gene - Jazz In The Kitchen

Born in New York City, he served in the United States Army during World War II. He was married to Billye Louise Files (November 23, 1924 – January 30, 1977) of Jack County, Texas.

He joined the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) in 1941, and went on to compose the music for many motion pictures. He was nominated (with Don Raye) for an Academy Award for Best Music, Original Song in 1942 for the song ‘Pig Foot Pete’ from the movie Hellzapoppin. The song actually was not included in that movie, but in the 1941 feature, Keep ‘Em Flying, and was thus ineligible for the nomination and award. The award was given to “White Christmas”.

De Paul collaborated with Johnny Mercer, Don Raye, Carolyn Leigh, Charles Rinker and others at Universal Studios, Walt Disney Studios and other Hollywood companies.

De Paul composed the 1953 hit song ‘Teach Me Tonight’.

De Paul was one of the composers of the songs and dances, along with lyricist Johnny Mercer, for the 1954 musical film Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1985.

Gene de Paul died in February 1988, at the age of 68, and was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Hollywood Hills. From Wikipedia.

Born in 1903, Malneck’s career as a violinist began when he was age 16. He was a member of the Paul Whiteman orchestra from 1926 to 1937 and during the same period recorded with Mildred Bailey, Annette Hanshaw, Frank Signorelli, and Frankie Trumbauer. He led a big band that recorded for Brunswick, Columbia, and Decca. His orchestra provided music for The Charlotte Greenwood Show on radio in the mid-1940s and Campana Serenade in 1942–1943.

A newspaper article published September 19, 1938, noted that having only one brass instrument in Malneck’s eight-instrument group was ‘unique for swing’ as were the $3,000 harp and a drummer who played on ‘an old piece of corrugated paper box’. The group played in the film St. Louis Blues (1939) and You’re in the Army Now (1941). Malneck announced he was changing the group’s name to Matty Malneck and His St. Louis Blues Orchestra.

Malneck’s credits as a songwriter have overshadowed his contributions as a performer. He composed songs which became hits, such as ‘Eeny Meeny Miney Mo’ (1935) and ‘Goody Goody’ (1936; both with lyrics by Johnny Mercer), ‘I’ll Never Be the Same’ (1932; music by Malneck & Frank Signorelli, lyrics by Gus Kahn), and ‘I’m Thru With Love’ (1931; music by Malneck & Fud Livingston, lyrics by Kahn). From Wikipedia.

Whiting was born in Detroit. Her family moved to Los Angeles in 1929, when she was five years old. Her father, Richard, was a composer of popular songs, including the classics “Hooray for Hollywood”, “Ain’t We Got Fun?”, and “On the Good Ship Lollipop”. Her sister, Barbara Whiting, was an actress (Junior Miss, Beware, My Lovely) and singer.

An aunt, Margaret Young, was a singer and popular recording artist in the 1920s. Whiting’s singing ability was noticed at an early age and at seven she sang for singer-lyricist Johnny Mercer, with whom her father had collaborated on some popular songs, including “Too Marvelous for Words”. In 1942, Mercer co-founded Capitol Records and signed Margaret to one of Capitol’s first recording contracts. From Wikipedia.

Robin was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. His father was Max Robin, a salesman. Leo’s mother was Fannie Finkelpearl Robin. He studied at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and at Carnegie Tech’s drama school. He later worked as a reporter and as a publicist.

Robin’s first hits came in 1926 with the Broadway production By the Way, with hits in several other musicals immediately following, such as Bubbling Over (1926), Hit the Deck, Judy (1927), and Hello Yourself (1928). In 1932, Robin went out to Hollywood to work for Paramount Pictures. His principal collaborator was composer Ralph Rainger, together they became one of the leading film songwriting duos of the 1930s and early 1940s, writing over 50 hits. Robin and Rainger worked together until Rainger’s death in a plane crash on October 23, 1942. Robin continued to collaborate with many other composers over the years, including Harold Arlen, Vincent Youmans, Sam Coslow, Richard A. Whiting, Jule Styne, Harry Warren and Nacio Herb Brown. Leo Robin collaborated with Rainger on the 1938 Oscar-winning song “Thanks for the Memory,” sung by Bob Hope in the film The Big Broadcast of 1938, which was to become Hope’s signature tune. Robin and Styne wrote the 1949 score for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, including “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend”, a signature song for Carol Channing and later Marilyn Monroe.

