Millions of spectators laughed and cried along with the heroes of his sketches, recognizing themselves in them. “In the Greek hall…”, “drinks alone, but everyone’s head hurts”, “football – when 22 bulls roll one ball”… Do you remember? But now, as the character of Arkady Raikin said, “forgive me men, we will talk about women.”
A woman, I'm not afraid of this word, is a friend of man!
This phrase was first heard in Raikin's monologue "About Women". The aphorism, which today many of the fair sex would consider offensive, has become so popular that it was even quoted in the movie "Prisoner of the Caucasus".
Agrafena Mikhailovna, shall we clap a glass? And she told me: - Why a glass, let's immediately have a glass. Good woman!
Arkady Isaakovich himself, although he could brilliantly portray a drunk person on stage, did not drink alcohol - his heart, which had been sick since childhood, did not allow it. Moreover, he himself said more than once that alcohol destroys the personality and harms the profession.
Shut your mouth, you fool, I already said everything!
Another phrase from the famous monologue of a bachelor, which does not at all correspond to Raikin the family man. The artist called his wife Ruth Ioffe none other than "Roma" or "Roma" and always listened to her opinion.
Jokes are jokes, but there may be children!
Arkady Raikin knew how to joke - he had two children. Both daughter Ekaterina and son Konstantin followed in the footsteps of their father. Ekaterina Raikina has played dozens of roles in theater and cinema, and Konstantin Raikin in this moment directs the theater "Satyricon".
Wife is a wise man, next to her you will feel like an idiot all your life.
Next to his wife, Arkady Raikin, of course, did not feel like an idiot. But he was ashamed. This is how Ekaterina Raikina recalls her mother: “A wise woman, for example, she forgave her father for her relationship with one actress of the Vakhtangov Theater.”
Before, there were no women at all. There were some women.
There were always enough women and women in the life of Arkady Isaakovich. “Of course, women ran after Raikin. Sometimes he couldn't resist. But there was never a question about the fact that the family broke up. No matter how persistent the fans are, ”recalled actor Vladimir Mikhailovsky, who worked under his leadership.
Fool, fool, fool you. You damn fool. He has four fools, and you are the fifth fool.
This ditty is the hero of Raikin from the film " Magic power art" attributed to ... Lyudmila Zykina. An interesting coincidence: when the satirist was invited on tour to London for the third time, he was not allowed to go there by the Minister of Culture Ekaterina Furtseva, who said: “Arkady Isaakovich, you have already gone to England twice, let Zykina go now - she is a good artist.” Raikin replied: "All right, let Zykina go."
Here is such a thick ... dissertation, and the topic is interesting - there is something in the nose ...
In this quote, Raikin's hero describes the figure of a female doctor in the film "People and Mannequins". And in the monologue written by Mikhail Zhvanetsky, this lady already had a degree: “She was a doctor, candidate of science. Here is such a thick ... dissertation.
They want to marry me. There are people who feel bad when others feel good.
It was good for Raikin in marriage, otherwise this union would not have existed for half a century. It was bad for the parents of his chosen one, who at first really did not want Ruth to meet Arkady. Once she was even taken away to the dacha for the summer, but Raikin also appeared there to give a speech asking him to bless their marriage.
A married man feels bad at home, and a single man feels bad everywhere!
Raikin, already in his advanced years, uttered this phrase when, after the concert, he was introduced to the director and actor Boris Lvovich. “Actor ... Director ...”, Raikin repeated the regalia of Lvovich, and suddenly asked: “Are you married?” Having received an affirmative answer, Arkady Isaakovich shook his head: “Here I am all my life on one. You know what? A married man feels bad at home, a single man - everywhere!
Shortly before his death, Raikin asked his daughter: “You know, I need to think about what I should go on stage with now. What to talk about with people if everything is already written in the newspapers? Since then, 30 years have passed, and most newspapers have ceased to be published in paper format. But Arkady Raikin still has something to tell us, agree.
Dmitry Kovalchuk
We can safely say that the entire Soviet stage conversational genre came out of it - Arkady Raikin. This is true for those who work today and those who will work tomorrow. Raikin is an almost half-century history of the satirical and humorous colloquial genre on the Soviet stage.
According to Gennady Khazanov, Arkady Raikin is “not just special person, this is a concept, a symbol, this is, if you like, a phenomenon ... I had a chance to see not so many artists of the same genre as Raikin. There are very few such artists in the world. But, besides, I will honestly say that I have not seen and do not know a single artist who, in terms of power, in terms of talent and charm, in terms of a completely magnetic effect on the audience, could approach Raikin at least at some distance. Let it not seem loudly said, to be honest, we are all as far from him as from the nearest planet solar system».
Arkady Isaakovich Raikin was born on October 24, 1911 in Riga. Father - Isaac Davidovich - worked in the port of Riga, mother - Elizaveta Borisovna - was at home with the children.
Raikin's childhood passed in Rybinsk, where Arkady first entered the amateur scene as a nine-year-old boy. In 1922, the Raikins moved to Petrograd, where they had relatives. WITH young years Arkady dreamed only of the theater, often went to the former Alexandria Theater for performances, studied at school in a drama club, was fond of painting and drew well.
Despite his dreams of a theatre, in 1929 Arkady got a job as a laboratory assistant at the Okhten chemical plant, to enter the institute one had to have a year of work experience. In 1930, Arkady entered the Leningrad Institute of Performing Arts, on the directing and acting course of Vladimir Nikolaevich Solovyov, an expert on commedia dell'arte and Molière's theater.
Arkady in the family was the oldest of the children, besides him, two more girls grew up - Bella and Sophia, and the youngest brother Maxim, who was born in 1930. Parents were categorically against the acting profession of their son. After another conflict with his parents, Arkady left home for a hostel.
Also in student years Raikin began to perform on the stage, mainly in concerts for children - he showed numbers with a doll, with inflatable pigs, a gramophone and others.
Arkady met his future wife Rufina (Roma) Ioffe at the institute in 1934, and they got married in 1935. They lived for nearly 50 years.
Raikin graduated from the Institute in the same 1935. Almost all of his course, like Arkady himself, was assigned to the Leningrad TRAM - Theater of Working Youth. Soon Raikin moves from TRAM to New theater- the future Leningrad City Council, in which he worked for a year. From the New Theater, Raikin decides to go to the stage. As a professional entertainer, he first performed in the Leningrad Recreation Garden in 1938, replacing the then ill artist.
Interested in young Raikin and cinema. For the first time he starred in the film " fiery years"(1939), and immediately after the debut filming, he starred in another film, "Doctor Kalyuzhny" (also 1939). The films went unnoticed, and, disappointed in the cinema, Raikin completely switches to the stage.
He performs a lot with pop numbers in the houses of culture and palaces of pioneers, conducts an entertainer. And each of his performances is a growing success. Raikin is quickly approaching fame, for which popular love was not slow to come.
At the 1st All-Union Competition of Variety Artists, which was held in December 1939, Raikin performed with the numbers "Chaplin" and "Mishka". Variety masters immediately drew attention to the young artist, and Raikin received the 2nd prize at the competition.
Arkady Raikin was often invited to the radio. The main "prize" in winning the competition was that he became one of the leaders of the Leningrad Variety and Miniature Theater.
Arkady Raikin recalls:
“Stalin applauded me fourteen times in a row. And all fourteen - got up. A banquet on the occasion of Stalin's 60th birthday in 1939 was held in the Georgievsky Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace. The guests feasted at the table, the artists sang next to the guests and played, replacing each other. Unlike my colleagues, who spoke at some distance, I was seated at the table directly opposite Stalin.
The only plot that I had to show was prearranged. Encouraged by the look of the hero of the day, I got up, pushed back my chair and portrayed one of my characters. Stalin laughed and applauded enthusiastically. Then he stood up, and everyone at the table also stood up. Stalin proposed a toast to Raikin, and everyone drank. Here I take it and say: Comrade Stalin, I can show other types. He seemed surprised, but nodded. The guests sat down, and I began to show number after number.
After each new story, Stalin got up, the guests also clapped their hands while standing. And so fourteen times.
The Great Patriotic War began. Raikin with his actors constantly goes to the front. It was at the front that he first appeared satirical miniatures, mostly on a political theme. In 1942, having appeared with concerts on Malaya Zemlya, Raikin met Colonel L.I. Brezhnev, the future General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. “For four years, we,” Raikin later recalled, “traveled many thousands of kilometers on all fronts from the Baltic to Kushka, from Novorossiysk to the Pacific Ocean ...”
After the war, new performances appeared in the Theater of Miniatures, written by the talented satirist writer V. Polyakov: “Come, let's talk” (1946), “Frankly speaking ...”, “Love and deceit” (1949).
In July 1950, the son Kostya was born to the Raikins. Although the war ended long ago, the life of the Raikin family was still difficult, as Arkady Isaakovich recalls: “As always, the theater was constantly on the move. There were times when I woke up not knowing where I was. Every year they came to Moscow for about two months, worked a little longer in Leningrad, toured for a month in different cities. I had a permanent room at the Moscow Hotel, where we left Kostya in the care of my grandmother. Little Kostya was dragged along, one might say, in a backpack over his shoulders. We lived in the Moscow Hotel for 25 years, starting from the first tour of the theater in 1942. In Leningrad, we had three rooms in a large apartment in a house on Grechesky Prospekt, where, besides us, six tenants lived. Later, when Kostya grew up, he studied either at the Leningrad or at the Moscow school.
Konstantin Raikin recalls family life like this: “We didn’t have any special well-being ... Dad played twenty performances a month, received forty rubles per performance: it was a lot, it was the salary of an academician, but this is not wealth ... When we had a car something appeared, there never was a dacha ... Dad was very calm about worldly goods, mom too, and they didn’t spoil me ... "
In 1950, Raikin parted ways with the playwright Polyakov. But performances are still coming out in the theater one after another: "The Invisible Man", "White Nights", "Love and Three Oranges". In them, Raikin becomes much sharper as a satirist.
