{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/tq5r786c61/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Oysher, Freydele and Harold Sternberg"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/115/original/Boxed_Milken_Center_logo.png?1628711583","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Preferred Citation"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eOysher, Freydele, and Harold Sternberg. 1995. Interview by Neil W. Levin and Barry Serota. Milken Archive Oral History Project. 31 May.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Publisher"]},"value":{"en":["Milken Family Foundation"]}},{"label":{"en":["Rights Statement"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003e© Milken Family Foundation. Unauthorized use is prohibited. For inquiries, please contact info@milkenarchive.org.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Agent"]},"value":{"en":["Oysher, Freydele (Artist)","Sternberg, Harold (Artist)","Levin, Neil W. (Interviewer)","Serota, Barry (Interviewer)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["1995-05-31"]}},{"label":{"en":["Coverage"]},"value":{"en":["New York, NY (Place of Recording)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Language"]},"value":{"en":["English (Primary)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eOral History Interview with Freydele Oysher and Harold Sternberg focuses on their career as performers in the Yiddish theater and their experience of working with musicians and composers of their time, in particular Moishe Oysher. The interview includes an overview of hazzanut and cantors who performed in the course of the twentieth century.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Format"]},"value":{"en":["Beta SP"]}},{"label":{"en":["Subject"]},"value":{"en":["Jews--Music (topical term)","Theater, Yiddish (topical term)","Choir, Yiddish (topical term)","Hazzanut (topical term)","Cantor (topical term)","Cantorial music (topical term)","Opera (topical term)","Oysher, Moishe, 1906-1958 (Person or Corporate Body)","Rosenblatt, Yossele, 1882-1933 (Person or Corporate Body)","Gebirtig, Mordechai, 1877-1942 (Person or Corporate Body)","Ellstein, Abraham, 1907-1963 (Person Or Corporate Body)","Olshanetsky, Alexander, 1892-1946 (Person or Corporate Body)","Oral Histories (genre/form)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Keyword"]},"value":{"en":["Abe Sinkoff, Abraham Ellstein (1907-1963), Alexander Olshanetsky (1892-1946), alto, bass, Bernard Sauer (1924-1991), Bores Thomashefsky (1866-1939), cantor, Caravan of Stars, chest voice, choir, counter-tenor, Crossing Delancey Street, daven, Ellie Katz, Enrico Caruso (1873-1921), Ethel Merman (1908-1984), EVD, Fiddler on the Roof, Hasidic music, hazzan, head voice, Henrietta Jacobson (1906-1988), Hymie Jacobson (1895-1952), Israel Rosenberg (1850-1903/04), Itzik Manger (1901-1969), Jacob Jacobs (1890-1977), Jacob Rappaport (1890-1943), Jan Peerce (1904-1984),Joseph Rumshinsky (1881-1956), Julius Adler (1906-1994), Lionel Barrymore (1878-1954), Louis B. Meyer (1885-1957), LTH, Lucy German (1889-1954), Ludwig Satz (1891-1944), Mary Martin (1913-1990), Maurice Schwartz (1890-1960), Max Wilner (1895-1956), MCA, Menasha Skulnik (1890-1970), mezzo, Michel Rosenberg (1901-1976), Mina Bern (1911-2010), Moishe Oysher (1906-1958), Molly Picon (1898-1992), Mordechai Gebirtig (1877-1942), Oscar Julius (1903-1986), Oscar Ostrov, Overture to Glory (1940), Patti Page (1927-2013), Peggy Lee (1920-2002), Perry Como (1912-2001), Pierre Pinchik (1900-1971), Pinchas Lavonda, RCA Victor, Robert Merrill (1917-2004), \"Rosa de Shabbos\" (\"Rozo d'Shabbos\"), Russ Columbo (1908-1934), Seymour Rechtzeit (1914-2002), Sholom Secunda (1894-1974), soprano, South America, Stone Avenue Talmud Torah, synagogue, Talmud Torah, The Anderson Yiddish Theater, The Cantor's Son (1927), The Civic Theater, The Clinton Theater, The Douglas Park Theater, The Jazz Singer (1927), The Jewish Week, The Metropolitan Opera, The Mitra Theater, The National Theatre, The Paramount, The Pines Hotel, The Romainische Schul, The Romanian-Hebrew Beneficial Association, Vyera Rozanka [Vera Rosanko] (1893-1985), WBFW, WCAU, WELK, WEVD, WFAN, William Schwartz, WREX, WSVC, Yankel der Schmid (1938), Yankel Kalich (1891-1975), Yiddish theater, Yossele Rosenblatt (1882-1933)"]}}],"summary":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eOral History Interview with Freydele Oysher and Harold Sternberg focuses on their career as performers in the Yiddish theater and their experience of working with musicians and composers of their time, in particular Moishe Oysher. The interview includes an overview of hazzanut and cantors who performed in the course of the twentieth century.\u003c/p\u003e"]},"requiredStatement":{"label":{"en":["Attribution"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003e\u0026copy; Milken Family Foundation. Unauthorized use is prohibited. For inquiries, please contact info@milkenarchive.org.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},"provider":[{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/115/original/Boxed_Milken_Center_logo.png?1628711583","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/111/982/small/OysterandSternberg.jpg?1621343119","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 1 - L3922_MA_OH_Oysher_Sternberg_4X3.mp4"]},"duration":4497.536,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/111/982/small/OysterandSternberg.jpg?1621343119","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-milken.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/111/982/original/L3922_MA_OH_Oysher_Sternberg_4X3.mp4?1619787029","type":"Video","format":"video/mp4","duration":4497.536,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["AUTO_TRINT_L3922_MA_OH_Oysher_Sternberg_4X3.mp4 [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nSEROTA:  Would you, would you say anything as to how you sing, relative to all the other women in the world?\n\nOYSHER:  Different than anybody else.  First of all, emotion is good, but you have to have a soul, a nishuma.  You have to know where you’re going.  First you have to know where you came from, so you’ll know where you’re going.  A lot of people don’t know.  And that’s important.\n\nSEROTA:  Technically speaking, though, in terms of the way you sing, you have a lot more chest resonance than, than a typical…\n\nOYSHER:  Yes.  I had very high notes, too.\n\nSEROTA:  Yeah.\n\nOYSHER:  But when you get older, everything falls down.  And I mean everything.\n\nSTERNBERG:  She was actually, she was a mezzo.  But she developed, because of the repertoire that she did, the hazzanas…\n\nSEROTA:  Yeah.\n\nSTERNBERG:  …sing in the chest.  The quality…\n\nSEROTA:  Right.\n\nSTERNBERG:  …because that lended itself…\n\nOYSHER:  It lended itself to the type of work that I was doing.\n\nSTERNBERG:  So she remained.  ‘Cause in school, the teacher wanted her to sing, to go up as like a mezzo in soprano parts.  Which she had.  But…\n\nOYSHER:  I didn’t want to use it, ‘cause I didn’t…\n\nSEROTA:  But she had, you have a very chesty quality.\n\nOYSHER:  …it didn’t do anything for me.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Chesty.  Only thing chesty quality, because like this, she sounded like a tenor.  \n\nLEVIN:  We were just talking about your, the chest voice…\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=15.0,78.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/2","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nOYSHER:  Yes.\n\nLEVIN:  …which is a different approach to singing.\n\nOYSHER:  Uh-huh.\n\nLEVIN:  And I’m curious whether that isn’t related to, to what you did as a child in the synagogue, with the kind of hazzanas.  Isn’t there a relationship there with that…\n\nOYSHER:  Well, I thought it sounded better.  I felt better.  It was unique.  It was different.  You know?  And it crossed the footlights.  I mean, they were, they were so enamored of this type of singing, and I felt very good doing that.  It was right for me.  For me, it was right.\n\nLEVIN:  It projects.  I just heard you now.\n\nOYSHER:  And the voice, yeah.\n\nLEVIN:  It projects beautifully.  But it…\n\nOYSHER:  ‘Cause if you say (sings in a high voice) Odon alom, a sher molah… something is lost.  Oh, I’m sure sopranos are brilliant, they’re wonderful.  But if you sing (sings in her chest voice) Adon olom a sher molah, b’terem kol y’tsin ivra… that’s a different, it has a different ring, a different sound.  It’s like an organ.  I mean, if you got it.  If you don’t have it, you don’t have it.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=78.0,138.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/3","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nLEVIN:  It’s like the boy alto sound, and the boy’s solo…\n\nOYSHER:  Yeah, the boy alto, but there are such thing as counter-tenors, too, you know.\n\nLEVIN:  Yeah.\n\nOYSHER:  A tenor who’s a counter-tenor.\n\nLEVIN:  Right.  Right.\n\nOYSHER:  You know.\n\nSTERNBERG:  The funniest thing…\n\nOYSHER:  So he sounds just like a soprano.\n\nSTERNBERG:  As a boy, I started to sing, like all my sisters and brothers, you know.  My older brother had a glorious alto.  I, when I was small, I used to suffer the flu, laryngitis and all that.  And I was always hoarse.  Until one day, my father told me, “Try to sing in your head, a soprano.  A soprano.”\n\nOYSHER:  Head tones, head tones.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Head tones.  And I started to sing, and I sang up to a high C like nothing.\n\nOYSHER:  Counter-tenor.\n\nSTERNBERG:  And I started to sing soprano, and I never got hoarse, and I was all right all along.\n\nOYSHER:  And Moishe never sang soprano, he never sang bass, he opened up his mouth and he sang.  He had a hoarse voice.\n\nSTERNBERG:  But, but usually when one…\n\nOYSHER:  Uh!  He’s a natural voice.\n\nSTERNBERG:  …loses the alto or the soprano, so he cannot sing for a couple of years.  One day I got up and I was about 13, I said, “I am going to sing from now bass.  I want to sing like Poppa.”  ‘Cause my father left for America, and we needed someone to fill out his spot.  So I said, “I will do it,” and I started to imitate Poppa’s singing, like a bass.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=138.0,212.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/4","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nLEVIN:  You did all the bass solos probably…\n\nOYSHER:  No.\n\nLEVIN:  …from Zaidel Rovner’s music.\n\nOYSHER:  He didn’t say, “I’ve got to sing like a bass.”  That doesn’t sound right to me.\n\nSTERNBERG:  No, no.  I…\n\nOYSHER:  He had the voice, he had the bass, he had the notes.\n\nSTERNBERG:  I sing like Poppa, I sing like Poppa, I sing.\n\nAnd the funniest thing — when Poppa left, I was 13, 14, and I still sang soprano.  When I came to America, when Poppa came to Ellis Island to take — I and a brother of mine, a younger, came first.  And my older brother and the other six sisters and brothers with my mother came two years later.  When we got off in Ellis Island, and we — that’s where he took the boat, he was cantor in Providence — and on the boat, I started to sing for him.  And my father, who had the most glorious bass, Yossele Bass, who was the famous bass…\n\nOYSHER:  Famous bass.\n\nSTERNBERG:  And he heard me, he said — I was only about 14, 15.  “Harold,” he says, “you have such a beautiful bass voice.”\n\nOYSHER:  That’s what he said, huh?\n\nSTERNBERG:  He said.  And he came to Providence, and he was hazzan in the synagogue.  So I conducted the choir for the High Holidays, and I did all the solos.\n\nSEROTA:  I understand that when you were in Providence, there once was a guest hazzan.  Hazzan Pinchik.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=212.0,288.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/5","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nSEROTA:  Do you remember when Pinchik came to Providence?\n\nOYSHER:  He was a, he was a character.\n\nSTERNBERG:  When he came to Providence, yes.  I took him around all over, and I helped him.  I even had a few mishorerim to hold him a tone, because he needed someone support…\n\nOYSHER:  What do you mean by “hold him a tone?”\n\nSTERNBERG:  To offer a tone, open a tone — ahhh!  But he was improvising, whatever.\n\nOYSHER:  Yeah.  Okay.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Open a tone.  That a choir that didn’t sing…\n\nOYSHER:  What is he doing?\n\nSTERNBERG:  But he helped the hazzan…\n\nOYSHER:  What are you doing there?\n\nSTERNBERG:  …alten golden a tone.  But golden a tone — the sopranos, the altos and the tenors and the basses.  They all, without any music, they would just in harmony, hold a tone for the hazzan when he was improvising, no matter what, what he was singing.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=288.0,330.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/6","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nLEVIN:  You knew Pinchik as well, Freydele?\n\nOYSHER:  Yes.  I worked with him.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Yeah.\n\nLEVIN:  You worked with him?\n\nOYSHER:  Yes.\n\nLEVIN:  What…\n\nOYSHER:  Weird man.\n\nLEVIN:  Yeah?\n\nOYSHER:  Weird…\n\nLEVIN:  How?\n\nOYSHER:  …stingy, difficult.\n\nLEVIN:  But you like difficult men.\n\nOYSHER:  He was like a diva.  