Patrick Francis Gallagher

He was a real  great person. I enjoyed his  Public Speaking  class. I learned a lot  from  him. In my years of Public Speaking  I put  to use a whole  lot  of  his  teachings . It helped  me as a School Board Member  ,  when  I ran  for the Board it helped  me and on  other things  that  I did that required me to give  a Speach. I have  actually  helped  my  twins  give  their  Speaches  that  they had  to give  in school. God  Bless you Mr. Friedman.

Carl Levi

Here are a couple of photos of Mr. Friedman in later years.  The first is of him as he appeared with another Fiddler cast member, Ron Stefano, before they got on a bus for another Fiddler tour.  The second is obviously from one of his many, many performances.  He played various roles both as a "permanent" cast member and as a stand-in.  I've aslo posted a couple of quotes and a full length article about David Masters, one of his two very real identities.

He was an inspiration and definitely impacted my decision to major in theater. Over the years I've told many of my theater students and friends about Mr. Friedman.  If you were  in the cast  or on the stage crew for any of the plays he directed you'll remember that he often told us on any given day that rehearsal would end at a specific time whether we'd accomplished what we needed to or not, and that he held precisely to that time.  It always seemed a bit strange until we learned that for years he led a double life which only came to light when he was scheduled to appear on the Phil Donohue show (or the Merv Griffin show?) as a standup comedian and could no longer keep the secret.  The varying end-of-rehearsal times were dictated by his having to get into the city or to catch a plane to Chicago or D.C. for a performance.  His resulting late night reutrns home were what led him to develop a knack for being able to fall sound asleep in the teachers lounge for 5 minutes between classes and then come wide awake without anyone's help.  I understood that Mr. Hempstead was the only one who knew of his secret identity and he only told us about it when the secret got out.  I also remember Mr. Friedman telling Donohue or Griffin that he was very proud that he had never lectured an audience or told one-liners in class. 

Lynn Franz (BHS '66) and I got to see him as Avram the Bookseller in Fiddler on Broadway in '68 or '69 and went out for coffee with him after the show.  He was obviously in his element as his long and highly regarded career proved and as the following quotes clearly indicate.

From Playbill website, 30 May 2014 by Mark Sanders  (Perchik, Fiddler on the Roof - 2000 National Tour with Theodore Bikel)

“There is truly nothing like the Fiddler family. During the 2000 national tour, I fondly remember the nights the cast and crew would gather to hear Theodore Bikel play his guitar and sing. You could hear a pin drop as he sang his signature song, “Edelweiss,” as no one else can. The incomparable David Masters would constantly entertain us with his vaudevillian energy…truly “one of the greats.” We were a family on, and off, the stage.”

NY Times article,  June 15, 1997

“'Fiddler on the Roof’' . . . may rate as the most beloved of all, so much so that one feels it would be sacrilegious to fault the Sholem Aleichem-inspired musical on any count.

And does anybody, by now, care that the rabbi is made to be very dim, a caricature bothersome to many when the show opened in 1964? Yet here is David Masters, who has been playing the role, on and off, for 33 years, and no one is going to fault the actor's dutiful indigenously correct performance.”

I'm looking forward to sharing lots of other memories next Fall.

Nancy Gurney (Kopac)

Thanks Carl!

Lynn Meisse (Miller)

Mr. Friedman had the ability to make you comfortable with yourself and enable you to find a way in Public Speaking.  rest in peace. You were a great teacher.

Patrick Francis Gallagher

Way to go Carl. You hit the nail on the Head with it.

Mr Friedman  taught me  to be  comfortable and  relaxed when ever I had to give  a speech. Many years later I used that to my advantage . Wether it was a presentation at work  on job safety ,  my thoughts on how  a Scout Unit is preforming to the Local Council of Boy Scouts of America, doing a presentation about the Union to New Hires at work  or  some training that I had to facilate  as the trainer. Mr. Friedman Thank you so very much for  what you had taught all of  your  Public Speaking  Students .

Carl Levi

I forgot to post the article I found that was most specifically about Mr. Friedman.  It was posted on a Lancaster, Pennsylvania website on November 22, 2007.  It's long, but well worth reading.

