Molly Picon

Molly Picon (Yiddish: מאָלי פּיקאָן‎; February 28, 1898[2] – April 5, 1992) was an American actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a lyricist and dramatic story-teller.[3]

Molly Picon
Picon in the 1920s
Born
Mollie Picon[1]

(1898-02-28)February 28, 1898
New York City, U.S.
DiedApril 5, 1992(1992-04-05) (aged 94)
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Resting placeMount Hebron Cemetery, New York City
OccupationActress
Years active1904–1984
Spouse(s)
Jacob Kalich
​
(
m. 1919; died 1975)
Molly Picon's husband was Jacob Kalich, second from left, seen in 1921

She was first and foremost a star in Yiddish theatre and film, but in time, she turned to English-language productions.

Early life

Picon was born in New York City, the daughter of Polish-Jewish immigrants: Clara (née Ostrow), a wardrobe mistress, and Louis Opiekun, a shirtmaker.[4] Opiekun is a Polish language name meaning "guardian" or "caretaker". Her surname was later changed to Picon. Her career began at the age of six in the Yiddish Theatre. In 1912, she debuted at the Arch Street Theatre in Philadelphia and became a star of the Yiddish Theater District, performing in plays in the District for seven years.[5][6]

Career

Picon was so popular in the 1920s, many shows had her adopted name, Molly, in their title. In 1931, she opened the Molly Picon Theatre.

Picon appeared in many films, beginning with silent movies. Her early films were made in Europe; among the first was the Yiddish language East and West, filmed in Vienna in 1923, which is the earliest of her movies that survives.[7][8] The film depicts a clash of New and Old World Jewish cultures. She plays a U.S.-born daughter who travels with her father back to Galicia in East Central Europe.[7] Her husband Jacob Kalich played one of her close relatives.

Picon as Mrs. Bronson, 1962.

Picon's most famous picture, Yidl Mitn Fidl (1936), was filmed on location in Poland and shows her wearing male clothing throughout most of the movie. The story concerns a girl and her father who are forced by poverty to set out on the road as traveling musicians. For her safety, she disguises herself as a boy, which becomes inconvenient when she falls in love with one of the other musicians in the troupe. Another of her films, titled Mamele was also shot in Poland.[9]

In 1934, Picon had a musical comedy radio show, the Molly Picon Program, broadcast on WMCA in New York City. In 1938, she starred another radio program on WMCA, I Give You My Life. That program "combined music and dramatic episodes that purported to be the story of her life." Two years later, she starred in Molly Picon's Parade, a variety show on WMCA.[10]

Picon made her English language debut on stage in 1940. On Broadway, she starred in the Jerry Herman musical Milk and Honey in 1961. In 1966, she dropped out of the disastrous Chu Chem during previews in Philadelphia; the show closed before reaching Broadway.

Picon had a bit part in the 1948 film The Naked City as the woman running a news-stand and soda fountain towards the climax of the film. Her first major Anglophonic role in the movies was in the film version of Come Blow Your Horn (1963), with Frank Sinatra. One of her best-known film roles was as Yente the Matchmaker in the 1971 film adaptation of the Broadway hit Fiddler on the Roof.

Picon appeared as Molly Gordon in an episode of CBS's Gomer Pyle, USMC and had a recurring role as Mrs. Bronson in the NBC police comedy Car 54, Where Are You?.

In the comedy For Pete's Sake (1974), she appeared as an elderly madam ("Mrs. Cherry") who arranges a disastrous stint for Barbra Streisand on a job as a call girl.[11] She later had television roles on the soap opera Somerset and appeared in a few episodes of The Facts of Life as Natalie's grandmother. Picon's final role was as Roger Moore's mother in cameo appearances in the comedies Cannonball Run & Cannonball Run II in 1981 and 1984, respectively.

Books

Picon wrote a biography about her family called So Laugh a Little in 1962. In 1980, she published her autobiography, Hello, Molly!.

Legacy
  • An entire room was filled with her memorabilia at the Second Avenue Deli in New York (now closed at that location).
  • The New Century Theatre, a former legitimate Broadway theatre located at 932 Seventh Avenue at West 58th Street in midtown Manhattan (since closed and demolished), was at one point known as the Molly Picon Theatre.
  • She was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981.[12]
  • Picon Pie, a biographical play, ran off-Broadway from 2004 to 2005.
  • In 2007, she was featured in the film Making Trouble, a tribute to female Jewish comedians, produced by the Jewish Women's Archive.[13]
  • Costumes she wore in various theater productions are displayed at the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia.

Death

Picon died on April 6, 1992, aged 94, from Alzheimer's disease in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Yankel Kalich, her husband from 1919 until his death in 1975, died from cancer. They had no children. She and her husband are interred in the Yiddish Theater section of the Mount Hebron Cemetery in New York City.

Filmography
Year Title Role Notes
1922Look After Your Daughters
1923East and WestMollie[14]
1936Yiddle with His FiddleItke aka Judel
1937Let's Make a Night of ItSpecialty ActUncredited
1938MameleKhavtshi Samet aka Mamele[15]
1948The Naked CitySoda-Selling ShopkeeperUncredited
1959StartimeSarah RabinowitzEpisode: "The Jazz Singer", a TV production starring Jerry Lewis
1961-1963Car 54, Where Are You?Mrs. Rachel Bronson3 episodes
1963Come Blow Your HornMrs. Sophie Baker
1971Fiddler on the RoofYente
1974For Pete's SakeMrs. Cherry
1975Murder on Flight 502Ida Goldman
1979That's Life
1981The Cannonball RunMom Goldfarb
1984Cannonball Run II
gollark: An animal, I mean.
gollark: You are!
gollark: Heavserver has about 5 bots with "bump" capability.
gollark: Actually it's closed timelike curves.
gollark: Done.

References
  1. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2WW9-3N6
  2. Jewish Theatre.com Archived November 10, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  3. Tucson Daily Citizen (Tucson, Arizona), August 29, 1952, p. 16
  4. "Molly Picon Biography ((?)-1992)". www.filmreference.com. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
  5. Pennsylvania Biographical Dictionary. North American Book Dist LLC. Retrieved March 10, 2013.
  6. Milton Plesur (1982). Jewish life in twentieth-century America: challenge and accommodation. Nelson-Hall. Retrieved March 10, 2013.
  7. Shandler, Jeffrey (2014). Shtetl: A Vernacular Intellectual History. Rutgers, NJ: Rutgers University Press. p. 41.
  8. "This Week in History: Award for Yiddish actress, Molly Picon, June 28, 1980". Jewish Women's Archive. jwa.org. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  9. "Mamele (1938)". Retrieved July 24, 2017.
  10. Sies, Luther F. (2014). Encyclopedia of American Radio, 1920-1960, 2nd Edition, Volume 1. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-5149-4. Pp. 523, 337, 455.
  11. For Pete's Sake on IMDb
  12. "26 Elected to the Theater Hall of Fame." The New York Times, March 3, 1981.
  13. Deming, Mark. "Making Trouble: Three Generations of Funny Jewish Women". New York Times. Retrieved April 14, 2012.
  14. "East and West" [film catalog entry]. National Center for Jewish Film. jewishfilm.org. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  15. Mamele on IMDb

Sources
  • Eth Clifford. Molly Picon – So Laugh a Little, Messner, 1962 (see ).
  • Lila Perl, Donna Ruff. Molly Picon: A Gift of Laughter, Jewish Publication Society, 1990, ISBN 0-8276-0336-3.
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