His whole bit.\n\nLEVIN:  And…\n\nOYSHER:  Sometimes I wonder, there was nothing masculine about him.  He didn’t even sing masculine.  Not that I have anything against it, but…\n\nSTERNBERG:  He was a great hazzan.  I did…\n\nOYSHER:  Very good hazzan.\n\nSTERNBERG:  …Voka Shishuker with him.\n\nOYSHER:  Excellent.\n\nLEVIN:  But when you say he didn’t sing masculine, in all seriousness, he had a certain a specific sound…\n\nOYSHER:  He had a style.\n\nLEVIN:  It warbled.\n\nSTERNBERG:  He was a pure lyric tenor.\n\nOYSHER:  He, he had a style.  But there was something about him that was not warm.  That was not…\n\nLEVIN:  He wasn’t your favorite hazzan.\n\nOYSHER:  I liked him, I admired him very much, the way he sang.  But I, I didn’t go crazy about him.  I liked…\n\nSTERNBERG:  She like the handsome type.\n\nOYSHER:  You know who I liked?  I liked…\n\nSTERNBERG:  Yossele.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=330.0,384.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/7","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nOYSHER:  No, I liked Yossele…\n\nSTERNBERG:  Hirschman.\n\nOYSHER:  …because he was humane.  Hirschman I didn’t like.\n\nSTERNBERG:  But personally you didn’t like him.\n\nOYSHER:  I didn’t like him as a person; he wasn’t a nice person.\n\nSTERNBERG:  As a person he was.\n\nOYSHER:  I don’t feel like he was…\n\nSTERNBERG:  But she did all of his repertoire, Hirschman’s repertoire.\n\nOYSHER:  Yes, I did.  I did what was good for me.\n\nLEVIN:  Did you ever do Pinchik’s repertoire, did you ever do Rose of Shabbos?\n\nOYSHER:  No.  Rose of the Shabbos, no, I did not.\n\nLEVIN:  Or any of those things?\n\nOYSHER:  I had to like somebody to do it.\n\nLEVIN:  To do their music.\n\nOYSHER:  And if I didn’t, I made myself like it, if the number was good.  Like Leyore Lom, Leyore Raya Judim.  That’s, that’s…\n\nLEVIN:  Yeah.\n\nOYSHER:  …he, he was a biggie, to do that.\n\nLEVIN:  But, but…\n\nOYSHER:  It was his.\n\nLEVIN:  But Pinchik — where did you work with him?\n\nOYSHER:  I did a concert with him.\n\nLEVIN:  Ah.\n\nOYSHER:  I did two concerts with him, as a matter of fact.\n\nSEROTA:  What did he sing on the program?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=384.0,426.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/8","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nOYSHER:  He sang what he had to sing, but I did a lot of… when I used to go with these weirdoes, I used to, I used to try to do my songs — (Sings) Oy vic va Juden, ven if fa fuden.  In the ministrayn.  I would do Vashovsky, I would do Gebirtig, I would do these songs that they didn’t know about, to begin with, I don’t believe.\n\nSEROTA:  Didn’t Pinchik sing songs?\n\nOYSHER:  He sang songs, but to sing a folk song, you gotta sing the folk song that the folks should understand.  You understand?  If you do hazzanas das da dray de hazzanas.  Ah!  But a folk song has to be very, very simple.\n\nSEROTA:  You know, you were saying before…\n\nOYSHER:  You had to understand.  Yes, sir?  Am I right?\n\nLEVIN:  A hundred percent.  We were talking about that yesterday, as a matter of fact.  For quite some time.  The business about simplicity…\n\nOYSHER:  Yeah.  The simplicity —\n\nLEVIN:  A folk song, because a folk…\n\nOYSHER:  That’s why it’s called folk.\n\nLEVIN:  Exactly.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=426.0,472.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/9","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nOYSHER:  That’s why it’s called folk.\n\nSTERNBERG:  You know, you were speaking about Rosa de Shabbos.  There was a Rosa de Shabbos that every hazzan — Pinchik. all of them — (sings) Rosa, Rosa, Rosa de Shabbos.  You’ve heard that, you’ve heard that hazzan.  This was a… I told Moishe, “You know how you should do Rose of Shabbos?”  (sings) Rosa de Shabbos…\nOYSHER:  That part’s very…\n\nSTERNBERG:  (Continues singing).  And after you’re through, let the whole choir sing (Sings) Rosa de Shabbos….  Then you’ll go up there and you’ll sound…\n\nOYSHER:  To work with Moishe was a joy.  A complete joy.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=472.0,528.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/10","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nSEROTA:  Whose composition was that?\n\nOYSHER:  That’s Harold’s.\n\nSEROTA:  That’s your composition?\n\nOYSHER:  Mine and Harold’s.\n\nSTERNBERG:  I made it for Moishe.\n\nOYSHER:  What did you think that…\n\nSTERNBERG:  What you think what I did?  I did (Sings) Rosa, Rosa.\n\nOYSHER:  That’s why I didn’t like it.  ‘Cause Harold’s had fire.  It had a go, it had across the footlights.\n\nSTERNBERG:  So I said, “Moishe, this is not you.”  You’re (Sings) Rosa de Shabbos….\n\nOYSHER:  And when Moishe did it, Moishe climbed, he waned.  I said, “Moishe, why?”\n\nSTERNBERG:  It became a…\n\nOYSHER:  You know the story why he climbed up the mountain, because it was there?\n\nSTERNBERG:  Everyone who, Pinchik, Pinchik does Rosa de Shabbos.\n\nOYSHER:  That’s the story to it.\n\nSTERNBERG:  (Sings) Rosa, Rosa.  This is Pinchik.  Moishe didn’t do it like that.\n\nSEROTA:  Did you write a lot of compositions?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=528.0,575.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/11","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nSTERNBERG:  Yes.\n\nOYSHER:  Yes.  What did you write…\n\nSTERNBERG:  [Yiddish song name]…\n\nLEVIN:  I was gonna, what did you write, what did you write for Freydele to sing?\n\nSTERNBERG:  For Freydele?\n\nOYSHER:  Hazzan Godoysh.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Something that no hazzan…\n\nOYSHER:  Would sing.\n\nSTERNBERG:  [Yiddish song names].\n\nOYSHER:  There’s a part there — (Sings) Kaday, Kaday latorah… (Sternberg joins in).\n\nSTERNBERG:  And I wrote this for her.\n\nOYSHER:  (Sings) Ah, ah, ah… (Sternberg joins in).  Okay, that we have to hold, no?  (Sternberg continues)  I didn’t get around to that.  (Oysher joins him again)\n\nSTERNBERG:  I wrote for her many, many things.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=575.0,701.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/12","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nOYSHER:  He wrote this song.\n\nSTERNBERG:  I wrote it for her.\n\nLEVIN:  This is phenomenal.\n\nSTERNBERG:  And I wrote it for her, and Moishe sang it first.\n\nLEVIN:  Of course, it’s appropriate because…\n\nOYSHER:  (Sings again)  Amen.  And that’s how you sing it.  If you can’t do it like that, don’t do it.\n\nLEVIN:  You did this on concerts?\n\nOYSHER:  That’s why I did…\n\nSTERNBERG:  Concerts?\n\nLEVIN:  Concerts.\n\nOYSHER:  But I did it…\n\nSTERNBERG:  I wrote this, in the play where she closed the first act, the curtain went down, and she got an applause for eight minutes.  Even the orchestra stood on the stage with a watch and he said, eight minutes.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=701.0,747.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/13","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nOYSHER:  Where is everybody?\n\nLEVIN:  What play was this?\n\nSTERNBERG:  One of her shows.\n\nLEVIN:  What play?  The name of the…\n\nOYSHER:  Uh, uh…\n\nSTERNBERG:  Freydele’s Hassanne.\n\nOYSHER:  No, that was…\n\nSTERNBERG:  Hazzante Kinte.\n\nOYSHER:  No.  No, that’s not such a thing.  It is one of the plays.\n\nSTERNBERG:  One of the plays.\n\nLEVIN:  You don’t remember which one?  And this was one of the ones that was, the whole play was written especially for you?\n\nOYSHER:  Pardon?\n\nSTERNBERG:  This was…\n\nLEVIN:  This is, was one of the ones we were talking…\n\nOYSHER:  Everything was done so that I could be able to do what I had to do.\n\nSTERNBERG:  …she had to have, she had to have a concert number at the end of the first act, and the curtain went down…\n\nOYSHER:  So they’ll go and buy tickets.\n\nSTERNBERG:  She used to do La Libyay Juden or…\n\nOYSHER:  You know, there was…\n\nLEVIN:  Where’s the music to this, for example?  Where’s the music to this?\n\nOYSHER:  I had, I had the music.  I gave it away.\n\nLEVIN:  This should be performed.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=747.0,783.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/14","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nOYSHER:  You know, there’s one part of Ley Oylem that I did — (sings) Moo alach nu mach aynu… — What am I skip here?  (Continues singing) Oh, boy.  That was [INAUDIBLE].  Freydele.\n\nLEVIN:  I can’t believe that you never davenned.  Nowadays, you could get it.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=783.0,842.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/15","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nOYSHER:  Are you kidding?  If I had this when I did…\n\nLEVIN:  I can get it for you right now.  We’ll have to talk afterwards.\n\nOYSHER:  (Sings) Ma koma de boren kiyah… oh, that’s…\n\nLEVIN:  I mean, whether I believe in it, it doesn’t make any difference.  If the right management fee, we’ll talk.  Anyway…\n\nOYSHER:  I am not doing this anymore.\n\nSEROTA:  What compositions did you write for Moishe?  Aside from Rosa…\n\nSTERNBERG:  For Moishe?\n\nSEROTA:  Aside from Rosa de Shabbos.\n\nOYSHER:  Many, he did many.  All right, let’s go.  It’s five after 5.\n\nLEVIN:  You wrote Divis Sef Vitsir?\n\nSTERNBERG:  What?\n\nLEVIN:  The Debon Sev Vitsir.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Yeah.\n\nLEVIN:  But this, and this has choral parts, too.  You were singing some of the choral parts, right?\n\nOYSHER:  Oh, yes.  He did most of the choral parts.\n\nLEVIN:  So it’s…\n\nSTERNBERG:  I conducted for Moishe.\n\nLEVIN:  …solo and four-part…\n\nSTERNBERG:  I conducted for Moishe a number of years.\n\nLEVIN:  ‘Cause this would be a tremendous…\n\nOYSHER:  [INAUDIBLE]\nSEROTA:  Let’s go back a little bit.  Let’s go back.  Moishe first davenned as a hazzan Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur 1935 in the Romainishe Shul.\n\nSTERNBERG:  In the Romainishe Shul.\n\nSEROTA:  What happened afterwards?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=842.0,897.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/16","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nSTERNBERG:  After that, he went back to the theater.\n\nSEROTA:  Yes?\n\nSTERNBERG:  And we went to South America.\n\nSEROTA:  Did he daven Shabbosim anywhere during that period of time?\n\nSTERNBERG:  Me?  I took it down to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and he is, he wanted to play theater…\n\nSEROTA:  Yeah.\n\nSTERNBERG:  …and he wanted to start…\n\nOYSHER:  His heart was in the theater.  He loved it.\n\nSTERNBERG:  And because he got the name as a hazzan and all that, Moishe, Moishe was a — so they engaged him and they had Ludwig Satz and Yichud Michalesko.  All the balabusters sechen dennity ater gezuch name — Moishe Oysher.\n\nOYSHER:  Because he was…\n\nSEROTA:  Let me ask you a question.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Yeah.\n\nSEROTA:  I understand after this, he davenned in a shul in Williamsburg.\n\nOYSHER:  Oh, yes.\n\nSEROTA:  There was an incident that took place…\n\nSTERNBERG:  We were in South America.\n\nOYSHER:  No, no.\n\nSTERNBERG:  The incident that took place is after the synagogue, that he went back to the stage.\n\nOYSHER:  They resented that.\n\nSTERNBERG:  So they resented it, and they caused a big riot when he went from the stage back to the synagogue, in Orchard, in…\n\nSEROTA:  Rivington.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Rivington, yeah.  There was a big, because I, and they were, Moishe was called by the rabbunum, there were 40…\n\nOYSHER:  [INAUDIBLE]\nSTERNBERG:  …and they had to, they told him that he has to make up his mind.  Either he remains a hazzan or he’s an actor.  He cannot go back and forth.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=897.0,975.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/17","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nOYSHER:  He cannot go back and forth.  So he said.\n\nSTERNBERG:  And so he said he will play theater…\n\nOYSHER:  No, no.\n\nSTERNBERG:  …because the Jews that go the synagogue, the same Jews go, come to the theater.  The only thing, he will never play on Friday and on Saturday and on holidays.  But during the week, and motzei Shabbos, but that in the theater, gayn, vete zingen in the…\n\nOYSHER:  No.  He was very, he was very soft and very easy.  The rabbis had their… I can understand how they felt.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Well, there was a big scandal, you know.\n\nOYSHER:  And he said…\n\nSEROTA:  You were there then?\n\nSTERNBERG:  No, no, we were in South America.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=975.0,1008.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/18","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nOYSHER:  We were in South America.  He said one thing.  He says, “The same people who come to the theater, come to the synagogue.  We can’t chase them away.  They’ve got, we’ve got to do this.  I want to do this.  I promise you,” he said, “that I will not sing on Saturday, or not” — whatever it is.  The major thing he says, “I gotta do this.  This is my life.  I won’t…” — you notice that in all his movies that he has, and he has the, the love interest, he never embraces her.