B. was born on 14 March 1905 in New York, America.

His father was the actor David Baratz.

He completed public school and he learned in high school.

As a child he used to imitate his father and he acted with friends' "theatre". At the age of five actor Moshe Zilberstein had him put on a beard as "Mkhutn" in "A mentsh zol men zayn"; later he used to dance in the play "Khinke un finke", and then he acted in children's roles.

B. worked for a short time as an employee in a film studio and thereafter won first prize as an amateur in a contest-production for English vaudeville; he toured across America as a vaudevillian.

In 1925-6 in Los Angeles he was engaged by Jacob Goldstein and M. Nestor in their Yiddish troupe as a buff-comic, and he acted there for a season. From 1926-7 he acted with his father in Cleveland, and then for short time with Anshel Schorr at the Liberty Theatre in New York. In 1927-8 he was at the Prospect Theatre, and from 1928-30 he was at the Public Theatre.

B. also organized dance in the Yiddish theatre.