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May 04, 2008
Who's the Jewish Movie Star? Take 3: Answer
Early studio portrait.
The Jewish movie star is Sylvia Sydney. Real name Sophia Kosow, 1910 - 1999.
As I suspected, the privacy of e-mailing answers resulted in greater participation.
Mazal Tov to all those who guessed correctly. First in were movie-maven sisters: Buttercup and Tamster, who are three for three in our “Who's the Jewish Movie Star Quiz,” — our reigning champs.
Toronto Pearl came in with the correct answer a few minutes later, and Miranda Rose Smith followed a day later, but Miranda is in another time zone so she's at a disadvantage.
Sylvia Sidney, publicity photo from Paramount.
Seraphic Friend Toronto Pearl sent us this picture of Sylvia Sidney's grandfather.
Moyshe Kosovski, father of Mr. Victor Kossow and grandfather of Hollywood screen actress Sylvia Sidney. Sidney was her stepfather's name. From: The Grodno Site
Seraphic Friend Miranda Rose Smith writes: “Did you know she [Sylvia Sidney] was an embroiderer? I picked up a copy of her book on needlepoint in a used bookstore.”
What would Seraphic Secret be without our loyal and savvy readers?
Sylvia Sidney's rise to stardom is, sadly, linked to the tragic fall of Clara Bow, 1905 - 1965, one of the greatest actresses in the history of motion pictures.
Clara Bow, at the height of her popularity she received 40,000 fan letters a week.
Bow, “The It Girl” was an instinctive performer whose radiant presence lit up the screen from 1924 to 1930. She was from Brooklyn, the product of an impoverished, dysfunctional family. Her mother, a part time prostitute, was mad and twice tried to murder Bow. Clara's father raped her when she was a teenager. With just a fifth grade education, Clara dreamed of escaping her miserable life and getting into motion pictures. She won a beauty contest, secured a screen test, came out to California where she clawed her way to the top, performing in endless programmers before she finally broke through as a genuine star.
Producer B.P. Schulberg had her under personal contract. He discovered a formula that clicked with the public and sometimes had her working in three movies simultaneously. At the height of her stardom during the silent era Bow was the most popular actress in Hollywood receiving 40,000 fan letters a week.
But Bow's personal demons, a series of public scandals, a grueling schedule, and the coming of sound conspired to destroy her magnificent career.
By 1930, Clara's value to Paramount was no longer what it once was. Schulberg, who owed his success to Bow, called her “Crisis-a-Day-Clara.”
He concentrated instead on his new protege—and mistress—the beautiful and waif like Sylvia Sidney. The contrast between the two actresses could not have been greater. Whereas Clara Bow was coarse and gutter-mouthed. Sidney was refined, a lady. Where Clara was an unpredictable genius, pure instinct, Sidney was a thoughtful, stage-trained actress.
Sylvia Sidney, publicity photo when she was under contract to
B.P. Schulberg, early 1930's.
In 1931, with her nerves shattered and her contract dissolved by Schulberg, Bow returned to her dressing room to pack her belongings, there she discovered that it was already assigned to Sylvia Sidney.
Bow was finished. Hollywood's biggest star was twenty-five years old.
B.P. Schulberg abandoned his wife and children for Sylvia Sidney. He then exited Paramount with Sidney and produced a series of pictures for her that failed at the box office. He gambled away his fortune. Sidney walked out on him when she caught him in bed with two prostitutes.
Schulberg died in 1957. Thirty years later, Sylvia Sidney was nominated for an Emmy award for her touching performance in An Early Frost, a made for television movie about AIDS.
The best book about Clara Bow is by screenwriter David Stenn, Clara Bow: Runnin' Wild.
My favorite Sylvia Sidney movies are Alfred Hitchcock's Sabotoge. And Fritz Lang's You Only Live Once. Her delicacy, understated acting style, and vulnerability are used perfectly in both films. Unfortunately, these performances locked her into a type she could not escape and she was cast again and again in the same roles as the long-suffering heroine. Sidney became bored with the parts assigned to her and returned to the stage as often as possible.
Sylvia Sidney, studio portrait, early 1930's.
Though not observant, this fine actress never tried to hide her Jewish roots like so many other Hollywood Jews. Sylvia Sidney was horrified by news of The Holocaust and was determined to do something for her people. Like most American Jews, Sidney must have had relatives trapped and doomed under the Nazi onslaught.
In 1943 Bronx born Sylvia Sidney participated in the dramatic pageant “We Will Never Die.”
