Bessie Thomashefsky

Bessie Thomashefsky (; 1873 – July 6, 1962) was a Ukrainian-American Yiddish theater actress and comedian. She was the wife and stage partner of Boris Thomashefsky, the most popular Yiddish leading actor of the era. Probably her most famous role was the title role of Oscar Wilde's Salomé at the People’s Theater in 1908.

Biography

Thomashefsky was born Briche Baumfeld-Kaufman on 1873 in Tarashcha, Kiev Governorate (present-day Ukraine). Her family emigrated to America in 1879 and finally settled in 1883 near Baltimore. She attended school until she was 12 and then went to work in a stocking factory and a sweatshop. Boris's affair with Regina and financial mismanagement led Boris and Bessie to separate in 1911.

Both Boris and Bessie went on to successful but separate careers. Bessie went on to found her own theatre troupe. She took over the management of the People’s Theater in 1915 and the following season the theater was renamed Bessie Thomashefsky’s People’s Theater. Esther died at the age of 6 of diphtheria. They also had 3 sons. Their first son, Harry, started acting at the age of 13 in the play The Pintele Yid (A Little Spark of Jewishness, 1909), became a director of the Federal Theater's Yiddish Theater Project and directed his father in films The Jewish King Lear (1934) and The Bar Mitzvah Boy (1935). Their second son, known as Mickey, took after his father's romancing ways and romanced two women at the same time which led to a dramatic murder-attempt/suicide in 1931, reminiscent of his paternal aunt Emma Thomashefsky Finkel's notorious 1904 affair. Both Mickey and his aunt Emma were left paralyzed by the attempted murders by jealous mates and both later died of complications related to their wounds; Emma, many years later, in 1929, and Mickey in 1936. Their third son, Theodore, changed his name to Ted Thomas and became a stage manager. Ted Thomas's son is the noted conductor Michael Tilson Thomas.

After Boris's death, Harry moved with his mother to California. Bessie lived in California until her death in 1962,

Death and legacy Both Thomashefskys did much to shape the world of modern theatre from the follies to Broadway and gave a start to many actors, composers and producers who went on to start and own theaters and movie studios. Even the Gershwin brothers had their start with the Thomashefkys. They were also prominent in addressing controversial social issues of the day and in teaching the Greenhorns how to be Americans. They founded theaters and production companies, as well as publishing houses and many other successful business ventures.