a new film
about Jewish comediennes including Dr. Lois Young-Tulin speaking
about her great grand aunt, Sophie Tucker
What
people are saying
|
Sophie Tucker to Lois Young-Tulin
Backstage at
the Latin Casino, mid 1960s
When Lois Young-Tulin, Ph.D. (Wyncote, PA) decided to write Sophie and
Me: Some of These Days about her special relationship with her great
grand aunt, legendary singer, vaundeville, and film star, Sophie Tucker, she
wanted to reflect on the star’s influence on her and pay a long overdue
tribute to her beloved Sophie. Additionally, Young-Tulin wanted to create
a legacy so other women comics and entertainers would know what a trailblazer
Sophie Tucker was for them. Tucker was an original, an early feminist, someone
who “made trouble.” The quote above, the inspiration to a young
Lois, to pursue a career rather than “just be a housewife,” indicates
how Sophie was ahead of her time. Lois, now an established writer and teacher
with a doctorate, 
has written a sensitive and touching
portrayal, showing another side of this popular entertainer, who was known
as “The Last of the Red Hot Mamas,” her signature songs, Some
of These Days, and My Yiddishe Mama, which didn’t reflect
her own life, and whose career as a singer, vaudeville and film star,
who also appeared on TV, spanned more than 60 years. Yet, she took Lois under
her wing like a surrogate granddaughter, and was a mentor from the time they
first met in 1950 when Lois was 10, until Tucker’s death in 1966. Though,
the book was published in 2001, Lois is still receiving requests to speak
about Sophie, indicating how the popularity of the entertainer has endured.
In 2005, The Jewish Women’s Archive of Brookline, MA organized an event to honor its founding Chair Board Barbara Dobkin. As part of the program a montage of funny Jewish women such as Molly Picon, Fannie Brice and Sophie Tucker was presented, with people talking about the entertainers’ contributions. From that event came the idea that more people should know about the legacy of these women. Two years later, the movie, Making Trouble, has been released. In addition to Picon, Brice and Tucker, Joan Rivers, Gilda Radner and Wendy Wasserstein are featured. Dr. Young-Tulin appears in the film talking about Sophie as the two legacy goals meet. The film is making the rounds of the country and was shown at the Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival on Saturday, March 22, 2008. Gail Twersky Reimer, the founding director of The Jewish Women’s Archive, was the Executive Producer of the film. Producer and Director Rachel Talbot makes her directing debut after producing five acclaimed documentaries; Philip Shane was editor, while award-winning Joel Goodman was the composer.
On the Making Trouble web site, it notes: “Our hosts...are four of today’s leading Jewish women comedians, Judy Gold, Jackie Hoffman, Cory Kahaney and Jessica Kirson brought together at New York’s famed Katz’s Delicatessen to gab about these female comic pioneers and guide us through the chronicle of these amazing women. Making Trouble highlights the connection between our stars and our hosts, calling attention to an inspiring and continuing history of funny Jewish women.”
“The Jewish Women’s Arcbive...have done most of our work with ‘serious’ women...‘Funny’ is an equally compelling piece of women’s history,” said Reimer. “If Jewish women had not been able to laugh and make others laugh I wonder whether they could have surmounted the difficulties they have faced throughout history...As we gathered clips of Sophie Tucker, Fanny Brice, Molly Picon and others, we became convinced that the best way to tell their stories and highlight their contributions to Jewish and American culture would be to make a film -- one that would make us laugh and make us rethink what it is to be a Jewish woman.”
“When I began to do research for the film,...I realized there was more to these women than their ‘greatest hits,’” said Talbot. “These were truly exceptional women who not only possessed remarkable talent, but who lived lives of determination, humor and passion...I chose compelling moments from their careers that speak to larger themes. The lives of these six women span the last century and each of their stories illuminates important aspects of their time and what it meant to be Jewish, a woman, and to succeed on stage and screen.”
The film has been an official slection in Silver Docs, San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, Boston Jewish Film Festival and Woodstock Film Festival and received Special Mention at Jerusalem Film Festival. For more information on the film and screening schedule see http://www.makingtrouble.com. For more information on the Jewish Women’s Archive, visit http://www.jwa.org. To read more about Dr. Young-Tulin and Sophie and Me: Some of these Days, see the press page and the rest of this site.