Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.297 January 29, 1995 1) Ishkabibel (Harold L. Orbach) 2) Ishkabibel (Bernard S. Greenberg) 3) Ishkabibel (Yankel Lantz) 4) Ishkabibel (Dan Leeson) 5) Ishkabibel (Abe Bloom) 6) Kalye gemakht di mashinke; a note to new subscribers (Noyekh Miller) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 29 Jan 95 05:33 CST From: hlorbach@ksuvm Subject: Ishkabibel Yossi Galron [4.295] asks about "Ishkabibel Domanickel" I don't know the context of Haim Chertok's Bronx Pesach story, but to anyone growing up in the US in the late thirties and forties, the name 'Ishkabibel' was that of a comic musician/character who was part of the late Kay Kayser's band. Kayser's "College of Musical Knowledge" was a popular musical and comedy radio and then TV show. It was sort of a "joke" name intended to evoke laughs and the character played a comic funny-man role to Kayser's "straight-man" role. [Having a "comic" band member was a regular ploy of US pop bands -- n.b. the guitarist in Branford Marsalis's TV "Tonight" show band used by Jay Leno.] I don't recall the 'Domanickel' part, but it sounds like a rhyming play. Not being a devotee of the Kayser show, I can't offer more help, but there must be a book on him...though our university library doesn't have one. Try Philip Eberly's _Music in the Air_ (1982), a history of popular music on radio. I do recall some time back an obituary item in the NY Times for Ishkabibel. Try there to start, for Kayser, too. His band made many records ... I don't believe this had any Jewish connection, but Kayser was likely of German-American heritage and, as I recall from the "heartland" of the US. "Ish" as in "Oh, Ish!" was [is?] a Minnesota localism of the '30's and 40's popularized in Minneapolitan Max Shulman's early comic writings featuring Dobie Gillis and his Twin City buddies... Oy vey! this takes me back to grad school in Minnesota... Where are our regional linguist specialists in Mid-American language? Harold L. Orbach Manhattan, Kansas 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 29 Jan 1995 05:41:46 -0500 From: bsg@basistech.com Subject: Ishkabibel I do know that this term was a nonsense-word popularized by Kay Kaiser, a bandleader in the '40's, when I was not even a gleam in my daddy's eye, so someone who was around then should speak. There is little question in my mind that the term is mock-Hebrew, and an allusion to the use of Hebrew as incantation/code by legendary sorcerers and adepts of mediaeval myth. I have fancifully imagined that perhaps it might an idiosyncratic misvocalization of "a/the man who is like unto Babylon" (Ish ka Bovel, cf, "Iscariot" (Ish Kerioth), the man from Kerioth). WARNING: This is an original, malicious folk etymology, not research! Bernard S. Greenberg 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 29 Jan 1995 10:47:54 -0500 From: rlantz@globalcom.net Subject: Ishkabibel I don't know if it will throw any light on the mystery, but back in the 40's, the Kay Kaiser Band had a vocalist called Ishkabibel. I can't remember his real name. Yankel Lantz 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 29 Jan 1995 08:31:09 EST From: leeson@aspen.fhda.edu Subject: Ishkabibel It is always discouraging to have a vague sort of handle on a subject but not be able to get to its heart. Here is my handle on the word "Ishkabibel" and it may be of no value at all. During WW2, and in the era of the big bands, one of them was that of Kay Kaiser. To me he was always a moron; i.e., he had a surprised expression on his face at all times, he behaved like the village idiot, and he seemed to take pleasure in having various members of his band behave in ways that were even more imbecilic than he. One of them was a trumpet player whose hair was cut in bangs. He was skinny and goofy. I have no idea what his real name was, but he was called Ishkabibel, though how it was spelled is unknown to me. Kaiser had a radio program called "Kay Kaiser's College of Musical Knowledge" which may have even extended into the early days of TV. Ishkabibel played an important role in both. He also made a series of the most awful films known to man or beast. Even "Plan 9 From Outer Space" was a masterpiece next to the Kay Kaiser films. Ishkabibel, and all of his mishegos, was a part of those awful films. The origin of the name never interested me. I was always embarassed whenever Kaiser turned the spotlight of attention on him. Please don't tell me that the name has a Yiddish origin. I couldn't stand the shame. Dan Leeson 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 29 Jan 1995 16:06:57 -0500 From: abebloom@aol.com Subject: Ishkabibel If my memory serves me right, that was the name of a character in a cartoon strip by possibly Rube Goldberg or Milt Gross. This would run back to the 30's. abe bloom [The character was Abie Kabibble. I prefer to think that it was withdrawn because the caricature resembled too closely the drawings that were appearing in Der Stuermer. We're wandering from Yiddish again and Mendele will accept no further posts on this topic. nm] 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 29 Jan 1995 20:14 From: nmiller@mail.trincoll.edu Subject: Kalye gemakht di mashinke; a note to new subscribers Posters to Mendele a few days ago have been wondering why their messages haven't appeared. The reason is simple: the shames in fooling around with the Unix software--of which understands absolutely nothing--wrote a / instead of a \ (or maybe it was the other way). Deep regrets. Some of you have already been in touch and have been asked to repost. Would others please follow suit? A dank. Mendele has been in the habit of writing new subscribers asking them for an introductory post. But not in the last week or so. To those who haven't been officially welcomed, please accept this note in lieu of same. And send us a note as soon as you can. Zayt mir ale gezunt. Noyekh Miller ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.297 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line 2. Sign your article (full name please) A Table of Contents is now available via anonymous ftp, along with weekly updates. Anonymous ftp archives available on: ftp.mendele.trincoll.edu in the directory pub/mendele/files Archives available via gopher on: gopher.cic.net Send articles to: mendele@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu Send change-of-status messages to: listserv@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu a. For a temporary stop: set mendele nomail b. To resume delivery: set mendele mail c. To subscribe: sub mendele first_name last_name d. To unsubscribe kholile: unsub mendele Other business: nmiller@mail.trincoll.edu