Molly Picon

I first learned of Molly Picon when I came across an old 78 with the song "Busy Busy". It was a quirky Yiddish song sung in english by a heavily-accented elfin voice. It immediately became one of my favorite records, a song I put on every mix tape I made. This was the days before internet and I was dying to know who the hell this sexy voice belonged to. A couple years later, while digging through the basement of the Ark thrift store I miraculously pulled out a Molly Picon LP collecting all of her old 78's! And what a cover! (left)

Here is Molly Picon's Bio overview from the Jewish Women's Archive:

"For over seventy years, Molly Picon, star of Yiddish theater and film, delighted audiences with her comic song and dance performances. While her career began in vaudeville and flourished in the Second Avenue theaters of New York's Lower East Side, Picon later performed on stage and in Yiddish and Hollywood films for Jewish and non-Jewish audiences around the world. Her engaging persona and powerful performances helped keep Yiddish culture alive by bringing it out of the shtetl and into mainstream American culture. Although Picon always played assertive characters on stage, for many years she struggled to be taken seriously as an independent woman and actress. Ultimately, however, she emerged as an icon for second generation American Jews and helped her audiences appreciate their immigrant past and forge new American Jewish identities."

Molly Picon - Busy Busy Molly Picon - Yom Pom Pom Molly Picon Bio (with pics & short quicktime video)