The Passing of Jennie Goldstein

Jennie Goldstein
The Queen of the Melodrama Passes
from the Jewish Forward, February 10-11, 1960
Articles written by Chaim Ehrenreich

February 10, 1960

FAMOUS YIDDISH ACTRESS JENNIE GOLDSTEIN PASSES AWAY FROM A HEART ATTACK;
FUNERAL WILL BE TOMORROW MORNING.

As with a sharp knife, the bitter news hit the Yiddish theatre world that the famous Jennie Goldstein, who had “reigned” for decades on the Yiddish stage, passed away at ten o’clock in the morning at Beth Israel Hospital. She was sixty-four years of age.

On Monday, for an entire day, Jennie Goldstein was in rehearsal for the television program, “CBS Workshop,” and at four o’clock in the afternoon, she began to feel poorly. From the studio she arrived at her home, to her tastefully furnished apartment at 1 Christopher Street, where she had lived for the last few decades.

At night one of her sisters-in-law came to her and yawned with her. At three o’clock that next morning, the actress began to feel not so well, and they had to take her to the hospital by ambulance. The doctors immediately put her in bed under an “oxygen tent,” but it was a losing battle. Jennie Goldstein lost consciousness and several hours later took her last breath.

With her death the Yiddish theatre street lost a true veteran of our stage, and moreover a colorful and beloved personality.

She began to play in Yiddish theatre at six years of age in the former Windsor Theatre. She did not come from a theatre family. Her father was a butcher. But she had a voice for singing and had the temperament. She also possessed a strong educational power. She already had her first children’s role in “Khana’le di naytorin (Little Hannah, the Seamstress),” where she was strongly praised, both by the star of the theatre, Bertha Kalich, as well as by the audience. She immediately was engaged to play children’s roles in the theatre with a weekly salary of nine dollars – a large sum fifty-eight years ago.

Also, during the following season, she was engaged by Keni Lipzin for the Thalia Theatre, where she played children’s parts for about seven years. Jacob Gordin wrote special roles for her in his dramas, “Ta'ares-hamishpokhe (The Chastity of the Family)” and “Der umbakanter (The Unknown)” – this made such a strong impression on the young Jennie.

Jennie Goldstein began to get adult roles at the age of thirteen. She was then an actress with years of experience, and with many children’s roles behind her. Her first performance in an adult role was in Joseph Latayner’s “Dos yidishe harts (The Jewish Heart).” Even the critics praised her for her acting in the play.

During the same season Jennie Goldstein began to play in vaudeville on Clinton Street. There she met Max Gabel, with whom she began to act two years later in his own theatre on Third Street. Their first great success was in “Kol shofar (The Call of the Shofar),” which Gabel had written especially for Jennie Goldstein.

The “golden years” of Jennie’s career took place when she played with Max Gabel in his successful melodramas, which ran for seasons, plays such as “Der groyser moment (The Great Moment),” “Farkoyfte neshomes (Sold Souls?),” “A meydl’s khoylem (A Girl’s Dream),” “Dos reyne gevisn (Clear Conscience),” “Alts far libe (Everything for Love),” “Poblik opinyon (Public Opinion),” “Ir groyser sud (Her Great Secret),” and many others.

JHowever, Jennie Goldstein was not only an actress of melodramatic roles. She was an artist with an innate sense of proportion and realism. She stood out in Jacob Gordin’s “Khasye di yesoyme (Chasia the Orphan),” and in Chaim Liberman’s “Der nayder (The Vow).”

Her acting demonstrated the virtues of sincerity and immersion in a role, and her voice resonated clearly in the highest galleries of the theatre.

For the last fifteen years, it was rare that Jennie Goldstein played in Yiddish theatre. She had no place to play, and she didn't want to manage a theatre by herself. She became a “concert” actress, performing during the evenings for large organizations. She showed versatility and a rare ability to play both on “TV”, and also in nightclubs, on the legitimate Broadway stage, as well as in the Yiddish vaudeville theatre.

“I had to change. I went from being a crier in melodramas to a 'grabber' of joy and laughter,” she once said to the writer of these lines.

She was a mentsh with a rare, good heart, with sympathy for your loss, and she was loved very much by her colleagues.

Jennie Goldstein’s untimely and unexpected death caused the deepest grief among her colleagues on Second Avenue, as well as on Broadway.

The deceased artist leaves over four brothers, and two of them, Harry and Izzie, were once connected with Yiddish theatre – the first as a manager, and the second as an actor.

Jennie Goldstein’s funeral will occur on Thursday at one o’clock in the afternoon, at Sigmund Schwartz’s Gramercy Memorial Chapel, 2^nd Avenue and 9^th Street.

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February 11, 1960

JENNIE GOLDSTEIN, THE “GRANDE DAME” OF THE YIDDISH STAGE

She liked to do a favor -- as she underwent an operation -- a few words at her coffin.

