Kalich, Bertha, 1874-1939

Epithet: actress in Yiddish and English

Bertha Kalich was a Polish singer and actress who emigrated to the United States in 1895 with her husband, Leopold Spachner, and daughter Lillian Kalich Spachner.

In the United States she starred in the Yiddish theater, in mainstream live theater and in the cinema until 1928, when her health deteriorated. One of her best known roles was the title character of the play MAGDA. She performed as well in numerous other productions including RIDDLE WOMAN and THE SOUL OF A WOMAN. Performing sporadically throughout the last 11 years of her life she died in 1939.

Bertha Rachel Kalich, daughter of Solomon Kalich and Babette Haber, was born on September 8, 1874 in Lemberg, Galicia (Poland), where she trained in declamation and voice culture from an early age despite the disapproval of her conservative Jewish family.

While a student at Lemberg's Conservatory of Music, she met Leopold Spachner, a fellow student, whom she married in 1892. Starting as a chorus singer in Lemberg, Kalich soon achieved wide acclaim on the Polish and Romanian stages, despite deep anti-Semitic sentiment that made such success an unlikely prospect. In 1895, Kalich and Spachner immigrated to the United States where Kalich enjoyed great success in the Yiddish theatre until 1905. In that year, Harrison Grey Fiske persuaded Kalich to attempt a transition to the American stage. After only a few months she mastered English pronunciation sufficiently to manage the transition and became an immediate success. She appeared in plays by Sudermann, Maeterlinck, Tolstoy, and Shaw with occasional returns to the Yiddish stage, and was successful, as well, in the cinema. Her most famous, and often repeated, roles were as Magda in Sudermann's play of that name and Lilla Olrick in Jacobi's Riddle Woman. Kalich toured tirelessly in both the United States and Canada, her "emotional" brand of acting winning her great acclaim. In 1928, Kalich took ill during a run of The Soul of a Woman. From that time on, she was unable to work more than sporadically. Threatened with blindness, she underwent a series of operations. Between 1931 and 1936, friends in the theatrical world arranged a number of benefit performances to aid her in an unsuccessful battle to regain her health that decimated her fortune and embittered her. Correspondence among members of the family from 1928 on indicates that Kalich became despondent and felt abandoned by her husband and daughter, although the accuracy of her perception is not borne out by the documentation in the collection. On the other hand, there is evidence in these letters that she alienated many long-time associates outside the family. Kalich died on April 19, 1939, in New York City.

From the 1880s through the 1940s, the Lower East Side of New York was a thriving center of theatre for the waves of Jewish immigrants arriving in America. "Although always in the hands of private entrepreneurs, the American Yiddish theatre was a genuine people's institution insofar as its appeal was not limited to any one socioeconomic group. It was attended by rich and poor, educated and illiterate, observant and free-thinking." (Nahshon) Yiddish theatre appealed to these popular sentiments, and was allowed to blossom in New York, away from the growing anti-Semitism in turn of the century Eastern Europe. Bertha Kalich, who immigrated to the United States in 1895 after a successful career in Poland, was the first woman to gain prominence in the male-dominated environment of the Yiddish stage. Popularly known as the "Yiddish Bernhardt", Kalich took on the role of Hamlet in 1901 at the Thalia Theatre on the Bowery, effectively establishing her own reputation as the greatest tragedienne in the history of Yiddish theatre. The materials in this collection provide a valuable look at the history of theatre on the Lower East Side of New York.

Bertha Rachel Kalich, daughter of Solomon Kalich and Babette Haber, was born on September 8, 1874 in Lemberg, Galicia (Poland), where she trained in declamation and voice culture from an early age despite the disapproval of her conservative Jewish family. While a student at Lemberg's Conservatory of Music, she met Leopold Spachner, a fellow student, whom she married in 1892. Starting as a chorus singer in Lemberg, Kalich soon achieved wide acclaim on the Polish and Romanian stages, despite deep anti-Semitic sentiment that made such success an unlikely prospect. In 1895, Kalich and Spachner immigrated to the United States where Kalich enjoyed great success in the Yiddish theater until 1905. In that year, Harrison Grey Fiske persuaded Kalich to attempt a transition to the American stage. After only a few months she mastered English pronunciation sufficiently to manage the transition and became an immediate success. She appeared in plays by Sudermann, Maeterlinck, Tolstoy, and Shaw with occasional returns to the Yiddish stage, and was successful, as well, in the cinema. Her most famous, and often repeated, roles were as Magda in Sudermann's play of that name and Lilla Olrick in Jacobi's Riddle Woman . Kalich toured tirelessly in both the United States and Canada, her 'emotional' brand of acting winning her great acclaim. From the 1880s through the 1940s, the Lower East Side of New York was a thriving center of theater for the waves of Jewish immigrants arriving in America, appealing to the popular sentiments of the day. Yiddish theater was attended by rich and poor, educated and illiterate allowed to blossom in New York, away from the growing anti-Semitism in turn of the century Eastern Europe. Bertha Kalich, who immigrated to the United States in 1895 after a successful career in Poland, was the first woman to gain prominence in the male-dominated environment of the Yiddish stage. Popularly known as the “Yiddish Bernhardt”, Kalich took on the role of Hamlet in 1901 at the Thalia Theatre on the Bowery, effectively establishing her own reputation as the greatest tragedienne in the history of Yiddish theatre.

In 1928, Kalich took ill during a run of The Soul of a Woman . From that time on, she was unable to work more than sporadically. Threatened with blindness, she underwent a series of operations. Between 1931 and 1936, friends in the theatrical world arranged a number of benefit performances to aid her in an unsuccessful battle to regain her health--that decimated her fortune and embittered her. Correspondence among members of the family from 1928 on indicates that Kalich became despondent and felt abandoned by her husband and daughter, although the accuracy of her perception is not borne out by the documentation in the collection. On the other hand, there is evidence in these letters that she alienated many long-time associates outside the family. Kalich died on April 19, 1939, in New York City.

Leopold Spachner (1871-1952), some of whose business records and correspondence are included in this collection, was involved in the theatrical world both as his wife's manager and as a general theatrical manager. Spachner died in New York City, having survived Bertha Kalich by 13 years.

Lillian Kalich/Spachner (1891-?), was born on June 17 in Lemberg, emigrating to the United States as an infant. She attended the Ethical Culture School in New York City from 1905-1907 under the name Lillian Spachner, and the Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania from October 1907-1908. She also took up residence on the West Coast in the late 1920's, and read scripts there for Paramount and Metro-Goldwyn Mayer in 1932-1933. In 1954 and 1955, she was again in residence in New York City, as letters addressed to her by Paul Muni and Iphigene Sulzberger attest. Although Lillian Kalich/Spachner's active assistance to her mother until 1930 is amply recorded in the material contained in the collection, many important facts about her life cannot be traced in these records.