Born and raised in Philadelphia, he graduated from Franklin and Marshall College and received a master's degree in Criminology from the University of Pennsylvania.
[2] In 1942, in one of his regular record review columns, he described Sister Rosetta Tharpe's vocals on Lucky Millinder's "Rock Me" as "rock-and-roll spiritual singing",[3] one of the first recorded uses of the phrase to describe a style of music, and he continued to use the term regularly in reviews over the next few years, several years before its popularisation by Alan Freed and others.
[4] In 1945, for instance, he described Erskine Hawkins' version of "Caldonia" as "right rhythmic rock and roll music", a phrase precisely repeated in his 1946 review of "Sugar Lump" by Joe Liggins.
In later life he became noted as a collector of haggadot, books containing Passover stories read during the Seder meal, many of which he obtained from old bookstores and synagogues while traveling in Europe.
He died at the age of 84 at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, survived by his wife Edith, daughter Harriet, and son Jerry.