Boro Mother Prays for Son Who Sold Song Hit for $30
Brooklyn Eagle, December 24, 1937

Each morning Mrs. Anna Secunda, 76, leaves her small home at 268 1/2 Penn St. for a synagogue on the corner, where she spends the day in fasting and prayer to atone for the mistake oof her son, Sholem, who sold the song hit of the day for $30.

Mrs. Secunda, who speaks no English, does not understand about contracts and the law. She only knows that her son five years ago wrote a song called "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen", which today is making a fortune for its publishers, J. and J. Kammen. Secunda yielded his rights in 1933, Sammy Kahn and Saul Chaplin put English lyrics to it and revised it into swing tempo early this Summer and the rest is making tin pan alley history.

Freely translated, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" means "You Are Beautiful to Me."

But his mother believes that somewhere along the years of her life, which began in Russia, she has sinned against God, and her son is being punished. Sholem, who lives at 86 Avenue A, Manhattan, this morning tried to explain laws of copyright to his mother because she planned to go back to the synagogue today and he fears her frail body may not withstand the fasting.

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