Spectacle of Identity

From the Lower East Side to Hollywood

Abstract

The main focus of this analysis is the insofar-ignored presence of Italian performers in Hollywood cinema before the Second World War and its interaction with the Yiddish stage. These two cultures, while showing manifest similarities in their natural interaction to please popular audiences, mixing high and low, tragic and comic styles, naturalism and expressive gestures, experienced in this period unexpected encounters. Without trying to be systematic, points of contact, minor coincidences, and tangential moments involving Italian and Jewish performers on the American stage and screen are traced by citing (virtual) film clips from some of Hollywood’s great films.