19, 1947 episode of “Forward Hour” on WEVD and credited to humorist Louis Markowitz. While it’s not clear who wrote the skit, a guess might be the author of the companion Getzel Banner 78: “Getzel at a Baseball Game.”Īround the same time the Banner disc was made, a longer version of the monologue, “Berl Bass Shpilt Baseball/Berl Bass Plays Ball” was performed by Zvee Scooler on a Dec. A dollar a ticket? But I see everyone grabbing a ticket and God knows what sort of bargain this is so now they have my dollar, too and they let me in.”

Until I come to a place they wouldn’t let you in without a ticket. So, I’m on the subway up to the Bronx, something must be doing there so I run, too. I have a habit that when I see people running, I run, too. “ Look at them running! What kind of chaos is this? America, you rascal! Everyone’s running. Unlike Griffith’s later laconic amble, which consumed both sides of a 10-inch record, Rosenberg’s animated Yiddish-English antic declamation does it on one side. In late 1946, Banner Records was formed, and, thanks to the label’s musical director, Yiddish theater composer Abe Ellstein, Banner cornered the market on the reigning crème de-la-crème of Yiddish performing veterans: Michel Rosenberg, Moishe Oysher, Molly Picon, Maurice Schwartz, Myron Cohen and a dozen more (Out of all the indie Yiddish labels of this period, only Banner sustained a long enough run to create a hefty catalog of nearly 200 titles.)įor Banner B-2012, (their second release) Rosenberg turned to his most popular stage-tested character, a frantic, sputtering allrightnik named “Getzel,” who is plopped down in a stadium and then brilliantly describes what happened. New Jewish labels included Jubilee, Apollo, Laff and Sun. How a Yiddish theater mecca became ‘the church of rock ‘n’ roll’.

Football story by andy griffith