I OBITUARIES I
Molly Picon, 94, Actress
Of Yiddish Stage, Screen
•
New York (JTA) — Veter-
an Yiddish comedic actress
and singer Molly Picon died
April 6. She was 94.
Mrs. Picon had been suf-
fering from Alzheimer's
disease for several years.
She died in her sleep at the
home of her sister, Helen
Silverblatt, in Lancaster,
Pa.
Born Molly Pyekoon in
1898 in New York's Lower
East Side, she began her ca-
reer in Philadelphia, where
her family had moved, at the
age of 5. She continued to
perform into her late 80s.
Her career spanned some
200 productions on
Manhattan's Second
Avenue, the Broadway of the
Yiddish theater, and includ-
ed such films as Yiddle Mit a
Fiddle and Neil Simon's
Come Blow Your Horn with
Lee J. Cobb, Frank Sinatra
and Tony Bill.
She covered tens of
thousands of miles through
North and South America,
Europe, Africa, and Israel,
performing in Yiddish pro-
ductions.
When she was 15, she
toured with a Yiddish reper-
tory company, playing Topsy
in Uncle Tom's Cabin, in
which she switched back and
forth, from Yiddish to Eng-
lish, as the audience pre-
ferred.
Mrs. Picon appeared in
several Broadway produc-
tions, marking her biggest
success in Milk and Honey.
In London, she received
critical acclaim for her work
in A Majority of One.
At the age of 81, Mrs.
Picon appeared in
Philadelphia's Locust
Theater in a revue based on
her 75 years on stage.
"I knew her about 50
years," said Seymour Rex-
ite, president of the Hebrew
Actors Union. She was "a
wonderful personality —
very bright and always with
a smile and a laugh and
singing," he said.
Often the quintessential
Jewish mother before the
camera, Mrs. Picon herself
had no children. She was
married in 1919 to Joseph
Kalich, who wrote about 40
shows for her until he died in
1975.
"She was a delightful,
lovely lady," said Yiddish
and English actor Hale
Porter. "I remember I was
well into my 40s. I had had a
career going for 20-odd
years, and she treated me
with all the words of en-
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Molly Picon
couragement, like I was a
little kid just coming into
the business."
Once, while they were ap-
pearing on the same bill at a
Workmen's Circle show in
upstate New York, all the
stage lights suddenly went
out, "and the parking lot
was just behind the au-
dience, so we had everybody
whose cars were facing the
stage put on their lights,"
Mr. Porter recalled.
"It was like a bank of
lights going across the au-
dience, facing the stage. And
she and I did our show in the
glare of headlights."
Morris Samuels,
Of Samuels Bros.
Morris Samuels, of South-
field, died April 3. He was 85.
Mr. Samuels was the co-
owner for 55 years of Samuels
Brothers Cafeteria in the
Eastern Market until he
retired in 1979.
He was a member of the
Crescent Shrine Club, Statue
of Liberty Ellis Island Foun-
dation, Pisgah Lodge, B'nai
B'rith, Perfection Lodge of
Masons, 32nd Degree Ma-
sons, Adat Shalom Syna-
gogue, the Businessmen's
Club at the Jewish Communi-
ty Center, American Associa-
tion of Retired Persons and
Scottish Rite (Lodge Council
Chapter Consistory).
He is survived by his wife,
Margie of Southfield;
daughters and sons-in-law,
Natalie and Bill Carroll of
West Bloomfield, Diane and
Dennis Greenstein of New
York City; son, Ira of Farm-
ington Hills; brother and
sister-in-law, Alex and Ida;
sister and brother-in-law, Eve
and Albert Adelman; eight
grandchildren; four great-
grandchildren.
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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 137