Forwarded to me this morning by A.W., currently 102 years old and a friend of my family, one of three people still alive that knew my grand-mother – she was gassed in Auschwitz (as reported by an eyewitness who saw her standing in the “wrong line”) – some truths in a schmaltzy “did-you-know?” style:
“In the 1940s, it was obligatory for Jews in the performing arts, especially the movies, to hide their Jewishness behind Gentile names. Thus, Ella Geisman became June Allyson; Bette Perske, Lauren Bacall:, Bernie Schwartz, Tony Curtis; Issur Danielovich, Kirk Douglas; Frances Rose Schorr, Dinah Shore; Marion Levy, Paulette Goddard; Muni Weissenkopf, Paul Muni; Julie Garfinkel, John Garfield; Allan Koenigsberg, Woody Allen; Benny Kubelsky, Jack Benny; Asa Yoelson, Al Jolson; Charles Bushinsky, Charles Bronson; Sara Gabor, Zsa Zsa Gabor; Larry Leach, Cary Grant; Chaim Liebovitz, Lorne Green; David Kaminsky, Danny Kaye; Dorothy Kaumeyer, Dorothy Lamour; Mike Orowitz, Michael Landon; Joseph Levitch, Jerry Lewis; Leonard Rosenberg, Tony Randall; Tula Finklea, Cyd Charisse, etc., etc. The easiest name transition of all, from Jew to Irishman, was made by Lee Jacob, to Lee J. Cobb.
Did their name changes work? Did you like them more than you would have if you knew they were Jewish?
It is interesting to note that in their personal, off-screen relationships – within “The Family”– Hollywood and Broadway performers, producers, and moguls always used their Yiddish given names. It was only from the American public at large that they felt compelled to hide their Jewish identity. Beginning in the early sixties to today, though, Jews no longer feel they have to assume artificial identities to achieve success, although there are still some “throwbacks,” well-known movie stars today who have traded in their Jewish names — Laura Horowitz for Wynona Ryder, for example. Jeff Goldblum is just one well-known Jewish actor who uses his real name. And, of course, the very Jewish “Seinfeld” was just about the most popular TV sitcom of the 1990s. So, the Golden Age of American Jewry can be defined as that period during which Jews began to feel secure enough to be Jews openly; the waning of that period can be defined by the erosion of Judaism caused by the very freedom American Jews have won to be Jews openly. The paradox is evident.
There is, by the way, a wonderful story about Louis B. Mayer, head of MGM and the most powerful man in 1930s and 1940s Hollywood, who did everything he could to run away from his Jewishness, except, interestingly enough, changing his Jewish name, to which he clung tenaciously. During the heyday of the Nelson Eddy – Jeanette MacDonald musicals, it seems that Mayer was dissatisfied with the lack of feeling MacDonald was putting into one of her duets with Eddy. He summoned her to his office and, telling her to watch him, he got down on his knees and intoned the beautiful and solemn Kol Nidre, the most moving prayer sung at Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, in which the Jew begs God to spare his life in the coming year despite all the sins he has committed. As Mayer sang, his renegade Jewishness escaped from every pore, as tears poured down his cheeks. He was no longer the motion picture colossus, Louis B. Mayer, who commanded the livelihoods and careers of Clark Gable, James Stewart, Joan Crawford, Robert Taylor, Fred Astaire, Judy Garland, et al., but Louie, the shy little Jewish boy praying with his immigrant family in their tiny, ramshackle ghetto synagogue. That day in his palatial MGM office, when Mayer finally got up from the floor, drenched in sweat, he found Jeannette MacDonald too in tears. The story is that she went out and poured her heart into her duet.
The Jew-Gentile-identity Hollywood hijinks of the 1930s produced some amusing incidents.
For example, in 1932 David Selznick (seven years before he created “Gone With The Wind”) produced “Symphony of Six Million,” a tearjerker about a brilliant young Jewish doctor from the Lower East Side who turns down fame and riches to dedicate his life to healing the poor. The ideal actor to portray the doctor, Selznick felt, would be a Jew who could be expected to “feel” the part and thus make it particularly authentic. But no Jewish actor was available, So, after much searching, Selznick cast as the idealistic doctor a young Latin actor named Ricardo Cortez, whose dark looks he thought were sufficiently Jewish-looking to be convincing to a movie audience. Cortez played the part so well that both he and the movie were acclaimed. Small wonder. Cortez’s real name was Jacob Krantz, and the story is that not even his costar, Irene Dunne, nor David Selznick, nor the critics, knew he was Jewish.
