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Marjorie Gottlieb Wolfe
Syosset, New York
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Q. Guess who is pitching "Want 5X the
interest with free ATMs? Capital One
Bank"?
A. Comedian, Broadway star, and "The
King of Queens,"
Jerry Stiller.
Shown below is the Yiddish guide to a man who has consistently proven himself to be a force in showbiz.
"arbetzamer" (a person who derives great
satisfaction from work)
Jerry Stiller is a true "arbetzamer."
"armey" (Army)
When Stiller was asked why he joined the
Army, he said, "To get away from my home.
My parents were always fighting. It made
it hard."
When Joe DiSpigno asked, "I thought Jewish parents don't fight,..and "didn't they
love you?" he replied, "Sure. They just
fought with each other. They never laid a
hand on the kids."
Source: "Married To Laughter - A Love
Story Featuring Anne Meara"
"bild" (picture)
"It can make you sad ("umetik") to look at
pictures from your youth. So there is a trick to it. The trick is not to look at the later pictures."
Stiller quote
"bubbi and zeidi" (grandma and grandpa)
(or "zeyde and bobe")
Stiller's grandparents spoke a truncated
Yiddish, a shorthand that only they seemed
to understand ("farshteyn").
On Friday "nakht" (night) his grandmother would "tsindt lecht"--light the candles.
"bukh" (book)
Stiller's autobiography, "Married to
Laughter," was published by Simon and
Schuster in 2000. The audio version of the
book, read by Jerry, was released by Random House.
"depresye" (depression/economic)
"During the Great Depression, when
people laughed, their worries disappeared.
Audiences loved these funny men. I decided
to become one."
Stiller quote
"dokter" (doctor)
"Serenity now! Serenity now! "What is that?"
"The doctor gave me a relaxation cassette.
When my blood pressure gets too high, the
man on the tape tells me to say 'serenity
now!'
"Are you supposed to yell it?"
"The man on the tape wasn't specific."
Stiller quote
"frage" (question)
"I ask myself why I do it [work]. Maybe it's
to prove I'm still around. It takes a lot out
of my body.
I'm not an NBA player anymore.
At my age, very few people can handle it."
Stiller quote
"fraynd" (friend)
One of Jerry Stiller's great friends was
the late Henny Youngman.
"froy" (wife)
In 1954, Stiller married Anne Meara, a struggling "yung aktrise" (young actress)
of Irish descent. How did they meet? While
waiting for a job interview, Stiller heard a
woman starting to scream ("shrayen")
while coming from the agent's office. The
office door flew "ofn" (open), and a tall,
pretty ("sheyn") redhead dashed out. She
said the agent had chased her around the
room. Stiller confronted the man, who
thereupon chased HIM around the room.
Neither Stiller nor Meara found a job that
day--but they found each other.
Source: "The Jewish Comedy Catalog"
by Darryl Lyman
"geboyrn" (born)
Stiller was born Gerald Isaac Stiller in 1927
in New York. He is the oldest of three
children.
"gelt" (money)
Jerry Stiller loved acting and comedy, but he also had to make money. Thus, in
addition to his acting, he sold Good Humor
"ayzkrem" (ice cream), washed windows in
Queens for $1 a "fentster" (window), mixed "tsement" (cement), and sold "marantsn-zaft" (orange juice) in Times Square. He said, "Money is sensual."
"girik" (greedy)
Stiller played the role as Tamkin, the greedy, street-smart conman, in the 1986
made-for-TV film, "Seize the Day." He
said, "We're all greedy, but Tamkin's greed
is close to what I have felt--wanting too
much and not being connected to what really makes you happy."
Stiller quote
"groys" (great)
Stiller says "Things change and they change
for the better, too. I have worked with some of the greatest actors. Take a person like Kevin James, who worked with me on
King of Queens. This guy can do anything
that Buster Keaton did."
"groys" (big)
When Stiller met Big Ed, Anne's father, in his mind he could hear, "What the hell is she doing with a guy like that? He's three inches shorter than she is. He's got to be
Jewish. They're all Jewish in show business."
"gut nayes" (good news); "shlekht nayes" (bad news)
"Hey, Lloyd. I got good news and bad news...and they're both the same. You're
fired."
Jerry Stiller as Frank Costanza
"hart" (tough)
[re: marriage with Anne Meara]
"We managed to hang in there. Today when people get married, there is a tendency to run away when things get
tough. There is a lot of strength in hanging
together."
Stiller quote
"heskem" (agreement)
When Stiller graduated from Seward Park
High School, he had a form from the U.S.
Army Specialized Training Reserve program. He needed his parents' signature
to join. "We're not signing," they said.
