In 1889, 16-year-old Bessie had a daughter, Esther, with Boris and in 1891 they were married. Esther died at the age of 6 of diphtheria. They also had 3 sons. Their first son, Harry, started acting at the age of 13 in the play "The Pintele Yid" ("A Little Spark of Jewishness", 1909), became a director of the Federal Theater's Yiddish Theater Project and directed his father in films "The Jewish King Lear" (1934) and "The Bar Mitzvah Boy" (1935). Their second son, known as Mickey, took after his father's romancing ways and romanced two women at the same time which led to a dramatic murder-attempt/suicide in 1931, reminiscent of his paternal aunt Emma Thomashefsky Finkel's notorious 1904 affair. Both Mickey and his aunt Emma were left paralyzed by the attempted murders by jealous mates and both later died of complications related to their wounds; Emma, many years later, in 1929, and Mickey in 1936. Their third son, Theodore, changed his name to Ted Thomas and became a stage manager. One of Ted Thomas's sons is the noted conductor Michael Tilson Thomas.