Zimbalistics, the study of the artistic Zimbalist family, in the three generations from Efrem through Stephanie, following up on my report yesterday, in “Zimbalist, accompanied by Satie”, of this morning name. I wrote:
I understood the [morning] name to refer to Stephanie Zimbalist, most famously (with Pierce Brosnan and Doris Roberts) a star of the American tv show Remington Steele. But then the topic branched wildly in many directions, in a way I couldn’t imagine organizing into a single posting. So, today, just one piece of that network of topics, the surname Zimbalist.
… [plus a promise of] more on three generations of talented Zimbalists, on their religious affiliations, and on Zimbalistic tv shows.
No doubt Stephanie would not have been your first association to the surname, but she was mine yesterday morning; that’s just an observation about how my mind was working in the fog of coming out of sleep. Sometimes I have no idea where a name in my head comes from. Sometimes it’s associated with a specific referent that I realize was in my mind from something that happened recently. Sometimes, as here, I’m baffled as to where an association comes from; it just is. (I once got Goethe as my morning name, except that — surprise! — it referred to the street in Chicago, locally pronounced /góθi/. I have no idea why I slighted the great German writer, but there it was.)
On to the Zimbalist family — a brisk and abbreviated tour, since I’m overwhelmed with things today. (There are decent Wikipedia entries for Efrem, Efrem Jr., Stephanie, and Alma Gluck.)
Stephanie on tv. I associated the name Zimbalist with Stephanie, and specifically Stephanie in her most famous role. From Wikipedia:
Remington Steele‘s premise is that Laura Holt, a licensed private detective played by Stephanie Zimbalist, opened a detective agency under her own name but found that potential clients refused to hire a woman, however qualified. To solve the problem, Laura invents a fictitious male superior whom she names Remington Steele. Through a series of events that unfold in the first episode, “License to Steele”, Pierce Brosnan’s character, a former thief and con man whose real name is never revealed, assumes the identity of Remington Steele.
… Doris Roberts [plays] Mildred Krebs, a former IRS agent who becomes Steele’s secretary / receptionist.
The quick run-down.
— Efrem Zimbalist (1889–1985), Russian-born violinist, composer, conductor, and director of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia; husband of the celebrated Romanian-born opera soprano Alma Gluck; and father of Efrem Jr. [AZ: I was a bit startled to see that Efrem was 10 years younger than my Swiss grandfather (who lived 1879-1965)]
(The personal name Efrem is a Judeo-Spanish variant of the biblical name Ephraim)
— Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (1918–2014), American actor; son of Efrem and Alma; and father of Stephanie
— Stephanie Zimbalist (born 1956), American actress, daughter of Efrem Jr.
Notes. The whole family, from Efrem on down, are members of an artistic elite; Efrem was no colorful Fiddler-on-the-Roof peasant, but a significant figure in classical music, who moved from Russia to the US, ultimately to take on a major arts administration post. Efrem and Alma began the move away from their Jewish heritage to Christianity, with the two later generations adhering to various forms of Christianity.
Efrem Jr. I remember especially from 77 Sunset Strip and The F.B.I., but he took on a variety of sturdily masculine roles, playing likable characters. A pleasure to watch, and apparently to work with as well. He did an entertaining guest stint on Remington Steele.
The elder Efrem moved as a young man (a world-famous violin virtuoso) from Russia to the United States, then the younger generations ended up in Los Angeles.
Coming next. But not today: the cimbalom / cimbal (sometimes spelled zimbalom / zimbal) and its zither (yes, as in The Third Man) and Appalachian dulcimer relatives.
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