1938: Arthur Tracy, The Street Singer - Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen

The Street Singer (Arthur Tracy) – Bei mir bist du schön (Secunda) with Instrumental Accomp., Decca c. 1938 (UK)

NOTE: Arthur TRACY (aka The Street Singer) - American/Yiddish singer and performer, born Abba Avrom Trasovitzky 1899 in Kamieniec Podolski in the Kingdom of Poland, then occupied by the Russian Empire, today in Ukraine - died 1997 in New York. At the age of 7 he moved with his family to the US, where they settled in Philadelphia. As a child, he suffered poverty and sang on the street (hence his later nickname The Street Singer). He began studying architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, but soon dropped out to become a professional singer. In 1924 he went to New York, where he performed and sang in vaudeville shows on the stages of the influential Shubert Organization on Broadway (the Shuberts were also Jewish immigrants from imperial Russia). After his success, he was offered a 15-minute show on CBS, which brought him popularity. To avoid embarrassing his family, Arthur Tracy used the pseudonym The Street Singer and kept his identity a secret until 1931, when he got his own big show on CBS and his radio fans demanded to know his identity. In 1932 he went to Hollywood, where he starred in musical films with many big stars such as the Groucho brothers, Bing Cosby and Kate Smith. In 1935 he was invited to the UK to perform at the London Palladium and toured extensively for several years, appearing on radio programs, recording albums and taking part in 4 British films. A month before the outbreak of World War II, Arthur Tracy decided to return to New York. He successfully continued his career after the war, becoming one of the most popular recording artists of his time in the US. Sarcastically and in reference to his style and the sentimental ballads he sang, he was sometimes called "the king of American and British housewives." In the 1950s, his singing style gradually became passé and Tracy decided to retire. One of his most enduring hits was the song "Pennies from Heaven." He died in Manhattan at the age of 97. A year before his death, Arthur Tracy was awarded a gold record in honor of the huge sales of his albums for 60 years.
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Bay Mir Bistu Shein" (Yiddish: בײַ מיר ביסטו שעהן, [ˌbaj ˈmir ˌbistu ˈʃehn], "To Me You're Beautiful") is a popular Yiddish song written by lyricist Jacob Jacobs and composer Sholom Secunda for a 1932 Yiddish language comedy musical „I Would If I Could” (in Yiddish, Men Ken Lebn Nor Men Lost Nisht, "You could live, but they don't let you"), which closed after one season at the Parkway Theatre in Brooklyn, New York City. The score for the song transcribed the Yiddish title as "Bay Mir Bistu Sheyn". The original Yiddish version of the song (in C minor) is a dialogue between two lovers. The song became a worldwide hit when recorded by The Andrews Sisters under a Germanized title as "Bei mir bist du schön" in November 1937. and has been classified as the world's best-known and longest-reigning Yiddish pop song of all time.

Considering Arthur Tracy’s “Polish” connotations in his biography, I therefore chose for the slideshow some photohraphs of the Jewish life and Jewish places about time of Tracy’s emigration from Kamienec Podolski to America.