The Rise of Yiddish Moving Pictures

Description

Actress Molly Picon (1898-1992) in Yidl With His Fiddle.

photo film Rokhl Holzer btwn Box92171.jpg

Description

Rokhl Holzer in the moving picture, On the Sin.

Title

The Rise of Yiddish Moving Pictures

Description

The first synchronous Yiddish-language talkie was produced in 1929, only 18 months after the first (ever) talkie, The Jazz Singer, which, remarkably, centered on the experiences of a Jewish performer. The thirties saw the accelerated growth of the Yiddish-language film industry that brought movie-makers and directors from America to shoot scenes of authentic Jewish life in Poland. The biggest hits of the Golden Age of Yiddish Moving Pictures (1935-1939) were Yidl With His Fiddle (Yidl mitn fidl), Green Fields (Grine felder) and The Dybbuk. In Yidl mitn fidl, Molly Picon's character (pictured in the above poster) disguises herself as a boy in order to escape an arranged marriage and perform with a band of traveling musicians. The film was shot in Eastern Europe and, with the exception of Picon, the rest of the cast was drawn from Warsaw's various theatrical ensembles.

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Citation

“The Rise of Yiddish Moving Pictures,” YIVO Online Exhibitions, accessed December 22, 2024, https://exhibitions.yivo.org/items/show/2933.

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