RE: Yiddish musical theater books

[Bloom <bloom...>]

Reyzl,

Regarding the Hebrew Actors Union archive:

The National Yiddish Book Center might be willing to take on the job of
raising $100,000 to preserve the archive.  They seem to be very good at
raising whatever it takes to keep Yiddish culture from disappearing, under
desperate conditions.

Of course, if some other organization is willing to take on the job, that's
fine with me, as long as the archive is saved, and then made available.
I'm willing to make a contribution to the cause.

Jacob Bloom


Reyzl wrote:

Judy,

>There are very few works that provide _musical analysis_ as well as
history
>of who wrote what title or show. There is a lot of work to be done and the
>history of Yiddish musical theater in America --a worthwhile project is
>awaiting someone.

Secunda really did this in his serialized biography in the Yiddish Forwards
during the 1960's, but when his daughter in law, writer Victoria Secunda,
reworked the articles to construct an English version biography, she left
much of the knitty gritty details out.  But then, of course, Secunda wrote
only about his music and only about the plays he composed for.

However, the Hebrew Actors Union archive, an extraordinary treasure trove
of primary source material, has all the actual original books, notes,
scores, pads, scripts, notations, music, scraps,.... from all the Yiddish
shows.  The president of the union, the great star and historian of the
Yiddish theater, Seymour Rexite, is willing to donate the collection to a
major library, but the catch is that he will do so only if are willing to
personally pay him $100,000 so that he will sit with a scholar and explain
the material and annotate it for you.  Anyone got a library which will pay
$100,000 for this extraordinary collection?  I was recently at a dinner
party with a theater department chairperson of a New York college who was
working on getting the treasure trove, but it was a no go.


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