Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.089 August 18, 1994 1) Bei Mir Bistu Shein [sic] (Johnny Mangaard) 2) Bei Mir Bistu Shein [sic] (Ellen Prince) 3) Bei Mir Bistu Shein [sic] (Jules Levin) 4) Bei Mir Bistu Shein [sic] (Bob Rothstein) 5) Bei Mir Bistu Shein [sic] (Louis Fridhandler) 6) Bei Mir Bistu Shein [sic] (Noyekh Miller) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 18 Aug 1994 01:14:35 EET From: MANGAARD@KATK.helsinki.fi Subject: Bay mir bistu sheyn 'ch gloyb dos zol heysn: bay mir bistu di sheynste oyf _der_ welt. Johnny Mangaard 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 17 Aug 1994 20:24:50 EDT From: ellen@central.cis.upenn.edu Subject: Bay mir bistu sheyn mitchell brown, bay mir bistu sheyn was written by sholem secunda, in yiddish. i have heard a perhaps apocryphal story that he didn't make a cent on it, but let's not deny him his authorship too! i don't have the lyrics on hand but they start out something like: bay mir bistu sheyn, bay mir hostu kheyn, bay mir bistu di shenste oyf der velt. ------------- jay lee, wow, i never noticed 'der bingl' in 'rum and coca cola'! i just dug out my old record and there it is, clear as day--now that you've told me! but my recording has slightly different english lyrics from the ones you wrote: in old trinidad, i also fear, the situation is mighty queer. like the yankee girl, the native swoon when she hear der bingl croon. at first i thought 'der' was their 'dialect' version of 'their', but that wouldn't explain 'bingl', so you're probably right on 'der' as well. (this has to be one of the most racist and sexist popular songs i've ever heard, btw. or a different kind of 'p.c.'...painful cringe.) anyway, thanks for pointing it out. ellen prince 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 17 Aug 1994 17:03:20 -0700 (PDT) From: JFLEVIN@UCRAC1.UCR.EDU Subj: Bai mir bist du shein... What I heard was that the song originated on the professional Yiddish musical stage in America; maybe Sammy Cahn WAS the composer. From there it travelled all over the world, since the Yiddish stage circuit included South America, Poland, Romania, etc. At some point the English translation was cut. Although I can't prove the chronology, I can vouch for the travel. At a UCLA Slavic dept party some time in the late 70's I believe, the great Slavicist Isachenko (no Jew, but his father apparently had been one of the lawyers who defended Beilis), played the song on a mandolin, singing it in Russian! (except of course for the title line, as in English). When I asked him where he learned it, he said it was a song from Odessa! Apparently the musical circuit included Odessa in the 30's. --Jules Levin 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 17 Aug 1994 23:09:07 -0400 (EDT) From: rar@slavic.umass.edu Subject: Bei Mir Bistu Shein [sic] The song in question, with Yiddish words by Jacob Jacobs and music by Sholom Secunda, was first published as "Bei Mir Bistu Shein" on September 25, 1933 by the composer. It was written for the show _I Would If I Could_, where it was introduced by Aaron Lebedeff in 1932. Secunda sold the copyright for a pittance to the music publishers J. & J. Kammen. They published it with English words by Sammy Cahn and Saul Chaplin under the title "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen." (The story can be found in the book of that title, a biography of Sholom Secunda written by his daughter.) A Yiddish edition published by Kammen c. 1937 with the title "Bei Mir Bistu Shain" on the outside and "Bei Mir Bistu Shein" on the inside has the following text (transcribed here in YIVO orthography but reflecting the stage pronunciation that makes the rhymes work: --Ven di zolst zayn shvarts vi a tuter, ven di host oygn vi bay a kuter un ven di hinkst tsibislekh, host hiltserne fislekh, zug ikh, dus art mikh nit. Un ven di host a narishn shmeykhl un ven di host Vayzusyes seykhl, ven di bist vild vi indianer, bist afile a galitsyaner, zug ikh, dus art mikh nit. --Zug mikh, vi erklersti dus? --Khvel dir zugn bald farvus: Bay mir bisti sheyn. Bay mir hosti kheyn. Bist eyne bay mir oyf der velt. Bay mir bisti git. Bay mir hosti "it." Bay mir bisti tayerer fin gelt. Fil sheyne meydlekh hobn shoyn gevolt nemen mikh un fin zey ale oysgeklibn hob ikh nor dikh. Bay mir bisti sheyn. Bay mir hosti kheyn. Bist eyne bay mir oyf der velt. (Perhaps someone who knows the theater dialect better than I could make any necessary corrections.) Bob Rothstein 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 17 Aug 94 23:41:16 EDT From: 74064.1661@compuserve.com Subject: Bay Mir Bistu Sheyn Bay mir bistu sheyn was originally in Yiddish. It was written by Sholem Secunda for a show, probably at a Second Avenue theater. My memory of the words reaches no further than that of Martin Davis. Louis Fridhandler 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 18 Aug 94 12:35 From: nmiller@trincoll.edu Subject: Bay Mir Bistu Sheyn When Bob Rothstein says it's so, it's so. But memory says that the line: Bist eyne bay mir oyf der velt went: Bay mir bist di shenste in der velt. So I'm in trouble not only with Bob but with Ellen and Johnny who say 'oyf'. May I try a wild guess? There were two versions. Meyle, Lebedeff could sing to his basherte that her charms were only of his beholding. By the time the song hit the Catskills and every khasene from New York to Miami, something more conventional was needed. *** Jay Lee and Ellen Prince: do you assume that the phrase "der Bingl" in "Rum and Coca Cola" is Yiddish? Maybe so, but not in my experience. On the other hand, Bing Crosby was _very_ popular in Germany and during the war (indeed as Gau Westmark aka Alsace-Lorraine was the front) I heard a piece by der Bingl on German radio. Noyekh Miller ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.089 A Table of Contents is now available via anonymous ftp, along with weekly updates. Anonymous ftp archives available on: ftp.mendele.trincoll.edu in the directory pub/mendele/files Archives available via gopher on: gopher.cic.net Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line. 2. Sign your article. Send articles to: mendele@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu Other business: nmiller@mail.trincoll.edu