- YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
- Hebrew Actors' Union
Hebrew Actors' Union
collection1874-1986RG 1843
Description only · 25 descriptions below, none digitizedView at source ↗
Where
Not on the map yet.
- Held by
- YIVO Institute for Jewish Research via YIVO Institute for Jewish Research — Archives guide
- Dates
- 1874-1986 (indexed as 1874–1986)
- Level
- collection
- Extent
- 72.3 linear feet
- Scope & content
- The bulk of the collection consists of the administrative records of the Hebrew Actors Union. There are substantial files of the HAU President, primarily those of Reuben Guskin, (1919-1951) as well as files of HAU presidents Herman Yablokoff and Seymour Rechtzeit. The administrative records also include financial and membership records of the HAU. The collection also holds a large group of musical scores, playscripts, photographs, paintings, banners, souvenir journals, newspaper clippings sculptures, props, costumes, membership address cards, election ballots, theater programs and posters, administrative records and reports, minutes of meetings, meeting notices, press releases, awards, dues ledgers, receipts, invoices, contracts, and salary and payment agreements The files of the HAU presidents include correspondence with thousands of individuals, theater companies, unions and other organizations. Individual correspondents include members of the Hebrew Actors Union, such as Celia Adler, Julius Adler, Stella Adler, Ben Bonus, Max Bozyk, Joseph Buloff, Pesakh Burstein, Fyvush Finkel, Leo Fuchs, Aaron Lebedeff, Shifra Lerer, David Medoff, Bessie Mogulesko, Fraidele Oysher, Molly Picon, Ludwig Satz, Maurice Schwartz, Herman Yablokoff, and Sheftel Zak. Organizational correspondents include Actors’ Equity, AFL (American Federation of Labor), AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists), Associated Actors and Artistes of America, Jewish Daily Forward, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the Society of Jewish Composers, Publishers and Songwriters, the Workmen’s Circle, and the Yiddish Theatrical Alliance, Included in the collection are busts of Boris Thomashefsky and Harry Rothpearl, the president of the Yiddish Theatrical Alliance. This collection consists of the administrative records of the Hebrew Actors’ Union and relates to the professional lives of celebrated actors, producers, directors, and playwrights, as well as materials concerning several Yiddish theaters in New York and in other cities. The materials include hundreds of music scores, dozens of play scripts and thousands of pieces of correspondence with numerous individuals, theaters, unions, and other organizations. There are also dues ledgers and other financial materials, such as receipts, invoices, contracts, and salary and payment agreements, membership address cards, election ballots, theater programs and posters, administrative records and reports, a handwritten Yiddish ledger of minutes of regular monthly business meetings and special annual meetings from 1938-1947, meeting notices, press releases, awards, paintings, banners, photographs, souvenir journals, and newspaper clippings. Many of the materials are in fair condition, although much of the collection is brittle and torn and some of the collection, particularly the music scores, is extremely fragile and should only be handled carefully. The collection contains correspondence from many of the great stars of the Yiddish stage, including Celia Adler, Julius Adler, Stella Adler, Ben Bonus, Max Bozyk, Joseph Buloff, Pesakh Burstein, Fyvush Finkel, Leo Fuchs, Aaron Lebedeff, Shifra Lerer, David Medoff, Bessie Mogulesko, Fraidele Oysher, Molly Picon, Ludwig Satz, Maurice Schwartz, Herman Yablokoff, and Sheftel Zak, among many others. There is also a great deal of correspondence, as well as financial records, from various theater and labor organizations, unions, and publications, including Actors’ Equity, AFL (American Federation of Labor), AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists), Associated Actors and Artistes of America, Jewish Daily Forward , the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the Society of Jewish Composers, Publishers and Songwriters, the Workmen’s Circle, and the Yiddish Theatrical Alliance, among others. Additionally, there is a bust of Boris Thomashefsky and a bust of Harry Rothpearl, the president of the Yiddish Theatrical Alliance, as well as props and costumes in YIVO’s off-site storage and 7 linear feet of materials that have not been processed. These materials have not been factored into the linear extent of the collection. The Hebrew Actors’ Union (HAU), which was the first theatrical union in the United States, was originally founded in New York City in 1888. During a December 1899 strike held by the actors at the People’s Theatre against the managers, Jacob Adler, Boris Thomashefsky and Joseph Edelstein, the United Hebrew Trades sent Jewish labor leader Joseph Barondess to organize the actors and reorganize the Union. After a few weeks, Thomashefsky recognized the Union and the strike ended. The Hebrew Actors’ Union Local 1 received its charter from the American Federation