{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/rn3028q631/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Benya, Mascha (1 of 3) "]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/115/original/Boxed_Milken_Center_logo.png?1628711583","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Preferred Citation"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eBenya, Mascha. 1995. Interview by Neil W. Levin and Barry Serota. Milken Archive Oral History Project. May 30.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Publisher"]},"value":{"en":["Milken Family Foundation"]}},{"label":{"en":["Rights Statement"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003e© Milken Family Foundation. Unauthorized use is prohibited. For inquiries, please contact info@milkenarchive.org.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Agent"]},"value":{"en":["Benya, Mascha (Performer)","Serota, Barry (Interviewer)","Levin, Neil W. (Interviewer)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["1995-05-30 (recorded)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Coverage"]},"value":{"en":["New York, NY (Place of Recording)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Language"]},"value":{"en":["English (primary)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eOral history with Mascha Benya focuses on her training as an opera singer, her immigration to the U.S., her involvement in the Jewish-American radio programs, and her relationships with other luminaries of her time. In particular, she recounts the impacts of composer Lazar Weimer on her career. The interview also sheds light on the politics involved in the performance of Yiddish and Hebrew songs in Israel, the U.S., and elsewhere.\u003c/p\u003e (summary)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Format"]},"value":{"en":["Beta SP"]}},{"label":{"en":["Subject"]},"value":{"en":["Theater, Yiddish--United States (Topical Term)","Jews--Music (Topical Term)","Lyman, Abe, 1897–1957 (Person or Corporate Body)","Oral History (genre/form)","Ellstein, Abraham, 1907–1963 (Person or Corporate Body)","Goldfaden, Abraham, 1840–1908 (Person or Corporate Body)","Olshanetsky, Alexander, 1892–1946 (Person or Corporate Body)","American Society for Jewish Music (Person or Corporate Body)","Arias (Topical Term)","Grade, Chaim, 1910–1982 (Person or Corporate Body)","Walter, Bruno, 1876–1962 (Person or Corporate Body)","Kusevitsky, David, 1911–1985 (Person or Corporate Body)","Fiddler on the roof (Motion picture) (Topical Term)","Peretz, Isaac Leib, 1852–1915 (Person or Corporate Body)","Singer, Isaac Bashevis, 1904–1991 (Person or Corporate Body)","Manger, Itzik, 1901–1969 (Person or Corporate Body)","Chajes, Julius, 1910–1985 (Person or Corporate Body)","Weiner, Lazar, 1897–1982 (Person or Corporate Body)","Opera (genre/form)","Markish, Peretz, 1895–1952 (Person or Corporate Body)","Rechtzeit, Seymour, 1908–2002 (Person or Corporate Body)","Secunda, Sholom, 1894–1974 (Person or Corporate Body)","Mlotek, Joseph, 1918–2000 (Person or Corporate Body)","Rumshinsky, Joseph, 1881–1956 (Person or Corporate Body)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Keyword"]},"value":{"en":["A Masked Ball [Un ballo in Maschera] (1859), “A Nign,” Abe Lyman (1897–1957), “Abi Gezunt” (1899), Abraham “Abe” Ellstein (1907–1963), Abraham Binder (1895–1966), Abraham Goldfaden (1840–1908), Abraham Marcus (1923–2019), Abraham Regelson (1896–1981), Acharei Moti, “Adama,” “Adarim,” “Al Tira,” Alexander Buch, Alexander Kipnis (1891–1978), Alexander Olshanetsky (1892–1946), Alexander Saslavsky (1876–1924), American Jewish Caravan of Stars, American Society for Jewish Music, American Yiddish songs, Anna Barova (b.1932), Anna Farber, Anna Guzik (1909–1994), Anna Katz, Anna Shomer Rothenberg (1885–1960), Annie Bornstein, Annie Lubin, arias, Arnold Miller, Avi Albrecht, Avraham Kopinovich, Avraham Levinson (1889–1955), Avrom Reyzen (1876–1953), B’nai B’rith, “Baim Hudson,” “Bei Mir Bistu Shein [Bay Mir Bistu Sheyn]” (1932), Belle Didjah, Ben Basenko (b.1910), Benedict Stambler, Benjamin Fishbein (b. 1902), Bernard Rubinstein (1920–2012), Bina Landau (1925–1988), Binjamin Wilkomirski (Bruno Dössekker, b. 1941), Bracha Zefira (1910–1990), Brent Milam (b. 1969), Broadway, Bruno Walter (1876–1962), Bundism, Bundist Anthem, Camp Boiberik, Camp Hofnung, Camp Kinderwelt, cantata, Carnegie Hall, Chaim Ehrenreich, Chaim Grade (1910–1982), Chaskele Ritter, Chemjo Vinaver (1900–1973), Children’s songs, choir, classical music, Columbia Artists Music, commercials, concert pianists, Congress for Jewish Culture, Cue Recordings, Dan Frohman, David Kusevitsky (1911–1985), David Niles (1888–1952), David Schiff (b. 1945), “Dayenu,” “Der badkhn,” “Der Rebbe Elimelech,” “Der Schiffer,” “Di Shefelekh,” Der Vilner Balebesl, “Di Alte Kashe [the Eternal Question],” Diana Blumenfeld (1903–1961), Don Giovanni, Dorothy Pilser, Efim Raikin Ben-Ari (1897–1968), “el maleh rachamim,” Eli Mintz (1904–1988), Ellen Prince (1944–2010), Elliott Carter (1908–2012), Emil Gorovetz (1923–2001), Emma Lazaroff Schaver (1905–2003), Ephraim Auerbach (1891–1973), Estradni, Etta Kornblit, Eugene Malek (1911–1979), Evelyn Anik (1904–1971),“Eybik,” Farband Choir, Farband, Farr Yiddishe Kinder Record Company, “Faryomert farklogt,” Felix Günther (1886–1951), Fiddler on the Roof (1971), Figaro, Folk songs, Forverts Hour (The Forward Hour), Forverts, Frank Sinatra (1915–1998), Franz Schubert (1797–1828), Fraydele Oysher (1913–2004), Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849), Frederica von Stade (b.1945), Frederick Lechner (1904¬–1984), Freydele Lifschitz, Gabriel Grad (1890¬–1950), Gimpel the Fool, Golden Peacock cycle, Gustav Berger (1909¬–1958), H. Leivick (Leivick Halpern; 1888–1962), Habima Theatre, Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, “Ha’emek Hu Chalom,” Haggadah, Halevi Choral Society, Halka, “Hallelujah” (Alleluja; Mozart), Hanna Zamir, Harry Anik (b. 1880), Harry Lubin (1906–1977), “Hatikvah,” Hay Matin, Hayim Nahman Bialik (1873–1934), hazzan, hazzanut, Hebrew Art School, Hebrew songs, Hebrew, HeChalutz, “Hello Lanzmann,” Henoch Kon (1890–1970), Henry Belasco, Henry Birnbaum Library, Henry Gainfeld, Henry Rosovsky (b.1927), Hester Street (1975), Hirsh Lekert, Histadrut (National Trade Union/Labor Union Organization of Israel), , Holocaust, “Home, Sweet Home,” “Homot Yerushalayim,” Hugo Weisgall (1912–1997), I.L. Peretz (1852–1915), Ida Kamińska (1899–1980), “If Not Higher,” “Il mio tesoro,” “Im Lo Lemala Mize,” Improvisation, “In Kheyder,” Isa Kremer (1887–1956), Isaac Bashevis Singer (1902–1991), Isaak (Itzhak) Gladstone, Isabel Belarsky, Isadore Twersky (1930–1997), Isaiah Sheffer (1935–2012), Isobel Walters, Israel Welichansky, Itche Goldberg (1904–2006), Itzik Manger (1901–1961), Jack Barish, Jacksonville, Jacob “Jack” Barkin (1914–1996), Jacob Kalich (1891–1975), Jacob Weinberg (1879–1956), Jakob Schönberg (1900–1956), Janot S. Roskin (1884–1946), Jascha Heifetz (1901–1987), Jennie Goldstein (1896–1960), Jennie Tourel (1900–1973), Jewish Music Forum, Joel Engel (1868–1927), Johannes Brahms (1833–1897), John Hart (Julius Peysakhovich), Jonas Turkow (1898–1988), Joseph C. Landis (d. 2013), Joseph Freudenthal (1903–1964), Joseph Garnett (1849–1931), Joseph Posner, Joseph Rumshinsky (1881–1956), Jospeh Stalin (1878–1953), Judah Bleich (1901–1961), Judas Maccabeus, Julius Chajes (1910–1985), Julius Miller, Jüdischer Kultur Bund, Kadia Molodowsky (1894–1975), Karl Salomon (Karel Salmon; 1897–1974), Kindervelt, Klal Yiddish dialect, Knut Brodin (1898–1986), Kol Yisrael [Israel Radio], Kristallnacht, La Bohème, Labor Zionists, Ladino songs, Lawrence Avery (1927–2015), Lazar Weiner (1897–1982), Leo Low (1878–1960), Leo Palmers, Leo Taubman (1907–1966), Leon Lishner (1913–1995), “Let My People Go,” “Lo amut ki-echyeh,” Long Island Zionist Organization (Zionist Organization of America), Loretta DeFranco, Love and Death (1975), Lubavitcher (Kehot Publication Society), Lucien Richtman, Lullaby, Mamelah, Mandolin orchestra, Manny Rosenberg (Earl Rogers), Manon Lescaut, Marc Lavry (1903–1967), Marguerite Kozenn (1909–2000), Martha Schlamme (1923–1985), Maurice [Moyshe] Rauch (1910–1994), Maurice Friedman, Maurice Schwartz (1890–1960), Max Helfman (1901–1963), Maxim Brodyn, Maxwell House Show Boat (1933–1935), Mayer Steinwassel, MCA, “Meine Freude,”Memphis, Menachem Kipnis (1878–1942), “Meshiach,”Metro Records Label, Metropolitan Opera (Met), Michael Goren, Mikhail “Moshe” Arnoldovich Milner (1886–1953), Mikhail Davidovich Alexandrovich (1914–2002), Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (1804–1857), Mikhl Gelbart (1899–1966), Mildred Rosner, Moishe Oysher (1906–1958), Molly Picon (1898–1992), Mordechai Gebirtig (1877–1942), Mordechai Kosover (1908–1969), Mordechai Strigler (1921–1998), Mordechai Zaira (1905–1968), Morris Rosenfled (1862–1923), Moshe Ganchoff (1904–1997), Moshe Koussevitzky (1899–1965), Moshe Rappaport (1903–1968), Moshe Rudinow (1891–1953), “Motele,” Moyshe [Moshe] Broderzon (1890–1956), Mussar yeshiva,“Musetta’s Waltz,” “muter sorele,” “My Yisroel,” Nahum Nardi (1901–1977), Nahum Stutchkoff (1893–1965), Nathan Chanin (1885–1965), National Council of Jewish Women, National Jewish Welfare Board, Neshef Yotzei, New York City Opera, Nicholas L. Saslavsky (1885–1965), Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908), “The Nightingale and the Rose,” Norman Firman, “Old Jerusalem,” Olga Paul, Olga Ryss (1896–1963), “Omrim Yeshna Eretz,” opera, ORT (Organization for Rehabilitation), Oscar Gutmann, Oscar Julius (1903–1986), “Oyb nisht nokh hekher,” Paolo Goren, “Partisan Song,” Paul Bender (1875–1947), Paul Kwartin (1915–1978), Paul Lamkoff (1888–1953), Paul Robeson (1898–1976), Paula Kadison, Pearl Lang (1921–2009), Peretz Markish (1895–1952), Perrele, Peter Schlosser, Petersburg Music Society (St. Petersburg Society for Jewish Folk Music), Philip Blackman, Pirkei Avot, pop music, QXR, Rabbi Joshua L. Goldberg (1896–1994), Reform Temple of Forest Hills, Regina Schonska, Regndl, Renee Solomon (1902–1988), Requiem in D minor (Mozart), Reuven Kosakoff (1898–1987), Rhea Zilberta, Richard Botton, Richard Dreyfuss (b. 1947), Richard Tucker (1886–1966), Rigoletto, Rita Karin-Karpinovich (Rita Karpinowicz/Karpinovitch;1919–1993), Robert Abelson (b.1929), Robert Merrill (1917–2004), Rocky Mountains, “Rosh HaShanah L’Ilanot,” Ruben Maas, Ruby Tucker, Ruth Kobart (1924–2002), Ruth Leviash (1890-1989), Sam Freeman, Samuel Alman, (1878–1947), Samuel Bugatch (1898–1984), Samuel P. Mogilevsky, Sara Wachs, Sarah Gorby (1900–1980), Sarah Osnat Halevi (1913–1975), Saul Meisels (1911–1990), Sebastian Engelberg (1899–1979), Sefer HaNiggunim, “Seh U-gdi Gdi Va-she,” Seymour Rechtzeit (1908–2002), Shaul Tchernichovsky (1875–1943), Shayndele the Chazanta, “Shifrele’s portret,” “Shir Hacheirut,” “Shir Ha’Emek,” “Shir Haroeh,” Shloyme Bikl (1896–1969), Shmuel Fershko (1914–1990), Shmuel Fisher (1914¬–1971), Sholem Alden, Sholem Aleichem Institute, Sholom Rubinstein (1918–2008), Sholom Secunda (1894¬–1974), Shoshana Damari (1923–2006), Shvigaro, Sidor Belarsky (1898–1975), Simon Boccanegra, Sol Tisman (1873–1954), Solomon Golub (1887–1952), Sonia Lizaron (1919–2015), Suzanne Sten (1908–1995), Sylvia [Guberman] Yunin (1914–2011), Symphony Space, Tales of Hoffman, Tanach, Tel Aviv, “The Besser,” The Court of Human Relations, The Creation, The Dybbuk, The Folk Singer, The Golem, The Israeli Opera, The Jewish Day, The Kipnis collection of the Yiddish folk songs, “The Messiah,” “The Song of Miriam,” The Pioneer Woman, The Times, Third Seder of the Arbeter Ring, Those Were the Days, “Tif in Veldele [Deep in Forest],” “Tihillim,” Tosca, Transcontinental Music Publications (Est. 1938), Tsvi Hirsh Rubinstein (1889–1943[?]) Turkow brothers, Tzemed Zimrat Haaretz, Unser Camp, Varnishkes (1954), Victor Chankin, Viktor Packer, Vladimir Heifetz (1893–1970), WEVD, William Gunter, William Gunther Sprecher (1924–2016), William Shakespeare (1564–1616), Winnipeg, Wolf Younin (1908–1984), Wolfe Barzell (1897–1969), Woody Allen (b.1935), Workmen’s Circle (Arbeter Ring), Yaffa Yarkoni (1925–2012), “Yafim Aleilot,” Yam-Lider, Yascha Friedman, Yehoash (Solomon Blumgarten; 1872–1927), Yehoash, Yerushalayim, “Yiddishe Farmer,” Yiddish film, Yiddish folk songs, Yiddish is My Song [Yidish iz Mayn Lid], Yiddish songs, Yiddish theater, Yiddish, Yiddisher Philosoph (C. Israel Lutsky, 1897–1985), Yidishe Kultur, Yo’el Engel (1868–1927), Yosefa Shoken (1911¬–1958), Yoysef (Joseph) Mlotek (1918–2000), Zalman Shneour (1887–1959), Zalmen Mlotek (b. 1951), Zelda Zlatin (b. 1906), Zionism, Zvee Scooler (1899–1985), Zvi Za’ira (1928–1992), Zygmunt Turkow (1896–1970), “1654,” 92nd Street Y"]}}],"summary":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eOral history with Mascha Benya focuses on her training as an opera singer, her immigration to the U.S., her involvement in the Jewish-American radio programs, and her relationships with other luminaries of her time. In particular, she recounts the impacts of composer Lazar Weimer on her career. The interview also sheds light on the politics involved in the performance of Yiddish and Hebrew songs in Israel, the U.S., and elsewhere.\u003c/p\u003e"]},"requiredStatement":{"label":{"en":["Attribution"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003e\u0026copy; Milken Family Foundation. Unauthorized use is prohibited. For inquiries, please contact info@milkenarchive.org.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},"provider":[{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/115/original/Boxed_Milken_Center_logo.png?1628711583","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/110/731/small/Masha-Benya.jpg?1618940994","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 1 - X2002_Benya_Masha4.mp4"]},"duration":10506.1596,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/110/731/small/Masha-Benya.jpg?1618940994","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-milken.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/110/731/original/X2002_Benya_Masha4.mp4?1615881900","type":"Video","format":"video/mp4","duration":10506.1596,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["Mascha Benya interviewed by Barry Serota and NeIl Levin_Edited Transcript [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eNEIL LEVIN:\u003c/strong\u003e Masha, we didn’t yet talk about your, your experiences in coming to America.  We talked a lot about European things, but you came to America and you sang all over the place, in all kinds of obscure towns and…","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=16.0,29.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/2","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBENYA:\u003c/strong\u003e Well, I did.  In the beginning, I tried to audition together with many other refugee artists.  We auditioned in classical music, you know.  And some organizations, women’s organizations, tried to help us out, like the Council of Jewish Women and others, and they would give us a chance to audition free and they, and then people would listen to us, and if they liked us, they would say, “Come and try to sing for us.  And if we like you, we’ll pay you, and if you…”. So, that’s how it started out, and then I…","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=29.0,80.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/3","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  When did you first come to America?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  I came in December, on December 15th, 1938.  On the 9th, I was still in Berlin, during the Kristallnacht, and the next day I went home, to say goodbye to my family for the last time.  And my uncle, my mother’s brother, brought me over here.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Where did he live?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=80.0,104.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/4","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  He lived at the Ansonia Hotel, where all the great opera singers lived, and he took a room for me there.  And as I say, in the beginning, I… somehow, people had known me from Berlin, and through connections, they started calling me.  They knew that I had not only classical music in my repertoire, but also Yiddish and Hebrew.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd a friend of mine knew a Rabbi Joshua Goldberg, if you know who he was.  He was, he was the rabbi in Astoria, in Long Island, where I think, Saul Meisels…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBARRY SEROTA:  Meisels.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=104.0,147.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/5","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBENYA:\u003c/strong\u003e …was the cantor.  And Goldberg was also a very active member in the Zionist organization in Long Island — the Long Island Zionist organization.  So, they happened to have a big banquet at the Commodore Hotel, and he said again, “Come and try, and sing a few songs, and if they’ll like you, people will hear you, and then they’ll engage you and pay you.”  But this one was, everything was free.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd I, it was a very short time, some weeks, maybe, after I arrived here.  And I, I don’t know where, he said there’ll be somebody else, and the pianist will be there, too. So, I come to the banquet, and who is the main attraction?  Isa Kremer!  She was the artist for the evening, and I was, you know, a little greenhorn.  And I did sing some Shir HaRoeh by Alman, I know, which shows off the voice, and some Seh Oog’dee and Yiddish songs And they really liked me. And, she was very gracious and very, gave me a very, very nice compliment; and she said I belonged on Broadway.  At that time, I didn’t even know what she meant.  I still don’t know.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=147.0,237.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/6","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"NEIL LEVIN:  She was here, she was here, already.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  She lived in New York at that time, yes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNEIL LEVIN:  Did you see, there was a program, Sunday morning.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yes, that was…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNEIL LEVIN: Did you hear that, on WEVD?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA: I heard it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNEIL LEVIN:    This past Sunday morning?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=237.0,246.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/7","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Yes, yes.  She followed up, she mentioned, I told her about.  She sang at the Couture Bund, too, they brought her over especially to the… and, Isa Kremer was brought, as a guest artist, to the Couture Bund in Berlin in 1936.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNEIL LEVIN:  From where?  From here?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=246.0,262.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/8","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  From, no, from, from Paris — I don’t know where she lived at that time. And sure enough, there were a lot of representatives from Zionist groups and from community centers in Long Island, and I got, started getting calls and singing for some of those sisterhoods or men’s clubs.  And so that was… And Meisels also heard about me from this Rabbi Goldberg, and he came to the Ansonia to audition me.  And he engaged me to sing at a Hanukkah concert.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e SEROTA:  In his synagogue?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  In his synagogue.  It was really, in the very beginning, it must have been in, in the winter of ‘39.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  How did you have a repertoire of material in Hebrew?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=262.0,318.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/9","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBENYA:\u003c/strong\u003e Well, I had, because in Berlin, I started buying music. There was a Hebrew, a Jewish book store, by Ruben Maas, who later became the publisher in Jerusalem, published Yerushalayim by Rappaport. The first publication of Yerushalayim was done by this Ruben Maas.  And he had a, a Jewish book store.  And they were… and I knew them personally, too.  And he carried not only books, Jewish books — I bought a lot of, of my Hebrew books there — but also, he carried some of the music that I have from the Petersburg Music Society I bought there.  The Kipnis collection of the Yiddish folk songs I bought there. Acharei Moti by Gabriel Grad — maybe, maybe that he published already in Yerushalayim. And I did have, and I knew some songs von zu hause, from home, too, but…","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=318.0,386.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/10","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  But even if you knew a song from home, you couldn’t sing it unless you had a piano arrangement, right?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Well, I, you know, I learned also some Israeli songs from Chemjo Vinaver, who had visited Eretz Yisrael, and he came back and he sang Seh U-gdi Gdi Va-seh, and in such a charming manner that I, I copied him.  I simply… but Shir HaRoeh, and then I had the other songs — Lo Amut Ke’Echiyeh and I don’t know, in Hebrew, I really, and then I bought that book — Me’Zimrat HaAretz, where I found a lot of…","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=386.0,426.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/11","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  Omrim Yeshna Eretz.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  …songs with accompaniments — Shnei Michtavim, I sang, by Engel, Omrim Yeshna Eretz, and sometimes in Yiddish songs.  I had the Janot Roskin books with the arrangements for Yiddish songs.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  You brought those from Europe.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  With accompaniments.  I bought it in Maas’ book store, you see?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNEIL LEVIN:  In Berlin?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=426.0,450.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/12","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  In Berlin.  In Berlin.  And I started somehow not without, consciously, collecting music, and I still am.  So, I, maybe I had, I don’t know if I had ten Jewish songs in my repertoire at that time — I used to sing \u003c SOUNDS LIKE Di Alte Kashe\u003e, Der Rebbe Elimelech, and as I say, my pièce de résistance used to be Shir HaRoeh where I really could… And then, of course, later, I started going to Metro [a recording label]. And also, when I heard some lieden or a tune or a song like My Yisroel… I had a friend who had gone to a mussar yeshiva in, I don’t know — in Poland or in Lithuania — and he sang My Yisroel to me, and I liked it so much that I had an accompaniment made for it, and it became part of my repertoire.  It was a great success with certain people who knew how to appreciate something like that.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Who usually did your arrangements for you?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=450.0,521.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/13","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  You know, Harry Anik, Jack Barish.  Helfmann once made an arrangement for me for Adama by Zaira; and Renee Solomon, who was a very fine pianist — she’s from Paris, she was with the Yiddish theater.  I think she made the My Yisroel arrangement, but on the recording, it’s Harry Anik’s arrangement, which he never wrote out for me.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  So you just improvised.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=521.0,552.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/14","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  And then, and then, you know, my accompanist, Evelyn Anik, used to improvise many… many songs — I never had, I never had accompaniments for them printed.  You know?  Like written out.  She would improvise.  And others could improvise, too.  Weiner was wonderful in improvisations, and… of course. But most of the time, I preferred to have, to have printed accompaniments, because I traveled so much.  Except that very often, the pianists that I met in some of the places that I had to sing couldn’t play.  They lost me on the way, in the middle, and I had to stop and look.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  So basically, the Aniks worked with here in New York, Weiner worked with you.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=552.0,602.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/15","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBENYA:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah.  I lived across street from there, the Alamac, they lived across the street, and both of them — Evelyn and then later, when she married Harry – they both accompanied me. But occasionally, I had to work with other pianists, like when I, there was a time when I used to sing sometimes with, like with David Koussevitzky.  And his accompanist was Reuven Kosakoff.  So he played for me, you see?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=602.0,635.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/16","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  How was he as an accompanist?  Kolnikoff or Kos-\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Kosakoff.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Kosakoff, Kosakoff.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Reuven Kosakoff.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Reuven Kosakoff.  Very… shlockh.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  How was he as an arranger?  Did he ever arrange for you?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  No.  But I have…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  He never arranged…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  …I have the few songs that he published…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Right.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=635.0,651.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/17","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  …you know, his Tif in Veldele and a Hebrew song and a Ladino song.  I did sing some of his Ladino arrange-, songs that he arranged.