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Picon Molly

Molly Picon - Personal data
Date of birth: 28th February 1898
Place of birth:
Date of death: 5th April 1992
Place of death:
Occupation: actress
Related towns: Krakow, Lviv

Picon Molly (28 February 1898 New York – 05 April, 1992 Lancaster) – actress.  

 

Molly Picon was born as Margaret (Malka) Pyekoon Opiekun in New York City on 28 February 1898. Her parents emigrated from Europe. Her mother, Klara Ostrowski (Ostrow), was born in the outskirts of Kyiv. Her father, Louis Pyekoon (orig. Opiekun, Piekun?), a native Varsovian, quickly abandoned his wife and two daughters. Little Malka, called Molly, and her younger sister Helen grew up in Philadelphia, where their mother worked as a wardrobe mistress in Kessler's theatre.

The girl began to show her artistic talent at an early age. As a five-year-old, she won a talent contest at Bijou Theatre. A year later, she had her first appearance on stage. She performed in theatre and cabaret groups, and learned how to play the piano. At the same time, she went to school. She endured this heavy workload until the age of 16, when she no longer managed to learn during the day and perform in the evenings.

In 1919, Molly signed up to the Grand Opera House of Boston under the management of Jacob Kalich. In the summer of the same year, they got married.

At the beginning of the 1920s, Picon and her husband went to Europe, where they performed for over two years. The artist became fluent in Yiddish and worked with well-known theatre groups. She made her film debut in 1921 in austria. She appeared in the silent film Judenmädel (German: “Jewish girl”), and then in two other films produced in Austria: Hütet eure Töchter (German: “Protect your daughters”) and Ost und West (German: “East and West”).

Picon felt at home in Europe, especially in its central and eastern parts, and the local audiences treated her like a native star. She appeared on the stages of Vienna, Chisinau, Lviv, Kraków, Jass, Bucharest, London and Paris. In Kraków, she performed on the stage of the Jewish theatre at Bocheńska Street. At the time, she visited Mordechaj Gebirtig, from whom she bought the lyrics of such songs as Kinderjorn (Yiddish: “Childhood Years”) and Huliet kinderlech (Yiddish: “Play, Little Children”). She included these pieces in her repertoire.

She returned to New York as a well-known artist. In 1931, she established her own theatre – the Molly Picon Theatre, and performed on its stage. However, she still spent a lot of time abroad, appearing before South American and South African audiences, and also visited Palestine. She often returned to Central and Eastern Europe. She stayed in Poland to play in movies: Jidl mitn fidl (Yiddish: “Yiddle With His Fiddle,” 1936) and Mamele (Yiddish: “Mummy,” 1938).

During World War II, Picon performed for the American army. After the war, together with her husband, they were the first artists who played in Europe in the displaced persons camps. In the summer of 1946, they spent a week in Lower Silesia, performing for the Jewish audience.

In 1940, Molly Picon made her English-speaking debut on the New York stage in The Morning Star. She also performed on Broadway in the musical Milk and Honey. She starred in The Naked City and Come Blow Your Horn, the latter of which won her an Academy Award nomination. Many remembered her as Jenta the matchmaker in the filming of Fiddler on the Roof. 

She tried to prevent the disappearance of Yiddish from the theatre. She appeared in her own plays Abi Gezunt (Yiddish: “Let us be Healthy”) and Sadie is a Lady.

Molly Picon died in Lancaster, Pennsylvania at the age of 93, suffering from Alzheimer's disease. She was buried in the Mount Hebron Cemetery, in the Yiddish Theatrical Alliance area.

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