‘Dear Mummy’I’ve gotten very close to Bobby in the last month. We have such FUN! ‘He is beautiful to me. He bought me a beautiful coat and a dress and earrings and he’s just a joy to be with. We understand each other’s need for freedom and there are no chains, just good feelings and giggles and a lot of love. And I enjoy his genius!’ ‘ excerpt from a 1963 letter by Joan Baez to her mother As a Jewish Minnesotan named Robert Allen Zimmerman, he was known to relatively few. As the musician Bob Dylan, he became ‘The Voice of a Generation.’ His evolution from the former to the latter, and his skyrocketing early career trajectory, informs Experience Music Project’s traveling exhibit, ‘Bob Dylan’s American Journey: 1956-66,’ now at the Skirball Cultural Center through June 8. And like one of Dylan’s signature songs, ‘Blowin’ in the Wind,’ the show is a solid, thought-provoking hit. Let’s be honest: there’s an inherent contradiction in seeing a subject as singular, as rebellious, as underground and as revolutionary as Bob Dylan featured in a museum. But Dylan has become so comfortable with and cavalier about his potent artistic legacy that he can let his anti-establishment flag slacken. In the last decade, he’s contributed tunes to studio film soundtracks, released CDs exclusively through the decidedly corporate Starbucks, and has appeared in Victoria’s Secret commercials (!!). The man known for his literary lyrics has even shrugged off a plagiarism controversy in which he was accused of liberally lifting passages from a Japanese novel. So, hey, perhaps it’s about time Dylan endured some scholarly scrutiny. In projecting early Dylan up on several walls, ‘American Journey,’ neither stuffy nor pretentious, hits the right note (so to speak). Enter the exhibit, and what you’ll find is a chronological journey beginning with Dylan’s humble roots in Hibbing, Minnesota, and ending with the high-octane, celebrity-frenzy period immortalized by 1967’s ‘Don’t Look Back,’ D. A. Pennebaker’s cornerstone documentary capturing his chaotic 1965 British tour at the height of Dylanmania. Born in Duluth on May 24, 1941, Dylan was the son of an appliance store owner. His American journey evidently starts at age 15 with his discovery of rock ‘n’ roll and American roots music. A historical timeline at the onset of ‘Journey’ places the development of Dylan’s youthful musical interest in the larger context of what was happening on the U.S. pop charts (the usual suspects’Chuck Berry, Elvis, etc.). Along the way, visitors will find a section of a classmate’s 1959 Hibbing High School yearbook dedicated by the young Zimmerman; encased acoustic guitars belonging to Dylan heroes Woody Guthrie, Bruce Langhorne and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott; even a guitar and harmonica used by Dylan himself during his Greenwich Village days. Another glass showcase boasts original vinyl LPs of contemporaries making waves during Dylan’s folk phase”Harry Belafonte, Carolyn Hester, Dave Van Ronk. The singer/songwriter’s lyrics (always Dylan’s strongest suit) from early gems”’Masters of War,’ ‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”’adorn the exhibit’s far walls. Taking some academic wind out of Dylan are interactive set-ups designed to let museum-goers fully experience his musical path. A room dubbed the Interactive Music Experience (designed by the Skirball, in conjunction with Roland Corp. U.S. and Boss U.S.) allows laymen without any musical skill to isolate and manipulate instrumental tracks on ‘Like a Rolling Stone,’ with the same type of Hammond B3 organ used by Al Kooper to famously open Dylan’s acid-tongued kiss-off with. Other installations include drum pads and a kit on which anyone can rhythmically accompany ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ and other early ditties. A listening booth lets you don headphones and dig clear-as-a-whistle audio of Dylan’s first concert (November 4, 1961, Carnegie Chapter Hall), caught on tape by sound engineer Toni Mendell. We learn from this historic recording that Dylan, at 20, was already quite the raconteur with his rambling song segues. The same month of that performance, Dylan scraped together $402 to record his eponymous 13-track debut. Initially, ‘Bob Dylan’ sold only 5,000 copies. In addition to his first album, visitors can enter listening booths and hear his seminal early Columbia Records albums ‘The Freewheeling Bob Dylan’ (1963), ‘Another Side of Bob Dylan’ (1964), ‘Bringing It All Back Home’ (1965), and, of course, ‘Highway 61 Revisited’ (1965), home to ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ and considered by many to be his early masterpiece. All are annotated with footnotes. Throughout this horseshoe-shaped, Dylan-themed art crawl, you’ll find push-button booths where you can access his musical influences, both developmental and contemporary. The former includes Hank Williams (‘Cold, Cold Heart’), Odetta (‘Buked and Scorned’), Woody Guthrie (‘Tom Joad); the latter includes The Beatles (‘I Wanna Hold Your Hand)’, Lotte Lenny (‘Pirate Jenny’), Robert Johnson (‘Hellhound on My Trail’). For all of the high-tech aspects of ‘American Journey,’ the exhibit’s strength comes from its ephemera in pencil, ink, paint”in the hand of Dylan or someone connected to the troubadour. There’s a visceral charge from seeing the original lyrics of ‘It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)’ decorated with Dylan’s sketchy pen noodling along the sheet. Another highlight: a pair of Guthrie’s original pen-and-ink illustrations for his ‘Bound for Glory’ autobiographical account”the book that became the bible and style guide for Zimmerman’s ‘Bob Dylan’ persona, and roused the University of Minnesota student to borrow his ‘rustic attire and Okie accent and memorize his songbook.’ A definite ‘Journey’ highlight is a pair of letters to Joan Baez’s mother by Dylan and by Baez, famous folk singer and the lover via whom Dylan coat-tailed his way into the folk music spotlight and onward to greater fame. In every sense, the contrast between these two missives is glaring. Baez gushes, while Dylan disguises, pretending to be Baez in his letter and wasting her mother’s time with some crazy Seussian yarn. Baez’s correspondence, personal and clean, looks carefully, neatly and respectfully handwritten in pencil. Dylan’s is typed and appears distant, rushed, sloppy with errors. Baez is obviously smitten with Dylan, while Dylan comes off as sardonic and mocking of Baez. These letters stand as a strong testament to the romantic inequity and the careerist nature of Dylan’s whirlwind love affair. ‘Journey’ curator Jasen Emmens has ensured that booths and benches make for a comfortable viewing experience. Monitors play scenes from ‘Don’t Look Back’ and other archival footage. Clips from the Martin Scorsese-produced 2005 Dylan doc, ‘No Direction Home,’ illuminates key Dylan topics”such as ‘Highway 61’ guitarist Mike Bloomfield”in Dylan’s own words. ‘I always thought he should’ve stayed with me instead of go to the Paul Butterfield band,’ Dylan tells the camera. ‘He was the best guitarist I ever heard, on any level. He could flat pick, he could finger pick. It looked like he was born to play guitar, you know.’ Sadly, Bloomfield”a fellow Jewish, Midwestern-bred musical prodigy”died a tragic heroin-overdose death in 1981, not even two decades after he left Dylan to follow his Chicago blues muse. The year 1965 became a turning point in both Dylan’s career and pop music at large. He went electric at the Newport Folk Festival, effectively turning his back on the folk movement, which by the mid-sixties had calcified into a pallid rainbow of pat clich’s that no longer moved its most prominent associate. When Dylan plugged in, he tuned out folk music and everyone involved, including Baez. It was an AC/DC charge that resonated around the world. You could easily call this ‘American Journey’ show ‘Bob Dylan: The Early Years.’ The exhibit wisely ends with 1966, right after the moment in time captured by Pennebaker. In doing so, ‘Journey’ keeps its overview tight and finite, and the exhibit stops short of the wilderness years that followed, which included Dylan’s bust-up with Baez and subsequent marriage to Sara Lowndes, as well as the July 29, 1966 motorcycle accident that nearly claimed his life. ‘American Journey’ serves as an excellent primer for younger fans unfamiliar with Dylan’s musical legacy. Given the Skirball’s Jewish culture mandate, it’s interesting to note that there is no real mention of Dylan’s Jewish origins or background. But recall that during these formative, chameleonic years, Dylan essentially modeled himself after the poor white Appalachian and the blues-playing African-American. He would not embrace his Judaism for another few decades. ‘American Journey’ serves as an excellent primer for younger fans unfamiliar with Dylan’s musical legacy. Given the Skirball’s Jewish culture mandate, it’s interesting to note that there is no real mention of Dylan’s Jewish origins or background. But recall that during these formative, chameleonic years, Dylan essentially modeled himself after the poor white Appalachian and the blues-playing African-American. He would not embrace his Judaism for another few decades. ‘American Journey’ serves as an excellent primer for younger fans unfamiliar with Dylan’s musical legacy. Given the Skirball’s Jewish culture mandate, it’s interesting to note that there is no real mention of Dylan’s Jewish origins or background. But recall that during these formative, chameleonic years, Dylan essentially modeled himself after the poor white Appalachian and the blues-playing African-American. He would not embrace his Judaism for another few decades. In terms of information, Dylanheads may not derive much new data on their idol. Even the accidental