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  What’d you think of his arrangements?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  I don’t know.  I can’t really judge, you know…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Let’s say if you were to compare the way he arranged Tif in Veldele and the way Low arranged it.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=651.0,672.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/18","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  No, no.  To me, it was, I don’t know.  I was probably not really so advanced or modernistic, or something.  To me, it didn’t, it took away from the song, in my opinion. In general, I find that some folk songs are so over-arranged, I almost find that they, they are, they disappear someplace under the arrangement.  To, to, to have a piano accompaniment, and of course I don’t want to mention any names, but a very famous composer here who, I think he teaches here, did that Golden Peacock cycle which, you know who I mean?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Yes.  Well, except that he, there he was, he wasn’t really arranging a folk song; he was creating a composition based upon it, so… He said.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Okay.  Good.  You explained it to me; thank you.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Yeah, yeah.  He doesn’t consider it a folk, you know, but you’re right.  Otherwise, it’s very difficult to find folk song arrangements, isn’t it?  That are something a little more than just a stupid couple of notes, and yet that are not ungipatched.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=672.0,739.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/19","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Yes, yes.  I don’t know of… like Anik, for   instance, who did a lot of arrangements for me, was a pianist, he was a concert pianist, and he wanted to put in as much piano in it, and it was too much.  It was, it interfered with the song.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Would you ever have Anik do an arrangement and then have him redo it after you heard it?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Well, I couldn’t…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Let’s say Varnishkes.  The Varnishkes that is printed has your picture on it, I believe.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=739.0,773.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/20","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBENYA:\u003c/strong\u003e That’s right.  And that’s not the way it was originally, when I, when I, when he arranged it for me.  It’s a little less.  After, when it was published, more… it was enhanced, so to speak, but it’s too much.  It’s a simple folk song — why, why embellish it with so many notes that were un-, that don’t embellish it, actually.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=773.0,801.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/21","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  In your early stages, when you first came to America, before you had established yourself as a concert artist, I understand you did some work for film.  You sang, you sang on the soundtrack…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Ah, yes!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Of a famous Yiddish film.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  That’s right.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Can you tell us about that?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  That was one of the, the organizations that looked for jobs for refugee artists.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Yes.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=801.0,826.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/22","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Sent us to the, I was with a group of people that were put on a bus and we were taken to New Jersey, where Moishe Oysher’s film was being made.  And Olshanetsky wrote the music for it. So, I auditioned for Olshanetsky, and I sang Yam-lider, you know?  Ikh hob fargesn ale libste, even in a higher key than it’s originally printed — in those days, I was a high soprano — and he engaged me right away, and I was in that group.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Which film was this?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  The, the… what is…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  The Vilna Balabessel.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=826.0,865.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/23","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  der vilner balabesl.  And I was present while they were filming.  And then, later, there was some music in the film that I discovered later that it was a little bit borrowed from, I don’t know, \u003cSOUNDS LIKE Glinkow [could be Glinka (Mikhail)]\u003e, or somebody, but, that is besides the point.  I mean, what’s wrong with Glinkow [same]?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Do you have any recollection about the filming of that movie?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Well, I mean, I don’t know.  I thought… I shouldn’t really — recollection is, Mr. Oysher has to turn around and spit before he sang it.  I shouldn’t really say that.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  No!  It’s interesting!  Why not?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  What did you think of his singing?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Why do I have to tell you my opinion about his singing?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  You don’t have to.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  He had a beautiful voice.  But there was a certain, I don’t know, what, no finesse, somehow.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  He sings an aria in there from Halka.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Uh huh.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Do you remember that?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=865.0,930.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/24","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Yeah.  I remember that he sang it.  He sang beautifully, really, he could sing beautifully, but sometimes it had a, a little rough quality, somehow.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  You only sang the one song there?  In the film?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  I didn’t sing.  I sang in the choir.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Oh, it was in the choir.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  I was in, one of the sopranos in the choir.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  How big a choir did they have?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  I don’t remember.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  And orchestra?  Do you remember the size of the orchestra?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  No.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=930.0,959.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/25","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  How was Olshanetsky as a conductor?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  He was a very nice man.  He was a lovely man — very gentle and beautiful.  He wrote such nice songs for the theater, for the Yiddish theater.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Did you have any dealings with him thereafter professionally?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  He once, I believe, if I’m not mistaken, he may have conducted one of the Third Seders.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Right.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  If I’m not mistaken — I’m not sure.  I know, I’m not sure.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=959.0,989.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/26","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  Let’s see — here we are.  Third Seder, April 28th, 1940.  At the Hotel Commodore, Alexander Olshanetsky conductor, at the Hotel Esther, N. Saslavsky, conductor.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yeah, yeah.  Yeah.  He did.  He was always very friendly.  I mean, I had nothing else to do with him, but he was always very smiling, very… nice.  Very nice.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  You never sang any of his songs, did you?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=989.0,1017.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/27","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  I don’t think so.  I mean, I may have sung them on the program of, that I had with Samuel P. Mogilevsky over the radio in Brooklyn.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Can you tell us about Mr. Mogilevsky?  He’s a legendary figure.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=1017.0,1031.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/28","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  He was.  He had a clothing store, men’s clothing, on Broadway, corner of 9th Street.  I even remember it, because I heard it so many times.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  What was the name of the store?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  He was… “The Three Lucky Sevens.”  And he loved show people.  He loved show business.  He used to conduct his own radio program.  He came from Romania, I think, and he was a very primitive, simple man. A poshute mentsh, you know?  But he liked to associate with singers, and he had this program and he, I, yeah. I had, after I left this Ansonia Hotel where I first lived, I had a furnished room, and the next room had a girl who had worked for Mogilevsky as a bookkeeper.  So, we got acquainted, she said, “You know, I know somebody who has a radio program.  He should hear you.”  So, she took me over, and I auditioned, with Shir HaRoeh, of course.  So he, I became the rusishe primadona. That’s what he called me.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=1031.0,1116.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/29","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"He used to announce the programs; he could barely write, you know.  And he called “Masha Bunyakh.”  And he had on his program an older actress from the Yiddish theater, a soubrette, Annie Lubin.  She used to sing the theme song, “Mogilevsky iz di brodvey nokh farblibn / Mogilevsky mit di dray ‘lucky’ zibn … and so on and so forth.  And then, he had on the program a young cantor, who was Chaskele Ritter.  And he called him “der man mit der ayzerner shtime.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  It’s true.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  (Laughs) And…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  He still has the same voice, and he’s 80.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=1116.0,1162.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/30","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  He had also a young girl whose name was Mildred Rosner; she sang more popular songs.  I used to sing… but occasionally. I would sing a theater song, something romantic or something. Sometimes we would even do a duet together with, you know with Hatskele Rita.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  That was the first time you were on radio?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=1162.0,1183.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/31","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  I believe so, yeah.  There was another program where I won a prize, there were… I don’t remember the station, but Wolf Younin was on it as an announcer — the poet. Wolf Younin.  And there was an actor in those days by the name of Victor Packer.  He was one of the announcers, and they had some sort of a contest, and I — for singers, you know.  They called me by a fictitious name, because people were not supposed to know that I’m a professional singer. And I won $15 that time. I won the first prize.  But then, I, I had a cousin here who knew the Keelson family \u003cCOULD NOT FIND INFORMATION TO CONFIRM THE SPELLING OF THESE TWO NAMES — Keelson and Lokayach\u003e were related, you know — and they had the advertising agency at WEVD. Rubinstein, you know, who was…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     SEROTA:  Tzvi Hirsh Rubinstein.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     BENYA:  Tzvi Hirsh Rubinstein.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     SEROTA:  Right.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=1183.0,1250.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/32","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  …and later, his sons. So, this cousin took me over one afternoon to the radio station, and I auditioned.  And they happened to have a program that afternoon, and they put me on.  And who was on the program?  There was a man, a quartet, a male quartet, with Oscar Julius conducting.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  What station was this?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  WEVD.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  EVD.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  And Harry Lubin was the accompanist, who later went to Hollywood, you know.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Hmmmm.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  And then, of course, I sang on the Forverts Hour many times.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Didn’t you also sing on MCA?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=1250.0,1291.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/33","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  MCA, yes.  I sang on the — they had a program later called The Jewish Caravan or something on MCA — I appeared, and also on one program, on — I think it was also MCA — Molly Picon had a program there with her husband, and I was there, a guest artist, too. There was a little auditorium with an audience.  And the famous Jennie Goldstein was on the program.  And I was, I also sang Hebrew and Yiddish, on that — it was the Maxwell House program, you know?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  What kind of singer was Jennie Goldstein?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=1291.0,1334.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/34","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Well, she was, you know, a tear-jerker.  She was a drama-, a melodramatic, an actress; she was known for that.  Her, she always was, cried — she was known for her crying. But I remember that she sang a song I had never heard before; it was Motele, by Mordechai Gebirtig, and she interpreted it beautifully. And it became later a big number for me that I used to act out the part. You know that song?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  It’s a dialogue.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=1334.0,1363.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/35","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  The father and the son.  And it was even translated into Hebrew for me.  When I was in Israel — my first trip was in 1949 — I had met a very fine writer and poet, Avraham Levinson, who was, I was recommended to him by a friend from New York.  His wife was, I think, a kindergarten teacher. But, I used to go and practice in their apartment.  He translated for me Motele, and Eybik, even. He translated a number, A Nign by Weiner, I sang. Then, they recommended me to sing over the radio, in Kol Yisrael. And Karl Salomon was the director — you know, he was a composer too, Karl.  You know, you heard of him.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Yes.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=1363.0,1423.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/36","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  I was not allowed to sing Yiddish, so I sang Hallelujah by Mozart.  And Hebrew — and the Hebrew translations of the Yiddish songs.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Was that after you had the concert in honor of Nardi at the Barbizon Plaza?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Can you tell us about that concert?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Well, you mean the Nardi concert?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Right.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=1423.0,1448.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/37","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBENYA:\u003c/strong\u003e Well, Nardi always was a nitzrach — he needed money, and all, and his, I don’t know, his manager, Sara Wachs, arranged a big concert for him; a benefit concert at the Barbizon Plaza.  And we had many artists volunteered, including myself.  And Martha Schlamme was, it was one of her, maybe her first appearance in New York, when she first came over here.  And I remember Paul Kwartin was on the program, and a singer by the name of Barova — she was the wife of a Dr. Freudenthal, you know the founder of Transcontinental.  Those are the names I remember. But Nardi — I’m telling you, he was a character.  He lived in the Bronx someplace.  And so, we had to, I had to go to the Bronx to talk over the program with him.  When I came, he was still in bed.  And I remember he came out with his, with the pants over the pajamas.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=1448.0,1521.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/38","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Then, we talked over the program; and, then we had a rehearsal at the Barbizon Plaza, and he said, “Let’s have lunch at the Russian Tea Room.”  And we went to the Russian Tea Room, we had lunch, and he started looking — he had no money.  And I paid for his lunch. But at the concert, we, I had a song of Nardi’s that… a beautiful song, the… written to the text of Shaul Tchernichovsky.  It’s a, it’s really only part of a poem — Kaytzad Merakdin — beautiful text.  And since he was the composer, I didn’t need an accompaniment.  Later, I had an arrangement by Harry Anik — wonderful.  And other, I learned specially some songs by Nardi. And he starts playing — he forgot what key.  I had to stop him, and remind him that it was the wrong key, and that was Nardi.  He was very absent-minded, I don’t know.  And he never, he never played anything that was printed.  Everything was improvisation, even if it was Beethoven, you know.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=1521.0,1602.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/39","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  When you went to Israel in ‘49, did you sing Nardi’s music there?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  I was not permitted.  I received a letter — before I left, I received a letter from a lawyer representing Nardi, saying, forbidding me to sing Nardi’s compositions in Israel; and I better obey, because if I, if I didn’t listen to them, they would sue me.  So, I didn’t sing it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  What was the reason for that?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  I don’t know.  He wanted royalties or whatever, this manager of his was, I don’t know if…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Miss Wachs.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=1602.0,1645.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/40","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Miss Wachs.  I remember, she even called me to tell me I shouldn’t dare sing his songs.  But I think that on that program from Tel Aviv from your Neshef Yotzei Vilna, I did sing it, if I’m not…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  What…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  ‘Kaytzad Merakdin’ is on the program.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  When you were in Israel the first time, did you have a great many appearances at that particular time?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=1645.0,1669.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/41","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  I had appearances.  I had some friends, I had a friend in a moshav, who was married to a fellow from Berlin, from Germany, who knew my accompanist from Germany — they were friends.  And he was, he was a lawyer, but he was always — you know, the German Jews, many of them had studied a profession and music too, you know, on the side — and he was a pianist, and the, and an ardent admirer of music. And he arranged for some concerts in his moshav and in others, and he accompanied me and I used to sing arias — from Manon Lescaut, even; and sang a few times on the radio.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA: Who arranged the radio appearances?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=1669.0,1728.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/42","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Uh, I think this Avraham Levinson arranged one.  I don’t remember who arranged the other one I sang. I gave… you know, Levinson translated the children’s songs of my 78 you know — Koo koo reekoo.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Which children’s songs?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=1728.0,1747.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/43","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBENYA:\u003c/strong\u003e I made a 78 record with \u003cSOUNDS LIKE Forbeyza\u003e which was Belarsky [Isabel] and Saperstein, Belarsky’s first son-in-law.  And there was a man in the Bronx who had a piano store — his name was Yascha Friedman — and he compiled about six songs that he claimed that he wrote the music about little animals, with the sound like introduction, with speaking, I, as if I am the teacher telling the children to get up and to go to school.  And then I remember there was even a woman who had to imitate the sound of a rooster; and there was an actress, but she never heard a goat, so I had to do the goat, too, you know?  Anyway, so it was a very charming record.  And I was accompanied by a mandolin orchestra. So those songs were translated into Hebrew, and I did them over the radio on a children’s program.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=1747.0,1819.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/44","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  On your first trip to Israel?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yeah.  And the other, that was the only time I sang.  I sang in, I think, in Haifa, if I’m not… I don’t remember so well.  It’s such a long time ago.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  How long were you in Israel on this first trip?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Oh, four and a half months.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Four and a half months?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yeah.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Did you do a lot of singing in four and a half months?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=1819.0,1840.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/45","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBENYA:\u003c/strong\u003e No, I didn’t like, I didn’t go to sing, actually.  I went, I don’t know — I liked it, and I stayed.   I ran around, and ‘cause I… Some friends wanted to arrange concerts in Jerusalem, and so, but somehow, I wasn’t interested.  I wanted to be free enough that… I had a very good accompanist, Alexander Buch played for me.  I sang for the, for, in an Army camp, also.  It, uh, and I think their letter is in one of the albums here.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=1840.0,1879.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/46","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  Did you meet any other artists or musicians in Israel at that time?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yes. I met that time Yosefa Shoken was a wonderful singer, and from Germany.  I, I mean, I didn’t become friendly with them.  I…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Lavri?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=1879.0,1894.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/47","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  I’d met Lavri once, I went to the Za’ira’s house once.  I bought a song from him which I never sang.  But then I met him here again, in New York with his wife and his son, with friends of mine who were very close with him. So we went, we went to the U.N. together.  I had met that time Wilkomirski.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Did you hear him?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  I heard him in La Bohème.  It was wonderful.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Nechum.  Avrum.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Avrum?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Oh, I mean, the son, you never met.  And this was where?  In Tel Aviv.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  In Tel Aviv.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  In what language did he sing?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  In Hebrew.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Yeah?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  And how was it?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=1894.0,1932.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/48","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBENYA:\u003c/strong\u003e Beautiful.  And I heard the Tales of Hoffman in Tel Aviv that time, with Hanna Zamir as Olympia.  Not, Olympia is it?  No.  As a doll.  Olympia is in another opera.  As a doll.  And…","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=1932.0,1949.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/49","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  Paulo Goren — was he singing then?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Pardon?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Paulo Goren?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Paulo Goren — very nice.  Beautiful baritone.  I have recordings of him from Holland also, singing in opera, Paulo Goren. But, as I say, Buch was my accompanist.  He had played for Emma Schaver when she was there, so she recommended him.  He was a very fine pianist, very fine artist.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=1949.0,1979.