Biography
Born Benjamin Levine on 21 April 1893 in London, England, the future performer died in the same city exactly eighty-four years later. An early flair for entertaining prompted his disapproving Jewish father to dispatch him to Canada, yet he returned and entered the Three Rascals, a comedy-and-song troupe, before striking out alone in the early 1920s. On the music-hall circuit he mixed Jewish humor with sentimental numbers such as “Let Bygones Be Bygones” and his signature piece “My Yiddishe Momma,” then moved into radio work in 1935. BBC listeners soon embraced his Finkelfeffer sketches on programs including Music Hall and Variety Bandbox, while ENSA engagements carried him across wartime Europe. From the late 1940s onward he devised and headlined his own revues—The Big Broadcasts and The Melody Lingers On among them—supplementing these with pantomime appearances and occasional straight film roles. Television absorbed him successfully during the 1950s, notably when he recreated Music Hall material in a 1952 broadcast. By the following decade his robust vocal manner and conventional humor sat awkwardly amid the era’s satirical turn, prompting retirement from the stage in favor of theatre management. He passed away in London on his birthday in 1977.
Albums