RASHI, RAMBAM and RAMALAMADINGDONG will be on vacation next week, so this week’s question will have to satisfy you for two weeks. If you find yourself starved for more Jewish trivia questions and answers, you can download our trivia books - just click here.
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Ringo Starr was just inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Everyone knows of Brian Epstein’s role in discovering and promoting the Beatles. What role did another Jew play in Ringo’s earlier life that contributed to his future success as a Beatle?
A. Prior to joining the Beatles, Ringo was the drummer for another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. Rory Storm, whose real name was Richard Stern and who was Jewish, is credited with giving Ringo the professional career start that eventually led him to the Beatles.
B. In 1946, Ringo, then known as Richard Starkey, received as a birthday gift from Eleanore Goldschmidt, his Jewish next door neighbor, a toy Dick Tracy decoder ring. This was the first ring he ever owned, and he went on from there to develop a love of rings which eventually led to his adopted name of Ringo.
C. Growing up, Ringo was friends with Manfred Mann (whose real name was Manfred Lubowitz). Ringo was invited to Manfred’s bar mitzvah, the first time that Ringo had ever been in a synagogue. At the reception, everyone (including Ringo) danced a hora while the band sang the a capella Chassidic chant Ai Diddy Die, Diddy Die. At school the next week, Ringo told his friend Manfred how much he enjoyed dancing to that doo-wop “diddy diddy” song. Five years later, inspired by that memory, Manfred wrote the song "Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do" and asked Ringo to play drums on the recording. Rory Storm heard the record and invited Ringo to join his band, which eventually led to Brian Epstein asking Ringo to replace Pete Best in the Beatles.
D. As a child, Ringo suffered from many serious health problems. At age six he developed an infection as a result of appendicitis, which eventually left him in a coma. Because of England’s system of socialized medicine, his family was able to obtain medical care at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital despite their inability to afford the expensive treatment. Ringo’s parents credit Dr. William Shearer (who was Jewish), the hospital’s Director of Pediatric Care, with saving their son’s life. The Beatles song With a Little Help From My Friends, sung by Ringo and which starts with a “shout out” to Billy Shears, is an homage to Ringo’s doctor.
E. Ringo’s parents had divorced when he was five. When he was thirteen, his mother married a Jewish man, Harry Graves, who was a music fan. Graves introduced Ringo (then known as Ritchie) to the music of performers including Dinah Shore, Sarah Vaughan and others, and on Christmas Day 1957, he gave his step-son his first drum kit, which included a snare drum, a bass drum, and a cymbal fashioned from a garbage can lid.