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/50","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  Now did you go back into Israel in subsequent years?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  I went back with my husband olav ha’sholem in ‘67.  And then I was there in ‘77.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  But these were primarily visits; they weren’t there for…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  No.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  You weren’t there for musical purposes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  No.  I only went to concerts.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  You enjoyed… that’s what I say — “going on a concert tour” — I went to a lot of concerts.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=1979.0,2000.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/51","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Yeah, but I had friends.  My friend’s brother, Avraham Kopinovich, worked for the Philharmonic.  You know, he’s a writer too, he’s a Yiddish writer — writes wonderful stories from Vilna, about Vilna. He’s from Vilna.  And I used to get wonderful tickets through him. Otherwise, I mean, the first time I was there, I heard Yaffa Yarkoni, you know.  And I knew Shoshana Damari here in New York, but…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Brachah Zefira?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  No, I didn’t meet her there.  I appeared here in America with Brachah Zefira in a program.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  When?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=2000.0,2049.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/52","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  I wouldn’t, I don’t remember what year it was. It was a convention of the Farband in Asbury Park.  And she was at that time here, so she was the guest artist for Israeli repertoire, and I sang the Yiddish repertoire.  And I remember I introduced Varnishkes there for the first time, and they loved it, you know.  Nobody ever had heard it here.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  How’d you get the song?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=2049.0,2083.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/53","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  I got the song from Moshe Koussevitzky, olav ha’sholem.  I was, I had a friend here who came from Poland, a refugee, who knew Moshe in Poland.  And he was a great admirer of Moshe, and they were very good friends.  He wasn’t from Warsaw, but, he wasn’t even from Poland, but anyway… So, when the Koussevitzky’s arrived here, he introduced me to them. And I became very friendly with the whole family — the wife was still alive — Raya — and Sophie, the daughter, and Alex.  And they lived at the Ansonia Hotel.  So, I used to visit them.  I met Yankov through his brother and his wife. They had Maggie.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd Moshe told me that in Russia, where he, in Soviet Russia, where he had spent the war, he heard the song Varnishkes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Why didn’t he sing the song?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=2083.0,2149.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/54","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBENYA:\u003c/strong\u003e He said that ‘spast nisht, you know?  For a cantor of his stature, it’s not suitable to sing; it’s not appropriate to sing a song, such a little frivolous song, you know. Though, I mean, Alexandrovich sings it, and he sang it for me; and I notated the music, and Anik made the arrangement, and it became a big success.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut it’s, it’s slightly different from the version that I heard later from Alexandrovich; and I heard, I have a recording, I believe, of some singer Anna Guzik or so, who sings it a little differently — some, somewhat differently.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=2149.0,2195.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/55","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  What did you think of Koussevitzky as a singer?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Oh, I admired him very much.  His voice was brilliant; he was a great… I mean, I heard him in his Carnegie Hall recital, and it was thrilling.  It was absolutely thrilling.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd especially, I remember that he sang Il Mio Tesoro from Don Giovanni, in a way that I seldom hear from other singers.  It was absolutely gorgeous.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Do you think he wanted to have a secular career?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=2195.0,2231.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/56","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Well, I don’t know if it was, perhaps it was too late to start a secular career here. But when I visited them, we used to do duets together — he would sing from operas.  I would sing from like, from Rigoletto — he would sing it in Russian, I would sing it in Italian.  And it was really very good.  It was very good. His daughter was a brilliant pianist.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  What kind of person was Koussevitzky?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=2231.0,2264.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/57","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBENYA:\u003c/strong\u003e He was very friendly.  Nice.  Very friendly.  Actually, I think he was a very simple man, frankly.  He wasn’t too sophisticated.  He had a natural, really an inborn great voice.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut he had an instinct for singing.  It wasn’t just the voice; he had an instinct.  He could be very artistic.  Later, of course, when he became older and ill, it strained, it sounded a little strained, naturally.  But in those days, I mean, when I first met him, he was absolutely marvelous.  I mean…","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=2264.0,2312.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/58","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  You mentioned you sang on the broadcast for Mr. Mogilevksy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Mmmm.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  And you sang subsequent broadcasts — American-Jewish Caravan of Stars on MCA.  You briefly touched on the Forverts Hour.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  I did sing as a guest on the Forverts Hour.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  What kind of program was that?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA: …once in a while.  It was a very fine program.  They had a little orchestra — about seven or eight instruments and a piano.  And they had a conductor.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Who?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=2312.0,2345.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/59","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Zaslavsky, Garnett.  Occasionally, at one time, I don’t know if Zaslavsky was out, so um, Heifetz even conducted there for a while; and Secunda, I sang with Secunda when he first wrote Eybik I remember, in the very beginning.  I sang Eybik with the orchestra there, with Secunda conducting. And they had a double quartet, a vocal, double quartet with marvelous singers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Who were they?  Do you remember?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=2345.0,2374.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/60","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBENYA:\u003c/strong\u003e I remember the most sweet, sweetest soprano, Anna Farber — very coloratura soprano.  And in fact, I remember speaking once with Robert Merrill, and he said that she should have been at the Met.  He knew her — they were both from Brooklyn, you know — he knew her and he could never understand. But, she was… you know, she was married, and she had children, and she was very modest.  Unfortunately, she, she died in an accident. A car ran her over.  She was, it was beautiful, beautiful soprano.  And fine altos like Dorothy Pilser and Anna Katz.  And then, Lucien Richtman.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=2374.0,2418.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/61","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  What kind of voice did Lucien Richtman have?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Beautiful lyric for a tenor.  Beautiful.  Very beautiful lyric tenor.  Then they had Manny Rosenberg — also a very fine singer who went by the name of Earl Rogers on the English stage.  And they had Leo Lischner.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Bass?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=2418.0,2438.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/62","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Bass at one time.  And George, and Sebastian Engelberg, who later started teaching. I took, I was one of his first students; he didn’t even have a piano.  He used to come up to my furnished room on 91st Street and give me a lesson.  Later he taught, he had a studio at Steinway Hall.  Then he became the teacher at Mannes School, and Frederica von Stade attributes everything she knows to him.  I once read an article in The Times, where she credited him with, he was a mentor, he was a teacher — she thought that he was the greatest. As a sing-, he had a good bass voice, but dry, you know.  He always used to sing a solo, an aria from Simon Boccanegra in Yiddish.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  So all these singers…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  They used to sing, we sang everything in Yiddish there — arias and translations.  There was a, they even had a special translator who used to, whose name was Matin, Hay Matin, H. Matin.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Did Stutchkoff prepare any of the texts?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=2438.0,2520.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/63","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  No.  No.  No.  At The Forverts Hour, there was always Zvee Scooler — the Grandmeister, who used to write a monologue in rhymes on topics of the day and news — and he was brilliant. He was the actor who played the rabbi in the Fiddler on the Roof, you know.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Right.  And in Hester Street.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  In Hester Street, and also in a movie with Woody Allen — Love and War, I think; Love and War.  And in a film with Dreyfuss, I think, with Richard Dreyfuss. But he was a Talmud chacham, too, and a very talented man.  So, he would do that monologue every week.  Then there was a time when he would even have other programs on the radio.  He would read Pirkei Avot in Yiddish translation by Yehoash.  And then he’d, we appeared a lot together in concerts and pageants.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Going back to The Forverts Hour for a second…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yeah.  The Forverts Hour…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Were there other…","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=2520.0,2588.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/64","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  So they, they also had, so they had a, a sketch like sometimes, they would dramatize a story by Bashevis Singer and serialize it every week.  They had very fine actors in it — about ten minutes; you know, like every week, ten minutes.  It was serialized, like. Then they had also a comic — Binyamin Fishbein or Eli Mintz or somebody else — and guests, and a guest singer.  I know Sarah Golby used to be on very often.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  And you were on, on occasion?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=2588.0,2634.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/65","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  I was on, on occasion, and sometimes, they even, if a soprano couldn’t make it to the choir, I would also pitch in.  I sang also, I mean, did things with the orchestra — I did Halleluya with the orchestra by Mozart once.  And I did…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  This was all live?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  This was live with an audience — they were with an audience, live audience.  They had a little, they had a circular studio. They had a roundabout with an audience.  And Henry Gainfeld was the announcer, was the manager.  Then Norman Firman was the manager. But it, and then, they had guest artists — Tucker.  Tucker would come, even before he got into the Met, he used to come.  Ruby Tucker, I remember very well how he…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Didn’t he come in even after he was in the Met?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Even after.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Even when he was a world-famous artist?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=2634.0,2693.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/66","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  He also came.  And Loretta DeFranco sang. And then they would, they would have soloists during the….  And then, yeah, after Garnett, William Gunter became the conductor.  I don’t remember if the orchestra was still there, but William Gunter was on The Forverts Hour, maybe only as the pianist.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Do you remember Jack Barkin singing on the program?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Oooh!  We were there together, too.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  So in other words, on occasion, they would have two soloists…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA: …as guest artists?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yes.  Yes.  Many times.  I remember Jack Barkin very well.  And…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  If you sang a song on the program, they obviously have the arrangements made for the orchestra.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=2693.0,2734.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/67","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  They had orchestrations for everything.  They had made exactly….  I brought in, for instance, a song by Henoch Kon.  It’s a Yiddish coloratura number with, by Moyshe Broderzon [also Broderson], Di Shefelekh.  They made a special arrangement for the orchestra, and I sang it.  So, it’s a lovely number — nobody does it now. But I bought, I had bought it from an actor, from, who was a refugee from Poland, and he had it.  And I bought it from him and…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Was Henoch Kon then in America?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Pardon?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Was Henoch Kon …","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=2734.0,2776.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/68","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Henoch Kon, yes.  He came here in the beginning, like before the war, I think.  I met him; we worked together, and occasionally, he would sell me a song.  He’d sell me — I say sell me, he needed a few bucks, you know.  And he would come over, and I would give him supper and dinner and give him a doggie bag to take home.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe lived with an artist, too, there — a man, a painter, Daniels, who had the apartment.  So, so I would, as I say, pack everything, all the leftovers, and send, and give it to him. But he, somehow, he was a very prestigious theater composer in Poland, you know, and he wrote — Pearl Lang did The Dybbuk in a dance, as a dance, you know?  And she used some compositions of Henoch Kon which were absolutely beautiful.  You know? But really, later, in later years, somehow, I don’t know — it’s, his compositions became very shallow and not interesting.  Not interesting.  I don’t know what it was, that the inspiration wasn’t there. But when I had the radio program from which you made my recordings…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Which program was that?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  That was De Folkzingerin.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=2776.0,2877.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/69","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  Before you were on that program, were there other programs that you were on, on a regular basis, in terms of being your program?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Not on a regular… I was on very often with Joseph Mlotek, on the Workman’s Circle program.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Okay, so we’ll go back to the Workman’s Circle.  Now, the programs that were the material from which I produced recordings of you, those were programs…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Those were…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA: …that were produced by….\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA: …in the ‘60s, that was already around the beginning of the ‘60s.  I have the dates. I have all the booklets with all the songs I’ve sang.  I used over 500 different songs on those programs…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Over how long…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA: …which I didn’t repeat.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA: …how long a period of time?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=2877.0,2916.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/70","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  In those three years.  The first year, I had three programs a week; the second year, two programs; and the third year, one.  But I have the listing that I used to enter it in a little book. And I had to introduce the songs in Yiddish, as you know.  And the, when I auditioned for the program, I was requested to introduce my songs in Yiddish.  And the sponsors, or whoever had to approve of my singing said, “The singing is okay, but her Yiddish could be better.”  Because, you know, their Yiddish was not the idea of my Yiddish, which is, I think, quite authentic.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  What was their idea?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  I don’t know.  It was maybe too, too European or something for them.  I don’t know what they had in mind, but it was funny, even — Rubinstein was in charge — and they laughed and they… But still, so before that, as I say, I used to appear quite often on the radio program of the Workman’s Circle, with Joseph Mlotek.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=2916.0,2992.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/71","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  How often did you appear on the Arbeter Ring Program — the Workman’s Circle program?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Well, I couldn’t tell you how…. not, for a while. He did a series of once, I’m always given on my set, so I would be on every week.  Sometimes, a male singer was with me.  I remember, Mayer Shteinwassel was on a few times.  And \u003cSOUND LIKE Gustav\u003e Berger, you know. Then, the Histadrut used to have a program, also, on Saturday night, and I would be on their program once in a while.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  What was the Histadrut?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=2992.0,3027.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/72","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  The Histadrut is the Labor Union Organization of Israel that was — Labor Zionists, very strong in the building, in the establishment of the state — you know. It’s the labor unions.  I don’t know how strong they are now, but in those days, in this country, they used to be called in Yiddish di geverkshaftn. And they had a campaign.  They ran the Third Seder in a very lavish way. The Third Seder used to be…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  We’ll get onto the Third Seder, let’s just…","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=3027.0,3062.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/73","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Yeah — I’m just telling you, they sent me on many tours by myself to Western Canada, to Eastern Canada, with a speaker, a shaliyach from Israel. But they used to have a radio program Saturday night with different speakers.  And I would be on and sing some appropriate songs, and some of them, I think, I saved on the tapes that you heard.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Who was the accompanist for the Histadrut programs?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=3062.0,3096.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/74","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  The accompanist was sometimes Garnett.  I think that was the time when Garnett was there.  Harry Anik was a pianist at the station.  And you know, even Leo Palmers occasionally played there — that famous pianist who played for Moshe Koussevitzky. I met him recently. He lives in Forest Hills.  And…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  How were the programs that you did for the Arbeter Ring different than these other programs?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=3096.0,3126.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/75","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  No, because, well, the other programs I could sing… I mean, for Histadrut I always sang Israeli songs.  You know?  Whether it was in Yiddish or in Hebrew. But for the Arbeter Ring, Joseph Mlotek always had a central theme, a topic, and I had to adjust the program to his topic.  If he spoke about a poet, I had to sing songs that were based on the texts of that poet.  If he…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  You picked out the songs?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yeah.  I mean, sometimes he didn’t exactly, his tastes and mine didn’t… he didn’t agree and, I remember when he did, he did a Peretz program, and I sang Milnaus — Del Shiffer.  I think he, he wasn’t quite enthusiastic about it, though I thought it’s a beautiful song and one of the best. And…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  What was his objection to the song?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  I don’t know.  Maybe it was… I don’t know.  It’s too, I don’t know.  Fancy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Sophisticated?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=3126.0,3210.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/76","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Perhaps.  No, but I did it; I did it on a tour. I went on a tour for the Workmen’s Circle with Welichansky and Rita Karpinovich, olav hasholem.  And I used to say, it was on a certain date based on Peretz’ life — I don’t know if it was he birthday or a death anniversary, yartzeit — but Der Shiffer was one of the songs that I did, and other songs by Peretz.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  So on these programs that you had for Mlotek, the Arbeter Ring programs, they were devoted to, let’s say, specific poets?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yes.  We did a Munger program; we did Morris Rosenfeld.  Sometimes, in the beginning of the Fall, he would have, like, dedicate the program to the schools.  He was the education director, so I would songs about the schools — \u003cSOUNDS LIKE Hayda Nu Tsurik in Kheyder\u003e and other songs, children’s songs. And so it was always had to be, like, suited to the topic.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=3210.0,3278.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/77","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  How many years did you appear on the Arbeter Ring programs?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  I don’t know exactly.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  But the programs for Mr. Rubinstein, the folk singer programs, that was about three years?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yeah, that I know was, that was three years.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  And that was all live?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  No.  Somet-, no.  It wasn’t always, because the tapes that I bought up when the program was finished were to, pre-taped in their studio; they had the studio there.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  In other words…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  And taped recordings.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Sholem Rubinstein produced the program.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yeah, and Bernie…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  His brother Bernie Rubinstein owned the studio in the same building.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Cue Recordings.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Cue Recordings.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=3278.0,3314.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/78","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Occasionally, I had to go away, or Abe Ellstein, who accompanied me, had to, was busy with his opera — they produced at that time, his Golem at the City Opera, you know. And he accompanied me — they requested that he accompany me on the organ.  I don’t know what the reason was, because Yiddish folk songs with the organ are not like shotness, you know it. It’s not quite, it goes together, but that’s what the sponsor of the advertising agency requested.  Abe, occasionally, when he was busy, William Gunther would play. And Abe didn’t take it very seriously with other composers.  He would improvise.  He would, if I had a nice song by Golub or other composers, he would just indicate a little bit what they played, what they wrote.  Most of the time, he played his own, his own improvisations. Then, we never timed the program, so that sometimes, we had to stretch the songs and make them slower, or sometimes we had to make them faster; and sometimes we would cut and not finish a song because the commercials were more important than the songs. In the beginning, I would have to read the commercials, too, together with Mike Goldstein, Goren, Michael Goren, who was an actor in Broadway and in the Yiddish theater.