Jennie Goldstein had wanted to perform in a role on television this coming Sunday. She had prepared many other performances. She was a cloud of energy, and she had planned many new activities for the stage.

Five years ago, she had her first warning ignored, she snapped out of these thoughts, because not playing theatre meant for Jennie a life without self, without meaning.

She literally played and played until the last days of her life. That is what she wanted, and this is how she concluded.

The writer of these lines spoke with her several times about her memoirs, trying with all his might to influence her to write them, but response was:
“How can I? Telling the truth -- it means a lot to do this, to so many people, including myself. Not telling the truth? What kind of memories would there be? Maybe someday, when the time comes."

For Jennie Goldstein, the time to write her memoirs did not come.

A great shame. Jennie had something to tell; she lived almost sixty years of Yiddish theatre and was one of the main heroines of its history and one of its creators.

Fifteen years ago, she remained without a livelihood. She lost her theatre. There was no talk of joining somewhere else. The number of Yiddish theatres had gotten smaller. As she has sometimes told me, this was the first time in her life that she was not desperate. What do you make of that?

She saw one way out: accept "dates" at "dinners", perform in the better hotels, sign up for the better nightclubs, but such is the world of earning a living, and for her it was the world of income was closed.

“And do you know why?” –

She said, “Because with my playing melodramas for so many years, I got my name from being a crier. When one mentions Jennie Goldstein, every manager and every nightclub owner soon turns up their nose: Oh, she's just crying, after all, who needs to cry in a happy place? So I decided that I must make an “artistic operation” – to become a new face — create a reputation as being a new Jennie, an entertainer” …

Many performers have tried to prove themselves, and it is they who fail. Jennie Goldstein had made the “operation,” she made it through, and she became one of the popular “entertainers” of organizations’ large undertakings in the better hotels in Lakewood and in the mountains. She earned it well; she did not dare to approach anyone. Not having to "come to anyone" is the greatest satisfaction for the proud Jennie Goldstein. She found her satisfaction as an actress in her performance in a Broadway production, and in a performance on television.

She never complained to anyone. She always greeted everyone with a friendly smile, and if she could only do a favor for a person, she herself offered to help him. Schmerlen [?] thought that his ears were starting to hurt, and that his hearing was getting weaker. Jennie Goldstein arranged a visit to the well-known Dr. Lempert, and for next to nothing. I learned that the famous actress had to be transferred here from Shanghai, the well-known actress Rose Shoshanah, and it was necessary for a responsible person to sign the current document and ensure that here, Shoshana, God forbid, would not come here and be a burden on the government, and it was Jennie Goldstein who was the one who signed the necessary papers. She never turned a colleague away without performing at his party. She never embarrassed a writer by refusing to participate in an event of his organization. And she did these favors so often, and with so much loyalty, that whomever came to her did not feel humiliated or ashamed. She was truly the “grande dame” of our theatre.

For those who had the privilege of knowing her, it will now be difficult to imagine New York there without Jennie Goldstein. She added color and warmth and kindness to our Jewish life. It was good for the soul when people thought of her, and it was good to know that she was here among us.

The last time that I saw her was at the beginning of November at an event in the Commodore Hotel in honor of Celia Adler. Jennie looked so festive, just like if the evening would be hers. She was a mentsh without jealousy, and with a lot of love for her colleagues. Who would have thought then that we would no longer see the devastated, the radiant Jennie Goldstein woman during our holidays?

She was always cheerful and always optimistic.

I remember how I ran into her once in Times Square. It was two to three years back when she had played in Tennessee Williams’ “Camino Real.” The day was sunny, a sprinter, and we took a walk through the streets of the American theatre. She complained that the play in which she has such a nice role of a gypsy "doesn't work," and it will be taken down soon.

“And the American Theatre does not go under, Jennie? …” I said, as a "jab". "What are you talking about, that the Yiddish theatre is going under?", she understood what I meant. "They are bringing it to its death. After all, it is stronger than the iron that it still holds. It looks like people have relied on it. Remember my words: our theatre will live and live and it will be revived. It will survive all its enemies.

She was silent for a while and responded:
“We may not see it, but it will happen.”

She was, as is every genuine artist, a proud and cheerful person.

And she demonstrated a sense of humor, clean humor. She never uttered an impure word to her lips, not privately, and not on the stage. And this was an achievement on the entertainment stage on which she has appeared for the last decade and a half.

Jennie Goldstein was a mentsh with many virtues. She probably also had human weaknesses, but her kindness, her honesty, her friendship trumped them all. She had been through a lot, both as an actress and as a human being. It is a great shame that she did not record her memories before her life ended.

Masses of her admirers and friends will attend her funeral today. They will shed tears, overflowing tears at her coffin. They will say goodbye to a past chapter of Yiddish theatre history. They will say goodbye to the talented actress, who was no less talented as a human being.

Esteemed, may she be your fondest memory.