Yiddish Curiosities: a library of wonderful but forgotten Yiddish songs from the late 1920s and after (includes Polish Jewish Cabaret). Have a listen!

Ben Chasin, long-ago resident of Warsaw, called me last night. He said things were pretty good until 1935 when Józef Piłsudski died. Ben left Poland in the first week of the war, with the Polish army, going east into the Soviet Union.

I asked him, who were the big female stars? He mentioned Dina Halperin, Lucy Gehrman (wife of Mishe Gehrman), and especially Lola Folman, whose husband Yitskhok Perlov wrote lyrics to the songs she composed. She sang at the Yidishe Bande. He remembered Nellie Casman, who was a star who came to Warsaw from America.

He remembered Bolesław Norski-Nożyca, the singer mentioned in one of my small Warsaw theater-song booklets as being the singer of the very funny song "Moniek Przepiórko" - Ben said N-N used to sing songs in the movie theaters before the curtain rose! (Much better than a popcorn ad.) He sang 'Oy Madagaskar' and 'Abyssinia'...