“Hard To Be Jew” was now history. In spite of most of the people involved trying to convince Harry to translate it into English, he forged ahead and sought a new Yiddish script. He liked Sholom Aleichem’s story Der Grosse Gevintze (The Big Winner).

It seems that David Opatoshu, (who was well known on the English stage and television), had a similar affinity for this particular Sholom Aleichem story and had written an adaptation for stage and/or screen usage.

I’m not sure how David Opatoshu and Harry Rothpearl got together but they did and the next show was to be The Big Winner, adapted and directed by David Opatoshu, (who also starred in the production).

The show co-starred Stan Porter with Miriam Kressyn, Bruce Adler and Jaime Lewin. The supporting cast included some familiar names like Elia Patron, David Carey and Shmulik Goldstein. Seymour Rexite was once again general manager, (overseer), and Elliot Rothpearl was once again the “sound man”.

I must confess that I don’t remember too much about this production. I think that after the loss of my equipment at the close of “Hard To Be A Jew,” I just lost interest and sent in an apprentice to run the system, so I wasn’t really there for most of the good stories.

In spite of this, under “Who’s Who In The Cast” I received the following write-up:

Elliott, (sic) Rothpearl (sound) is a graduate of The High School of Music and Art, the Manhattan School of Music and New York University where he majored in music. He is the composer of popular, electronic and classical music. He founded Wood’n Music, Inc., a publishing company and recording studio, and is a specialist in sound engineering.

Actually, I graduated New York University with degrees in clinical and experimental psychology and my name is spelled with only one “T”, but who cares? (Jimmy Crack Corn????… see article #2)!

Well, let’s get on with the story.

At the end of the last article, I said that nothing Harry did afterwards came even close to the production of “Hard to be a Jew.” Apparently, the critics did not agree with me. I have a stack of reviews about an inch thick in my hand and I will only quote from a few of them, but it seems that just as the moral of this story everybody wants to go with the winner and so every critic in every paper known and unknown showed up on opening night. A partial list of the critics goes as follows: Show Business, Aufbau, Jewish Journal, The New York Times, The Daily Argus, Cue, Daily News, Long Island Press, Backstage, New York Post, The Hollywood Reporter, The Jersey Journal, The Star Ledger, The Village Voice, Variety, The Villager, and Jewish World.

To quote just a few, Richard Shepard of The New York Times, headlined his article “The Big Winner Lives Up to its Name.” Henry Popkin, The Daily Argus, headlined his review with “The Big Winner is Just That.” Cue magazine’s Donald J. Meyerson kinda hit the nail on the head with his review. He said, “The Big Winner . . . at the Eden Theatre. One of the good things about this lovely Yiddish musical based on Sholom Aleichem’s fable is that I did not leave the theatre singing melodies from Fiddler on the Roof. I left impressed by the very professional production in Yiddish which looks and feels as though affection and concern were poured on a flowering garden of Jewish life.”

Now, what if he had left singing melodies from Schver tzu a Yid (Hard to Be a Jew)? I don’t think that I, along with many others, will ever get over that feeling that Harry would have been really famous had he listened to those around him.

In brief, here is Sholom Aleichem’s story. The place is a Russian Jewish town circa 1910. Shimele Soroker, though a poor tailor, has always retained good nature and optimism. He has a wife, Ety-mene, and a daughter, Bailke, and two young apprentices who both want to marry Bailke. He wins a lottery of 200,000 rubles, making him the richest man in town. There is a big celebration at which he vows that the money will never change him.

But, the money has gone to Shimele’s head. He now calls himself Semion Mararevitch and his wife becomes Ernestina Yefimovna. He hires a butler named Mendel and his daughter Bailke becomes his secretary as he cannot write Russian.

Two fast-talking promoters get Shimele, (Semion Mararevitch), to invest in their new film business and they write a check for him to sign for 15,000 rubles.

The town matchmaker is also suddenly very interested in Shimele. They all arrive at a grand party thrown in their honor to make a match for their daughter. Another guest at the party is Goldenstaller, the head of the local bank, who expresses great disappointment that Shimele has withdrawn 150,000 rubles. Shimele says that it was only 15,000, but the cancelled check brings home the fact that he has been swindled.

Meanwhile, Bailke has run off to get married to one of the two apprentices. As the final “I Do’s” are said, Mom and Dad arrive. While Mom cries over her daughter’s loss of the opportunity for a fine marriage, Shimele confesses his foolish loss of the basic values in life. He is now happy and proud that his daughter has married a man of the people, a tailor like himself.

My father, Harry Rothpearl, worked hard and made his fortune. He did not hoard it and he did not squander it. He gave it back to the people in the form of a revitalized Yiddish theatre, giving back the art form he loved so much to the people of his roots.

The audience just wasn’t there for this show, regardless of what all the critics had said, (I guess the word of mouth was more powerful than the press.)

Despite the financial loss of this show, Harry went on to yet a fourth season with a show called, The 5th Season, produced and directed by Joseph Buloff, who was also the star of this production. Some familiar names in the cast were David Carey, Stan Porter, Miriam Kressyn, Elias Petron and Jack Rechtzeit. General Manager was again Seymour Rexite. I had nothing to do with this show.

Apparently Harry had to keep giving . . . one more season to keep these aging actors feeling useful and having something to do.

May God bless him as those around him surely did and still do, wherever they may be.

Until next month,
Shalom