Mr. Monday and other tales of Jewish Amsterdam

AT THE OPERA 135

empty shells from the floor, even though a notice at the entrance of the Tsip Tsop says "One is kindly requested to bring along only shelled peanuts."

The Director of the theatre, Uncle Joseph, has an infallible instinct for knowing exactly what his public wants to see. When "Talkies", talking films, were first introduced in Holland, he turned his theatre into a cinema. But not just an ordinary cinema. No, into a synagogue. A Cine-gogue!

The stage curtain he replaced with two beautifully painted folding doors. Behind them, in front of the screen, was the pianist and the choir whose task it was to put the audience in the right mood with fine songs like Kol Nidrei and the melodies of Chanukkah.

One of the first films shown in the Tsip Tsop was Sunny Boy, starring A1 Jolson.The loudspeakers had trouble in reproducing certain sounds, so A1 appeared to have a speech-defect in pronouncing the letters "s" and "f". Nevertheless, the film got a roaring reception, because the predominantly Jewish audience was aware that Jolson was one of them, and appreciated that the film-script was not exactly anti-Semitic either.

About the Tsip Tsop many funny tales are told. The theatre had five doors at the side which opened up into an alley, and which served as emergency exits. These doors were not exactly sound-proof and the alley was rather noisy. On the sidewalk outside, push carts and barrows with goods were standing in a long, continuous row. The vendors leaned against the doors of the Tsip Tsop loudly praising their wares. Meanwhile, inside the theatre. Van Briene, the explicator, walked up and down the tiers of seats trying to