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Sydney Pollack in a scene with Tom Cruise in "Eyes Wide Shut."
remarks, and there was a pervasive
sense of anti-Semitism, even though I
had a lot of non-Jewish friends.
"One of my first girlfriends had to
break up with me because her parents
wouldn't allow her to go out with a
Jew. It's not that they were bad peo-
ple, just uneducated. It was a hard
town to grow up in."
Pollack says his Jewish upbringing
was atypical. "My grandparents were
religious, but my parents were second-
generation Americans who went to
Purdue University and did not prac-
tice Judaism," says Pollack. "Sure, we
celebrated some of the holidays, but
we didn't keep a kosher house like my
grandparents, and I didn't go to
Hebrew school, which meant I didn't
have a bar mitzvah."
He regretted not having that impor-
tant Jewish rite of passage and took
matters into his own hands. "I felt
badly that I didn't have a bar mitzvah,"
Pollack recalls, "and I wanted to please
my grandfather.
"So I enrolled in Hebrew school,
and when I was 15, I had my bar mitz-
vah. Since I was older, I felt I had to
do a little extra, so I conducted the
whole Musafservice [after the Torah
reading]. My grandfather was thrilled."
By the time Pollack graduated from
high school, he was ready to leave
Indiana, and its small-town mentality,
and head for New York. Although he
had always wanted to be a doctor,
Pollack had caught the acting bug in
school. He decided to put his dream
of practicing medicine on hold and
study drama.
"It was the 1950s and the Korean
War was going on and I knew I
would eventually be drafted," he says.
"We weren't rich and my mother was
sick and most of our money went
toward her medical expenses.
"I knew there was a GI bill, and I
felt if I waited a few years, I would be
drafted and the government would
pay for my college. So after high
school I talked my father into letting
me go to New York to an acting
school. I wasn't planning on making a
profession of it — I just wanted to
stall until I got drafted."
Pollack wound up studying at the
Neighborhood Playhouse School under
renowned acting coach Sanford
Meisner, and fell in love with the the-
ater. "I got a scholarship, and at the end
of the second year, Meisner asked me to
come back as his assistant," says Pollack.
"So, basically, I started my career as an
acting teacher, when I was 19." He was
drafted a few years later, but by then
had changed his mind about medicine.
Pollack's first professional acting job
was with the Yiddish Theater. "I got a
small part in [Harold Robbins'] A Stone
For Danny Fisher. Zero Mostel also was
in it, and the play was done in English,"
he says. "It was the first English speak-
ing production that the Yiddish Theater
did, and it was a huge success.
That_exposure lead to a role in A
Dark is Light Enough, starring Tyrone
Power and Christopher Plummer. "We
played Pittsburgh, Baltimore,
Washington and then came to Broadway
for a three-month run," he says.
While continuing to perform on
the New York stage, Pollack appeared
on television and slowly drifted into
directing. "I got a job with John
Frankenheimer as a directing coach,
and thanks to his encouragement, I
POLLACK on page 95
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"Magnificent gold and silver artifacts...an easy show to
appreciate...sumptuous." -The New York Times
ANCIENT GOLD
The Wealth of the Thracians
TREASURES FROM THE REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA
Now through August 29
THE DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS
A major exhibition of over 200 brilliant
gold & silver objects, recently excavated
in Bulgaria from 15 royal Thracian sites,
dating from 4000 BC to 200 AD.
Tickets at the DIA box office: 313/833-4005
Free tickets for DIA members
5200 Woodward Ave: www.dia.org
MERITOR_
The exhibition is organized by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Bulgaria
& The Trust for Museum Exhibitions. It is supported by an indemnity from the
Federal Council on the Arts and Humanities. In Detroit, the exhibition is made possible
by a generous grant from Meritor Automotive, Inc. Additional support is provided by
the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs and the City of Detroit.
(
micbigan council for
MI arts and cultural affairs
THE DETROIT INSTITUTE OF AIZTS
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JAI emtertaimostemt
Detroit Jewish News
7/16
1999
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