{
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  "@type": "Person",
  "@id": "https://www.screensearch.co.uk/person/1266142/ben-bernie",
  "name": "Ben Bernie",
  "url": "https://www.screensearch.co.uk/person/1266142/ben-bernie",
  "knownForDepartment": "Acting",
  "description": "From Wikipedia\n\nBen Bernie (May 30, 1891 – October 23, 1943), born Bernard\n\nAnzelevitz, was an American jazz violinist and radio personality, often\n\nintroduced as The Old Maestro. He was noted for his showmanship and memorable\n\nbits of snappy dialogue.\n\nBernie was born in Bayonne, New Jersey. By the age of 15 he\n\nwas teaching violin, but this experience apparently diminished his interest in\n\nthe violin for a time. He returned to music doing vaudeville, appearing with\n\nPhil Baker as Baker and Bernie, but he met with little success until 1922 when\n\nhe joined his first orchestra. Later, he had his own band, \"The\n\nLads,\" seen in the early DeForest Phonofilm sound short, Ben Bernie and\n\nAll the Lads (1924–25), featuring pianist Oscar Levant. He toured with Maurice\n\nChevalier and also toured in Europe.\n\nBernie's orchestra recorded throughout the 1920s and 1930s;\n\nVocalion (1922–25), Brunswick (1925–33), Columbia (1933), Decca (1936), and ARC\n\n(Vocalion and OKeh) (1939–40). In 1923 Bernie and the Hotel Roosevelt Orchestra\n\nrecorded Who's Sorry Now. In 1925 Ben Bernie and his orchestra did the first\n\nrecording of Sweet Georgia Brown. Bernie was the co-composer of this jazz\n\nstandard, which became the theme song of the Harlem Globetrotters.\n\nBernie was a freemason, member of Keystone Lodge № 235, New\n\nYork City.\n\nHe died from a pulmonary embolism in October 1943, aged 52.",
  "birthDate": "1891-05-30",
  "deathDate": "1943-10-23",
  "image": "https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w500/hu2qkIYzoZ9bhAr3QWhESlqyh8m.jpg",
  "sameAs": [
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  "lastVerified": "3 May 2026",
  "filmography": [
    {
      "mediaType": "movie",
      "tmdbId": 305985,
      "title": "Love and Hisses",
      "year": "1937",
      "role": "as Ben Bernie",
      "roleKind": "cast",
      "voteAverage": 10,
      "posterUrl": "https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w500/9TLgFNBmQFEy2QkguTHzqD2YUwg.jpg",
      "screenSearchUrl": "https://www.screensearch.co.uk/watch/movie/305985/love-and-hisses-1937"
    },
    {
      "mediaType": "movie",
      "tmdbId": 260529,
      "title": "Stolen Harmony",
      "year": "1935",
      "role": "as Jack Conrad",
      "roleKind": "cast",
      "voteAverage": 8,
      "posterUrl": "https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w500/1x1DfunX02vAN0SEescm00b1jit.jpg",
      "screenSearchUrl": "https://www.screensearch.co.uk/watch/movie/260529/stolen-harmony-1935"
    },
    {
      "mediaType": "movie",
      "tmdbId": 230991,
      "title": "Shoot the Works",
      "year": "1934",
      "role": "as Joe Davis",
      "roleKind": "cast",
      "voteAverage": 6.667,
      "posterUrl": "https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w500/3ID3GMHLoJhfKOMqZt32X4Enhu4.jpg",
      "screenSearchUrl": "https://www.screensearch.co.uk/watch/movie/230991/shoot-the-works-1934"
    },
    {
      "mediaType": "movie",
      "tmdbId": 242329,
      "title": "Wake Up and Live",
      "year": "1937",
      "role": "as Ben Bernie and His Orchestra",
      "roleKind": "cast",
      "voteAverage": 6.2,
      "posterUrl": "https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w500/8vfhsrSNOPK2SrMEdBUKmpmvO2h.jpg",
      "screenSearchUrl": "https://www.screensearch.co.uk/watch/movie/242329/wake-up-and-live-1937"
    },
    {
      "mediaType": "movie",
      "tmdbId": 429134,
      "title": "Ben Bernie and His Orchestra",
      "year": "1930",
      "role": "as Band Leader",
      "roleKind": "cast",
      "voteAverage": 1,
      "posterUrl": "https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w500/i9CPGaDqBuH7SrWgvUpknNjunqS.jpg",
      "screenSearchUrl": "https://www.screensearch.co.uk/watch/movie/429134/ben-bernie-and-his-orchestra-1930"
    },
    {
      "mediaType": "movie",
      "tmdbId": 657547,
      "title": "Ben Bernie and All the Lads",
      "year": "1923",
      "role": "as Himself",
      "roleKind": "cast",
      "voteAverage": 5.5,
      "posterUrl": null,
      "screenSearchUrl": "https://www.screensearch.co.uk/watch/movie/657547/ben-bernie-and-all-the-lads-1923"
    }
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}