Yetta Zwerling

1' 3.5"

Yetta Zwerling was born in the vicinity of Lemberg, Poland on December 25, 1894.  She learned in a traditional heder and became involved in the theater through her sisters, who sang in the Lemberg Yiddish Theater choir.  She immigrated with her family to the United States, where she attended high school and played in children's roles in variety theaters and in English vaudeville theater, for which she spent eight years performing.  Her first performance was in Chicago as "Chanele," in Zolatarevsky's Yeshive bokher ("Yeshiva Student").  She moved to New York, where she performed in Yiddish vaudeville at the Grand Theatre, the city's first theater built specifically for Yiddish productions.  She also performed on the English stage under the leadership of Lyon Erol, followed by a six season-long performance period in Philadelphia for Anshel Schorr.  There, she performed alongside noted Yiddish theater actors such as Leo Blank, Celia Adler, Sam Kestin, Dina Feinman, Samuel Goldenburg, and Boris Thomashefsky.  After that, she performed at the National Theatre alongside Samuel Goldenburg in the Student Prince, and Bertha Kalich, in Di neshome fun a froy ("The Soul of a Woman").  Also acted in the Prospect Theatre with Tantzman and in the Public, Second Avenue, and McKinley Square Theatres alonside such noted names as Menashe Skulnik, Leon Fuchs, Isidore Meltzer, and Adolf Fenigstein.  Toured across America and Mexico, performing in Yiddish and English with Seymour Rechtzeit, Menashe Skulnik, Leon Fuchs, and Chaim Tauber.  Performed with Irving Jacobson in a program of the Maxwell Hour, and participated in several movie plays under the direction of Ossip Dymow.  Participated in the Yiddish plays: Motl der opereyter ("Motel the Operator") by Chaim Tauber, Ir tsveyte mame ("Her Second Mother") by Izidor Frankel, and Ikh vil zayn a mame ("I Want to Be a Mother") by Isidore Lash, and in the vaudeville film, Mazl tov, Yidn ("Mazel Tov, Jews"), Kol nidre by Ben Gitlin, Der groyser eytse-geber ("The Great Advisor") by Izidor Frankel, and Der Yidisher nign ("The Jewish Melody") by Chaim Tauber.  She died in Los Angeles, California on January 17, 1982.

Actors
Adler, Celia, 1889-1979.
Culture
Dymow, Ossip, 1878-1959
Film and Cinema
Fuchs, Leon
Kalich, Bertha, 1874-1939
Lemberg (Poland)
Lwów (Poland)
Radio, Yiddish
Radio programs
Radio shows
Rechtzeit, Seymour, 1908-2002
Skulnik, Menasha, 1892-1970
Theater
Theater, Yiddish
Thomashefsky, Boris, 1866-1939
United States
Vaudeville
Yiddish theater

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English
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