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Was David Niles on the station at that time?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=3314.0,3423.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/79","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Yes, but he, I, I believe he was still there; he may have still been… I know Basenko was there, and Isaiah Shaffer, who is now the, I think he’s the director of the Symphony Space.  Isaiah Shaffer was a young fellow, he was a nephew of Zvee Scooler’s.  Sonny.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Levitsky was there?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Not that time, no.  He was no longer there.  There was still that Yiddishe Philosophe, I believe.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Who was that?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  I don’t know his name, but he was, he had a program for that milk, what do you call — Carnation Milk.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Hmmm.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  And he would give advice to people, how to behave.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Court of Human Relations, do you remember that?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Huh?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  The Court of Human Relations?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yeah, no, but that was a different… I don’t know what his real name was; he called himself the Yiddishe Philosophe.  Very cute.  Very funny.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Who was your sponsor?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Oh, uh, I don’t know.  I don’t remember, exactly.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Colgate-Palmolive?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=3423.0,3489.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/80","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Colgate-Palmolive, yeah, Colgate!  That’s right. And Abe, this, Goren, Michael Goren, had a very, he was an actor with a strong voice, and I was so timid, I don’t know — my commercials didn’t sound convincing, so they cut it out after a while.  I sounded so, soft, you know?  And I remember even Shmuel Fisher, you know — the husband of Freydele Lifschitz — made fun of me. He used to imitate it, how Michael does it, and how I….\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Did you have a theme song?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yeah. \u003cSOUNDS LIKE Lomir ale zingen, lomir ale zingen, a zemerl…\u003e… that was my theme song.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Was that the theme song only for that program or…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  For that program, no.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Okay, for other programs, did you have a different theme song?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=3489.0,3533.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/81","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  No, no, no.  This song, this was the pro-, the theme song. I believe the program belonged originally to Seymour.  Seymour had about 25 programs in, under different names and titles, you know.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Seymour Rechtzeit.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  He was a troubadour, yeah.  And then they took it away from, he was a folk singer.  And they gave it to me; I don’t know if he ever forgave me for it.  I think he did.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  How many programs can one person do?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=3533.0,3564.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/82","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  No, he used to do an awful lot.  He did English translations of some of… Yiddish translations of English songs, English translations of Yiddish songs.  Then he would sing to the accompaniment of taped, pre-taped orchestrations, orchestra accompaniments.  All over.  I mean, he had, as I say, over 20 programs. But there were other, before that, there were always Shayndele and Perrele.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Who was Shayndele?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  No, no, no; there was Fraydele and Perrele and Shayndele — they were girls with, with, you know, diminutive names.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  What did they sing?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  They sang all sorts of liedlach, you know — Bei Mir Bistu Sheyn, and Abi Gezint and those…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Was there anybody else who sang folk songs on the air or art songs?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=3564.0,3619.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/83","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Occasionally, there was. Binna Landau had a program, I think.  She was, she lived in Philadelphia — I think she was a survivor of the Holocaust — had a pretty voice.  She sang, and she put out a record too. Did you ever see it?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Hmmm.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  And she used to sing sometimes an art song and a folk song, occasionally.  Not, I don’t think she had a regular program. But Fraydele Lifshitz had a sustained program at one time.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  What did she sing on her program?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Frankly, I, I didn’t listen.  Frankly.  I know there was \u003cSOUNDS LIKE Sheindel[e] the Hazzan\u003e — she had the peanut oil.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Planter’s Peanut Oil.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Planter’s Peanut Oil program.  You know?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Hmmm.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=3619.0,3666.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/84","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  And there were a lot of khazonim. Even, he was one of the last ones to sing — David Schiff had a program.  He was the la-, one of the, I think the last hazzan to have his own program.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  What was your time slot for the Folk Singer program?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  In the, it was, I think, about eleven thirty, eleven, twelve or so.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Sunday?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  No!  The Folk Singer?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Yeah.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Monday, Wednesday and Friday.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  I see.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=3666.0,3694.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/85","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBENYA:\u003c/strong\u003e Then it was, as I say, twice a week, and then once a week, and then nothing.  But you know, the Jewish listeners, I mean, I used to meet people, they told me they were listening, they were.  I’ve, I received very little mail, frankly.  When it was canceled, nobody protested.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd we spoke about Henoch Kon before.  There were ladies, Jewish ladies, who thought that they could write poetry, and one critic in The Jewish Day called them \u003cSOUNDS LIKE “di damen vos shraybn gramen”\u003e — the ladies who write rhymes.  So occasionally, they would go to Henoch Kon and commission him to write music to their poems.  And he did, regardless how the poem was. But they wouldn’t pay him until they heard it sung.  So he would call me and say, “Have mercy. Hobrakhmones — sing it.”  So he would give me some of those songs and I would choke, you know, having to sing some of that junk, you know?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=3694.0,3776.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/86","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  On which programs did you sing these songs?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  No, those were The Folk Singer.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  On The Folk Singer program?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yeah.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  But then, of the songs that I worked with, I didn’t come across any songs like that.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  No.  No.  They were not pre-taped.  Unfortunately, I did, I made a big mistake when, I remember on one occasion, I went away to sing at a concert someplace out of town.  And when I came and I pre-taped the program in Cue Recording Studio, when I came back, Bernie handed me a bill for the tape, for the recording.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  How much was the bill?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  I don’t remember, but it made me so, because my fee, my honorarium, was so minute.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Mind telling us what the honorarium was?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  I think $16 or something.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  For each show?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=3776.0,3825.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/87","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBENYA:\u003c/strong\u003e And I worked, I prepared, you know, I worked a whole week on….  I prepared the program. I had to learn the songs prop-, to sing them properly, to think about it, to find the materials and… and holidays. I had, I even sometimes, translated songs from Hebrew into Yiddish. And so, that was, so I thought to myself, “For this money I have to pay him for the tapes?”  I threw the bill back to him instead of paying him and taking the tape; I regret to this day. I know I had a tape of Moshe in Meine Freude which was beautiful, absolutely beautiful.  But I should have bought it right then and there.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=3825.0,3872.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/88","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  Since I’ve been working with you through the years, we’ve done a lot of work in terms of re-issuing recordings of yours that were issued years ago, as well as issuing recordings that were never issued.  When did you make your first recording?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  My, you mean, my commercial recordings?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Any kind of recording.  What was the first time you made…","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=3872.0,3894.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/89","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  I even made a recording in Berlin, which I don’t have, unfortunately, with singing Musetta’s Waltz, and I don’t even remember, and some Hebrew song on the other side.  But I never brought it with me, and I left it there.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut the, I think the first real commercial recording was the children’s songs, the Besser.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  What about the recording you made for the Pioneer Women?  You sing…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Oh, yes.  That was a program — Pioneer Women, also, occasionally, had a radio program.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Yeah.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  And this time, they taped, it for some reason.  They made a record of it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Right.  You sing Techa Sachna.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  And I sang Tel Sachna, I sang Shir HaRoeh, and Emek Hu Chalom.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Right.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=3894.0,3942.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/90","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  And you found it in, I didn’t even have a copy of that record — can you imagine?  I didn’t have a tape record, I mean I didn’t have a record player or anything.  You know, it was, I took it so, it was so casual and not important, not, maybe not good enough or something — you know me.  So you found it in Emma Schaver’s house?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  That’s right.  I was visiting in Detroit with Emma Schaver, and she had a copy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yeah.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  You made, I think, in the late ‘40s, there were two albums, of four 78-rpm records.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Oh, that’s right.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Made for the Far Yiddishe Kinder Record Company.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=3942.0,3980.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/91","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Far Yiddishe Kinder, that’s right.  That was the first one.  Two albums with three different artists — with Isabel Walters, who was a lovely singer. She used to have her own program on WEVD.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  What did she sing?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  She was a Zing Fagelah. She used to sing Yiddish and other languages, a beautiful voice — lovely, beautiful.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  She had a classical voice?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  She had, yes, she had a trained voice, and a real instinct for lyric singing, you know.  And she — in fact, Harry Anik used to be her accompanist.  And I knew her very well. And the other singers were Sal Meisels and Esa Gladstone, who are all gone — Isabel is gone, too.  But…","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=3980.0,4029.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/92","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  What kind of artist, what kind of artist was Gladstone?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Very musical.  He was, he studied in Italy.  And he became a hazzan, but he was, he was a composer, too. And he wrote, you know, on one of the Mangel songs that you have…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Hmmm-mmm.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  …was his composition.  He wrote a whole cycle of songs from Mangel’s Chumish Lieder to the text of Mangel — the chumash, the Old Testament songs, the bible songs.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  I think you sing \u003cSOUNDS LIKE Muter Sorelesviglid\u003e.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=4029.0,4062.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/93","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Sorelesviglid.  And in 1949, before I went, went to Israel, there were, we had together a radio, a program on the radio.  Zvee announced us, Isaac sang, Yakev’s, The Serenade of Jacob or Yakev.  But that he composed, but and the text of Mangel, and I sang Sor Lesviglieg from that and we did a duet together. And the record, too — it was recorded.  And I have the record, but it’s very poor quality.  And I don’t know, that recording that, that you have — somebody took it off the air, probably, and it came out much better than the record that I have.  I have, I still have it, probably. In fact, I remember when I was leaving on the boat for Israel, Isaac was there and handed me the record, and so, I mean, he was a friend, too.  Very musical.  Very, he was also a friend of Scooler’s and of Moshe Rauch.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  He was a good pianist?  Gladstone?  Could he play piano well?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=4062.0,4140.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/94","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  I don’t know.  He knew music, but I don’t know if he played the piano.  He, he had difficulty memorizing, I remember; he could never sing a song from memory, somehow.  But he was a bright young fellow.  Died at the age of 42.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  And Meisels?  How was Meisels as an artist?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Oh, he was very, I mean, capable.  I thought he was a good singer.  As I say, there was something not too warm about him.  But I once heard him over the radio in a service on a Sunday morning, and I was so impressed with him.  I don’t know what program it was.  Eternal Light, or something.  It was on a, on ABC or NBC.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=4140.0,4191.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/95","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  Who was the producer of those recordings?  Far Yiddishe Kinder — do you remember?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  There was a book store — Biederman’s Yiddish Book Store, on 2nd Avenue, and he, I think he was this, he paid for it, he was a producer, if I’m not mistaken.  We recorded it in the studio, and in the beginning it sounded fine. But after a while, I don’t know what happened to that, to those records that, you know.  Everything is gone — all the sound, all the… is gone. Too bad.  I remember when you called me many years ago about those records.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  When did you record the Kindervelt record?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Do you want me to tell you the year?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Do you remember it?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Absolutely not.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  And whose idea was that to record that?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  That was Sedel’s and Saperstein’s, Sedel’s idea and Saperstein’s idea.  They came to me.  Saperstein came to me.  And I never went out to look for jobs or for recording studios or so.  Usually, they came to me, and that’s why even Stambler wanted me to make a record, but somehow, I didn’t…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Didn’t you once have a dealing with Abe Lyman?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Oh, yes.  Yes.  I had a dealing and Harry Anik and I were preparing the program.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Who was Abe Lyman?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=4191.0,4285.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/96","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Abe Lyman had a radio program of his own.  He was an announcer.  And he was also a producer of records, probably, because I know that he approached me, and he was willing to produce a record.  So, I started working with Harry Anik on it. And we were also, we already had gone to the studio. You know, in those days, there were no tapes; everything was done on records.  Unfortunately, and we tried it out, but we wanted to improve on some things and we went, then, I don’t know who died first — Lyman or Anik, but they both, before we had a chance to finally produce a record.  I was never satisfied.  It was still… I don’t know — there was something.  Probably my fault or something that I… I had something else in mind what, from what I had heard. Anik had a heavy hand, you know.  His playing was a little on the heavy side.  And that disturbed me.  And he was very sensitive, and he couldn’t take any criticism, and that’s why, probably, I kept on putting it off.  I don’t know — who knows?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  What did Stambler want to do with you?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Stambler wanted me to make a record for him. But I, I didn’t trust him, for some reason — I don’t know why — because I knew that he had pirated some other records, he put out some records.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  So he wanted to record you, voice and piano in…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yeah, yeah.  I don’t know.  Maybe it was an excuse — who knows?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=4285.0,4403.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/97","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  When did you make the recording with Belasco in A mol is geven a mayse?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  I don’t know, exactly.  On the records, it said that in 1956 the radio program started — probably the following year.  And the Workmen’s Circle produced it.  Channan, their education director, was still alive, and he called me in, he said, “We want to make.” I, as I told you before, I’m the, on the radio. The male singer was most of the time, who when he appeared it was Gustav Berger, who was an actor.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  What did you think of his singing?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  He was, his singing, it was not… from the standpoint of an art song singer, he was not a singer.  But for an actor, some character songs he sang very, in a charming way.  He, he didn’t have a trained voice.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  But he did have a voice.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=4403.0,4466.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/98","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBENYA:\u003c/strong\u003e He had a voice; he had a strong, he was a big, strapping fellow.  And he had a strong voice.  And he was a charming fellow, also, you know.  And he had temperament. So, some of the singing on the records, on the tapes from the, from those radio programs… Except that the funny thing was that I used to sing in the classical Yiddish dialect, of which is closer to the Lithuania, Vilna, Klaal Yiddish dialect; and he would sing it in his Polish dialect, and sometimes, he would try, he would cross into my dialect, especially when we sang together.  It was, he was a very nice man.  Very nice, very nice colleague. So then, they decided that for our records, they engaged Sidor Belarsky to do it with me.  And Weiner started rehearsals, but he suddenly needed to have an operation on his eye.  And he had to, we had to take Heifetz, who did, improvised all the accompaniments. There were no, no written accompaniments in the music that we had.  Everything was improvised, and I think he did very nicely. Don’t you think so?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=4466.0,4555.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/99","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  How would you compare Heifetz as an accompanist to Weiner?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Oh, Weiner was more exact, more refined.  Heifetz was a more, what kind, had more of a sweep, so to speak.  He, he was not so disciplined, or so refined as Weiner.  He was more exuberant, you know?  Boisterous. Weiner was a wonderful accompanist.  Wonderful, just wonderful.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  You also made a recording for the Workmen’s Circle, an educational recording with…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  With the children.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Right.  Mikhl Gelbart?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=4555.0,4598.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/100","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBENYA:\u003c/strong\u003e Mikhl Gelbart conducts the children, and Mlotek compiled the texts.  And his sister-in-law, Malkie Gottlieb, was the accompanist; she’s a pianist and piano teacher.  It’s his wife’s sister. And I must say that when we do those few Hebrew songs together, I was the one who gave the idea of starting slowly, and then I did — that was my contribution, especially, you know.  It was a very nice record.  It’s a pity that it’s not being made any longer, you know.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=4598.0,4642.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/101","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  Did you ever have any desire to record anything further, that had not been recorded up until that point?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  I had, but didn’t come to it.  I stopped singing, and…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  When did you stop?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  When?  I don’t remember what year it was, but my voice was quite okay when I stopped.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  So why did you stop?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=4642.0,4661.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/102","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  I’ll tell you, Barry.  I didn’t have just the desire to run around and to sing.  You see, to be a Jewish singer, living in Forest Hills, especially… When I wasn’t married and I lived in the center of the city in Manhattan, and I was younger, in those days, the subway was okay, and the trains, I would come home.  I sang all over New York and outside of New York, coming home at 3:00 in the morning, 4:00 in the morning, by subway, from the train.  And then, I know… But singing for organizations was good and bad.  First of all, they always haggled, you know - the price.  Forever.  It was always too much, and it was always this and it was always that.  And then, I had to sit through endless speeches and dinners.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Chicken dinners.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=4661.0,4731.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/103","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBENYA:\u003c/strong\u003e And chicken with kishke, with the trimmings. And then, they appealed, you know.  And finally, when it came to singing, half the audience had left.  You know?  And they were tired, and they wanted to go home. And I remember exactly when it hit me, especially.  I sang to a seder, to a Second, regular Second Seder in the Workmen’s Circle Old Age Home.  I sang there from a number of years, one year after the other.  And they had, Paula Kavisson was the pianist.  And they had, a narrator with, you know….  And on those nights, most of, the children used to come to visit their old parents.  