Wonder of Wonders: A Cultural History of Fiddler on the Roof (65 page)

Roberta Senn wrote to her parents
Senn interview; Senn letter to parents, n.d., generously shared from her personal files.

“There was something in this show”
Harnick interview.

By February, Prince was sending distributions to investors
box office report, February 20, 1965, notes $45,000 in distributions made with the report, JRP16:6.

Joe Stein loved to tell
Harnick maintains that the story of the Japanese producer is apocryphal but acquired the force of gospel. E-mail correspondence with author.

“as you must know”
Dolan letter to Robbins, September 26, 1964, JRP5:29.

“Broadwayized”
N. Sverdlin, “
Sholem-aleykems ‘helden’ in brodvey musikal
,”
Der Tog Morgen Zhurnal
, September 25, 1964.

“Jewish America’s most beautiful”
Chaim Ehrenreich, “
Sholem-aleykhems ‘Tevye der milkhiker’ af brodvey
,”
Forverts
, September 26, 1964.

“laid open”
Robbins, autobiographical notes, JRPP19:6.

“
a glory for my father”
Robbins, autobiographical notes, JRPP1:18.

“This is the first seder”
Spiro to Prince, April 12, 1968, HPP109:1.

Fiersteins
Fierstein interview.

“The play was the life of my grandparents”
Belle Miller to Paul Lipson, August 30, 1966, HPP109:3.

“just such a little town in Russia”
Schwartz to Prince, November 30, 1964, HPP109:4.

how an actor should properly pronounce “Kiev”
letters to Prince, 1964ff., HPP109:3, 4.

900th New York performance … profit of 352 percent
press release of November 22, 1966, Sol Jacobson and Lewis Harmon, clippings, “
Fiddler
.”

Newsweek
 
… paid circulation 1.6 million
Number cited in “Relinquishing of Editorial Control at Time, Inc., by Henry Luce Marks End of Era,” John Lee,
New York Times
, April 17, 1964, 55; and in a display ad for
Newsweek
in the
New York Times
, March 30, 1964, 46.

wedding bands … expected
Hans Jenny (bandleader/booker) interview.

“funny kind of tenderness” his old teacher
Robbins notes, JRP542:8.

letters objected
HPP109:2, 3, 4.

Maurice Samuel issued a public protest
described in a letter from Stein to Robbins, November 28, 1966, displayed in “New York Story: Jerome Robbins and His World,” exhibit at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, curated by Lynn Garafola, March 25–June 28, 2008.

“The real intention”
Prince letters to complainants, HRP109:2.

“simple, gentle man” …“for the sake of the show”
Stein letter to Prince, displayed in “New York Story” exhibit.

“that rabbi problem again”
Robbins letter to Sandor, December 9, 1966, displayed in “New York Story” exhibit.

“strong and appealing”
Prince letter to Robbins, May 26, 1965, JRP5:16.

“It makes me especially angry”
Prince letter to Robbins, September 19, 1966, JRP5:16.

“It is true that I am an actress”
Marisse letter to Robbins, JRP5:16.

Marisse complained to Actors’ Equity
Douglas Watt, “Actress to Take Jewish Holiday Case to Board,”
Los Angeles Times
, October 6, 1966, D16.

“of all things”
“‘Fiddler’ Drops Girl Absent on Holy Days,”
New York Post
, n.d., clippings.

Lyons ran a brief item
New York Post
, n.d.,
Fiddler
clippings.

Letters to Prince’s office
HPP109:3.

“The Imperial is not a Temple”
Prince letter to Lyons, September 29, 1965, HPP109:3.

southpaw’s refusal to pitch
For discussion of Koufax’s contract, likely activity that Yom Kippur, and impact, see Jane Leavy,
Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy
(New York: HarperCollins, 2002).

affiliation with synagogues … from 30 percent … to nearly 60 percent
Shapiro,
A Time for Healing
, 148.

standing ovations eight times a week
Le Roy interview.

“cutest shtetl”
Irving Howe, “Tevye on Broadway,”
Commentary
, November 1964, 74.

“I am enormously gratified”
Stein program note for first Israel production, ITA-TA.

CHAPTER 6: THE OLD COUNTRY IN THE OLD-NEW LAND

Almagor … received an urgent call
Almagor interview. All quotes from Almagor below from interview unless otherwise indicated.

not until Godik came along
See
Waiting for Godik
.

