By Sidney Lumet Page #4

morals, to hell with unfair. You know that great line of

Brecht's from the "Threepenny Opera," first feed the face,

then tell me right from wrong, that says it. [music playing] They're gonna get you. Do you hear? They're gonna tear you down. How do you like

that, old stinkpot? SIDNEY LUMET: My father

read me "Hamlet" in Yiddish before I ever heard

it in English. [music playing] He was a wonderful actor. During the Depression, my father

was doing a Jewish soap opera-- we had a radio station, WEVD--

which stood for, by the way, Eugene V Debs because

so much in Jewish life was involved with socialism

then-- and 15 minutes, five days a week, and he wrote

it, whatever directing there was to do with it. My mother was in it. I was in it. I was five. He played two parts. $35 a week and that got

us through the Depression. That fed us. I'm glad to have it. And the show was

a tremendous hit. And having a big

hit then, my father started, as so many

other Jewish actors did, would rent a theater

for two weeks before Passover and

through the Passover week and wrote a dramatization of the

characters in the radio show, in the soap opera. It was called the

"Brownsville a Zayde," which means the grandfather

from Brownsville. [music playing] There were 12 Jewish

theaters on 40 week seasons. That's extraordinary. And I'm talking

about big theaters. I mean, the theaters

I acted in as a kid, they sat 1,800 people. It was a remarkable life, it

in itself and my being in it. When I was in it, it was

already on the downhill side, past its glorious days. And its glorious days

happened, really, because of the enormous

Jewish population in New York. If you weren't my

son, there's not a manager in the business

who would give you a part, your reputation stinks so. As it is, I have to humble

my pride and beg for you, say you've turned

over a new leaf, although I know it's a lie. I never wanted to be an actor. You forced me on a stage. That's a lie. You left it to me

to get you a job and I have no influence

except in the theater. When the Jewish theater was

coming to an end, my father already, his mind was racing. He was a survivor. And oh I know what. Maybe if-- Sidney's talented. Maybe if I bring

him up to Broadway, there'll be something there. I was considered one of the two

best kid actors on Broadway, so I worked all the time. Between "Dead End" and when

I enlisted in the army, I did 14 Broadway plays. That's a lot. It also shows that

they were mostly flops. But I worked all

the time and worked in radio, where the checks

were really terrific. I wasn't a star, it was

just work that I loved, that I adored. It kept me off the streets. People always worry

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