Early Life, Coming To America and Meeting Her Husband
She was born in Kiev, Ukraine. Her family emmigrated to American in 1883. They settled near Baltimore. She attended school until she was 12 and then went to work in a sweatshop.
In 1887, she met her future husband when she went backstage at a Baltimore production by a Yiddish touring company to meet the beautiful young "actress" she had seen on stage, only to discover that "she" was the 19-year-old Boris, and that he was also manager of the company. Bessie soon ran away from home to join him as a performer, and soon took over the ingenue roles, as Boris moved on to romantic male leads; they were married in 1891.
With her husband, actor Boris Thomashefsky, she had 3 sons and a daughter, born when Bessie was just 16 and who died when Esther was 6. The third son Theodore, changed his name to Ted Thomas and became a stage manager; one of Ted Thomas's sons is the noted conductor Michael Tilson Thomas. The first son, Harry, went on to direct his father in the film The Bar Mitzvah Boy and The Jewish King Lear and later moved with his mother to California. The second son, known as Mickey, took after his father's romancing ways and romanced 2 women at the same time which led to a dramatic murder-attempt/suicide in 1931, reminiscent of his Aunt Emma Thomashefsky Finkel's notorious 1904 affair. Both Mickey and his Aunt Emma were left paralysed by the attempted murders by jealous mates and both later died of complications related to their wounds; Emma, many years later, in 1929, and Mickey, 5 years after in 1936.
It was the success of Boris' Greenhorn scripts and Bessie's feature acting in them that led to Bessie being overworked and Boris taking the money and philandering. Bessie wanted an accounting of the money and couldn't find it. Boris Thomashefsky began and carried on a longterm affair with Yiddish actress Regina Zuckerberg, who modeled herself on Bessie in dress, speech, style and acting—except that she was 20 years younger. This, and the financial mismanagement, caused a separation between Boris and Bessie during 1910-1911, who both went on to successful but separate careers, until Boris became a pauper in the 1930s. Bessie, however, went on to found her own theatre troupe and, in 1916, took over the management of The People's Theatre. She focused on serious social issues of the day, particularly those affecting women, like suffrage and birth-control. She never did divorce Boris, though, as she could never find another to take his place.
Both Thomashefskys did much to shape the world of modern theatre from the follies to Broadway and gave a start to many actors, composers and producers who went on to start and own theaters and movie studios. Even the Gershwin brothers had their start with the Thomashefkys. The Thomashefskys were also prominent in addressing controversial social issues of the day and in teaching the Greenhorns how to be Americans. They not only founded theaters and production companies, but had publishing houses and many other successful business adventures.
She is buried with her husband in the Yiddish theater section of the Mount Hebron Cemetery.
In 2011 Michael Tilson Thomas hosted a concert stage show celebrating his grandparents and the music of American Yiddish theatre The Thomashefskys: Music and Memories of a Life in the Yiddish Theater, which aired in 2012 on the PBS series Great Performances. Bessie Thomashefsky was portrayed by Judy Blazer.
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