fan might go into this exhibit knowing the name of ‘Journey”’s tune. After all, there’s been a recent (apologies to the artist Picabia) ‘Adoration of the Bob’ going on lately, and this period of his life is literally well-documented. A 40th anniversary edition of ‘Don’t Look Back’ came out in 2007. Both the Scorsese documentary and ‘The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival’ are current PBS pledge drive staples. Cate Blanchett, who won a Golden Globe and several critics prizes for her role in last year’s ‘I’m Not There,’ is expected to win the Oscar for her performance on tonight’s Academy Awards broadcast. Even Dylan weighed in on Dylan with his well-reviewed 2004 memoir, ‘Chronicles, Vol. I,’ a New York Times bestseller. Yet for the casual fan and the diehard Dylan fanatic alike, ‘Journey’ is a must-see. Just ask guests at the Skirball’s preview night festivities (which featured a Dylan tribute band), such as Jamie Levenson, who eagerly attended because he considers Dylan ‘a modern day Mozart. He forever stands so far apart from any other artist, including but not limited to, himself. Unlike any other living cultural icon, he gets better with age. He’s tuned into the great big inspiration channel, broadcast universally to a select few, of which he is a lifetime subscriber.” Perhaps it’s best we wrap up our appreciation of ‘American Journey’ with some wise words by Dylan himself, from the lyrics of ‘Up To Me’: ‘If I’d thought about it I never would’ve done it, I guess I would’ve let it slide/ If I’d lived my life by what others were thinkin’, the heart inside me would’ve died/ I was just too stubborn to ever be governed by enforced insanity/ Someone had to reach for the risin’ star, I guess it was up to me.’ Sam Peckinpah’s 1973 Western ‘Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid,’ which features Dylan in a supporting role and on the film’s soundtrack (most famously, the song ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’), screens tonight at 8 p.m. A gallery tour led by musician/producer David Was will take place on Thursday, March 13 at 7 p.m. Tickets: $10 general, $7 seniors and full-time students with ID; $5 children 2-12. Free to Skirball members and children under 2. Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles. Visit www.skirball.org.

‘I never saw a play in Yiddish and, to be honest, I never thought I would,’ says Dan Katzir, expressing a sentiment not uncommon among many young Jewish people. Yet unlike the situation of most Jews, that changed for the Israeli-American filmmaker after he met Zypora Spaisman, a vivacious octogenarian. His resulting film, ‘Yiddish Theater: A Love Story,’ is an English language documentary about one little old lady’s fight to keep her Yiddish theater open against all odds and, by extension, keep a moribund culture alive. ‘Yiddish Theater’ plays this weekend in Santa Monica. ‘I was vacationing in New York and I met Zypora by chance,’ Katzir tells the Palisadian Post. ‘She was the grand dame of Yiddish theater. She did everything to keep her show going”from acting to sweeping the floors.’ The 80-minute ‘Yiddish Theater’ follows Spaisman through a hectic week during which she must raise enough funds to keep her production of Peretz Hirschbein’s classic Yiddish-language play ‘Green Fields’ going, or see the theater that she started, the Yiddish Public Theater, come to a close’in tandem with her acting career. Filmed during Chanukah 2000, which that year culminated on New Year’s Day, the Jewish Festival of Lights adds meaning and structure to Katzir’s real-life drama. Ostensibly, the filmmaker uses the eight days of Chanukah as a device to provide suspense”each lit candle calibrating a day”as viewers sit at seat’s edge to see if Spaisman’s cast will prevail. They encounter extreme highs (The New York Times gives the production a glowing review) and lows (a severe snowfall slams New York). Obstacles materialize in between, from potential investors flaking, to the attendance-draining Christmas holidays. The movie culminates on New Year’s Eve 2001, nine months before the events of September 11, adding an unintended layer of poignancy to the viewing; ‘Yiddish Theater’ gives a glimpse of a more innocent, bygone Manhattan in more ways than one. ‘Everything what I do is Yiddish,’ Spaisman says in the film. ‘I live Yiddish, I eat Yiddish, I breathe Yiddish.’ In the 10th century, Yiddish became the official language of Central and Eastern European Jews (Ashkenazi Jews). A hybrid of medieval German and Hebrew, the Yiddish language, written in a Hebraic alphabet, also borrowed some English. Today, even non-Jews pepper their vocabulary with this expressive dialect; words such as schmooze, kibbitz, schlep, putz, and chutzpah have entered our lexicon, thanks largely to our country’s long tradition of Jewish entertainers. Yiddish culture also consists of a theatrical tradition that bridged the shtetls (Jewish villages) to early 1880s American life at a time when pogroms in Russia and Eastern Europe caused Jews to immigrate to the United States. By 1924, two million Jews had arrived, bringing with them a rich culture. When the Folksbiene Theatre was founded in 1915 on New York’s Lower East Side, 14 other Yiddish theater companies existed. But as the U.S.