Out of the Corner, by Jennifer Grey
Continued from Part 1 and Part 2.
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Chapter 2, titled "Who Jew You Think You Are?" (pages 40-53) is about Grey's Jewish ancestry, all of which was Eastern European Jews. Her paternal grandparents were born in the USA, but her maternal grandparents immigrated to the USA as teenagers. The book does not mention any religious activities beyond celebrating Hanukkah.
Several of her ancestors were professional entertainers -- or at least aspired to be such -- and socialized largely with entertainers and artists.
I had been born into this extended family of Broadway royalty. My parents' usual crew was not so exclusively show folk -- there were plenty of world-class writers, painters, and journalists -- but overall, their closest circle of friends was the créme de la créme of musical theater. I grew up surrounded by this community of legit geniuses, more legends than mortals. And with them loving me like I was their own because they loved by mom and dad.
Jennifer's paternal grandfather was Mickey Katz, a professional musician and comic. I already have written about him in a previous blog article.
Both of Jennifer's paternal grandparents grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. When Mickey Katz (born in 1909) was still a teenager, he began earning a living as a musician, playing saxophone and clarinet in bands. He married a Cleveland girl, Grace Epstein (Jennifer's grandmother), in 1930, and their first child Joel Katz (Jennifer's father) was born in Cleveland in 1932.
Grace was active in the Cleveland Play House and arranged for her son Joel to play children's roles in plays there.
In 1946, Mickey Katz began playing for a band called Spike Jones and his City Slickers, which featured a lot of spoof and parody songs.
Because that band was based in Los Angeles, the Katz family moved there in 1946. Mickey began developing his own repertoire of spoof and parody songs, with a Yiddish angle.
Mickey recorded his songs on record albums and also performed them live in a Los Angeles theater. Mickey included his son Joel in those theater performances. Then in the 1950s Joel began to perform, apart from his father, in nightclubs.
The following video shows Mickey and Joel appearing together on The Mike Douglas Show in 1973.
Jennifer's maternal grandparents immigrated to the USA as teenagers. Jennifer's maternal grandmother Clara wanted to become a professional pianist, but her family convinced her to study to become a pharmacist instead. Then at pharmacy school Clara fell in love with a fellow Jewish student, Izzie Brower. Clara and Izzie got married, and Clara dropped out of pharmacy school to raise a family. Izzie graduated from the school and did become a pharmacist in Manhattan. As a housewife, Clara continued to study classical piano.
Their daughter Joan (Jennifer's mother) worked in her father's pharmacy and took care of her mother, who suffered various health problems. In her free evenings, Joan participated in amateur theater groups in Manhattan. Doing so, she became acquainted with Joel Grey (he had changed his name from Katz), but they did not become romantically involved until they happened to encounter each other in Los Angeles (Joan had traveled there on business ). Joan and Joel married in 1958, and their daughter Jennifer was born in 1960. The Grey family was a show-biz family. Jennifer writes:
A life in show business was all I ever knew or frankly could conceive of. The most common denominator from whence I came was a desire to be a performer, and preferably a star, because that meant you actually would be able to make a living. Otherwise, you were just some schlub with a hobby or a dashed dream.
I didn't see anyone of my parents' crowd having to take a "job" job. They all seemed to be living their best lives, passionately engaged, fulfilling their calling, which looked like the most fun way to live in the world. Creatively alive, making use of all of themselves. Never a dull moment. I didn't know how they did it exactly, but I saw firsthand that it was possible, and I just automatically assumed that I would do the same.
Although Jennifer does not say so explicitly in her book, her female ancestors -- her grandmothers Grace and Clara and her mother Joan -- must have felt frustrated in their own artistic ambitions. They got stuck at home being housewives, mothers and helpmeets, while their husbands traveled and succeeded as professional entertainers. Jennifer's mother Joan did continue to perform occasionally in plays, but any such activities had to fit into her supporting Joel's career.
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| Joan, Joel and Jennifer Grey in about 1961 |
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Jennifer Grey performing one of Mickey Katz's songs
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To be continued in Part 04
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