King Lear meets Mrs. Reisfeld

My folks took Mrs. Reisfeld, a neighbor from Out-the-Road, (Portola District, San Francisco) to see Shakespeare’s King Lear at the Curran Theater. This event took place around 1935. King Lear was to be played by Luther Adler, the greatest Yiddish theater actor at this time and maybe of all time.

The tickets were hard to come by so they were happy with their three seats in the first row balcony at 50 cents a ticket. In the dramatic scene of great pathos, King Lear was pleading with his daughters, “Gitz mir broid!!!” (“Give me bread.”) Mrs. Reisfeld, was so moved that she rose from her seat with tears in her eyes. She leaned over the balcony and yelled down to Mr. Adler, her arms outstretched, “Kimitz zie mir. Ich vil gaven broid!!!”*

*“Come to me. I will give you bread.”