THE YIDDISH THEATER

AMERICAN GROOVES RADIO HOUR hosted by JOE LAURO

From the 1880's through the 1930s the Yiddish Theater flourished on New York's lower east side. By 1910 over a million new Jewish immigrants had settling on the lower east side with 1000s still arriving annually. From the Bowery and Houston Street all along 2nd Avenue to 14th Street many theaters exclusively presented new Yiddish plays; original musicals, comedies, melodramas Yiddish adaptations of classics including Shakespear to a mass culturally hungry new arivals. This episode will present rare recordings of some of the Yiddish Theaters' brightest musical stars. Molly Picon, Aaron Lebedeff, Jennie Goldstein, Ludwig Satz, Pesach'ke Burstein, Abe Schwartz's Klezmer band and others will be featured.