Molly Picon

Molly Picon
Picon, as Mrs. Bronson, in Car 54, Where Are You? episode, Occupancy, August 1st (1962)
Born	Mollie Picon[1] (1898-02-28)February 28, 1898 Manhattan, New York, New York
Died	April 5, 1992(1992-04-05) (aged 94) Lancaster, Pennsylvania, US
Resting place	Mount Hebron Cemetery, New York City
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1904–1984
Spouse	Jacob Kalich ​ ​ (m. 1919; died 1975)​

Molly Picon (Yiddish: מאָלי פּיקאָן; Malka Opiekun; February 28, 1898[2] – April 5, 1992) was an American actress of stage, screen, radio and television, as well as a lyricist and dramatic storyteller.[3]

She began her career in Yiddish theatre and film, rising to a star, before transitioning into character roles in English-language productions. She is most widely known for her role as Yente the Matchmaker in the 1971 musical film Fiddler on the Roof.

Early life

Picon was born in New York City to Jewish emigrants Louis (Opiekun) Picon and Clara (Ostrovsky) Picon.[1] Her father was from Warsaw and her mother from near Kyiv. The family began living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, when she was three years old.[4]

Career

Picon became a star of the Yiddish Theatre District, performing in plays in the District for seven years.[5][6] Picon was so popular in the 1920s, many shows had her adopted name, Molly, in their title. In 1931, she opened the Molly Picon Theatre.^[citation needed]

Jacob Kalich (second from left), Picon's husband, in the comedy play Mezrach und Maarev, 1921

Picon appeared in many films, beginning with silent movies. Her early films were made in Europe; among the first, and earliest to survive, was the Yiddish language East and West, a film adaptation of the 1921 play Mezrach und Maarev produced in Vienna in 1923.[7][4] The film depicts a clash of New and Old World Jewish cultures. She plays a US-born daughter who travels with her father back to Galicia in East Central Europe.[7]

In 1934, Picon had a musical comedy radio show, The Molly Picon Program, broadcast on WMCA in New York City. In 1938, she starred another radio program on WMCA, I Give You My Life. That program "combined music and dramatic episodes that purported to be the story of her life." Two years later, she starred in Molly Picon's Parade, a variety show on WMCA.[8]

Picon made her English language debut on stage in 1940. On Broadway, she starred in the Jerry Herman musical Milk and Honey in 1961. In 1966, she dropped out of the disastrous Chu Chem during previews in Philadelphia; the show closed before it reached Broadway.

Picon and Jim Nabors in Gomer Pyle USMC (1968)

Picon had a bit part in the 1948 film The Naked City as the woman running a news-stand and soda fountain towards the climax of the film. Her first major Anglophonic role in the movies was in the film version of Come Blow Your Horn (1963), with Frank Sinatra. One of her best-known film roles was as Yente the Matchmaker in the 1971 film adaptation of the Broadway hit Fiddler on the Roof.

Picon appeared as Molly Gordon in an episode of CBS's Gomer Pyle, USMC and had a recurring role as Mrs. Bronson in the NBC police comedy Car 54, Where Are You?. In the comedy For Pete's Sake (1974), she appeared as an elderly madam ("Mrs. Cherry") who arranges a disastrous stint for Barbra Streisand on a job as a call girl.^[citation needed] She later had television roles as Mother Mishkin in the third episode of Vega$, a role on the soap opera Somerset and appeared in a few episodes of The Facts of Life as Natalie's grandmother. Picon's final role was as Roger Moore's mother in the comedies Cannonball Run and its sequel Cannonball Run II in 1981 and 1984, respectively.

