{{Short description|American actor and singer}} thumb|Florence Weiss '''Florence Weiss''' (1899/1900 – 1974, {{langx|yi|פֿלאָרענס װײס}}) was a Russian-born American Yiddish theatre, Vaudeville and film actor, recording artist, and soprano who was active from the 1920s to the 1960s.<ref>{{cite book |title=Jewish women in America |date=1997 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9780415919357 |page=1524 |url=https://archive.org/details/jewishwomeniname00hyma/page/1524/mode/2up}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Sapoznik |first1=Henry |title=Klezmer! : Jewish music from Old World to our world |date=2006 |publisher=Schirmer Trade Books |location=New York |isbn=9780825673245 |page=123 |edition=2nd}}</ref> She worked and performed with such artists as Moishe Oysher, Alexander Olshanetsky, Boris Thomashefsky, Fyvush Finkel, and Abe Ellstein. The height of her popularity was during the 1930s, when she often toured and performed with her then-husband, Moishe Oysher, and appeared in three Yiddish-language films with him: ''The Cantor's Son'', ''The Singing Blacksmith'', and ''Overture to Glory''.<ref name="Zamlbukh">{{cite book |title=Zamlbukh |date=1962 |publisher=Shrayber Farayn H.D. Nomberg |location=Buenos Aires |url=https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/collections/yiddish-books/spb-nybc211003 |page=69 |language=yi}}</ref><ref name="Goldman 1983">{{cite book |last1=Goldman |first1=Eric A. |title=Visions, images, and dreams: Yiddish film past and present |date=1983 |location=Ann Arbor, Michigan |isbn=9780835715157 |page=81}}</ref><ref name="Yablokoff 1968 573-77">{{cite book |last1=יאבלאקאוו |first1=הערמאן |title=ארום דער וועלט מיט אידיש טעאטער : אויטאביאגראפישע איבערלעבונגען און טעאטער-דערציילונגען אין לויף פון א האלבן יארהונדערט אידישע און וועלטלעכע געשעענישן |date=1968 |location=New York |pages=573–77 |url=https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/collections/yiddish-books/spb-nybc200862 |language=yi}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Yiddish Theater in the United States |url=https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/yiddish-theater-in-united-states |website=Jewish Women's Archive |access-date=7 September 2021 |language=en}}</ref>

==Biography== ===Early life=== Florence Weiss's year of birth and immigration is unclear. She Her date and place of birth may have been on May 30, 1900 in Makhnivka, Kiev Governorate, Russian Empire, as per her Declaration of Intention to become a United States citizen.<ref name="Oysher 1931 declaration of intention">{{cite web |title=Morris Rimer or Oisher. Migration • New York, Southern District, U.S District Court Naturalization Records, 1824-1946 |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPTW-M33G |website=FamilySearch |access-date=September 5, 2021}}</ref><ref name="1935 Oysher naturalization">{{cite web |title=Morris or Moishe Rimer or Oysher. Migration • New York, Southern District, U.S District Court Naturalization Records, 1824-1946 |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPTW-M335 |website=FamilySearch |access-date=5 September 2021}}</ref> However, in other documents, including travel manifests, the birth year was cited as 1899.<ref>{{cite web |title=Florence Oysher. Migration • California, Los Angeles Passenger Lists, 1907-1948 |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KZQ4-Y76 |website=FamilySearch |access-date=September 5, 2021}}</ref> At least one census indicated a year as late as 1904, which strains credulity.<ref name="1940 census">{{cite web |title=Florence Oysher. Census • United States Census, 1940 |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KQSF-7S2 |website=FamilySearch |access-date=September 5, 2021}}</ref> She apparently emigrated to the United States via Baltimore in 1907.<ref name="1935 Oysher naturalization" />

===Career=== Her first husband was Louis Weiss, a fellow Russian-born Yiddish Theatre actor. In 1920, they were living in Baltimore.<ref name="1920 census">{{cite web |title=Florence Wain in the 1920 United States Federal Census |url=https://www.ancestry.com/ |website=Ancestry |access-date=September 5, 2021}}</ref>

