"We Will Never Die" Gets Major Press

The March 9, 1943, premiere of the theatrical pageant in New York that was designed to pressure the Roosevelt administration to save the Jews of Europe had its desired effect. 

Press attention was considerable. The Times ran its story on page 12, but with a prominent photograph, and the Brooklyn paper also gave it a hearing.

Congress reacted and adopted the following resolution the next day.

Courtesy of the Ben Gurion Archives

"We Will Never Die" Sets Second Performance

75th anniversary -- March 9, 1943, We Will Never Die theatrical at Mad Sq Garden sells all 20,000 seats. Second performance set for later that same night. It also sells out.

Overflow crowds that can't buy a ticket stand in street outside to listen to the proceedings that are broadcast over loudspeakers.

Billy Rose's marketing efforts helped guarantee the pageant's success.

New York Governor Announces Day of Prayer

On March 6, 1943, Billy Rose secured a proclamation from New York Governor Thomas Dewey that March 9, 1943, be a day of prayer "for the Jews who have been brutally massacred."

We Will Never Die pageant that called attention to the Holocaust premiered in New York on March 9.

75th Anniversary of We Will Never Die

On March 7, 1943, New York’s WMCA radio broadcast a preview of the We Will Never Die show scheduled to premiere on March 9 at Madison Square Garden. 

The broadcast featured cast members Stella and Luther Adler reciting some of the script from the show, which aimed to pressure the American government to do something to save the European Jews marked for death in the Holocaust.

Billy Rose produced the pageant and served as co-chairman of the national committee alongside Oscar-Award winning screenwriter Ben Hecht, who was stirred to action after being contacted by Jewish activist Peter Bergson, head of the so-called Bergson Boys that waged a desperate and bold public advertising campaign on behalf of European Jewry.


Rose signed on to the WWND project along with Hecht, composer Kurt Weill, and playwright Moss Hart, but unlike the latter two Rose, with Hecht, remained connected to the Bergson Boys after the WWND performances. Their direct and unapologetic approach to the Jewish caused thrilled Rose.

"These direct action boys delight my heart," he wrote Hecht.

Countless Acts of Shameless Self-Promotion

Not Bad for Delancey Street will feature the true tales of Rose's, 

• Four gaudy and spectacular New York nightclubs 

• Three stupendous World’s Fair attractions 

• One over-the-top Texas centennial extravaganza

• Numerous Broadway productions

• Twenty-five Holocaust orphans

• One refugee saved from the Nazis

• One Jerusalem art museum

• Five marriages

• Lyrics to "Me and My Shadow," "It's Only a Paper Moon," and

• Countless acts of shameless self-promotion

New Billy Rose biography is on the way

Not Bad for Delancey Street is the first biography to tell the whole story of the amazing Billy Rose. The biography will appear in September from Brandeis U. Press.

 

Billy Rose Story in Forward

Forward newspaper just published my article on the showman, producer, art collector, songwriter, tough guy, Jewish activist, nightclub owner, and self-proclaimed sob, Billy Rose (1899-1966).

I'm writing a new Rose biography. There has not been one since 1968. Brandeis University Press will publish, though the book won't appear for quite some time yet.

It's quite a story.