Books

Picon wrote So Laugh a Little (1962), a biography about her family. In 1980, she published her autobiography, Molly!.[9]

Personal life

Picon was married to actor and playwright Yankel (Jacob) Kalich from 1919[4] until his death from cancer in 1975. They had no children.^[citation needed]

Legacy

• An entire room was filled with her memorabilia at the Second Avenue Deli in New York City (whose Second Avenue location is now closed), and is now at 162 E. 33rd St., where the Picon memorabilia adorns the walls.[10]
• The New Century Theatre, a former legitimate Broadway theatre at 932 Seventh Avenue and West 58th Street in Midtown Manhattan (since closed and demolished), was briefly known as the Molly Picon Theatre in 1943.[11]
• She was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981.[12]
• Picon Pie, a biographical play, ran off-Broadway from 2004 to 2005.[13]
• In 2007, she was featured in the film Making Trouble, a tribute to female Jewish comedians, produced by the Jewish Women's Archive.[14]
• Costumes she wore in various theater productions are displayed at the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia.^[citation needed]

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1922	Look After Your Daughters
1923	East and West	Mollie	[15]
1936	Yiddle with His Fiddle	Itke aka Judel
1937	Let's Make a Night of It	Specialty Act	Uncredited
1938	Mamele	Khavtshi Samet aka Mamele
1948	The Naked City	Soda-Selling Shopkeeper	Uncredited
1959	Startime	Sarah Rabinowitz	Episode: "The Jazz Singer", a TV production starring Jerry Lewis
1961-1963	Car 54, Where Are You?	Mrs. Rachel Bronson	3 episodes
1968	Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.	Molly Gordon	1 episode
1963	Come Blow Your Horn	Mrs. Sophie Baker
1971	Fiddler on the Roof	Yente
1974	For Pete's Sake	Mrs. Cherry
1975	Murder on Flight 502	Ida Goldman
1979	That's Life
1981	The Cannonball Run	Mom Goldfarb
1984	Cannonball Run II

References

1. New York, New York, U.S., Birth Index, 1866–1909
2. "The Papers of Molly Picon (1898-1992)". JewishTheatre.com. Archived from the original on November 10, 2007.
3. "Unknown Title". Tucson Daily Citizen. Tucson, Arizona. August 29, 1952. p. 16.
4. "This Week in History: Award for Yiddish actress, Molly Picon, June 28, 1980". jwa.org. Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved March 29, 2017.
5. Pennsylvania Biographical Dictionary. North American Book Dist LLC. January 1999. ISBN 9780403099504. Retrieved March 10, 2013.
6. Plesur, Milton (1982). Jewish life in twentieth-century America: challenge and accommodation. Nelson-Hall. ISBN 9780882298009. Retrieved March 10, 2013.
7. Shandler, Jeffrey (2014). Shtetl: A Vernacular Intellectual History. Rutgers, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. p. 41.
8. Sies, Luther F. (2014). Encyclopedia of American Radio, 1920-1960, 2nd Edition, Volume 1. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-5149-4. Pp. 523, 337, 455.
9. Picon, Molly; Bergantini Grillo, Jean (1980). Molly! An Autobiography. New York: Simon and Schuster.
10. Simonson, Robert (March 19, 2006). "Where Have You Gone, Molly Picon?". The New York Times.
11. "Relkin Drops Picon Theatre". The New York Times. February 12, 1943. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 16, 2022.
12. "26 Elected to the Theater Hall of Fame". The New York Times. March 3, 1981.
13. ​Picon Pie​ at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
14. Deming, Mark (2012). "Making Trouble: Three Generations of Funny Jewish Women". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 26, 2012. Retrieved April 14, 2012.
15. "East and West" [film catalog entry]. National Center for Jewish Film. jewishfilm.org. Retrieved 29 March 2017.

Sources

• Eth Clifford. Molly Picon – So Laugh a Little, Messner, 1962 (see [1]).
• Lila Perl, Donna Ruff. Molly Picon: A Gift of Laughter, Jewish Publication Society, 1990, ISBN 0-8276-0336-3.

External links

• Molly Picon at IMDb 
• Molly Picon at the TCM Movie Database
• Molly Picon at the Internet Broadway Database
• Guide to the Papers of Molly Picon (1898-1992) at the American Jewish Historical Society, New York.
• Pages from a Performing Life: The Scrapbooks of Molly Picon Archived March 12, 2013, at the Wayback Machine at American Jewish Historical Society
• Women of Valor exhibit on Molly Picon at the Jewish Women's Archive
• Molly Picon at Find a Grave