\n\nSTERNBERG:  He never embraces, he never kissed her.\n\nOYSHER:  And he never kisses her.  If you ever notice the show, none of them.\n\nSTERNBERG:  And he made all the pictures, after, when he became a hazzan.\n\nSEROTA:  So he became a hazzan, and he made…\n\nOYSHER:  Movies.\n\nSEROTA:  What was the first movie?\n\nSTERNBERG:  He didn’t… the first, A Hazzan Zingel.\n\nOYSHER:  Yeah.\n\nSEROTA:  And if I’m not mistaken…\n\nOYSHER:  Yankel the…\nSEROTA:  …you’re in the movie.\n\nSTERNBERG:  I’m in the movie, yeah, and I sing (sings) Vunder shol kil hol.  And I sing with Moishe the Dat and the Kiddushe, and I did…\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=1008.0,1061.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/19","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nSEROTA:  Whose Kiddushe does he sing there?\n\nSTERNBERG:  The Kiddushe that…\n\nSEROTA:  Who Elokenu?  Who wrote that?  That’s yours?\n\n[OYSHER AND STERNBERG SING A FEW BARS]\nOYSHER:  A lot of it Moishe made himself.  He knew what he wanted.\n\nSTERNBERG:  (Continues singing) Like something that I did with Moishe.\n\nSEROTA:  And the second movie was…\n\nSTERNBERG:  This was…\n\nOYSHER:  Yankel the Shmid.\n\nSTERNBERG:  This was born in the synagogue, where I’m davenning.\n\nSEROTA:  The second movie was Yankel?\n\nLEVIN:  Yankel the Shmid.\n\nOYSHER:  Yankel the Shmid.  And the third one was Overture to Glory.\n\nSEROTA:  De Bilna Bala Baysa.\n\nOYSHER:  De Bilna Bala Baysa.\n\nLEVIN:  That’s the most famous one now, isn’t it?\n\nSTERNBERG:  Yes.  Overture to Glory.\n\nLEVIN:  Yeah, Overture to Glory.\n\nOYSHER:  It’s an incredible film.\n\nSTERNBERG:  And then he made in Hollywood.\n\nOYSHER:  And you know how limited everything was.\n\nLEVIN:  That’s the amazing thing.\n\nOYSHER:  But then, ‘cause they had a soul.\n\nSTERNBERG:  With Robert Thaler, you know, in Hollywood.\n\nOYSHER:  Moishe…\n\nSEROTA:  Well, let’s, after he made the third movie, after he made the third movie, at that point…\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=1061.0,1116.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/20","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nOYSHER:  That’s when they…\n\nSEROTA:  …I understand he came on a road show tour with Bar Kokhba.\n\nOYSHER:  Bar Kokhba, yes.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Yes, yes.\n\nSEROTA:  And he came to…\n\nSTERNBERG:  Yeah, I was in the show.  I played it.\n\nSEROTA:  You were in the…\n\nSTERNBERG:  I played in it.\n\nSEROTA:  You were there with him when he was in Chicago?\n\nSTERNBERG:  Because he… yes.\n\nSEROTA:  What happened in the Chicago Civic Opera House?\n\nSTERNBERG:  They, they, what’s his name — Gotke Zazara.\n\nLEVIN:  Gallo.  Because…\n\nSEROTA:  Fortunae Gallo.\n\nSTERNBERG:  No, he was the…\n\nSEROTA:  Gallo, no?\n\nSTERNBERG:  Gallo.  Fortunae Gallo.  Came, came…\n\nOYSHER:  Into.\n\nSTERNBERG:  …backstage.  And he came to Moishe’s room.\n\nOYSHER:  “What are you doing here?”\n\nSTERNBERG:  And he wanted that he should sing in the opera.  In first place, Moishe did three performances at the Civic Opera, and they had standing room only.  And when the opera played, there were always half seats, the lady…\n\nOYSHER:  Half houses.  There weren’t any…\n\nSTERNBERG:  Half houses.  So Gallo came and he said, “I want you too, to come, so that you can sing opera.  I heard it, the way you sound, all that.”  And Moishe started to learn opera.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=1116.0,1171.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/21","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nSEROTA:  Who’d he study with?\n\nSTERNBERG:  He studied…\n\nOYSHER:  Fauste Klaver.\n\nSTERNBERG:  …studied with Fauste Klaver.  And as soon as he started to study, that’s when he got sick.\n\nOYSHER:  It wasn’t, he didn’t get sick because he started to study.\n\nSTERNBERG:  And he didn’t daven the on holidays, he didn’t do the holidays.  And Moishe said, “I guess I wasn’t destined to do what, I was destined to remain a hazzan, so I will not…”\n\nSEROTA:  What kind of sickness did he have?\n\nOYSHER:  He had a coronary.  And by the way, he happened to have a, a rheumatic heart since he was very small, because in Europe, I don’t have to tell you, the plagues that we had there.  We didn’t have a, a dollar to call a doctor, let alone if there was any doctor in Lipkam there.  And my mother lost four sons to that plague, in 18 weeks, which is a horror.  That was left was, Moishe was left.  There were five.\n\nSTERNBERG:  He was the oldest, and she was the youngest.\n\nOYSHER:  And I’m, I’m the youngest.  I was ten weeks old.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Just, Moishe and she.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=1171.0,1221.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/22","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nOYSHER:  My father went to America.  And then when I was him, when I came, he was eight years here.  I looked at her, “Who’s this man that’s embracing my mother?  Hey.  What’s going on here?”\n\nSEROTA:  So Moishe had a coronary at the age of 33?\n\nOYSHER:  Moishe had a coronary at the age of 33.\n\nSEROTA:  And then what did he do?\n\nOYSHER:  I think he worked.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Then he didn’t sing for a year.\n\nOYSHER:  He just worked.\n\nSEROTA:  Yeah.\n\nOYSHER:  Sad.  An awful sadness.\n\nSTERNBERG:  He didn’t sing for a year, and he went away to Los Angeles.\n\nSEROTA:  And you went with him to Los Angeles?\n\nSTERNBERG:  I was in Los Angeles with Moishe.\n\nOYSHER:  Wait.  Excuse me, Daddy.  The interesting thing is that when he got sick, he was supposed to daven in…\n\nSTERNBERG:  Sona in Talmud Torah.  No, no, no.  In the Bronx.\n\nOYSHER:  Or an easy, take it easy, mein kin, take it easy.\n\nSTERNBERG:  In the Bronx.  In a synagogue.\n\nLEVIN:  Grand Concourse?\n\nSTERNBERG:  No, no.\n\nOYSHER:  No.  There was a synagogue…\n\nSEROTA:  Toras Moishe?\n\nLEVIN:  Doesn’t matter.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Toras Moishe.  Talmud Toras Moishe.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=1221.0,1270.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/23","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nOYSHER:  All right.  So he was supposed to do that.  They didn’t believe him.  They didn’t believe that he was sick.  So he was living with us together at that time, Moishe.  He was separated from…\n\nSTERNBERG:  From Florence.\n\nOYSHER:  …from Florence Weiss, right.\n\nSTERNBERG:  From Florence Weiss, right.\n\nOYSHER:  And we lived together, and they had a wonderful relationship, so it was very nice.\n\nSTERNBERG:  He didn’t [INAUDIBLE]\nOYSHER:  And they came in one time, and they said, you know, [INAUDIBLE], I don’t have to tell you.  They came and they said, “Vus stitsa du?”  You know?  “Is he gonna daven or he’s not gonna daven?”  “Si vetz a gesen blicht.”\n\nI says, “Don’t say that.  He is sick.  And if he’s well, he’ll be able to daven.  If he’s not” — because the doctor who had examined him, he says he won’t go through the night.  He wasn’t supposed to even go through the night.  I said, “He will go through the night.”\n\nAnd I was pregnant.  So I thought, oh, my God, I’m carrying a name, a name, no.  I, I was, I didn’t even concentrate on that.  It’s human interest, you know.\n\nAnd they were difficult.  They wanted to see him, and I knew that if Moishe would see them, it would be a terrible feeling for him; it’d be a terrible shock.  “Am I really that sick?”\n\nAnd then it went out on all the newspapers, which wasn’t good.  They kept calling, all these things.  Finally, he couldn’t possibly make it, and he didn’t make it that Yontiff.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=1270.0,1350.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/24","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nSTERNBERG:  He did not.  No.\n\nOYSHER:  He did not.  No.  And the…\n\nSTERNBERG:  Actually, he didn’t sing almost a year.\n\nOYSHER:  No.  He didn’t sing until he went to Hollywood.\n\nSTERNBERG:  To Hollywood, he went…\n\nSEROTA:  What happened in Hollywood?\n\nSTERNBERG:  Yeah.\n\nOYSHER:  He took Harold along.\n\nSTERNBERG:  I went.\n\nOYSHER:  And I was walking around with the pippick, and that’s all.  I says, “Okay.”\n\nSTERNBERG:  And he started to…\n\nOYSHER:  No.  He did a concert there.  He did a concert in California.\n\nSTERNBERG:  In Los Angeles.\n\nOYSHER:  In Los Angeles, yeah.  He did a concert there, and then he did the movie.\n\nSEROTA:  How did he meet Louis B. Mayer?\n\nSTERNBERG:  I was, I was there…\n\nOYSHER:  They called him.  They called him there.  They wanted him to do songs…\n\nSTERNBERG:  They wanted, they wanted to redo The Jazz Singer or other things.  They wanted to use Moishe.  It was a movie.  And so they…\n\nOYSHER:  No.\n\nSTERNBERG:  …the first thing is they gave it, they wanted him to sing that song that he did.  Der Roshas a Mai.\n\nOYSHER:  Der Roshas a Mai.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Yeah.\n\nOYSHER:  Well, that was the major song there.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Yeah.\n\nOYSHER:  He had a — what do you call it those Russian…\n\nLEVIN:  Tunic?\n\nOYSHER:  It looks like a tunic, yeah, but there’s a word, a Russian word for it.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=1350.0,1411.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/25","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nLEVIN:  You mean for the shirt, the caftan?\n\nOYSHER:  It wasn’t, it was a caftan, yeah, that he was wearing.  And he sang And Russia Is Her Name — I don’t know the tune.\n\nSTERNBERG:  No, I was in Hollywood.\n\nOYSHER:  That was the first thing he did.\n\nSTERNBERG:  In the studio when Moishe did the…\n\nOYSHER:  That was the first thing he did, actually.  He didn’t daven.\n\nSTERNBERG:  That was the first thing, which was…\n\nOYSHER:  And after that, he did the concert.\n\nSTERNBERG:  That was after the opera, it was closed already, it was over in the summertime.  It was almost a, a year, you know.  When he started, when he did that.\n\nOYSHER:  You mean when you were in California?\n\nSTERNBERG:  Yeah.\n\nOYSHER:  No.  You were in California in February.  Yeah.  Yeah.  This camera’s rolling.  You were in February…\n\nSEROTA:  You were out in California within…\n\nOYSHER:  …because when you were in California with Moishe, I gave birth to Marilyn.  Whether you wanted to or not, okay?  You weren’t there.  Okay, my dear.  Now let’s go forward.\n\nSEROTA:  So he met Louis B. Mayer after he did a concert?\n\nOYSHER:  No good?\n\nSTERNBERG:  There was a party in Louis B. Mayer’s house for Moishe.\n\nSEROTA:  Yeah?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=1411.0,1467.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/26","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nSTERNBERG:  I was there.\n\nOYSHER:  Gregory Peck, all great.  Oh, there were all celebrities.\n\nSEROTA:  Who else was at the party?  Betty Hutton?\n\nOYSHER:  No.  Gregory Peck.\n\nSTERNBERG:  There were so many stars there, there were so many movie people, so many movie actors.\n\nOYSHER:  All of them, everything that was on Metro, you know.\n\nSEROTA:  Did Moishe sing at the party?\n\nSTERNBERG:  I don’t remember.  No, no.\n\nOYSHER:  He did.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Yes, yes, he did.  Yes, he did.\n\nOYSHER:  Yes, he did.\n\nSEROTA:  What’d he sing?\n\nSTERNBERG:  He did, I can’t remember what.\n\nLEVIN:  So how long did you stay out there?\n\nSTERNBERG:  Oh…\n\nOYSHER:  Well, they left…\n\nSTERNBERG: I was there with Moishe during the time that he recorded, sang, did the number. That was a couple of weeks. And then I received, I had to go for induction to the army. So, she…\n\nOYSHER: Who’s she?\n\nSTERNBERG:  …my wife.  She…\n\nOYSHER:  Who wife?\n\nSTERNBERG:  …she called me on the telephone…\n\nOYSHER:  What’s my name?  Freydele.\n\nSTERNBERG:  … “Come home, you have to go, you have to pick me up.”\n\nOYSHER:  Did you go?  Did you go?  Were you inducted into the Army?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=1467.0,1526.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/27","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nSTERNBERG:  No, I didn’t.\n\nOYSHER:  Can you tell me why you didn’t go?\n\nSTERNBERG:  My wife…\n\nOYSHER:  “My wife took care of it.”\n\nSTERNBERG:  She took care of it.  She, she coached me.\n\nSEROTA:  On what?\n\nSTERNBERG:  Uh-uh.\n\nLEVIN:  Eh, it’s over now.  It doesn’t matter.\n\nOYSHER:  That what was necessary.  However — first of all, I had a baby.  Hah, hah, hah, hah.  He had to take care of the baby.  Ah lech digge tu.\n\nNow, what else, guys?  Let’s go.  It’s ten to 5.\n\nSEROTA:  Of the various musical associations that Moishe had.  Composers, conductors.  Who was Moishe’s favorite, in terms of the various composers?\n\nOYSHER:  Two.  Abe Ellstein and…\n\nSTERNBERG:  Abe, also…\n\nOYSHER:  Olshinetsky.\n\nLEVIN:  Olshinetsky.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Olshinetsky.\n\nOYSHER:  He loved him, ah.  ‘Cause he was so creative.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Yeah.  And Abie Ellstein.\n\nOYSHER:  He was so creative.\n\nSTERNBERG:  But he did a lot of work with Rumshinsky, and with Secunda.