Grandpa Had a Long One: Benny Bell

By BenOhmart

Biographies & Memoirs

Humor

Language: English Not Rated (NR)

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"I ain't got no money but I got a lot of fun."

So sang the incomparable songwriter Benny Bell,

and a new book about his wacky life & career

explores the truth behind the sentiment.

The up-and-down-and-up-and-down career of the man behind "Shaving Cream" and other novelty classics was full of humor and drama, merriment and pain.

IfBenny Bell were still alive during today's economic crisis, chances arehe'd do his part for American sanity by writing some insanely upliftingsongs about the joys of being poor. After all, that's what he didthroughout his career, with such records as "One Dollar Blues," "I HadBut Fifty Cents" and "Misfortune, What Do You Want?"

Anew book about Bell, one of the funniest, quirkiest and hardest workingentertainers ever to come out of the vaudeville and Borscht Belt eras,has just been published by BearManor Media called "Grandpa Had a LongOne: Personal Notes on the Life, Career & Legacy of Benny Bell."Although never very famous, and never rich, Bell is revealed in thebook, written by his grandson, journalist Joel Samberg, to have hadquite a notable career and a life that was immensely rich in humor,drama, and unceasing optimism.

Thereasons behind Bell's up-and-down career are explored, along withintriguing stories that illustrate why author Samberg was both amazedand confounded by his remarkable and unpredictable grandfather.

Partshowbiz bio and part author memoir, "Grandpa Had a Long One" is afascinating look into the world of an extremely funny man who believedin his own hype far more than he believed in the integrity and honestyof the entertainment industry. A genuine entrepreneur, Ben wrote,arranged, sung, recorded, packaged and promoted most of his recordshimself-more than 120 of them, including such novelty anddouble-entendre song classics as "Shaving Cream," "Everybody Wants MyFanny" "Pincus the Peddler," "Take a Ship for Yourself," "Grandpa Had aLong One," "Yum Yum Yum (I Ain't Got No Money but I Got a Lot of Fun)"and many others.

Attimes, Benny Bell came so close to broad popularity that he was able tosense what stardom must be like. But he was always so far away from itthat he could never depend on his celebrity for the next rent check.Why was that? And what must it have been like to be so close and yet sofar? Samberg explores those topics, and others, in "Grandpa Had a LongOne," while also recreating his grandfather's career with all itserratic changes, early successes, meetings with industry pros, 67-yearlove affair with his wife Molly, disastrous partnerships with recordcompanies, get-rich schemes, misguided plans, TV and stage appearancesand much more.

Ben'sgreatest popularity was in the 1940s and early 50s, though in themid-1970s "Shaving Cream" was re-released and became a Top-40 hit. InNew York City, "Shaving Cream" was so popular that the program directorof WNBC radio wrote an article for Billboard describing the incredibleand sudden marketing madness it created.

"GrandpaHad a Long One" also includes lyrics to more than 25 classic Benny Bellsongs and over 40 photographs from the entertainer's long life andcareer. Bell died in 1999 at the age of 93. Just two years earlier hewas performing on MTV, singing "Ikey & Mikey" and discussing hisearly days as a ‘professional amateur' on vaudeville stages.

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