MAKS GEBIL (NOKHUM, MENAKHEM-MENDL GEBIL, GABIL)

MAKS GEBIL (NOKHUM, MENAKHEM-MENDL GEBIL, GABIL) (December 24, 1877-1952)

            He was born in Gorlits (Gorlice), western Galicia.  His father, a commercial dealer in oil, had a love of writing and, as Gebil claimed, should have written a book entitled “Joy of laughter.”  He studied in religious elementary school, later in the Vishnitser yeshiva, and German and Polish with a private teacher.  In 1888, soon after his father’s death, he emigrated to New York with his mother and sister.  He worked in a factory making suspenders, and in his free time studied English.  At age fourteen, he joined the “East Side Dramatic Club” and a year later began to perform Yiddish theater in the amateur “Young Hebrew Dramatic Club.”  Thereafter he was a professional actor, a theatrical director, and the author of plays; for many years, he played a huge part in the Yiddish theater in America.  He wrote his first play in 1895, Der zee-kenig (The seeing king), which he himself staged at Turn Hall on Fourth Street in New York City.  A year later he wrote the play, Tate mames tsores (Mom and Dad’s troubles), and from that point forward he wrote, translated, and adapted a great number of plays, only a few of which were ever published.  A listing of his plays can be found in B. Gorin’s Geshikhte fun yidishn teater (History of the Yiddish theater), Z. Zilbertsvayg’s Leksikon fun yidishn teater (Handbook of the Yiddish theater), and Zalmen Reyzen’s Leksikon.  In Yidishe velt (Jewish world) of Cleveland, he published articles about theater, as well as scenes from life in New York.  He also published memoirs about the Yiddish theater in Togblat (Daily newspaper) in Lemberg, Forverts (Forward) in New York, and elsewhere.  Shortly before his death, he published in the Forverts the story of his life.  He died in Los Angeles, California.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 1; Z. Zilbertsvayg, Leksikon fun yidishn teater, vol. 1 (with a bibliography); B. Gorin, Geshikhte fun yidishn teater, vol. 2 (New York, 1923), pp. 260, 279; Y. Entin, in Tsukunft (New York) (1917), pp. 301-4; Di tsayt (New York) (September 17, 1920; January 7, 1921; February 11 and 28, 1921; April 15, 1922); A. Oyerbakh, in Di tsayt (January 14, 1922); Moyshe Nadir, Mayne hent hobn fargosn dos dozike blut (My hands are covered in this blood) (Vilna, 1927), pp. 145-49; Dr. A. Mukdoni, Teater (Theater) (New York, 1927), pp. 278-88; Sh. Perlmuter, Yidishe dramaturgn un teater-compozitors (Yiddish playwrights and theatrical composers) (New York, 1952); Y. Mestl, 70 yor teater-repertuar (Seventy years of theater repertoire) (New York, 1954).