Arkady Raikin and Mikhail Zhvanetsky met in 1960 in Leningrad, Zhvanetsky then studied at the Odessa Institute of Marine Engineers and devoted a lot of time to amateur performances. In 1961, Raikin performed Zhvanetsky's first interlude "A Conversation About". Three years later, Raikin attracted Zhvanetsky to work on a new theater program"Traffic light". In this program, Raikin for the first time played the famous miniatures of Zhvanetsky: "Avas", "Deficiency", "Age of Technology". And in 1967, Raikin took Zhvanetsky to the staff of his theater, first as an artist, and then as head of the literary part.
But not for long two outstanding humorists-satirists were able to work together. In the early 70s, Raikin broke up with Mikhail Zhvanetsky. The satirist recalls:
“Once, in the midst of my successes, the director of the theater told me: Arkady Isaakovich decided to part with you. It was not just a blow, not a catastrophe, it was death.
I came to him, putting a letter of resignation at the end of a new miniature. He calmly read and said, signing: You did the right thing ...
I did not want to tell him what a blow the break with the theater was for me. We parted in a hostile relationship ...
Later I wrote something else. But it was hard for me to appear even near the theater. Over time, I understood the pattern of changing authors in the Raikin Theater. It was a natural process of development of the artist. Each author in this theater has his own century - golden, then silver, bronze ... We rarely saw each other, at meetings we were falsely friendly. This is also his strength. He is very strong man».
In 1968, Raikin was awarded the title of People's Artist of the USSR, after 33 years of continuous work of the theater and Raikin himself, after his theater traveled all over the Soviet Union.
Then followed a very difficult period in the life of Raikin, which L. Sidorovsky recalls:
“... The play Plus-Minus ... was first shown on the banks of the Neva in the spring of 1970.
That spring, as you know, the centenary of the birth of Lenin was magnificently celebrated, and Raikin, starting from this date, decided to create an action of special sharpness, special intensity ... The artist quickly ran out onto the stage and immediately began a monologue: , in that it assumes the mind also in the reader ... There is a ringing silence in the hall ... And the artist, after a second pause, adds: Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Philosophical notebooks. This monologue was composed by the satirist, writer Leonid Likhodeev, and he found in Lenin several more of the same quotations, unknown to anyone in the hall, which then, in the seventies, seemed like a counter-revolution to the zealous guardians of the system ...
The audience enthusiastically accepted the performance ... But in the fall, the secretary of the Volgograd regional party committee somehow showed up at the capital's Variety Theater, and he really did not like what Raikin was saying from the stage, and how the people reacted to it. Angered, he instantly sent a denunciation to the Central Committee, and from there the order followed just as quickly to the theater: Do not sell the first row! And every evening a commission began to sit on those chairs ... Arkady Isaakovich later said: The costumes are the same, the notebooks are the same, the eyes are the same, the faces are impenetrable ... Everyone writes, writes ... What the hell is satire here? What humor?
A week later, the artist was summoned to the Central Committee, and there the notorious Shauro pounded on the table with his fists and advised Raikin to change his profession ... Raikin had a heart attack, after which he became completely gray-haired. In Moscow and Leningrad, he was banned from performing. The theater was sent on a long tour to Petrozavodsk. Only in 1971 did Raikin return to Leningrad - his 60th birthday was approaching.
In order to “reduce” the huge popular love for the artist, in 1971 the KGB of the USSR made up a story that was fully approved by the authorities.
Arkady Raikin recalled:
“Such gossip was launched: as if I sent a coffin with the remains of my mother to Israel and put gold things there! I first learned this from my relative. He called me in Leningrad and indignantly told me that he had been at a lecture on the international situation at one of the major Moscow enterprises. Someone asked the speaker - a lecturer from the district committee of the party: Is it true that Raikin sent the jewelry that was placed in the coffin with the corpse of his mother to Israel? And the lecturer, after a meaningful pause, replied: Unfortunately, it's true.
My wife immediately called the district committee of the party, found out the name of the lecturer and demanded that he publicly apologize to the audience for malicious misinformation, otherwise she would complain on my behalf to the Party Control Committee under the Central Committee of the CPSU - its chairman was then A.Ya. Pelshe. They promised to fulfill her demand, and a few days later she was informed by telephone that the lecturer was again at this enterprise and apologized over the radio broadcast. Allegedly, this lecturer was suspended from work.
I would like to believe that this is how it really happened. But, unfortunately, it didn't end there. I'm in Once again went to the hospital. The theater went on tour without me. And surprisingly, wherever our artists came, they were addressed with the same question:
Well, what is your boss so blundered? Sent to Israel...
In a word, everywhere - in Moscow, Voroshilovgrad - the same version. It was believed that I did not participate in the tour not because of illness. Almost like in jail...
After leaving the hospital, I went to the Central Committee, to V.F. Shauro.
Let's play open, - I suggested. - You will say everything you know about me, and I about you. We both do propaganda, but I don't know who is better at it. You stubbornly do not notice and do not want to notice what everyone sees. How the bureaucracy grows, how bribes are taken, corruption flourishes... I took the liberty of talking about it. Shots are fired in response. Where did gossip come from? Why has it become so widespread that it is heard even at party meetings?
He pretended not to understand what it was about, and turned the conversation to another topic.
But the funny thing is, it helped. As the legend arose, so it died ... "
The daughter of Arkady Isaakovich, Ekaterina Raikina, tells about this story as follows: “It cost my father, treated kindly by the authorities, at least ten years of his life. Then the goal of disinformation was achieved, the people had suspicions about Raikin ... My grandmother Elizaveta Borisovna Gurevich-Raikina died in 1967 at the age of 87 in a neurological hospital on the 15th line of Vasilyevsky Island and was buried in St. Petersburg. Naturally, Arkady Raikin's mother did not leave any will to bury herself in Israel.
In 1974 Central Television finally drew attention to Raikin. With his participation, the shooting of two television films at once began: "People and Mannequins" (four-episode film) and "Arkady Raikin".
The numerous tours of the Theater of Miniatures and Raikin himself were written about in the newspapers of Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, and Germany. Raikin is known in Italy and Japan. Czech cinematographers made the film "A Man with Many Faces", dedicated to the tour of the theater and Arkady Raikin.
English directors made a film shown in England. A critic for the London Times wrote:
“When you watch and listen to today's comedians, such old masters of the music hall as Rob Wilton, Little Teach, George Formby, Grock and Mary Lloyd come to mind more and more often ... Among our modern comic actors there are quite tolerable, and they even cause laughter, but almost all of them are not individual ...
The other day on our television screens flashed the image of just such an individual comic genius, the BBC for the first time showed us the famous Russian comedian A. Raikin. It was a real spectacle, a real discovery, a performance that we have not seen for a long time. One of Raikin's greatest merits is that he is the complete opposite of the disgusting, sickeningly funny comedians that we import in such abundance from the United States. Raikin has something from Charlie Chaplin: an amazing ability to vividly and clearly depict emotions, the ability to create images that do not need explanation. He has the gift to penetrate deep into human feelings… I have never seen such a game!”
In 1980, Raikin was awarded the Lenin Prize, and in 1981 he became a Hero of Socialist Labor.
At the end of his life, Raikin decided to change his place of residence, to move with his theater to Moscow. He turned to L.I. Brezhnev with a request to transfer the Leningrad State Theater of Miniatures to the capital. Raikin motivated his desire to move by the fact that his son Konstantin and daughter Ekaterina had been living in the capital for a long time (Ekaterina Raikina then worked at the Vakhtangov Theater and was married to Yuri Yakovlev). Raikin's wife by that time was seriously ill, she had a stroke, she lay in Moscow clinics for a long time. Brezhnev promised to help with the move.
In 1981, Raikin's theater was allowed to move to Moscow. Less than a year after the move appeared new performance, now the Moscow Raikin Theater: "Faces" (1982), and in 1984 "Peace to your house."
But Raikin's strength was depleted, he was often sick for a long time. Sometimes memory failed on the stage, ease of movement was lost, but the atmosphere of complete unity with the audience was always preserved, which for half a century accompanied every appearance on the stage of this great artist.
Shortly before his death, Raikin went on a tour of America. He spoke quietly on the stage, but still it was the same, beloved by all Raikin, whom all Russian-speaking Americans knew very well. And wherever Raikin performed, everywhere, as soon as he appeared on stage, the audience in the hall stood up and ... began to cry. They understood that they would never see this great artist alive again.
Since 1987, the State Theater of Miniatures in Moscow has become the Satyricon Theater, and in 1991, by decision of the Moscow government, the theater was named after A.I. Raikin.
His father Isaak Davidovich Raikin worked as a forest grader in the Riga seaport, and mother Elizaveta Borisovna was a housewife and was engaged in raising children. Arkady was the eldest child of the family, after him two more girls were born in the family - Bella and Sophia, and in 1927 - Maxim (who later became actor Maxim Maximov).
Raikin's childhood passed in Rybinsk, where Arkady first entered the amateur scene as a nine-year-old boy. Ekaterina Raikina recalled her father’s childhood: “Once in Rybinsk, where the Raikin family fled from Riga to the First world war, dad, taking the sisters, went to the circus tent. The canvas tent during the presentation of the colorful performance of "Chantecleer" was locked with a huge iron gate. Grandfather, returning home after work, and hearing that his children were watching “this farce” so late, was horrified! He rushed to the circus and began to beat with his hands on the galvanized gates: “Give me back my children! Give it back!" At home, he raged for a long time: “A Jew should be a clown? Never!" and even used the belt. Grandfather, all his life selecting timber in the seaport for sawmills and mines, considered his son’s passion for theater empty and harmful: “Well, if you really want to be an artist, it’s better, as is customary in intelligentsia. Jewish families to make music!” - and bought his son a violin. But Arkasha quickly adapted it for skating on ice, and also, having made a whip out of a bow, drove the violin through the snow like a sledge.
