The Borscht Belt was the nursery of outstanding Jewish entertainers: Danny Kaye, Mel Brooks, Jerry Lewis and Eddie Cantor all made huge impacts at Belt hotels. It was the area known as the Borscht Belt, because of the emphasis on beetroot soup and sour cream, although that was never as important as the entertainers. He then took another traditional route – working in the Catskill mountains, the holiday resort much favoured by Jewish New Yorkers. He sang with local bands while still at high school, and at the age of 18 he was already performing with Buddy Morrow and Charlie Ventura. I opened my mouth and this beautiful sound came out.'įisher began his singing career in traditional fashion in the local synagogue choir, but secular music appealed more, and although he sang for services on Friday nights and Saturday mornings, on other evenings of the week he was taking part in amateur theatrical shows. 'I couldn't have been more than three or four years old.
And he realised from an early age that he had a remarkably strong voice. Fisher was born in Philadelphia, the fourth of seven children of Russian-Jewish immigrants who worked in tailoring sweatshops and lived in a slum.