Robin collaborated on the score for the 1955 musical film My Sister Eileen with Styne, then officially retired from the movie industry. He is a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, having been inducted in 1972. Robin wrote many popular songs, mostly for film and television, including “Louise,” “Beyond the Blue Horizon” (both songs co-written by Richard A. Whiting), “Prisoner of Love” and “Blue Hawaii”. From Wikipedia.

John Waldo Green (October 10, 1908 – May 15, 1989) was an American songwriter, composer, musical arranger, conductor and pianist. He was given the nickname “Beulah” by colleague Conrad Salinger. His most famous song was one of his earliest, “Body and Soul” from the revue Three’s a Crowd. Green won four Academy Awards for his film scores and a fifth for producing a short musical film, and he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972. He was also honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. From Wikipedia.

Raymond Bernard Evans (February 4, 1915 – February 15, 2007) was an American songwriter best known for being a half of a composing-songwriting duo with Jay Livingston, specializing himself in writing lyrics for film songs. On music Livingston composed, Evans wrote the lyrics.

Jay Livingston (born Jacob Harold Levison; March 28, 1915 – October 17, 2001) was an American composer best known as half of a composing-songwriting duo with Ray Evans, with whom he specialized in composing film scores and original soundtrack songs. Livingston composed the music while Evans wrote the lyrics. From Wikipedia.

Harry Warren (born Salvatore Antonio Guaragna; December 24, 1893 – September 22, 1981) was an American composer and the first major American songwriter to write primarily for film. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song eleven times and won three Oscars for composing “Lullaby of Broadway”, “You’ll Never Know” and “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe”. He wrote the music for the first blockbuster film musical, 42nd Street, choreographed by Busby Berkeley, with whom he would collaborate on many musical films.

Over a career spanning six decades, Warren wrote more than 800 songs. Other well known Warren hits included “I Only Have Eyes for You”, “You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby”, “Jeepers Creepers”, “The Gold Diggers’ Song (We’re in the Money)”, “That’s Amore”, “There Will Never Be Another You”, “The More I See You”, “At Last” and “Chattanooga Choo Choo” (the last of which was the first gold record in history). Warren was one of America’s most prolific film composers, and his songs have been featured in over 300 films. From Wikipedia.

Gustav Gerson Kahn was born in 1886 in Bruschied, in the Rhine Province of the Kingdom of Prussia, the son of Theresa (Mayer) and Isaac Kahn, a cattle farmer. The Jewish family emigrated to the United States and moved to Chicago in 1890. After graduating from high school, he worked as a clerk in a mail order business before launching one of the most successful and prolific careers from Tin Pan Alley.[2] Kahn married Grace LeBoy in 1916 and they had two children, Donald and Irene.

In his early days, Kahn wrote special material for vaudeville. In 1913 he began a productive partnership with the well-established composer Egbert Van Alstyne, with whom he created several notable hits of the era, including “Memories” 1915 song and, along with Tony Jackson, “Pretty Baby.” Later, he began writing lyrics for composer and bandleader Isham Jones. This partnership led to one of Kahn’s best-known works, “I’ll See You in My Dreams,” which became the title of a 1951 movie based on his life, starring Danny Thomas as Kahn and Doris Day as his wife, Grace LeBoy Kahn.

