Hymie Jacobson, also known as Hy Jacobson (1895–1952), was an American actor and composer in

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

, films and theater. Born 1895 in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

to actors Joseph and Bessie Jacobson. His sister, Henrietta, married

Yiddish theatre Yiddish theatre consists of plays written and performed primarily by Jews in Yiddish, the language of the Central European Ashkenazi Jewish community. The range of Yiddish theatre is broad: operetta, musical comedy, and satiric or nostalgic revues ...

actor Julius Adler; his brother, Irving, was also a performer. He and Irving also owned some of the key venues for Yiddish theater in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. He played child roles from the age of 4 in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

. His first adult role was at the

Arch Street Theatre The Arch Street Theatre in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, during the 19th century, was one of the three main Philadelphia theaters for plays; the other two were the Walnut Street Theatre and the Chestnut Street Theatre. The Arch Street Theatre opene ...

in Philadelphia (1917) as the comic in ''Panie Romani''. In 1918 he played in the

Peoples Theater A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of property, ...

and the following year was buff-comic (the company buffoon) at the Second Avenue Theater in the

Yiddish Theater District The Yiddish Theatre District, also called the Jewish Rialto and the Yiddish Realto, was the center of New York City's Yiddish theatre scene in the early 20th century. It was located primarily on Second Avenue, though it extended to Avenue B, b ...

. In 1921 he played at

Boris Thomashevsky Boris Thomashefsky (russian: Борис Пинхасович Томашевский, sometimes written Thomashevsky, Thomaschevsky, etc.; yi, באָריס טאָמאשעבסקי) (1868–1939), born Boruch-Aharon Thomashefsky, was a Ukrainian-b ...

's National Theater, in 1927 at the

Public Theater The Public Theater is a New York City arts organization founded as the Shakespeare Workshop in 1954 by Joseph Papp, with the intention of showcasing the works of up-and-coming playwrights and performers.Epstein, Helen. ''Joe Papp: An American Li ...

, then in Boston and Chicago. A

coupletist A coupletist (kupletist) is a poet, singer, or actor who specializes in couplets – wittily ambiguous, political, or satirical songs, usually in cabaret settings, usually with refrains, generally used as a transition between two cabaret numbers. W ...

, Jacobson composed both music and lyrics to many of the comic songs he sang and played piano to accompany himself.Zalmen Zylbercweig, ''Leksikon fun Yidishn teater'', Book one, 551 In 1925 and 1929 Nahum Stutchkoff's operetta ''Two Brides'' aka ''A Small Town Wedding'' featured music by Hymie Jacobson. He starred with his wife

Miriam Kressyn Miriam Kressyn (March 4, 1910 – October 28, 1996), one of the "First Ladies of the Yiddish Theater", acted and sang on stage, film and radio; she wrote plays as well. Personal life Kressyn was born in Białystok, Poland, the seventh child of M ...

in ''Der purimshpiler''. In the 1940s he organized his own orchestra in which Paul Pinkus and the Ellstein brothers played; they accompanied famous singers like

Jennie Goldstein Jennie Goldstein (May 8, 1896 – February 9, 1960) was a Jewish American theater actress and singer. Early life Goldstein was born in New York; her father was a butcher. When she was 6, actress Rosa Margulies noticed her pretty voice and dre ...

. He co-wrote, with his brother

Irving Irving may refer to: People *Irving (name), including a list of people with the name Fictional characters * Irving, the main character's love interest in Cathy (comic strip) * Lloyd Irving, the main protagonist in the ''Tales of Symphonia'' vide ...

, the novelty song ''A Bisl Fefer, A Bisl Zalts (A little pepper, a little salt)''. Two of his other songs were ''Mit Fertsik Yor Tsurik (Forty Years Ago)'', and ''Palestina Undzer Heym''. He died in 1952 in

Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

.Hymie Jacobson, Jewish Actor and Playwright, Dies in Miami
. Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA). jta.org. 10 January 1952. Retrieved 25 April 2018.

Filmography

* ''The Jewish Gypsy'', 1930, with Miriam Kressyn, director Sydney Goldin * ''The Sailor's Sweetheart'', 1933, with Miriam Kressyn, director Sydney Goldin * ''Gelebt un Gelakh (Live and Laugh)'', 1933 footage * '' Der Purimshpiler'', 1937, with Miriam Kressyn and Zigmund Turkow, director Joseph Green * ''Catskill Honeymoon'', 1950, conductor, music arranger, and producer

References

External links

* * 1895 births 1952 deaths Jewish American male actors Yiddish theatre performers 20th-century American Jews {{US-film-actor-1890s-stub