- unitid
-
{"value"=>"*T-Mss 1991-005", "type"=>"local_call"}
{"value"=>"21830", "type"=>"local_mss"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"1866-1955", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1866/1955"}
- date_inclusive_start
-
1866
- date_inclusive_end
-
1955
- keydate
-
1866
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"Bertha Kalich papers"}
- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"8 linear feet", "unit"=>"linear feet"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"23 boxes", "unit"=>"containers"}], "supress_display"=>true}
- repository
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">The New York Public Library. Billy Rose Theatre Division.</span><div class=\"address\"> <span class=\"addressline\">New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center</span><span class=\"addressline\">40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023-7498</span></div>"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"This collection comprises the papers of the Polish singer and actress Bertha Kalich who immigrated to the United States in 1895. Once in the United States, she became a celebrated star of the Yiddish theater, with active roles in theater as well as cinema, until 1928 when she succumbed to illness. One of her best known roles was the title character of the play <span class=\"title\">Magda</span> and Lilla Olrick in Jacobi's <span class=\"title\">Riddle Woman</span>. The collection consists of correspondence, personal and professional papers, and theatrical memorabilia from Bertha, her husband, Leopold Spachner, and daughter Lillian Kalich Spachner concerning her stage career and is primarily in English with some materials in German, Yiddish, and Hebrew."}
- langmaterial
-
{"value"=>"This colletion contains materials in English, though a great many clippings and some scripts are in Yiddish, and some early official documents are in German and Hebrew"}
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"<p> Bertha Kalich Papers,*T-Mss 1991-005. Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.</p>"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Kalich, Bertha, 1874-1939", "type"=>"persname"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>Bertha Rachel Kalich, daughter of Solomon Kalich and Babette Haber, was born on September 8, 1874 in Lemberg, Galicia (Poland), where she trained in declamation and voice culture from an early age despite the disapproval of her conservative Jewish family. While a student at Lemberg's Conservatory of Music, she met Leopold Spachner, a fellow student, whom she married in 1892. Starting as a chorus singer in Lemberg, Kalich soon achieved wide acclaim on the Polish and Romanian stages, despite deep anti-Semitic sentiment that made such success an unlikely prospect. In 1895, Kalich and Spachner immigrated to the United States where Kalich enjoyed great success in the Yiddish theater until 1905. In that year, Harrison Grey Fiske persuaded Kalich to attempt a transition to the American stage. After only a few months she mastered English pronunciation sufficiently to manage the transition and became an immediate success. She appeared in plays by Sudermann, Maeterlinck, Tolstoy, and Shaw with occasional returns to the Yiddish stage, and was successful, as well, in the cinema. Her most famous, and often repeated, roles were as Magda in Sudermann's play of that name and Lilla Olrick in Jacobi's <span class=\"title\">Riddle Woman</span>. Kalich toured tirelessly in both the United States and Canada, her 'emotional' brand of acting winning her great acclaim. From the 1880s through the 1940s, the Lower East Side of New York was a thriving center of theater for the waves of Jewish immigrants arriving in America, appealing to the popular sentiments of the day. Yiddish theater was attended by rich and poor, educated and illiterate allowed to blossom in New York, away from the growing anti-Semitism in turn of the century Eastern Europe. Bertha Kalich, who immigrated to the United States in 1895 after a successful career in Poland, was the first woman to gain prominence in the male-dominated environment of the Yiddish stage. Popularly known as the “Yiddish Bernhardt”, Kalich took on the role of Hamlet in 1901 at the Thalia Theatre on the Bowery, effectively establishing her own reputation as the greatest tragedienne in the history of Yiddish theatre.</p> <p>In 1928, Kalich took ill during a run of <span class=\"title\">The Soul of a Woman</span>. From that time on, she was unable to work more than sporadically. Threatened with blindness, she underwent a series of operations. Between 1931 and 1936, friends in the theatrical world arranged a number of benefit performances to aid her in an unsuccessful battle to regain her health--that decimated her fortune and embittered her. Correspondence among members of the family from 1928 on indicates that Kalich became despondent and felt abandoned by her husband and daughter, although the accuracy of her perception is not borne out by the documentation in the collection. On the other hand, there is evidence in these letters that she alienated many long-time associates outside the family. Kalich died on April 19, 1939, in New York City.</p> <p>Leopold Spachner (1871-1952), some of whose business records and correspondence are included in this collection, was involved in the theatrical world both as his wife's manager and as a general theatrical manager. Spachner died in New York City, having survived Bertha Kalich by 13 years.</p> <p>Lillian Kalich/Spachner (1891-?), was born on June 17 in Lemberg, emigrating to the United States as an infant. She attended the Ethical Culture School in New York City from 1905-1907 under the name Lillian Spachner, and the Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania from October 1907-1908. She also took up residence on the West Coast in the late 1920's, and read scripts there for Paramount and Metro-Goldwyn Mayer in 1932-1933. In 1954 and 1955, she was again in residence in New York City, as letters addressed to her by Paul Muni and Iphigene Sulzberger attest. Although Lillian Kalich/Spachner's active assistance to her mother until 1930 is amply recorded in the material contained in the collection, many important facts about her life cannot be traced in these records.