And this was fine.  Of course, the podium, that stage was right in front of the kitchen, and you could listen to the dishes clattering there inside the kitchen.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd I remember, I was singing.  It was very nice, really.  They had a Cantor Feinberg used to be the cantor, who would sing some of the Hebrew numbers for the songs from the Haggadah.  And one night, I was singing Abich by Lavich, which was Secunda, you know. It’s a very, to me, an important song.  And I, as I was singing my heart out, the children were coming to say goodbye to the parents, and putting on their coats and walking out. I said, “What am I doing here?  Do I have to face this?”  I am singing a song which was very, to me, very meaningful and important.  And it has a very, the words, especially.  And here they are, kissing each other, and saying goodbye and putting on their coats.  I said to myself, “I don’t need it.  Enough is enough.”  So after that, I decided, no more.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=4731.0,4863.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/104","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I don’t know if it’s a good reason to stop. But because while there were concerts for the sake of concerts — lishmor, so to speak — most, I would say almost, at least 75% of these so-called concerts were to sort of soften the blow when you had to ask for money.  And they bribed the people with giving them a little… it was more entertainment than concert, really.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Now, when you did concert work, frequently, you would sing with large choral ensembles, where there’d be concerts…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yes, those were, those were…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Okay, so let’s say you sang with Vladimir Heifetz.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Right?  Heifetz conducted which group?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  He conducted the Culture Gesellschaft Choir.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  What kind of choir was that?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=4863.0,4919.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/105","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  It was, people who liked to sing with a choir.  They were not, it was just a choir for the sake of a choir; it was not sponsored by, they sponsored it, people who sang in it, like Sol Tisman was a staunch supporter of it — he was in it, his wife was in it, and other people.  And they, they financed, maybe people that bought tickets, you know, helped to maintain it.  They called themselves the Culture Gesellschaft.  They didn’t belong to any parties or anything.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  You sang with them on occasion?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=4919.0,4951.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/106","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Yes, I sang. In fact, he once called me - it was an emergency — Isabel Waters was supposed to sing with him in Patterson, New Jersey.  So the last minute, she — there was a time when she used to accept engagements and the last minute, cancel, and that. So, what did I have to sing?  I had to sing an excerpt from, I believe from The Creation with him and the choir.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  In Yiddish?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  In Yiddish.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Who did the translation?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=4951.0,4987.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/107","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  I don’t know.  I don’t know.  And I loved it; I mean, I used to sing the arias in German and then, later, in English, from The Creation.  In fact, when I first went to Weiner to audition for him, I sang an aria from The Creation.  I’ll never forget it. And then I sang with Low.  Low had conducted choirs in Newark, in Trenton, New Jersey; later, Bugatsh did them.  And there, I would sing a nice lullaby with a beautiful accompaniment, A regndl. and he wrote a beautiful cantata to the text of Yehoash, Rosh Hashanah L’ilanot.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Did you sing it in Hebrew? \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA: In Yiddish. In Yiddish. The name is Rosh Hashana Lilanot, you know, it has beautiful music. I know that I later heard it in town hall with Moishe Koussevetzky as the soloist.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA: What group did Leo Low conduct?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA: Leo Low conducted a choir of the Farband. Those were Labor Zionists.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Is that organization still in existence?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yes… but…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Is the chorus still in existence?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=4987.0,5063.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/108","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Nah.  The only chorus… there are two choirs now in existence — the Workmen’s Circle Chorus, with Zalmen Mlotek conducting, and one of the formerly leftist organizations, they call themselves now the also Culture Cluben or something like that.  And Peter Schlosser conducts; he’s a singer, he’s a conductor.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Who was the conductor of the Workmen’s Circle in your day?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Weiner.  I sang with Weiner in his cantata, Hirsh Lekert in Town Hall. And, and with Bugatch in some of his, in his cantata The Jewish Legend, the Layla Aggadah by Bialik.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=5063.0,5114.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/109","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  When you sang with Weiner, with the Arbeter Ring, with the Workmen’s Circle Chorus, did he perform mostly his own music?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  No.  In fact, you know who Hirsh Lekert was?  He was a shoemaker in Vilna who killed the governor.  And he was hanged afterwards.  There’s a folk song was made on Hirshke, you know?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Yes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  And his wife was pregnant, and then, when he was, when he died, and it’s a very well-known and very famous folk song.  And Weiner based, based the cantata on songs of… revolutionary songs that existed in Yiddish, marches and so… this folk song, the melody as well as original music. I had a big aria there.  And I started the first song I had to sing was a folk song. A kholem a kholem, hot zikh mir gekholemt.  That was the first song in the cantata.  You know?  It’s a famous folk song.  And it’s beautiful, gorgeous arrangement of some of, of those fighting songs of the Jewish socialist songs, you know?  No, he didn’t only perform his own music.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  What about Bugatsh?  Bugatsh conducted in Trenton?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=5114.0,5214.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/110","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  In Trenton and in Newark too.  And I think I sang with him. I don’t, I don’t remember if he was on the program when Low had invited me to sing with him in Town Hall at his last concert.  He came especially to the Alamac Hotel and called me on the phone, on the house phone, I should come down, and he invited me.  “Miss Benya, I came especially to invite you to sing at my concert.” But he took sick, and others were, the program — it took place, with, I think Bugatch was one of the conductors, and Weiner.  I know Weiner played the piano.  But…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  How would you compare Low as a conductor to these other conductors?  Let’s say Low, Heifetz, Weiner…","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=5214.0,5270.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/111","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Well, Low used to stamp his foot, I remember.  All the time, I remember it so well — he would stand there and stamp his foot all the time.  You know? I mean, I couldn’t… Bugatch wasn’t a great conductor, frankly.  Weiner was more precise, and… but yet…. Barry, I wanted, speaking of composers, I was here when Golub was still alive, but he was sick.  I don’t know what his illness was, but he… I remember a benefit concert in Hunter College for Golub.  I don’t remember who the other artists were, but I remember Golub sitting in the back in a wheelchair.  It came back to me when I was trying to remember Solomon.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Did you sing in that program?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=5270.0,5325.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/112","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Yes.  I sang several songs of his.  There were, I don’t know who else, maybe Brodin or, I really don’t, can’t tell.  I don’t have the program, unfortunately.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  So, in other words, these programs that were run by the Arbeter Ring or the…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Farband.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  The Farband, or the Culture Chorus, these were basically concerts…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yeah.  Yeah, but…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  …for the purpose…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  …Pioneer Women, as I said, in the Bronx, the Pioneer Women used to arrange yearly an annual concert in the high school with Jewish music.  But they’d have on the program different people. And many kinds of these concerts, actors appeared and recited some poetry or did monologues or comical, you know — comedy monologues.  And I would say then the Congress for Jewish Culture arranged concerts.  I…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  What is the Congress for Jewish Culture?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=5325.0,5388.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/113","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  After the war, when the Holocaust became known, and the Holocaust of Jewish culture in Europe, Jews from all over the world got together — you know, leading Jews who were interested in Jewish culture. I was at the, at the founding of that organization. It was called the International Congress for Jewish Culture.  It was founded after the war.  And the meeting, the first founding meeting was, I think, downtown in the… not the New School for Social Research - there was a high school for… it was a big auditorium, anyway, downtown.  And it was a very exciting affair. Writers came that time. I think Grader arrived from Paris, and Striegler, editor of the Forverts, and people from South America - from all over the world.  All organizations — left, right, Zionist, Bundist. Then, I also remember the closing, the closing meeting which took place in the ballroom of the Commodore Hotel.  And I say, yeah, at the opening, I was standing in the lobby, and I saw a man come in who was a teacher of mine in the Hebrew gymnasium in the school.  He was teaching Tanach.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  [SOUNDS LIKE] Ever Ballis?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=5388.0,5488.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/114","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBENYA:\u003c/strong\u003e Ever Ballis.  He survived the Holocaust.  And it was like seeing a ghost, you know?  And he was, then he went to Israel.  But it was really such a hope, there was so much hope that they could revive some of the Jewish culture that has been killed. But at the closing meeting, everybody was speaking with such enthusiasm and hope about the future, and let’s build it together — the Bundists, the Zionists.  And Lavick, H. Lavick, the poet was there. And when it was finished, somebody got up and started singing the Hatikvah.  So, somebody else got up and started singing the Bundist anthem.  And a fight broke out.  It came, really a riot.  With chairs flying in the air and, I’ll never forget it.  You know?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=5488.0,5563.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/115","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And I had other instances where I appeared for, maybe for a group of… ORT or something, and the man in charge who worked for the ORT happened to be a Bundist; as they say, “a fabrente Bundist.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd the chairman announced that, told me I should sing the National Anthem and Hatikvah.  I, and I started to sing Hatikvah, and that Bundist got up, became red in his face — he almost killed me.  “Stop it!” he started to yell.  Barry, you have no idea how those Bundists were such anti-Israel.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd now, they live in Israel, some.  I think they publish a paper and, I’m not saying it’s already moshiakh-tzaytn. In fact, I had a friend here who was the, working in the book and record store of the Workmen’s Circle, years ago, when the Workmen’s Circle was in the old Forverts Building.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=5563.0,5631.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/116","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eSEROTA:\u003c/strong\u003e Eugene Malick.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=5631.0,5684.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/117","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Eugene Malick.  And we went together to Renee Solomon, the pianist.  And Malick made up a list of different songs, Yiddish; the Bund-, the anthem of the Bundist, and The Partisan Song, you know; and few bars from the Hatikvah.  And this poor man - Federman was his name - was a very different… He died. I went to the funeral, and Mlotek - Joseph Mlotek - was, conducted the service.  And he announced that now they’ll play the medley that, in his memory. And I see a number of men getting up and walking out, marching out.  I said, “What is this?”  It’s not, it’s really….  They don’t have any respect for the dead, that they’re marching out in the middle of the service.  Those were the Bundists.  When they heard the first, the first tones of Hatikvah, they marched out…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Did you ever sing…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA: …in protest.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA: …with Malick professionally?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  No.  Never.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  What group did he conduct?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA: He con-, I think he conducted that left, leftist group, the one that is now conducted, being conducted by Peter Schlosser.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  And Moshe Rauch?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=5684.0,5772.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/118","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Moshe Rauch, too.  They, it was before Malick.  I sang with Moshe Rauch.  In fact, I sang with Moshe Rauch the day after the State of Israel was proclaimed; Saturday - in Town Hall.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAmongst, I sang, I don’t know what, but we did The Song of Miriam by Schubert, and for the first time in history, a leftist choir sang the Hatikvah.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  That was because Israel just became a state.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yeah. And the following day, Sunday, I went to Detroit, or to Cleve-, to Detroit to sing The Song of Miriam with Dan Froman.  Dan Froman was the conductor of the Workmen’s Circle.  Big choir, beautiful choir, in Detroit as well as Cleveland. We sang in Cleveland in Severance Hall.  They all, he also used to have two soloists — a man and a woman.  And in Detroit, we sang at the Institute of the Arts.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  So you were occasionally his female soloist?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yes!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Who would he have as the male soloist when you sang?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Joseph Posner.  Then there was, I think, Philip Black — was there a Cantor Philip Black?  In Philadelphia.  If I believed…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Blackman.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=5772.0,5855.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/119","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Blackman, Philip Blackman, yeah.  Yeah.  But we did, we did Hirsh Lekert there.  But we, I did The Song of Miriam the next, and you know, a couple of arias. I did Rimsky-Korsakov, The Nightingale and the Rose in Russian.  And he had a marvelous group, marvelous. He, but he also was an opera singer.  And he used to run around to those small opera companies.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Froman you’re talking about?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Froman!  And he, he played the cello and he played the piano.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  How was he as an opera singer?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=5855.0,5893.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/120","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  I never heard him.  He was so dedicated that, I don’t know.  He would run around to small, and sing with, you know, in the small, in the provinces, in the small towns with…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Did you know Julius Miller?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Julius Miller?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  His son is Arnold.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Oh!  I think, yeah, I met him; I met Arnold’s mother, too.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  He was once…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  She was a radio announcer.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  But he was once a conductor of Halevi Choral Society in Detroit.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Ohhh!  Yeah, I heard about the Halevi Chorus.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  And in Chicago, he conducted Shul Players.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yeah.  I heard about the Halevi.  I think that Dan Froman also conducted later the Halevi.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=5893.0,5932.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/121","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  Ever work with Chajes?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  With Chajes, not exactly, but he gave, I knew him, and I believe that he gave me some of his songs before they were ever published.  I still have some.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Which songs did you sing of his?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Uh, I sang Old Jerusalem and Lechu V’Yivnay and Homot Yerushalayim, is a beautiful song.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Adarim?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Adarim, sure.  And Yafim Aleilot.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Do you think he wrote those songs?  Or he just arranged them?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  No, I think some of them he may have written — Lechu V’Yivnay.  I went once to a service, a special service to the Central Synagogue which performed a cantata by Chias, and that included all these songs, you know?  It was very nice, and you know that Cantor Botton not only sang, but he conducted, too.  You know that?  That he conducts?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Did you know Cantor Botton’s predecessor?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Lichtner?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Lichtner.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=5932.0,6001.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/122","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Yes.  I actually, I met him here.  I, I know that he sang in the Yiddishe Culture Bund. He sang in the, the opera there, in the Masked Ball, I believe.  Renato.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut I met him here, and I heard him.  I used, he used to be on the radio, too.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Right.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Then later on, when he retired as a cantor and a singer, he used to read the German poetry over the radio, you know that?  And I knew his wife, too.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  She was a singer, also, at one time.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  She was a singer, but she sang in the choir, I think.  He, I mean, had a fine voice. I was at the first, when Botton became the cantor, and Weiner was still there, it was a special service which was absolutely wonderful, beautiful.  Botton’s voice was so gorgeous in those days. I went to Weiner’s concerts many… I never missed any of his concerts.  He did more sophisticated cantatas than Hirsh Lekert, naturally.  He did a cantata on a text by Peretz, I Not Higher, you know, in Im lo lemala, but it is Oib nisht nokh hekher.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  In English or Yiddish?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  In English, in English, I think.  In English.  Very fine.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd he gave many concerts.  And Abelson used to sing with him.  Very well, too.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Why didn’t Belarsky sing his music?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  He did some of the songs.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  A few songs.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=6001.0,6101.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/123","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  The simpler songs.  But he, he accompanied Belarsky a lot.  But there was always, somehow, I don’t know, dissatisfaction on Weiner’s part. Weiner worked with Emma Schaver a lot and he always grumbled, always complained about her.  I don’t know what he expected.  He always complained that, I don’t know, he expected her to sponsor him more, so….  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn fact, I remember a beautiful concert in Carnegie Hall with Sidor Belarsky and Emma Schaver; a big concert. And she appeared and she gave a whole concert of her own in Town Hall with an orchestra.  And I remember, I think Gunther conducted it or something.  That was one of her last appearances in New York.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Did you sing often with Belarsky?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=6101.0,6157.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/124","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Yes.  We did the… especially, we sang occasionally in concerts, too, together.  But especially at the Third Seder.  He was there and I was there. I mean, for the… but for the Histadrut. I sang with Tucker, you know - Secunda conducting and with Merrill in the beginning.  I think Merrill sang before he got into the Met.  And there were beautiful, I remember they used to have a beautiful bass, African-American bass singing Let My People Go.  I don’t know what became of him, but at that time, he was marvelous.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  What was his name?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  I don’t remember his name.  It was such a long time ago.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  What kind of artist was Belarsky?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Very fine artist — why are you asking me?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Because we, up to this point, in all of our discussions, not just your discussions with me, but…","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=6157.0,6217.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/125","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Sidor — first of all, in my humble opinion, he had an exceptionally beautiful voice; beautiful quality — the timbre was very beautiful.  He was very musical, too.  And his diction was impeccable - you know?  And those are important things. I must say, when it comes to diction, I learned from him, too, when I was making the record with him.  Because being originally a lyric coloratura soprano, you know, words were not as important as the sound and the voice and the flexibility and though, when I sang opera, I think I put some feeling into that, too.  But I wouldn’t say that was the priority, the words.  Except, and so I did learn, and he actually had an influence on, I learned a lot.  His diction is marvelous.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Isn’t there generally a problem with sopranos?  Especially…","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=6217.0,6286.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/126","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Yes.  That’s why when I started my radio program The Volkzinger, Rubinstein, also insisted that I sing down, I put down everything on a higher, in a lower key; that I sing everything lower. And at that time, I was studying with Olga Ryss, who was a very good teacher, and she was furious with me.  She said, “What, what do you think?  You’re a contralto, that you sing so low?”  I said, “But they want me to sing low.”  And that’s why my words came out very clear, because somehow, physically, it’s impossible to sing, especially over the staff, beautifully and clearly.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  What kind of singer was Olga Ryss?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=6286.0,6338.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/127","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Olga Ryss?  I, when I studied with her, she was in her 80s, and she had a beautiful voice. She was a very pretty woman.  She sang, you know, she was a big opera singer before, probably in Latvia. She came from Latvia.  