My granduncle WAS Benny Bloom,a friend of Irving Berlin(and George Gershwin's for that matter).Uncle Benny became Berlin's press secretary and helped him marry Ellin McCay,the "shiksa", which was quite the scandal in the 20's.I recently discovered this song myself as nobody in the family discussed it. I don't know if the story is true or Berlin just liked his name,Benny Bloom,who was 17 years old at the time. He died in 1973.