Friday, November 30, 1945
DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and The Legal Chronicle
his first English-speaking role,
to see. As he left, he shook pany returned to New York.
yet one of the ill-informed crit-
alter
Seeing
that
he
could
not
everybody's hands and wished us
ics, who was thrilled by his per-
the
boy's
decision,
the
elder
"Good Luck." This we needed,
formance, expressed his pity
Weisenfreund
gave
in,
not
with-
indeed. True, Muni's visit to
the fact that "this old
about
out
warning
him:
"If
you're
go-
our little theater had given us
man should have spent a life-
ing
to
be
an
actor,
don't
be
a
much publicity in the press —
time waiting for a chance to
we had a full house for the ham."
appear on Broadway." In any
young
Muni
took
dictum
This
next three or four weeks — but
event, Muni was a tremendous
to
heart.
He
never
became
a
our joy was short-lived. For our
success, and John Golden soon
career, and much more than ham. He did not study acting at gave him a large role, that of
any
academy,
but
he
received
a
that ended on March 12, 1938,
Benny Horowitz, a sturdy young
when the Hitlerites invaded Aus- thorough training under his tough just out of prison (in the
father's tutelage. For eighteen
tria.
years he appeared on the Yid- hit drama, "Four Walls," by
Muni is an unusual actor be- dish stage, touring the States Dana Burnet and George Ab-
cause he is a remarkable person. as well as England.
bot).
His rise from the ghetto to in-
In the past two decades, Paul
His specialty were bearded
ternational fame makes a thrill- old men, Russian Cossacks and Muni, as he called himself, drop-
ing story which, some day may orthodox rabbis. Once he fright- ping the unwieldy "Weisen-
become the plot of a movie. He ened East Side children when, freund," had his ups and downs,
was born in Lemberg, Galicia, with a long, flowing beard, he like every actor. Not all of his
in 1895. His parents, the Weis- roller-skated wildly through the ventures were equally success-
enfreunds, were Yiddish actors streets. It was a fortunate thing ful. But he never lowered his
traveling throughout Europe. that he was discovered by Mau- standards, nor did he under-es-
Apparently it was hard to make rice Schwartz who made him a timate the intelligence of his
a go in the continental ghetto member of his troupe. In 1921 audience. He worked as con-
theaters, so his folks decided to Muni married Belle Finkle, who scientiously as only few contem-
emigrate to the New World. Mu- had theater blood in her veins, porary actors are known to do,
ni Weisenfreund was seven when too, and appeared with him in and he created at least a half
he saw, for the first time, the
dozen roles that will be recalled
plays.
Statue of Liberty. For a while several
Despite his talents he might by every historian of the Amer-
he attended Public School No. have remained one of the stars ican stage. Take, for instance,
20 at Rivington and Forsythe of New York's Second Avenue, his creation of the role of
Streets on New York's East Side, whose names are whispered re- George Simon, the dynamic Jew-
but he did not get much of a
spectfully when they enter Cafe ish lawyer in Elmer Rice's
formal education, as he and the
Broadway hit, "Counsellor-at-
Royal, had he not been chosen
two other boys traveled with in 1926 to play the roll of Mor- Law" (1931: it was revived, with
their parents from show to show, ris Levine, an aged, orthodox Muni, in the 1942-43 seasop).
from city to city. The parents
father, in the Broadway show, It is not an immortal play as
wanted the boys to become mu- "We Americans." He was only such, but thanks to Muni's pre-
sicians, but Muni, after a while,
he obtained this, sentation, we remember every
refused to practice the violin. thirty-one when
The struggle between father
and son reached a climax when
his old man broke Muni's violin
and refused to speak to him fur-
ther.
But Muni had decided to be-
come an actor, like Dad. In
Washington Blvd. at Clifford
Cleveland the kid had to pinch-
hit for an actor who fell ill just
before curtain time, and the
eleven year old boy played the
part of an aged president of a
lodge so well that he continued
in the part even when the com-
WALTER'S
Join in Extending
episode in the ghetto boy's me-
teoric rise from obscurity to a
place of power and glory, his
struggle for justice, and his
personal tragedy (he is being
deserted by his snobbish wife
and her anti-Semitic children).
I remember how the first act
left me cold, but when, in the
second act, Mr. Simon made his
appearance, the , stage was trans-
formed into something that was
vehemently alive — and we, the
audience, began to breathe heav-
ily. For Muni was not Muni, but
through most of his other mo-
vies which broke the rules of
Hollywood by aiming higher
than merely to entertain. "The
Story of Louis Pasteur," "The
a New York Jewish attorney, Good Earth," "The Life of Emil,
fighting against fate, prejudice Zola," and "Juarez," all starring
and injustice, with all his ami- Muni, were educational, in the
last analysis, yet hardly anyone
able, strong personality.
showed the
Muni's passion for truth man- minded because they
fight of
eternally
interesting
his
ifested itself strikingly in
light
against
darkness,
exempli-
first great movie, "I Am a Fugi-
of dog-
tive from a Chain Gang" (1932). fied by drama instead
ma. In other words, the excited
forget
the
aver-
As a rule, we
audience did not suspect until
age movie a half hour after the the next day that it was being
show. But I am sure that many
We extend sincere good wishes for a
Chanukah filled with happiness and
blessed with full measure of prosperity
and may these wishes continue to find
fulfillment into the many years beyond.
CHARLES H. LOTT
CHANUKAH GREETINGS
GREETINGS
from
of those who, like myself, saw
that extraordinary movie thirteen
years ago, still hear the rattle
of the chains on his legs, still
see his frightened face as he
appeared while being pursued
by bloodhounds. Through it Mu-
ni taught the audience, used to
thrillers, melodramas or come-
dies, a stern lesson, as he did
General Manager
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