She was from Libol.  And she sang, I believe, at the Marinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. I don’t know what a big career she had, but then she went to South Africa.  And there, she was the main opera, she was Mrs. Opera.  She had an opera company. She… and there’s where she met Sidor. Sidor sang in South Africa. So, when, and she had sisters, two sisters and a brother living in New York.  Then she came here. She also met Jennie Tourel in South Africa.  And they come from the same town, and they spoke, both spoke Russian. So that year, I remember hearing Jennie Tourel in a concert in Carnegie Hall in Mozart’s Requiem, with Bruno Walter conducting.  And the review was devastating about Jennie Tourel.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Was it justified?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Terrible.  I don’t know, I didn’t think she was so bad, but the critics said something like, “Some people don’t know when to stop,” or something. Then she went, she went to study, she, as I say, Olga Ryss came.  And Jennie Tourel started to work with her.  And she gave a recital in Town Hall which was the biggest triumph you can imagine.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Olga Ryss.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=6338.0,6450.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/128","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Jennie Tourel gave her recital, and she was so good, and the reviews were fantastic.  Because, and then she, Jennie Tourel used to have master classes in Aspen, and Olga used to teach voc-, I mean technique and she interpretation.  But she was a good teacher, Olga Ryss. So, I met her in Sidor’s house.  She told me that Ganchoff also came to her for a few lessons.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Yeah?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  But not for long.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Ganchoff studied with a lot of teachers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  So did I.  I studied until the very last concert I had, I had a teacher.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Who were your other teachers?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  First, Rhea Zilberta was a teacher of mine, and then Evelyn Anik was teaching voice, too.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Did she know anything about voice?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=6450.0,6508.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/129","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Oh, yes.  She had studied voice.  Besides, her father was a hazzan.  No, no — she had studied voice.  She wasn’t a singer, but she knew voice.  You know, mikol melamdai hiskalti, you can learn from everybody something. I once studied for a little while with a man by the name of Yampulski, Jampulski, who was a very queer and very strange teacher.  And Sebastian Engelberg.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Was a voice teacher?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yeah, very good.  Very good.  And the last one, I think — I don’t know if his first name was Francis, or the last name, but he was an American Gentile man, and an organist in a church on Queens Boulevard.  I used to go to church to study with him, take classes.  I know that David Schiff studied with him — the cantor, you know.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut I never stopped — never.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Didn’t Olga Ryss do work translating songs into English?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  That was Olga Paul.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Olga Paul.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yes.  She was a very nice singer.  As far as I know, her husband may still be alive.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Stern.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=6508.0,6580.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/130","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Stern. He gave the, the Birnbaum Library, when Lee Florsheimer was there. She told me that he gave her a lot of material about….  Olga Paul gave a recital in Town Hall — very nice recital. She had a nice mezzo-soprano, you know.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  She sang in Yiddish, also?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yes.  In, there was singers, there was a woman in Hollywood - an actress who I see occasionally - her name was Ruth Kobart.  She plays character, she had a very tall lady.  She used to sing Yiddish. There were so many affairs going on here…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Did you ever sing with \u003cSOUNDS LIKE Shprintzen \u003e?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  I don’t think so.  I heard him.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  You ever hear him?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yes, sure.  I heard him.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  On The Forverts Hour, or…","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=6580.0,6631.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/131","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  On The Forverts Hour, and on a program that… Paul Kwartin had a program, too, on QXR at one time.  He was very musical.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Yes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  And there were others.  There were, for a short time Regina Schonska used to sing here.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Ben Amitai.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Ben Amitai.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  How was she?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Kakha.  She even sang in the Israel Opera — she sang the Shepherd in Tosca.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Hmmm.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  So…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  How was Sarah Gorby?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=6631.0,6665.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/132","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Oh, Sarah Gorby was in a class by itself.  Beautiful sounding voice, but it was, it wasn’t art songs; it was more, I would call it more… well, it was singing, in a way, but entertainment.  Like I heard her one, she gave a recital in Town Hall.  I was there.  And she stood with closed eyes — the whole time she sang, her eyes were closed, for some reason. But a beautiful, beautiful voice, and very… she used to sing on The Forverts Hour often.  There was something special in her singing, you know? And you know that in one of these papers there’s a thesis by Ellen, Dr. Ellen Prince, a professor of linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania, who wrote her thesis on Sarah Gorby’s Yiddish — how it developed over the years from the beginning until the end, and I get credit for helping her out.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  What do you think of her thesis?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  I’m not such a maven when it comes to such a work.  All I know is that she used to send me Sarah Gorby’s, on the computer, all the cassettes and texts which she translated.  Sometimes she couldn’t get the words and I helped her out with it, and the spelling, and the transliteration, and so on and so forth.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=6665.0,6776.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/133","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  You remember Maurice Friedman?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA: Who was he?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA: He was originally, I think a business man, who fell in love with Jewish music. And the wife was a pianist.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Hmmm.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=6776.0,6789.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/134","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  And they created for themselves a niche in Jewish music.  She would accompany him.  He sang — by the time I heard him, I mean, he wasn’t a young man —and it wasn’t the most luscious voice.  It was a dry voice.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Hmmm.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  And the interpretation, it was sincere, you know, but you wouldn’t say that it was the greatest singing.  Correct — they had a very serious approach, they took it very seriously.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe would talk about the songs.  I don’t remember if she would give an analysis of the song, but she translated it, especially for non-Yiddish-speaking audiences.  They were really, like made to order.  She would accompany him.  They had dignity, you know? It was maybe a little amateurish, I don’t know.  In those days, I may have thought so.  You know, maybe…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Who was Maxim Brodyn?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  He was a singer, was a Russian, I think, originally from Russia.  He was an actor and a singer.  He sang, later he became, he was in charge of the \u003cSOUNDS LIKE Myuzik, Far eyn myuzik\u003e — those were the leftists, too, you know.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Hmmm.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  And he had a very nice voice — more of an entertainer than a… I don’t know — maybe he was more of a classical singer before my time.  But he was one of the Jewish entertainers, you know. And his wife, Zelda Zlatin, used to accompany him on the piano.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Hmmm.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  They, in later, in later years, I heard, when he died, I heard her recite, do recitations.  Those people took themselves very seriously, you see.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=6789.0,6909.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/135","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  You remember Diana Blumenfeld?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Who was she?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  I have a few of her records.  She was a charming folk singer and an actress — very charming actress — married to one of the Turkow brothers.  Turkow was a very talented theatrical family in Poland.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Wasn’t one of them married to…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  One was married to, what’s the… Kaminska.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Ida Kaminska.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Ida Kaminska. And Jonas was Diana’s husband. He wrote a book after the, about the Holocaust.  Some, I don’t know if the theater or so, but he, intelligent man, very educated man. She was small and blonde and she was very charming, and very vivacious, and Polish, you know — a real entertainer, like a soubrette-style singer.  I knew her personally.  I think she has a daughter someplace.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=6909.0,6967.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/136","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  We mentioned — yes?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Her daughter was very good friends with a woman who also sang here for a while — Sonya Liseron, a survivor of the Holocaust who landed in Paris.  And worked for a while with Henoch Kon.  You know?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Hmmm.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  And then she came here, and she made — I have a record of her — I don’t know if you ever saw her record.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Diana Blumenfeld.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  No.  I’m talking about Sonya Liseron.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  I never heard of her record.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yeah, I have her record.  She now lives in Australia. But she was very friendly with the daughter of Diana Blumenfeld.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  We once spoke about John Hart.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  And…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Julius Peysohovich was his name.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=6967.0,7016.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/137","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  Hmmm.  When did you first meet him?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  I knew him… oh, I believe that I met him in Berlin.  He engaged me once to sing for some affair in his — he belonged to a club — and I sang Musetta’s Aria and I sang Se oogdi a capella.  You know Se oogdi?  And he was so enthusiastic, I remember.  I sang other songs, too, probably. But then I saw him here again, and he was very friendly with the Winovers, I know.  And he was a wonderful pianist.  I mentioned before that I studied with Rhea Zilberta.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Hmmm.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=7016.0,7064.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/138","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Rhea Zilberta, for some reason, opened her house, a home, for all the bunch of refugees, artists who came here, including John Hart, Suzanne, Suzanne Stein — who married, later married Leo Taubman.  And she had, Zilberta had connections in the music world. And she arranged for Suzanne Stein to have an audition for the Columbia Artists, and they gave her a contract. And she gave a recital, and then she was in the City Opera.  But John Hart was one of the people who used to be under Rhea’s wings, wing, so to speak. And then, I’m, in fact, my, I was sick, a little bit of a makhateiniste — the uncle of my son’s wife was a big makher in Great Neck; he was a rich financier there, And he engaged him as a cantor in the Reform Temple.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  And what happened?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  But he refused. I believe that he left because they wanted him to teach bar mitzvahs, and so on and so forth.  And John Hart decided, since Alexander Kipnis had married a rich American lady, John Hart wanted to do it, too.  You know?  I remember, John Hart, we used to have lunch together.  He even gave me a beautiful lesson in how to sing a Brahms song.  You know, he was a wonderful singer. I heard, I heard him in Berlin in Judas Maccabee — it was… I think with Herman \u003cSOUNDS LIKE Yablovker\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Didn’t he also sing in Yiddish?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=7064.0,7189.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/139","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  He introduced me to the song Shabbos mam sholashudes by Binder.  Really, I must say that the interpretation that I later used was due to John Hart’s interpretation.  He was a great artist, I’m telling you. But something was eating him; I don’t know — he was ambitious. He couldn’t get into the Met, he couldn’t get this, so he finally married a rich American widow.  And he gave up hazzanut. But we, as I say, I know that he used to, we would meet and have lunch together and talk about music and so.  And then his wife died, poor woman. And then he married another rich widow, but they went to live in Switzerland, and he….  A friend of mine, a former colleague, who lived at that time also in Lugano in Switzerland, told me that he thought he smoked a lot and he played cards, and that was all he did.  And he died.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Do you remember Victor Chankin?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  I met him once and I heard him once.  He was wonderful.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=7189.0,7268.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/140","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  What was he like?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA: He was a great actor.  He interpreted his songs in costume.  You see, the Der badkhn that Meisels later sang was Victor Chankin’s number originally.  But it must have been a week or two after I arrived here that Chankin gave a concert at the 92nd Street Y.  And I went to hear him; and I’ll never forget it. He was so charming.  He could turn himself into characters and sing the songs in Russian and in Yiddish.  He was very, very charming.  Very.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Now, we were looking through memorabilia of yours about appearances on tour.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Oh.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  And we were talking before, I think here we have a document… here we are.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yeah.  That was for the Workmen’s Circle.  That was the second tour; the first one was with Rita Karpinovitch [aka Rita Karin] and Welichansky and Pola Kadison. We would prepare a program in New York….\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Hmmmm.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=7268.0,7344.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/141","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  …on a certain topic.  Like the first year, it was, I think, some anniversary of I.L. Peretz.  So, she would recite, and I would….  Then I did, I was even acting.  I sang some of the Milner songs and other songs by, by Gelbart.  I even acted in a little skit with Welichansky in one of Peretz’ stories. And then we did an American Yiddish program; it was an American anniversary.  And Junin wrote some special songs about the Hudson, about a Jewish farmer.  And Henoch Kon wrote the music to it.  And that was this program.  You know?  You have the exact program here — piano solo and Hello Lanzmann, and group of songs.  I sang The Messiah, Al Tira, Der badkhn, then a duet with Welichansky.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  So you went touring all around.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=7344.0,7411.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/142","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  We traveled for approximately three months, from coast to coast and in Canada, by train; always by train, never by plane. And it was very interesting.  The people were very happy.  Sometimes, there would be one, we called it one meshuggeneh in a town who wanted a concert.  And because of him, there was a concert.  He was very anxious to have a Jewish concert.  You know?  So, there was a concert.  If the town didn’t have such a character, there was no concert. We traveled throughout Texas, you know, and the South, all the way to Western Canada, even.  Winnipeg.  Calgary.  I went there by myself, too, throughout the Rocky Mountains by train.  It was really…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  What did you think of the audiences in…","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=7411.0,7479.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/143","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  The audiences were wonderful.  They appreciated it very much.  Very much.  In fact, sometimes the English papers would have reviews about our performances, you see.  It was very well advertised, as you can see. We had sometimes the Jewish centers. Sometimes we played in high schools or regular halls, concert halls, too.  I remember we once, in Grand Rapids, in a lovely, lovely concert hall in a, belonged to some ladies, an American ladies’ club. And it was very interesting, except that this \u003cSOUNDS LIKE Welichansky\u003e  was such an egomaniac.  He always called himself, “I and my troupe.”  You know “I” — that “I” was very big.  He always had to stay on the highest floor in the hotel; higher floors than we girls, you know?  All right, this is apropos. And then, I went by myself, too, on seven, eight town tours with different pianists in every shtetl.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Hmmmm.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=7479.0,7567.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/144","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  The Histadrut sent me a number of times to Western Canada.  So, in some towns, like Winnipeg, there was a very fine pianist who played for me.  And occasionally, I would have a good accompanist, but occasionally, it was a terrible struggle.  But I don’t know how I did it, really.  It sounds… And then I went also to the Nova Scotia towns, and that was, happened to be the weekend when the war was over.  And you know, in Nova Scotia, the sailors were very happy that the war was over, so they broke into liquor stores and they got drunk and the, riots broke out and looting, and they proclaimed a curfew.  So for three days, I had to sit in a hotel and do nothing. But then, on Sunday, they arranged a concert in Halifax, and the next day in Glace Bay, and another town I don’t remember. And it was really pioneering work, you know?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Hmmm.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=7567.0,7645.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/145","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Because afterwards, I heard that Isa Kremer went to those towns, too, on a tour.  But I was really… the speak, there was speaker for the Histadrut, a rabbi from Montreal.  But it, and as I say, I went without an accompanist.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Isa Kremer went there after you?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:   Yeah.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  So she already was an artist of world reputation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yeah, but she, but they didn’t know about it.  They never, I’m telling you — there’s one, one of the programs or so is a letter from a woman of Hadassah from Glace Bay.  They were, it was a revelation for them, you know, to hear a singer singing such songs.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  And would you explain the songs and so…","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=7645.0,7690.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/146","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBENYA:\u003c/strong\u003e Oh, yes, of course, of course.  And they liked it, really.  It was really pioneering work, you know? And then, I had another good client — the Southern District of the Workmen’s Circle. They used to arrange sort of a weekend, Labor Day weekend conference, a celebration for three days.  It started in Memphis, I think; somebody recommended me, somebody who had lived in Memphis and was here working for the ORT.  And his sister lived in Memphis, so… or maybe in Atlanta, Georgia.  And I went there for the first time.  They would open, they would start Sunday morning, and then they had Sunday night, Saturday night… no — they would start, I believe, Saturday night, there was a concert.  I had to give a whole concert.  And Sunday, there was a banquet, I had to continue.  And I went to Memphis and Birmingham, and Jacksonville, and Miami Beach, and to the, every year in a different place, and one year, in all the places.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=7690.0,7776.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/147","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And you know, the characters that I used to meet. It was one year during the war, I think, I had to go to Chattanooga.  And I had a big suitcase and music.  And during the war, you know, I traveled by train — there was no porter, nothing — I was, it was dark, I arrived at night with a heavy suitcase. All of a sudden, somebody approached me who looked like a real gangster, you know.  He looked frightening, menacing.  He said, “You Masha Benya?”  I said, “Yes.”  He says, “Come with me.”  And he grabs my valise, you know — I could hardly lift it — and he took me to the hotel.  And he says, “I’ll come back in ten minutes.”  He checked me in.  “And I’ll take you to dinner.”  And he dropped me off at some restaurant, and “I’ll come back — you eat.  And I’ll come back.” He turned out to be the owner of a beer salon.  A really rough-looking character, and he was rough.  The concert was scheduled for Saturday, but I arrived Friday. And Friday evening, some of the people of the Labor Zionist groups invited me, because they were more, somehow, I don’t know, more cultured or so, more civilized.  So, I said, “But my host is, I forgot Mr. So-and-so,” they said, “Tell him that we’re inviting him, too,” and he came. He was sitting on the edge of the chair all evening, and keep on, kept telephoning his beer saloon, you know, to find out how his business was.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=7776.0,7883.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/148","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"So I asked the people, “Why did, why did you put him in charge of taking care of me?”  They said, because he sold the greatest number of tickets.  I said, “How come?”  They said, “People were afraid of him.”  He was such a menacing character, that he told me, actually, that he had to run away from Poland because he killed a man. He said the man was going to kill him, so he, hakam lehargecha ashkem v’argehu [sic], you know that posuk. And those were very interesting experiences. He was a very nice man, but looked rough.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=7883.0,7928.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/149","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  We mentioned once before your experiences in summer camps.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  And how there was a phenomenon that there were many summer camps with a Yiddish orientation, where music was a very important component.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yes, there were Jewish camps.  Every camp had, an organization at a camp — Sholem Aleichem Institute, which was a Jewish cultural organization.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  It’s Yiddishists.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Just a little bit, and Yiddishists, but they liked Hebrew too.  And they had Camp Boiberik, which was very nice, very, you know. All the writers went there.  