Sidney Franklin (bullfighter)

Sidney Franklin

Personal information
Full name	Sidney Frumkin
Nickname(s)	El Torero de la Torah
Born	July 11, 1903 Brooklyn, New York, USA
Died	April 26, 1976 (aged 72) New York, USA
Sport
Sport	Bullfighting
Rank	Matador
Bullfighting career
Début novillero	27 July 1923
Alternativa	18 June 1967

Sidney Franklin (11 July 1903 – 26 April 1976) was the first Jewish American to become a successful bullfighter.

Biography

Sidney Franklin was born in Brooklyn, New York to Orthodox Jewish parents. In 1922 he traveled to Mexico City, where he would begin a career in bullfighting. He fought bulls in Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Colombia and Panama.

Writing in Death in the Afternoon on Sidney Franklin, Ernest Hemingway said, "Franklin is brave with a cold, serene and intelligent valor but instead of being awkward and ignorant he is one of the most skillful, graceful and slow manipulators of a cape fighting today. His repertoire with the cape is enormous but he does not attempt by a varied repertoire to escape from the performance of the veronica as the base of his cape work and his veronicas are classical, very emotional, and beautifully timed and executed. You will find no Spaniard who ever saw him fight who will deny his artistry and excellence with the cape.” And later Hemingway adds, “He is a better, more scientific, more intelligent, and more finished matador than all but about six of the full matadors in Spain today and the bullfighters know it and have the utmost respect for him."

Franklin appeared in a few films in the USA and Mexico. Later he presented bullfights on American TV. He wrote an autobiography, Bullfighter from Brooklyn and he also was a close friend of the American actor and legend James Dean, who was a big fan of the art of bullfighting.

Influence

According to A. E. Hotchner, "Lillian Ross's career with The New Yorker was founded on the success of her profile of the bullfighter Sidney Franklin." – Papa Hemingway, A. E. Hotchner, 1955.

Partial filmography

• The Kid from Spain (1932)

References

• Franklin, Sidney (1952) Bullfighter From Brooklyn. New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
• Paul, Bart (2009). Double-Edged Sword: The Many Lives of Hemingway's Friend, the American Matador Sidney Franklin. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
• "Sidney Franklin: Bullfighter from Flatbush" http://www.jewsinsports.org/Publication.asp?titleID=3&current_page=375
• Sidney Franklin Collection.; P-894; American Jewish Historical Society, Boston, MA and New York, NY.
• "Yanqui Matador", http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,817393,00.html