Picture Play Magazine (Sep 1926 - Feb 1927)

20 Bringing Up Joseph tient with hunger, they ate raw. The other boys went barefoot, but not Rudolph. He had pride. So he laced straws together into sandals and blackened them with tar. No one should laugh with scorn .that Rudolph Schildkraut had no shoes ! Against this harsh background the boy slowly chiseled, with many mistakes and only with instinct to guide, that art which was later to make him an outstanding figure of two continents. An art bred in genius, but expressed in an infinitely skillful technique which reflected the realism of life. •Never did he think himself destined for greatness, this small, stocky boy who wasn't handsome, who was slow and methodical, and ungifted with the fire of temperament. Others would hint, "Some day you will be a famous actor, Rudolph," and nod their heads wisely. But he could see no further than the limited horizon of the wagon company's endless trouping from village to village, hear naught but the crunch of the wheels bumping over rough roads, think only of the morrow's hard work of memorizing and translating into pantomimic and vocal expression the Shakespearean repertoire, and of carrying boards and scenery on his strong, square young shoulders. To the ring of his hammer, he learned Hamlet's soliloquy and deemed himself fortunate indeed to be permitted to pretend for a little while, before a hearty and friendly audience, to be the melancholy Dane. How he did strut, as the grand figures of the drama, through those brief hours of make-believe ! He had imagination, you see, but it was dormant, hesitant, held back .fearfully by a sense of his own incompetence. His boyish heart swelled in humble appreciation at his enrollment as one of that vast, colorful army of actors. A slow, thoughtful boy, he managed somehow to get books, and drama. Surely, his companions felt, he beyond the teachings of their manager, youngsters followed the plump peasant orchards, demanding kisses of full, red lips, or frolicked knee-deep in wild flowers on the countryside's festive days, Rudolph studied and labored and was content. After nine years of this struggle for existence, Rudolph was discovered by the manager of a repertoire company in a provincial town — a magnificently important creature to the weary, homeless little trouper. That meant a steady life, a room all his own, a salary in marks equivalent to eight dollars a week in American coin. Money for books, time for more study, new cos Plioto by William E. Thomas Joseph, fitted by appearance and temperament for princely roles, is a sprightly heir apparent in "Young April." to learn the was growing While other girls across and gigglim tumes to replace the faded velveteens, a wider range of work. Another step led him to the Viennese Comic Opera company, where for five years he .»ang as buffo-comic. Baron Berger, who had just built fhe Dramatik Theater in Hamburg, engaged him to play those roles dearest to his heart — Shylock, King Lear, Macbeth, and the heroes of Schiller and Goethe. In 1905, Max Reinhardt called him to Berlin. Shakespeare, Hauptmann, Ibsen, and Strindberg were his daily diet, and there were ten pictures for Ufa, in one of which Emil Jannings played his support. Meantime, love had come to the plodding, seriousminded Rudolph. Neither romantic-looking nor handsome, the grotesque, undersized comedian appealed to the critics, but had no qualities of personality to turn the frairicins' heads. Admiring him as an artist, however, they waited in line outside the theater for him to autograph their albums. Thus, duly chaperoned, he one day met a Roumanian girl. She had Spanish blood in her veins, too, and she knew that love had come to flutter her heart as the actor signed his name. He looked into her tender, shy eyes, bowed, and turned to ask her mother if he might pay his respects. She came of a fine family who disapproved of the match, so it was six months before his constant devotion won her to an elopement. That was the one drastic, impulsive act of Rudolph Schildkraut's life, but he has never regretted it. After the war, the actor played in New York at the Yiddish Art Theater and in "God of Arengeance" at the Apollo. The powerful tone of this Sholem Asche drama was too much for the censors. He was arrested, but was subsequently released and took the play to Chicago where a chance meeting with Paul Kohner, son of an old friend and casting director for Universal, resulted in a movie contract for the role of the patriarch in "His People." To celebrate his sixtieth birthday, his son Joseph gave him a small theater in the Bronx, New York, where between film engagements he presents the classics in Yiddish for the altruistic purpose of teaching the internationalism of the drama to his Jewish following. He speaks seven languages and has appeared in over four hundred characterizations. His dearest wish is to play Lear and Shylock in English. A kindly, considerate, generous soul, Rudolph Schildkraut, tolerant toward all, grateful for every word of praise — great character actor and lovable old man. [Continued on page 96]