Re: Benny Bell

[Kame'a Media <media...>]

Reyzl:

I have just two Benny Bell 78s (c.1946); on the Bell label (NYC).
They are Yiddish and Yiddish-English;  hard to classify --
blend of traditional and popular styles.
He uses <klezmer> on  later vinyl LP recordings --
which I have not heard yet.

With the little material I have, based on recordings made in 1946,
Bell seems to occupy an interesting place spanning the transitional era
in popular US Yiddish entertainment.  He  trades on everything from the
Lower East Side, baggy-pants, sentimental, ethnic vaudevillians up
through the "dirty comic", Borscht Belt and  All-Rightnik night-club
comedians -- even striving for post-War hipness --  until  he apparently
gives up Yiddish entirely and goes over into all-English material like
his "hit", "Shaving Cream".

I hear  Jimmy Durante, Sid Caesar and  Lenny Bruce, -- a <tumler>.
Of course, being  an <italyener> makes him all the more intriguing a
figure.

Thanks to all who wrote me privately.

Wolf Krakowski




Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky wrote:

> Wolf,
>
> Please tell us about this material.
>
> Reyzl
>
> ----------
> From:  Kame'a Media [SMTP:media (at) kamea(dot)com]
> Sent:  Wednesday, September 22, 1999 9:40 AM
> To:  World music from a Jewish slant
> Subject:  Re: Benny Bell
>
> Thanks for your mail, Bill.
> Yes, the same Benny Bell.  He recorded in Yiddish as well, --
> (I have some 78s --)
> the material I'm more interested in.
>
> Benny Bell was, -- our friend Henry Sapoznik informs me, --
> a non-Jewish Italian who learned <mameloshn>
> in hopes of gaining a place in the Jewish entertainment world.
>
> However,  his Yiddish is <gants geshmak> and wonderfully earthy.
> Bell reveals a  sensitivity to the language in the cadence of
> his speech patterns, which echo <yeshiva bokher> question-response
> dialogues.
>
> Wolf
>
> Wolf
>
> Bill Barabash wrote:
>
> > I did a quick check on eBay and found the following:
> >
> > http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=167305233
> >
> > Is this the same Benny Bell who did "Shaving Cream" and "Everybody
> > Loves My Fanny" on the "Dr. Demento" syndicated radio show back in
> > the '70s?
> >
> > -- Bill B.
> >
> > Kame'a Media wrote:
> > >
> > > To the List:
> > >
> > > Searching for Yiddish recordings by vaudevillian
> > > Benny Bell.
> > >
> > > Thank You.
> > >
> > > Wolf
> >
>



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