By 1928, Florence was the leading actress at the Lyric theatre, often costarring with Louis, as well as at the Hopkinson theatre which Louis managed.<ref>{{cite news |title="FOR PARENTS' SINS" AT HOPKINSON THEATRE |work=Times Union |date=October 26, 1928 |location=Brooklyn, New York}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=JEWISH HOUR ON WBBC |work=Times Union |date=July 19, 1928 |location=Brooklyn, New York}}</ref> In 1928, Louis recruited actor Moishe Oysher from Philadelphia to star opposite Florence in a play.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hoberman |first1=J. |title=Bridge of light : Yiddish film between two worlds |date=1991 |publisher=Museum of Modern Art |location=New York |isbn=9780805241075 |page=263}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Zylbercweig |first1=Zalmen |last2=Mestel |first2=Jacob |title=Leḳsiḳon fun Yidishn ṭeaṭer vol. 4 |date=1931 |publisher=Elisheva |location=New York |page=2535 |url=https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/collections/yiddish-books/spb-nybc201092 |language=yi}}</ref> However, Florence ended up leaving Louis for Oysher, and married Oysher in January 1929 while they were living in Newark, New Jersey and working at the Lyric Theatre.<ref name="1935 Oysher naturalization" /><ref name="Fraydele Oysher interview">{{cite web |title=Fraydele Oysher interview |url=http://www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/yt/lex/O/i-oysher-fraydele-milken-edited.htm |website=Museum of Family History |access-date=September 5, 2021}}</ref> They continued performing at the Lyric in 1930.<ref>{{cite news |title=Theater News |work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |date=September 10, 1930 |location=Brooklyn, New York}}</ref> By 1931, they had relocated to Philadelphia.<ref name="Oysher 1931 declaration of intention" /> But they soon returned to New York, playing in a Boris Thomashefsky operetta at the Gayety Theatre in 1932 and at the Amphion Theatre in 1933.<ref>{{cite news |title=THOMASHEFSKY IN BORO. |work=Times Union |date=October 16, 1932 |location=Brooklyn, New York}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Local Yiddish Theaters |work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |date=September 20, 1933 |location=Brooklyn, New York}}</ref>

Although they later became very well known, at first they had difficult making ends meet with the theatre, which is why Oysher decided to become a Hazzan as well.<ref name="Fraydele Oysher interview" /> The pair appeared regularly together on WEVD radio during the 1930s. In 1935 she and Oysher returned to the Lyric Theatre, Second Avenue Theatre, and the Hopkinson Theatre, and at the Second Avenue theatre in 1936 in an Alexander Olshanetsky operetta starring Leo Fuchs.<ref>{{cite news |title=News of the Stage. |work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |date=October 22, 1935 |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=9}}</ref><ref name="News of the Stage">{{cite news |title=News of the Stage |work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |date=May 22, 1935 |location=Brooklyn, New York}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=4 Yiddish Plays to make Debuts |work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |date=February 13, 1936 |location=Brooklyn, New York}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title="That's Love" Reopens the Lyric Theatre |work=Times Union |date=May 3, 1935 |location=Brooklyn, New York}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Yiddish Stage |work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |date=January 23, 1936 |location=Brooklyn, New York}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Plays on Broadway. |url=https://archive.org/details/variety120-1935-12/page/n239/mode/2up |work=Variety |publisher=Variety Publishing Company |date=December 25, 1935 |location=New York, NY}}</ref> thumb|Moishe Oysher and Florence Weiss c.1933