In 1922, the Raikin family moved to Petrograd to live with relatives on Troitskaya Street, where Arkady went to the 4th grade of the 23rd city school. By that time, despite his young age, he was already raving about the theater and constantly disappeared within the walls of the former Alexandrinka - the State academic theater dramas, At school Arkady attended drama club, whose leader at one time was Yuri Yursky (father of Sergei Yursky). Here is what the sister of Arkady Raikin Bella recalled about these years: “We lived on the sixth floor (in a house on the present Mayakovsky Street). At first they occupied the whole apartment - five rooms, then we were compacted and only two were left. Arkasha was such a mischief-maker. After all, he came up with something: with his friends, they threw a plank down the street from the window of one room, which was a corner room, into another and ... ran along it, like in a circus. Arkasha has been interested in theater since childhood. I ran to Alexandrinka almost every evening. His parents did not have money for tickets, and he quietly sold books and notebooks. In the theater, all the controllers knew and loved him. Then they let it go like that, without any. And he was very strong-willed: when his father poured him in, as it should (his hand was heavy), then Arkasha only clenched his teeth, and a tear did not come out of him.
In 1924, 13-year-old Arkady Raikin almost died. Once he was skating for a long time and caught a cold. He developed a sore throat, which gave a complication to the heart. After that, rheumatism and rheumatic heart disease for a long time chained him to bed. The doctors' prognosis was not very comforting, and the parents were preparing for the worst. However, the boy's body was stronger than the disease. Arkady survived, but he had to literally learn to walk again. “His sister, who now lives with me, she is 91 years old, said that the children were not allowed into the hospital, because any movement in the ward was painful for dad,” recalled daughter Ekaterina. It hurt even to lie under the sheet. Horror in the eyes. So he lay for 9 months. Grandfather lowered him on his shoulders into the street, only for dad to get some air. Mom said that it was then that his character was formed. He became withdrawn, thinking, observing.
After the recovery of Arkady, his parents were categorically against the acting profession of their son. The conflict was so serious that the young man had to leave his father's house, and in 1929 he got a job as a laboratory assistant at the Okhta Chemical Plant, never ceasing to dream of a theater. Raikin lived in a factory dormitory, and having earned the necessary annual work experience, in 1930 he entered the Leningrad Institute of Performing Arts at the Faculty of Cinema (where Pyotr Aleinikov entered with him) for the directing and acting course of the teacher, director of the Molière theater and connoisseur of comedy Vladimir Nikolaevich Solovyov . Arkady's parents were still against his acting profession, they considered the profession of an actor to be frivolous and not capable of bringing real income. But despite this, Arkady Raikin began performing on the stage from his student days, mainly in concerts for children, and his numbers with the Minka doll, inflatable pigs and a gramophone immediately became popular.
In 1934, Arkady Raikin met his future wife, Rufina (Roma) Ioffe, at the institute. Here is how Raikin himself later recalled this romantic acquaintance: “As a boy, doing amateur performances, I was invited to perform at the neighboring 41st school. I don't remember what I played, but I clearly remember that I noticed a girl in a red beret, in which a hole was made and a strand of black hair was passed through it. It was original and memorable. A few months later I met her on the street, recognized her and suddenly saw her lively, expressive, smart looking eyes. She was very pretty, you won't pass by such a girl... Nevertheless, I passed by, didn't stop, embarrassed to talk to a stranger on the street. Several years passed, I became a student of the Leningrad theater institute. In my senior year, I somehow came to the student cafeteria and stood in line. Turning around, I saw that she was standing behind me. She spoke first, and I remember this conversation verbatim. "Do you study here? How wonderful it is!” - “Yes, I am studying ... And what are you doing tonight?” - "Nothing ..." - "Let's go to the cinema?" When we entered the cinema hall, took our seats and the lights went out, I immediately told her: "Marry me ..."
Raikin lived with his wife for nearly 50 years. According to eyewitnesses, they were a wonderful couple, although sometimes they had disagreements. V. Mikhailovsky said: “Of course, women ran after Raikin. Sometimes he couldn't resist. And, of course, Roma was jealous of him - how could it be without this? But there was never a question about the fact that the family broke up. No matter how persistent the fans are."
Ekaterina Raikina spoke about her mother: “Dad called mom Romochka or Chamomile. Kostya and I used to say “mommy” or “mommy”, and I also called her “mammy”. Mom was beautiful. Very bright, talented, cheerful, deeply educated. She knew a lot of stories, anecdotes, and even Irakli Andronikov, coming to visit his parents, always said: "Roma is a wonderful storyteller, I'd better keep quiet." She had literary talent, noted by many critics, but there was not enough time to write. She played in the theater, was her father's secretary and literally did not leave the phone. I said: “Mom, you are like a goat on a string. You can't do that, you have to take breaks." I hated the phone and still look at it as an enemy, because it took my mother away from me all my life ... There were moments when I realized that my mother was hard, hurt, hurt. But what to do, ce la vie, as the French say. She was very wise woman. There were critical periods that cost her great health but I had to endure and endure. She loved dad very much, so she threw her whole life, all her talents under his feet. She understood who Raikin was. After all, why are often two talented person don't get along? Surely someone must sacrifice himself for the sake of life together and love. And not everyone can. Of course, dad was grateful to her. This was especially evident when my mother became ill. Dad looked after her, was very gentle and attentive with her ... ".
In 1935, Raikin graduated from the institute, and according to the distribution, almost his entire course ended up in the Leningrad TRAM (Theatre of Working Youth), soon renamed Lenkom. In this theater, Raikin was busy in several performances at once: "Friendly Hill", "The Beginning of Life", "Deep Province" and other productions.
In the summer of 1937, a misfortune happened to Raikin - against the background of a sore throat, he began an acute attack of rheumatism with a heart complication. During this attack, he turned so gray that, when he recovered, he was forced to dye his hair, although he was only 26 years old. Ekaterina Raikina said: “In 1937, a sore throat recurred. The doctors again said he was dying. Grandfather, who himself was a doctor, then came to the doctors and said: “What kind of doctors are you if you bury him? Use at least half a chance. You must remove his tonsils." He told them how to do the operation, and dad coped with the disease. But he remained for life with a heart defect, with rheumatic heart disease.
After recovery, Raikin did not return to TRAM and went to work at the New Theater (in the future - the Lensoviet Theater). There he worked for exactly a year, and after director I. Kroll “left” the theater, he also submitted a letter of resignation, deciding to say goodbye to the theater and go to the stage. In the same years, he tried his hand at cinema.
Raikin's debut in cinema took place in 1938 - he starred in the films "Fire Years" and "Doctor Kalyuzhny", which appeared on the screens of the country in 1939. However, neither satisfaction nor audience success, these roles young actor they didn’t bring it, so Raikin gave all his strength to the stage. He performed with pop numbers in the Houses of Culture, the Palaces of Pioneers, from the summer of 1938 he began to engage in entertaining. Literally every day his talent grew stronger and attracted the attention of a large audience. Raikin confidently walked to his triumph.
On April 15, 1938, a girl was born in the Raikin family, who was named Ekaterina. She later said: “I was named after my grandmother Ekaterina Romanovna Brodskaya ... Dad really wanted a daughter and often told my mother:“ Roma! We will definitely have a girl, and certainly with pigtails. And so it all happened - I was born first.
In November 1939, Raikin performed with the numbers "Chaplin" and "Mishka" at the 1st All-Union Variety Competition. At the competition, Raikin received the second prize, and this performance became fateful for him. Raikin was noticed by recognized pop masters, in particular, Leonid Utyosov, who said: “This artist, unlike all the speakers, came forever. He will great artist!».
After a well-deserved success came to Arkady Raikin, he, his wife and daughter Katya were allocated a room in a communal apartment. In addition, they began to record him on the radio, and most importantly, he became one of the leaders of the Leningrad Variety and Miniature Theater. Arkady Raikin recalled: “Stalin applauded me fourteen times in a row. And all fourteen - got up. A banquet on the occasion of Stalin's 60th birthday in 1939 was held in the Georgievsky Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace. The guests feasted at the table, the artists sang next to the guests and played, replacing each other. Unlike my colleagues, who spoke at some distance, I was seated at the table directly opposite Stalin. The only plot that I had to show was prearranged. Encouraged by the look of the hero of the day, I got up, pushed back my chair and portrayed one of my characters. Stalin laughed and applauded enthusiastically. Then he stood up, and everyone at the table also stood up. Stalin proposed a toast to Raikin, and everyone drank. Here I take it and say: "Comrade Stalin, I can show you other types." He seemed surprised, but nodded. The guests sat down, and I began to show number after number. After each new story, Stalin got up, the guests also clapped their hands while standing. And so fourteen times.
Since 1940, Raikin and his troupe began to collaborate with playwright Vladimir Polyakov, creating the programs "For a Cup of Tea" and "Don't Pass By". And during the Great Patriotic War, Raikin and his troupe were welcome guests at the front. It was then that the artist began to actively include in his performances political satire. In 1942, Arkady Raikin ended up on tour on Malaya Zemlya, where he met Colonel Leonid Brezhnev. Later this acquaintance played big role in the life of an artist. Ekaterina Raikina recalled: “I was in my fourth year when the war began, so the terrible ups and downs that happened to me killed all the past bright memories. Parents served the front, traveled all over the country, naturally, they could not drag a little girl with them. And grandparents remained in besieged Leningrad. Mom gave me to someone else's aunt in Tashkent. Her parents sent her groceries, but I didn't get anything. Alone, small, without parents, all sick, hungry, in eczema, with dysentery - I wonder how I even survived then. If my grandmother had come for me two months later, I would have fallen short.”
Arkady Raikin miraculously managed to take his relatives out of besieged Leningrad along the Road of Life. When the exhausted Raikin family reached Ufa, Arkady greeted his household with a pot of hot cutlets. Father Isaak Davidovich attacked the food, from which it was impossible to tear him away, and a few days later he died of intestinal volvulus.
In 1946, the Raikin family moved from house 23 on Rubinstein Street in Leningrad to a gray six-story communal house No. 12 on Grechesky Prospekt. Three rooms in apartment number 9 were occupied by Raikin with his wife and daughter, and on the floor below, in apartment number 7, his mother, sisters Bella, Sonya and 15-year-old brother Maxim settled. Maxim recalled those days like this: “We lived in Greek for about twelve years. I was very young when my father died, and Arkady replaced him for me. Everything I have in life I owe to him. He gave me an education, I entered the institute, chose a profession - all this is him. Helped my family when it was hard."
