Yankel Kalich
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Yankel Kalich | |
|---|---|
 Kalich, second from left, in Mezrach und Maarev (1921) | |
| Born | November 18, 1891 |
| Died | March 16, 1975 (aged 83) Mahopac, New York, US |
| Other names | Jacob Kalich, Joseph Kalich |
Yankel "Jacob" Kalich (Yiddish: יעקב קאַליך, 18 November 1891 – 16 March 1975) was a Yiddish theater actor, director, and producer.
Kalich was born in Rymanów, Galicia, Austria-Hungary in what is now Poland. He immigrated to America in 1914.[1] He opened a theater in Philadelphia. He would go to New York to see Joseph Rumshinsky and would ask him for use of his operettas.[2]
Kalish met actress Molly Picon when she was on the vaudeville circuit, stranded in Boston after an influenza epidemic had closed all the theaters.[3] He hired her to work his Yiddish Theater Season at the Boston Opera House for two years.[3] The couple married on June 29, 1919 in Philadelphia and then took a tour of Europe returning three years later with Picon being a woman "of international reputation."[3][1] The couple began doing a daily radio show in 1934.[1]: 59 Kalich later went on to produce and direct many productions that she was in including a biographical piece about Picon called Oy Is Dus a Lieben.[4][5] The two of them toured doing Yiddish theater in Europe after World War II going "anywhere they could find an audience of survivors."[6]
He made the transition from doing Yiddish theater to being in Hollywood films, playing the role of "Yankel" in Fiddler on the Roof.[7]
