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Biography
Molly Picon (1898-1992) had a long and distinguished stage career and was considered to be the pre-eminent actress of Yiddish theatre in the United States.
She was brought up in Philadelphia where, a the age of six, she began performing in tramcars and local nickelodeons. She left school in 1915, determined to have a stage career and was eventually cast as Winter in ‘The Four Seasons’, a travelling English-language vaudeville production. Six month later, when the company reached Boston, the city was in the grip of an influenza epidemic. The only theatre still open was the Boston Grand Opera House, which was presenting Yiddish theatre. She applied for n acting job and was immediately hired by the director and producer, Jacob "Yonkel" Kalich. He hired her and, although was seen years older than her, they fell in love and were married in 1919.
The following year, she and her husband embarked on a two-year European tour of Yiddish plays. Although only 4ft. 11in. and weighing less than 100 pounds, she had enormous stage presence. In most of her plays (that were frequently written by her husband), she was cast as a young girl who either dressed or behaved like a nonchalant young boy. Audiences loved the trans-gender performances that became her signature. Her most famous stage role was Yonkele (Little Yonkel).
The period after their turn was one of great success that seemed as though it had come to an end with the 1929 Stock Market crash which wiped out much of their savings. Using the funds that remained, Kalich bought a theatre and renamed it the Molly Picon Theater. Further successes followed and, in the 1930s, she delighted audiences not only in the theatre but during her extensive tours of Europe and South America.
During and after the Second World War, she performed extensively, not only in theatres but also for the sick, American troops, and Jewish Holocaust survivors. Although remaining strongly committed to the Yiddish language and culture, as the Yiddish theatre declined, she sought to expand her roles. In 1960, she performed in a successful London production of Majority of One. She went on to star in the Broadway hit Milk and Honey in which she played an American widow looking for a new husband in Israel. She was then played an Italian mother opposite Frank Sinatra in Neil Simon’s screen adaptation of Come Blow Your Horn (1963). For this part – in her first Hollywood film – she was nominated for an Oscar.
She continued to perform well into her eighties.
| Items for Sale on Collectors' Post |
| Click for details |
| 000974 |
Theatre: Programs (USA) - post 1939 | A MAJORITY OF ONE (by Leonard Spigelgass) with Molly Picon |
| 012339 |
Theatre: Programs (USA) - post 1939 | MILK AND HONEY - book Don Appell; music Jerry Herman; lyrics Jerry Herman - with MOLLY PICON |
| 015908 |
Theatre: Playbills | MILK AND HONEY (book Don Appell; music Jerry Herman; lyrics Jerry Herman) with MOLLY PICON |
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