And here is what their neighbor V. Markova recalled about the life of the Raikins on Grechesky Prospekt: “Very good people were. They occupied three rooms - a dining room, a bedroom and a nurse's room. True, they lived here on the strength of four months a year. And so they went on tour. Artists came to them: I saw Cherkasov, Utyosov, Tselikovskaya. They came mostly at night, after the performance, and there was no noise, no shouting. Everything was decent. They were good people. It's embarrassing to say, but Ruth Markovna gave my husband Arkady Isaakovich's shirts and ties. And they had a beautiful dog - a black poodle Kuzya, so healthy and smart.
After the war, one after another, new performances written by Vladimir Polyakov appeared in the world: “Come, let's talk”, “Frankly speaking ...” and “Love and deceit”. And in July 1950, another addition took place in the Raikin family: the son Kostya was born. “The kitten was named very funny,” recalled Ekaterina Raikina. - I remember when my mother was pregnant, she walked all the time, sorted out names and said: “I want to call him Lavrenty, so that there is Lavrusha, Lavrushka.” Dad shuddered at the mention of this name, mom caught on and exclaimed: “Well, of course, what can Lavrenty be like! He will be Dmitry, Mityusha, Mitenka. They procrastinated on this issue for a very long time, until grandfather, mother’s father, a general practitioner by profession, an encyclopedically educated person, with great humor, charming and kind, watching all these torments, said: “Well, why do you think so long when everything is so simply solved: name it in honor of your God - Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavsky. And they named him Constantine."
Arkady Raikin later recalled: “As always, the theater was constantly on the move. There were times when I woke up not knowing where I was. They came to Moscow for about two months every year, worked a little longer in Leningrad, and toured in different cities for a month. I had a permanent room at the Moskva Hotel, where we left Kostya in the care of my grandmother. Little Kostya was dragged along, one might say, in a backpack over his shoulders. They lived in the Moskva Hotel for 25 years, starting from the first tour of the theater in 1942. In Leningrad, we had three rooms in a large apartment in a building on Grechesky Prospekt, where, besides us, there were six tenants. Later, when Kostya grew up, he studied either at the Leningrad or at the Moscow school.
And here is what Konstantin Raikin recalled about those years: “We did not have any special well-being. In our country, writers, monumental sculptors sometimes became very rich people - by the standards of that time, and actors - but never in their lives. Dad played twenty performances a month, received forty rubles per performance: it was a lot, it was the salary of an academician, but this is not wealth ... We once got a car, there never was a summer residence ... Dad is very calm belonged to worldly goods, my mother too, and they did not indulge me. I went to sports school, studied well, fought (my nose was broken six times) in a word, lived the life of a normal Russian person from a well-to-do family.
In 1950, Raikin stopped working with Polyakov, but this practically did not affect the work of the theater. “Dad could forgive anything except betrayal,” Ekaterina Raikina said in an interview. - His friend, Vladimir Polyakov, a long-term author of miniatures, monologues and sketches, terribly resisted his father's remarks, although he lacked taste and understanding of the accuracy of the genre. This continued until the friends finally quarreled. Polyakov wrote an evil libel on him and signed for some reason as John of Kronstadt. Lampoon went from hand to hand for a long time, until finally he reached the pope. I remember my father was very offended. Time has passed. Polyakov opened his own theater of miniatures in Moscow, where Lyuba Polishchuk and Zyama Vysokovsky began their careers. Having calmed down, the offender decided to make peace and began to throw fishing rods through acquaintances. But dad did not go to the world - he did not know how to forgive betrayal. And even when Vladimir Solomonovich, dying, asked Raikin to come to him to ask for forgiveness, he did not go. I think dad was wrong in his intransigence. Mom would have rushed off at the same second.
In the 1950s, with the participation of Raikin, the performances "Love and Three Oranges", "The Invisible Man" and "White Nights" were released. In the new performances, Raikin became much more satirical, which was noted on the pages of the central newspapers. For example, the poet A. Bezymensky wrote in Literaturnaya Gazeta: “We will not allow our leaders to be denigrated. But, protecting them from slander, we must not give the opportunity to understand this in such a way that the struggle against bureaucrats and corrupted people stops.
In the late 1950s, Raikin and his theater went on their first foreign tour. The success of these performances was no less loud than at home, and in 1964 on English television director Joe Magras made a film about Raikin and his team. After the premiere of the film on English television, a critic for the London newspaper The Times wrote: “The BBC showed us for the first time the famous Russian comedian Arkady Raikin. It was a real spectacle, a real discovery, a performance that we have not seen for a long time. One of Raikin's greatest merits is that he is the exact opposite of the nasty, "ridiculously funny" comedians that we import in such abundance from the United States. Raikin has something from Charlie Chaplin: an amazing ability to vividly and visually express emotions, the ability to create images that do not need explanation. I've never seen a game like this!"
A lot happened with Raikin funny stories during his overseas tours. V. Lyakhovitsky told about one of them, which took place in Bulgaria: “Together with Raikin, we went to the beach in the afternoon. They took a water bike and went for a ride. For conversations, they went very far to the sea, Raikin said: “Listen, let's sunbathe without swimming trunks!” We threw our swimming trunks on the back of the seat and again we talk about art. And suddenly, right above the ear, we hear a steamboat whistle. We look: and next to us is a pleasure boat, and women look at us with interest. Raikin says: "Go get your swimming trunks!" How will you follow them? I had to crawl almost like a plastuna and make a throw - to the friendly laughter of the ladies. “Thus, I have never made the public laugh,” Arkady Isaakovich later remarked.
“His home, of course, was the theater,” recalled Ekaterina Raikina. - There was an opinion that Raikin did not invite talented actors to his theater. What nonsense! He was well aware that in the frame of his talents, his talent would play even brighter. It’s just that many actors, realizing that in the beams of a spotlight (and dad was a “spotlight”!) The light bulb burns dimly, they themselves did not go to him. But those who remained were gifted actors and loved the theater and dad. Roma Kartsev, Vladimir Lyakhov, Vitya Ilchenko, Olga Malozemova, Victoria Gorshenina… Dad called actors and theater workers “my family.” He knew who had how many children, what problems, he always entered into the situation of people, helped. I remember the story of Irochka Petrushchenko: “I had just given birth to a child and was in the hospital. The troupe was going on tour three days later. Arkady Isaakovich asked the administrator: “Well, how are Ira doing there?” - “Three days already for a girl” - “Well, great! So she can go on tour." - “Have mercy, Arkady Isaakovich, she just gave birth!” "But it's been three days, hasn't it?" In the spacious women's dressing room of the theater, Ira, a great needlewoman, cut, sewed or wrote letters in between rehearsals and before the performance. Once she brought a blank with her from home, on which she began to make a hat. At that moment, dad came in and “advised”: “Next time, Ira, bring a basin and wash it” ... Dad was very tough when it came to discipline. Backstage during the performance, complete silence reigned: it was strictly forbidden to walk, stomp your feet loudly, or talk. Everyone else knew that the non-drinking Raikin did not tolerate drunkenness among the actors. Once a very gifted actor went on tour to Sverdlovsk with the theater. Knowing his weakness, Raikin kept a close eye on him. After the performance, all the artists had dinner at the restaurant of the Ural Hotel. And then dad notices how a faceted glass with some kind of transparent liquid is being brought to the artist on a tray. "And what's that?" - Raikin is quietly interested. “Yes, this is water,” the actor lies without batting an eyelid. “How by the way! I’m so thirsty,” and, without grimacing, he drinks a glass of vodka in one gulp. "There's a performance tomorrow. Don’t stay too long,” he says to the dumbfounded audience as if nothing had happened and leaves the hall with a firm gait. Mom then told me that in the room Raikin collapsed on the bed like a wreck and, without undressing, slept until the morning.
In 1960, in Leningrad, Raikin met a young playwright from Odessa, Mikhail Zhvanetsky, who studied at the Odessa Institute of Marine Engineers and actively participated in student amateur performances. In 1961, Raikin included in his performance the first interlude by Zhvanetsky called "A Conversation About", and three years after that, the young playwright was involved in work on new program for the Raikin Theatre. In 1967, this program was named "Traffic Light". It was in this performance that the legendary miniatures Avas, Deficit and Age of Technology were performed by Raikin for the first time. In the same year, Zhvanetsky was admitted to the theater staff, first as an artist, and then as the head of the literary part. However, their joint work with Raikin did not last long, and in the early 1970s they broke up. Mikhail Zhvanetsky recalled: “Once, at the height of my successes, the director of the theater told me:“ Arkady Isaakovich decided to part with you. It was not just a blow, not a catastrophe, it was death. I came to him, putting a letter of resignation at the end of a new miniature. He calmly read and said, signing: "You did the right thing ...". I did not want to tell him what a blow the break with the theater was for me. We parted in a hostile relationship ... Later I wrote something else. But it was hard for me to appear even near the theater. Over time, I understood the pattern of changing authors in the Raikin Theater. It was a natural process of development of the artist. Each author in this theater has his own century - golden, then silver, bronze ... We rarely saw each other, at meetings we were falsely friendly. This is also his strength. He is a very strong man."
And here is what one of the actors of his theater, V. Likhovitsky, said about Raikin: “Many were offended by Raikin. Me too. He was difficult person. Never shouted, spoke softly. But he could offend! But all this was not a whim or tyranny: from the point of view of art, Raikin was right. And many sharp corners Raikin's wife, Roma, smoothed out in the troupe. After her illness, it became more difficult to experience any disagreements.
Konstantin Raikin spoke about the character of his father: “I remember that I entered the first year, various student evenings began, it’s understandable, drinking - but he couldn’t stand it. Once I came a little drunk, another, and on the third he comes into my room: “Kostya, why are you drunk?” - in that scary quiet voice. And that's all. It's gone."
