Bertha Kalich

Bertha Kalich (also spelled Kalish, born Beylke Kalakh; 17 May 1874 – 18 April 1939) was a Jewish-American actress. Though she was well-established as an entertainer in Eastern Europe, she is best remembered as one of the several "larger-than-life" figures that dominated New York stages during the "Golden Age" of American Yiddish Theatre during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Historians estimate that, during her career, Kalich performed more than 125 different roles in seven different languages.

Life and career

Early life Kalich was born Beylke Kalakh in Lemberg, Galicia, Austria-Hungary (today Lviv, Ukraine), the only child of Solomon Kalakh, a poor brush manufacturer and amateur violinist.

After a series of performances in Budapest, Goldfaden offered her a permanent position with his company, and Kalich left later that year for Romania. She was able to pick up Romanian in a matter of months, and was subsequently able to appear in major roles there with the state theater. According to historian Daniel Soyer, "she was such a success that anti-Semitic theatergoers, who had come with the intention of pelting her with onions, threw flowers instead."

In her new home, Kalich set out to emphasize her dramatic skills over her musical talents, working hard as a proponent of the Yiddish theater movement, hoping to help the theatres gain credibility in addition to notoriety. Anti-semitism in America had initially led audiences to believe that Jewish immigrants were incapable of producing anything more than low-brow, minstrel entertainment, but the Thalia had made a name for itself with its revolutionary Yiddish-language translations of Shakespeare.

On the decline By 1910, though, "she was having trouble finding suitable roles in the light American theater for her more emotional and tragic style."

Later years By the late 1920s, Kalich's eyesight was failing, and she gradually became blind. Though she officially retired in 1931, she continued to appear onstage occasionally, especially at evenings mounted in her honor that served to elevate her legacy in the Yiddish theatre community. Late in her life, she recorded scenes from Goldfaden's historical plays for "The Forward Hour" on radio station WEVD, but her poor health meant that she needed to rehearse long, grueling hours even for short parts. Her last public appearance came on February 23, 1939, at a benefit for her at the Jolson Theater, where she recited the final scene of Louis Untermeyer's poem Heine's Death.

Death Bertha Kalich died on 18 April 1939, aged 64, from undisclosed causes. Her remains were interred at Mount Hebron Cemetery in Flushing, Queens, New York.

Fifteen hundred people attended her funeral, considered a disappointing turnout, considering her status in the Jewish community. She had come to be seen as "a relic of the theatrical past, with a manner too romantic and grand even for the Yiddish stage", Soyer notes. "But, nevertheless, in the prime of her career at the beginning of the twentieth century, Kalich played an important role in efforts to improve the artistic standards of the Yiddish theater, whose status she also helped to raise with her success with English-speaking audiences."

Works

Theatre Fedora [Revival] by Victorien Sardou. Prod. George Fawcett. American Theatre, New York. 22 May 1905 - May 1905. Monna Vanna by Maurice Maeterlinck, Trans. John Severance. Prod. Harrison Grey Fiske. Manhattan Theatre, New York. 23 October 1905 - December 1905. [Giovanna] The Kreutzer Sonata [Revival] adapted from the Yiddish play written by Jacob Gordin by Langdon Mitchell, based on a story by Leo Tolstoy. Dir. Harrison Grey Fiske. Lyric Theatre, New York. 10 September 1906 - September 1906. [Miriam Friedlander] Sappho and Phaon by Percy MacKaye, music by A. A. Stanley. Des. Frank E. Gates, E. A. Morange, and Percy Anderson. Prod. Harrison Grey Fiske. Lyric Theatre, New York. 21 October 1907 - October 1907. Marta of the Lowlands by Àngel Guimerà. Des. Frank E. Gates and E. A. Morange. Prod. Harrison Grey Fiske. Garden Theatre, New York. 24 March 1908 - April 1908. The Witc''' by Hans Wiers-Jenssen, book adapted by Hermann Hagedorn. Prod. Lee Shubert and J.J. Shubert. New Theatre, New York. 14 February 1910 Rachel by Carina Jordan. Prod. F. C. Whitney. Knickerbocker Theatre, New York. 1 December 1913 - December 1913. The Riddle: Woman by Charlotte E. Wells and Dorothy Donnelly. Prod. George Mooser. Harris Theatre, New York. 23 October 1918 - March 1919 Jitta's Atonement by George Bernard Shaw, adapted from the play by Siegfried Trebitsch. Dir. Lester Lonergan. Prod. Lee Shubert. Comedy Theatre, New York. 17 January 1923 - February 1923. [Jitta Lenkheim] The Kreutzer Sonata [Revival] adapted from the Yiddish play Jacob Gordin by Langdon Mitchell, based on a story by Leo Tolstoy. Prod. Lee Shubert. Frazee Theatre, New York. 14 May 1924 - June 1924. [Miriam Friedlander] Magda [Revival] by Hermann Sudermann, Trans. Charles Edward Amory Winslow. Dir. Edgar J. MacGregor. 49th Street Theatre, New York. 26 January 1926 - February 1926. [Magda]

Film The Bomb Boy by Bertram Millhauser. Dir. George Fitzmaurice. Manhattan Film Company, 1914. Marta of the Lowlands based on the play by Àngel Guimerà. Dir. J. Searle Dawley. USA, 1914. [Marta] Slander, by Will S. Davis. Dir. Will S. Davis. with Eugene Ormonde and Mayme Kelso. Fox Film Corp, 1916. [Helene Ayers] Ambition by Mary Murillo. Dir. James Vincent. Fox Film Corp, 1916. [Marian Powers] Love and Hate'' by Mary Murillo, based on a story by James R. Garey. Dir. James Vincent. Fox Film Corp, 1916. [Helen Sterling]