[78-L] Sam Levenson was Yiddish Home on the range

[Michael Biel]

From: Donna Halper
> > And do any of you recall hearing any spoken word 78s by
> > Sam Levinson? When I was growing up, he was a very popular
> > comedian and some of his routines (partly in Yiddish and
> > partly in English) were frequently played in my house.
> > My parents loved him.

From: "Thomas Stern" <sternth at attglobal.net>
> digging a little, found 4 Apollo 10"-78rpm discs, and 1 LP
> ARE THERE OTHER RECORDS?

YES!!!  But unfortunately not many.  

There is a very rare 5th Apollo, so rare that it is not even in Sam's
own collection.  I found it in a C&W collection in Huntington, West
Virginia!!!!!  

Apollo 200
Baby C-2257-1D2-KB
Birthday Party C-2238-1D1-KA (misprint on label as C-2235)

And there is a single track on a 2-LP set "Cricket and Other Friends"
Open Court Publishing Co. 23956 CM-101  [circa 1971]
A Hike In New York City  

In Sam's collection there were a number of home and studio recorded
lacquers which seem to be demonstrations and/or rehearsals of some of
the Apollo routines.  There was a lot of Yiddish in the released
routines, yet when he first appeared on TV less than three years later,
he never ever uttered even one word of Yiddish.  His routines were
COMPLETELY in English.  Every word.  Unfortunatly the scrapbook for this
era is missing and Leah and I could not yet determine who told him to
change.  BUT one of the rehearsal discs is for the routine Baby,
originally called "Raising Baby" with one side marked "99% English" and
the other side contains a lot of Yiddish but the label is marked "Other
Side Better".  The routines are not translations of each other but are
mainly different, with the English one being about 1 1/2 minutes longer.
 There are no 1940s radio broadcast recordings in his collection other
than two August 1948 interviews on a small local Catskill Mountains
station WVOS which do not mention the records, but promote his Meet the
Folks newspaper column.  By 1950 he was on his way to becoming a TV
star.  There is a kine of his CBS-TV debut and audio recordings of
almost every TV appearance he ever made except I didn't find Ed Sullivan
shows.  The large group of Two For the Money kines turn out to be Herb
Shriner versions, not his own.  No explanation.  We do have his first
TFTM from Game Show Network -- which his collection does not seem to
have -- and he gives a generous introduction to his announcer Ed McMahon
who HE brought to New York network tv BEFORE Carson did.  McMahon
ignores Levenson in all his writings and interviews.  

Levenson has been largely forgotten but at one time he was one of the
top ten TV stars. His CBS TV debut was the 20 minute filler for Jack
Benny's 40 minute TV debut, and Levenson got better reviews than
Benny!!!!!  He seemed to be on TV almost as much as Arthur Godfrey, and
was Godfrey's replacement when Godfrey became ill.  Once he started
writing his books, he dropped all his regular TV and appeared only to
promote the books.  That one LP of his is not a comedy record, but is a
warm talk about family relations.  He did continue to make hundreds of
appearances at local Jewish groups in NYC and many of them were
recorded.  If you Google him, most of what you find are listings of his
books for sale.  Leah and I want to try to promote him, but the holder
of his archive doesn't seem agreeable to that.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com

===========

From: Thomas Stern

Apollo 156
Sam Levenson Jewish Comedy Monologue
A The Family Goes to Coney Island C-2134
B Story of a Bar Mitzvah Boy C-2135

Apollo 172, 173 Jewish Novelty
Sam Levenson.
Basic Yiddish
 Lesson I Business Administration C-2164
 Lesson II Kosher Kalories C-2167

 Lesson III Family Life C-2165
 Lesson IV Kloles C-2166

Apollo 186
Sam Levenson
A My landlady (Sam Levenson). C-2235
B The lodge meeting (Sam Levenson) C-2236


Signature SM1026 12" LP
LEVENSON, SAM: But Seriously Folks,
 Mamas go home
 The fourth R
 Shirley's mother
 The atom of divinity
 What harm can it do?
 It's greater than you think
 Ain't she cute
 Happy, happier, happiest
 Tug-o-war
 Let's get together
 In closing.



-----Original Message-----

Sent: Wednesday, June 03, 2009 10:16 PM
To: 78-L Mail List
Subject: Re: [78-L] Yiddish Home on the range


Apollo 172, 173
Sam Levinson.
Basic Yiddish
172 Lesson I "Business Administration" C-2164
172 Lesson II "Kosher Kalories"
 Lesson III "Kloles"

173 Lesson III is "Family Life." C-2165 Jewish Novelty
173 Lesson Iv Kl