Throughout the 1920s, Kahn continued to contribute to Broadway scores such as Holka Polka (1925), Kitty’s Kisses (1926), Artists and Models (1927), Whoopee! (1928), and Show Girl (1929). He went on to write song lyrics for several movies, primarily for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

By 1933, Kahn had become a full-time motion picture songwriter, contributing to movies such as Flying Down to Rio, Thanks a Million, Kid Millions, A Day at the Races, Everybody Sing, One Night of Love, Three Smart Girls, Let’s Sing Again, San Francisco, Naughty Marietta, and Ziegfeld Girl.

He also collaborated with co-lyricist Ira Gershwin and with some of the finest composers, including Grace LeBoy Kahn (his wife), Richard A. Whiting, Buddy DeSylva, Al Jolson, Raymond Egan, Ted Fio Rito, Ernie Erdman, Neil Moret, Vincent Youmans, George Gershwin, Harry Akst, Harry M. Woods, Edward Eliscu, Victor Schertzinger, Arthur Johnston, Bronisław Kaper, Jerome Kern, Walter Jurmann, Sigmund Romberg, and Harry Warren, though his primary collaborator was Walter Donaldson.

He had a long friendship with Walter Donaldson. Their first collaboration was the song My Buddy in 1922. They went on to compose over one hundred songs together. From Wikipedia.

Born to a Jewish family, Chaplin graduated with a B.A. in accounting from New York University’s School of Commerce. After school, Chaplin joined the ASCAP and started out penning tunes for the theatre, vaudeville and for New York’s famous songwriting district, Tin Pan Alley. While in New York, Chaplin teamed with Sammy Cahn to compose original songs for Vitaphone movie shorts, filmed in Brooklyn by Warner Brothers. During this period the team was sometimes billed only by surname (“Cahn and Chaplin”), in the manner of Rodgers and Hart or Gilbert and Sullivan.

Cahn and Chaplin relocated to Hollywood and scored two films for Universal Pictures. Chaplin then moved to Columbia Pictures to score Cover Girl and The Jolson Story. While on the latter film, Chaplin and Al Jolson penned the million-selling hit tune The Anniversary Song. In the late 1940s, Chaplin moved to MGM to work on a long string of films including On the Town (1949), Kiss Me Kate (1953), High Society (1956) and Merry Andrew (1958). For collaborating on such hits as Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen and Please Be Kind, Chaplin was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1985. He won Academy Awards for his work on the scores of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, An American in Paris and West Side Story as well as nominations for Kiss Me Kate and High Society.

While continuing as a film music supervisor, Chaplin became an associate producer in the early ’60s and worked on such major features as Can-Can (1960), West Side Story (1961), I Could Go On Singing (1963), The Sound of Music (1965), STAR! (1968), Man of La Mancha (1972) and That’s Entertainment, Part 2 (1976).

He published his autobiography, The Golden Age of Movie Musicals and Me, in 1994. He had worked with and was friends with most of the major songwriters and performers of his era, such as Cole Porter, Ira Gershwin, Al Jolson, Leonard Bernstein, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Phil Silvers, Julie Andrews, Frank Sinatra and others. His memoir focused on the behind the scenes aspect of moviemaking. From Wikipedia.

Sammy Fain was born in New York City, the son of a cantor. In 1923, Fain appeared in the short sound film, “Sammy Fain and Artie Dunn” directed by Lee De Forest filmed in DeForest’s Phonofilm sound-on-film process. In 1925, Fain left the Fain-Dunn act to devote himself to music. Fain was a self-taught pianist who played by ear. He began working as a staff pianist and composer for music publisher Jack Mills. In 1932, he appeared in the short film The Crooning Composer.

Later, Fain worked extensively in collaboration with Irving Kahal. Together they wrote classics such as “Let a Smile Be Your Umbrella” and “You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me,” (co-written with Pierre Norman) and “I’ll Be Seeing You.” Another lyricist who collaborated with Fain was Lew Brown, with whom he wrote “That Old Feeling”. His Broadway credits also include Everybody’s Welcome, Right This Way, Hellzapoppin’, Flahooley, Ankles Aweigh, Christine and Something More. From Wikipedia.