A mural and poem
See Emily Alice Katz, “It’s the Real World After All: The American-Israel Pavilion-Jordan Pavilion Controversy at the New York World’s Fair, 1964–1965,”
American Jewish History
91:1 (March 2003): 129–55.

the new “muscle Jews”
so named in 1898 by the early Zionist activist Max Nordau. For this concept and for discussion of the rejection of Diaspora, see Segev,
Seventh Million
; Naomi Seidman,
A Marriage Made in Heaven: The Sexual Politics of Hebrew and Yiddish
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997); Daniel Boyarin,
Unheroic Conduct: The Rise of Heterosexuality and the Invention of the Jewish Man
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997).

“empty glasses and full ashtrays”
Almagor, “The Fiddler Who Went on the Roof,”
Ma’ariv
, September 11, 1964, trans. Elik Elhanan.

“as if greeting an old friend”
Topol,
Topol by Topol
, 98.

Sallah
rose to classic status
See Shohat,
Israeli Cinema
, 138–55.

“fled from the theater”
Topol,
Topol by Topol
, 1.

“one felt the whole of the Russian Jewish experience”
ibid., 100.

By mid-November … the deal was done
Godik letter to Prince, November 16, 1964, HPP11:6.

“tragically distorted and twisted”
Natan Altman, quoted in Vladislav Ivanov, “Habima and Biblical Theater,” in Susan Tumarkin Goodman, ed.,
Chagall and the Artists of the Russian Jewish Theater
(New York: Jewish Museum; New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008), 31.

“mostly melodramatic adaptations”
Freddie Rokem, “Hebrew Theater from 1889 to 1948,” in Ben-Zvi,
Theater in Israel
, 73. See also Kohansky,
Hebrew Theatre
.

“drew Kasrilevke not with ink but with poison”
Michael Ohad, “With Powder and Lipstick,” 1965,
Haaretz
, June 19, 1965, trans. Elhanan, clipping, BSA-TA.

“diluted, abridged, fragmentary”
Miron, “Literary Image of the Shtetl,” 187.

blew up a local Yiddish press
See A. Pilowsky, “Yiddish Alongside the Revival of Hebrew: Public Polemics on the Status of Yiddish in Eretz Israel, 1907–1929,” in Joshua Fishman, ed.,
Readings in the Sociology of Jewish Languages
(Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1985), 123.

Berkowitz offered a hero besieged
See Weitzner,
Sholem Aleichem in the Theater
, and also plot summary in program in 1943 Habima program booklet, ITA-TA.

“A sacrilege”
quoted in
Waiting for Godik
.

false set of expectations
See Altman and Kaufman,
Making of a Musical
, 122–33.

Berkowitz admitted to changing Tevye’s puns and distortions
See Benny Mer, “The Fall and Rise of Tevye,”
Haaretz.com
, May 12, 2009.

“only country where they played around with the script”
Stein interview.

“It’s been constant arguments”
Altman letter to Robbins, May 25, 1965, JRP6:28.

“inefficiency here is stupendous”
Altman letter to Robbins, June 3, 1965, JRP6:28.

“They all are responding to our directions”
Abbott letter to Robbins, May 3, 1965, JRP6:28.

“Everyone—but everyone”
Altman letter to Robbins, May 6, 1965, JRP6:28.

“he read the more serious scenes very well”
Altman letter to Robbins, April 20, 1965, JRP6:28.

“has the equipment”
Stein letter to Robbins, n.d., JRP6:28.

“shockingly lazy” … “audiences absolutely love him”
Altman letter to Robbins, June 3, 1965, JRP6:28.

“My Tevye doesn’t groan, weep, wail”
Zur quoted in Moshe Brilliant, “Tevye Stirs Up a Storm,”
New York Times
, August 15, 1965, X2.

“What makes you think we would be interested”
Stein interview.

“cheap, empty, and hollow”
Dr. Emil Feuerstein, “Fiddler on the Roof at the Godik Theater,”
Ha’tzoffe
, June 11, 1967, trans. Elhanan, clippings, BSA-TA.

“saccharine water with rose petals made of cellophane”
Chaim Glickstein, unidentified, n.d., trans. Elhanan, clippings, BSA-TA.