\n\nOYSHER:  Yes.  True.\n\nSTERNBERG:  He worked with all them.\n\nOYSHER:  Everybody.\n\nSTERNBERG:  But his favorite…\n\nOYSHER:  And he always worked well with them.\n\nSTERNBERG:  …was Olshinetsky.\n\nSEROTA:  I noticed, for example…\n\nLEVIN:  Did you work with either of those?  With Ellstein?\n\nOYSHER:  Yes.  I worked with all of them.\n\nLEVIN:  So you know, Ellstein, Olshinetsky.\n\nOYSHER:  I worked with… I didn’t work with Olshinetsky.\n\nLEVIN:  No?\n\nOYSHER:  No.  I worked with Rumshinsky…\n\nSTERNBERG:  Rumshinsky and Secunda.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=1526.0,1585.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/28","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nOYSHER:  …I worked — the major, the major guy that worked with me was Secunda.  ‘Cause he had a popularistic streak.\n\nLEVIN:  That’s right.\n\nOYSHER:  That was very important to me.\n\nLEVIN:  Yeah.\n\nOYSHER:  ‘Cause I didn’t want to sing the real, you know, theatrical things.  Or I…\n\nLEVIN:  What about, what about, did you ever meet Rumshinsky’s son, Murray?\n\nOYSHER:  Oh, sure.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Sure.\n\nOYSHER:  Rumshinsky did the first, I think he did some, he wrote something for Marilyn.  He did a…\n\nLEVIN:  Yeah?\n\nOYSHER:  …a…\n\nLEVIN:  But he’s got a show he was talking about called Chicks and Boychicks.  Is that the one?  No.\n\nOYSHER:  With Marilyn.  And we didn’t sing these things — Chicks and Boychicks and all that.  We sang a little different.\n\nLEVIN:  Marilyn is…\n\nSTERNBERG:  You know…\n\nOYSHER:  Marilyn is what?\n\nLEVIN:  Marilyn has done Yiddish from the beginning, too?\n\nOYSHER:  Marilyn started with me.\n\nLEVIN:  She started with you?  She coached with you?\n\nOYSHER:  I took her on stage.\n\nSTERNBERG:  I have to tell you this thing, because we started to speak about Rumshinsky and Olshinetsky and all that.  I worked with all of them.  But the only one that I didn’t work was Rumshinsky.  As a matter of fact, it came to me that at one time, Rumshinsky — someone talk about me, he said, nah, nah.  That my father, he had a great voice and all that, but none of the five brothers, and on and on.  And I’ll say.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=1585.0,1656.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/29","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nOYSHER:  By the way, Rumshinsky’s sister also…\n\nSTERNBERG:  So Mayer…\n\nOYSHER:  Excuse me.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Insisted that he spoke to me…\n\nOYSHER:  He has three sisters also.  And they all sing.\n\nSTERNBERG:  He spoke to Rumshinsky and he said, “You’re going to audition.  You need a bass.  Take Freydele’s husband.  Take Harold.”  “No, no, no.”\n\nBut he couldn’t help himself; he took me.  And we came to that audition, and we’re singing with the eight, an octet, eight men, and after I sang one number, they say, “Thank you, Mr. Rumshinsky.  Thank you, gentlemen.  But we’d like the bass to remain here.”\n\nOYSHER:  Do you understand?  It’s too big of a lull.\n\nSEROTA:  Who was the best conductor of the bunch?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=1656.0,1697.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/30","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nOYSHER:  The best what?\n\nSEROTA:  Conductor.\n\nLEVIN:  Of all these.\n\nSTERNBERG:  I would say…\n\nOYSHER:  I think Olshinetsky was.  They all had their own way.\n\nFor instance, Olshinetsky had a fire.  He had a soul.  He did it.  He was the kind of man that I’d like to have in a pit.\n\nRumshinsky was like there was a conductor…\n\nSTERNBERG:  He was nice.\n\nOYSHER:  …an English conductor.\n\nSTERNBERG:  They’re all good conductors.\n\nOYSHER:  It was very easy.\n\nThe one that conducted and played and pulled a little bit, but was very important was Sholem Secunda.  He, he sort of felt, he felt the pulse of a singer.  Sholem could say, could play, and if it’s a little too high in the middle, he’ll transpose it for the, for the performer.  And they’ll feel, “Ah, a relief.”  You know, like he typed you, opened your belt, that’s too tight.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=1697.0,1750.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/31","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nSTERNBERG:  After, after that audition that Rumshinsky had there, and when they asked that I should remain, and naturally, Rumshinsky remained.\n\nOYSHER:  De nisht em bitz.  No.\n\nSTERNBERG:  No, no, no, no.  When he became back, you know, and Rumshinsky at that time conducted the hazzanim, 300 hazzanim, and always, they needed basses.  There were very few hazzanim basses.  So I always — and my brothers, five of us, you know, we always sang it.\n\nSo there was one number that they did in the [INAUDIBLE], stacht hazzanim did a trio.  So when it came to a rehearsal and they started rehearsal, it came to the bass part — the hazzan, it’s selected by the hazzanim who’s going to do it.  Rumshinsky says, “No, no, no, no, no.”  It was after the time when they said, “Thank you gentlemen, we want the bass to remain here.”  This part that they felt Harold…\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=1750.0,1807.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/32","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nOYSHER:  As much as they didn’t want him when he knew exactly how he sounded, and how he was.\n\nSTERNBERG:  After that, after that…\n\nOYSHER:  You know who was very… excuse me, dear.\n\nYou know who was responsible?  A major break-through for Moishe, as far as davenning and going and being a hazzan, and all that.  Is Shammai.\n\nSTERNBERG:  My brother.\n\nOYSHER:  Shammai, yes.  Shammai, his brother, his oldest brother…\n\nSTERNBERG:  He came…\n\nOYSHER:  …he saw in Moishe, that’s where it is.  He said, “Moishe, you’ll play theater anyhow.”  But he says, “This is where you have to make a living.  This is what you have to do.”  And he was very correct.\n\nSTERNBERG:  And as an actor, he was married to Florence Weiss, and they didn’t do well, and it was the beginning of the season, and no engagements.\n\nOYSHER:  That’s what I wanted to say about.\n\nSTERNBERG:  And if they wanted to engage him, so he wouldn’t go without his wife.  Because he was, he was….  But when my brother told him,…\n\nOYSHER:  I didn’t, it didn’t…\n\nSTERNBERG:  …he came, he came and he…\n\nOYSHER:  …play good, that he was going, Moishe.  Because he had to go away a lot.\n\nSTERNBERG:  …synagogue, the Romainishe Shul, for Moishe to daven in, and he davens a shabbos.  And slichas enne gevayns sendosen.  And there’s 3,000 that were picketing and 1,000 that came and it was…\n\nOYSHER:  Moishe didn’t mind.  He didn’t.\n\nSEROTA:  What did Florence think of this business of going into hazzanas?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=1807.0,1876.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/33","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nOYSHER:  She didn’t like it.  She didn’t like it, ‘cause look — she was out.  And she was…\n\nSTERNBERG:  She didn’t like it because as soon as he became a hazzan…\n\nOYSHER:  …she was an actress.  This was her life.\n\nSTERNBERG:  …he gave up, no more stage no more movies.\n\nSEROTA:  Well, after he became a hazzan, though, he made the movies, and she’s in all…\n\nSTERNBERG:  The movies, yeah.\n\nSEROTA:  …she’s in all the movies.\n\nOYSHER:  Yeah, but they were still together.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Yeah, he made the movies.\n\nOYSHER:  They were still together.  Absolutely.\n\nSTERNBERG:  The day he made the movies because he…\n\nOYSHER:  As a matter of fact, when…\n\nSTERNBERG:  The movies he didn’t make on Friday, on Shabbos.\n\nSEROTA:  No, no.\n\nOYSHER:  Before he got sick, that’s when he was, when he was with us.  Before he got — and then, when he got sick, he was with us.  They were already had separated.  You understand?  So that was it.\n\nBut she still was very unhappy, she still thought it’ll happen for her, he’ll take her back, or whatever it is.  But he had a different lifestyle now.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=1876.0,1920.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/34","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nLEVIN:  These conductors were, who conducted for you, Secunda conducted for you on records as well?\n\nOYSHER:  No.  Ellstein conducted on records.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Ellstein conducted the records.\n\nLEVIN:  You recorded for Banner, of course.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Banner.\n\nOYSHER:  Yes.  Yeah.\n\nLEVIN:  I suppose, yeah.\n\nOYSHER:  I conducted for, I sang for Banner, right.\n\nLEVIN:  How many records do you think it was?\n\nOYSHER:  One.\n\nLEVIN:  Just one?\n\nOYSHER:  I came from tour, I remember.  I came and…\n\nSTERNBERG:  She made two.\n\nOYSHER:  Two, yeah.\n\nSTERNBERG:  She made what I made for her, Derra Boyn Sher Come Svirah…\n\nOYSHER:  I did Svirah, and I did Aden Voorim, and I did Av Harachamim.\n\nSTERNBERG:  And Aden Voorim, and Ava and Kleine Avarachmim.\n\nOYSHER:  Yeah.\n\nLEVIN:  With orchestra or with piano?\n\nSEROTA:  Organ.\n\nOYSHER:  Organ, that’s all.\n\nLEVIN:  That’s it?\n\nOYSHER:  I came from tour, I was tired, I said, “Lar, put it down a half a key.”  Was that that time?  I went in — one shot, and I walked out.\n\nSEROTA:  Whose composition is the Av Harachamim?\n\nOYSHER:  Av Harachamim is Rappaport.  Hello?\n\nSEROTA:  Yeah.\n\nLEVIN:  Rappaport.  Jacob Rappaport.\n\nOYSHER:  Am I correct?\n\nLEVIN:  Yes, yes, yes, yes.\n\nSEROTA:  And Eilu Devorim is Rappaport.\n\nOYSHER:  Eilu Devorim is Rappaport.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=1920.0,1976.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/35","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nLEVIN:  Yeah.  And the Hasidin Kadoshe is Harold Sternberg.\n\nOYSHER:  That’s right.\n\nLEVIN:  Okay.\n\nOYSHER:  And, that’s right.\n\nLEVIN:  Okay.\n\nOYSHER:  Harold Sternberg.\n\nSTERNBERG:  That was the second record.  The first record…\n\nOYSHER:  And he came to me, he said to me, “You know, I like the way you sing it.  You sing it very well.  I’m satisfied.”  I said, “Good.”  Yeah.\n\nLEVIN:  When, when was the last time that you sang in public a whole concert?\n\nOYSHER:  Public?\n\nLEVIN:  Yeah, a concert.\n\nOYSHER:  I sing every day.\n\nLEVIN:  No, no, no.  But…\n\nOYSHER:  I go over to a public, I said, “Stop.  I will sing for you.”  I went into, when did I go into… into a post office, and I had something, that you don’t have enough things to show who you are or what you are.  So I told him, so I sang, (Sings) When you’re smiling, when you’re smiling…. “Oh, yes, you are Freydele,” he said.  “Fine.”\n\nSEROTA:  Who is Joy Rich?\n\nOYSHER:  Pardon?\n\nSEROTA:  Who is Joy Rich?\n\nOYSHER:  Me.  I used to be.\n\nSEROTA:  When?\n\nOYSHER:  Oh, I would say in the ‘40s.  In the ‘40s.  I didn’t make it.  I didn’t make it.\n\nAnd you know why?  Not I’ll say, “Oh, well, that was my destiny.”  No.  It just wasn’t right there at that time.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=1976.0,2039.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/36","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nSTERNBERG:  There was a man from…\n\nOYSHER:  What happened is there, there was a time when big voices were great.  Ethel Merman and that and that, they didn’t have any microphones and it, so they were right.  I still had that.  So when I went in, and I sang, already was coming Perry Como and Russ Columbo, and Patti Paige — (Sings) How much is that doggie — on two little notes.  You know, and Peggy Lee.  And suddenly, they hear this voice — no.  The ear wasn’t trained anymore to the big voice.  You understand what I mean, Neil?  And it wasn’t trained anymore for that.  So what happened, Barry?\n\nSo when they heard me, they said, “Can you sing softer?”  I said, “No.”  My whole life, I wanted to do like this.  And scare you or something.  And so they said, “Well, can you do this?”  I said no.\n\nNow they’re, now, all the Black singers are great, they sing, (sings) Ah, hah, hah, hah, and they turn, they twist.  I did that in my hazzanas.  But they couldn’t understand why I did it.  It had to be very, very, you know, easy.  Fine.  Low.  Low.  Little voice.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=2039.0,2106.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/37","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nSEROTA:  Did Moishe ever cross over into the general popular music field?\n\nOYSHER:  Yes.  Moishe did everything.  If there was something that Moishe liked in English, he did it in Jewish.  He did it.  Most of the time he…\n\nLEVIN:  Who made the translation?  He made the translations?\n\nSTERNBERG:  Himself.\n\nOYSHER:  He made the translations.\n\nSTERNBERG:  He would translate.  He would translate.  He even translated for himself, himself.  Figaro, Del Largo.\n\nOYSHER:  Largo, in Yiddish, shabbos.\n\nSTERNBERG:  In Yiddish.\n\nOYSHER:  (Starts to sing “Figaro.”)\nSEROTA:  Corlo to Pagliacci?\n\nSTERNBERG:  He did Pagliacci in Yiddish.\n\nLEVIN:  And what happened to all the things that he did, that he translated?  Is it written down anywhere?\n\nOYSHER:  Yes.  I have it.\n\nLEVIN:  Oh, you have it all?