Release Date

14 Dec, 1959

Runtime

01:38: (HH:MM)

Synopsis

Based on the Writer Whose Stories Inspired The Fiddler on the Roof

This omnibus release consists of three playlets filmed and aired during television's Golden Age, and starring some of the legends of film and television. The collection originally ran as a two-hour segment on December 14, 1959, on the anthology series The Play of the Week, broadcast locally in New York City via the independent radio station WNTA. Each "tale" in the anthology was adapted from a single tale by the inimitable Sholom Aleichem, regarded by many as the "Yiddish Mark Twain". Included are: "A Tale of Chelm" starring Zero Mostel and Nancy Walker in the story of a bookseller attempting to buy a goat; "Bontche Schweig" about a poor man (Jack Gilford) whose recent arrival in Heaven makes the angels cry; and "The High School" about a Jewish merchant (Morris Carnovsky) persuaded by his wife (Gertrude Berg) to let their son attend a particular high school despite the enforcement of quotas for Jewish students.

Photos

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Actors

Gertrude Berg

Sam Levene

Zero Mostel

Morris Carnovsky

Lee Grant

Nancy Walker

Jack Gilford

Charlotte Rae

Elsa Freed

Henry Lascoe

Conrad Bromberg

Frederick Rolf

Dora Weissman

Carl Reindel

Crew

Vernon Cook

Myron Bleam

Marc Merson

Ellida Geira

Robert de Cormier

Budd Wilds

Lee Miller

Sholom Aleichem

Cricket McCune

Arnold Perl

Zvi Geyra

Bob Rafelson

Lewis Freedman

Henry T. Weinstein