The World of Sholom Aleichem

This 1959 television production features some of the best Jewish-American actors ever to be seen in theater and film, many of whom were blacklisted during the HUAC years because of their participation in communist party activities, foremost among them Zero Mostel, best remembered today at the first Teyve in the Broadway production of FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, and as the impresario in Mel Brooks' original THE PRODUCERS. Zero steals the show from a notable cast. Perhaps because he was directed by his acting teacher Don Richardson, Zero, notorious for over-acting, hamming and ad-libbing is for once restrained; his every gesture and reaction perfectly underplayed. He moves from scene to scene with the grace of a dancer. Equally good as the pedlar whose on-camera story-telling threads the stories together is the great Sam Levene, the first Nathan Detroit in the 1950 stage production of GUYS AND DOLLS, the part that went to Frank Sinatra in the film version. This is a document of what the Yiddish theater on the Lower East Side of New York might once have been like in its glory days.

A sweet collection of three stories adapted from Yiddish literature. A Tale of Chelm deals with a bookseller who is sent by his wife to buy a goat in a town of fools.

Bontshe Shveig is the moving story of a poor, modest man (Jack Gilford) who has led an exemplary life. He dies and goes to heaven and gets to name his reward. This story has stayed with me.

The High School portrays the efforts of a couple to get their son into a secular high school.