torn from a packing crate Perl letter to Ida Nasatir, October 16, 1953, APP2:6.
avoid “over-detailed naturalism” Da Silva letter to Sam Wanamaker, November 26, 1954, APP2:8.
working from … “The Golden Peacock” DeCormier interview.
“obscure chapbook” … deliberately aimed to mimic the style of a folk narrative Roskies, Bridge of Longing, 160–66.
“If we have succeeded in moving from fantasy” “Production Notes,” Perl, The World of Sholom Aleichem script, 51.
“This is the dawn of a new day” The World of Sholom Aleichem script, 46.
“very real interest on the part of the left” Perl letter to Da Silva, March 9, 1956, APP2:5.
“continuous emphasis on the most negative virtues” letter from Katya and Bert (Gilden) to Perl, March 10, 1953, APP2:4.
“increasingly aware that simply presenting” Ring Lardner letter to Da Silva, October 20, 1953, APP2:4.
Counterattack obsessively chased the play In addition to the lengthy report on September 25, 1953, warnings about the show appeared in issues on October 9, 1953; March 26, 1954; July 30, 1954; and October 15, 1954.
Perl boasted Perl letter to Oscar Lewenstein, March 30, 1956, APP2:8.
“stir up, however gently, the social consciences” Cecil Williams quoted in a letter from Lewenstein to Perl, March 15, 1956, APP2:8.
performances had to take a hiatus while a coup overthrew Juan Perón letters from Ben-Ami to Perl, July 26 and September 21, 1955, APP3:4.
“in a manner designed to promote Moscow’s line” Counterattack, March 26, 1954.
vodka straight-up and Pall Malls without filters Rebecca Perl interview.
Jewish Welfare Board … [urged] JCCs … not to allow radicals Shapiro, A Time for Healing, 37.
helped to arrange a tour letter from Perl to D. Fogel, November 21, 1955, APP2:5.
“lox and bagels rash” J. I. Fishbein, “A House with Only Fish,” Sentinel, January 1, 1954, APPmicro4.
“humor smelt of dead herring” Rabbi Jacob J. Weinstein, National Jewish Post, February 12, 1954, APPmicro5.
“slanted toward the lowest human denominator” Greenwich Hebrew Institute Bulletin, October 7, 1953, APPmicro5.
“Goebbels-like mockery” B. Z. Goldberg review of The World of Sholom Aleichem for Der tog, May 6, 1953; typescript of English translation, APP3:5.
“the finest and best” J. I. Fishbein, “A House with Only Fish,” Sentinel, January 21, 1954, APPmicro4.
“surprising to see European Jewish life” Commentator, Yeshiva College, n.d., APPmicro3.
“what had hitherto been termed unachievable” Maurice M. Shudofsky, Jewish Frontier, no. 12 (December 1953).
“Let’s have Jewish plays in English” Shudofsky review.
Rabbis endorsed the play For example, letter from Rabbi Jacob K. Shankman to Perl, December 9, 1953, APP2:4; reviews cited above by Rabbi Jacob J. Weinstein and rabbi’s column in Greenwich Hebrew Institute bulletin.
Zionist Organization of America found in it “particular meaning” letter from Jacob Dinnes of ZOA–Long Island to Perl, May 21, 1954, APP2:4.
Midge Decter wrote to the New York Times appeared on January 31, 1954; see also “On the Horizon: Belittling Sholom Aleichem’s Jews,” Commentary (January–June 1954): 389–92.
Fishbein … “May this herald” Sentinel, January 21, 1954, APPmicro4.
“with the limited Center audiences in mind” Perl letter to Lewenstein, March 30, 1956, APP2:8.
The promotional materials for Holiday February 5, 1956, APP1:5.
“I have violated” Perl letter to Lewenstein, March 30, 1956, APP2:8.
“Here are the beginnings” Patterson Greene, “Aleichem in New Sketches,” Los Angeles Examiner, March 21, 1957.
announced the New York premiere of Tevya and His Daughters Lewis Funke, “Gossip of the Rialto,” New York Times, July 14, 1957, 77.
“a new and vital theatre center” Perl’s “rough notes on Banner productions,” n.d., APP1:1.
“he is Don Quixote” … taking the “same care” promotional material, n.d., APP1:8.
the show had taken in $28,000 press release by Debuskey, September 16, 1957, APP1:8.
budgeted production costs of $19,644 Perl notes on Tevya, n.d., APP1:8.
avoid any shred of shrewishness Anna Vita Berger interview.
avoid exaggeration Berger interview; parallels Da Silva’s notes on The World of Sholom Aleichem, letter to Sam Wanamaker, November 26, 1954, APP2:8.
