Teddy
Bear
Lady
WEEK. OF DEC. 2-8
SPECIAL EVENTS
GYMNASTICS '88 VICTORY :
TOUR
The Palace, Auburn Hills, 20
international Olympic gymnasts,
including Phoebe Mills,
performing Olympic routines,
Sunday admission. 377-8201.
COMEDY
COMEDY CASTLE
2593 Woodward, Berkley, Brad
Garrett, today and Saturday;
Bruce Baum, Tuesday through
Dec. 10, admission. 542-9900.
THEATER
Sylvia Waldman's
tiny teddies
bring joy to
° young and old
JUDY MARX
Special To The Jewish News
Sylvia Waldman shows off some of the little bears she creates with scrap fabric.
I
f you're wheeling a tired, cranky
youngster through a Southfield
supermarket, and a jovial, curly-
haired woman suggests that
little Benjie take a peek into her
bag and pick out a tiny stuffed Teddy
bear, don't be alarmed. Don't call
security. She's Sylvia Waldman, a
Jewish fairy godmother, whose early
love for making toys has developed in-
to a nearly full-time "business" of
bringing joy into the lives of others.
Teddy bears today come in all
sizes and prices. The Waldman bear
is a four-inch, simple item, covered
with bright cotton remnant material,
but filled with brand-new stuffing.
Around its neck, it sports a tiny piece
of ribbon, the kind that comes on a
Hallmark spool. Its eyes, nose and
mouth exist only in a child's imagina-
tion. It will never be featured in a
Hudson's catalogue.
But into its stitching is devotion
aplenty. "They are just right for lit-
tle ones," Waldman says of them lov-
ingly. "They're distractions when a
child is crying. They fit into a tod-
dler's pocket. They're machine-
washable. They make great teething
toys?'
And she should know. Waldman
has sewn literally thousands of the
tiny cloth. creatures. "I trace and
stitch them during the day, and at
night, while I watch television, I stuff
them.
"Then comes the best part — giv-
ing them away. My joy comes in
watching a child's face when he picks
up the one he wants."
Actually, Waldman made her first
batch of bears for the elderly, in a
Southfield nursing home more than
10 years ago.. "I took over 70 of them,
and they asked me, 'Where are the
other 50? We have 120 residents and
we need 120 bears: So I went home
and made 50 more."
"Look here," she says, poking
around in a sack of colorful, teeny
bears. "This one's covered with
Sheila's blouse. This was an old skirt
of mine. Sometimes I buy remnants.
Some years, when I've run out of
fabric, I've mooched from stores, and
sometimes the stores are very nice."
The very earliest recipients of
Glenn Triest
Waldman's craft endeavors were her
four children, all now in their 30s. "I
made a lot of their toys. I remember
doing a rocking horse out of felt for
my daughter?'
Waldman first began craftwork
when her youngsters were toddlers.
"My husband, Saul, he's a reader, and
he always had a lot of evening
meetings. I needed something to keep
me busy when the children were
asleep?'
At the age of nine, Waldman
learned to sew from her Aunt Bessie
Edelman. Always an independent
young lady, little Sylvia would take
a bus after school to Aunt Bessie's,
miles from her own home on Glendale
and Dexter.
"Bessie was a woman ahead of her
time?' Waldman recalls of her aunt,
who died last year at age 101. "She
drove a car. She taught me how to use
tools. Women didn't do things like
that in those days."
Although Waldman sells some of
her wares, one senses that she will
never be a businesswoman. Most of
her items are under $10, not much
HILBERRY AND
BONSTELLE THEATERS
Wayne St. University, Detroit,
Georgia Peach; about former
Detroit Tiger star Ty Cobb, now
through Dec. 9, Hilben-y; A Life
in the Theater, now through Dec.
15, Iiilberry; Romeo and Juliet,
Thursday through Jan. 28; A
Christmas Carol, Thursday
through Dec. 18, admission.
577-2972.
THE THEATER COMPANY
Smith Theater, University of
Detroit, Servant of Two Masters,
now through Sunday, Thursday
through Dec. 11, Dec. 15-18,
admission.. 927-1.130.
UNIVERSITY
PRODUCTIONS
Power Center, Ann Arbor, A
=Midsummer Night's Dream, now
through Sunday, admission.
'764-0450.
VAN . DYKE HOTEL
:31800 Vari Dyke, Warren, dinner,.
theater, An Old-Fashioned
;Holiday Revue, Saturdays
h Dec. 24, admission..
R THEATRE
er Bldg., Detroit, Li ly
Thinlin, "The Search for Si
Intelligent. Life in the Universe;s
now through Dec. 22, admission.
141witi,
„
A LLEGE
ter, 27055 Orcha
mington Hills, The
icing. Roont; Saturday, Sunda
ec. 9-10; admission. 471-7596.
GREENFIELD VILLAGE
Dearborn, The Wizard of Oz,
Saturday through 'Dec; 30,
admission. 271-1620.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
GILBERT AND" SULLIVAN
SOCIETY .
Mendelssohn Theatre, Ann
Arbor, Utopia (Limited),
Continued on Page 89
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
83