-born children assimilated into the mainstream, this theater audience dwindled with Yiddish culture among the new generation. ‘There’s one thing that can be said about the Yiddish theater that can’t be said about any other foreign-language immigrant theater,’ says Palisades resident Marvin Zuckerman, a Yiddish culture authority. ‘It’s the longest-lasting.’ ‘The Yiddish theater is generally thought to be started in Romania by Avrom Goldfadn,’ explains Zuckerman, dean emeritus of Los Angeles Valley College. ‘Goldfadn [1840- 1948] is considered the guy who tied it all together. He wrote Yiddish operettas. The Broadway of Yiddish theater was Second Avenue”Yiddish art theater, vaudeville, musicals.’ Yiddish theater enjoyed a respectable reputation in its 1900-1950 heyday. Lincoln Steffens called it the best theater in New York. The genre, which peaked in the 1940s, coincided with Yiddish cinema (i.e., ‘Yidel Mitn Fiedl’ with Molly Picon) produced in New York and pre-war Poland. Hirschbein wrote ‘Green Fields’ in 1908 in Odessa, and a 1937 film version was shot in upstate New York. ‘He happens to be buried in Los Angeles behind Paramount [at Hollywood Forever cemetery],’ says Zuckerman of Hirschbein, who died in 1948. ‘He was a world traveler, he wrote for travel books, and he wound up in L.A.’ ‘A lot of famous American actors came out of the Yiddish theater,’ continues Zuckerman, husband of Kathy Kohner Zuckerman, the real-life ‘Gidget’ recently profiled in the Post. ‘Edward G. Robinson, Paul Muni, our very own Palisadian, Walter Matthau.’ Joel Grey’s father was renowned comedian Mickey Katz, who incorporated Yiddish into his act. The grandfather of conductor Michael Tilsen Thomas was the great Yiddish actor Boris Thomashefsky. One of Thomashefsky’s rivals was Jacob P. Adler, whose wife, Sara, was a prominent Yiddish theater actress. If his surname sounds familiar, it could be because his daughter was Stella Adler, whose acting disciples included Marlon Brando. The unspoken irony for the filmmakers is that Spaisman’s mission is a metaphor for their movie”itself a valentine to the culture and something of an underdog. ‘Yiddish Theater’ has squeaked by from screening to screening since its 2006 premiere in San Francisco. ‘It’s sad,’ Katzir notes, ‘that after 1,100 years, just as Hitler lost in his attempt to destroy this Yiddish culture, it’s fading away in the secular world. I’m Israeli. For Israelis, Yiddish is even more foreign than it is for Americans.’ In Israel, Yiddish culture has not been preserved among the overwhelmingly secular youth. As if to make that point, the lead in Spaisman’s play, a young Israeli, ironically shows off armfuls of tattoos (a corporeal desecration forbidden in the Jewish religion) after acting in Hassidic garb. But Eric Gordon, director of the local Yiddish culture society, The Workman’s Circle/Arbeter Ring of Southern California, quibbles with Katzir’s premise that Yiddish culture and theater is dying. ‘The movie has a kind of quality of lamentation about it that I take issue with,’ Gordon says, pointing out that the Folksbiene remains vital. mount major annual productions and stages plays in both English and Russian translations. Gordon’s own Workman’s Circle chapter celebrates its centennial this year, while California’s oldest Workman’s branch, in San Francisco, turns 101. What’s sure about ‘Yiddish Theater’ is the passion for Yiddish culture exuded by both Spaisman and the filmmakers. Another Palisadian, Los Angeles Times movie critic Kenneth Turan, called the film ‘charming and disarming.’ ‘Nothing can take away from the flavor of being caught up in the battles and dreams of a formidable group of people,’ Turan continues in a November 2007 review. ‘For a brief moment in time, we share their struggles, and that feels like a privilege.’ There’s something wonderful about seeing these dedicated actors, young and old, partaking in their uphill production. ‘Yiddish Theater’ is as much survival story as it is love story, and tenacious firebrand Spaisman’s spirit is entertaining, contagious and ultimately inspiring. ‘We live in a Seinfeld society where everything is fast, edgy, funny, but also smells a little cynical and jaded,’ Katzir says. ‘Yiddish has a lot of heart and emotions.’ ‘Yiddish Theater: A Love Story’ screens Saturdays and Sundays at 11 a.m. at Laemmle’s Monica, 1332 Second St. Katzir and Markus will speak following each screening. For tickets, call (310) 394-9741 or visit laemmle.com/viewmovie.php?mid=3304. The movie’s Web site: yiddishtheater.net.