Aaron Lebedeff

Having no interest in education, he was sent to learn a trade, but soon he ran away and began to play small roles in a Russian theaters in Bobruysk, Minsk and other towns.

He finally debuted in Der Pipkiner rav and became the character actor he would remain, playing in different wandering theatre troupes across Russia.

In 1912–13, he played in Łódź with Zandberg, then back to Warsaw; and at the outbreak of World War I, he was pressed into the Russian army and sent to Harbin, Manchuria, (1916), where he spent his time of military service giving concerts for the officers.

[2] After being demobilized, he worked in Avrom Fishzohn's troupe; but in order to support himself, he often had to sing in Russian or English for the American Red Cross.

In 1920, he and his wife left for America and were hired for Boris Thomashevsky's National Theater production of Wolf Shumsky's Lyavke Molodyetz.