of Labor on December 31, 1899, and soon started collecting dues and holding weekly meetings. It was also a member of the United Hebrew Trades, and assisted striking unions belonging to the UHT. Prior to the founding of the HAU, Yiddish theater actors could be fired without notice, and received commissions based upon the success of the performance and their individual popularity instead of receiving regular salaries. They were not compensated for their rehearsal time, worked seven days a week and were often treated quite poorly by theater managers. The HAU established rules for working conditions, fair wages and payment schedules. It kept non-Union actors out of productions in which Union members appeared, established a fund to support old and sick members, assisted striking unions that operated under the aegis of the United Hebrew Trades, and was closely affiliated from its beginning with the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and with the general and Jewish labor movement. Many of the policies enacted by the HAU, including salary increases for actors, compensation for the actors when they traveled, increased paid sick leave, and a doubling of an actor’s salary if he or she played more than one role in a production, were implemented by Reuben Guskin, the HAU business manager from 1919 until his death in 1951 and the president of the Union from 1941-1951. During the 1920s, when both the Union and Yiddish theater were at their heights, and into the 1930s, when Yiddish theater attendance had already started to wane, the Union claimed about 350-400 members and there were around 21 Yiddish theaters throughout the country. The Great Depression, the continued acculturation of the Jewish population, the lack of new audiences that accompanied the end of immigration, the movement of Jewish audiences towards Broadway and motion pictures, and higher production costs for Yiddish plays than for English plays, due in part to Union contract requirements, combined to erode the audience for the Yiddish theater. Theaters began to close, theatrical seasons were cut short, and several of the biggest stars of the Yiddish theater left for overseas, the non-Yiddish stage, or Hollywood. By the middle of the 1930 theatrical season, the managers of the remaining nine New York theaters threatened to close if there was not a dramatic percent cut in HAU personnel salaries, which were far higher than those of non-Union members. The Union threatened to strike, and on December 8, 1930, the theaters closed for two weeks. The Union was forced to cut its salary scale and to waive its power to set a quota for every theater for the duration of the season. But tensions between the Union and the theater managers continued to mount, while at the same time, Yiddish theater audiences were on the decline. More theaters closed, fewer productions were staged, and Yiddish-language actors struggled to find work. Guskin remained as HAU president until his death in 1951, after which the Union was lead by elected volunteer presidents who were also active in the Yiddish theater. These included Herman Yablokoff, composer of the hit song “Papirosn” (Cigarettes), the Broadway and Yiddish stage actor Bernardo Sauer and singer and performer Seymour Rechtzeit (Rexsite), who was the last president of the Union from 1991 until his death at age 91 in 2002. After Rechtzeit’s death, the Union’s leadership passed to one-time Yiddish performer Ruth Ellen, who served as acting head until 2005. The Union held its last official meeting in the 1990s, but continued on until October 2005, when it was officially labeled non-operational by its umbrella union, the Associated Actors and Artistes of America, an affiliate of the AFL-CIO. Arrangement: The correspondence has been arranged in three groups, each of which has been arranged alphabetically. The financial records are in loose groupings by document type and content and are also somewhat chronologically ordered and the newspaper clippings are in chronological order. Plays and music are not arranged. The photographs have been arranged alphabetically by the name of the individual, when known. Personal names of correspondents, journal titles, organization names, and play and song titles have been transliterated. Yiddish names have been transliterated according to YIVO standards except when the individual is known in English by another spelling. Additionally, if the name appeared in Latin letters anywhere within the folder, that spelling was used rather than a standard transliteration. Often, individual names appear in several different spellings and versions within a single folder or a series of correspondence is addressed to multiple people or organizations. When this is the case, multiple names are listed, divided by a slash mark. Thus, a folder is labeled Rosenfeld/Rosenfield, Rashel/Rachel when both the individual’s first and last name are variously spelled. Another folder is labeled Steinberg, Samuel/Odeon Theatre, indicating correspondence addressed to both the individual and the theater, while another folder labeled Grossman, Joseph/Kasten, Lewis has correspondence addressed to both individuals.