Stiller wrote, "It was the first time I'd ever
seen them in agreement about anything.
By morning he got them to sign.
"heykh" (height)
Stiller is 5' 6" tall...and probably shrinking
with age. "Azoy vert dos kikhl tsebrokhn."
(That's how the cookie crumbes.)
"ketsl" (kitten)
Jerry and Anne had two kittens named "Squeaky" and "Sniffles."
"kheyn" (charm)
Stiller says that Kevin James' physical comedy is second to none. He describes
him as an "Amazing guy who also has acting
ability and a charm to him."
"khinukh" (education)
Stiller earned a B.S. degree in speech and
drama from Syracuse University in 1950...
And Madonna studied the Kabbalah!
"kinder-tsimer" (nursery)
Las Vegas had a nursery. So, whenever
Jerry and Anne performed, the kids were
either in the audience or the green room--
nursery. Jerry swaid, "They really were part
of the business."
"kindhayt" (childhood)
Stiller never forgot his pledge not to let his
kids have the same kind of childhood he did. So, he and Anne took their two kids
with them "umetum" (everywhere). They
schlepped them from place to place, taking
them to Las Vegas or LA. While they performed with Gladys Knight, they'd be in the pool swimming with The Pips.
(Note: Gladys Knight and The Pips were an
R&B soul famly musical act from Atlanta, GA, active from 1953 to 1989.)
"klas" (class)
Stiller took acting classes with Charles
Nelson Reilly, Steve McQueen, and Shelly
Berman. He said, "We were all trying to
make it."
"klub" (club)
In Oct. 1999, Jerry Stiller was honored by The New York Friar's Club at their "yerlekh" (annual) roast. The
televised "pasirung" (event) received the
highest rating for any program in the
history of the "komedie" (comedy) Central
Network.
"komish" (funny)
"Never go for the punch line. There might
be something funner on the way."
Stiller quote
"krank" (ill)
"Being on a sitcom stops me from getting
Alzheimers."
Stiller quote
"meshuge" (crazy; nuts)
Stiller wrote, "I thought if becoming a great
performer means I'm nuts, then I want to
be nuts. I want to be more nuts. The more
nuts the more success. I want to be the
nuttiest comedian in the world ("di velt")."
Stiller quote
"milkhome" (war)
"Hollywood never knew there was a Vietnam War until they made the movie."
Stiller quote
"nokhmakhn" (to imitate)
Stiller was brought up with Andy Hardy and
the Hardy family and Aunt Millie "oybn" (upstairs). He wanted to be them and live
in Harpersfield USA.
"oylem" (audience)
"I loved the idea of touching base with an
audience."
Stiller quote
"oyshitn" (to protect)
Stiller's parents fought almost always about
money. When the battles became physical,
he became the role of protector over
his siblings, Arnie and Doreen. His biggest "moyre" (fear) was that the neighbors would hear. He thought, "Jewish people
don't fight."
Source: "Married to Laughter"
"radyo" (radio) commercials
Stiller and Meara have written, performed
and produced award-winning radio
commercials for Blue Nun ("monashke")
Wine, United Van LInes and Amalgamated
Bank, among many others. Stiller appeared
as Vince Lombardi in Nike ads, AT&T
commercials with his Seinfeld wife, Estelle
Harris, and for Total Cereal ("kashe"), Glad
Bags and America Online 9.0.
"shtern" (star)
In Feb. 2007, Stiller and Meara were
honored with a Star on the Hollywood Walk
of Fame, only one of four married couples
to ever be honored with their own star.
"talant" (talent)
"The worst thing in this business is to be
thought of as a no-talent."
Stiller quote
"tate" (father)
Jerry's father was an unemployed bus driver. They moved around a lot, as much as ten times in 12 years. Once he moved from one end of the block to another. That was not the family life he wanted for HIS
family.
Stiller's dad often took him to Vaudeville
shows. When a comedian failed to make
the audience laugh, he would yell out,
"Faker! Faker!" Stiller goes through life
vowing never to be "a faker" and, in fact,
he would like his tombstone to read:
"Never A Faker."
"tate-mame" (parents)
"My father and mother. I figured if I could
make them laugh, they'd stop fighting. I
stole all their material."
Stiller quote
"tsuzamen" (together)
Stiller and Meara appeared together on "What's My LIne?" in 1968.
"tsvelf" (twelve)
Jerry and Anne were married for 12 years
before they had children.
"veg" (trail)
"I've been around the block a lot and I've
had a merry trail for 55 years."
Stiller quote
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Marjorie Wolfe wishes Jerry Stiller, "a hundert un tsvantsik yor!"--a hundred
and twenty years!
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