KSJH-B

HEROES-B ( KSJ Home) A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Moses died in 1896, leaving eight year old Israel to fend for himself. His talent for singing provided him with a living, singing in restaurants and, later, at Tony Pastor’s Music Hall, often credited as the birthplace of Vaudeville. In 1906 young Israel was hired as a singing waiter, an event which ultimately changed American music forever. He was asked to write a lyric to a parody song caled “Marie Of Sunny Italy”. It was published with a printer’s error, giving him the name Irving Berlin. He made a total of 37 cents for the song and decided to stick with his new name for the rest of his life.
 * Last Name, First Name || Short Description || Long Description||
 * Berlin, Irving || || On May 11, 1888 Moses Baline, a Jewish cantor and his wife in Temun, Russia, welcomed the arrival of the youngest of their eight children, Isadore. Escaping persecution, the family came to New York in 1893 and settled on the Lower East Side.

Irving Berlin went on to write some of the most varied popular songs in American history including “White Christmas” (from a Jewish boy, no less!) and “God Bless America”. He also wrote scores for musicals like “Call Me Madam”, “Annie Get Your Gun” and “Sayonara”.

Like the Jewish People, wandering from land to land, culture to culture, language to language, Irving Berlin was able to wander through the landscape of humanity, capturing the essence of things as varied as Christmas, America, Japan, the Wild West, and even a brothel, finding the common thread of human experience running through all of them and turning it into song. He also embodied the concept of “tzedukah”, or charity, donating all the profit from his show “This Is The Army”, totalling over ten million dollars (consider how much this was in 1943).

Irving Berlin died at the age of 101 in 1989.||