Haster gesehn de fish in the Bowery?

[tahnan]

There are those who assert that I have a tendency towards fabrication. These people are, alas, wrong.

If there is anyone who doubted my claim that Elmer Rice's play Street Scene contains an incomprehensible ethnic slur, let them look no further.



I muddled it a little--I forgot that "Oi, Jakey" was the next line and not part of the "fish in the Bowery" line. (On the next page, Vincent calls Sam a "kike bastard"; that one's a little easier.)

It's a fascinating play, for its look at, well, a street scene in 1929:

KAPLAN

Eet's de folt of our economic system. So lost as de institution of priwate property exeests, de verkers vill be at de moicy of de property-owning klesses.

MAURRANT

That's a lot o'bushwa! I'm a woikin' man, see? I been payin' dues for twenty-two years in the Stage-Hands Union. If we're not gettin' what we want, we call a strike, see?--and then we get it.

LIPPO

Sure! Ees same wit' me. We gotta Musician Union. We getta pay for de rehears', we getta pay for da overtime--

and so on.

Comments

[kirbyk.livejournal.com]

I don't doubt your claim, but only because I trust you. Damned if that whole text wasn't incomprehensible to my poor non-linguist ears.

[temvald.livejournal.com]

huh. that looks familiar. like i've seen it on a site somewhere before....

ah. here it is.

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

That's why I scanned in the page, thankyouverymuch, to make quite clear that I wasn't making it up.

[renniekins.livejournal.com]

I guess it's just me saw the words Seseme Street for the title... I kept thinking "Wow, Seseme Street has changed since when I was a kid!"

[mrswebchik.livejournal.com]

Ah Street Scene - good ol' Walter's first play at Carleton. The removal of floorboards... the ultimate strangeness of it all. The gunshot. Fond memories from my Freshman (I think) year.

I don't think I ever paid much attention to the actual content of the play, or any of the lines, other than as cues. I do remember it was fun to do, and had some tricky set changes. And a great after-party.

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

The set was impressive, wasn't it?

The only reason I remember that line is that I accompanied David to auditions, and the above scene was used. So I watched actor after actor stumble over "Hasten gesehn de fish in the Bowery?", clearly none of them having any idea of how to deliver it.

[bookishfellow.livejournal.com]

I'm curious as to the backstory behind the sentences you used to open this post. (I am also fully cognizant of the fact that if you had wanted to be more forthright, you would have been.)

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

Somehow we were discussing ethnic slurs, or maybe incomprehensible ethnic slurs, at some point. Possibly at the Winter Solstice party. And I mentioned the line in the title of this post as the most incomprehensible slur against Jews I'd heard, which provoked a reaction of some skepticism in my interlocutors.

[mattbeo.livejournal.com]

See the chorus of the Jewish-caricature tune on this page (about turn-of-the-century vaudevillian Frank Bush) for an echo of Vincent's "haster gesehn":

CHORUS: Solomon, Solomon Moses, (Break).
Hast du gesehen der clotheses- (Break).
Hast du gesehen der kleiner kinder,
Und der sox iss in der vinder?....