Irving Jacobson was an actor whose talents were legendary in the Yiddish theatre before his fame was established on Broadway as Don Quixote's comic sidekick, Sancho, in "Man of La Mancha ... ".
Born in Cincinnati, he came to New York City as a youth and was a pupil at Public School 20, where his classmates included other youngsters destined for prominence, such as the actors Paul Muni and Edward G Robinson, Senator Jacob K Javits, and the author Harry Golden.
For more than twenty years, Irving Jacobson, a man with a heavy black mustache, was a stalwart of the Yiddish theatre. He was often seen opposite other Yiddish stars, including Molly Picon, with whom he appeared in the comedy, "Abi Gezunt." He was also a director and producer.
One of his best know performances was in the 1938 production of "Yiddishe Mame" ...
With his wife, Mae Schoenfeld, and sometimes without her, Mr. Jacobson performed in more than fifty Yiddish theatrical productions ...
In 1966, Mr. Jacobson was honored as "Man of the Year" by the East Side Hebrew Institute for "numerous contributions to various charities and for his humanitarian acts."
In a 1935 interview, done with his brother Hymie, there was talk about the time Irving spent in Europe, and the difficulties he had playing Yiddish theatre there:
"Irving Jacobson spent under half-a-year in Europe. He played in Paris, Antwerp, Warsaw, Lodz, Bialystok, Lemberg and in Vienna. In Lemberg he was there when there were floods, and they had to wait an entire week because they could not play then. He was in Vienna when the revolution occurred there, and no one wanted to go to the theatre then. There too, one could not play for more than a week. In Bialystok a pogrom took place when he was there, and -- there continues to be troubles. Due to this, they weren't able to play for a certain time.
In Bialystok -- as Irving tells it -- I had an opportunity to demonstrate my art, not only on the stage, but also on the back of a lumpy Nazi ... several Nazis had begun to tear up Yiddish newspapers from newsstands, and they started abusing Jews. Well, I thought, what can I do? Do I really want to attack Nazis? I started working my fists on their dog faces a bit ... I was a mental genius when I did the job ...
On the question if the Nazis had also honored him with some slaps, he said that no, because before they had time to do it, policemen ran in and the pranksters escaped ... "