David Masters has spent a theatrical lifetime with Fiddler on the Roof
By Susan E. Lindt

For David Masters, the world's most beloved musical about tradition is tradition. When "Fiddler on the Roof" opens at Fulton Opera House next week, Masters will be there on stage, as he has been for so many "Fiddler" opening nights - this time playing the rabbi. "I love the show," Masters said. "It's my favorite. You can't help but get caught up in it." And Masters truly did get caught up in "Fiddler on the Roof." He has made nearly an entire career out performing different roles in this show, which spawned four Broadway revivals, a successful 1971 film version, and touring productions since debuting at Broadway's Imperial Theatre on Sept. 22, 1964, for a then-record-setting 3,242 performances (only to be unseated by the phenomenal run of "Grease").

"I was in the original Broadway production in the '60s in the part of the beggar," Masters said. "In the revival with (Zero) Mostel as Tevye and on the national tour, I played the bookseller. For the 30th anniversary revival with Topol in 1990, I was playing the part of the innkeeper, and for the national tour with Topol, too. In 2000, I went out with (Theodore) Bikel (as Tevye). I was the rabbi and we were on the road for two years. We came back in 2002 and I did another tour with Bikel and I played the rabbi again." That roster doesn't even include Masters' regional "Fiddler" productions. He recalled traveling to a North Dakota for a regional production when the whole cast got snowed in with other travelers at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. "I noticed a little lady and she seemed to be in distress. She told me she had to get into Chicago because she had a performance," Masters said. "I ran to my company manager and he found a truck that was leaving and would take her to the city. And that was my encounter with Dame Margot Fontaine." Meanwhile, the Fiddler cast was still stuck at the airport.

While they made their way to that little town in North Dakota and set up, the audience waited. And they waited. "The show was supposed to start at 8 p.m. and it actually started at midnight. But they sat there and sat there. We finished the show at 3 a.m.," Masters said. He isn't the only "Fiddler" veteran taking the stage at the Fulton. Rachel Coloff plays Yente the matchmaker in her debut at the Fulton - a role originated on Broadway by Bea Arthur. Coloff understudied for all five of Tevye's daughters, the mother roles and Yente for the fourth Broadway revival of "Fiddler," which opened in February 2004 at the Minskoff Theatre with Alfred Molina and later Harvey Fierstein in the starring role. "I had only seen the movie at that point," Coloff said. "I didn't realize how emotional the story was. I found myself completely wrapped up in the story. It was really a beautiful and unusual production." Unusual because the Minskoff's giant stage allowed the orchestra to be on stage for the show. Still, unlike most "Fiddler" revivals, this show took no awards.

"The show was not as well received as it should have been," Coloff said. "I came into the show when it had already been running for about seven or eight months. I heard all kinds of things about it before I joined. Some people said it wasn't Jewish enough because some of the stars weren't Jewish. I don't believe you have to have Jewish actors playing those roles, but it was a very grounded production and very real. I really related to it." Masters also relates to Tevye's story of raising and marrying off five daughters who are growing away from traditional Jewish values for the sake of love. Based on Sholem Aleichem's original 1894 book, "Tevye and His Daughters," the musical show took its title from a surreal Marc Chagall painting showing Eastern European Jewish life - and a fiddler, a metaphor for survival in spite of uncertainty and imbalance. "You can't help but get caught up in this show, which is really Jerome Robbins' tribute to his family who came from Russia," Masters said, referring to the original show's director and choreographer who won two Tony awards for his work. "My parents both came from a little village in Russia too," Masters said. "I can tell you they experienced all kinds of things carried out by the Cossacks.

They told stories about how the Cossacks would get drunk every two months or six weeks and six or eight of them would come charging into the village and break down doors and turn over tables. No one could do anything about it." Robbins' original production set many careers into motion besides Masters'. Playing roles in that show at one point or another were Bert Convy, Bette Midler, Adrienne Barbeau and Pia Zadora. Later productions starred Leonard Nimoy as Tevye and Rosie O'Donnell as Golde. Regardless of who came later, Masters knew from the start that Robbins had a winner when the first "Fiddler" production opened in 1964. "I felt it in my bones. I knew it would be a tremendous hit," Masters said. "It lasted on Broadway for eight years. And even now, the show stands as it has always stood. I can tell you, every time I do this show, I'm just thrilled when that opening scene starts and the entire company comes out. It's such a beautiful show."

