Q 01/05

Irving Berlin was born in 1888 in which country?

A) Russia

B) Austria-Hungary

C) Poland

D) Germany

Answer · why

A) Russia

His family came from the shtetl of Tolochin, now in Belarus, though he was probably born in Tyumen, Siberia, where his cantor father was working.

Q 02/05

What was Irving Berlin's birth name?

A) Isidore Berlinsky

B) Isaac Baline

C) Israel Beilin

D) Ira Bergman

Answer · why

C) Israel Beilin

Immigration officials changed Beilin to Baline; the sheet music of his first song credited "I. Berlin" and the name stuck.

Q 03/05

How old was Berlin when his family arrived at Ellis Island in 1893?

A) Two

B) Five

C) Nine

D) Twelve

Answer · why

B) Five

They had sailed from Antwerp on the Red Star Line's SS Rhynland after fleeing pogroms.

Q 04/05

What was Berlin's father's profession in the old country?

A) Tailor

B) Rabbi

C) Cantor

D) Violin teacher

Answer · why

C) Cantor

In New York he could only find work at a kosher meat market and died when Irving was thirteen.

Q 05/05

How much did Berlin get for the rights to his first song, "Marie from Sunny Italy", in 1907?

A) 33 cents

B) 5 dollars

C) 25 dollars

D) 100 dollars

Answer · why

A) 33 cents

He was working as a singing waiter at the Pelham Cafe in Chinatown and wrote it with the house pianist Mike Nicholson.