[Dixielandjazz] "Who's Yehoodi?" (was Swing is where you find it in New York City)

[Don Kirkman]

On Sun, 25 Dec 2011 07:43:51 +1100, you wrote:

>Marek Boym wrote:
>> Now that is funny!  "Yehoodi" means a Jew in Hebrew, and we are still pondering over that question!
>
>Dear Marek,
>I had already checked the spelling on the Cab Calloway recording.
>It is "Yehoodi".
>So, following your comment, I checked the lyrics.
>No clues there.
>
>"Who is Yehoodi?" (1940. Bill Seckler, (lyrics) - Matt Dennis (music)
>
>Someone please lend me a hand
>Solve this mystery if you can
>If he’s mice or if he’s man
>Who’s Yehoodi?
>
>G-man Hoover’s getting moody
>Got his men on double-duty
>Trying to find out who’s Yehoodi
>Who’s Yehoodi!
>
>The little man who wasn’t there
>Said he heard him on the air
>No one seems to know from where ...
>But who’s Yehoodi?
>
>Here it is:
>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSayyDslS0o
>with an extra verse.
>
>Other 'hit' versions of the song were recorded in 1940 by Jerry Colonna and Kay Kyser.
>The following is a left-handed 1942 (?) soundie from vocalist Lane Truesdale with a contingent from Kay Kyser's orch.
>You may also find the following of interest:
>   http://www.guiltandpleasure.com/index.php?site=rebootgp&page=gp_article&id=85http://www.guiltandpleasure.com/index.php?site=rebootgp&page=gp_article&id=85
>Happy Hanukkah.
>Bill.

Bill, I had already written the following before I found your message.
Herewith:

On Sun, 25 Dec 2011 09:33:14 +1300, you wrote:

Happy Holidays All

I don't always trust Wiki facts, but this seems to match my schoolboy
memories and meshes pretty well with yours.:

[Start]
The catchphrase "Who's Yehoodi?" (or, alternatively, "Who's Yehudi?")
originated when violinist Yehudi Menuhin was a guest on the popular
radio program of Bob Hope, where sidekick Jerry Colonna, apparently
finding the name itself humorous, repeatedly asked "Who's Yehudi?"
Colonna continued the gag on later shows even though Menuhin himself
was not a guest, turning "Yehudi" into a widely understood late 1930s
slang reference for a mysteriously absent person.[1] The United States
Navy chose the name "Project Yehudi" for an early 1940s precursor to
stealth technology.[2]

A song with the title and catchphrase "Who's Yehoodi?" was written in
1940 by Bill Seckler and Matt Dennis. It was covered by Kay Kyser and
more famously by Cab Calloway.[1] The final stanza of the song is:

The little man who wasn’t there
 Said he heard him on the air
 No one seems to know from where
 But who's Yehoodi?

Both the catchphrase and the song eventually lost all of their
original connection with Menuhin. Its double meaning of "Who Is
Jewish?" — the word "Yehudi" means "Jew" in the Hebrew language — was
emphasized in a short sound film ("soundie") of the song with variant
lyrics made in 1943 with singer Lane Truesdale and the Kingsmen, a
male trio, in which a "living portrait" of a pejoratively
stereotypical Jew with black hat and long beard leers inappropriately
at Truesdale's swinging hips before finally announcing "I'm Yehoodi!"

The national swing dance / lindy hop community website Yehoodi derives
its name from this catchphrase, as popularized by the Cab Calloway
version of the song.

1> ^ a b Pollack, Jonathan Z.S. (Winter 2008). ""Who's Yehoodi? Scat,
Jive, and Yiddish, 1938-1953"". Guilt & Pleasure. Retrieved
2007-12-28.
2>^ ""NASA Glenn Research Center: Educational Activities"".
2001-02-19. Retrieved 2007-12-28.
[End]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who's_Yehoodi%3F
-- 
Don Kirkman
donsno2 at charter.net