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Before there was Rick James or Leif Garrett, there was Shmulik Finkelstein. A first-generation Ashkenazi growing up on the Lower East Side, Finkelstein shot to Yiddish power pop stardom in 1930’s before graduating into multiple-character vaudeville as the shtetl sensation you’ll hear your grandmother coo about—if, God willing, she’s still breathing.

Shmulik’s sad, dark descent into heroin addiction eventually undid him. But in the following installment of Jewography, you’ll hear the untold, behind-the-shpilkis story of a great Hebrew legend and why you should die of cancer if you even think about a stage act involving half-sours. If you have any trouble viewing this video, try it in Windows Media Player format.

(Want to learn about the origins of the photos used in the video? Of course you do.)