\n\nOYSHER:  Yeah.  I have it all.\n\nLEVIN:  For example, Moishe was a hazzan in Chicago, and continued there.  This is even after…\n\nSTERNBERG:  Yes.\n\nLEVIN:  …he was separated from…\n\nSTERNBERG:  Yeah.\n\nOYSHER:  Yeah, he davenned all over, yeah.\n\nLEVIN:  Do you remember where he davenned in Chicago?  Do you know what shul?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=2106.0,2150.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/38","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nSEROTA:  The Romainishe Shul.  The Romainishe Shul.\n\nSTERNBERG:  He davenned Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.\n\nLEVIN:  Where?  In Douglas Park?\n\nSEROTA:  Yeah.\n\nLEVIN:  Was that on Independence Boulevard?\n\nSEROTA:  On Douglas Boulevard.\n\nLEVIN:  On Douglas Boulevard.  And what was he?  He was there for the holidays?\n\nSEROTA:  Holidays.\n\nLEVIN:  Yeah.  And how long was he…\n\nSTERNBERG:  Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.\n\nLEVIN:  Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.  How many years did he do that?\n\nSEROTA:  I don’t know, but he was there long enough to get engaged once.\n\nLEVIN:  Yeah?  He got engaged in Chicago?\n\nOYSHER:  Yeah.  Yeah.\n\nLEVIN:  Yeah?\n\nOYSHER:  That’s right.\n\nLEVIN:  After he got, did he remarry?\n\nOYSHER:  He did, he was at Stone — let’s get out of Chicago.  All right?  Unless he takes me there.\n\nLEVIN:  You can come any time you want.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=2150.0,2179.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/39","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nOYSHER:  All right.  The interesting thing, he did a, whether he was davenning or something, at Stone Avenue Talmud Torah.  And naturally, after the Yom Toivim, you know, they get up, some of, the rabbi gets up and he makes a plea for money.  As a matter of fact, up in The Jewish Week, in the ‘80s, somebody wrote about it, and I had, I must have a piece on it.  And he saw that the rabbi, etze gemichit, and they didn’t want to give a dime.\n\nAnd as a matter of fact, when he davenned there, at the Stone Avenue Talmud Torah, he was quite a ways away from the, from the synagogue.  So Momma went with him.  That was when after he was sick.  You know?  So Momma went all over with, my mom went all over with him.  And he didn’t want to go to anybody’s house, ‘cause that was also far.  And he wanted to be near.  So he slept in the Stone Avenue Talmud Torah.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=2179.0,2238.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/40","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nAnd if you never slept in a synagogue at night, how eerie it is, you don’t know what it means.  There weren’t any pillows, there weren’t any blankets.  There wasn’t anything.  So Momma made him, she took a por sedurim, put it together, put it down on the ground, nearby somewheres, like a platform, you know, like you walk up.  She put it there, she says, “My kind, divash shtayndu, divash zayndu.  Du.  Metta zayn git, mein kind.  Mezanan in America.  Biz kenarnie be kimmen a gresses ach.  Iz zayn, mein kind.  De smircha zen davennen.”\n\nShe made this platform for him, she took off her shawl that she would use in the synagogue when she’s sitting, and she put it on the sidurim.  And she says, “Tizuch misht toyz.  Gayn dayn vid der gayz, mein kind, zolder a zayn kol.”  And he was sleeping there.\n\nMomma was sleeping on a chair.  Which, you know, on the chairs, there are nowheres to put your feet.  She was sleeping on the chair.  That Yontiff he was there.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=2238.0,2307.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/41","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nThen, when he came to the synagogue, and they made the appeal for, they made the appeal for money, and the rabbi was talking.  He couldn’t get it.  Finally, he says, “Rabbi.  Gir bayta.  Los mirchreden.”\n\nAnd he got up and he says, “I don’t anyone to give me fifty dollars or a hundred dollars or five.  Just each one of you” — it was sold out.  “I want you to give me a dollar, each one of you, please.”  And they sold out.  It was very touching.\n\nI was, I’m glad I remembered this.  It was very important.\n\nSEROTA:  I know Moishe had, was quite a Yiddishiste…\n\nOYSHER:  Oh!\n\nSEROTA:  …aside from writing his own lyrics for arias.\n\nOYSHER:  As a matter of fact, I did a dumb thing.  I gave a lot of them away to YIVO.  All his books that were autographed to him in gold.\n\nSEROTA:  But one of the most famous Yiddish poets in the last 30, 40 years…\n\nOYSHER:  Yeah.\n\nSEROTA:  Was Yitzhak Manger.\n\nOYSHER:  Yeah.\n\nSEROTA:  What was the nature of the relationship Moishe had with Yitzhak Manger?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=2307.0,2361.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/42","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nOYSHER:  It was a good relationship.  Until Moishe decided that his name is not Yitzhak.  So when he had to sing the song, (Sings) Oy vim vag shtayt a boyn, shtayt a ran….  So he said, so…\n\nSTERNBERG:  Yitzhak Manger.\n\nOYSHER:  So Manger said, “Ken shtushen stein.”  He says, “Ach keniz za Moishe.  I am singing it; this is mine.  I put my own art, identification on it.”\n\nSo he went and he did it.  He recorded it.  But he gave RCA Victor so much, so many problems — it was sold out immediately.  He gave them so many problems that they said, “Please, Mr. Oysher, take something else and do it on the other side.  We don’t want to, you know, band, shelve the record.  It’s terrific.”  So he, he couldn’t do it, because, for this one word.  Dugga mama.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=2361.0,2422.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/43","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nSTERNBERG:  Manger, ze dugde mama.  Moishe cried.  “Azoyt ne shugge…”\n\nOYSHER:  Nemen gots ze villa.\n\nSTERNBERG:  “Zug de mommen Yitzhak…”\n\nOYSHER:  He couldn’t.  This is not the fragge, choma vin zin delm mom del mimmen.\n\nSo this, this is what it was, that’s why they, so they took it off.  And he didn’t do any Manger anymore.  Because Moishe wanted to do a whole slew of Manger songs.  And they weren’t touched anymore.\n\nLEVIN:  There was an incident, one night, I heard a story that there was a woman, a female jazz band conductor…\n\nOYSHER:  Yeah?\n\nLEVIN:  …whom he, whom he later married.\n\nOYSHER:  Yeah.\n\nSTERNBERG:  He married.\n\nLEVIN:  But how did that story, how did that begin?  I mean, there was a…\n\nOYSHER:  I don’t know about that story.  I don’t remember it, and if I did, I wouldn’t care.\n\nLEVIN:  You’d like to forget it.\n\nOYSHER:  Yes.\n\nLEVIN:  But it’s a funny…\n\nSTERNBERG:  She was a band leader, you know.  And he was there.\n\nLEVIN:  A jazz band, jazz band.\n\nOYSHER:  She was up in the Concord.  No.  She was at the Concord…\n\nSTERNBERG:  The Concord.  She was a pianist.\n\nOYSHER:  …she was in an orchestra, and that’s it.  Is there anything else you want to ask me?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=2422.0,2480.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/44","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nSTERNBERG:  And they met, and they fell in love, and that was it.  They got married.\n\nLEVIN:  But he pulled an interesting stunt to get her to go out with him in the first place.\n\nOYSHER:  What was the stunt?\n\nLEVIN:  I don’t want to tell it.\n\nOYSHER:  If you need a stunt, it shouldn’t have been together, altogether.  That’s beside the story.\n\nLEVIN:  Didn’t he tell her something that he only had a certain amount of time to live, or something like that?\n\nOYSHER:  No, no, now that wasn’t so.\n\nSTERNBERG:  No.  No.\n\nOYSHER:  Have you got something else to ask me?  ‘Cause my time is very…\n\nLEVIN:  Where did he daven after the Concord?\n\nOYSHER:  Pardon?\n\nLEVIN:  He was at the Concord?  Was that the last place he davenned, or did he have other…\n\nSTERNBERG:  No.  He davenned at the…\n\nOYSHER:  He davenned all over, he was all over.\n\nSTERNBERG:  …he davenned in the Stone Avenue Talmud Torah.\n\nLEVIN:  That was after…\n\nOYSHER:  No, no, no.  You mean in the, you mean in the mountains.\n\nSTERNBERG:  The mountains.\n\nOYSHER:  He was at the Pines.\n\nSTERNBERG:  At the Pines.  And I conducted for him.\n\nOYSHER:  And he was at…\n\nLEVIN:  You conducted for him?\n\nSTERNBERG:  I conducted all the years there.\n\nOYSHER:  …the Paramount.  He was at the Pines, and he was at the Paramount, and he was…\n\nSTERNBERG:  And at Stone Avenue, I conducted.\n\nOYSHER:  And he was at the Concord.\n\nSEROTA:  But the last years, he was at the Pines Hotel.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=2480.0,2529.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/45","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nSTERNBERG:  Yeah.\n\nSEROTA:  The last years, until he died, he was at the Pines Hotel.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Every year.  A number of years.\n\nLEVIN:  So who conducted for him there?  At the Pines?\n\nOYSHER:  He…\n\nSTERNBERG:  I conducted.\n\nLEVIN:  You conducted.  What about Nadel?\n\nOYSHER:  Nadel?  That was his choir.\n\nSTERNBERG:  It was Nadel’s choir.\n\nOYSHER:  Yeah.\n\nLEVIN:  Oh, it was a Nadel choir, and you conducted.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Nadel the choir, and I conducted.\n\nThe only time I didn’t conduct for him there is Pesach, or any other, because I was with the opera.\n\nLEVIN:  You knew Nadel?\n\nOYSHER:  He was busy.\n\nLEVIN:  You knew Nadel?\n\nOYSHER:  Very well, yeah.  He was a sweet guy.  A nice, a very nice gentleman.  Nice.\n\nSEROTA:  Now I understand, that in addition to conducting for Moishe, you also sang in many choirs through the ‘40s and the ‘50s.  And you were a fixture in Temple Beis El in Borough Park.\n\nSTERNBERG:  In Temple, in Temple Beis El, Friedman — you know, at that time, the best singer, was $200, $250, $300 was…\n\nSEROTA:  Great for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur?  You’re talking about Rosh Hashanah?\n\nSTERNBERG:  Friedman paid me $1,000 to sing with him.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=2529.0,2583.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/46","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nSEROTA:  Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.\n\nOYSHER:  That was a lot of money.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Because Beis El wanted me.\n\nOYSHER:  That was a lot of money.\n\nSEROTA:  Now, wasn’t there a time that you conducted there?\n\nSTERNBERG:  Yes.\n\nSEROTA:  What happened?\n\nSTERNBERG:  I conducted.  When Friedman took sick, I conducted.\n\nOYSHER:  But the…\n\nSTERNBERG:  And then…\n\nOYSHER:  But you know what the trouble was?\n\nSTERNBERG:  …and then when Friedman died, and they wanted I should take the…\n\nOYSHER:  When he got sick.  He got well.  That was bad.\n\nSTERNBERG:  …job.  I came down and I told them as long as I’m at the opera, I cannot…\n\nLEVIN:  What’d you say?  I missed it.\n\nSTERNBERG:  So they said…\n\nOYSHER:  You missed it, uh, forget it.  These two, they can go on forever.\n\nSTERNBERG:  So they said, “But you’re conducting in,” I conducted just the holidays.  So I say there, I just conduct the holidays, until someone…\n\nOYSHER:  What are you looking for?\n\nSTERNBERG:  …Abie, Abie’s choir, and I conducted and that is all.  But to have the job on a whole year-round basis, I couldn’t…\n\nOYSHER:  I could never have, I could never have Friedman in my house.\n\nLEVIN:  You know what counterpoint means?\n\nOYSHER:  Yeah.\n\nLEVIN:  You know what a fugue is?\n\nOYSHER:  Yes.\n\nLEVIN:  Okay.  Now tell me again, ‘cause I didn’t — what were you, about the conductor, you said he got… he was sick?  That’s how he came there.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=2583.0,2638.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/47","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nOYSHER:  Yeah, but then he got well.\n\nLEVIN:  He got well, and it was…\n\nOYSHER:  You want a little humor, because it’s right; that’s how it should be.\n\nLEVIN:  Who, it’s true though.  Who are we talking about?\n\nSEROTA:  Friedman.\n\nSTERNBERG:  No, no, no.\n\nLEVIN:  Ben Friedman.\n\nSEROTA:  Ben Friedman.\n\nSTERNBERG:  No, no.\n\nOYSHER:  Oh, Ben Friedman.  I couldn’t have him in my house.\n\nSTERNBERG:  There was a holiday.\n\nOYSHER:  Oh, I don’t want to quarrel with you.  Forget it.\n\nSTERNBERG:  There was a holiday.  How I became a conductor.\n\nOn Kol Nidre night, there was a conductor, there for Rosh Hashanah.  That I sang that holiday.  And Yom Kippur, the day, he took sick.\n\nOYSHER:  He took what?\n\nSTERNBERG:  He became sick.\n\nOYSHER:  Okay.\n\nSTERNBERG:  And the choir is there, the hazzan, and so someone had to conduct.  So they said, “Harold…”\n\nOYSHER:  No, they didn’t.  They called up.  He says, “Freya, I think the man died.”  I said, “Okay.  What are you gonna do?  Let’s go.”\n\nSTERNBERG:  So I…\n\nOYSHER:  So he says, so he says, “What’s gonna be?  There’s a choir?”  I says, “Do you know your thing?”  He says, “Yeah.”  I says, “Do you know everybody else’s?”  “Yeah.”  I says, “Conduct.”  He says, “But I never did.”  