Molly! : an autobiography /

Like so many winning, tireless performers, Molly Picon is rather less engaging in print than on stage; and Molly's story is an unusually steady one, not very big on ups and downs, making this often amusing, occasionally moving autobiography generally undramatic and just a bit tedious. Birthplace was Philadelphia (1898), Mama was wonderful, Papa was a mostly-absent no-goodnik, and tiny Molly was a precocious, somersaulting kid who got into ""vodvil"" as one of ""The Four Seasons"" (""I would be Winter, because I could do a kezatzke""). But on tour in Boston she met young Yonkel (Jacob Kalich) of the Yiddish theater, who became all-American Molly's Yiddishizing influence and husband for almost 60 years--despite a stillbirth, childlessness, and one bout of misunderstanding (""Here was a man who was asking me to climb ropes and spin on roller skates but then denied me sex because he thought I was worn out!""). With Yonkel as playwright-mentor and Molly as star/songwriter, they toured Europe to gain a reputation, then returned to become the toast of Second Avenue and uptown vaudeville (sharing the bill with Sophie Tucker, who did half of her act in pure Yiddish too). And for the next 30 years or so the pattern was set: Yiddish-English theater (Yonkele, Farblonzet Honeymoon, Kosher Widow), radio, benefits for charity and Israel, concert tours (South Africans an especially warm audience), entertaining troops and--most wearingly and hard-won--survivors of the Holocaust. Not much happens here aside from the showbiz: Molly and Yonkel decorate their country home, Chez Shmendrick, become foster-parents to deserving Jewish young folk. And if the only real tension comes from Molly's off-and-on tries for Broadway--bad plays before and after her Milk and Honey hit--the only real feeling comes with Yonkel's terminal illness. Still, along with rather too much patting herself on the back, Molly serves up a few good stories, many adorable Yiddishisms (all carefully translated), some perceptive remarks on inter-Jewish snobberies as well as anti-Semitism, and tart words on such colleagues as Sam Levene, Fanny Brice, Paul Muni, and Molly's nemesis--dirty comics. A must for fans, of course--but only so-so for those who don't already know and love this spryest of octogenarians. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.