Wonder of Wonders: A Cultural History of Fiddler on the Roof (61 page)

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.