ISH KABIBBLE Merwyn Bogue Vintage MCA B&W Press Photo Comedian Cornet Kay Kyser

Description

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Ish Kabibble (January 19, 1908 – June 5, 1994) was an American comedian and cornet player.
Born Merwyn Bogue in North East, Pennsylvania, he moved to Erie, Pennsylvania, with his family a few months after his birth.
Bogue studied law at West Virginia University, but his comedy antics soon found an audience. He appeared in ten movies between 1939 and 1950. In Thousands Cheer (1943), he appeared with Kay Kyser and sang "I Dug a Ditch," and he also appeared as a vocalist in That's Right—You're Wrong (1939), You'll Find Out (1940), and Playmates (1941). In addition, he performed with Kyser on the radio and television quiz show Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge in 1949 and 1950.
The origin of Merwyn Bogue's stage name, Ish Kabibble, can be traced back to the 1913 novelty song "Isch ga-bibble" and this 1915 cartoon postcard, which displays a spelling (Ish Ka Bibble) almost identical to that used by Bogue. Between the song and the card, in 1914, Harry Hershfield introduced his character Abie Kabibble in his comic strip Abie the Agent.
In his 1989 autobiography, Bogue explained his stage name, which he took from the lyrics of one of his comedic songs, "Isch ga-bibble."
The song derived from a mock-Yiddish expression, "Ische ga bibble?", which was purported to mean "I should worry?", prompting a curious (and perhaps not coincidental) association with the "What, me worry?" motto of Mad Magazine's mascot, Alfred E. Neuman.[citation needed] While this derivation has been widely quoted on the Internet and elsewhere, the expression "ische ga bibble" is not Yiddish and in fact contains no Yiddish words at all. However, there is a Yiddish expression, "nisht gefidlt," meaning "it doesn't matter to me," from which the term "ish kabibble" may derive.
Although Bogue's stage persona was that of a gangling goof, he was a notable cornet player and was also business manager for the Kay Kyser Orchestra for most of its existence. Kyser disbanded the orchestra during the summer of 1947 but resurrected it for a television series in October 1949. During the hiatus Spike Jones hired Bogue to appear as Ish Kabibble in Jones's zany band the City Slickers. Bogue didn't care for the experience, and was with the Jones band only briefly. Bogue was one of only four members of the Kyser band who returned for the TV show, which ran 14 months. Kyser retired from show business on Christmas Day, 1950, and the band broke up for good.
With the decline of the big bands, Bogue worked as a solo comedian or in partnership with his old Kyser associate Mike Douglas.
The academic society known as The International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology goes by the acronym ISHPSSB, but the abbreviation is commonly pronounced ″ishkabibble″ at the suggestion of David Hull, as a homage to Bogue.
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