And they had a staff for the summer — a pianist, in fact, Paula Kadison was there for years. And they also had children’s camps; next to the adult camp, there was a children’s camp.  Weiner worked there, Heifetz worked there.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Camp Boiberik.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Camp Boiberik.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=7928.0,7988.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/150","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  And what was Unser Camp?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Unser Camp was, belonged to the Farband.  And they had Kinderwelt, was the children’s camp.  And they, too, had a casino.  They had a staff with actors — Zvee Scooler, Yehuda Blaich, Balzell, all the Yiddish — Maurice Schwartz appeared there, Zalman Schnaier came for a visit, I remember.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Who ran the music at the Unser Camp?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=7988.0,8017.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/151","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  The music in Unser Camp was Fershko, Shmuel Fershko one year.  And I know Weiner, one year worked Weiner worked with the children. I believe that that’s where I met Yehudi — he was still a young kid.  Who was there before, I don’t know. And then, in Workmen’s Circle Camp, Secunda worked there for a long time.  Then they had Abe Marcus, the drummer from the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra was the music director.  You know?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Hmmm.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  And he had a little band there, orchestra.  And they had MCs, Master of Ceremonies, and singers for the summer. In fact, I never wanted… they wanted me for the whole summer in Unser Camp or in some other camps, when I first arrived here, but my uncle said, “Don’t do that.  Don’t go for the whole summer.  They’ll put you in the worst accommodations, you know.  You don’t need it.”  You know, so I never went away for the whole summer.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  You went away for a…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  I used to go…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  …couple of weeks?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=8017.0,8088.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/152","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBENYA:\u003c/strong\u003e I would go for a weekend or for a week.  There was a camp in Framingham, Mass, that belonged to the Workmen’s Circle.  There was Camp Hofnung near Philadelphia, which Mikhel Gelbart reigned, you know? Then, there was a camp in Chelsea, Michigan, near, not far from Detroit, where the Farband from that area, the people, when the children-, it was a children’s camp; very primitive. But when the children left, like the last week in Sept-, in August, the adults from that area used to get together and have a seminar for a whole week with a singer, an actor, an English lecturer and a Yiddish lecturer. And that, the accommodations were terrible; I mean, they did have a building called a motel, that was for the… but also, some, there were also, some of the chaverim, that they called themselves, had private cottages around there.  Like outside Unser Camp there’s a place called Ranana, where some of the members had their private summer homes, you see?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=8088.0,8177.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/153","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eSEROTA:\u003c/strong\u003e And what did you perform at…","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=8177.0,8210.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/154","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  I, I used to arrive on Sunday, and Sunday night, I had to sing a few songs in the dining room; that was the opening.  Every night, there was something else.  You know?  In the morning, they had lectures, either in Yiddish or in English.  And in the evening, there was always something. And then, Saturday night, there was a concert. And later, at night, there was a milavey malkie even, you know. And I appeared there with Yehuda Blaich, olav hashalom, and with Rita Karpinovich, olav hashalom, and with Shmuel Fischer; and with, even Ben Ari, who was an actor from the Habimah years ago, here; and Layba Shlansky.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd after the official program, we would go to one of the cottages and start all over again to sing, and to tell stories, and to have a drink.  And that’s where I, like, I’m…. But, after so many years, I had to look for new repertoire. So, I started looking in one of my books, Sefer HaNiggunim, that was put out by the, I think, the Lubavitcher. And I found such gorgeous songs, with, by Hassidic rebbes with Yiddish texts.  I found a love song in there, but the love is between Knesset Yisrael and the Riboyno shel oylam (Ribbono shel olam), you know.  And I made, I had an accompany made for it, and I sang it.  It’s, it’s really beautiful. So, the next day, one of the lecturers was Dr. Mordechai Kossivel, who was a professor at Brooklyn College.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Hmmm.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=8210.0,8327.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/155","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  He said, “You know, you sang that Hassidic song so nicely, I’d like,” he said, “so I must tell you that I just spoke to somebody who came back from the Kinnus Hassidim in Israel.”  And he sang a beautiful song to me — \u003cSOUND LINKE Fung Kossev Biskitev\u003e.  And he sang it to me. So I took a piece of paper and I drew the lines and I wrote out the melody with the words; and in the eve, the same night, I sang it on the stage, and the audience joined in.  And that’s how I used to find repertoire occasionally.  Not only from Metro. It became such a big — \u003cSOUNDS LIKE Rancedo Sasedo\u003e recorded it, even.  You know.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd then, the pianist used to come from, was there from Detroit — Bela Goldberg.  People came from Akron and Detroit and Chicago and Cleveland.  And I became even friends with all these people, you know.  Some of them later engaged me to their towns to give concerts.  Those were really very wonderful years.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  We mentioned before in passing on numerous occasions, Third Seders.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=8327.0,8408.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/156","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  What is a Third Seder?  Who arranged the Third Seder?  Who arranged the musical program for a Third Seder?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yeah, Third Seder is a secular seder, but it’s based on the Haggadah, the traditional Haggadah; except that the texts are written, special texts in Yiddish.  It’s following the Haggadah. Some of the traditional songs are in there — Dayenu, naturally. But I believe — the Workmen’s Circle takes credit for starting it, but I think it was really invented by the Histadrut, again.  The Histadrut. It became, they became major events in certain circles.  It consisted, they commissioned writers to write original texts for their… original Hagaddahs.  Yiddish writers like Katya Molodovsky, I remember a poet by the name of Twersky wrote one.  And well-known people — I mean, Hal Regelson, perhaps, who was…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Did Scooler ever write a text for a seder?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=8408.0,8487.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/157","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Scooler, no Scooler directed it. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThey had narrations, with music.  Narrations naturally based on Zionism and Israel. And it was intertwined with songs — Israeli songs, Yiddish songs — appropriate for the occasion, as well as songs from the Haggadah; with actors, prominent actors from the Yiddish stage.  Sometimes children, also. I’ve heard the Workmen’s Circle is more oriented on, on the children.  There are very few left now, schools, but there were children in them. They had an orchestra conduct it.  I sang with Olshanetsky, with Rumshinsky, with Secunda.  With Shmuel Fershkow.  You know?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Hmmm.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=8487.0,8550.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/158","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Some wrote original numbers.  I remember Shir Ha — I gave Secunda the text to Shir HaCheirut which he wrote that time for me, but later, Tucker recorded it.  I don’t know if you ever heard it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Yes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yeah.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA: La ti ta da da di da…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA: … da di da. That’s right.  And I gave, I found a text in some Israeli song book and I gave it to Secunda.  And I mean, for instance, with Rumshinsky, I wanted to sing Shir HaEmek by Lavri.  But his orchestration was so terrible, he didn’t under-, he didn’t, he just didn’t have a feeling for these things, you know. And then they had singers, soloists.  They had a choir.  I don’t know — a double quartet or a regular, a bigger choir; and soloists, prominent soloists.  Tucker was, I remember when Secunda conducted, and at the Waldorf-Astoria, they used to hold it.  Not one, in one place. I, in the Waldorf, later in the Commodore, I mean the same evening — in the Commodore, at the Astor Hotel, and one year, we went to Manhattan Center.  That’s how many people had come to the Seder.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  And that was just for one particular organization.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  For one, that was for the Histadrut.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  So that the Arbeter Ring…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  The same…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  …probably had their own Third Seder.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=8550.0,8647.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/159","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  They, I appeared for the Arbeter Ring, too, with Sidor, in the Waldorf-Astoria, a number of times.  But the Histadrut — they had guest speakers from Israel. And they had, once, I think, Frank Sinatra was there; he had given some money for a hospital in Israel.  I mean, they used to have sensational, you know, advertisement; and so, but you saw, some of it is in the Yiddish papers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Right.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  But they were beautiful celebrations - I mean, pageants.  And a ballet.  Belle Dijar was the choreographer, whose husband was Chaim Ehrenreich. He was a critic, the music critic, or the theater critic for The Forverts.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Particularly in the years since you have retired from active singing as a performer, you have been a teacher and a coach to many, many artists.  And one avenue where you have coached has been in Jewish opera at the Y.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yeah, that was the Yiddish pronunciation.  I was the language coach there.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Which opera was that?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  That was Gimpel the Fool, by Bashevis Singer, with the music, original music by a young composer, David Schiff, who is, what — Carter, student of Carter.  You know? And he had written it in Yiddish, but his Yiddish was perhaps not, he didn’t know exactly the language so well. So, they decided that they needed me.  Except, I worked under a certain difficulty, because he at, they had learned originally the text before I worked with them.  And they, everything was wrong, and I had to undo everything.  You know?  They mispronounced everything. And then I had to come, and then I had other difficulty, with the director there, who… it was very hard.  But it was interesting then.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=8647.0,8787.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/160","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I remember I asked Weiner what he thought — that I should teach them the so-called classical Yiddish, Vilna, YIVO Klaal Yiddish, which is the, close to the Vilna Lithuanian pronunciation.  You know?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Hmmm.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Because on the Yiddish stage, they use a different dialect - the Valinian dialect, which I’m not familiar with.  So, Weiner said, “Of course,” because that’s how we all sang our songs on the concert stage. But then, the critic in The Forverts, whose name was Yitzhak Pelov, wrote that, “Masha Benya was teaching the Polish Jews of Frampel to speak literature.”  But I met Bashevis Singer at one of performances, and I said, “I hope you forgive me for, for converting your, your characters into literakis.”  And he, of course, he couldn’t, he didn’t pay attention to these things.  You know? But it was a very, they did it two seasons.  Once with… what was his name?  He was later — Bender, I think.  Bender, do you know?  A baritone?  I think his name is Bender.  I think he was at the Met even, later.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Were there any other works of that sort that you were involved in, in terms of coaching and…","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=8787.0,8880.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/161","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Not… no, no.  They, that was the only opera they performed in Yiddish.  Then, Robert Abelson, I believe, did it.  He was in it, too.  Lawrence Avery was in it, too.  And Annie Borenstein — I don’t know if you… she became a cantor.  And oh, Bender, Bender is the name of a baritone.  He sang later in, in another opera.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI remember when the opera comp-, I don’t know what… I got a letter to come to a meeting at the 92nd Street Y to the Board meeting of a Jewish opera company.  I don’t know who had recommended me, because frankly speaking, when I was very active as a Yiddish art singer, Yiddish song art singer, and Hebrew, I didn’t think that certain echelons in the Jewish music looked, you know, noticed me.  And they didn’t consider it much.  Jewish music was not such a great deal.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Who wasn’t considering it?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  There were, I know there were people who looked down on Yiddish, and they snubbed it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  In the Jewish music establishment?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=8880.0,8970.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/162","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  In the Jewish music establishment.  In fact, even in some organizations that requested Hebrew, but not Yiddish.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd I remember I sang for a group of women who belonged to B’nai B’rith, and they said to me, “Miss Benya, don’t do anything of Molly Picon’s repertoire.”  I said, “Don’t worry — I wouldn’t.”  Then I sang Engel and other songs, they said, “Oh!  We didn’t know such things existed in the Yiddish repertoire.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  What did you think of Molly Picon?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Charming, charming.  Charming.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  As a singer?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Great talent.  A great…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  As a singer — how was she as a singer?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  She had a lovely voice; she had a beautiful, ringing voice.  Beautiful.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen I saw her once, I was on tour in Toronto, and we had a free evening.  I went to the theater to see her — she was a little on the vulgar side, or so.  But she was there with her husband.  But, you know.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=8970.0,9028.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/163","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  Going back to Jewish musical organizations, through the years that you have been in America — you’ve been here since about 1938 — there were a number of organizations that had as their avowed cause the advancement of Jewish art music in its noblest form.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  I remember that there were concerts that I heard in Town Hall, instrumental concerts.  I don’t know if it was arranged by Milam or who arranged it.  In fact, WEVD had a very big library of instrumental music, of Jewish instrumental music, as well as non-Jewish.  And it was all thrown out.  But in, there were, I, I remember that in the beginning, when I first came here and I started to sing, I sang - I believe it may have been on 86th Street, maybe at the Reconstructionist Center - in a series of concerts that were arranged. Professor Rossovsky was involved. Jacob Weinberg, he gave a, he asked me once to participate in a concert of his music in Town Hall, too, and to sing the aria from Me HeChalutz.  But I couldn’t make it; I was busy.  And then Margaret Cuzzin, I think, sang it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  She was the wife of?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Chajes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Right.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=9028.0,9118.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/164","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  And in that series that I appeared on different evenings Every week there was another concert.  Rudinov sang and Levyash sang.  I don’t know if Anna Shomer Rotenberg still sang in those days, but I know I met her in, during that.  Those were really fine Jewish concerts, very serious.  I mean…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Were they well attended?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yes.  Of course.  The listeners, but most of the listeners came from, I would say, from Yiddish-speaking circles, you know.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Did you have any involvement with the Jewish Music Forum?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  No.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Did you ever sing for them?  Any programs?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Never.  I heard, I only heard a concert, I think the American Society for Jewish Music had a joint concert a couple of years ago at the Y.  No, I never sang…","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=9118.0,9175.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/165","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  The Jewish Music Forum was functioning from about 1940 through the middle 1950s, and I saw a listing for a concert of music by Jacob Schoenberg.  And they said that you were participating…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Oh really?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  You sang a couple of songs.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Maybe I did, maybe I don’t remember it.  I knew him.  He was from Berlin.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Yes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  He published a little book of Hebrew songs.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Right.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Uh, I knew him very well.  He was a critic, too, in Berlin.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  He wrote a review of you.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  In one of the Jewish-German papers, surely.  A very nice man.  I remember.  I didn’t know that he was… there was another one from Berlin — Oscar Gutmann, who was also a critic.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=9175.0,9216.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/166","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And then, I sang a lot for the Jewish Welfare Board, who used to engage… You know, they had a big booking agency that in those days. There was a whole catalogue of artists, you know, that you… and they sent me. Sam Freeman, I think, was, first there was a woman, and then Freeman was in charge of it.  And of course, as I say, I went for the Workmen’s Circle, for the schools and for the Hadassah and the Pioneer Women, Mizrahi Women.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  And what about, I wanted to ask you — you referred to this, I think this is the, was this the program, yeah — Gut Yontiff Juden, a dramatical musical montage with… this is the kind of the thing. I heard you say that the music, that Henoch Kon wrote music to words by Wolf Younin.  That had to do with American…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Well, this is very important.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  It was 200, 300 years America, or something.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Yeah.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  It was…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Yes, in ‘54, 1954 probably.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  That’s right.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  So that was the 300th anniversary of the first Jewish landing in the New World, in 1654, yeah.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yes, that what it is.  I don’t remember who wrote the script, but…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  It said Wolf Younin.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Oh, the whole script, yes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Well, I assume.  I mean, that would, I know they made a big, in 1954, in schools, for children, they were teaching them about you know, Jews in Amer-, there was no America…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yeah, that was…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  But it was in the First Congregation.  So what’s his name?  Sholem…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Sholem Alden?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Sholem Alden wrote a song called 1954, uh, 1654, that was distributed to all the schools.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  I remember I sang Home, Sweet Home, or something like that.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  But what I want to know was where could one find this whole thing?  Anywhere?  Supposing we wanted to record, now, parts of this show, exactly the way it was done, of Good Yontiff, Juden.  Where would we find…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  You’d have to find, Younin’s family must have the script.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=9216.0,9337.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/167","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Perhaps his widow would have.  He had, he left such an enormous number of scripts and archives that she’s — it’s a long time since he died, and she’s still working on it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  So she has it, she has the material.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  She may have it, yes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  And where does she live?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  She lives in Forest Hills, not far from me.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  We could contact her?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Because… but Henoch Kon’s music, that or…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  That is the biggest tragedy…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  He didn’t keep things.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  He didn’t keep… in fact, he didn’t keep it, he didn’t, he published one book, you know.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Yeah.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yeah.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  There was a book of ghetto songs, also.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  No.  There are two, two.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  But there’s another book.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  But a big of original songs which are very pretentious, but…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  There’s one or two that are nice in there.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yeah.  That’s right.  And then, he used to sell me a song.  And then he would borrow it and sell it to somebody else, because he needed the money.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  \u003cINAUDIBLE\u003e did that too.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  And he wrote original songs in pencil, and I recently traced some of it, even.  But I have a lot of it. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN: The other question, but back to this here.  You said there was, a song about the Hudson River.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=9337.0,9408.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/168","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  I have the music.  I have the song, the two songs — the Jewish farm, the Yiddishe Farmer, and the Hudson, Baim Hudson.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  That you have?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  I have.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  In that series, that was part of this show?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yeah.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  But those are the only two you have?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  There were others like that in this show, probably.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  No.  The rest were American songs, like I used to sing, I think Home, Sweet Home.