I says, “There’s always a first time.”\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=2638.0,2693.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/48","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nSTERNBERG:  Ah, come on.  I never did that.\n\nOYSHER:  Did you conduct?\n\nSTERNBERG:  Yes, I conducted.\n\nOYSHER:  All right.  So what could I do?\n\nSTERNBERG:  It, fell on me that I had to conduct…\n\nOYSHER:  I love it.\n\nSTERNBERG:  And when I conducted, I spoke to the choir, and I said, “Look.  You all know your parts.  I only want you to watch me and pay attention to what I ask you.  I don't want loud singing.  I want piano singing, but nice, together, under my, the tempos the way I will.”\n\nAnd the same choir that was Rosh Hashanah and Kol Nidre night, and when I conducted them, the day of Yom Kippur, it was a different choir.  That the singers themselves and the hazzan that was there, I forget his name.\n\nSEROTA:  Koussevitzky?\n\nSTERNBERG:  No, no, not Koussevitzky.  One of the star hazzanim.  It was in the mountains, in Atlantic City.  It was in Atlantic City, one of the hotels.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=2693.0,2758.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/49","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nOYSHER:  The Breakers.\n\nSTERNBERG:  And…\n\nOYSHER:  Was it The Breakers?\n\nSTERNBERG:  No, no, no.\n\nAnyway, the success that I made, they, Abe found out, he said, “Harold, from now on, you will have to conduct.  Because the only way I can have that job again is if you will conduct there.”  I made such a success.\n\nSo what happened?  Moishe needed a choir at the Pines, and he took Abe Ellstein.  Abe had three or four synagogues, four choirs.  So he said, “Well, I’ll give you your brother-in-law.  Because they want them there, you know, but I’ll give him to you.”\n\nSEROTA:  Yeah.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Moishe was thrilled, having me there.  And the singing of the choir, with Moishe, this was something that the people…\n\nOYSHER:  He was thrilled.  He was, he felt very secure with him.  Wish I could say that.\n\nOkay, next?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=2758.0,2814.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/50","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nSTERNBERG:  You know, one thing about, about…\n\nOYSHER:  Did you pick that up?\n\nSTERNBERG:  …I admired Julius Adler.\n\nLEVIN:  Who?\n\nSTERNBERG:  Julius Adler I admired.\n\nOYSHER:  Who?\n\nSTERNBERG:  He was one of the conductors of the Yiddish Theater.\n\nOYSHER:  Not Julius Adler, Harold.\n\nSTERNBERG:  I…\n\nOYSHER:  Uh, Harold, it’s the wrong name.\n\nSTERNBERG:  I…\n\nOYSHER:  You got the wrong name.\n\nLEVIN:  Who is he talking about?\n\nSTERNBERG:  Eh…\n\nOYSHER:  Oscar Julius.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Oscar Julius.\n\nLEVIN:  Oscar Julius.  Yeah, tell me about Oscar Julius.  You know Oscar Julius, too?\n\nSTERNBERG:  Oscar Julius.  I sang with Julius a couple of years, and I admired him.  And the things that he used to do, I admired to such extent that I thought if I ever conduct, I’ll do like Julius.  Oscar Julius.\n\nAnd I started to, with the people, they followed me to do all the things that Julius…\n\nOYSHER:  How did I get into this?  How did I get into this?  Okay.  You want to ask more questions?\n\nLEVIN:  Tell me about Julius.  I want to ask you about, I want to talk about Julius.\n\nOYSHER:  You got a few more minutes.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Julius was one of the best conductors in the synagogue.\n\nOYSHER:  And a good guy, too.  He was good.  Nice man.\n\nSTERNBERG:  He was the best.\n\nLEVIN:  The best.\n\nSTERNBERG:  The best.\n\nLEVIN:  Probably the most, and did you sing with him?\n\nOYSHER:  With Oscar Julius?\n\nLEVIN:  Did you ever sing with Julius?\n\nOYSHER:  I didn’t do any chorus things.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=2814.0,2876.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/51","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nLEVIN:  Listen, but you did, the Caval-, what was it?  Cavalcade of Stars, or something like that?\n\nOYSHER:  Yeah, I did it.\n\nSEROTA:  Caravan of Stars.\n\nLEVIN:  Caravan of Stars.\n\nOYSHER:  Caravan of Stars.\n\nLEVIN:  What was that all about?\n\nOYSHER:  You’re getting together with him?\n\nLEVIN:  I’m talking to you now.\n\nOYSHER:  Cavalcade of Stars?\n\nLEVIN:  All right, so listen.\n\nOYSHER:  All right.\n\nLEVIN:  I’m getting old, too.\n\nOYSHER:  So what’s happening with you?  Caravan of… yes, I did.  What did I do?  I sang there.  I sang.  Wherever there was a place, I sang.\n\nLEVIN:  You’d sing anywhere, anytime.\n\nOYSHER:  Anywheres, anytime.\n\nLEVIN:  That’s what Jan Peerce used to say.  He used to say, he says, “When I get off a plane,” he says, “I go right to rehearsal.  I don’t need to warm up, because I can sing…”\n\nOYSHER:  That’s all.\n\nLEVIN:  “…any place, any time.”\n\nOYSHER:  Every time I used to hear, so — there was a man, by the name — can I say something?\n\nSTERNBERG:  Yes.\n\nOYSHER:  Meyer Steinwurtzel.  He was a terrific singer.  Kat gavayt tenor, yo?\n\nSTERNBERG:  Yeah.\n\nSEROTA:  He sang in Beis El as a tenor in the choir.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=2876.0,2918.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/52","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nOYSHER:  Yeah, yeah.  He was terrific.  Wonderful.\n\nAnd we had a program on WEVD, for Bond Bread.  He and he — both together, it was only 15 minutes, but both together, I did a song, he did a tune, I did two, he did one.  Apropos of something, I’m telling you this, and I don’t remember why.  But he used to have a habit — ahem.  Ahem.  To, you know, there was a nervousness.  I says, “Swallow.  Swallow.”  No.  He had a cough.  He could cough up.  And you know, it’s contagious, everybody starts coughing, like a person starts yawning, you know.  And everybody yawns.\n\nSo I said, “Don’t do that.  Don’t do that, Meyer.”  He was right in back of me.  Apropos of what I’m, why am I telling it to you?  For a reason.  He said something.  You don’t remember?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=2918.0,2965.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/53","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nSTERNBERG:  I don’t know.\n\nLEVIN:  I had asked you about the Caravan of Stars.\n\nOYSHER:  Yeah.  That, well, that’s besides the point.\n\nSEROTA:  And Jan Peerce said he could sing anyplace.\n\nLEVIN:  Oh, Jan Peerce.  Yeah, that technique that you could sing anytime, anyplace.\n\nOYSHER:  That’s right.  So he says, that’s right.  The technique.  See what I mean.  And to have help.\n\nSo he was standing in the back going “Ahem, ahem.”  And I gotta go on.  I said, “Don’t do that.”  He says, “I have something in my throat.”  I says, “No.  You have something in your head.  Don’t do that.”  He says, “I didn’t warm up.”  I says, “I didn’t warm up either.”  I says, “So I’m going on right now.  I said — “Ahem” — he kept on — this is the story, to warm up and to do it, you know.\n\nSopranos have to warm up.  All the singers — Moishe never warmed up.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=2965.0,3006.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/54","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nSTERNBERG:  The concerts Moishe…\n\nLEVIN:  Wait, wait, wait.  Moishe never did a…\n\nOYSHER:  No.  He said, “Hah, hah, hah.”  All the — aven zin zuch de — whatever I have, I’ll do it on the stage.\n\nSTERNBERG:  You know, Robert, Robert Merrill and Tucker where one of the concerts where many stars were.  And she walks in, Robert Merrill, to talk, and, “Let’s go first.  She’s here.  After her, we won’t be able to do anything.”\n\nOYSHER:  Yeah, that’s…\n\nSEROTA:  Who did you study voice with?\n\nSTERNBERG:  Who?\n\nSEROTA:  You.  Who did you study voice with?\n\nSTERNBERG:  With no one.  With my father.\n\nSEROTA:  I was just gonna say…\n\nOYSHER:  And he’s a natural voice.\n\nSEROTA:  And who did Moishe study voice with?\n\nSTERNBERG:  Moishe?\n\nSEROTA:  Yeah.\n\nOYSHER:  What’s his name?  With…\n\nSTERNBERG:  With no one.  With no one.  He studied with Klaver.\n\nOYSHER:  Yeah.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Repertoire.  Arias.\n\nOYSHER:  Repertoire.  Bless you.\n\nSTERNBERG:  But a voice?  You know what Klaver said?  Klaver said, “Moishe, you’re puzzle to me.  I thought that you’re a baritone.  No, you’re a tenor.”\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=3006.0,3056.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/55","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nOYSHER:  And you know who was a tenor-baritone?  Enrico Caruso.  He had baritone, he was a baritone.  And, and qualities, and really, a tenor and baritone.\n\nSTERNBERG:  And Klaver said, “Moishe…”\n\nOYSHER:  These are natural voices.  These are not manufactured.\n\nSTERNBERG:  “…if you will learn one or two operas, anything, you will revolutionize the opera.”\n\nSEROTA:  Do you think Moishe was a tenor or a baritone?\n\nOYSHER:  It depends on what he wanted to do.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Moishe, he could do either tenor or baritone, whichever he choosed.\n\nOYSHER:  A phenomenal voice.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Yeah.  But the thing is, when Moishe started to study — and that’s when he got sick.  So Moishe stopped and he said, “I guess I wasn’t destined to do it.”\n\nOYSHER:  Yeah.  You…\n\nSEROTA:  Did Moishe think of himself as being a tenor?\n\nSTERNBERG:  He did all the tenor solos.  But there are many tenors that came to A, B-flat, what they, Moishe — high C, ba mumitz, nothing.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=3056.0,3111.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/56","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nSEROTA:  Did he think of him…\n\nSTERNBERG:  Moishe sang a high C like that.\n\nSEROTA:  Did he think he was a tenor?\n\nOYSHER:  Yeah.  He had tenor, definitely.  He was a tenor.\n\nSEROTA:  Or a baritone with a high C?\n\nSTERNBERG:  It was a baritone with a high C, but he sustained it, ‘cause he…\n\nOYSHER:  Listen, you want a, the rarities.  You know what they’re called?  The rarities of life.  This is — like everybody plays piano, but there’s someone that plays piano or fiddle, and he’s a prodigy.\n\nSTERNBERG:  He mentioned that Klaver, who said, “Moishe, you’re a puzzle to me.”  And Klaver…\n\nOYSHER:  It’s not a puzzlement.\n\nSTERNBERG:  …at the Metropolitan.  “Because you can sing any baritone aria, and you can sing any tenor aria.”\n\nOYSHER:  This is a great gift.  A great gift.  \n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=3111.0,3147.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/57","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\nSEROTA:  We mentioned before…\n\nOYSHER:  Yeah.\n\nSEROTA:  How it was that you had been planning to make a film.  And we have here — are we ready?  We have here — what is this?\n\nOYSHER:  Oh, this is the, this is the list of The Cantor’s Daughter that was supposed to be made, and do you remember the date?  You looked at the…\n\nSEROTA:  Well, we mentioned Moishe’s movie, The Cantor’s…\n\nOYSHER:  The Cantor’s Son.\n\nSEROTA:  The Vilna Val Baysel came out in February of 1940.  This was going to be about three or four months later.  May of 1940 was the date of the legal letter that you got.\n\nOYSHER:  Yeah.  Uh-huh.\n\nSEROTA:  And Mr. Lande, you made The Vilna Balla Baysa was…\n\nOYSHER:  Yeah.  Mildred Lande made Vilna Balla Baysa and he wanted, which was The Hazzan’s Zee…\n\nSEROTA:  Overture to Glory.\n\nOYSHER:  No.  No.  The first, the first…\n\nSEROTA:  Was The Cantor’s Son.\n\nOYSHER:  Was The Cantor’s Son.\n\nSEROTA:  Right.\n\nOYSHER:  And then they wanted to make The Cantor’s Daughter.  With me.  So they had everything made, they had ten days put down, straight, you know.  The total, what it has to cost.  Big deal.  It’s not even a tip today.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=3147.0,3208.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/58","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nSEROTA:  What’s the budget there?\n\nOYSHER:  The budget there was $16,000, $17,990.  I don’t know — it says here something.  A percentage.  And they had here the crew and the camera and the sound and studio equipment, sets, props, costumes, director, make-up, an assistant tailor, assistant and so forth and so on and so on.  Cast and recording, electric, miscellaneous, which was what?\n\nSEROTA:  I don’t know.\n\nOYSHER:  Miscellaneous.  And this was, and three assistants, $110.  Then it had the cast.  Freydele…\n\nSEROTA:  But in any event…\n\nOYSHER:  Mikel Rosenberg, Hannah Appel, a boy, nine actors, extra.  And how much was the whole thing, would the whole thing be?  $3,000.\n\nSEROTA:  For the actors.\n\nOYSHER:  What three actors?  One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine — stars.  Including quote-quote me.  And I’m down here for a snappy couple of hundred dollars, maybe a hundred or two hundred dollars.  The rest, I get $60, $300.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=3208.0,3263.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/59","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nSEROTA:  But in any event, the war had broken out.