Ben Bernie born Bernard Anzelevitz, was an American jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

ist and radio personality

Radio personality

A radio personality is a person with an on-air position in radio broadcasting. A radio personality can be someone who introduces and discusses various genres of music, hosts a talk radio show that may take calls from listeners, or someone whose primary responsibility is to give news, weather,...

, often introduced as The Old Maestro. He was noted for his showmanship and memorable bits of snappy dialogue.

Bernie was born in Bayonne, New Jersey

Bayonne, New Jersey

Bayonne is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. Located in the Gateway Region, Bayonne is a peninsula that is situated between Newark Bay to the west, the Kill van Kull to the south, and New York Bay to the east...

. By the age of 15 he was teaching violin, but this experience apparently diminished his interest in the violin for a time. He returned to music doing vaudeville

Vaudeville

Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...

, appearing with Phil Baker as Baker and Bernie, but he met with little success until 1922 when he joined his first orchestra. Later, he had his own band, "The Lads," seen in the early DeForest Phonofilm

Phonofilm

In 1919, Lee De Forest, inventor of the audion tube, filed his first patent on a sound-on-film process, DeForest Phonofilm, which recorded sound directly onto film as parallel lines. These parallel lines photographically recorded electrical waveforms from a microphone, which were translated back...

 sound short, Ben Bernie and All the Lads

Ben Bernie and All the Lads

Ben Bernie and All the Lads is a short film made in 1923 by Lee De Forest in the DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film process. The film features Ben Bernie conducting his band All The Lads, and features pianist Oscar Levant....

(1924–1925), featuring pianist Oscar Levant

Oscar Levant

Oscar Levant was an American pianist, composer, author, comedian, and actor. He was more famous for his mordant character and witticisms, on the radio and in movies and television, than for his music.-Life and career:...

. He toured with Maurice Chevalier

Maurice Chevalier

Maurice Auguste Chevalier was a French actor, singer, entertainer and a noted Sprechgesang performer. He is perhaps best known for his signature songs, including Louise, Mimi, Valentine, and Thank Heaven for Little Girls and for his films including The Love Parade and The Big Pond...

 and also toured in Europe.

Bernie's orchestra recorded throughout the 1920s and 1930s; Vocalion

Vocalion Records

Vocalion Records is a record label active for many years in the United States and in the United Kingdom.-History:Vocalion was founded in 1916 by the Aeolian Piano Company of New York City, which introduced a retail line of phonographs at the same time. The name was derived from one of their...

 (1922–1925), Brunswick

Brunswick Records

Brunswick Records is a United States based record label. The label is currently distributed by E1 Entertainment.-From 1916:Records under the "Brunswick" label were first produced by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company...

 (1925–1933), Columbia

Columbia Records

Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...

 (1933), Decca

Decca Records

Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....

 (1936), and ARC (Vocalion and OKeh) (1939–1940). In 1925 Ben Bernie and his orchestra did the first recording of Sweet Georgia Brown

Sweet Georgia Brown

"Sweet Georgia Brown" is a jazz standard and pop tune written in 1925 by Ben Bernie and Maceo Pinkard and Kenneth Casey .The tune was first recorded on March 19, 1925 by bandleader Ben Bernie, resulting in a five-week No. 1 for Ben Bernie and his Hotel Roosevelt Orchestra...

. Bernie was the co-composer of this jazz standard, which became the theme song of the Harlem Globetrotters

Harlem Globetrotters

The Harlem Globetrotters are an exhibition basketball team that combines athleticism, theater and comedy. The executive offices for the team are currently in downtown Phoenix, Arizona; the team is owned by Shamrock Holdings, which oversees the various investments of the Roy E. Disney family.Over...

. (His Vocalion and Brunswick records were always listed as Ben Bernie and His Orchestra; only his Columbia records used the moniker "Ben Bernie and All The Lads".)

Radio

His musical variety radio shows through the 1930s, usually titled, Ben Bernie, The Old Maestro, were hugely successful, with ratings placing him among radio's top ten programs. He was heard on radio as early as 1923, broadcasting on WJZ

WABC (AM)

WABC , known as "NewsTalkRadio 77 WABC" is a radio station in New York City. Owned by the broadcasting division of Cumulus Media, the station broadcasts on a clear channel and is the flagship station of Cumulus Media Networks...

 and the NBC Blue Network in 1930-31, sponsored by Mennen

Mennen

Mennen is a brand owned in most parts of the world by the Colgate-Palmolive Company. Its most notable product, Mennen Speed Stick, with its fougère perfume and green wide stick, was the market leader among deodorants and antiperspirants for men for many years...

. After a 1931-32 run on CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

, sponsored by Pabst Beer

Pabst Brewing Company

Pabst Brewing Company is an American company that dates its origins to a brewing company founded in 1844 by Jacob Best and by 1889 named after Frederick Pabst. It is currently the holding company contracting for the brewing of over two dozen brands of beer and malt liquor from defunct companies...

 (during Prohibition

Prohibition in the United States

Prohibition in the United States was a national ban on the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol, in place from 1920 to 1933. The ban was mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and the Volstead Act set down the rules for enforcing the ban, as well as defining which...

, they sold malt syrup, the primary ingredient in brewing "homemade beer"), he was heard Tuesdays on NBC from 1932 to 1935, also with Pabst. His announcer during this period was Jimmy Wallington

Jimmy Wallington

James "Jimmy" Wallington was an American radio personality.After playing small roles in a few Hollywood films, he was the announcer for several popular radio shows in the 1940s and 1950s....

.

On the Blue Network from 1935 to 1937, Bernie's sponsor was the American Can Company

American Can Company

The American Can Company was a manufacturer of tin cans. It was a member of the Tin Can Trust, that controlled a "large percentage of business in the United States in tin cans, containers, and packages of tin." It was formerly a member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average from 1959–1991, though...

