Tevye is an American film adaptation of Sholem Aleichem's story of the same name

Tevye

Tevye the Dairyman is the protagonist of several of Sholem Aleichem's stories, originally written in Yiddish and first published in 1894. The character became best known from the fictional memoir Tevye and his Daughters , about a pious Jewish milkman in Tsarist Russia, and the troubles he has with...

, also known as Tevya, Tevye der Milchiker, or Tevye the Milkman.

Production background

The film stars Maurice Schwartz

Maurice Schwartz

Maurice Schwartz was a Russian-born film and theatre actor active in the United States. He was also a film director, film producer, theatrical producer, screenwriter and theatre director.-Theatre:...

, Miriam Riselle, Rebecca Weintraub

Rebecca Weintraub

Rebecca Weintraub was an actress in the Yiddish Theater who was born in Odessa, Russian Empire.Her maiden name was Rebecca Fusfeld. She came to America at the age of fifteen...

, Paula Lubelski, Leon Liebgold

Leon Liebgold

Leon Liebgold was an actor in the Yiddish theatre and Holocaust survivor.He is best known for his roles in the Yiddish films Tevye and The Dybbuk....

, Vicki Marcus, Betty Marcus, and Julius Adler

Julius Adler (actor)

Julius Adler was a Jewish actor, writer, and director in Yiddish theater.-Career:He was born in Biłgoraj, Poland into an orthodox Jewish family. When his father died six years later his mother emigrated to America leaving the children with grandparents. In 1920 the family was reunited in the...

. The movie was adapted by Marcy Klauber and Schwartz from the Sholem Aleichem play based on his own book. Schwartz also directed the film.

The production was filmed at Biograph Studios

Biograph Studios

Biograph Studios was a studio facility and film laboratory complex built in 1912 by the Biograph Company, formerly American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, at 807 E. 175th Street, in the Bronx, New York....

 in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 and on a farm in Jericho

Jericho, New York

Jericho is a hamlet in Nassau County, New York on the North Shore of Long Island. As of the United States 2010 Census, the CDP population was 13,567. The area is served by the Jericho Union Free School District, the boundaries of which differ somewhat from those of the hamlet...

, Long Island, New York, and is in Yiddish. Long thought to be a lost film

Lost film

A lost film is a feature film or short film that is no longer known to exist in studio archives, private collections or public archives such as the Library of Congress, where at least one copy of all American films are deposited and catalogued for copyright reasons...

, a print was discovered in 1978. The same story was to be the basis of the later stage musical and film Fiddler on the Roof

Fiddler on the Roof

Fiddler on the Roof is a musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in Tsarist Russia in 1905. It is based on Tevye and his Daughters by Sholem Aleichem...

.

In 1991, Tevye was the first non-English language

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 film to be named "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the U.S. Library of Congress

Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...

 and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry

National Film Registry

The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...

.