Randy Pearlman
Randy Pearlman comes from a family that gradually made its way to Texas. His maternal grandfather was born in New York and his mother in St. Joseph, Missouri, while his father's parents were born in Poland. His paternal grandfather immigrated through Galveston in October 1913, and the family settled in Palestine, Texas. Randy's parents met in Houston, married, and eventually settled in Dallas in 1956, drawn in part by his father's work in advertising. Randy and his two older brothers were all born in Dallas, and he grew up first near Hillcrest and Spring Valley and later in the Preston Royal area.
Randy attended Greenhill School from first through twelfth grade, crediting it with allowing his creative side to flourish. He went on to study at USC, graduating with a bachelor of fine arts in drama and theatre, and then moved to New York, where he lived for about eight years, working many jobs while pursuing acting. After becoming disenchanted with the auditioning process, and following an accident in which he was hit by a cab, he returned to Dallas in 1991. He joined the family invitation business, Glad Tidings, which his father founded after 26 years at Bloom advertising, and eventually became national sales manager.
Back in Dallas, Randy continued performing, appearing at theaters including Water Tower Theatre, Theatre Three, Lyric Stage, WaterTower, Plano Repertory Theatre, Uptown Players, Garland Summer Musicals, and Dallas Theater Center, and taking on film work such as portraying Jack Ruby in a documentary. Encouraged by Simon Sargon and Harold Klemin, he joined his temple choir and grew into a soloist for Shabbat services and lifecycle events, working with many rabbis and cantors over roughly sixteen years. He met his partner John, a music director, through the Jewish Community Center about nineteen years earlier. Randy also honors his parents' extensive volunteer work in the Dallas Jewish community.
Full Transcript
today is Monday maybe 6 2013 and my name is Nancy Ungerman the videographer is Ruth Andrus and we will be interviewing Randy Perlman for the Dallas Jewish Historical Society as we are and we are at the Jewish Community Center so hello aloap let's start at the beginning tell me about your family as far as Dallas is concern were they born and raised here uh nobody was born and raised here my grandfather my mother's parents my grandfather was born in New York my mother was born in st. Joan st. Joe Missouri and they got married in Wichita which is where my mother was born and okay okay these are your grandparents grandparents on my mother's side and in my parents your friend hair my grandparents my grandfather born in New York City ah and my grandmother in st.
Joe so you go way back where were your great great oh don't do that to me ahahahaha i understand i have English Polish Egyptian there's something else there but my father's parents were born in Poland although one of the I think he disagrees with my aunt she says I think Russia but they came over actually this October is my grandfather's 100th birthday again you he came in October of 1913 see I did my homework and in through Galveston and from Poland Szczesny mother and my grandmother came in through New York and they all met in Poland Palestine Texas outside he registers how esteemed use me
and um I'm glad you made that clear well yeah Palestine Palestine is lifted and then my parents met in Houston growing up my grandparents on my father's parents died when he was 13 so his older sister brought him up basically in Houston that's where my parents beds and then they got married and went to the army and Georgia making the Spanish went to the army at Georgia and then settled in dallas in 1956 my grandfather settled in dallas before them he was like jewelry is what brought them to Dallas well my grandfather came because he was working the sales he was like an executive supervisor
of managers and then became president of sales as president and my parents came because my father was an advertising for to bloom advertising 26 years and then me and I've got two older brothers we were all born in Dallas Borden range where did you go to school edit-me no mr. green yeah greenhill I was a twelve-year-old first grade to 12th grade loved it by the 11th year I was kind of ready to move on you know that there was a lot about green no that was just fantastic feels good education and allowed me to explore and do a lot of things that I don't know if I would have done in a public school I think in a public school I would have been a Wallflower just leaning against the wall in Greenhill I think aloud my creative side to explore yes what do you like do your parents what did your parents do for living you
said advertising my father is an advertising my mother owned needle and haystack she started with Doris Buckner should have nature Joe hansel & G stall the board them started and I think my mother had the store for about 19 years and they've done otherwise a lot of volunteer work and stuff around town where did you live growing up first 10 years over hillcrest and spring valley on Brooke rest and then love that house was a split level and then moved to Yolanda which is in the Preston Royal area and lived there until I graduated high school when alpha colony in your college college USC sub
