There’s nothing as fun as a family scandal. I first heard
this juicy story about my grandmother Sophie about 30 years ago. In the version my mom told me, her mother,
Sophie Chernin, took a bullet meant for her sister Mayme, who was, God forbid,
going to marry a goy against the wishes of her disapproving Jewish father. In the middle of a big fight, her father, Meyer Chernin, in
desperation, pulled a gun on her. Sophie
stepped between them, and was shot.
Sophie survived, and Mayme married the goy anyway.
Today, my cousin Bruce, who has taken an interest in pursuing
the family genealogy, helped set the record straight. He sent me a series of newspaper clippings
from the Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania newspaper, 1927.
Here’s the first headline:
City’s Irish-Jewish Romance Is Blasted Away
Mamie
Chernin Lyons, Jewess, Gets Divorce from Irish Husband,
Michael Lyons, Who Is In County Prison For
Feloniously Wounding Her
in Jealous Fit
The lead of the article reads, “Wilkes-Barre’s ‘Abie-Irish
Rose’ romance is no more."
The “Abie-Irish Rose”reference is to a popular Broadway show
about an Irish Catholic girl and a
young Jewish man who marry
despite the objections of their families. The play, at the time
(1922-1927), had the longest run ever on Broadway, with over 1300 performances. Though Life magazine theater critic Robert
Benchley panned the play as "Something
Awful", "Showing that the Jews and the Irish crack equally old
jokes", "People laugh at this every night, which explains why democracy
can never be a success," it clearly struck a cord, and
went on to become two films (one in 1928, then another in 1946 starring
Bing Crosby), a weekly radio series that ran from 1942-44, the basis for a TV
series in the 70’s called Bridget Loves Bernie, and inspired
the comedy of husband-and-wife team Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara.
But back to the newspaper account of what really happened.
According to the facts, Mayme, a pretty 18-year old Jewish girl,
married Michael Lyons, a 22-year old Irish Catholic guy, in a ceremony
performed by a priest, “although Mayme’s parents vehemently opposed her
marriage to one not of her own creed and race.” After living together for six
months at the Lyon’s family home, Mayme succumbed to family pressure and returned
home, deserting her distraught husband.
A month later, Mayme and my grandmother Sophie, walking home
one night from the theater, were accosted by Michael Lyons in a dark corner of
East Market and Lincoln Street. When
they refused to speak with him, enraged, he pulled out a revolver and fired 3
shots, wounding Mayme in the chest and Sophie in the arm. He was arrested and subsequently convicted on
charges of carrying a concealed and deadly weapon and assault and battery with
intent to kill.
While Michael was serving his sentence (2 to 8 years) in county jail (he was also
forced to pay a $100 fine), Meyer went to court and demanded that Mayme be granted a divorce from her
“young, petulant Irish husband, while the latter, sickened and disheartened at
the end of his romance, wistfully gazes from behind the bars of his prison cell
toward the East Market street home where the young and pretty former wife is
basking in the enjoyment of her family life.”
Judge Coughlin, who granted the divorce, at the same time decided to parole Michael Lyon after he served only a few months in prison.
But the story doesn’t end here. So much for “basking.”
Another article appeared in the newspaper a month later, with
this headline:
“Eloping Couple Bound for West.”
Michael
and Mayme Chernin Lyon Remarried, Would Evade Interference
Two weeks after the divorce, Mayme and Michael, eloped and
remarried. They sent a letter to their
families, noting that they were happily married and “on their way to a Western
state where they proposed to make their home and did not want any interference
from their families.”
There’s definitely something about this Irish-Jewish thing! My daughter Sophie, sometimes complains that
my wife of thirty years, Patricia, who is 100% Irish and vehemently an ex-Catholic, and I disagree way too
much and too passionately. But, hey,
we’ve got nothing on my crazy ancestors!
Postscript: The Lyons stayed married for over 50 years and
had five children. They never really went West, only to New Jersey! My grandmother Sophie and her siblings resumed contact with
Mayme after their parents died, though the true story of the Irish-Jewish romance run amuck was a confused family secret until now.