Also, a famous Broadway play of the late 1920s was “Counselor at Law.” A tale of a Jewish immigrant kid from the Lower East Side named George Simon who rises to become one of New York City ’s most powerful and sought- after lawyers, the play starred Paul Muni as Simon. When Hollywood bought the play to turn it into a movie, its director, William Wyler, pleaded with Muni to play the part on the screen. Muni refused, because he feared being typecast as a Lower East Side Jew, which of course is exactly what he was. So the part went to that charismatic Gentile John Barrymore, who played it brilliantly. Nevertheless, already in the early stages of his alcohol-caused dementia, Barrymore had trouble learning the Yiddish phrases that would make him convincing as a New York Jew – phrases that Muni of course could toss off in his sleep.”
I became aware of some of these name changes around the 1980’s through The Jewish Almanac by Richard Siegel & Carl Rheins.
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Hmm. That description about LB Mayer: “…he got down on his knees and intoned the beautiful and solemn Kol Nidre, the most moving prayer sung at Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, in which the Jew begs God to spare his life in the coming year despite all the sins he has committed.” seems a bit suspect since the absence of kneeling is Jewish observance is pretty well documented (though there is an optional full-out prostration done by some orthodox during the silent Amidah prayer). Also, the Kol Nidre, though melodically haunting, is actually a very strange prayer. Hardly a supplication asking God to spare one’s life, it’s a legalistic formula that declares that any vows or oaths one has made to God during the past year, are now null and void. According to tradition, its purpose is to protect one from the wrath of God in case one has failed to fulfill one of those vows. It explicitly covers only personal oaths/vows with God, not any sort of agreement with fellow-humans. No way out of those, at least not via the Kol Nidre. I know this could all seem like “pilpul” (hairsplitting) since the point of the story is how powerfully moving Ashkenazi (in this case) cantorial singing can be. The wonderful irony is that even though he was adamant about keeping any trace of Yiddishkeit out of his studio’s films, LB resorts to what is, arguably, the most “Jewish” of all prayer-melodies to demonstrate the level of schmaltz he wants from MacDonald. But he would not have been kneeling, even if the story is pure apocrypha.
From the Wikipedia entry on the prostrations in the Amidah
“The worshipper bows at four points in the Amidah: at the beginning and end of both the first blessing of Avot and the second to last blessing of Hoda’ah. At the opening words of Avot and at the conclusion of both these blessings, when the one says “Blessed are You, O Lord,” one bends one’s knees at “Blessed,” then bows at “are You,” and straightens while saying “O Lord.” The reason for this procedure is that the Hebrew word for “blessed” (baruch) is related to “knee” (berech); while the verse in Psalms states, “The Lord straightens the bent.”[21] At the beginning of Hoda’ah, one bows while saying the opening words “We are grateful to You” without bending the knees. At each of these bows, one must bend over until the vertebrae protrude from one’s back; one physically unable to do so suffices by nodding the head.[22]
During certain parts of the Amidah said on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, Ashkenazi Jews traditionally go down to the floor upon their knees and make their upper body bowed over like an arch, similar to Muslims, though not exactly in the same manner. There are some variations in Ashkenazi customs as to how long one remains in this position. Some Jews among the Dor Daim and Talmidhe haRambam understand both the Mishneh Torah and the Talmudic source texts concerning bowing in the Shemoneh Esreh to be teaching that one must always prostrate, lying flat on the ground, not only during the High Holy Days, but throughout the year during the four bows of the Amidah. It is hard to know the percentage of those who hold by the latter view, the likelihood being that most who accept such a view usually only do so in private or when praying among like-minded people.”
Thank you Corey, for these responses. I agree with you that even though there are real facts in that ‘article’ forwarded by that family friend, it is primarily a typical schmaltzy piece meant to elicit a form of group cohesion through so-called surprising facts.
Yes, much could be much more precise in it. Cary Grant is only remotely Jewish and your points are most valid.
I do remember though hearing R. Zalman Schachter saying how “ancient praying” involved the entire body and was very close to a kind of yoga practice.
About Hollywood and the Shoah (the Holocaust & Hitler), besides the recent controversy about Jack Warner and the upcoming book, The Collaboration: Hollywood’s Pact With Hitler” by Ben Urwand, I would recommend the compilation film, Imaginary Witness which I have introduced at the St. Louis Holocaust Museum.