“Rich she’ll be” … “My enemies” Perl, Tevya 10, 38.
“A woman is like a melon” … “Work is noble” ibid., 19, 31.
“this is the way God made” … “If you will it” ibid., 32, 44.
“He’ll serve his time” … “My Chava, my next” ibid., 46, 47.
“it is theater that is missing” Brooks Atkinson, “Theatre: Tevya’s Family,” New York Times, September 17, 1957, 38.
“This is not our Tevya” review by Dr. N. Sverdlin, Forverts, September 19, 1957.
“cast, director, playwright” “Found in the Drama Mailbag,” New York Times, October 13, 1957, 123.
“plea for racial tolerance” So Bernstein wrote across the top of the Romeo and Juliet text from which he was working on the initial idea that became West Side Story; Library of Congress online exhibit, “West Side Story: Birth of a Classic,” http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/westsidestory/introduction/.
made up some 70 percent of Broadway audiences Encylopaedia Judaica, in its entry on New York City culture, states that “one rough estimate placed Jews at 70 percent of the city’s concert and theater audience during the 1950s.” Vol. 12, p. 119. Jerusalem Keter Publishing House, 1971; first printing, New York: Macmillan.
“all syrup,” “too sweet,” and “languid” Reviews: Walter Kerr, New York Herald Tribune; Richard Watts, “Two on the Aisle” column, New York Post; Thomas Dash, Women’s Wear Daily: all September 17, 1957.
“a beginning of a thaw” Perl letter to Lewenstein, July 7, 1955, APP2:8.
“And yet, my friend” Perl letter to Ben-Ami, August (n.d.) 1955, APP3:4.
Susskind and … Landau, who derided the work as “too Jewish” Henry Weinstein interview by Alan H. Rosenberg, n.d. I am grateful to Rosenberg for generously sharing his research notes with me. Other material in this chapter about Weinstein’s decisions comes from that interview.
Richardson (born Melvin Schwartz) … despite Susskind’s anxiety Don Richardson letter to Mrs. Schreibman, National Jewish Archives of Broadcasting, August 14, 1984; from files at NJAB. Thanks to Andrew Ingall for making this material available. Richardson’s account of the rehearsals and shooting method come from this letter.
Richardson soon excluded his former student from rehearsals Weinstein interview with Rosenberg.
“highlight of the show” “The Play of the Week,” Variety, December 16, 1959.
“stunning production” of “three one-acters” reviews: Nick Kenny, “Sholem Aleichem’s ‘World’ a TV Gem,” New York Mirror, December 15, 1959; Kay Gardella, “Ch. 13’s ‘Play of Week’ a Stunning Production,” Daily News, December 16, 1959; Jack Gould, “TV: Aleichem’s ‘World’: Play of the Week Offers 3 One-Acters of Beauty, Compassion, and Protest,” New York Times, December 15, 1959, 79.
“a victory just to get something” Lee Grant, phone message for author, July 26, 2010.
Perl credited World’s success on Play of the Week Adam Perl interview; Arnold Perl had, in fact, found named writing gigs earlier—he refers to the first in a letter to Lewenstein on July 7, 1955, but he deemed the material “worthless” (APP2:8); The World of Sholom Aleichem was one to be proud of.
Jews … voted for John F. Kennedy Shapiro, A Time for Healing, 218.
Where one American in five told pollsters ibid., 39.
“the transcendent place of the ‘destruction and renewal’ theme” A. Goren, Politics, 190.
advance sale of $1.6 million Silver, Our Exodus,
204.
“the fighting Jew who won’t take shit” Uris letter to his father, June 25, 1956, quoted in Silver, Our Exodus, 1.
“They are Jews who fight, who die” Frank Cantor, “A Second Look at Exodus,” Jewish Currents (November 1959): 20.
Historians … point repeatedly to Exodus See, for example, Shapiro, A Time for Healing; Silver, Our Exodus; and Bartov, The “Jew” in Cinema: From The Golem to Don’t Touch My Holocaust (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005); Andrew Furman, Israel through the Jewish-American Imagination (Albany: SUNY Press, 1997, esp. 39–58); Michelle Mart, Eye on Israel: How America Came to View Israel as an Ally (Albany: SUNY Press, 2006, esp. 169–76).
“Since Tevya had the worst of everything” Brooks Atkinson, “Fun with Words: Tevya Has a Phrase to Solve Anything,” New York Times, September 29, 1957, 117.
CHAPTER 3: TEVYE LEAVES FOR THE LAND OF BROADWAY
cost of nearly $250,000 cited in Jowitt, Jerome Robbins, 304.
