Motel the Operator

Overview

Motel, a poor laborer, loving husband and new father, leads cloakmakers in a strike for better working conditions. When he is severely injured by strikebreakers, his wife, Esther, and infant son are left destitute. Desperate to save her starving child, Esther gives him up for adoption to a wealthy couple, and then commits suicide. The richly-rendered beautiful Yiddish songs by Sholem Secunda featuring Cantor Leibele Waldman and Joel Feig's famous choir are a good example of the bittersweet melodrama in the finest tradition of the Yiddish theater.

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Cast

Chaim Tauber

Motel Friedman

Malvina Rappel

Esther Friedman

Maurice Kroner

Benjamin Rosenwald

Berthe Hart

Rebecca Rosenwald

Seymour Rechtzeit

Jack Rosenwald

Jacob Zanger

Jacob 'Joseph' Frumkin

Yetta Zwerling

Chane Belle 'Annabella' Frumkin

Gertrude Krause

Ruth Frumkin

Herman Rosen

Doctor

Izidor Frankel

Boss