Researching Yiddish penny songs (tenement song broadsides of theater and variety show songs, 1895-1925)
Index of songs on this site
Youtube: all the Penny Songs I've recorded so far (with subtitles)
About this project ♦ ♦ About Jane Peppler
List of the still-lost songs: do you know any of them?
Search the blog:

UPDATE: In a collection from YIVO of publications called Lider Magazin (sent to me by Vivi Lachs) I found another set of lyrics for this song ("sung by Madame Finkel"). If anybody cares I'll post a translation. Here it is, click for a larger view.





This tune was supposedly from a Goldfaden operetta called "Bais Duwed" of which I can't find mention online. I found the lyrics, along with Der Tsiferblat, at Harvard -- written out longhand in Yiddish cursive by the composer, Oscar Solomonescu, and notated: for Pepi Littman, New York. And what a great song it is! I just can't believe this amazing tune, found for me by Michael Aylward, sung here by the magnificent Frank Seiden: Menner Menner, von Bais Duwed

And here's my version, sung this morning (the first time I've tried singing since our wretched election).


The composer, Osias Solomonescu, was born April 1869 in Yasi, Romania, to poor, Orthodox parents. Orphaned early, and penniless, but blessed with a beautiful voice, he found a home in some Romanian Yiddish theater troupe, where he sang in the chorus and played children's roles. His first adult role was Benyominl in Goldfaden's "Podriatshik" and after that he began playing comic roles, especially dressing as and playing a woman. He came to American in 1901 and played at the Eldorado. He also worked as a stage manager and "episode actor" in the Bronx Prospect Theater and in Philadelphia's Orchard Street Theater.

He wrote many theater songs most of which he sang himself. While still in Romania he translated the one act "The Red Trousers," which was later shown in Yiddish variety houses. Zylberzweig: "Solomonescu was unique in the Yiddish actors' world with his humorous letters, in which he described that era of the Yiddish theater." I'll have to look for that.

I think it's quite interesting that Solomonescu -- an actor known for playing women's roles in drag --  wrote these two songs for Pepi, an actress known for playing men's roles in drag (or at least, she played women pretending to be men). Quite modern.

Back to Frank Seiden (of whom I have not found a picture) -- he was one of the earliest Yiddish recording artists in America. I love his records even though they're very scratchy. Peter Nahon via MachineWhisperer.com avers that Seiden "led a wild life, winning a bar in New York's bowery during a poker game and tending bar there after his recording career was over."

One sees at ancestry.com that he was born in 1861 or 1862 in Austria/Galicia, immigrated in 1876 and was naturalized in 1886. He had one wife, Rachael, and four children: Jacob, Eva, Amalia/Mary, Joseph. He was listed in 1900 in Manhattan as a phonograph dealer, in 1905 in Brooklyn as an actor, in 1910 as "Vaudeville" in 1920 he was retired or unemployed. He was perhaps the Frank Seiden who died September 1926 and is buried at Mount Hebron cemetery in Flushing, Queens.

I hope some descendant will get in touch at some point and email me his picture!

Words and translation after the jump.



MENER MENER (MENNER MENNER)


I'm not one of those very rich girls.
I don't have any pretty dresses, I don't care about them
I can give a couple of punches, you'd be amazed
I swear on my life, I'm happiness for a man
Well, what good is a thin, elegant girl with a lot of earnings?
Whatever happens, you're going to have to run take her straight to the doctor

Oy vey, men, oy vey, don't you go believing
That because she's prettier, you'll be happy
Beauty? Forget about it. Because I know, clearly:
You'll be miserable if she's not healthy.

If a man insults me, let him not deceive himself,
I'll shame him with some fine blows.
Maybe he'll want to embarrass me by telling everybody,
I'll give him "gifts"! He'll remember me for a year!
What good is a fine family background to you, the devil take it?
Remember, you'll have misery ...with those elegant weak girls, even if they're rich
They're useless.

My fiance is, I swear, no fool. They've tried to make him lots of matches
But he doesn't want them because he only wants a fat bride.
But I please him, he burns for me,
He wants to get married because I have fat arms.
What good is some problem woman to him? He wants an efficient housewife
Who can bring him happiness
He says she has to be strong, with a red neck and thick thighs.

---

For sheet music and/or performances contact me: jane@mappamundi.com

---

Labels: battle between the sexes, humor, marriage, morality, wedding