California a little different from Reno oh thank you she came down cowboy oh man okay I knew there was a reason Jewish affiliations for me no I wasn't a part of AZ a and not that I didn't do that because I was so busy doing other things musically and acting wise and and through temple I did some stuff I was involved with acquired during high school so Simon got me Simon Sargon company very heavily involved even back then before 12 my brothers were part of a za and stuff but that wasn't something I did I don't know why I did go to Israel you know
the Israel teen tours which was fabulous you know the six-week see see the country and that was actually back when the Sinai was part of Israel so it was so it's pretty cool you know went down to a lot of then all the way down to the bottom of the Sinai and i want to say sharm el-sheikh i hope i'm writing that and diving in there go snorkeling down off the waters there so it was really cool and blue and it was beautiful and then sang the temple I want to hear about your careers because I've been following years yeah you're that person okay um
well I went to USC for years I graduated with the BF a bachelor of fine arts and in drama theatre and proceeded to move to New York I lived in New York for about eight years and did a lot of stuff out of town nothing really in New York except for gallant avenue e or someone there are actually as a way over to the side and that was one where I was rolling around on the floor that went something to brag about I waited a lot of tables worked a ticket tron telecharge ticket agency my worst job I was one of those nauseating people that
cause you during dinner and asks you for opinions it was not selling I will not sell on the phone I can't stand that but I was one of those people that has a list that these are the people that they're interested in and you call it say I got a survey and you have to complete the whole survey before you get paid all I hated one survey went on for 30 minutes 30 and it's somebody talk to me about tennis so anyway moved back to Dallas in 91 because I was getting a little bit of tired of the acting stuff there I had turned Union
and what I was auditioning for was just really not what I'd be there for it just have to be a little old roped and I actually got hit by a cab so that kind of deflated my new york excitement and I mean something no it's terrible to say if I had hurt myself it would have been a lot easier but they've got in New York these no-fault laws which keep stuff out of ports rightfully so I guess at the time I didn't think so open so I was hurt but not enough to make things go faster but I was getting a little disenchanted and there
was an opening at my father company you would ask me where my father worked he did advertising for so long what I didn't say is after 26 years little side trip here after 26 years he started an invitation company called glad tidings actually the time is good times and glad tidings we shorten it through years and there was kind of an opening there and what better way to get a job through family so I moved down my brother was working with them my brother Greg and he went off into another direction and I kind of build in his spot became a man national sales manager
considering i went to school for bachelor of fine arts I had no idea what I was doing but it was you know that I learned and I've been there for 22 years almost which is amazing as far as I understand Randy you you're you're older than you look thank you how old are you how old yeah I shouldn't have to say oh you go um no I'm 51 good it's on record the production's here can you name some of the theaters that you've been yeah well the funny thing is when I moved back to Dallas I didn't think I thought I was getting out of
acting I even gave up my makeup kit green makeup kit mm-hmm lots of stuff but I started working again I think the first thing I did was at the Jewish Community Center and it was a show called putting it together and it was just a show filled with all sorts of Jewish composers and that's where i met john my partner that was 19 years ago cuz i've been with john for 19 years and since then I've worked at plano Repertory Theater I've worked at theater three water tower watertower theatre which I love five minutes away from my house I sata3 lyric stage I've worked at
lyric theatre that does all the musicals I've worked at echo stage west and Fort Worth garland summer musicals I know uptown players I don't know how they're doing things you obviously keep very busy well I better not be very lucky I've been very very lucky I'm really lucky because starting soon I'm that dallas theater center which is something I grew up with here you know thinking oh wow you know what great amazing place and Here I am about to work there it's kind of it's very exciting to me I'm going to be second pirate to the right but who cares and I've also started doing
non theater work but still acting I mean I've done recently played Jack Ruby in a movie called Tammy true it's documentary two tables I'm sorry all about Tammy true which is one of Jack Ruby's main strippers during the Kennedy assassination so it's kind of part documentary and part reenacted scenes where I get to be Jack Ruby the other day I was actually in this cell that was a little fury but I left and I've done some voiceover work for anime and stuff like that so I've been keeping busy on that end I've been lucky this is a question that I know the answer to but