The height of Weiss's fame was in the late 1930s, when she appeared in a handful of films with Oysher, which led to radio appearances, recording sessions and larger concert appearances. In 1937 she appeared in Sidney Goldin's final film, The Cantor's Son ({{Transliteration|yi|Dem khazn's zindl}}), a film loosely based on Moishe Oysher's own life story.<ref name="Goldman 1983" /> Goldin died while the film was still in production and a relatively unknown director, Ilya Moteleff, stepped in to finish it. They then appeared at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in February 1937 to an audience of 2000.<ref>{{cite news |title=Moishe Oisher heard in Academy Recital |work=Times Union |date=March 1, 1937 |location=Brooklyn, New York}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Concert of Moishe Oisher draws 2,000 to Academy |work=The Brooklyn Citizen |date=March 1, 1937 |location=Brooklyn, New York}}</ref> Her next appearance was in The Singing Blacksmith ({{Transliteration|yi|Yankl der shmid}}, 1938), again with Moishe Oysher, which was directed by Edgar G. Ulmer and based on a 1906 play by David Pinski.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Singing Blacksmith |url=https://archive.org/details/motionpictureher133unse/page/n581/mode/2up |work=Motion Picture Herald |publisher=Quigley Publishing Co. |date=December 17, 1938 |page=54}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Isenberg |first1=Noah |title=Edgar G. Ulmer |date=2019 |publisher=University of California Press |pages=102–6 |url=https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520957176-006 |chapter=4. Songs of Exile|doi=10.1525/9780520957176-006 |isbn=9780520957176 |s2cid=226790805 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Goldman |first1=Eric A. |title=Visions, images, and dreams: Yiddish film past and present |date=1983 |location=Ann Arbor, Michigan |isbn=9780835715157 |page=116}}</ref> The film was successful enough that Victor Records had Oysher and Weiss record their songs from it to be released on disc.<ref>{{cite news |title=⁨Coming to Homewood |url=https://www.nli.org.il/en/newspapers/amjwld/1939/03/24/01/article/77/?srpos=14&e=-------en-20--1--img-txIN%7ctxTI-%22Florence+Weiss%22-------------1 |work=www.nli.org.il |date=March 24, 1939 |language=en}}</ref> In 1939 she also returned to the Hopkinson theatre for a time.<ref>{{cite news |title=Barrymore Play Coming Nov. 28 |work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |date=November 10, 1939 |location=Brooklyn, New York}}</ref> Their third and final film together was Overture to Glory ({{Transliteration|yi|Der vilner shtot khazn}}, 1940), which was directed by Max Nosseck, based on a story by Ossip Dimov.<ref>{{cite news |title=Legend with Music. |work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |date=February 10, 1940 |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=18}}</ref>

In 1940 she was in a play starring Aaron Lebedeff and the Barry Sisters at the Clinton Theatre and appeared regularly in a Vaudeville act with Lebedeff and Celia Adler at the Downtown National Theatre.<ref>{{cite news |title='Romeo' Starts its Last Week |work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |date=June 6, 1940 |location=Brooklyn, New York}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=HOUSE REVIEWS. |url=https://archive.org/details/variety139-1940-09/page/n45/mode/2up |work=Variety |publisher=Variety Publishing Company |date=September 4, 1940 |location=New York, NY |page=47}}</ref>

She continued to appear on stage during and after World War II. In 1944 she appeared with Lillian Lux and Pesach Burstein at the Hopkinson Theatre.<ref>{{cite news |title=New Yiddish Musical |work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |date=March 30, 1944 |location=Brooklyn, New York}}</ref> She appeared at the Clinton Theatre in 1947.<ref>{{cite news |title=A New Yiddish Play opens at Clinton Friday. |work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |date=January 23, 1947 |location=Brooklyn, New York |page=9}}</ref> She also took on a regular opening act role at a Romanian-Jewish restaurant on Broadway, Roumanian Village.<ref>{{cite news |title=Nitery Followups |url=https://archive.org/details/variety156-1944-10/page/n133/mode/2up |work=Variety |publisher=Variety Publishing Company |date=October 18, 1944 |location=New York, NY |page=42}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Forbes |first1=Virginia |title=Cafe Life in New York |work=New York Sun |date=September 13, 1944 |page=36}}</ref>

