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CURRENT housing development in New York City.a known plays, Yellou Jacket (1912) and The project was organized in the fall of 1940 by McAlpin Benrimo. $12 a year for four or more in retum for References N Y Dram Mirror 68:9 N 13 12 por pitals and nurses' agencies cooperating. Who's Who in the Theatre 1939 In the spring of 1941 Dr.Baehr became con- Obituary cerned with the problem of rehabilitation health N Y Times p23 Mr 27 *42 por work shown to be necessary by the number of young men rejected by the Army.He accepted the chairmanship of a committee appointed by BERLIN, IRVING (ber'lin) May l1, 1888- the Health and Medical Committee of the Na- Song writer; music publisher tional Defense Program. After a conference Address:799 Seventh Ave, New York City with this Committee, Selective Service officials decided to cooperate on a plan to reclassify With more than 700 soogs to his credit rejected men.on the basis of whether or not Irving Berlin is America's leading song writer. their disabilities could be removed by proper Collaborations such as Marie froni Sunny medical care and treatment. Those classed as Italy,for which Berlin wrote the Jyrics having remediable defects were to be the bene- brought his work to the attention of Ted ficiaries of a program of rehabilitation ulti- Snyder, a music publisher. At the age of mately to be provided for by the Committee. twenty-five, Berlin had progressed from the It was expected that some time would elapse pushcarts and poverty of the East Side to the before such a program could be put into effect. status of a.wealthy song writer, publisher, Among the problems which had to be studied and vaudevillian. first were:whether the program should be fi- that may or may not have romanticized his nanced by the Federal Government, the States, life, but that could hardly have exaggerated or the individuals, and whether the program the transition from a teen-aged boy clutching would be complicated by the unwillingness of tips thrown at him to the millionaire song some of those rejected to undergo remedial treatment. In the First World War,while a sergeant On July 3, 1941 Dr. George Baehr was ap at Camp Upton, Long Island,New York, pointed chief medical director in the United Berlin wrote the music for Yip-yip Yaphank. States Public Health Service in charge of the mo y q s s po medical aspects of civilian defense, working Get Up in the Morning. The number chosen under Surgeon General Thomas Parran for the finale, a more serious song, was dis- One of Dr.Baehrs first steps was to establish carded and lay in the files until the fall of emergency field units in all general hospitals 1938,when Munich inspired Irving Berlin to along the Atlantic and Pacific seaboards and write a new song,something that would help to wake up and unify America without being interior. Each emergency field umit consists obvious about it. The old song, revised of two or more squads,with a physician in furnished the material. The title was God command of the entire unit. All members of Bless America, and it was soon being pushed the unit must be instructed in first aid. The as a sort of second national anthem. emergency medical aid units had their first test Irving Berlin was born Isidore Baline, a son during the Norniandie fire and, according to of Jewish parents, in Siberian province on Dr. Baehr, showed the need fora more tightly May 11, 1888.In 1892 thc family came to controlled system by responding in greater America, where the father did his best to sup- numbers than required. port a wife and eight children by working as After his return from Europe, in 1917,Dr. part-time cantor and also by certifying meat Bachr was married to Francine Riesenberg. in kosher butcher shops. Their first home was They have one child,Barbara. Baehr is bald on Monroe Street, but they soon moved to 300 with a slight fringe of white hair and a gray Cherry Street, in the heart of New York's mustache.In 1942,still keeping his New York lower East Side. There had been cantors in offices open, he is doing such extensive lectur- the family for three generations, and possibly directing, and organizing that it scems ing, him might have trained to be one. But when four hours usually allotted to man. Irving was eight his father died,and the future song writer got to know the hardships of poverty References American Journal of Nursing 411419-20 was out carning what he could and bringing D'41 the pennies and dimes home to his mother. Directory of Medical Specialists 1939 For a short time be plugged songs for Harry Who's Who in American Jewry 1938-39 yon Tilzer at Tony Pastor's on 14th Street, Who's Who in New York 1938 Bowery character, and making occasional tips BENRIMO, J. HARRY June 21, 1874 when he was allowed to sing. Song. pluggers Mar. 26, 1942 Actor; playwright; general in those days were called buskers. Berlin director for Shuberts; co-author of two well worked in this capacity along the Bowery, b -S1l1-h-E-h5