" in Avraham Shomer's "The Reformed Convict" (together with Rudolph Schildkraut). In 1921-22 he was in the Lipzin Theatre with Jennie Valiere, and here staged on 23 November 1921 Jacob Faller's "The Everlasting Tangle" and Solotarefsky's "Every Woman's Desire [?] (playing the role of "Chazan.")

In 1923-24 he opened under his management, " Gustav Schacht's Amphion Theatre," where on 11 September 1923 he staged Avraham Blum's "Kol Yakov," and then Z. Kornblit's "Tserishene neshomes" (according to a motif from Guy de Maupassant), but after eight weeks he closed the theatre with a large deficit, and Schacht then toured the province with the guest-starring troupe of the Yiddish Art Theatre. In 1925-26 Schacht played with Ludwig Satz and Max Rosenthal in the Irving Place Theatre, and then he went off to Hollywood, where he continued for five years to study the "Shylock" complex. Here Schacht played the "head of the eygeyner [as Guy Schact, as "Pietro")" in John Barrymore's first sound film, "General Crack," and then [he played] small roles in other sound films, together with Emil Jennings, Pola Negri et al.

Returning to New York for the 1932-33 season, he was engaged to the Yiddish Art Theatre and was the first to play the role of "Shakhna Dein" in Schwartz's offering of I.J. Singer's "Yoshe Kalb," and he made a strong impression for the shaping of the character.

On 9 December 1936 Schacht performed in the Folks Theatre as "Solomon" in a combination-production of Gordin's "Mirele Efros" (with four women playing "Mirele": Anna Appel, Berta Gerstin, Dora Weissman and Bina Abramowitz),at a benefit for the "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre."

In 1936 Schacht joined the Jewish State Theatre (W. P. A.) and played "the cleric" in Yehuda Bleich's production of Sinclair Lewis' "Do kon es nit geshen (It Can't Happen Here)," and the role of "Jacob" in Jacob Mestel's offering of Clifford Odet's "Awake and Sing."

This was actually the last great role that Schacht played, and he had with it been mentioned again by the critic in his wonderful creations.

About his playing the role of "Jacob," D. Kaplan writes:

"The old Jacob played by Gustav Schacht with delicate ability and ideal feeling and creates very much a sympathetic design, but the help did not remove the impression of Jacob's unnaturalness and tsugetshepeter relationship with the entire environment of the play."

Warm about his playing, N. Buchwald writes:

"Gustav Schact creates a tragedy, a pathetic figure of the domestic revolutionary "philosopher," who exchanged his life for prose. He is very sympathetic and human as was Morris Kornovsky's grandfather (the original actor in the original English play), who had "amused" the viewer with his accent."

Also William Edlin was deeply pleased by Schacht's playing:

"That's why we only Gustav Schacht played excellently the grandfather. He makes him what the playwright had to imagine when he wrote the play. He plays relaxed and restrained. He is stone dumb for a few minutes before he takes his daughter's puppy out on the roof to get some air; this is the finest kind of showmanship. These are his last minutes of life, and he lives through them in a gentle silence, which has a strong effect on the audience."

Very thrilled with the embodiment of the role, Leon Kobrin says:

"...Gustave Schacht saw many roles in which he had portrayed and manifested true talent, but I have never seen him act better as in the role of the old Jacob. At times, many years back, Schacht made a big appearance in a role of a Yiddish teacher, an idealist, a bel khoylem [Khayutim] in Gordin's "True Power." ... In the role of the old Jacob even more excellence, that I have seen for that teacher, the dreamer, who was before the time ages thirty years, and nevertheless remains warm, the kind idealist of a time."

On 8 October (on Kol Nidre) 1943, Schacht passed away in New York.

Schacht was the brother-in-law of Zionist leader Louis Lipsky.

Schacht's daughter is married to Charles Adler, son of Jacob P. Adler and Jennie Keiser.

B. Botwinik characterizes him as such:

"... Allthough Schact was a successful realistic playwright, he was not a realist himself. He had a temperament with which he performed very well in his roles, which they gave him to play, but in life his temperament deceived him. He played with the greatest stars of the Yiddish theatre of that time. He had to compete with them in the art. The theatres belonged to him, he fought them with his bad temper, always revolted, unable to get along with them. This led to the fact that at some point, bitter, he left the stage and went into the business of making "screens," the dramatic windows in the doors. ... He returned to the theatre, but after that, dramatic actors and dramatic plays lose their influence on the world and also on the Yiddish stage."

M.E.

• B. Gorin -- "History of Yiddish Theatre," Vol. II, p. 198.

• [--] -- Kurtse biografie fun beliebte kinstler, "Di idishe bine," N. Y., 25 March 1910.

• [--] -- Endlikh iz er gevorn a idisher aktior, "Forward," N. Y., 23 October 1912.

• Uriel Mazik -- [Alter Epstein] -- Bilder-galeree fun unzere idishe shoishpieler, "Der tog," N. Y., 13 October 1917.

• A. Buckstein -- In teater, "Freaye arbayter shtime," N. Y., 27 March 1920.

• William Edlin -- "Vakh-oyf un zing" khun kliford odets in royal's teater, "Der tog," N. Y., 25 Dec. 1938.

• D. Kaplan -- "Eveik end sing" -- itst geshpilt oyf idish, "Forward," N. HY., 30 Dec. 1938.

• N. Buchwald -- "Vakh oyf un zing" in idish, "Morgn frayhayt," N. Y., 30 December 1938.

• Leon Kobrin -- Odets dermont oyf gordin mit zayn "vakh oyf un zing," "Der tog," N. Y., 17 February 1939.

• Sara Adler -- Di lebens-geshikhte fun sara adler, "Forward," N. Y., L.aroysgabe 21, 23, 24 March, 4, 6, 8, 11, 13 and 14 April 1939.

• Jacob Mestel -- "Undzer teater," N. Y., 1943, p. 166.

• B. Botwinik -- Gustav Schacht un yitzhak feld, "Forward," L. A., 15 October 1943.