“There have been brilliant successes before” “Tour Analysis,” July 3 to November 4, 1959, quoted in Vaill, Somewhere, 318, and in Jowitt, Jerome Robbins, 310.
“Sir, all my works have been acclaimed” Robbins testimony, Investigation of Communist Activities in the New York City Area, Part 2, Hearing before the Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, May 5, 1953, United States Government Printing Office, 1324.
“to even put more” Doyle, Robbins HUAC testimony, 1325.
“I didn’t want to be a Jew” notes, September 8, 1976, JRPP19:6.
“I affect a discipline over my body & take on another language” notes, January 23 (no year), JRPP19:4.
“I betrayed them to HUAC” notes, October 6, 1976, JRPP2:18.
Robbins himself never confirmed the conventional wisdom See Navasky, Naming Names, 75, and letters, Navasky to Robbins, December 26, 1979, and Robbins to Navasky, January 4, 1980, JRPP92:15.
“a display of 100 per cent Americana of 1959” Daily Telegraph, September 8, 1959, in clippings folder, JR124:1.
episode of This Is Your Life See Shandler, While America Watches, 30–40.
“Auschwitz with its three million dead!” Uris, Exodus, 85.
Robbins hated it and couldn’t wait to leave Robbins’s diary from the trip, JRPP:136.
four full days in town trip itinerary and Robbins passport, JRPP26:29.
On a chilly morning, they headed east recounted in Vaill, Somewhere, 319.
Rozhanka was neglected Yizkerbukh, “Community of Rozanka.”
“tiny town with dirt streets and kerosene lamps” notes, January 12, 1975, JRPP1:7.
“It was my home, that I belonged to” notes, January 12, 1975, JRPP1:7.
On the tape, he chokes back a sob Jowitt, Jerome Robbins, 11.
began with a German incursion Yizkerbukh, “Community of Rozanka.”
he would have needed a Soviet visa phone interviews and e-mail exchanges with: Hui Hua Chua, Michigan State University Library, Government Information Online for the US State Department; Terri Miller, Michigan State University Slavic Librarian; Rob Davis, Columbia University Slavic Librarian, August 2 and 3, 2011; and Steven Corssin, curator, Dorot Jewish Division, NYPL, August 4 and 6, 2011. (All concur.)
Robbins’s companion didn’t recall one as described by Amanda Vaill; I am grateful to Vaill for discussing her research with me. (Jamie Bauer did not return letters or phone calls requesting an interview.)
“everything was a void” Kugelmass and Boyarin, From a Ruined Garden, 221.
“Oh, Rozhanka, my shtetl, so prized” Yizkerbukh, “Community of Rozanka,” 446.
“The ‘Anatevka’ of our youth” Sefer yizkor le-yehudei rudki v-ha-seviva, 317, quoted in Kugelmass and Boyarin, From a Ruined Garden, 9.
the fictional setting in stories by Sholem-Aleichem A real town called Anatevka (sometimes Anatouka or Hanativka) lay west of Kiev, but except in name, it had no known relation to Sholem-Aleichem’s invention.
“a new life on the stage” Harnick-1 interview.
Bock, born in New Haven For Bock’s biographical background, see Lambert, To Broadway, 7–16; Bock, interviewed by Flender, AJC; Ewen, Composers, 23ff; Prideaux, American Musicals: Bock and Harnick; news clips.
“The turkey has” Harnick’s Thanksgiving poem, “‘Fiorello!’ and Harnick,” Gilbert Millstein, New York Times, December 27, 1959; for Harnick’s biographical background, see also Bryer and Davison, Art of the American Musical, 73–94; interviewed by Flender, AJC; Prideaux, American Musicals: Bock and Harnick; author interviews.
“bowled over” Harnick quoted in Bryer and Davison, Art of the American Musical, 76.
“I thought it was extraordinary” Harnick-1 interview.
“Why don’t you write that up?” Stein interview.
bankrolled by a Philadelphia department store owner Stein interview.
planted a tape recorder mic among the celery Murray Schumach, “The Amish and Music,” New York Times, January 23, 1955, X1.
criticized for failing to find See Richard P. Cooke, “The Theater: O’Casey to Music,” Wall Street Journal, March 11, 1959; Brooks Atkinson, “Musical ‘Juno,’” New York Times, March 15, 1959; Brooks Atkinson, “Theatre: A Musical ‘Juno’ Arrives,” New York Times, March 10, 1959.
Stein didn’t have either musical consciously in mind Stein interview.
Harnick loved it Interviews: Harnick-1; Stein.
“a succession of insufficiently fused fragments” “Actors’ Odyssey Told in ‘Roaming Stars’” (no author cited), New York Times, January 25, 1930, 7.
But where to find the stories Stein interview.