because he went to green young you went to USC did you ever meet with any anti-semitism you know I never I knew it was there as far at USC that I never really I never really felt I was in the Jewish I was in the fraternity there if I guess that was like hers the bed earlier too I was a sammy and there was some anti-semitism going on with that but you know it really wasn't prevalent in my Wi-Fi I guess I've been very lucky considering my choices in life as far as not Jewish is not the choice but neither is my relationship of John
but I've been around a lot of incredibly supportive people everybody in my life has been supportive and it's been a blessing it's been wonderful how did you eat john d through the jewish community center he was the music conductor I do a lot of others tonight he was the music director and he still does music right now he does accompanying for the plano civic course so he gets to arrange music for me everyone's good your parents have been very active in the Jewish community your your mother particularly they both have done a lot and you're right my mom is you know I look at my
parents and I get amazed because the amount of friends they have just boggles my mind and it's incredible and I think it's from doing all of this volunteer work they've done National Council the Jewish women they've done Federation I think she told me that they've been involved in almost between neither together apart almost every board in Federation for a very long time my mother started on poor sale with with ants aura and Betty Marcus when my homework did really well today I even have names and dates um very active in the vocal alcove for many years they didn't start with it but with the doors
blender and Larry better but for many many years they were very active in it and I salute them I think they're amazing people another question I'd like to ask is what has been your favorite decade you really like to ask that my favorite decade huh there's a poser you haven't had that many decades well I've had five decades working on the sense i think the 90s when i got back to town and life here was just so much easier than New York not living in a little two-by-four apartment which was actually my grandfather's sister's apartment she lived there for seven seventy years 30 or 40
years so she was paying 70 that's right the 70 King that she was paying 70 something about the time I didn't get to pay 70 something from when I moved in you know raised but it was still an amazing place the first six out of seven years I liked it but then you know having the bathroom over there in the kitchen over there and then everything right there is growth stuff but when I moved here my quality of life was better as opposed to my parents closer to my family started doing stuff with the temple and with Simon's help and guidance journey down a life
path that I'm still on that I never thought I would be on gonna get above that so much I i I've got to do a lot of things in Dallas and it all started to the 90s so as Dallas is this gonna be one of those questions you'd like to ask okay okay yes okay somewhere um has dell has changed since you were growing up now or how has Dallas changed bigger bigger yeah plano used to be Oklahoma surrendering yeah yeah I live out north which I never thought I'd live north when I was a green hill that was the edge of town when I
moved in 91 the tollway ended at frankford and I did came and there was a stoplight and that's where I've lived ever since I moved back here and now that's almost the center of town you know Dallas is just in the arts community has gotten amazing Dallas the theaters that have come up the theater attendance the quality the all the buildings downtown the Art Center darts district is it's incredible do you have the same group of friends that you had growing up or have you been exposed through the theater well you know as far as growing up I see them a lot because I do
a lot of the bars and bar bars and bat mitzvahs b'nai mitzvah and so I see a lot of them in contact with them that way but as far as close friends there's a couple of high school friends that I still see and talk to you but you're right instead everybody moves on I think except for my parents they have forensic as i said earlier but through acting I've got a lot of friends there I there was one time in my life it was the strangest thing where a lot of my really close friends were divorced saying women in the choir they were older I
couldn't figure it out but I loved it I mean we were very close friends and still keep up with those unfortunately some of those have passed against a thank you but you know my flight goes on everybody goes on Facebook let you keep in contact who would be your role models who are your robot I saw that question down there I knew you were going to ask me that I it's hard to think of role models I mean I think of my parents and they're just amazing people to look up to and be I look at the way like Debbie stern and Demi Robbins David
Stern and Debbie Robbins how they deal with people and intrigue people and kids and stuff and I think it's just amazing I'm not really sure under shipment okay um you've been so involved with the temple tell me well it started when I moved back in 91 Harold climbin made the suggestion to join the choir I thought why not the kind of given that Simon was still there we won told you is just very strong influence and I loved it the group was wonderful i did not do it all the time but then slowly through the first couple of years Simon encouraged me to take a