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p> The papers consist of correspondence, programs, financial records, clippings, contracts, scripts, sides, scores, publicity pieces, photographs, and scrapbooks connected with Bertha Kalich. The majority of the materials are in English, though a great many clippings and some scripts are in Yiddish, and some early official documents are in German and Hebrew. The materials in this collection provide a valuable look at the history of Yiddish theatre on the Lower East Side of New York.</p> <p>The collection also includes some papers connected with Kalich's husband, Leopold Spachner, such as business correspondence and official documents, and a group of letters Spachner wrote to their daughter, Lillian, in 1928-1929, when Bertha Kalich was both physically ill and mentally depressed and was accusing her family of disloyalty and indifference. The visitor's book from Leopold Spachner's funeral, as well as nineteenth-century documents (some in fragile condition) are among the holdings; these documents include school certificates in German and a wedding contract in Hebrew. The collection also includes papers belonging to Lillian Kalich/Spachner such as some school papers, personal, professional, and business correspondence. A large number of telegrams and letters from Bertha Kalich to Lillian are also included here as well as other personal and professional materials such as school records and scripts.</p>"}
{"value"=>"<p class='list-head'>The Bertha Kalich papers are arranged in seven series:</p>\n<ul class='arrangement series-descriptions'>\n<li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21830#c800514'>Series I: Correspondence</a></div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series consists of personal and professional correspondence pertaining to Bertha Kalich, as well as Lillian Kalich and Leopold Spachner.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21830#c800549'>Series II: Professional Papers</a></div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series consists of posters, programs and flyers, parts of scripts, sides, other pieces for performance, typescripts of interviews, press releases and articles, contracts, and accountants' reports. Also included are notes connected with interviews for an autobiographical series of articles about Bertha Kalich that appeared in <span class=\"title\">The Day</span> (in Yiddish) in 1925. Most of these materials are in English, with some material in Yiddish.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21830#c800572'>Series III: Family Papers</a></div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The series is comprised of official documents, certificates, and ephemera. These materials are almost entirely in German and Hebrew, with some material in English. The papers of Lillian Kalich/Spachner include her school papers from 1907-1908, when she studied at the Baldwin School, in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, as well as script submissions she reviewed while at Paramount and Metro-Goldwyn Mayer in the early 1930s. The papers of Leopold Spachner consist of official documents, including school certificates in German and a wedding contract in Hebrew, as well as some business papers. The visitor's book from Spachner's funeral is also a part of in this collection.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21830#c800582'>Series IV: Scripts</a></div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series consists of parts of scripts, sides, promptbooks, and other pieces for performance. There are several sets of sides from <span class=\"title\">Magda</span> and <span class=\"title\">The Kreutzer Sonata</span>. Most of these materials are in English, with some material in Yiddish.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21830#c800636'>Series V: Photographs</a></div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The series is comprised of black and white portraits, snapshots, mounted photographs, and negatives of family and business associates.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21830#c800642'>Series VI: Clippings</a></div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series consists of two boxes of loose clippings, primarily in English and Yiddish. The bulk of these clippings date primarily from 1925-1927 when Kalich was at the height of her career and touring across the United States. They are primarily clippings of theatrical reviews of Bertha Kalich’s various performances.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21830#c800678'>Series VII: Scrapbooks</a></div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series contains photograph and clippings scrapbooks including production stills and theater news in both Yiddish and English.</p></div></li></ul>\n", "type"=>"arrangement"}
- arrangement
-
{"value"=>"<p> <ul class=\"list\"> <li>Series I: Correspondence, 1900-1955; undated</li> <li>Series II: Professional Papers, 1866-1942; undated</li> <li>Series III: Family Papers, 1882-1952; undated</li> <li>Series IV: Scripts, 1910-1940; undated</li> <li>Series V: Photographs, 1892-1935; undated</li> <li>Series VI: Clippings, 1895-1949; undated</li> <li>Series VII: Scrapbooks, 1905-1927; undated</li></ul></p>", "supress_display"=>true}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p> The Bertha Kalich Papers were donated to the Billy Rose Theatre Division in 1991.</p>"}
- processinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Processed by Cynthia Tobar, staff; Machine-readable finding aid created by Cynthia Tobar.</p>"}
- userestrict
-
{"value"=>"<p>The author/creator retains copyright of materials. For information on obtaining permission to publish, contact the Theatre Division at theatrediv@nypl.org.</p>"}
- relatedmaterial
-
{"value"=>"<p> One oversize scrapbook of clippings (1918-1922) is available on microfilm at the Humanities Library-Microforms Room 121; call number *ZC-342.</p>"}
- extent_statement
-
8 linear feet (23 boxes)
- date_start
-
1866
- date_end
-
1955