Subseries 1: Theater Personalities, A–Z: Programs, 1896 - 1939

This subseries contains approximately 630 theater programs grouped under 131 name headings, according to a featured performer, director, or honoree (in some instances, a couple or a group). Some 20% of the files also include up to a few clippings. The programs pertain to plays; revues; recitations; concerts, including cantorial concerts; dance performances; and honorary evenings.

While many programs are undated, the items appear to be concentrated in the interwar period. The oldest items are several programs dating from the 1890s, for performances of the operatic baritone Joseph Winogradoff. The handful of items bearing dates from before the First World War relate to cantor Abraham Baer Birnbaum, Herman Feinstein, Nahum Lipovski, Clara Young, Esther Rachel Kaminska, and Aba Kompaneyets. The small number of items dated from the era of the First World War pertain to Julius Adler, Jacob Ben-Ami, David Herman, Mordechai Hershman, Joseph Weinstock, Zimrah Zeligfeld and Menahem Kipnis, Bessie Thomashefsky, Zygmunt Turkow, Jonas Turkow, and Ida Kaminska.

Geographically, the programs are mostly from Eastern Europe, especially Poland, and the United States (especially New York); and smaller numbers are from Western Europe and elsewhere around the world, including Argentina, Brazil, Canada, and Palestine (Eretz Israel).

The largest file by far is that for Nahum Lipovski, which contains over 50 programs, mostly pertaining to performances of troupes under his direction. Other individuals especially well represented, with over 20 items each, are Rudolf Zaslavsky, Zygmunt Turkow, Jonas Turkow, Ida Kaminska, and Esther Rachel Kaminska. Individuals represented with at least 10 items each include: Julius Adler; Alexander Asro and Sonia Alomis; Jacob Ben-Ami; Misha and Lucy German; Chayele Grober; David Herman; Joseph Winogradoff; Ludwig Satz; Moyshe Lipman; Abraham Morewski; Molly Picon; K. Kadish, with Yosef Chasz, Nekhama Chasz, and Leyb Szryftzecer; and Maurice Schwartz.

The programs in this subseries were among the materials that were organized and cataloged by Jonas Turkow at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York, in the late 1950s to mid 1960s. They bear stamped or handwritten item numbers (falling within the range 175167 to 177690) that Turkow assigned based on his initial sequencing of them in alphabetical order according to the names of the authors of plays (with concert programs grouped together at the end). Subsequently, he selected certain programs to form groupings under performer names (constituting the present subseries) and others to form groupings under the names of theater troupes and geographic headings (see Series III). The selection of the personalities in this subseries, and that of the particular programs to represent them, thus reflect the arrangement devised by Turkow, documented in the cross-references he provided on his catalog cards for the programs. For further details, see the Scope and Content Note for Series I, Subseries 2, Programs.