- Location
No place found in this description yet.
- Subjects
- Actors; Actors, Yiddish; Actors Labor unions; Adler, Celia, 1889-1979.; Adler, Julius; Adler, Stella.; Barondess, Joseph, 1867-1928; Bonus, Ben; Bozyk, Max, 1899-1970; Buloff, Joseph; Burstein, Pesach; Chicago (Ill.); Dramatists, Yiddish; Finkel, Fyvush, 1923-; Fuchs, Leo; Guskin, Reuben, 1887-1951; Hebrew Actors Union (U.S.); Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS); Idisher aktyoren yunyon (U.S.); Jewish actors; Jewish composers; Jewish daily forward (New York, N.Y.); Jewish labor unions; Jewish theater; Labor Movements; Labor Unions; Lebedeff, Aaron; Lerer, Shifra, 1915-2011; Montréal (Québec); Music--Scores.; Musicians; New York (N.Y.); Oysher, Fraydele; Paintings; Philadelphia (Pa.); Picon, Molly.; Plays; Playscripts; Posters; Press, Jewish; Production and direction; Radio, Yiddish; Rechtzeit, Seymour, 1908-2002; Satz, Ludwig, 1891-1944; Schwartz, Maurice, 1890-1960; Sheet music; Society of Jewish Composers, Publishers and Songwriters; Theater; Theater, Yiddish; Theaters; Theatrical producers and directors; Thomashefsky, Boris, 1866-1939; Unions; United Hebrew Trades; Vaudeville; Workmen’s Circle/Arbeter Ring; Writers; Yablokoff, Herman, 1903-1981; Yiddish Language and Linguistics; Yiddish theater; Yiddish theater (Boston, MA); Yiddish theater (Montreal, Canada); Yiddish theater (New York, NY); Yiddish theater (Philadelphia, PA); Yiddish theater (Toronto, Canada); Yiddish Theatrical Alliance; Yiddish theatrical posters
- Genre / form
- Clippings - Newspaper clippings; Costumes; Documents - Administrative reports; Documents - Contracts; Documents - Correspondence; Documents - Election ballots; Documents - Financial records; Documents - Ledgers (account books); Documents - Manuscripts; Documents - Minutes (Administrative Records); Documents - Songs; Ephemera - Awards; Ephemera - Banners; Ephemera - Memorabilia; Ephemera - Props, Stage; Journals; Photographs; Playbills - Theater programs; Publications; Recordings, Sound - Audio cassettes; Scrapbooks
- Access & use
- YIVO Archives collections are open to researchers only by appointment with an archivist. To inquire about papers and records, write to Chief Archivist, archives@yivo.cjh.org. To inquire about photographs and films, write to Photo and Film Archivist at Photofilm@yivo.cjh.org. To inquire about sound recordings, write to Sound Archivist, lsklamberg@yivo.cjh.org. For art works and artifacts, write to Chief Archivist at archives@yivo.cjh.org.
- Harvested
- 2026-10-17T06:33:23Z · source datestamp n/a · yivo