Jacob Jacobs (born Yakov Yakubovitsh) (January 2, 1890 – October 14, 1977), Yiddish theater and vaudeville director, producer, lyricist, songwriter, coupletist, character actor, comic born in Rosca (now Riska, Romania). In 1904 the family emigrated to the United States and Jacobs worked in a soda factory, later in a sheet-metal factory, and then learned tailoring.
[Zalmen Zylbercweig, ''Leksikon fun Yidishn teater'', Book one, 549]
In 1907 he joined the chorus in a vaudeville theater and he sang couplets on Sundays, when vaudeville plays could not be presented. The following year he was hired as a vaudeville actor. In 1911 he was in his first play,
Leon Kobrin
Leon Kobrin (1873 1–1946) was a playwright in Yiddish theater, writer of short stories and novels, and a translator. As a playwright he is generally seen as a disciple of Jacob Gordin, but his mature work was more character-driven, more open ...
's ''Yankel Boyla'' at the Odeon theater. In 1912 he became director of the Lyric Theater in Brownsville (Brooklyn), and then a partner with Nathan Goldberg in the Lennox Theater in Harlem.
[
From 1926 to 1930 he was co-director of the National Theater, and subsequently the Prospect Theater in the Bronx. He wrote the music to his own couplets. He married Rebecca Treitler (Betty), daughter of the Yiddish theater director.][
In 1932 he collaborated with composer ]Sholom Secunda
Sholom Secunda (, Oleksandriia, Alexandria, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire13 June 1974, New York City, New York) was an American composer of History of the Jews in Ukraine, Ukrainian-Jewish descent, best known for the tunes of ''Bei Mir Bistu ...
on a Yiddish musical comedy, ''I Would If I Could.'' Although the show was not a great success, it did produce a song that become a #1 hit, Bei Mir Bistu Shein.[http://faujsa.fau.edu/blog/tag/jacob-jacobs/ Maxine Schackman, Florida Atlantic University Yiddish theater collection]
He wrote, composed and directed the Broadway show, "The President's Daughter" in 1970.
He is buried in Mount Hebron Cemetery, in the Yiddish Theatrical Alliance area.
References
External links
Jacob Jacobs recordings
at the Discography of American Historical Recordings
The Discography of American Historical Recordings (DAHR) is a database of master recordings made by American record companies during the 78rpm era. The DAHR provides some of these original recordings, free of charge, via audio streaming, along with ...
.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jacobs, Jacob
1890 births
1977 deaths
Yiddish theatre
American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent
Hungarian Jews