Determined to alert the American public about the Nazi slaughter of the Jews, [screenwriter Ben] Hecht authored a dramatic pageant that he called “We Will Never Die.” (The title derived from a biblical verse affirming Jewish national survival.) With its cast of hundreds, “We Will Never Die” would be an extraordinary production in every sense of the word. According to Hecht’s plan, the actors would stand in front of two forty-foot-high tablets of the Ten Commandments. They would read aloud a long list of Jews who made important contributions to civilization throughout history. They would describe the Nazi slaughter of the Jews in painful detail. A group of children, garbed in white rags and their faces painted gray to resemble corpses, would quietly say the words “Remember us” over and over again. The performance would culminate in the dramatic reciting of “Kaddish,” the traditional Jewish prayer for the dead, by fifty elderly rabbis who had escaped from Europe.
We Will Never Die, 1943.
Edward G. Robinson, real name Emanuel Goldenberg, and Sylvia Sidney,
two of the stars of "We Will Never Die," reviewing the script with director
Billy Rose.
I'm aware of only one book about Sylvia Sidney, Sylvia: A Memoir of Hollywood Star Sylvia Sidney by Sally Miller. Have not read it, so I'm clueless.
Lobby Card for Clara Bow's Wild Party, 1929. Directed by Dorothy Arzner.
Douglas Sirk Directs Linda Darnell
Less Dialogue is More: Mervyn LeRoy, Vivien Leigh, Robert Taylor and Waterloo Bridge.
Alla Nazimova
Charlton Heston: A Moment of Silence
Lilyan Tashman.
Carmel Myers: The Rabbi's Beautiful Daughter
Colleen Moore: The Stars and Stripes
Colleen Moore's Wedding Night
One Hairstyle, Three Memoirs: Alma Rubens, Colleen Moore, Louise Brooks
Theda Bara: The Vamp Adopts the Troops
Movie Magazines: They Don't Print 'em Like They Used To
Alma Rubens: Dope Fiend, But Not a Jewess
Wallace Reid: Hollywood Shooting Star
Olive Thomas: Hollywood's First Suicide
Mary Pickford: The Greatest Movie Star
Seraphic Secret Chats with Actress Coleen Gray about John Wayne, Howard Hawks, and Stanley Kubrick
Susan Peters: The Great Unknown and Tragic Actress
The Blond Machine Gun: Jean Harlow
Peg Entwistle & The Hollywood Sign
Brigitte Bardot & Sean Connery in Shalako—Sorta
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at May 4, 2008 12:10 PM
Comments
Seraphic Secret is private property, that's right, it's an extension of our home, and as such, Karen and I have instituted two Seraphic Rules and we ask commentors to act respectfully.
1. No profanity.2. No Israel bashing. We debate, we discuss, we are respectful. You know what Israel bashing is. The world is full of it. Seraphic Secret is one of the few places in the world that will not tolerate this form of anti-Semitism. That's it. Break either of these rules and you will be banned.
wow, I couldn't tell that was Sylvia Sidney from that photograph. A younger generation may remember her from a funny bit role in Beetlejuice. (of course, that's now 20 years ago...yikes).
Posted by: cruisin-mom at May 4, 2008 03:54 PM
Cruisin' Mom:
Yes, the hat really obscures Sidney's distinctive features. Also, the flat lighting is just awful, but it's her, an very early portrait when she was still in the Bronx.
Sidney was great in her Beetlejuice role. I remember watching her and being so glad that she was working again.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.seraphicpress.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at May 5, 2008 12:19 AM
These entries are wonderful, and melancholy.
Speaking of "We Will Never Die," you may be interested in the David S. Wyman and Rafael Medoff book, "A Race Against Death: Peter Bergson, America, and the Holocaust," if you haven't already read it. The book discusses the background of the pageant as well as "Bergson's" efforts in America through interviews with the principal and others. Many contemporary echoes...
http://www.amazon.com/Race-Against-Death-Bergson-Holocaust/dp/156584761X/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210000444&sr=1-11
Posted by: Solomon at May 5, 2008 08:24 AM
Robert,
I was amazed to find about this We Will Never Die pageant. I found on the US Holocaust Museum's website a small film clip of this event (you might have already posted about it but I didn't see it).
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/media_fi.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10007047&MediaId=3107
Take care,
Rachel
Posted by: Rachel at May 6, 2008 06:16 AM
Solomon:
Thanks so much for the information and the link. I'll order the book.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at May 6, 2008 08:18 PM
Rachel:
Thanks so much for the link. I was not aware of it.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at May 6, 2008 08:19 PM