In March 1961, Bock, Harnick, and Stein met formally Diary, JBP23:11.
“wrote them off” Harnick-1 interview.
“so warm” Harnick-1 interview.
“Over and above” unidentified program note or newsletter article, SHP, 3:5.
“It never entered our minds” Harnick interview.
“happened to be Jewish” Stein interview.
“never very involved in religion” Stein interview.
ethnic “juices” quoted in Altman and Kaufman, Making of a Musical, 35.
“I’ll go through the motions” Stein interview.
“Who would be interested” Stein interview.
“It was pure speculation” Stein quoted in Leonard Harris, “‘Fiddler’ on the Concourse,” New York Herald Tribune, December 28, 1964, 20.
“the next day they were engaged” Sholem-Aleichem, Tevye’s Daughters, 37.
vital need to narrate himself through every situation See Roskies, Bridge of Longing, 157ff.
“I wasn’t worried about God so much” Sholem-Aleichem, Tevye’s Daughters, 160.
numbering sections with a light pencil Stein showed me the volume during our interview.
“I’m not a stenographer” Stein interview.
“With pogrom threatening” Outline, “Old Country II,” n.d., SHP3:6.
even Shprintze’s suicide variant “Old Country” outline, n.d. (in which the character based on Sholem-Aleichem’s Shprintze is called Leah), SHP3:6.
“light and humorous treatment” “Suggestions for Chava Sequence,” JSP-W29:1.
too dark for the show Harnick interview-3.
just “felt right” Stein interview.
less “exotic” names like Rachel and Sarah “Old Country” outline, n.d., JSP29:1.
“Does Tevye live in Boiberik?” JBP21:3.
“Move! March, you foolish animal!” Tevye draft, October, 17, 1961, JSP26:1 and JBP21:1.
“pure, unadulterated exposition” Bock and Harnick note to Stein, n.d., SHP3:6.
Stein’s father died Bock diary, JBP23:11; Harry Stein interview.
“musical guesses” Stein quoted by Lambert, To Broadway, 50.
“Sheldon, here’s a little gay folk thing” London Original Cast Recording bonus track.
“let your daughter take my place, live in my house, carry my keys, wear my clot
hes” Sholem-Aleichem, Tevye’s Daughters, 36.
Harnick quickly affixed the words Harnick interview-1.
He “felt it was inside me” quoted in Altman and Kaufman, Making of a Musical, 34.
“opportunity to now express myself” Bock interviewed by Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air, “Jerry Bock and Shelton Harnick Discuss Writing Music for ‘Fiddler on the Roof,’” June 21, 2004.
Bikel maintains … Bock siphoned some tunes Bikel quoted in Margo Lemberger, “A Musical Milkman’s Multi-Culti Appeal: ‘Sunrise, Sunset’ Glows in El Paso as ‘Fiddler’ Heads Back to Broadway,” Forward, January 5, 2001, 17. For analytical musical comparison, see Lambert, To Broadway, 166–69.
“a certain Yiddish-Russian quality” London Original Cast Recording bonus track.
Words … “crystallized” on the music Harnick-1 interview.
Negotiations … expected a contract Bock diary, JBP23:11.
he secured exclusive rights interviews with Nancy Perl and attorney Don Aslan; “Prospectus” for Tevye (as Fiddler was first called), which describes Perl’s prior deal, JRP15:1.
Perl’s family would maintain … Stein claimed interviews with Nancy Perl, Rebecca Perl, Adam Perl, Stein.
8.2 percent royalty Contract, HPP105:4.
The deal was done in July 1962 Bock diary, JBP23:11.
“What will we do when we’ve run out of Hadassah groups?” Harnick-1 interview; also Stein interview and many public interviews the authors gave over the years; they loved to tell this story.
Tyrone Guthrie preface to Kohansky, Hebrew Theatre, v.
coded Jewish sensibility See Andrea Most’s pioneering study, Making Americans.
“those shows weren’t Jewish” Harnick-2 interview.
“something overall that bothers me” Prince letter to Bock, July 27, 1962, JBP20:11.
“as foreign to the shtetl” Prince interview.
“being simply an ethnic folk tale” Prince interviewed by James Cook for Forbes, typed transcript, November 30, 1971, kindly provided by Karen Cook; article, “Making a Business of Show Business,” appeared in Forbes, February 1, 1972.
“He knew Sholem-Aleichem better than we did” Harnick-1 interview.
the film director and producer Arthur Penn In addition to Bock’s diary note on August 8, 1962 (JBP23:11), Bock discussed his interest in Landmark symposium, 16.
Wonder of Wonders: A Cultural History of Fiddler on the Roof Page 45