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  What did \u003cSOUNDS LIKE Welichansky\u003e sing?  Did he sing songs, too?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  No.  In that, he was the narrator.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Well, but this whole thing was….\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  And an actor.  He did monologues.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  …about America, about Jewish life in America.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yeah.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  You see, this would be very good to get, because for example, you’re talking about, we’re talking about the history of Jewish music in America — that’s what other parts of this project are, you know, that I’m recording now.  This is something that really would be esoterica, and but, very significant.  You know?  This was in what year?  About.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  In the early ‘50s.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  In the ‘50s.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Yeah, ‘54, that’s right, about, it must have been ‘54.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yes.  Yes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  You see.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Here, for example, Hello Lanzmann!  The Sholem Aleichem, I don’t know what they did.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yeah, he did that.  They did…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Meshiach!  Meshiach, by…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Meshiach is by Avrom Reyzen.  That has nothing to do…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  But who is Kornblut?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=9408.0,9481.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/169","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Kornblit [as in Ita] is a lady who lived in Bessarabia.  I heard this song sung by Sarah Osnat Halevi, the Yemenite singer, if you remember her — she used to sing it with her low voice.  I knew Avrom Reyzen in person, so I said, “Khaver Reyzen, could I have the song?”  He says, Mitn shentstn koved.” I went to the Bronx to Reyzen’s home, and he gave me the music plus other songs that Miss, that Etta Kornblut wrote, which I never sang, but this is a very… I recall it — it’s on one of my records.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Meshiach?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yeah, but the rest of the program didn’t have to do with…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  With America?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  No, they were not all…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  But yeah.  I think it’s interesting, I mean the whole, but that doesn’t mean, it just said, “A dramatic musical montage of 300 years of Jewish life in America.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yeah, that was one part…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Yeah.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  And then we did individual…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Oh, that was part one, yeah.  So that’s what I’d be interested find — that part one.  Or maybe Yunen…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  I’m sure that she has it.  He never threw anything out.  Never.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e LEVIN:  Okay, that’s what I like.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Not even a bill.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=9481.0,9550.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/170","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  I like people like this.  Yeah, well.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNow, there’s somebody else, I don’t know if, did you mention Bugatch at all — did you discuss Bugatch?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Well, we mentioned him in passing; we didn’t go into detail on Bugatch.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Talk about Bugatch.  You knew Bugatch.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Of course.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Because, I remember that he called you — this was 1975, I think it was.  And he called you.  I was at his house, and he, there was some, he was looking for a song.  I’ll tell you what we were looking for.  We were looking for a song about Kesselgarden.  And it was a song that I told him and he had some recollection that I had read somewhere, that they had taken the song Faryomert farklogt and fitted it to a different text, about Kessel Garden.  And so, I remember he called you to find out if you knew anything about it that night.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  I didn’t know anything.  No, I don’t know anything.  But Faryomert farklogt — is that by Goldfaden?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  I don’t think so.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  I believe it is.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  I could look it up, I don’t remember.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  I believe it is.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Maybe. Da da da de dum…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yeah — Tucker recorded it, I think, on the Goldfaden record.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Is that what it is?  Yeah.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yeah.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  But there was a song, you know, a parody of this, to the Tucker, about Kesselgarden.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Oh.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  And…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Hmmm-mmm.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  And I was confused by it.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=9550.0,9627.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/171","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  No, I was in the house many times.  We were friends — they came to my place.  Unfortunately, as I say, I went even to the — Saul Tisman, did you ever…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  I don’t know who that is, but…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  He took me, we went together to the Workmen’s Circle Old Age Home to visit the Bugatch’s, the both of them there.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Oh, they were there?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  They were both there.  He was a critic in the Forverts.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Yeah, I know, yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=9627.0,9656.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/172","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  And he dared — there was a concert by Weiner, and he wrote a review about it, and he dared to criticize something.  I don’t know what; I don’t remember.  And Weiner took offense.  And he approached him. And Bugatch admitted that he didn’t hear the whole concert.  So Weiner said to him, “You’re no longer my friend.  I forbid you to write about me.  Even when I’ll be dead, I forbid you to write about me.”  And Bugatch, oh!  He took it so to heart.  He cried!  I met him on the street and he actually cried. That’s how, that was Weiner.  You know?  He could be…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Oh, yeah, difficult.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  I mean, because Bugatch dared to write something unflattering, you know?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Hmm-mmm.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=9656.0,9721.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/173","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  But as far as the music is concerned, the son shouldn’t tear, shed crocodile tears, because it’s his own fault.  When his father died, he didn’t bother taking the music and putting it in a safe place; he left it in a basement, and the ten-, the new owner of the house found it and took it to the shul there in Flushing.  And the shul turned it over to the Jewish Central Y on 108th Street in Forest Hills.  And then, I don’t know how it landed in Queens College.  And now it’s, it’s gone, nobody knows…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  It’s gone?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  They can’t find it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  In Queens College?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Maybe it, maybe Yossel Landis would know where to find it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Maybe.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  He was the professor there in charge of Jewish Studies.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=9721.0,9776.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/174","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  If you look at the category of American Yiddish song, You know, how you differentiate from Europe and America is not so black and white.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  They’re all, to me, they’re all American.  I found out about them in America.  I mean…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Well, Lazar Weiner, of course, most of his Yiddish lieder is…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Exactly.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Golub is…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA: Secunda is American.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Secunda’s American.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Secunda is American.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  What about Henoch Kon?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  I didn’t… pardon?  Henoch Kon?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Henoch Kon, too.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Okay…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  What about Paul Lemkoff?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  I don’t know.  Ka-ha.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  There’s only one song that’s well-known…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  There was another one — Schroegen also, who, I have a book…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  He was in, I met his…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  …he belonged to the…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  I talked to this daughter.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yeah, the leftists published a book of songs by Schroegen.  Some of them that are very nice that, like written — there’s a Babi Yar composition and some Mangel songs…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Where is it, is it available, the book, now?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  No.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  No.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  I don’t think so.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Our friend Kellemer — he knows about Schroegen.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  He knows, but it was a commie thing, yeah.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yeah, I know that, that Brodyn gave it to me…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Well…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA: …when he was in charge of the Myuzik Fareyn in the office there. He gave me a present.  Then, years later, he asked me to lend it to him.  And as they say in French, ’Khot zokh gemakht nisht visndik — I didn’t want to lend it to him, because I knew that I would never get it back.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut there were some nice…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  But you have it?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  I have it.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=9776.0,9865.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/175","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  Oh, good. Now, and what about, that reminds me — I’m sure you’ve talked about Rauch.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  The book was published…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Yeah.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA: …while he was alive.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Maurice Rauch.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yiddish is my Song.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  And he has a song Shifreles portret, and things like this.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yes.  Yes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Would you consider this American Yiddish?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yeah.  Why not?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  He grew up in America.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  He grew up in America; he studied in France.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  You spoke about Bracha Zefira?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  We just mentioned Bracha Zefira, we mentioned that Masha sang on a program with Bracha Zefira.  Right?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yeah.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  You sang Varnishkes, I think was it?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=9865.0,9901.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/176","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBENYA:\u003c/strong\u003e I sang the first time that I introduced Varnishkes that time.  It was a convention of the Farband in Asbury Park. And she was known.  I mean, she came, she was a star from Israel.  But this song that I heard from Moshe Koussevitzky, who brought it from Russia, made — they loved it, the Farband.  It became very popular afterwards.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=9901.0,9905.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/177","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"SEROTA:  Well, I wanted to ask one question, my concluding question.  You may have other points.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  How old are you?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  No, that was…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  I hate to tell you…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  No, Mr. Hilderman already asked you that question.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  I hate to tell you, but it’s published in a book.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Exactly.  It’s in the book.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Yeah.  Anyway, my question was this.  We live in a world right now where there is a Jewish country, where Hebrew is the national language, and I presume, since there is art music in Israel, and there’s art music in the Hebrew language, as long as there are people in Israel interested in art and music, there’s going to be a Hebrew art song in the land of Israel.  In the area, in the area of Yiddish music, Yiddish folk music and Yiddish art music, you’ve been working for many, many years with many artists or would-be artists or alleged artists who are attempting to gain a mastery of this kind of material.  And there is a gentleman who is in the Jewish music field who once wrote an article called Epitaph for Jewish Music — you recall this article?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Really?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  A pioneer in the field of Jewish music.   And the gist of the article was that a number of years ago, there was a whole assortment of individuals who, whose major artistic thrust was the Yiddish song.  And as of the time that this article was written, which was written probably about 25 years ago, the author of this particular article indicated, at that time, around 1970, that there was only one individual remaining in the world whose major artistic thrust was in the field of Yiddish song.  All the other people had either retired or died or left the Yiddish field, and the one person that he was referring to was Sidor Belarsky.  So as of, let’s say around 1970, there were no other people of repute, really, in the Yiddish field. Well, we may have Alexandrovich, who came here afterwards, a little bit, and a few other people.  But basically, you don’t find serious artists whose major area of expression is the Yiddish field. So, my question is, what is the future for all of this music that we’re talking about in terms of Weiner’s songs, and Golub, and we’re talking about Elsie wrote serious songs and Bugatch and Moshe Rauch, and the whole, it’s a whole…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Well, it’s not very promising, but once in a while, a miracle happens, you know?  So we, you have to rely on a nissim.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Ayn somchim a la nays..","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=9905.0,10080.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/178","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  Ayn somchim a la nays. Look — you are talking about the Yiddish song.  What about the Yiddish language?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  But a Yiddish song could exist even without a spoken Yiddish language.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Mmmm.  I don’t think so.  Only as a fossil, and then it’s, then it’s probably too…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Do you know that in Vilna, there was an opera.  They sang Italian operas and Russian operas in Yiddish.  There was an opera company, sung in Yiddish.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Before the war?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Before the war.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Alexandrovich — said he’d sing Von Yurgin before the war in Yiddish.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  In Vilna.  In Yiddish.  Seriously.  Not like Shvigaro, you see?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Yeah, not a joke.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  I understand yeah.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Not as a joke.  Even Robert Abelson, when he sings the aria of Figaro in Yiddish, it’s not…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  It’s meant to be a joke.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  It’s not like Albrecht sings Shvigaro.  Okay, so it’s funny. But to sing in Yiddish?  The minute they hear it’s in Yiddish, it’s funny already.  It’s a funny aria anyway.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Yeah.  But it’s…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Even in Italian.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  No, that part is meant to be humorous, just as there’s some certain Shakespeare things where…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Comic relief.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Meant to be comic.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  You know what I objected to that show in that show, Those Were the Days…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Yeah.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  On Broadway… \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  I saw it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  …when they sang all the Yiddish songs in English. He comes and he sings an Italian aria in Yiddish.  Why did they sing the Yiddish songs in English?  Because to make it, the people understand it.  So here he comes and sings an Italian aria in Yiddish because it’s funny.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  That’s right.  No, you’re right, that’s right.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  I think, so what, so is your answer, I mean, the question, basically was, can you foresee anybody…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Well…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  …is there such a thing as one artist who could make a career of only Yiddish song?  Yeah, something like that — is that what your question is?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  But Sidor sang a lot of Russian, too.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  Of course, in his latter stages, the last ten or 15 years, he basically made a parnassa in Hebrew and Yiddish.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yes, that’s right.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  He didn’t do too much in terms of other…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  He did, yes, yes.  Yeah.  And I heard a recital of Sidor’s once in Town Hall; he sang the Gray Man’s Aria from Yevgenya Yagin very nicely; and Laporello’s Aria, even.  You know?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=10080.0,10216.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/179","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  You’re not going to have, be able to have an audience, even in New York — how could you give even one program and have more than 50 people, 100 people?  If… you couldn’t give a Carnegie Hall recital of serious kunst lieder.  Yiddish kunst lieder.  Now.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  It was, as I say, I remember a concert of Sidor and Emma Schaver in Carnegie Hall.  All Yiddish and Hebrew.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  But now, if you did it, you would have to, at the very least, you would, wouldn’t you have to throw in at least half of popular theater, something — Mamelah?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Yeah.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEROTA:  You’d have to have a big orchestra.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  And you’ve have to have an orchestra, because everybody wants their orchestra.  With microphone.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  With a microphone.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Yes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  The louder the better.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  There’s your answer.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=10216.0,10260.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/180","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  But you know, that’s interesting.  I went to the first concert of Emile Gorovitz at the 92nd Street Y.  That was such a, a triumph, that you can’t imagine.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  What happened to him?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  You know why?  Because the Russians.  He was a big star in Russia - especially when he started singing pop music - because to sing Yiddish was very hard to come by.  They made difficulties; they couldn’t get a hold… the Russian government didn’t want them to sing Yiddish. Then he became estradni singer. Estradni is like a pop singer.  And he was very popular. And here, at the Y, all these Russian lansleit came — I remember people said, “We never had a chance to hear him in Russia — we couldn’t afford the tickets” and so on and so forth.  People were standing.  It was packed, you know?  And it was really exciting to see such a mob.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  But what was he singing?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=10260.0,10334.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/181","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"BENYA:  He was singing a lot of Yiddish, mostly Yiddish. But then, he started singing like here, pop music, too, with pre-recorded orchestrations accompanying him.  In Town Hall, he gave such a concert — it was horrible.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  What happened to him now?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Now, he sings on the radio occasionally as a program, and he — the worst is that he is a composer, too.  And all the songs sound, of his, sound like Wachichovia.  I don’t know. It’s… in fact, he is going to sing this coming Sunday.  There’s going to be a gathering with the widow of Peretz Markish, the poet who was killed by Stalin.  She lives in Israel now.  So, the \u003cSOUNDS LIKE Zhitlovsky Fundatsie — those are all \u003cSOUNDS LIKE Bif Shea [unknown to me]\u003e former communists, and Itche Goldberg b’rosh.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe’s the editor of the magazine, Yidishe Kultur — he was a professor at Queens College, a Yiddish professor.  And very, and man — he’s 90 years old, and brilliant.  And he is now the Zhitlovsky Foundation. They honored me last year and even Sylvia Younen — she’s a poet, too.  So, he will sing some songs there by Peretz Markish.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI hear him occasionally.  Beautiful voice, you know.  He has a really beautiful voice.  But his taste and the interpretation, I don’t know.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=10334.0,10437.0"},{"id":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731/transcript/24118/annotation/182","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"LEVIN:  Anything else you want to bring out?  I think we covered…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  I’ll probably think about it when I can’t sleep at night.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  But I think we covered all the things that we talked about.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  I just — nothing — I mean, that’s all.  I mentioned that I had to struggle; I had a life of struggling with pianists on the tours and on the road when I was alone without them. And it was… I can’t believe it, that I did it — that’s the main thing.  And I feel very lucky and fortunate that I am still remembered now and wanted even by the Hebrew Art School.  So…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  You’re wanted by everybody.  Yeah, listen.  There’s only one of you.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  It’s really something.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  All right.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBENYA:  Zeh hu, zeh hu zeh.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLEVIN:  Zeh hu for today.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://milken.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1159/collection_resources/39356/file/110731#t=10437.0,10506.1596"}]}]}]}