While this blog is mostly devoted to blood relatives (mine and Cuzzin Heather's), I think this prompt calls for me to branch out and include my husband's family. My husband's great grandparents, Jacob and Anna (Goldstein) Shemerinsky emigrated from Poland in the late 1800s/early 1900s and settled in Chicago. In total, I have been able to identify 11 children, born between 1895 and 1920. At some point, the children changed their last names to the more easily pronounced Sherman. Of the 11 children, at least 3 of them influenced the vaudeville acts of the 1930s and 40s.
Harold, known in the show business world as Boogie Woogie Sherman, was a fixture of the night club circuit. According to his obituary, "he brought the nut house idea to Pittsburgh in 1936. He was a singer and comedian, and under the nut house theme, customers could eat peanuts and throw the shells on the floor and just sit back and enjoy the crazy acts of the performers...Mr. Sherman later opened his own place, Boogie Woogie Nut Club." Here, he welcomed comedians, musicians, and all other manner of popular entertainment.
Harry's sister, Faye (born 1907), paved her own way in the vaudeville circuit. Her obituary noted, "At age 16, Mrs. Levey joined contemporary theater in "School Act," a vaudeville show created by Albert Levey, whom she would later marry. The couple performed in "Sherman and Wallace Collegiate Capers" with a vaudeville group that toured as part of the Orpheum Circuit nationwide." A Green Bay newspaper described the act as, "full of good singing and dancing. There is some slapstick comedy in the bit, but it is all in fun." This act was first mentioned in newspapers in 1929.
Faye and Harry's younger sister, Mae (born 1910), was bitten by the show business bug around the same time. She was billed as "Bebe Sherman - The Miniature Sophie Tucker," and early articles remarked on her amazing ability to commit songs to memory. A 1934 article in The Philadelphia Inquirer observed, "The task of singing any and every song requested by her audience during a single week involves the absorption of every new number that is published and the accumulation of an unlimited repertoire which, in Bebe's instance, now reaches about 5,000 songs."
Bebe also performed at her brother's Boogie Woogie Nut Club before World War II led to its shuttering.
Bebe continued to perform into the 1950s and 60s. A 1952 article in the Detroit Free Press referred to her as a top-rate comedienne and recording star. In 1966, Billy Gray of the Los Angeles Band Box, described Bebe as "the greatest feminine vocalist who ever sang here." We have a couple of Bebe's records in our collection of vinyl, and she does have a beautiful voice.
Sources:"Bebe Sherman Has a Large Repertoire," The Philadelphia Inquirer, 11 Mar. 1934, p. 57.
"Blond Bebe Shines as Comedienne," Detroit Free Press, 12 Aug. 1952, p. 16.
"Faye S. Levey," Chicago Tribune, 15 Nov. 1998, p. 165.
Glazer, Barney. "In Hollywood...," Rhode Island Herald, 11 Feb. 1966, p. 7.
"Harry Sherman, Nut Club Owner," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 6 Jun. 1977, p. 11.
"Song and Dance Act," Green Bay Press-Gazette, 13 Feb. 1932, p. 12.
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