In 1968, Arkady Raikin was awarded the title of People's Artist of the USSR. This happened after 33 years of continuous work on stage. And in 1970, a misfortune happened to the artist. This was written in the story of L. Sidorovsky: “I remember perfectly all the premieres of the Arkady Raikin theater, but, perhaps, the play “Plus-Minus”, which was first shown on the Neva banks in the spring of 1970, especially sunk into my soul. That spring, as you know, the centenary of the birth of Lenin was magnificently celebrated, and Raikin, starting from this date, decided to create an action of special sharpness, special intensity. It would seem that Lenin and Raikin - well, what is the connection between them? Yes, even in the era, so to speak, "deaf stagnation"? But the connection was found. The artist quickly ran out onto the stage and immediately began a monologue: "A witty manner of writing consists, among other things, in the fact that it also implies the mind in the reader ...". There is a ringing silence in the hall, the audience is somewhat dumbfounded by such an introduction. And the artist, after a second pause, adds: “Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. "Philosophical Notebooks" ... This monologue, at the request of the satirist artist, was composed by another satirist, the writer Leonid Likhodeev, and he found several more of the same quotes from Lenin, unknown to anyone in the hall, which then, in the seventieth, to the zealous guardians of the "system" seemed like a "counter-revolution" ... The performance was received enthusiastically by the audience - both in St. Petersburg and then in Moscow. But in the fall, the secretary of the Volgograd Regional Party Committee somehow showed up at the Moscow Variety Theater, and he really did not like what Raikin was saying from the stage and how the people reacted to it. Angered, he instantly dashed off a denunciation to the Central Committee, and from there the order followed just as quickly to the theater: “Do not sell the first row!” And every evening the commission began to sit on those chairs ... Arkady Isaakovich later told me: “The costumes are the same, the notebooks are the same, the eyes are the same, the faces are impenetrable ... Everyone writes, writes ... What the hell is satire here? What kind of humor? ..” And a week later the artist was summoned to the Central Committee, and there the notorious Shauro pounded on the table with his fists and advised Raikin to “change his profession” ... Another heart attack followed, after which Raikin became white as a harrier ... Leaving the hospital, Arkady Raikin learned that both Moscow and Leningrad were closed to his team. Petrozavodsk was chosen as the place of their long tour. Only by the fall of 1971 did they allow the artist to return from exile to his native city - perhaps because his 60th birthday was approaching. I remember that I came then, in October 1971, to a familiar apartment on Kirovsky Prospekt and immediately felt - trouble! In the eyes of Arkady Isaakovich there was some kind of boundless longing, even tears ... And he told me that in Lately suddenly began to receive various vile notes from the auditorium - about some kind of diamonds, which he allegedly transports to Israel. And about anything else like that. And he showed me some of these dirty messages (well, for example, “Jew Raikin, get out of Russian St. Petersburg!”), As if composed with one hand. Yes, there was a feeling that someone, invisible and powerful (I don’t know, in Smolny or in the local KGB department?), was commanding these authors, leading them with feathers ... In general, the 60th anniversary was celebrated modestly ... "
And here is how Arkady Raikin himself recalled his troubles of those years: “Such gossip was launched: as if I sent a coffin with the remains of my mother to Israel and put gold things there! I first learned this from my relative. He called me in Leningrad and indignantly told me that he had been at a lecture on the international situation at one of the major Moscow enterprises. Someone asked the speaker - a lecturer from the district committee of the party: "Is it true that Raikin sent the jewels that were placed in the coffin with the corpse of his mother to Israel?" And the lecturer, after a meaningful pause, replied: "Unfortunately, it's true." My wife immediately called the district committee of the party, found out the name of the lecturer and demanded that he publicly apologize to the audience for malicious misinformation, otherwise she would complain on my behalf to the Party Control Committee under the CPSU Central Committee - then A.Ya. Pelshe was its chairman . They promised to fulfill her demand, and a few days later she was informed by telephone that the lecturer was again at this enterprise and apologized over the radio broadcast. Allegedly, this lecturer was suspended from work. I would like to believe that this is how it really happened. But, unfortunately, it didn't end there. I ended up in the hospital again. The theater went on tour without me. And surprisingly, wherever our artists came, they were addressed with the same question:
Well, what is your boss so blundered? Sent to Israel...
In a word, everywhere - in Moscow, Voroshilovograd - the same version. It was believed that I did not participate in the tour not because of illness. It's almost like being in jail...
After leaving the hospital, I went to the Central Committee, to V.F. Shauro.
Let's play open, - I suggested. - You will say everything you know about me, and I about you. We both do propaganda, but I don't know who is better at it. You stubbornly do not notice and do not want to notice what everyone sees. How the bureaucracy grows, how bribes are taken, corruption flourishes... I took the liberty of talking about it. Shots are fired in response. Where did gossip come from? Why has it become so widespread that it is heard even at party meetings?
He pretended not to understand what it was about, and turned the conversation to another topic. But the funny thing is, it helped. As the legend arose, so it died ... ".
And one more excerpt from an interview - this time with Konstantin Raikin: “We were not a dissident family at all, these are legends. Dad understood a lot, he fell ill when faced with another ideological abomination, but he was the son of his system. He did not know how to live according to the principle “I believe in the service, not at home”. In this sense, our family was rather tightly twisted: when I went to the first grade, my parents very seriously explained to me that studying well is now the biggest thing I can do to help my homeland. And there was no educational deception, no cynicism in this.
After the 1971 conflict, a couple of years later, the attitude of the official authorities towards Raikin changed somewhat, and for the better. In 1974, the Central Television began shooting two films at once with the participation of Arkady Raikin: "People and Mannequins" and "Arkady Raikin".
At the turn of the 1980s, the artist was awarded two highest government awards: in 1980 he was awarded the Lenin Prize, and in 1981 he became a Hero of Socialist Labor. However, in his native Leningrad he was uncomfortable. The artist was especially annoyed by the attacks from the regional committee, headed by G. Romanov at that time. At least this fact speaks of their tense relationship. Raikin was supposed to receive the Star of the Hero of Socialist Labor precisely from the hands of Romanov. At the appointed hour, the artist appeared at the regional committee, but Romanov secretly left the building through another exit. After waiting in the waiting room for more than an hour, Raikin left the regional committee with nothing. The award was then presented to him by other people. In order not to tempt fate anymore, Raikin at the end of his life decided to change his place of residence. Ekaterina Raikina recalled: “It is irresponsible to say that Raikin had a happy, cloudless life. So say those who do not know what nerves the release of each program cost him! He was openly threatened at a very high level. And how much gossip was spread in order to reduce his incredible authority among the people! ... Most of the Leningrad chiefs were afraid of him and interfered as best they could, forced to throw out entire monologues. Somehow, a journalist from Leningradskaya Pravda dared to write that "Raikin is always relevant." Immediately came to the editorial Zakharov, deputy. first secretary of the Leningrad Regional Committee, and demanded that the editorial office forget Raikin's name, since he "damaged ideological work in Leningrad and he must be driven out of here ... The story of the pope's move to Moscow is very indicative. Ever since the war, he had good relations with Brezhnev, but he always felt a distance and did not try to remind himself. In the early 60s, when Brezhnev was still chairman of the Presidium Supreme Council, they met at a reception after the concert.
Well, how do you live? Brezhnev asked.
How good? You are still living in a hotel. Do you need an apartment in Moscow?
It would be nice…
5 years have passed, they met again, recalled the war, and in the end Brezhnev said that the order for the apartment had already been given. But again everything froze. And here a kind person from the Moscow City Council hinted to his father that he needed to talk with the Leningrad authorities. Dad called the then first secretary of the regional committee Tolstikov, said that his “good” was needed, and added that we are talking only about the apartment, and the theater remains in Leningrad.
I understand that the theater is not expensive for you, you have not been to us, however, as well as in other theaters, too.
And why do the intelligentsia dislike me so much?
Saying goodbye, the father dropped:
I'm sorry that you have a different opinion with the Secretary General.
Parents received an apartment in Moscow, moved all things there. They had not been in Leningrad for more than a year, then they called to book a hotel room, and they were told that their former housing had indeed not been touched. At first they lived in empty apartment having lunch on the windowsill. But Tolstikov did not leave the matter like that. Kosygin arrived in Leningrad, went to a performance at the Bolshoi Theater, and Tolstikov began to sing to him: “What is Raikin like! Not only is he in Moscow, he also has an apartment in Leningrad ... "... Then Tolstikov was appointed ambassador to China, and Grigory Romanov took his place. He never wanted to see Raikin at all. Dad tried many times to get through to him - in vain ... ".
All these troubles were a heavy burden for all family members. Ekaterina Raikina spoke about her mother: “With her heightened sense of justice, she took everything very close to her heart: she caught fire like a match from any meanness, often helped someone out, called all the time and sought the truth. She gave interviews for Raikin, wrote articles, dragged through plays. Of course, in the name of the pope. She experienced all his heart attacks, illnesses, problems as her own. It is very difficult to bear such tension. In 1975, Roma had a stroke in the house of her friend Svetlana Sobinova. She was saved by the famous doctor Vladimir Lvovich Kassil, the son of the writer Kassil. In the Botkin hospital, he gathered a council of famous doctors. The professor called his father into the office and asked: “Arkady Isaakovich, when are you scheduled to tour in Poland? Ninth? Go, you are not needed here, but the audience is waiting for you there. Vladimir Koval, my third husband, Kostya and son Alyosha stayed with my mother. Dad took me with him to play my mother's repertoire under her last name. Already on the train, swallowing tears, I began to teach her the role. On a nervous basis, my voice disappeared, and my dad suddenly developed pneumonia from worries about Roma. But literally the day before the performance, the doctors put us on our feet with a massive therapy. Dad did not leave the phone, inquired about Romin's condition and cried as soon as he hung up.
In 1981, the Raikin Theater was allowed to move to Moscow. By decision of the Moscow City Council, the theater was allocated the premises of the cinema "Tajikistan" in Maryina Roshcha. Soon the first performances, now of the Moscow Raikin Theater, saw the light: “Faces” and “Peace to your home”. Despite the fact that Raikin was already over 70 years old in those years, he was excellent on the stage, but his strength was depleted, he was often sick for a long time. Sometimes memory failed on the stage, ease of movement was lost, but the atmosphere of complete unity with the audience was always preserved, which for half a century accompanied every appearance on the stage of this great artist.
