Page - 4 - in Entangled Entertainers - Jews and Popular Culture in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna

4 | Entangled Entertainers up the crowd so much that they took justice into their own hands and began to beat the culprit. “One bystander (even) broke his walking stick over Knot’s head.”19 Th is incident allows us to draw diff erent interpretations of the relationship between Jews and non-Jews. On the one hand, we can view it in terms of anti- semitism. But on the other, it demonstrates the readiness of the Viennese people to come to the aid of a Jew and defend him against antisemitism. Ultimately, both interpretations are simultaneously possible, and we may draw appropriate conclusions in light of this evidence. It is likely that a signifi cant number of Jews in Vienna at the turn of the century were personally familiar with both kinds of experiences, including both the hostility of non-Jews and friendly interactions with them. At any rate, Anna Katz and Samuel Scholder provide us examples of the complexity of Jewish experiences. Another aspect of this situation, hardly mentioned in the historiographical ac- counts of Viennese Jews, is Mr. Katz’s choice of profession. Anna Katz’s husband was an escamoteur (a kind of magician), as well as a ventriloquist. He entertained people who sought distraction from the monotony of everyday life. He com- peted with many other Jews who worked in various branches of general (i.e., not specifi cally Jewish) popular culture. Jewish participation in popular culture has received comparatively little scholarly attention to date, especially in terms of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.20 For this reason, Jews are almost exclusively associated with the professions of merchant, trader, and banker, per- haps also with laborers and peddlers.21 Mr. Katz was engaged in a profession that many other people in Vienna— perhaps too many—also attempted to pursue. Th ose who could aff ord the mem- bership fee belonged to an association called Die Schwalbe (Th e Swallow). Th is organization publicly represented the interests of the artists and showmen and supported the poorest among them.22 It may be that the glut of magicians in the metropolis convinced Katz to seek his fortune in the provinces, where com- petition was less pronounced. He also suff ered from a lung disease that made it diffi cult for him to work. With the onset of this illness, he was no longer able to provide for his family as he once had and was forced to surrender his best perfor- mance opportunities to his colleagues. In any case, he gave up the artist’s life in Vienna, where he was known by the name of Kaciander, and exchanged it for a life of wandering. At the time, while Katz still earned his livelihood in Vienna, his wife also worked as a performing artist. She garnered considerable success as an expert in remembering (Mnemotechnikerin) and performed under the stage name “Leon- tine Rey,” even in the most important Viennese variety establishments, such as the Ronacher and Danzer’s Orpheum. She also worked as what was known in fi n-de-siècle Vienna as a “fakir” (a kind of fortune-teller).23 She became a peddler only after her husband left her alone with their children. This open access edition has been made available under a CC BY 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched.