Help me identify this old Yiddish theatre piece

April 7, 2011 7:29 AM

Help me identify this old Yiddish theater piece that was also on vinyl?

I'm trying to track down a piece of theatre my mother remembers from her childhood. She recalls her father playing a record that had a narrator with a Yiddish accent telling the story of a family of wolves. It might have been "The Story of the Wolf Family" (though my Google-fu fails). She remembers the story entailing the wolves being anthropomorphic, and "Mrs. Volf had a pompidoodle".

Just as a disclaimer, she fears it may be a wildly anti-semitic piece, and perhaps the accent was in fact a caricature/parody of the European Jewish people. She was quite small when she heard it, and just found the story and voices to be funny. Apologies ahead of time if anyone can identify it and it is in any way, shape, or form, insulting.

posted by aleahey to society & culture (2 answers total)

Jewface doesn't have the song in question but may be of interest.
posted by timshel at 8:30 AM on April 7, 2011

Here is a recording of Groucho Marx singing about a Wolf family:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ccDx3f9Lns#t=213s

It's referred to as "The Toronto Song" and here are the lyrics:
http://www.ibras.dk/comedy/marx.htm#TorontoSong
posted by derforsher at 8:38 AM on April 8, 2011