The series about The Yiddish Theater in New York City has come to an end. I had been wondering about what else I could write about that you might be interested in reading when an interesting thing occurred.

Last Saturday afternoon, after the Shabbat service, my friend Mel from Beth Jacob asked if I’d be interested in borrowing a DVD of an old Yiddish movie called Yidl Mitn Fidl, (literally translated into A Jew with a fiddle). By the way, Mel was the one who initially turned me on to the Megillah in the first place, (see article #1).

Mel is another displaced Yiddisher Bucha from New York. He was once in the garment trades which makes him a bona fide Yid. From the first time I walked into Beth Jacob Mel and I hit it off. I mean what could be bad? So, let me tell you that although I’m from The Bronx and Mel is from Brooklyn I really couldn’t ever hold that against him. He’s just sort of a really happy, jolly, smiling kind of person that you have to love.

Well after accepting his offer I proceeded to tell him all about the name of the film and how it had just set off memories of my childhood, growing up in a musically talented and theatrically inclined household. We’ll get to that in just a little bit. First let me tell you about this wonderful film.

The film was made in Poland in 1936 by Joseph Green. It stars Molly Picon.
Her name is Yidl and she and her father are street musicians who travel from town to town playing for coins. They meet two other street musicians and form an “orchestra”. Molly has been disguised as a young boy by her father and everyone thinks she is boy. However she falls in love with one of the other musicians. They rescue a bride from marriage to an old man on her wedding day. This young woman begins to sing with the band. Molly’s heart throb helps the bride to find her true love to whom she had been engaged before her father fell into debt and had to marry her off. Poor Molly takes this interest in the bride as what it is not and is pretty heartbroken over it. In the meantime a local promoter has focused on the ex-bride as a talent and sells out a theater for her debut.

Her lover is brought to the theater on opening night and the two of them take off for places unknown. Molly is trying on her stage clothes when she is forced onstage in a fit of slapstick and lo and behold the curtain goes up.

She becomes an overnight hit and is signed to tour America. Her young man has left thinking that he would hinder her career and she remains heartbroken until she hears her song on the ship coming to America. Her young man turns out to be the leader of the band on the same ship. They reunite and live happily ever after, The End.

The music in the film was composed by Abe Ellstein and is just wonderful. Besides his song Yidl Mitn Fidl, his big hit Oy, Mama is also from this film.

His song Yidl Mitn Fidl though is what this story is about.

When I was a youngster my father and mother would take the family around at certain times of the year to perform at various old age homes and other charitable organizations. I would sing and play guitar, my older sister would play the cello and do a dramatic skit or two, Cantor Mario Botoshansky would render some cantorial music and my father would tell some stories and lots of jokes. My mother would accompany all of this and play a flashy solo piece or two as well. For the finale my younger sister would join us as everyone joined hands and sang Havenu Sholom Aleichem.

One of the stories my father was famous for was Yidl Mitn Fidl. The melody was the same one written by Abe Ellstein for the film.

The story was about a simple Jewish melody born in Poland. My mother would then very simply pick out the melody in single notes. Well in my father’s version of the story that simple melody got wanderlust. It traveled to Italy, where it became a tarantella. Then it traveled to Argentina where it became a tango. All through these travels my mother would render that melody in the style of the country to which the tune traveled. It emigrated to America and landed on the lower east side of New York where it assumed the characteristics of a full blown klezmer rendition. It went up to Harlem and became a boogie woogie. Finally it made it to Carnegie Hall at which point my mother really showed off with a classical piano rendition of this melody. And after that my dad would remind us of the melody’s humble beginnings and my mother would once again pick the tune with single notes.

What times those were. The joy we brought to those people once or twice a year was a wonderful mitzvah, and we all enjoyed doing it.

The film is available on DVD from Ergo Media Inc. P.O.Box 2037 Teaneck, NJ 07666 or online at www.ergomedia.com  If you’re a fan of Yiddish theater and cinematography you won’t be sorry that you bought it.