From 1949 to the mid-1950s, she appeared in a number of productions with Irving Jacobson, Fyvush Finkel, Max Kletter and others at Vera Rozanka's National Theatre.<ref>{{cite news |title=Yiddish Musical Tonight |work=New York Post |date=December 2, 1949}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Kletter in New Musical |work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |date=November 3, 1949 |location=Brooklyn, New York}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=New Yiddish Musical |work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |date=November 30, 1949 |location=Brooklyn, New York}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=נעשאנאל טעאטער וועט זיף עפע. נען מארגען, פדייטאג אווענט, מיט א גרויפען פטאר קעפט |url=https://www.nli.org.il/en/newspapers/frw/1950/04/08/01/article/69/?srpos=20&e=-------en-20--1-byDA.rev-img-txIN%7ctxTI-%22%d7%a4%d7%9c%d7%90%d7%a8%d7%a2%d7%a0%d7%a1+%d7%95%d7%95%d7%99%d7%99%d7%a1%22-------------1 |work=פארװערטס⁩⁩ |date=April 8, 1950 |location=New York |page=10 |language=yi}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=advertisement. |work=New York Post |date=February 21, 1954}}</ref> By the late 1950s and 1960s, most of her performances seem to have been at Borscht Belt hotels in the Catskills.<ref>{{cite news |title=advertisement. |url=https://www.nli.org.il/en/newspapers/frw/1957/06/14/01/article/49.1/?srpos=2&e=-------en-20--1-byDA.rev-img-txIN%7ctxTI-%22%d7%a4%d7%9c%d7%90%d7%a8%d7%a2%d7%a0%d7%a1+%d7%95%d7%95%d7%99%d7%99%d7%a1%22-------------1 |work=פארװערטס⁩⁩ |date=June 14, 1957 |location=New York |page=9 |language=yi}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=advertisement. |url=https://www.nli.org.il/en/newspapers/frw/1965/09/15/01/article/44.2/?srpos=1&e=-------en-20--1-byDA.rev-img-txIN%7ctxTI-%22%d7%a4%d7%9c%d7%90%d7%a8%d7%a2%d7%a0%d7%a1+%d7%95%d7%95%d7%99%d7%99%d7%a1%22-------------1 |work=פארװערטס⁩⁩ |date=September 15, 1965 |location=New York |page=6 |language=yi}}</ref>

She died in May 1974, after a long illness.<ref>{{cite news |title=פֿלאָרענס װײס, אידישע אַקטריסע געשטאַרבען |url=https://www.nli.org.il/en/newspapers/frw/1974/05/15/01/article/56/?srpos=56&e=-------en-20--41-byDA.rev-txt-txIN%7ctxTI-%22%d7%a4%d7%9c%d7%90%d7%a8%d7%a2%d7%a0%d7%a1+%22-ARTICLE------------1 |work=פארװערטס⁩⁩ |date=May 15, 1974 |location=New York |language=yi}}</ref>

==Selected recordings== * {{Transliteration|yi|A zemerl}}/{{Transliteration|yi|Chassidic in America}} with Moishe Oysher (Victor Records, 1938)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Spottswood |first1=Richard K. |title=Ethnic music on records : a discography of ethnic recordings produced in the United States, 1893 to 1942 |date=1990 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |location=Urbana |isbn=9780252017216 |page=1452}}</ref> * {{Transliteration|yi|Simmon-Tov Mazeltov}}/{{Transliteration|yi|Bist Mere Mazeldig}} with Abe Ellstein orchestra (Banner Records)<ref>{{cite web |title=Simmon-Tov Mazeltov |url=https://rsa.fau.edu/album/146 |website=Recorded Sound Archive |access-date= September 4, 2021}}</ref>

==Film appearances== * The Cantor's Son ({{Transliteration|yi|Dem khazn's zindl}}, 1937) with Moishe Oysher, directed by Sidney Goldin and Ilya Matyleff<ref>{{cite book |title=The Cantor's Son |oclc=164872305 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Cantor's Son |url=https://www.jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/CantorsSon.htm |website=jewishfilm.org |access-date=September 4, 2021}}</ref> * The Singing Blacksmith ({{Transliteration|yi|Yankl der shmid}}, also known as {{Transliteration|yi|Der zingedike shmid}}, 1938) with Moishe Oysher, directed by Edgar G. Ulmer<ref>{{cite book |title=Yankel der Schmidt = יאַנקל דער שמיד |date=2005|oclc=61249548 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Singing Blacksmith |url=https://www.jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/singingblacksmith.htm |website=jewishfilm.org |access-date=September 4, 2021}}</ref> * Overture to Glory ({{Transliteration|yi|Der vilner shtot khazn}}, 1940) with Moishe Oysher, directed by Max Nosseck<ref>{{cite book |title=Overture to Glory |oclc=233690121 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Overture to Glory |url=https://www.jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/Overture.htm |website=jewishfilm.org |access-date=September 4, 2021}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * [https://rsa.fau.edu/artist/123 Florence Weiss recordings] in the Florida Atlantic University Recorded Sound Archive

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Weiss, Florence}} Category:Year of birth uncertain Category:1974 deaths Category:Yiddish-language American singers Category:American women singers Category:Yiddish theatre performers Category:Victor Records artists Category:RCA Victor artists Category:American sopranos Category:People from Kiev Governorate Category:Jewish women singers