Shortly before his death, Raikin went on a tour of America. He spoke quietly on the stage, but still it was the same, beloved by all Raikin, whom all Russian-speaking Americans knew very well. And wherever Raikin performed, everywhere, as soon as he appeared on stage, the audience in the hall stood up and ... began to cry. They understood that they would never see this great artist alive again. Ekaterina Raikina said: “At the end of November 1987, dad, Kostya and I arrived from America, where dad had 24 concerts. They returned happy! It was incredibly touching - the audience brought programs and tickets from his old performances to dad for signature. Imagine, people left the Union forever and took Raikin's programs with them as a keepsake! Unfortunately, dad right hand I hardly worked anymore, so we locked ourselves in the dressing room with him, and I signed for him. Let people not be offended by me for this, I wanted the best. Returning, he played another 14 performances of "Peace to your house" (the last was the 300th in a row), and after that he ended up in the hospital. By chance. Once every ten days he had to take a medicine that removes water from the body, but he forgot that he had already drunk it, and the next day he took it again, thereby greatly weakening his heart. An ambulance came and immediately took him to the hospital. He didn’t come out of there anymore ... Somewhere on December 15, I was with him in the hospital, and we even walked with him in the park. He walked in silence, and I told him about family news, that the topics that he used to raise at his performances and which were then dangerous are now openly discussed in the newspapers. I remember, returning to the ward, he said to me: “It is very important for me to think about what I will go on stage with tomorrow. We need to decide what to tell the viewer when everything is allowed. You see, he thought about the future, he did not understand that his days were numbered. When Kotenka (Konstantin Raikin) came to the hospital the next day, the doctor said that dad had just been taken to intensive care. Kostya asked: “Maybe he asked me to convey something?” “Arkady Isaakovich asked me to tell you to take care of your health ...” the doctor said later. How much I asked, begged the doctors to let me go to my dad to sit next to him, take care of him, - in vain, “it’s not allowed!”. There is no such thing anywhere in the world! They knew that he was dying, why couldn’t they let their daughter in?! ... The worst thing is that I didn’t say goodbye to dad. I couldn't leave my mother alone. She was after a stroke, she had not spoken for 15 years, she was very ill, and we decided not to tell her about what had happened. Like a clown, I distracted her, joked, told something, but it seems to me that my mother still felt something was wrong, often began to cry ... We told her about everything only a few days after the funeral. I asked my parents' friends to do this - Vladimir Lvovich Kassil and his wife Verochka, they are both doctors. Vladimir saved his mother in 1975, when she had a terrible stroke, and gave another 15 years of life. After the death of her father, she lived for two years ... ".
Arkady Raikin died on December 20, 1987 at the age of 77 and was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy Cemetery. L. Sidorovsky recalled: “A day passes, another, a third - no newspapers, no radio, no television about this, not a word ... Because they are waiting for a“ supreme obituary ”signed by“ the party and the government ”, and no one can climb into hell across the father not allowed. Meanwhile, the “party and government”, which had always been afraid of Raikin, continued to be afraid of him even now, when he was dead: probably everyone could not decide how to bury him “quietly, more modestly” ... And then I persuaded the new editor St. Petersburg "Smena" to spit on this stupid tradition, to violate the "table of ranks" - this is how our newspaper was the first in the country to tell its reader that great artist passed away... Even in that sad essay, I wrote that it was necessary to name the Leningrad Variety Theater after Arkady Raikin, that it would be very correct to name some cozy street in our honor. But my proposals, of course, were not heeded.
Since 1987, the State Theater of Miniatures in Moscow has become the Satyricon Theater, and in 1991, by decision of the Moscow government, the theater was named after Arkady Raikin. The entire Soviet stage of the colloquial genre was guided by Arkady Raikin. Raikin is an almost half-century history of the satirical and humorous colloquial genre on the Soviet stage. According to Gennady Khazanov: “Arkady Raikin is not just a specific person, this is a concept, a symbol, this is, if you like, a phenomenon ... I had a chance to see not so many artists of the same genre as Raikin. There are very few such artists in the world. But, besides, I will honestly say that I have not seen and do not know a single artist who, in terms of power, in terms of talent and charm, in terms of a completely magnetic effect on the audience, could approach Raikin at least at some distance. Let it not seem loudly said, frankly, we are all as far from him as we are from the nearest planet in the solar system.
A documentary film "People's Artist Arkady Raikin" was filmed about Arkady Raikin.
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The text was prepared by Tatyana Khalina
Used materials:
1. Arkady Raikin in the memoirs of contemporaries / Comp. E. Raikin; International Foundation them. Arkady Raikin [Text] / Comp. Raikina E., Ed. Mikhailova L. - M. AST, 1997.
2. Beilin, A. M. Arkady Raikin / A. M. Beilin. - M. Art, 1965.
3. Raikin, A. Without makeup / A. Raikin.-M. Vagrius, 2006.
4. Uvarova, E. D. Arkady Raikin / E. D. Uvarova. - M. Art, 1986.
5. E. Raikina “I didn’t manage to say goodbye to my father” interview “Arguments and Facts” auth. Tatiana Bogdanova
6. Arkady Raikin: About myself. About him. M. PROZAIK, 2011.
7. Materials of the site www.mishpoha.org
ARKADY RAIKIN: LAUGHTER OF EPOKHIN
Mikhail Mishin, Ekaterina Raikina, Konstantin Raikin and Yefim Shifrin answered four questions from Afanasy Mammadov
MIKHAIL MISHIN: THE COMEDY GENRE IS WITHERING WITHOUT A LIVE AUDIENCE
The era of BW on television today is somehow inconceivable without the “man with a thousand faces”. It is generally accepted that the “genius of laughter” did not work out with cinema, but there were no problems with television. Is this due to the peculiarities of Arkady Raikin's stage talent?
I would not say that Arkady Isaakovich was doing so well on television. Not really ... In general, the comedy genre is unthinkable without a live audience. Imagine: one person is standing, I told him a joke - he, at best, smiled. But if a big company - laughter will stand. And even Raikin, a brilliant artist, needed a live audience. Therefore, the fate of Arkady Isaakovich is tragic in a sense: whoever did not see him alive, it is pointless to explain what it was like. And those who saw him on stage - there are fewer of them - do not need explanations. He just needed the audience's empathy, contact, and in cinema the viewer has contact with the film...
Why don't such Raikin's "timid" categories as "elusive beauty", "innuendo", "intellectuality" take root in today's laughter culture?
I do not think that "intellectuality" has completely left the country. She left TV. But somewhere the intellect had to remain. What is the point of "reticence" when you can negotiate. When you can do without the hints that made up "intellectual" laughter thirty years ago. For such a hint, then any artistic quality was forgiven. The fuller the freedom of speech, the less understatement.
Among the authors with whom Arkady Raikin worked were well-known Soviet humorous writers: Mark Azov, Vladimir Tikhvinsky, Mikhail Zhvanetsky, Viktor Ardov, Mikhail Zoshchenko, Mikhail Mishin, Alexander Khazin, Veniamin Skvirsky, Semyon Altov, Maryan Belenky... Arkady Raikin to texts and their authors?
Differently. He fell in love with everyone at first. And they - what to say. Raikin - it was the absolute pinnacle of the genre. The authors dreamed of collaborating with him. And the moment came when I decided to try. I left a bunch of things written to Arkady Isaakovich. And a day later, Raikin called, uttered compliments and offered to work on the play. It was the penultimate performance in his life ("His Majesty the Theater"). I don't know how he got along with other authors. Raikin was a complex person, and relationships were built in different ways. He treated me well and kindly. As a rule, either immediately accepted the text, or immediately rejected it. Often he changed something himself, not the way you wanted. Resentment boiled up, but then you realized that even if you were essentially right, his acting magic was more important.
For Arkady Isaakovich, the classic Soviet anecdote was the same Akhmatov rubbish that an artist needs?
I do not know what to say. Raikin did not tell jokes from the stage. And they rarely appeared in the texts. The situations of life were anecdotal. And this great artist, with all the strength of his immense talent and human sincerity, tried to improve the life he lived and for which he was needed, like a breath of joy and hope.
EKATERINA RAIKINA: THE POPULARITY OF THE ARTIST CAUSED OFFICIALS ENVY AND ANGER
Our magazine published an interview with you dedicated to your father's ninetieth birthday. For ten years, the glory of the great artist has not faded and questions have not decreased. Arkady Isaakovich died on December 17, 1987 - it turns out that he caught Gorbachev's perestroika. How did the laureate of the Lenin Prize and Hero of Socialist Labor Arkady Isaakovich Raikin react to the wind of change?
Remarkably reacted, rejoiced at the restructuring. As far as, of course, the disease allowed to rejoice. I remember literally ten days before he left, I brought him a fresh press to the hospital with the words: “You cooked it all! ..” And he told me: “I won’t read all this. I now need to build my next program." To which I told him: “Dad, you will talk to people about the eternal. As long as a person lives, he will always have problems. He did not think that he had already done everything and could retire. And in these last few years, he clearly and vividly, in Raikin's way, felt like a Jew. I was looking for connections with my ancestors, my roots, I recalled how I went to cheder as a child.
Is it true that the reason for the pressure of the Leningrad KGB on Raikin, the dirty game on the "fifth point" was the generally harmless performance "Plus or Minus", shown on the banks of the Neva River on the centenary of Lenin's birth?