. He returned to CBS in 1938, sponsored by U.S. Rubber. With Half-&-Half Tobacco as a sponsor, he did a musical quiz program of CBS from 1938 to 1940. From 1940-41, Bromo-Seltzer

Bromo-Seltzer

Bromo-Seltzer , is an antacid used to relieve pain occurring together with heartburn, upset stomach, or acid indigestion. Originally produced by inventor Isaac E...

 was his sponsor on the Blue Network. Wrigley's Gum sponsored The Ben Bernie War Workers' Program (1941–43). He also made guest appearances on other radio shows.

His theme was "It's a Lonesome Old Town" and his signature trademark, "yowsah, yowsah, yowsah" (also spelled "yowsa" or "yowza"), became a national catchphrase. The term was memorably used by a character in the 1969 film They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, and revived by the band Chic

Chic (band)

Chic was an African American disco and R&B band that was organized during 1976 by guitarist Nile Rodgers and bassist Bernard Edwards. It is known best for its commercially successful disco songs, including "Dance, Dance, Dance " , "Everybody Dance" , "Le Freak" , "I Want Your Love" , "Good Times"...

 in 1977 with their hit "Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)".

Announcers for Bernie's programs included Harlow Wilcox, Harry von Zell

Harry von Zell

Harry von Zell , born in Indianapolis, made his mark as an announcer of radio programs and an actor in films and television shows....

 and Bob Brown. With comedy from Lew Lehr

Lew Lehr

Lew Lehr was a comedian, writer and editor known for his humorous contributions to Fox Movietone News, his radio appearances and his popular catchphrase, "Monkeys is the cwaziest peoples."...

 and Fuzzy Knight

Fuzzy Knight

John Forrest "Fuzzy" Knight was an American film and television actor. He appeared in over 180 films between 1929 and 1967, usually as a cowboy hero's sidekick.-Biography:...

, the line-up of vocalists included Buddy Clark, Little Jackie Heller, Scrappy Lambert, Pat Kennedy, Jane Pickens, Dinah Shore

Dinah Shore

Dinah Shore was an American singer, actress, and television personality...

 and Mary Small.

To boost ratings, Walter Winchell

Walter Winchell

Walter Winchell was an American newspaper and radio gossip commentator.-Professional career:Born Walter Weinschel in New York City, he left school in the sixth grade and started performing in a vaudeville troupe known as Gus Edwards' "Newsboys Sextet."His career in journalism was begun by posting...

 and Bernie, who were good friends, staged a fake rivalry similar to the comedic conflict between Jack Benny

Jack Benny

Jack Benny was an American comedian, vaudevillian, and actor for radio, television, and film...

 and Fred Allen

Fred Allen

Fred Allen was an American comedian whose absurdist, topically pointed radio show made him one of the most popular and forward-looking humorists in the so-called classic era of American radio.His best-remembered gag was his long-running mock feud with friend and fellow comedian Jack Benny, but it...

. This mutually beneficial "feud" was a running gag on their radio appearances and continued in two films in which they portrayed themselves: Wake Up and Live

Wake Up and Live

Wake Up and Live is a 1937 Fox musical film directed by Sidney Lanfield and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck. The movie stars Walter Winchell, Ben Bernie and Alice Faye and was based upon the self-help bestseller by Dorothea Brande...

(1937) and Love and Hisses (1937). They are also caricatured in the Warner Bros.

Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

 cartoons The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos as "Ben Birdie" and "Walter Finchell" and The Coo-Coo Nut Grove

The Coo-Coo Nut Grove

The Coo-Coo Nut Grove is a Warner Brothers Merrie Melodies short animated film, set in the famed Cocoanut Grove of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles...

(1936) as "Ben Birdie" and "Walter Windpipe".

Ben Bernie was noted for always having a cigar in hand and some speculate this may have hastened his death in 1943.

Bernie was a free-mason, member of Keystone Lodge n.º 235, New York City

Selected Ben Bernie discography

• "Marching Along Together"

Ben Bernie & All The Lads
August 21, 1933
Columbia 2804-D, mx.W-152461-2

• "We Won't Have To Sell The Farm"

Ben Bernie & All The Lads
August 21, 1933
Columbia 2804-D, mx.W-152462-3

• "The Duke Is On A Bat Again"

Ben Bernie & All The Lads
August 21, 1933
Columbia 2809-D, mx.W-152475

• "Ain't That Marvelous"

Ben Bernie & All The Lads
August 21, 1933
Columbia 2809-D, mx.W-152476-2

• "This Is Romance"

Ben Bernie & All The Lads -
Voc. Frank Prince.
Sept. 19, 1933
Columbia 2820-D, mx.W-152502-2

• "You Gotta Be A Football Hero"

Ben Bernie & All The Lads
Sept. 19, 1933
Columbia 2820-D, mx.W-152503-1

• "Shanghai Lil"

Ben Bernie & All The Lads
Sept. 26, 1933
Columbia 2824-D, mx.W-152512

• "Who's Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf"

Ben Bernie & All The Lads
Sept. 26, 1933
Columbia 2824-D, mx.W-152513

External links

• Biography
• http://www.redhotjazz.com/berniephonofilm.htmlBen Bernie and All the Lads (1924-25) made in Phonofilm
  Phonofilm
  In 1919, Lee De Forest, inventor of the audion tube, filed his first patent on a sound-on-film process, DeForest Phonofilm, which recorded sound directly onto film as parallel lines. These parallel lines photographically recorded electrical waveforms from a microphone, which were translated back...
  
  by Lee DeForest]