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Born on 23 March 1893 in
Odessa, Ukraine. Father and grandfather -- cantors. He
learned in msuknim cheders, and at the age of
fourteen arrived in Belz to his grandparents. Here he
completed a four-class city school, learned in a
gymnasium of Voskrosensky, and worked as a bookkeeper in
the "Russian bank for internal trade".
As a child he was a choir
boy for his father and grandfather, and together with
his friend, the future actor Grishe Epstein and his
father, later participated in Yiddish amateur
productions, debuting in the singing poem "Shumr" in
Goldfaden's "Bar kochba". He also had the opportunity to
participate in Russian amateur productions.
In 1912 he was drawn in by
Epstein to be a professional actor in Mishurat's
itinerant troupe, where he debuted as "Bartelo" in
Sharkanski's "Kol Nidre". After acting for several
months with Mishurat, we went over to the troupes of
Shtsherbakov, Bronstein, Korik, Sabsey et al, until the
outbreak of the World War. Then for four-and-a-half
years he was on the front, and in 1913 he arrived in
Poland with the actors Zhelazo, Hochberg et al, where
they joined the acting in Lodz's Colisseum. After a
short time, S. went over to the Grand Theatre (director:
Lazar Kahan), where he was the firs to embody the role
of "Prince Radzhani" in Kalman's operetta "Bayadera",
and later he toured across the Russian province. |