Sam Stern

(b. New York, **/**/1883 – d. **/**/****). American-born Sam Stern was a popular Jewish comedian, vocalist and music hall entertainer who wrote many of his own songs, but also seems to have been one of the first to use a song by Irving Berlin (“Yiddle, on your fiddle, play some ragtime”). In 1901 he was with a Jewish repertory company in Chicago and moved to Great Britain in 1910. He first came to South Africa in 1914 and returned in 1919, appearing at the Tivoli Theatre in Cape Town in September of that year. The following year he featured in Joseph Albrecht’s Madcap of the Veld (1920), playing the villain opposite Mabel May. His fellow music hall entertainer Lew James played his father. He subsequently moved on to Australia and during the 1920s he did character impersonations in shows all over that country, while in 1931 he was part of the George Sorlie New Vaudeville and Revue Company. He was still performing in May 1956, when he appeared in The Teahouse of the August Moon at the Victoria Theatre in Newcastle, NSW. In August 1915, Variety featured a disapproving account of his movements, accusing him of fleeing a bankruptcy in London and leaving his wife and child destitute while he played an engagement in South Africa. To hear him sing, try http://www.google.co.za/#q=%22sam+stern%22+%2B+%22yiddisher%22. (FO)