OYSHER, MOISHE. (1906-58). Varied personal ...

OYSHER, MOISHE. (1906-58). Varied personal archive from the famed American cantor, recording artist, and film and Yiddish theater actor.

Consisting of working manuscript scores, letters, photographs, recordings, etc.

Comprising:

* EXTENSIVE MISCELLANEOUS QUANTITY OF AUTOGRAPH MUSIC SCORES (c. 500 pages+). Many heavily annotated. For both voice and for orchestration.

* c. 110 Autograph and Typed Letters, most within original envelopes, all written to Moishe Oysher, 1950’s. All in English (handful in Yiddish). Couple written by Oysher himself. Includes some 75 letters written by Adolph Hoffman of the Downbeat Agency, Los Angeles.

    Detailed discussions relating to booking of tours, movie treatments, production development and investments. Filled with a great many show-biz names and overall “Hollywood talk.”

    Other letters to Oysher, including from Max Nosseck and Aben Kandel, pertain to script development, contract negotiations, and concert appearances from Caracas to Cape Town.

* Original scripts for “The Road” (in English) pp. 92; and “The Voice” (in Yiddish) pp. 96.

* Miscellaneous typed proofs for other theatrical productions.

* 25 b/w studio and portrait photographs (excl. dups).

* 19 UNRELEASED studio and concert phonograph recordings.

*  Eight personal Magnetic-tape recordings.

*  Cantor’s cap, Bentley & Simon, New York.

*  Talith shawl.

*  US passport.

*  Cufflinks with personalized initials.

* Silver Kiddish goblet and coaster, with “MO” initials.

*  Pencil portrait. Malcolm Newman, 1950.

* 12 commercial cantorial LP’s.

    PROVENANCE: By descent within the family.

    "Moishe Oysher was celebrated as a serious and vocally gifted hazzan and also as an exciting stage and film performer.

    Born in Lipkon (Lipkany), Bessarabia, to a family that boasted six generations of cantors, he was drawn to the stage even as a child. In 1921 he joined a traveling Yiddish theatrical troupe in Canada, appeared with them in New York, and eventually led his own troupe on a South American tour. Still, he never abandoned his affinity for hazzanut or his extraordinary talent for highly emotional liturgical expression. He created a sensation when he officiated as cantor for the High Holy Days at the prestigious pulpit of the First Rumanian Synagogue on New York’s Lower East Side. His cantorial concerts at that synagogue also attracted a considerable public following, as did his numerous recordings. Oysher also starred in major Yiddish films.”

    See The Milken Archive of Jewish Music: https://www.milkenarchive.org/artists/view/moishe-oysher/.