And, far from the A-team he promised, he's hired a bunch of pathetic, disgusting swamp schnorrers who can't stop using taxpayer money to fund their office furniture or office redesign or luxury plane trips with their wives.
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A recreational social club, the Schnorrers were part of "voluntary association" based on the German Vereine or society. A passage in To Darling Ellie and Dana describes the club as being a big German-American club that people went to for fun. It was said to reek of beer. The club was also testified about in the Senate of the State of New York in a report of the Joint Legislative Committee in testimony regarding P. Erskine Wood.
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He also wrote mystery works, such as The Big Bow Mystery (1892), and social satire such as The King of Schnorrers (1894), a picaresque novel (which became a short-lived musical comedy in 1979). His Dreamers of the Ghetto (1898) includes essays on famous Jews such as Baruch Spinoza, Heinrich Heine and Ferdinand Lassalle. The Big Bow Mystery was the first locked room mystery novel. It has been almost continuously in print since 1891 and has been used as the basis for three commercial movies.
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While generally used in a pejorative or ironic sense, the term can also be used as a backhanded compliment to someone's perseverance, cleverness, or thrift. For instance, Azriel Hildesheimer, known for his travels around Europe to spread his rabbinical wisdom to the poor, and for his refusal to accept payment for his services, was sometimes referred to as the "international schnorrer" for his reliance on the local community to house and feed him wherever he went. Alternatively, Theodor Herzl described his early Eastern European immigrant supporters among the Ostjuden, as his "army of schnorrers".Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews, pp.
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398–99: "Herzl found himself visited by shabby, excitable Jews from distant parts, to the dismay of his fashionable wife, who grew to detest the very word Zionism. Yet these were the men who became the foot soldiers, indeed the NCOs and officers, in the Zionist legion; Herzl called them his 'army of schnorrers'. The 'army' met publicly for the first time on 29 August 1897..." Israel Zangwill later described a schnorrer as a beggar who would chide a donor for not giving enough. The Schnorrer Club of Morrisania was a German- American social club in the Bronx, New York.
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His film scores include, Theo Bikel: In the Shoes of Sholom Aleichem (2013), The Fool and the Flying Ship(1991), a Rabbit Ears children’s video narrated by Robin Williams, The Forward: From Immigrants to Americans (1989), and The Double Burden: Three Generations of Working Women (1992). He adapted and composed the scores to the musicals Shlemiel the First (1994) (for the American Repertory Theatre) and King of the Schnorrers (2013), and composed the incidental music for the NPR radio series, Jewish Stories From Eastern Europe and Beyond. His other significant compositions include The Trees Of The Dancing Goats, for Rabbit Ears Radio (PRI), and Chagall’s Mandolins, commissioned by the Niew Sinfonietta of Amsterdam.
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Dixon has appeared in numerous Broadway shows, including No, No, Nanette, King of Schnorrers, The Three Musketeers, Les Misérables (the show's 2nd and longest running Thenardier), Cyrano, The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Iceman Cometh, The Best Man, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Sunday in the Park with George, Mary Poppins and Anything Goes. In 1987 he was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for his performance in the musical Shylock, for which he wrote the book, music, and lyrics.Internet Broadway Database: Ed Dixon Credits on Broadway Dixon was a soloist in the Kennedy Center's premiere production of Leonard Bernstein's Mass and is on the recording conducted by the composer. He can also be heard on the cast recording of the 2001 national tour of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.
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The show won a Tony and a Grammy for Best Musical and Best Original Score From a Musical.. (Woldin is credited with the music and Brittan the lyrics, but Woldin felt that they should have shared both credits as the process was very collaborative.) His other work includes Petticoat Lane, loosely based on the novella King of Schnorrers by Israel Zangwill, which premiered at the George Street Playhouse in October 1978, and would move to the Harold Clurman Theatre on October 4, 1979. Lorenzo, a musical based on Mozart librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte, premiered at the George Street Playhouse in 1982. It was co-written by Richard Engquist. Little Ham was written with Daniel Owens and Engquist as well, and is based on Langston Hughes' play of the same name, and would be premiered at the George Street Playhouse in 1987 and would also play at the Westport Country Playhouse.
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Maseng directed and starred in productions in Minneapolis, including Cold Storage and The Day they Shot John Lennon for the Genesis Theater; The Secret Rapture; the Minnesota Opera's production of Carousel (musical); and the Ron Hutchinson (screenwriter) play Rat in the Skull with British Actor Richard Lumsden for the Theater Exchange. After returning to New York in the early 1990s, Maseng had roles in the Circle Repertory Company's production of A Body of Water and starred as Da Costa in the revival of the Broadway Musical King of Schnorrers in Los Angeles at the then "Westwood" now Geffen Playhouse. In 1995, Maseng debuted his critically acclaimed one man show Wasting Time with Harry Davidowitz at the John Houseman Theater off-broadway, where it enjoyed a long run and has since toured with it abroad. Maseng has released a dozen albums and appeared as a guest star on numerous television shows including many of the shows in the Law & Order franchise, Wild Discovery and One Life to Live; and has also done extensive voice-over work for JoS.
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