R. played Yiddish theatre in
Vienna with Kanner, Podzamce and Reisman, then in Berlin
with Laresko, later in London with Charles Nathanson, and from the
Wallersteins was hired for Paris, and from there he
returned to Akselrod, and then in Karlsbad with Klug.
A rich American Jew who
heard him sing, gave him travel expenses for America,
where he played a season in Chicago (with Maurice
Schwartz and Kalman Juvelier), was director for two
seasons in Minneapolis, and played then in New York
(manager Sigmund Weintraub), Chicago (manager Hershl
Zuckerberg), in California, Liberty and Brooklyn,
Cleveland, Toronto, Montreal, in the "Amphion" Theatre
(manager Gustave Schacht), the "McKinley Square" Theatre
(manaqer [Izidor] Casher), and left New York, stopping
across American cities with Yiddish folk song concerts,
until he settled in California, coming back to New York,
only rarely and once in the early 1940s did he perform
with a concert. then again he turned back to California,
where he passed away on 14 January 1960 in Los Angeles
on the street.
Al. Harris writes about him:
" ... The Yiddish singer who
during the First World War in his twenties broke onto
the Yiddish concert stage with a new cycle of folk and
love songs, which he collected in Romania, and they were
sung and evoked thanks from the public, loud applauses.
Leyzer Rosenstein was acclaimed as an actor and singer
of folk songs, and he took the title. He always adhered
to actorial virtue and purity, preserving both his
physical beauty, his clothing. ... In the winter season
in 1925 the Jewish National Labor Farband sent us both
away on a concert tour across the country. The trip
lasted around fifteen weeks. ... Leyzer Rosenstein
constantly was a principled vegetarian. ... One time,
traveling with him on a train, I had conversations with
him about his habit of having a fresh flower every day.
He preserved it with religious precision. ... How many
times I have tried to find out from him what hidden duty
is associated with that ritual. He was not happy to
answer, but from half words and from pertinent remarks,
I bumped into the fact that somehow a young novel, that
an episode of love was indeed connected to it. He had
abandoned the theatre profession, became a wandering
businessman of antiques, it turns out. Gossipy rumors
were circulating about him for doing some stupid,
dishonest things, making business ventures that
embarrassed his name and shamed the plight of Yiddish
actors, as he made all the businesses as a former
Yiddish actor. Let us remember Leyzer Rosenstein as an
elegant singer, who excited thousands of Jewish hearts,
and with his romantic love songs, evoked memories of
dreamed-up younger days."
On a larger note about R. in
the "Forward," it was said:
"Leyzer once was a popular
actor, but the last twenty years, since he settled in
California, he no longer played in any theatre, but he
gave concerts. he had a lot of feeling, was a great
musician, and although he has not had a voice recently,
he took great care because of his unfinished way of
interpreting a Yiddish song.
More than twenty years ago
Leyzer Rosenstein, who did not move without a flower in
his lapel, left his family in New York and went away to
Los Angeles, where for a certain time he worked in an
antique store, which he had managed the well-known
performer Julius Nathanson. Later Rosenstein began by
himself to deal with antiques.
Leyzer became a tragic
figure. He did not make a partition between mine and
yours. He introduced tens of thousands of people,
including his closest friends, into his trades, promised
a golden fortune, took out "loans," which he used to
repay and received a bad name. Several times he was
arrested, but released and engaged again in this manner
until he was again was arrested. ... In the last few
years, R. had not been performing in concerts, but
simply living off small "loans" or just waiting for meat
and blood. ... He fell down in the street, taking him
into one of the "fruits", like a hero of Gorky's "Na dne
(The Lower Depths)," and there he died. From there ...
he was given a free funeral, in which there participated
only two saleswomen from the antique shop where
Rosenstein last used to come in to. When the Los Angeles
Jewish societies had wondered about his tragic death,
they created a committee that was ready to put down a
gravestone for him."
M.E.
-
(--) -- Tragisher
toit fun aktior un folkszinger leyzer rozenshteyn,
"Forward," N.Y., 25 March 1960.
-
Harry Schuchman --
Brif fun leyener, dort, 1 April 1960.
-
Al. Harris -- Leyzer
rozenshteyn hot opgezungen zayn lid, "Day Morning
Journal," N.Y., 28 April 1960.
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