Uncles and more Uncles
I was born and raised in Paterson N.J.; My mother was born and raised in Paterson N.J. This unimportant fact has absolutely no bearing on this article but I thought it might raise a few eyebrows knowing that the family settled in Paterson in 1895.This city during the depths of the depression in the 30's when I was a boy was a lovely residential community replete with parks and beautiful one family homes. I t was a wonderful place for a boy to grow up in. Which leads me to the meat and potatoes of this narrative - my mother's four brothers who, as it fortuitously turned out, were also my uncles. And what uncles they were! Having those uncles around was like living in the middle of a circus tent. They were enormously talented, all comedians (George Burns had nothing on them), all family oriented, all giving and they all loved me fiercely - bless me.. Being in the bosom of that wonderful family (and please don't think that my aunts were any different God bless them) was like living in a George S. Kaufman comedy. My eldest uncle Leo - in those days the first born always received most of the opportunities and already was a fine, concert violinist when he was sent to continue his studies in Berlin prior to World War 1. One of his letters home described a concert in Berlin with a young 12 year old boy who played the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the philharmonic. He stated that he never expected to hear violin playing like that again in his lifetime and was ready to trash his violin - the boy was Jascha Heifetz. . Leo , who was the "star" of the family subsequently became music director of WOR Mutual, and conducted the Newark Symphony Orchestra. And although married and as straight as a yardstick his gay routine was the best I ever saw. The second oldest was my uncle Herman aho had the distinction of not only opening the first circus in town but also its first silent movie theater. My teenage mother who couldn't read music yet played the piano for Herman in the theater. His chief claim musically was to play the first movement of the aforementioned Mendelssohn concerto with only his index finger. What a family. Herman was also incredibly funny. Then there were my marvelous, wonderful twins - Irving and Eddie who would have performed in vaudeville as twin tap dancers except for the fact that my grandfather of the old German school wouldn't allow it since it didn't portray the family image properly. Those two uncles. Eddie learned how to play violin by watching his older brother practice - he never took a lesson and wound up in the Memphis Symphony. He always bragged that he played before all the crowned heads of Europe and some very peculiar people in Pennsylvania. Irving on the other hand couldn't play the violin the normal way but he played it like a cello between his legs. He was so adept that he headed a program on the radio in Memphis as the "unknown violinist" And I must tell you that he played the hell out of that "cello fiddle".
The benevolent influence these extraordinary uncles had on my life was prophetic. At the age of two I was fully immersed in classical music. Watching my uncles tap dance and perform musically, seeing and hearing Leo (my idol) play a phenomenal violin (in spite of Heifetz!), enjoy playing the violin in school with my mother at the piano. My four uncles didn't belong in a normal home - people should have paid to see them in a theater. They're all gone now and at the age of 82 I cherish those wonderful memories.