The pressure never eased while dad worked at the Leningrad Theater of Miniatures. The main reasons were papin's gift and nationality. In general, Leningrad was lucky to have anti-Semitic leaders. There was Tolstikov, then Romanov replaced him. There were also comrades. There were enough Jews in the arts, and everyone experienced the increased attention of Leningrad statesmen in their own skin. Dad often said that they find fault with everything: a word, a phrase, a gesture, but they don’t understand that he can play without words at all, play in a pause, and people will understand him. Vasily Katanyan, director of the documentary "Arkady Raikin", recalled how Romanov called them to him and began to say what exactly needed to be removed, and dad answered: "Okay, I'll remove it." When they left the office, Vasily Vasilyevich attacked dad with the words: “Why did you agree with everything, Arkady Isaakovich ?!” - to which dad replied: “Vasenka, I agreed that they would let us out of here already. I lay my head on cutting off that they will never watch this in their lives. We leave, we leave everything. Yes, he had to maneuver, play. Sometimes it didn’t work out, and everything ended in a hospital. The story you're asking about was deliberately concocted. They let in disinformation, vile, insidious. Anger and envy caused the popularity of Raikin, his incredible fame, which had to be limited, minimized.
Arkady Isaakovich recalled that at a banquet on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the leader of the peoples, the hero of the day applauded him fourteen times, and standing up. The leader's enthusiasm was aroused by a brilliant parody of his counterpart: "Comrade Stalin, I can show you other types." Did your father parody off stage the mighty of the world this, because the images of many members of the Politburo simply asked for big stage? In general, Arkady Isaakovich was at home cheerful person? Behind family table jokes encouraged?
I have never seen him parody party leaders, either on stage or at home. Firstly, dad suffered so much from them that he didn’t even want to think about them once again, and secondly, he was always interested in the collective image, with him he went on stage, playing a fool official, an ignoramus official. He had such an image from the play "Magicians Live Nearby", his name was Pantyukhov. A Soviet bureaucrat, a typical idiot, a fool, and a terrible one at that. I heard from my mother and friends that in his youth, dad was a very cheerful, cheerful person. But he was in poor health, and in the course of time the disease fettered him. Dad learned early to keep and take care of himself for the stage. Apparently, therefore, his outward gaiety was not so bright. As children, of course, we played with him, joked, but the fact is that I didn’t see my parents much in childhood. Came to Leningrad after the war from Tashkent. And all school time I spent with my grandmother, and my parents traveled around the country, worked, performed. And these tours were frequent and long. In the year in total we saw each other for three months. I have always missed them. I still remember how much I missed them as a child.
In his youth, Arkady Isaakovich was fond of painting. Did this hobby help him in the perfect alignment of images? For example, in the creation of the famous masks that he changed with such swiftness at the end of the number?
Of course, he was artistically gifted. Another teacher at high school, who taught drawing, Vladislav Matveevich Izmailovich, noticed this talent of his and advised his father to enter the Academy of Arts, but his father did not listen to him. And he probably did the right thing. He actually drew a lot, but, unfortunately, his drawings have not survived: the war, moving ... He loved painting and was well versed in it. I always found an opportunity to go to some opening day, exhibition, exposition. He knew a lot of world famous artists. He was friends, for example, with Savva Grigorievich Brodsky - "a man of the Renaissance." But dad was fond of not only painting, he loved literature, classical music. I tried not to miss concerts. As for the masks, she made them for him very good master, it was their joint work with dad.
KONSTANTIN RAIKIN: HE WAS INSPIRED BY THE DRAMA THEATER
The numerous tours of the Theater of Miniatures and Raikin himself were written in the newspapers of Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Germany, a film was even made about him in England, but the art of the colloquial genre owes its birth to more than one acting talent. The language here, perhaps, is in the first place. The essence of laughter is such a subtle, elusive substance that only a compatriot of the actor is often able to trace the slightest nuances. Did your father build a program for a foreign tour in some special way?
Yes, he specially prepared, memorized performances in the language of the country in which he was to tour. In Poland - in Polish, in Bulgaria - in Bulgarian, in Hungary - in Hungarian. And many times different performances. For this reason, for example, in Hungary, of all foreign artists, he was the most beloved, idol. And this despite the fact that the Hungarian language is one of the most difficult in the world. The Hungarians were grateful to a foreigner if he just said “hello” to them in Hungarian, and here is a whole three-hour program! One, then, through a short time, another three-hour performance. And so several times. In England - in English, in Germany - in German. It was necessary that you be understood immediately, and not through some kind of crawling lines, subtitles ... This is due to the democratic nature of the genre.
- “I will always be the son of Raikin,” you said in an interview. - And I will die, no matter what I do in my professional life, the son of Raikin. For the majority of the country's population, I am a son. Does it please? No". And they quoted Mandelstam: "The living one is incomparable." "Incomparable living" tend to go through their own anniversaries, which to one degree or another push us to comparisons, especially if they are of a family nature. Your sixtieth birthday was the anniversary of the the highest degree independent artist. Do you still feel like a "son of Raikin" in your professional life?
No, in my professional life I don’t feel like a “son of Raikin”. And when I said this, I only meant public opinion, so to speak, worldly. The opinion of the majority of compatriots who do not know me, because I only do theater. Dramatic. And the drama theater chamber genre. Besides, I don't do anything to promote own creativity, I refuse television programs I don't act in films. I have chosen the Path for myself, and what today passes for fame and popularity is not interesting to me. There are more important things on my Path. Therefore, for most people in the country, I will remain "the son of Arkady Raikin." Although I actually have other teachers and I go the other way.
How did it happen that Arkady Isaakovich suddenly left the theatrical stage of the future Leningrad City Council and went to the stage as an ordinary entertainer?
He did not go anywhere, he chose this path for himself from the very beginning. He worked at the Leningrad City Council Theater and at the same time on the stage. Meyerhold invited him to his place, and he, after consulting with artistic director his course at the institute, Solovyov, nevertheless chose a different path. Although it is very important that he is a dramatic artist by education. Hence the highest level of taste, selection. Yes, and all his affections were from the region drama theater. He was inspired by them, and not by pop creations. And he was also inspired by painting, ballet, symphonic music... And all because the Russian drama school is one of the strongest theater schools. But we don’t have a solid school of variety art, in my opinion.
Arkady Isaakovich left home after a conflict with his parents related to the choice of profession. Were your parents strict pragmatists or did their strictness have a national religious character?
I think it was both, a bit of everything. Together.
EFIM SHIFRIN: RAIKIN IS SIGNIFICANT BY ITS VERSATILITY
Soviet times gave many reasons for laughter, everyone worked in this direction from top to bottom, the 90s turned out to be a little less fruitful. How is the current decade? Don't you think that today those who get the giraffe are smiling and laughing more and more?
Not sure if the number of reasons to laugh changes every decade. It's just that such bookkeeping is usually characteristic of those who tend to take their own growing up very seriously. Of course, times change and the background of life becomes different, but the ability to notice the funny is the destiny of an ageless soul. I smile at the usual grumbling about the simplification of humor and nostalgia for the "golden age" of humor. He wasn't in Soviet times! I tell you this as a "surviving witness", and it is wrong to judge the quality of the current fun by narrow-minded or simply stupid people. I think that the statistics on their account always remains unchanged.
Doesn’t the statement circulating on the Web detract from the dignity of several generations of pop workers, that the colloquial genre is not only Soviet stage, but also modern Russian folded / fashioned by Arkady Raikin? Do you look back at his work today?
Arkady Raikin is undoubtedly a key figure in history Russian stage, the discoverer of many of its paths. But even in the hum of anniversary rhetoric, I would not argue that Arkady Isaakovich sculpted the colloquial genre in solitude. Raikin is significant for its versatility, theater culture and, of course, civic feeling, which now, it seems, without any regrets, is not at all in demand among young people. For them, the world is transparent, one. And besides, they are completely devoid of pathos and the need to moralize, to which Raikin was inclined at the end of his years.
- What is the reason for the incredible popularity of the colloquial genre in the "gloomy" Soviet years?
Well it would common place assert the closedness of our society, its incredible constraint. But I still do not find other reasons for such a commitment to pop humor. Apparently, we must also say that we somehow completely lost the notorious cunning of Soviet satirists on the way from glasnost to permissiveness.
- Is the art of the funny always meant to talk about degradation, disintegration - about "low"?
The art of the funny speaks only of the ridiculous and the absurd. I dare to assume that even in paradise, in which the soul of Arkady Isaakovich now resides, he also found something to laugh at. Perhaps there are more such occasions in hell. But for a comedian, the ability to notice the funny is as natural as it is for a poet to find rhymes or for a musician to compose melodies. Let's leave this matter for the critics. They will definitely make something funny out of it.
"Jewish genius" - so they wrote in the Polish newspapers about Arkady Raikin. He had to cross state border, as all the reviewers in Paris, Berlin, London began to repeat like clockwork: "The Jewish artist has arrived."
What was it, Raikin's famous stage technique - an instant transformation, a change of masks? The reader can get an exhaustive answer in Odessa: "So yes, so no." In a "friendly" family Soviet peoples Raikin was also listed as "not exactly a Russian artist." Language is not the main thing (besides, on foreign tours he preferred pantomime): Raikin, like Chaplin, was recognized by his eyes. The main effect of Raikin's transformation is not in the change of masks, which, by their very appearance, caused unbridled laughter, but in how laughter instantly transformed into sadness.
Suddenly, the laughter broke off - Raikin himself stood on the stage, slightly bowing his head to his shoulder, and looked with ancient, like the world, eyes from somewhere - whether from the desert, or because of the Pale of Settlement - I don’t know. But with just this look, the actor swept away the husks of topicality, as if saying: “It’s not my fault, guys, but it was, is and will always be in the world - both sad and funny, and bitter and sweet.” We only now fully understood: it was not a comic, but a great tragic actor. So, with his head bowed to his shoulder, he stood, open on all sides, in the "frontal place", in the center of the Stalinist empire under the vigilant eye of Soso and Lavrenty ... It was almost suicide - to loom before their eyes. On the stage at his feet, the Gulag was opening up, not the orchestra pit. But none of us noticed this either in the theater or in everyday life - he always flew easily, gracefully, as if on a parquet.
When I said “Jewish artist”, I by no means meant anything small-town. When he took off his mask, a lonely gentleman remained in the middle of an empty stage, emphasizing his loneliness with his gentlemanship. But he was truly one of a kind. By the time we met, the Jewish theater, and not only Mikhoels, had already been wiped off the face of Soviet soil. Jewish artists went in all directions, most often to the puppet theater. Someone, if I'm not mistaken, Arkady Isaakovich took in his troupe. But the fact is that the Jewish language has disappeared from the stage... And Raikin in itself and in Russian was a Jewish theater.
