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Topic: Issy Bonn Information

1st Jan 2024, 2:46 PM
	Mike Wilson1 Musicologist Member since Dec 2019 26 Points	Issy Bonn (born Benjamin Levin on the 21st April 1903) was a British comedian, singer, actor, & theatrical agent whose signature song was the well known "My Yiddishe Momme". He was born into a Jewish family in Whitechapel London, the son of a butcher. As a boy, he started singing & entertaining, but his family disapproved of his interest in the Music Hall so he was sent to Canada to live with relatives. When he returned, he joined an existing comedy & singing group called The Three Rascals using the stage name Benny Levine & went solo in the early 1920s. He took the stage name Issy Bonn at the suggestion of BBC Radio producer John Sharman, who produced a popular programme, John Sharman's Music Hall, and made his first radio appearance on the show in 1935, billed as "The Hebrew Vocal Raconteur". He combined sentimental songs such as "My Yiddish Momme" and "Let Bygones Be Bygones", with Jewish humour and sketches, many featuring the fictitious Finkelfeffer family. Issy Bonn made over a thousand radio broadcasts on programmes such as Variety Bandbox & reputedly had a repertoire of over 500 songs. He also regularly toured South Africa. He appeared in the films I Thank You and Discoveries where he played a Mr. Schwitzer. He made his first recordings in 1942 for the Rex label, later recording for Decca & Columbia. He toured Europe with ENSA & after the Second World War wrote and starred in his own road shows including The Big Broadcasts and The Melody Lingers On. In the 1950s, his style of humour, trading on traditional Jewish stereotypes went out of fashion, but he continued to appear on radio, television & in pantomimes and toured often with the popular trumpeter Eddie Calvert. He later retired from performing, became a theatrical agent and a producer of variety shows around the country. He made his last appearance as a performer in 1963. His image appears on the cover of The Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band….His recordings are still treasured but there is just one that I have not been able to get….Does anyone have “Goodnight Children Everywhere” which was released as HMV B.D, 797….A 78, a recording or mp3….Anything !!