Charles Arnold Herfurth

CARL LEVI, Thank you so very very much for your in-depth, wonderfully emotional, and loving tribute to David "Masters" Friedman. Reading all the others, it doesn't surprise me the overwhelming and far reaching influence he had on those of us to be lucky enough ,not only to know him, but to be literally part of his life, in a tiny High School, on a hidden street , in a quiet town , somewhat quite distant from the lights and spotlights of Broadway!

To me, David "Masters" Friedman was my idol. He nurtured the Theatre Bug that had bitten me even as a kid, years, before I even got to BHS. To me, a stage became not unlike our BHS football field, packed on a Thanksgiving Day, playing against Ridgefield Park, and maybe during a Play, or a One Act Play contest, I could be the Quaterback for an Act or Two, and my Coach , David Masters Friedman , made me feel like an All Star!

I honestly couldn't get enough of him. His classes, his directions, his facial expressions, his humor, his voice, his inate talent, and most of all his caring, and giving and encouragement. I remember saving up thirty two bucks from my job as a Bergen Record Paperboy, sneaking out of school on a Wednesday Matinee Afternoon, wondering what my Parents would do if they knew, let alone Mr. Pollison, or Mr. Waters,  getting on a brown Inter-City, #65 Bus, from Palisade Ave to The Port Authority in NY, buying a Balcony Seat to a Matinee and watching David Masters mezmorizre hundreds of theatregoers in Fiddler On The Roof!. I could not believe I was watching my Teacher at Bogota High School.  I'm not sure, 50 years later if I've yet come down from that trip !

As many of you may know, I spent the next 20 years of my life, 1965 - 1985 producing and directing plays just about everywhere, stealing techniques and tricks, and just about everything I ever learned from David Masters.

The highlight of my theatrical carreer, although not on Broadway, occurred in 1980, after a production of Thornton Wilder's, "The Skin Of Our Teeth" I had directed at The Playhouse On The Mall, in Paramus, David Masters,himself, surprised me, coming down from the Balcony and said , "Charlie, Well Done". I haven't recovered from that yet . My own "touchdown" on the football field! From a man whose opinion I cherished more than a NY Times Review! So I'm glad I'm well enough 50 Years later to write this :

RIP, David, and I'm so proud our Class of 1965 dedicating our Yearbook to You. For You dedicated so much more to us ! Bravo !

Charlie "Chuck" Herfurth , Class of '65

Phoenix, AZ,

July 9,2014

Micheline Benson (DeSanto)

I will always remember Mr. Friedman for casting me as Emily in "Our Town".  What a joy it was to work with him.  Years later, I took my drama class from school to see 'Fiddler on the Roof" and there was Mr. Friedman--David Masters on stage.  I wrote him a letter to tell him that I was there with my students and he sent me back such a wonderfully warm response. He was a very kind and gentle man.

Lester Brown (Art)

I had been trying to get in touch with Dave, we taught to gether at BHS, but I also was on the same program when he was David Masters the comedian...I was a musician and our band had been playing for the same audience...We had a ball talking about it  for years at BHS...I didnt know he had died and was sorry to hear it.....Thanks for the pics of him in Fiddler....

Elizabeth Anne Gately (Nissen)

Thanks, Carl and Chuck, for those wonderful memories and great information about Mr. Friedman's Broadway Career. I look forward to hearing more stories at the reunion.

In a Google search, I came across "David Masters"  biographical data submitted to Theater World, which someone was trying to sell online for about $700. It mentions that he was born in St. Paul, MN, got his BA at William and Mary, and M.A. at NYU.

His off-Broadway debut was in "Mad Woman of Chaillot"-1953 (NY City Center) and Broadway debut, of course in Fiddler in 1967. Other NY productions included: "What Every Woman Knows," "The Anatomist," "The Big Knife, ", "Measure for Measure, plus a "Mr. Roberts" tour, national Fiddler tour in 1976, and Fiddler on Broadway in 1977. Also a dinner theater production of "The Sunshine Boys." In addition to "Sabrina," he mentions appearing in the film "Red Ball Express."