I do not want to push the rest of the artists of the Theater of Miniatures under the direction of Raikin into oblivion. They stepped on the throat own song. Yes, and we, the authors, together with them "played the king" - the viewer not only did not know our last names, he did not suspect our existence at all. Meanwhile, Raikin's authors: from Vladimir Solomonovich Polyakov to Mikhal Mikhalych Zhvanetsky - this is also Raikin's Jewish theater. Sometimes, picking up authors, Arkady Isaakovich walked along the edge of the abyss. So, Alexander Khazin, who was included in Zhdanov’s report and the decision of the Central Committee, along with Akhmatova and Zoshchenko, with the stigma of “vulgar Khazin,” was even registered with Raikin as the head of the literary department and received a salary.
But all - actors, directors, playwrights - Raikin harshly, even cruelly crushed under himself, under his plans. We experienced his heavy hand at our first meeting. Volodya Tikhvinsky and I (we worked together for more than thirty years) were introduced to Arkady Isaakovich by the poet Nazym Hikmet. Muza Pavlova, Hikmet's interpreter, took us by car to Peredelkino, to the Literary Fund's dacha, where he then lived. The conversation had some Polish-Turkish-Jewish character. Fled from Turkish prison, Nazim took not Soviet, but Polish citizenship, because, naturally, he did not want to be done to him what Stalin had already done to other Turkish communists. And, of course, an anecdote immediately came up about a Jew who accepted Turkish citizenship - a "turkish Jew", and then, as always happens, Jewish question prevailed over all other questions, and Nazim was turned on by jokes about Pan Kon (our native Rabinovich appears under this surname in Poland and Czechoslovakia).
For example, Kohn is asked upon admission to the party:
- What will you do if the border with Germany is opened?
- I'm going to climb a tree.
- For what?!
“So that I won’t be trampled when everyone rushes there.”
In a word, this evening with the Lenin Prize laureate Nazim Hikmet passed in an atmosphere of complete anti-Sovietism. And when, at the exit from the Litfondovskaya dacha, the Volga blocked the road for us, standing across the highway, and two people in leather coats got out of it, somehow I was not even very surprised. Most likely, the dacha was stuffed with microphones ... One "leatherman", tall (I did not see his face - I saw only a leather chest) in some "secret" voice called my last name (how could he recognize it on the highway?) and ordered me to go to car. Another, squat, did the same with Tikhvinsky ... But then we began to recognize them: first, squat - it was the poet Grisha Pozhenyan, we grew up with him in Kharkov in Mordvinovsky Lane near the synagogue, and the second, with a "secret" voice, turned out to be ... Raikin. In life, he only talked like that, as if in secret, because he saved his voice, gestures, heart - everything was just for the stage.
And Raikin’s appearance on the highway in Peredelkino is explained simply: we told Hikmet our play “The Talking Doll”: at the Toy Research Institute, scientists invented a doll that was no different from the director of the institute and said in his voice: “Let's consult with the people. The people will help, the people will tell you, the people - they know who goes where. Only he repeats these words even to his wife in bed, and he would not approve anything else - that's what learned men did not invent anything else. But on the other hand, they defended their dissertations on the talking doll, reported upstairs about the greatest scientific achievement, and even instructed the carpenter to put together a container for the doll - a life-size box ... And suddenly the acceptance committee arrives. But no dolls! And the director hides from the commission in a doll box, and then (the whole second act) proves that he is not a doll. But no one, even his wife, does not believe, because he does not find words, except for “the people - he knows who goes where”, even when he is nailed back into the box.
Nazim, without going into details, decided that this story was just for Raikin, and, without telling us anything, called him on the phone. And Raikin lived, touring in Moscow, also in Peredelkino, in the House of Creativity. There is also Pozhenyan. So they stopped by on the way behind us ... As a result, we reduced the full-length play to a miniature for eight minutes, but also in two acts. And very soon Raikin called:
- I'm with Lev Abramovich ( literary material Raikin, as a rule, tested on Lev Kassil). We all laughed very much here, ”continued Arkady Isaakovich in a sepulchral tone,“ very much. I take it.
We were happy... ten minutes. Suddenly he calls again. Really laughing this time.
It turns out that there was also a second act. Ruth Markovna (Roma, Raikin's wife) found some more papers. But it does not matter.
Fun things: there is still a whole act before the denouement - and "doesn't matter!". But, of course, we were eager to see what would come out of our play performed by Raikin. And if you think that we have seen something... Not so. Only in one place of Raikin's performance did it seem to us "something about". The scene was called "Fig" - a toy factory. No crates, no scientists, no talking puppets. There was a grandfather clock on the stage, and Raikin hung his jacket on a pendulum. I was so upset that I still don't remember if he said anything of ours at all. But one thing was remembered forever: Raikin is not a performer, but a creator. Top notch professional! And until we figured out professional secrets Raikin's theatre, all that could be left of our dramaturgy was just Fig.
Among pop authors, there was a story about how a phrase artist works with the author.
- I have, - says the artist, - a brilliant move for an interlude was born: we go out together with a partner. I give a killer reprise - the audience is dying with laughter. He, don't be a fool, gives even more lethal - in general, the public is a complete rustle. And then I “on point” soak such that the audience pisses with liquid helium, they tear their guts, crawl on all fours ... - in a word, the number is self-playing. You, the author, have nothing left to do: come up with these reprises.
It was supposed - and for Raikin it is necessary to "reprise" on this bike. Moreover, he said:
“I have to race with myself. The first number should be the funniest to get the viewer excited. The second one is funnier than the first one, otherwise they won't laugh at all, and then in ascending order, so that the funniest thing is at the end of the first part, otherwise they won't want to watch the second part. And the second branch, this is a no brainer, should be much funnier than the first, it has the most last number should cover all the previous ones by a lot, otherwise the next time people won't come at all.
This he called "playing solitaire."
And we, of course, tried our best to make the viewer laugh, and Raikin looked at us with sleepy eyes ... Until the workers of Tula gave him a samovar.
Why is the samovar here? Do not hurry. We were sitting in Leningrad, in a huge, unheated room at the Evropeiskaya Hotel (they said that during the blockade there was a morgue in this room), and urgently “brought” something to the release of Raikin’s performance, without having time to either have breakfast or dinner, I didn’t I say “for dinner” ... Suddenly, Raikin’s “cicerone” (as he was called) appears: a Jewish administrator, a figure as colorful as his name: Jacques Adolfovich Dlugach.
- You had dinner?
- No.
- You did the right thing. Tonight you're having dinner at Arkady's.
And here we are on Vasilyevsky in an apartment that is not very spacious, even by Soviet standards. Looking at the laid table, we regretted that we had not had lunch, but at the same time we had not had dinner at the hotel. We were invited to tea. On the table were sweets, cookies, a cake and a samovar.
- Electric, - Arkady Isaakovich explained, - the workers presented in Tula. I have never turned it on yet, now we will try it on you.
It would be better if it was an electric chair, then we would not be so impatiently waiting for it to finally work. But the samovar did not boil at all. For some reason, he did not boil until late midnight. The restaurant was already closed in the hotel, the trams were going to the depot ...
“Still, it’s strange,” Raikin said, “why doesn’t he boil?”
Ruth Markovna looked under the table:
“Because you plugged it into the radio outlet.
So: in those two hours, while the samovar was plugged into the wrong outlet, Arkady Isaakovich managed to explain to us how to write for Raikin:
- Don't make me laugh. Look for a problem. And I'll make it funny.
This saying took, of course, a few seconds, the rest of the time he fed us ready-made problems which we supposedly had to look for.
Someone probably still remembers the monologues of the builders: there the Tatar mason was doing “pirikur” until the “yok solution”, and the Ukrainian locksmith “wrenched the krant for two screws” in order to rip his “bottlebrod” from the future tenant. Raikin dismissed this plumber at first:
- It does not happen that the same locksmith both built and repaired. (Although it was true: the builders bypassed the new settlers, collecting tribute.)
Raikin was relentless ... until he stumbled over the word "quality". We thought he would throw it away along with the monologue, because it is in no way typical Ukrainian language, but taken from the vocabulary of Jewish tailors: “Do you think this is quality? This is quality!” But it was here that Arkady Isaakovich sensed something familiar, and as he sat down on this word, he didn’t want to get off: he came up with both “rekbus” and “crocsword”, and most importantly, pulled out the whole “big problem”: “The state pays me for the quantity (quantity), and you, tenant, will pay for my quality.
The result exceeded all expectations. A real Ukrainian locksmith came to me in the city of Kharkov and, holding out his hand for a legal bottlebrod, said:
Have you heard Raikin? You, tenant, will pay for my quality.
And this is far from the only word of interethnic communication thrown into our shabby way of life by Arkady Raikin. Starting at least with a "string bag" ...
Our tiny fables in prose later returned to us in the form of anecdotes. The secret is in the unheard-of popularity of Raikin.
Joke: “Who is Brezhnev? Small political figure era Raikin "- not such an anecdote. I remember that he came to Moscow from Germany, where he attended the Congress of Pantomimists. They told how they met him there: “The great Raikin visited us!” But he himself told how Kostya performed there. He spoke only about Kostya and at the same time twisted the dial of the phone. I called Comrade Brezhnev himself, whom I met on the way back to the GDR, and received an invitation: “If you are in Moscow, come in. Tell me about the West Germans."
Here Arkady Isaakovich called:
Is this the reception room of the Supreme Council?
Brezhnev at that time was the chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet.
- And this is Comrade Raikin ?!
He turned to us:
She recognized me by my voice.
And on the phone:
- I would like Leonid Ilyich. Who the hell is Leonid Ilyich?! General Secretary Union SSR!
Probably, the girl was confused by his naivety: "I would like Leonid Ilyich."
Arkady Isaakovich then called various referents and assistants until the end of the day, but did not break through. But he could not recover from the shock he experienced:
Can you imagine they don't know who our General Secretary is?
But they recognize you immediately.
- Yes-ah ...