\n\nOYSHER:  The war had broken out, right.\n\nSEROTA:  And then no more Yiddish films were being made.\n\nOYSHER:  No more Yiddish, right.\n\nSEROTA:  Now, what is this?\n\nOYSHER:  I was going, in ’36, I went to South America.  I was married only a year, so I figured, eh!  We’ll celebrate our marriage and whatever, and go to work there.\n\nSEROTA:  Okay.\n\nOYSHER:  I was, at the Mitra, Mitra Theater.\n\nSEROTA:  And this?\n\nOYSHER:  This is from, yeah, Teatra Mitra.  Harold and I.  My husband and I.  He played the leading man.\n\nSEROTA:  Here we, I see another ad from the same theater.\n\nOYSHER:  Yiddishe Meden, Teatra Mitra, just — yeah.\n\nSEROTA:  And also Halama Hazzan.\n\nOYSHER:  Halama, yeah, Halama Hazzantut.  That, that was a fun thing.\n\nSEROTA:  Okay, and here’s another, another ad for the same theater.\n\nOYSHER:  Yes.  Freydele.  Barkov-, wrote The Bar Mitzvah.\n\nSTERNBERG:  The Bar Mitzvah.\n\nOYSHER:  After I had played all the, all my own, you know, my own shows that were written for me, I needed material, so I had to do The Bar Mitzvah, I had to do Halama the Hazzantel.  I had to do things that I had never played before.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=3263.0,3332.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/60","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nSTERNBERG:  Business was so great there, that they brought all these plays.  We didn’t even have them.\n\nSEROTA:  Whose show is Bar Mitzvah?  Who wrote that show?\n\nSTERNBERG:  Bar Mitzvah?  By Tomashefsky.\n\nOYSHER:  Tomashefsky’s show.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Okay.  And this?\n\nOYSHER:   But wait.  I did the, I did A Bar Mitzvah with Tomashefsky.  I, I worked with Tomashefsky on that.\n\nAnd this is the National Theater.  And here you have Hymie Jacobsen, you have Freydel Oysher, you have Chaim Toybert, you have Florence Weiss, and you have Michele Yosig.  Well, I like to mention them.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Okay.\n\nOYSHER:  That’s a good idea.\n\nHere, I did — this, this was interesting.  I heard everybody was going to Montreal, to clubs.  You know?  To cafes, to clubs to do.  So I decided to go also.  I went there in Montreal, as a diz eshte mul.  Freydel Oysher.  I came there with Hymie Jacobsen, he was my accompanist — a brilliant accompanist, a terrific, talented man.  And he, and they didn’t, the audience, they didn’t come.  They didn’t want to see me in a, in a café, in a cabaret.  Everybody was there.  Every, all the other actors.  But I didn’t, they didn’t come.\n\nThat was in, I’m trying to see the date.  I can’t see the date.  It must have been some, some times in January, February, you know.  You don’t go to Montreal at that time…\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=3332.0,3417.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/61","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nSEROTA:  No.\n\nOYSHER:  The snow is that deep.  And they didn’t, but when I came there for Pesach, everybody turned out.  I says, “What happened?  Why didn’t you come to me when I was at Sofrin’s?”  They said, “We didn’t want to see you there.  We’d rather see you in a theater.”\n\nSo I think I came to Her Majesty’s Theater, where I had a concert there, I did a recital.\n\nSEROTA:  But in addition to your appearing in theater…\n\nOYSHER:  Yes.\n\nSEROTA:  …you also appeared in concert.\n\nOYSHER:  Oh, that was a major thing.  The recitals were my love.\n\nSEROTA:  Here is a…\n\nOYSHER:  They were the love of my life.  I have a tremendous, a, here.  That’s a beautiful thing.  And I have a tremendous repertoire, which I adored.  And I didn’t have the responsibility of, of having the cast on my head, you know?  And having the cues and everything.  I was my own person on a, at a recital.\n\nSEROTA:  When you sing you’re in the recital.\n\nOYSHER:  And here I have overture here, which Harold Green has played.  A brilliant pianist.  You didn’t need an orchestra with this man.  And he was very thoughtful and caring, and, and sensitive, and that was good.\n\nAnd then I sang Far Boost.  This is a song that Moishe wrote.  He sang, (Sings) Moishelah’s a yingele vitz mays…\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=3417.0,3473.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/62","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nSEROTA:  I noticed, I noticed, though, as to the credits…\n\nOYSHER:  Yeah.\n\nSEROTA:  It doesn’t say M. Oysher.\n\nOYSHER:  Yeah, because it wasn’t right, yeah.\n\nSEROTA:  He uses another pseudonym here.  What does it say?\n\nOYSHER:  No.  Moishe Reich.\n\nSEROTA:  Moishe Reich.\n\nOYSHER:  You know, Reich, Reich, it’s Oysher.  You understand?\n\nSTERNBERG:  Oysher is Reich.\n\nOYSHER:  So M. Reich.  He didn’t want, because he used to, he used to make songs, he used to sing songs, and he used to do all these things, he says, “It’s too much.  I,” like he didn’t want to do everything.  He…\n\nSEROTA:  Like Schwartz used to use a pseudonym, Charney.\n\nOYSHER:  Yeah, Charney, right.  That’s right.  You knew about it.  For a young person, you know an awful lot about this Yiddishkeit.  Very admirable.\n\nAnd then I did Eilu Devorim, which was Mr. Rappaport’s.  Amchu was not Secunda’s.  Amhoo was a folk song.  But hey!  Not a bad name, Secunda.\n\nAnd then he did, Harold Green did his Dance of the Rebbetsen, and he, he did things that were very nice, and didn’t interfere with anything I did.  Then I did The Yiddish Enigma, Joseph Rumshinsky.  I did Met Ha Hatoyne, Yossele Rosenblatt.  I, and then, he, Harold Green did a potpourri of Hasidic music.  Then I did Essem Ma David, by Rosenblatt.\n\nI was very partial to Rosenblatt.  Not only his singing and his work, but the person.  He was a very sweet man.  A dear man.\n\nAnd Ya Hosho Nisht Ke Koy, which is a folk song.  And…\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=3473.0,3553.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/63","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nSEROTA:  And who comes after you?  Who was the next, next artist in this series?\n\nOYSHER:  And this, I went up there and I said, “Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming.  You were wonderful.”  And wonderful people.  At that time, they still wanted to go to the theater.  They wanted to hear a folk song.  And I said, “My brother is coming.  Please enjoy.  Our next celebrity is my brother, Moishe.  Moishe Oysher.”\n\nAnd when he used to go before me, he used to say, “Ladies and gentlemen, don’t forget to come next month.  My sister Freydele is gonna be.  You’ll enjoy it.”\n\nSEROTA:  Okay.  Here is an ad for a theater…\n\nOYSHER:  Here is the Anderson Yiddish Theater.  Right here.  You have the entire cast here, you have Freydel Oysher and Sholem Secunda, which was very dear to me, because he was very helpful to me.  You have a tremendous, a slew of terrific actors.  Julius Adler, Henrietta Jacobsen, Yacob Zonger, Leo Liebgold.  Terrific.  Terrific actors.  Brilliant actors.  All of them.  Moishe Steinberg.  Marte Yassen.  A glorious group of people.  And Sholem Secunda was the conductor.  And I did A Hazzanate Lov Shabbos.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=3553.0,3627.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/64","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nSEROTA:  Okay.  Now we have a couple of ads from Chicago.\n\nOYSHER:  From your home town.\n\nSEROTA:  My home town.\n\nOYSHER:  Your home town.  This is, I was at the… where was that?\n\nSEROTA:  Douglas Park Theater?\n\nOYSHER:  At the Douglas, is that the Douglas Park?\n\nSEROTA:  I think so.\n\nOYSHER:  Douglas Park Theater, yeah.  And he was supposed to follow me.\n\nAnd here you have, I’m right there, Freydele, and here is the very, very delightful and charming and funny Menashe Skulnik — I have to look down to see who it was.\n\nSTERNBERG:  He followed you.\n\nOYSHER:  Yeah, he followed me.  Into the theater.  Which is how performers usually do.  You play four, five, six weeks.  And then somebody else comes in.  Hopefully, if the theater stays open.\n\nSTERNBERG:  One time you was there, Maury Schwartz followed you.\n\nOYSHER:  Yeah.  After — Maury Schwartz followed me in two, at the Douglas Park Theater at one time.\n\nSEROTA:  Okay.\n\nOYSHER:  Right.\n\nSEROTA:  Here also is a play that you did in Chicago, at the Douglas Park Theater.\n\nOYSHER:  Freydele Hazzante, right.  And there, the very first time.  So they put Moishe there.  Did you see?\n\nSEROTA:  Yes.\n\nOYSHER:  “Der Shvesta of Moishe” — ahhhh!  That was wonderful.  And Moishe used to day, “Der breder fum Freydele Oysher.”  And that was a lovely thing.\n\nSEROTA:  We spoke before about your being at the Civic Theater in Chicago?\n\nOYSHER:  Civic Theater, yeah.  I did The Little Queen there.  At that time, already, I had a, I had a little child, and I took her with me.  And every alamdid fe gedon sick — she got sick, finally, I couldn’t wait till I got back.\n\nBut it was a lovely theater, Civic.  Right next door to us was, right next door to this theater was Mary Martin.  In One Touch of Venus, with John Bold.  I think I told you that before.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=3627.0,3713.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/65","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nSEROTA:  Right.\n\nOYSHER:  Well, I tell it to you again.\n\nSEROTA:  That’s good.\n\nOYSHER:  You know the story.\n\nSEROTA:  It was good the first time; it’s good the second time.\n\nOYSHER:  “I got a pain.”  “Did you ever have it before?”  “Yes.”  “Well, you have it again.”\n\nSEROTA:  Okay.\n\nOYSHER:  Okay?  Good.\n\nThis is Halama Hazzante.  That was a cutie.  That was a cutie.  That’s also one.\n\nSEROTA:  I don’t know where it was.\n\nOYSHER:  John Hancock.  Oh, yes, yes.  I think this was in Boston.  This was in Boston.  I did this show in Boston.  Raiselah Max Borgnick.  Very brilliant, very terrific, very talented people.  Very talented.  I always took them with me, because they were very important.\n\nSEROTA:  Here is from Montreal.\n\nOYSHER:  From Montreal, yes.\n\nSEROTA:  Hazzante Shabbos.\n\nOYSHER:  Yes, yes, yes.  So again, music by Sholem Secunda.  And you have terrific — and what, Jacob Jacobs.  Terrific guy, who did the lyrics.  He was the best lyricist in the business.  Jacob Jacobs.\n\nSEROTA:  For many, many years he was in theater, right?\n\nOYSHER:  Oh, God.  He had his own theater, the Parkway Theater in Brooklyn.  And a nice man.  A very frum man.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Yeah, he had The National Theater for many, many years.\n\nOYSHER:  He had the National…\n\nSEROTA:  I remember he was still performing into his 90s.  Right?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=3713.0,3774.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/66","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nOYSHER:  Well, I, the last time I was in, I was in Montreal, he didn’t remember anything.  He didn’t remember what to say or what to do.  So he kept the entire book, he kept the book onstage, and he was looking for it and reading.  The audience was, they were bewildered.  How could he do that?  And somebody said, “Why do you let him?”  I says, “Let him.  Let him.  I don’t want to take it out of his hands.”\n\nSEROTA:  Okay.\n\nOYSHER:  It’s not such a big deal.\n\nSEROTA:  Here we have Oscar…\n\nOYSHER:  Ohhh, this man was very important in my life.  He’s a man who happened to — he, Oscar Ostrov wrote lyrics, he wrote music, he was sensitive, he understood.  And he was the one that said, “I am gonna bring Freydele Oysher here, because I know,” he says, “all what I, whatever I” — he had a, his wife had a lot of diamonds or whatever she had, jewelry.  And they put it into what do you call it?  The…\n\nSTERNBERG:  Hock.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=3774.0,3819.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/67","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nOYSHER:  Hock, yeah, they hocked it, that’s a word?  They got a, and finally, when I was there, he says, “I took the money out because of Freydele, terrific.”\n\nAnd this is Eretz Yisroel Est Meins.  Oscar Ostrov.  Yeah.  Very talented man.  And he did a great deal — as a matter of fact, last time he wrote me a letter, he wrote me a letter.  And he writes, he wrote, “Freydele,” he didn’t have my address.  He wrote, “Freydel Oysher, New York City.”\n\nSEROTA:  And it got there?\n\nOYSHER:  I got it.  I still have the letter.  I’m sorry I didn’t bring it.\n\nSEROTA:  He probably could have just sent it “Freydele” and it would have gotten there.\n\nOYSHER:  He was a terrific, wonderful.  He knew music, he knew how to write a, a nice song.  And he, he knew lyrics, he was sensitive.  He came from Lipkam, didn’t he?\n\nSTERNBERG:  Who?\n\nOYSHER:  Oscar.  Ostrov.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Ostrov?\n\nOYSHER:  Sure.\n\nSTERNBERG:  You know that he got a letter to Freydele.  Her name was always in the lights and on the marquee.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=3819.0,3872.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/68","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nOYSHER:  Yeah.  I think maybe that’s why they knew.