bigger part and start doing solo work and actually got me to start doing friday evening services I started doing shabbat services on friday evening and then that evolved to bar mitzvahs and the bar mitzvahs themselves involved from being out of the way hidden upstairs in the choir loft I know with a when did that happen yeah that was in the in the 90s it was you know we were with a microphone hidden sitting down sitting in a chair and then when it was our time saying we'd stand up and go to the microphone and seeing that sent back down and not really a part of
the service but just kind of here you know over overlaying and then we slowly kind of made me go down first we were day I was down in front of the Vemma in the chair next to the piano player then I would be on the Bema over to the side and then it was with I remember exactly it was with Amanda Kleinman was the very first time that I was actually at the Beeman with the rabbi and the Charlie I think again the fact that I got so involved doing all these bar mitzvahs was happenstance because I was the only soloist that was Jewish that
didn't the bar mitzvahs but the more and more I did the more I learned I took lessons with Shirley Fisher amazing woman and she taught me once I started being down the beam I told David Stern i said i'd like to not hold my book yeah I'd like old prayer book not the you know like you know I want to be more a part of the service he said what we could do that and he arranged for me to me but surely and we met every night every tuesday night and I brought dinner and we dissected those services Hebraic Lee where I knew what I
was doing and again more confidence built up and then it got to the point we started getting Cantor's I was very lucky because one can't I can't do it all and Annie bornstein they kept it so I would do one of the services she do one of the services and then when in turn into Richard konec after the same way so I've been doing I've been doing services for about 16 years and I started thinking knowing this was going to happen I i have worked with I've done services with let's see Levi olin and Jack bent Brad were my rabbis along with Gerald client Joe
Klein Barnett's between then I have to actually done services with Gerald climb shellie zimmerman before he left brian zimmerman which is a lot later David Stern Deborah Robbins Asher night Kim her jaw Cohen bar kaiserman Peter Berg Alan Alan Adam allenburg rate or I'll Goldenberg I know Warren hi own I mean I have gotten to work with some incredible rabbis and each time I basically do the same thing but I just sit back and the way they treat I don't know how they don't start repeating themselves talk about role models but just listening I've learned so much for them I've gotten these services give me
so much ara Judaism and feeling of connection that I just love unfortunately that's coming to an end which that's our bags why wow they're getting a second camera and temple so all the things that I'm used to doing we will now be done by the second ten second camp it breaks my heart but I totally understand and hopefully I'll be able to do this somewhere else because there are things that I had not learned but to go to Kent royal school at 51 is not exactly what I want to do um do you owe these transitions to with shelley's rabbi Zimmerman must have started the
metamorphosis to you know Cantor no I don't think so i don't i don't think excuse me for picking my ear uncomfortable or not um I don't know if it was really him that started it i think the Jewish movement has made a shift I mean when I grew up apartments but I was into what the twelfth row sitting on the aisle and we didn't do anything in the bar mitzvahs until the Torah service came up we went up and did did what did i do and sat down I think from an outsider point of view as much outsiders I am I feel like reform is
gone it's way too conservative conservative the ship to this way I mean everything's just shifted to be a little bit more Jewish more a little i'm not sure what I'm saying but I think I said I think things have shifted so I think the natural place to be up in the choir loft singing over people's heads heard but not seen was just no longer desired I think people wanted an inclusive people wanted a service which everybody was involved rather than a performance and that's one thing that I have strived in all my services is too be the act of performing you know but I do
try to connect with people because I think that's what people are there and services for us to be connected with and that a Jewish yes it did yes it did well you've been terrific and thank you you've been just terrific is there anything that you would want to add because you've answered everything there that I had to ask himself no no I guess not but if anybody is out there that are Perlman's that are related to someone in Poland or Russia because my father does knows he probably had siblings but yet has no idea what that is parents I'm sorry have siblings but has no
idea who they might be but no I think that covers it brandy thank you very much you