This omnibus release consists of three playlets filmed and aired during television's Golden Age, and starring some of the legends of film and television. The collection originally ran as a two-hour segment on December 14, 1959, on the anthology series The Play of the Week, broadcast locally in New York City via the independent radio station WNTA. Each "tale" in the anthology was adapted from a single tale by the inimitable Sholom Aleichem, regarded by many as the "Yiddish Mark Twain". Included are: "A Tale of Chelm" starring Zero Mostel and Nancy Walker in the story of a bookseller attempting to buy a goat; "Bontche Schweig" about a poor man (Jack Gilford) whose recent arrival in Heaven makes the angels cry; and "The High School" about a Jewish merchant (Morris Carnovsky) persuaded by his wife (Gertrude Berg) to let their son attend a particular high school despite the enforcement of quotas for Jewish students.
Gertrude Berg
as Hannah
Sam Levene
as Mendele
Zero Mostel
as Melamed / Maxel
Morris Carnovsky
as Aaron Katz / Presiding Angel
Lee Grant
as The Goatseller / Avenging Angel
Nancy Walker
as Rifkele
Jack Gilford
as Bontsche Shveig / Angel
Charlotte Rae
as The Angel Rochele
Elsa Freed
as
Henry Lascoe
as Dodi the Innkeeper
Conrad Bromberg
as (as Conrad Josephs)
Frederick Rolf
as Rabbi David / Prosecuting Angel