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Freydel Oysher, Freydel Oysher.\n\nOYSHER:  And this is Freydele the Hazzante.  Okay.  I never cared when I had the hazzante.  I wanted either Freydele or Freydel Oysher, my whole name.\n\nSEROTA:  Did we mention why they didn’t use your last name sometimes?\n\nOYSHER:  It isn’t necessary.\n\nSEROTA:  Okay.\n\nOYSHER:  It isn’t necessary.  It’s gone and forgotten.  You’ve got to be forgiving; if you’re not forgiving, there would be no world.  No world, my friend.\n\nSEROTA:  This is for posterity.\n\nOYSHER:  Posterity, is that posterity, dochen.\n\nThat when this is, the Anderson Theater in 1971.  Which almost was a major mistake for me, because I was there in 1968, and I was just across the house where my mother lived.  It was, it was hard.  They said, “Do it, do it, you’ll do it well.”\n\nAnd here you have Mina Bern, you have Raisel Bovick, you have Bernard Sauer, you have David Carrey, a friend of mine, a dear, dear young man.\n\nAnd right, and on, it was a movie here.  There was, there was a show, a revue.  And a movie.  And the movie was with Maury Schwartz in Tevye the Milchechher.  And you know what that is?\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=3872.0,3934.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/69","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nSEROTA:  One of the great movies.\n\nOYSHER:  Pardon?\n\nSEROTA:  One of the great Yiddish films, Tevye.\n\nOYSHER:  One of the great, yeah.  And they made what?  Fiddler on the Roof.\n\nSEROTA:  Fiddler on the Roof.\n\nOYSHER:  Right.  This he, he did it, and it was terrific.  Very…\n\nSEROTA:  Here, I see them Hazzans Techlerol…\n\nOYSHER:  Temple.  Yeah.\n\nSEROTA:  …and I see, Borget.  She’s your…\n\nOYSHER:  I always took them all, they were brilliant.  They were very good people.\n\nSTERNBERG:  They were very good.\n\nSEROTA:  The star of Crossing Delancey Street, right?\n\nOYSHER:  She was the star in Crossing Delancey Street.  It’s interesting.  She made it bigger than anybody by, by getting the, the part.\n\nSEROTA:  Right.\n\nOYSHER:  Interesting enough.  And I was sorry about her, you know.\n\nAnd I had Florence Weiss with me here.  Yes, I had Florence Weiss.  And I had Maxel Raiselbovic.  He was very helpful to me when I went on tour and I was, it was difficult.  So I, I would ask him to do the show for me.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=3934.0,3982.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/70","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nSEROTA:  Okay.\n\nOYSHER:  You know, to direct the show for me.\n\nAnd this is night, this is Rozanka, Vera Rozanka.  And Israel Rosenberg.  He was an author, he wrote.\n\nSEROTA:  Who was Vera Rozanka?\n\nOYSHER:  She was his wife.\n\nSTERNBERG:  She was one of the stars of the Yiddish theater.\n\nOYSHER:  And he wanted me very much in the Clinton Theater.  And they said, “Go, go,” and so I did.  Ben Bolis was there.  Pinchas Lavonda.\n\nSEROTA:  How was he, Pinchas Lavonda?\n\nOYSHER:  Pinchas Lavonda was funny.  He and Seymour were in a play.  Der Ver Hazzans Toch.\n\nSEROTA:  Mmm-mmm.\n\nOYSHER:  And they had to do something very, very quick and very, and both of them were very lax and laid-back.  Pinchas and Seymour.  So he says, comes over to Seymour and he says to him, “Seymour,” I said, “Seymour, come on, up.”  ‘Cause he played the wolf.  You know, the… so Pinchas says — and he also was laid-back, you know, easy.  So he comes over to him and he says to him, “Seymour, you know why?  She wants you to have a little more pep.”  Have a little more pep — that was priceless.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=3982.0,4040.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/71","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nSEROTA:  How was Lavonda as a singer?\n\nOYSHER:  Very good.  Not — he had a very big hit.  He had a (Sings) Nat tal shal, shvartz zin a tal shal.  Yeah, he was very, he was a liebover.  And he sang, he had a good voice.\n\nSEROTA:  Is that song by Olshinetsky, that song?\n\nOYSHER:  I don’t know who wrote it.\n\nSTERNBERG:  No, no.\n\nOYSHER:  I didn’t sing it.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Not Olshinetsky.\n\nOYSHER:  This is from Havana.  This is from Havana.  Cuba.  Before Castro.  When I went there, Harold went there with the Metropolitan Opera, they were doing some work.  And I went to find out where the Yiddish people were.  It was very important to me.\n\nVessen de Yeden?  You know, vus stinzay?  Habbach gavist?  Ader coster zangen kimmen gabayn alder zay rach hader zay umem vis manney vises la umem.  You know?\n\nSEROTA:  Your luck.\n\nOYSHER:  Yeah, with them.  So I went there, I found out, I says, “Erotov a platz a teater vachananay mamena flat.  Me momen mitig zug.”  All right.  Il villa gi mach con conser.\n\nSo I gave the concert and they said, “A ve azoi zing Freydele.”  And they were very nice; they were appreciative, and this was very, very lovely and I was very glad I did it.  And also, they said, “Zaige ventz Freydele,” and they wrote letters.  They were beautiful people.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=4040.0,4110.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/72","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nSEROTA:  Looks like a picture from The Forverts.\n\nOYSHER:  This is magnificent.  I don’t know whether this will go.  This is from 1941.  1941.  August 21st.  They were making these big benefit performances for children to go to camps and what-not.  So right in the front, here, I don’t know.  Can you get a close-up of — is that on?  It is.  Oh.  They can get a close-up of this, it would be wonderful.\n\nYou have over here Molly, you have Molly Picon.  You have Misha and Lucy German, you have Seymour here, you have a lot of people.  Hannah Appel.  I, I do want to mention all these names, and I can’t get that here.  Over here you have again, Freydel Oysher, Molly Picon — the front ones are actually superstars.  Yankel Kalich.  You have a lot of them here.\n\nIt’s way back, that’s in 1941.  Before my kids.  Before my children.\n\nAnd what’s on this side?  This is nice.  I did a concert in Montreal.  So it was Seymour, Mikhel Rosenberg and Freydel.  We did a — a true thing about Mikhel.  You know Mikhel used to drink.  And that, that was his downfall.  ‘Cause he was brilliant actor.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=4110.0,4183.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/73","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nSEROTA:  He drove a big Packard, didn’t he?\n\nOYSHER:  I don’t know.  I never was in his Packard; I don’t think he was able to drive at any time.\n\nSEROTA:  Yeah, he drove it.\n\nOYSHER:  Yeah.  And I remember at, during wartime, you were able to take two bottles of liquor from Canada.  And everybody — “Oh, when you go there, please get” — what was the name of it?  Do you remember the name of it?\n\nSEROTA:  Canadian Club.\n\nSTERNBERG:  The Canadian drink.\n\nOYSHER:  No, Royal something-something.\n\nSTERNBERG:  Liquor.  Royal Crown.\n\nOYSHER:  Royal Crown.  So I said, “All right.  I’ll bring two home, and I’ll give one here, one there, one to my father, one we’ll keep.”  And he took two bottles of something, I don’t know.  And Seymour two bottles.\n\nThen, when we had to go home, we were on the train.  And you have to declare what you have.  You’re entitled to two bottles.  So I said, “Seymour, tell them, because we don’t want to stay long; we want to get going.”  So Seymour says, “I have these two bottles,” and I had two bottles, and I also had a little piece of Limoges that they brought me to, you know, like a little cup or something, and a saucer — a gift.  And I said, “I have this.”\n\nAnd I said, “Mikhel, tell them what you have.”  He says, “I don’t have any.”  I says, “Mikhel, don’t let’s stop here for any amount of time.  I want to get back.  I have work.”  So he said, “But I don’t have any.”  I says, “What do you mean you don’t?”  So he’s, the other, you know, the what do you call it?  The…\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=4183.0,4257.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/74","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nSEROTA:  The border guard?\n\nSTERNBERG:  Inspector.\n\nOYSHER:  The inspector, yeah.  He said, “Did you buy anything?”  He says, “Yes.”  I said, “So why don’t you tell him?”  He says, “I haven’t got it.  I got it all in here.”  He drank it out.\n\nSEROTA:  Okay.\n\nOYSHER:  He drank two bottles of liquor out.  We were amazed.\n\nSEROTA:  That’s why he was so funny.\n\nOYSHER:  Well.\n\nSEROTA:  Anyway, here.  You and Moishe are cornering the matzo market.\n\nOYSHER:  Cornering the matzo, that’s terrific.  Moishe was on EVD, I was on MCA.\n\nSEROTA:  And?\n\nOYSHER:  And EVD.\n\nSEROTA:  And EVD.\n\nOYSHER:  And LTH.\n\nSEROTA:  Okay.\n\nOYSHER:  And WBNX.\n\nSEROTA:  Who was your sponsor?\n\nOYSHER:  And… my sponsor here is Horowitz-Margareten.\n\nSEROTA:  And Moishe’s sponsor?\n\nOYSHER:  And Moishe’s is WEVD.  No.  What is that?\n\nSEROTA:  Goodman’s.\n\nOYSHER:  Goodman’s Matzos.  And we had matzos for Pesach from wall-to-wall.\n\nSTERNBERG:  They used to send all these, they used to send us matzos.\n\nOYSHER:  Yes.  From wall-to-wall we had, and we used to give it away to people who needed, you understand.  Yeah.\n\nSEROTA:  They had a program on EVD, Shul Nigunim.  And Maxwell House was a sponsor.  So did they send Moishe coffee when he sang on the, on the Maxwell House program?\n\nOYSHER:  Yeah.  Yeah, that’s right.\n\nSEROTA:  Okay.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=4257.0,4311.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/75","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nOYSHER:  That’s right.  He had a lot of coffee, you know.\n\nAnd on this side, you have, on this side, you have WBFW.  I was on there, too.  I went all the way out in Brooklyn.\n\nThis is Rumshinsky.  Thank you.  Rumshinsky, Freydele, and here you have Jacobs and his wife.\n\nYou have Der Zinger — there’s a man here that missed the boat.  His name is William Schwartz.  He had the most glorious voice you ever heard.  And besides, besides having a wonderful voice, he was so good-natured.  He was so kind.  He was so gentle.  And usually, people like that fall by the wayside.  They’re, they’re too good.\n\nAnd Max, Max Wilner, he was my favorite comedian.  I loved him.  Besides Budgick.  And Mikhel Rosenberg was a doll.  And who else do you have?  Abe Sinkoff.  He gave me my first break in New York.  Abe Sinkoff.  And Ellie Katz also was very, very helpful to me, in every which way.  And who else can I say?  And Freydele Oysher.  WSVC.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=4311.0,4369.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/76","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nSEROTA:  That’s in Chicago.\n\nOYSHER:  That’s in Chicago, yes.\n\nSEROTA:  Right.\n\nOYSHER:  You know.\n\nSEROTA:  Okay.\n\nOYSHER:  And this is Frieda Oysher.  In Philadelphia, when I first started.  And my father first realized that I could sing.  He didn’t know; he thought only Moishe could sing, ‘cause he heard Moishe in Europe yet, when he was seven years old and Poppa left.\n\n‘Cause when Poppa left, I was ten weeks old.  He was so delighted that he saw me and he knew me, that he went away and I didn’t see him for eight years.  I didn’t even know who he was until I saw him.  I says, “Where is that man?  He’s kissing my mother.  Why?”\n\nAnd this goes back so long, I, I, it’s — what are you laughing?  At the Yellow Ticket, with Lionel Barrymore, that’s when he used to walk.  You know Lionel Barrymore used to be legit.  “And Frieda Oysher, on our stage, two nights only.”\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=4369.0,4418.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982/transcript/25043/annotation/77","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\n\nSEROTA:  Why was your father away eight years?\n\nOYSHER:  Because he went to seek his fortune here, in America.  The goldene medina.\n\nSEROTA:  Did he find it?\n\nOYSHER:  Zero!  Zero!  Everybody that came here, zero!\n\nSTERNBERG:  He left before the war broke out.\n\nOYSHER:  Yeah.\n\nSEROTA:  What was he doing here for eight years?\n\nOYSHER:  I wouldn’t ask him, because he’s liable to tell me.\n\nHowever, this is — I was on WCAU, W- what is it?\n\nSEROTA:  FAN.\n\nOYSHER:  WFAN.  WREX.  WELK.  In Philadelphia.  I, look — there was no T.V. that time.\n\nSEROTA:  Right.\n\nOYSHER:  I’d a done that too if I could.\n\nAnd what is on this side?  This is interesting.  The Romanian-Hebrew Beneficial Association.  That was my first job.\n\nSEROTA:  That’s ‘cause you’re Romanian.\n\nOYSHER:  Not necessarily.  I don’t know what I am — Romanian or Russian.  I am a person.  I belong to all people in the world, and people belong to me.\n\nSo there’s a concert and installation, and I must mention her name — Sylvia Elleg — Elkin.  She was the one that accompanied me.  And I didn’t have a, I didn’t have a picture to put in here.  But I was graduating, so I took the graduation picture and I gave it to them.  You see?  I have a blue skirt and a white blouse and a red tie.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/40316/file/111982#t=4418.0,4497.536"}]}]}]}