Jewry's Role in
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SUPERSTARS OF THEIR DAY

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Stadium history that will be moving
"This was created as a way to share
into Comerica Park. Only the flagpole
Irwin's knowledge," said Jim Grey,
in centerfield may be moved, but the
past president of the JHS. "It ties
team requires permission from the
sports and the community together
American League to keep it in the
and it brings generations together."
field of play as it stands now.
Participants in last week's trip ranged
The tour started in the visitors'
in age from 11 to 83.
clubhouse.
The small room with small
The 11-year-old was Barnet Gold
lockers
and
dirty blue carpeting looks
of Detroit, whose grandfather Nathan
nothing like the glamorous scenes
joined him on the tour.
shown in movies. Ariel Drissman,
"I used to skip school to go to
Ezra's younger brother, attracted the
games," said Nathan Gold, a Detroit
most attention when the clubhouse
native now residing in Ft. Lauderdale.
attendant pointed out that he was sit-
was a big baseball fan. From 1922
ting in the chair that Mark McGwire
to 1960, I kept a chart of every game
sat in earlier this year.
the Tigers had played."
The teenagers on the trip knew
the names of many of the Tiger
greats (Ty Cobb, Hank Greenberg,
Al Kaline) and their famous oppo-
nents (Babe Ruth, Ted Williams)
who had graced the Tiger Stadium
\turf. Many of them also knew that
'Yankee Lou Gehrig ended his
streak of 2,130 consecutive games
playing at Tiger Stadium. But the
trip down Woodward Avenue and
up Michigan Avenue to the stadi-
um at the corner of Michigan and
Trumbull provided a nostalgic jour-
ney for the older people in the
\ group, who remembered the glory
Pdays of Tigers baseball.
"Every barber shop would put
Irwin Cohen, left, with Jim Grey of JHS,
the score in their window every
inning using shaving soap," recalled narrated the slide show.
Steve Victor. "Every time there was
a hit or a run scored, they'd wash it
The group continued down the
off and put the new score up.
tunnel into the visitors' dugout.
Cohen remembered when store
"Just touching the dugout was
clerks would be sent to the games
great," said Nathan Silverman, 17, of
D before they were even on radio, and
Bloomfield Hills. "So many players
call back to the store with the score.
played on this field. It's legendary"
Victor made the trip with his wife,
Rabbi Joseph Ktakoff of
Arlene. She reminisced about her
Congregation
Shaarey Zedek was also
schoolgirl days in Detroit, running
part
of
the
trip.
The newcomer to the
across the street to her home from
Detroit area quickly gained an appre-
school to listen to the Tigers games.
ciation of what Tiger. Stadium means
"We'd just sit and watch the radio,"
to local fans.
she said.
"It has a very special, old-baseball
Part of the tour featured a drive
feel,"
he said. "There are no niceties
/-Thdown Woodward to see the construc-
here,"
he added, pointing out the lack
tion of Comerica Park, the Tigers' new
of
ceiling
tiles in the television broad-
ballpark that opens next year.
cast booth and the exposed power
"I was sad about losing the ballpark
cords to the lights and microphones,
until I saw the facilities," Arlene
making it look no different than the
Victor said, pointing out the rusting
average
basement. Visiting Tiger
fence that lines the walkway into the
Stadium,
Krakoff said, "gave me a bet-
Tiger Plaza food and souvenir court.
ter
sense
of the history." fl
Cohen lamented the lack of Tiger

"

Stage entertainment earlier this century was headed by many Jewish
graduates from vaudeville who succeeded in making the transition to other
popular media--the films, radio and TV--and have become almost
legendary.
Among them were Sophie Tucker (1884-1966), the "Last of the
Red Hot Mamas," whose belting and raunchy songs took her from a small
New York cafe in 1906 to a command performance before English royalty
in 1934. The multi-talented Fanny Brice (1891-1951) left the Ziegfield
Follies, won millions of radio listeners as the inimitable Baby Snooks, and
appeared in six films. The 1968 hit motion picture, Funny Girl, starring
Barbra Streisand, was based on her life.
The reigning "Toastmaster General of the United States," as
George Jessel (1898-1981) was called, dazzled Broadway and Hollywood
as a comedic actor and producer of hit musicals. During a seventy year
career, he also gained fame chairing fund raising events which netted
enormous donations for worthy causes. Others shared the footlights and
made theatrical history:

AL JOLSON
(1886-1950) b. Srednike, Russia He was Mr.
Showbiz himself, dominating vaudeville and
musical theater for three decades. The aspiring
singer arrived in the U.S. at age seven and in 1909
joined his brothers touring with a minstrel
company. Jolson also performed in circuses and
burlesque theater, and perfected his solo
trademark: an Afro-American singing style while
in blackface--"Swanee" (by George Gershwin) and "My Mammy" have
remained his signature songs. In 1911, he catapulted to Broadway stardom
in La Belle Paree which sealed his huge popularity in future musicals and
radio performances.
Filmdom immortality came to Jolson in 1927. The Jazz Singer, in
which he played a cantor's son (as he had been in real life), was the first full-
length American feature film that synchronized music and sound: a
revolutionary motion picture that ended the era of silent cinema. While
appearing in dozens of stage shows and movies, he put time to charitable
works, and equally split $4-million in his will among Jewish, Catholic and
Protestant charities. Jolson was also awarded our nation's coveted Medal of
Merit after his death.

EDDIE CANTOR
(1892-1964) b. New York City Born on the
Lower East Side, Isidor Iskowitch was orphaned
at age two and was reared by his grandmother.
Before assuming his stage name, the kindly and
gentle performer took to the streets where he sang
and irrepressibly clowned for pennies and
nickels. After winning an amateur music hall
contest in 1907, Cantor toured with a burlesque
show and later took the job of a singing waiter in a Coney Island saloon,
accompanied by an upcoming young pianist/comedian: Jimmy Durante, who
he befriended for life.
As years followed, he played the vaudeville circuit, the Ziegfield
Follies, and set all-time records on tours with European and American
variety shows. Often in blackface, Cantor booked with many song-and-
dance reviews including the box office favorites Make it Snappy (1922), Kid
Boots (1923) and Banjo Eyes (1941)--titled after his nickname. His career
further soared on screen and radio, first in 1931 before the enthusiastic
national audience of The Chase and Sanborn Hour, and during eighteen
subsequent years on NBC and CBS. A founder of the Screen Actors' Guild,
Cantor was also a generous philanthropist cited for his services to the
country by President Lyndon Johnson.
- Saul Stadtmauer

Visit many more notable Jews at our website: www.dorledor.org
COMMISSION FOR THE DISSEMINATION OF JEWISH HISTORY
Walter & Lea Field, Founders/Sponsors
Irwin S. Field, Chairperson
Harriet F. Siden, Chairperson

Detroit Jewish News

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