"Eagle's" Brood

In Manhattan's musty old Second Avenue Theatre last week was presented a Yiddish theatrical revival, The Wild Man. The plot deals with an aged and wealthy widower who marries a young adventuress. One by one his children are driven from or leave home until the neglected, crack-brained son murders his stepmother. But Jewish audiences, munching chocolates, were not as interested in the melodramatic antics of the family on the stage as they were in the family of Adlers --"the Barrymores of Jewry"--who were performing the piece. Gathered together for the first time on one stage, the cast was all-Adler; seven of the nine sons and daughters and one son-in-law of the late great Jacob Pavlowich Adler. Born in Odessa, Russia, in 1855, Jacob Adler became successively public official, journalist, actor in a barnstorming Jewish troupe. When he was 30 he migrated to the U. S., formed the first stock company to devote itself to serious Yiddish drama. He discovered Playwright Jacob Gordin, had him write vehicles for the troupe, among them The Wild Man. From time to time he played other engagements at home and abroad, once touring the U. S. in The Merchant of Venice, as Shylock, whose lines he spoke in Yiddish while the other actors used English. Because adler means eagle in German, admirers dubbed him "The Eagle." Meanwhile the Eagle's brood increased. Suckled in the stage wings, they have all become capable actors. Son Charles ran away from home and joined an English circus, a Russian ballet. He has played roles in Russian, Polish, French, German, English, Yiddish. Son Adolph managed George Jessel's Jazz Singer. Son Irving has appeared in minor Broadway parts, Son Jack in The Front Page. The youngest son, Luther, played this season in Street Scene and Red Rust. The only married daughter, Frances, was graduated from the American Academy of Arts, has toured with Resurrection and Eyes of Youth. Daughter Julia appeared with Actor David Warfield in The Merchant of Venice, Daughter Stella in The World We Live In. Daughter Celia alone has confined her work to the Yiddish stage. The family also includes Actress Francine Larrimore (Let Us Be Gay), the Eagle's niece, and Son-in-law Joseph Schoengold, actor, singer, director, owner of Yiddish theatres in Manhattan, Philadelphia, Chicago. Because there was no part for her in The Wild Man, the Eagle's brood arranged to have their mother (Sarah Adler) perform, a scene from Gordin's Homeless as an afterpiece. The presentation, they said, was in accordance with their father's wish and this is the first opportunity to forgather since his death five years ago. After a U. S. tour they plan to open the season next autumn with a new play--possibly on Broadway, possibly in English.

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