“
Yiddishkayt
drowning in shmaltz”
Gamzu, “Last Night in the Theater,”
Haaretz
, June 8, 1965, trans. Elhanan, clippings, BSA-TA.

“not even fresh shmaltz”
Michael Ohad, “Lipstick.”

Tevye as “a warmhearted human being”
Zur quoted in Brilliant, “Tevye Stirs Up a Storm.”

“never knew what an exilic Jew is”
Feuerstein,
Ha’tzoffe.

“he was the least Jewish”
Glickstein.

“more goy than Sholem-Aleichem-like” … “grace and charm”
Gamzu, “Last Night in the Theater.”

“miscast as Tevye” … “and not entertain”
Mendel Kohansky, “Tevye via Broadway,”
Jerusalem Post
, June 11, 1965.

attorney general, Gideon Hausner, vowed to pronounce the indictment
quoted in Segev,
Seventh Million
, 347. For further discussion of the Eichmann trial, see also Arendt,
Eichmann
, and Cesarani,
Becoming Eichmann.

“marked the beginning of a dramatic shift”
Segev,
Seventh Million
, 361.

“The Diaspora is returning to us”
Ohad, “Lipstick.”

more than one-quarter
Prince office press release, August 25, 1966;
Fiddler
clips, NYPL-PA, “1966.”

“5,760-mile Off-Broadway production”
leaflet in HPP111:6.

“
He filled that character with human warmth”
“A Great Actor of Small People,” obituary for Shmuel Rodensky by Amnon Nevot, n.p., n.d., trans. Elhanan, clippings, BSA-TA.

“It shows how rooted and mature”
“A Yidl mitn Fidl,”
Ma’ariv
, September 1965, trans. Elhanan, clippings, BSA-TA.

“give the show a particularly Jewish reputation”
Prince letter to Hutto, October 21, 1965, HPP111:6.

the Israeli ambassador in Bonn
Kohansky, “Fiddlers on All Roofs,”
Australian Jewish News
, September 19, 1969.

“the greatest Tevye ever” … “tore my heart”
Topol interview.

“
There will be virtually no competition”
Pilbrow letter to Prince, September 30, 1966, HPP114:4.

“wild” about [McKern]
Pilbrow letter to Prince, August 5, 1966, HPP114:1.

there was “no other Englishman”
Pilbrow letter to Prince, August 17, 1966, HPP114:1.

out of their minds
Pilbrow letter to Prince, August 19, 1966, HPP114:1.

“If he should turn us down”
Prince to
Fiddler
authors, September 12, 1966, JRPP6:1.

Mostel demanded 10 percent
Fisher (Prince office) letter to Pilbrow, September 22, 1966, HPP114:4.

London would go no higher than 7.5
telegram from Pilbrow office to Prince, September 19, 1966, HPP114:4.

“when the authors are off in Boston”
Prince letter to Pilbrow, September 23, 1966, HPP114:4.

“You must deliver”
telegram from P. Littler (Pilbrow office), September 21, 1966, HPP114:4.

“being produced in fourteen languages”
Prince letter to Toby Rolwands (Pilbrow office), October 3, 1966, HPP114:4.

“Hal would like to know”
Annette Meyers letter to Pilbrow, August 14, 1966, HPP114:5.

“CHYAM POPAL”
telegram from Pilbrow to Prince, October 4, 1966, HPP114:4.

“Somebody totally unknown”
Pilbrow letter to Prince, October 6, 1966, HPP114:1.

Topol … thought the invitation was a joke
Topol,
Topol by Topol
, 2–3.

“far more exciting than we ever dared to hope”
Pilbrow letter to Prince, October 31, 1966, HPP14:1.

Altman worried
Altman and Kaufman,
Making of a Musical
, 140.

“doing everything correct”
quoted in background essay in
Playbill
for 1990 production of
Fiddler
at the Gershwin, starring Topol, JBP22:6; Topol interview.

by March the show was fully booked until the following Christmas
Topol,
Topol by Topol
, 114.

nearly 600 percent profit
press release from Sol Jacobson-Lewis Harmon stamped “rec’d May 22, 1967,”
Fiddler
clippings, “1967.”

the Six-Day War
See Sachar,
A History of Israel
, 615–66; Segev,
1967
.