shimansky/simon/avraham-shmuel

Lives in the Yiddish Theatre
SHORT BIOGRAPHIES OF THOSE INVOLVED IN THE Yiddish THEATRE
aS DESCRIBED IN zALMEN zYLBERCWEIG'S "lEKSIKON FUN YIDISHN TEATER"
1931-1969

Avraham Shmuel Shimansky (Simon)

Sh. was born in 1882 in Ozorkow, Poland.

His father was a cotton maker.

He learned in a cheder.

Due to material circumstances, he had to, at the age of ten, stop his studies and become a weaver. At the same time Sh. sang with the city cantor.

In 1897 he attended a production of Shliferstein's itinerant troupe and became enamored with the Yiddish theatre. Within a short time he went off to Warsaw, where he performed with Weisfeld's troupe, first as a chorus singer, later as an actor.

He traveled with various troupes: Zandberg, Kaminski et al. After his service in the Russian-Japanese War, he again acted in Vilna and Lodz.

In 1908 he immigrated to America. Here he was a member in the Variety union Local 2, and acted in vaudeville at the Metropolitan Music Hall on Pitkin Avenue in New York, later with Silbert and Boris Rosenthal at the 3rd Street Theatre. After the merging of Locals 5 and 1, he acted for a time with Boris Thomashefsky, later a season in Boston and across the American provinces.

Becoming sick [oyfn halz], Sh. had to stop acting, and with the help of Branch 59 of the Workmen's Circle and the Yiddish Actors Union, was sent to Los Angeles, California, where for a certain time he was "stage manager", and from time to time also acted under both family names. Working by himself with the technical aspects of the stage, he became very heated, [farkilt, galop], sick and on 2 March 1921 passed away in Los Angeles where, through the help of his landsman Aaron Blum, put up a gravestone for him.

Sh. E. from his brother Alex Simon.

Adapted from the original Yiddish text found within the "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre" by Zalmen Zylbercweig, Volume 4, page 2561.