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(b Cologne, Germany, Sept 30, 1875; d New York, Jan 14, 1942). American composer, lyricist and publisher. His parents, Max and Theodora Breitenbach, were Americans. He ran away from home at the age of 13, enlisting in the German navy and in the French Foreign Legion before coming to the USA in 1900. Fisher began composing in 1904; he also wrote the words for his first big success, If the Man in the Moon were a Coon (1905). In 1907 he started his own publishing business, in which the lyricist Joseph McCarthy was briefly a partner; this was remarkably successful. Fisher composed music for silent films and in the 1920s moved to Hollywood, where he wrote songs for films such as Hollywood Revue of 1929 and Their Own Desire (1930). He returned to New York in the early 1930s.

Early in his career Fisher concentrated on ethnic songs; later he made something of a speciality out of geographical topics, as in ...

[Armitage, Reginald Moxon]

(b Wakefield, July 15, 1898; d London, March 4, 1954). English composer, lyricist and publisher. He became the honorary deputy organist at Wakefield Cathedral at the age of 12, then won a scholarship to the RCM at 15, studying with Sir Frederick Bridge and Sir Walter Parrott. After brief service in World War I he took a degree in music at Christ’s College, Cambridge; while there he began to compose popular songs, and subsequently Charlot commissioned him to write for his 1926 revue. Having adopted his now familiar pseudonym, Gay became a leading writer of popular songs, several of which became closely identified with leading British performers. These included I took my harp to a party (Gracie Fields), There’s something about a soldier (Cicely Courtneidge), Run, rabbit, run (Bud Flanagan) and All over the place (Tommy Trinder). Many of his songs were interpolated into films and became dance-band favourites. Alongside his collaborations with other lyricists, most notably with Frank Eyton in the 1940s, his own lyrics include ...

(b New York, July 12, 1895; d Doylestown, PA, Aug 23, 1960). American lyricist, librettist, producer and publisher. Born into a notable theatrical family, his grandfather and namesake was the flamboyant opera impresario Oscar Hammerstein (1847–1919), who created and lost a handful of opera houses and companies around the turn of the century. Oscar studied law at Columbia where he became involved in the Varsity shows and, after graduation, continued to write songs. By ...

[William]

(b Jacksonville, FL, June 17, 1871; d Wiscasset, ME, June 26, 1938). American lyricist, poet, novelist, anthologist, civil rights leader, and international diplomat. He began his professional life as an educator and lawyer in Florida (one of the early African Americans admitted to the Florida Bar), but in the summer of 1899 he and his brother, composer J(ohn) Rosamond Johnson, went to New York with hopes of finding a producer for their operetta. Although they were unsuccessful in this endeavor, they gained entrance to the musical-theater circles of New York; they formed a collaborative relationship with Bob Cole and became one of the outstanding songwriting teams of the early 1900s. Many of their approximately 200 songs were interpolated in musical comedies; among the most successful were “Nobody’s lookin’ but de owl and de moon” (The Sleeping Beauty and the Beast, 1901), “Under the Bamboo Tree” (...

(Henry)

(b New York, June 29, 1910; d New York, July 28, 1969). American lyricist, composer, librettist and publisher. The son of a noted piano teacher and the half brother of Arthur Loesser (1894–1969), concert pianist, author, and for many years professor of piano at the Cleveland Institute, Frank grew up in a musical home that disdained popular culture. He enrolled at the City College of New York at the age of 15, but failed nearly every subject. After his father died unexpectedly in 1926, Loesser gained temporary employment with a succession of newspapers, at the same time working in various and often unusual jobs, including those of a process server and a restaurant reporter. He began writing song lyrics in his late teens. In 1931, while working for the publishers Leo Feist, he sold his first song lyric, In Love with a Memory of You, with music by the future eminent American composer, William Schuman. After several more years of writing and selling song lyrics, in ...

(b Budapest, July 2, 1880; d New York, Jan 15, 1967). American composer and publisher of Hungarian origin. Until 1906 he studied the piano with Árpád Szendy and composition with Hans Koessler at the Budapest Academy of Music, where he received the Volkmann Prize for composition, and at the same time he read political science at the university. While still a student he was second music critic of the Budapest German newspaper Pester Lloyd, and later he held a similar post on the Hungarian newspaper Polgár. In 1907 he took over the musical direction of the Budapest theatre, Modern Színpad, for which he wrote some 300 songs and the music for 12 one-act plays. After the success of his first operetta, A sárga dominó (1907) he remained faithful to that genre. From 1926 until his death he lived in New York as musical director for Chappell, although several visits to Hungary late in life resulted in the composition of his last two operettas and their subsequent first performances in Budapest....

[James; Babcock, Edward Chester]

(b Syracuse, NY, Jan 26, 1913; d Rancho Mirage, CA, Feb 7, 1990). American composer, publisher and pianist. At the age of 16 he became a pianist, singer and announcer for a radio station and adopted his professional name. He then studied singing with Howard Lyman and wrote college shows at Syracuse University. In 1933 he replaced Harold Arlen as composer at the Cotton Club in Harlem, and worked as a pianist and song plugger for Tin Pan Alley publishers, including Remick and Santley Brothers. He had his first songwriting success in 1938 with It’s the dreamer in me (in collaboration with Jimmy Dorsey) and wrote for the bandleader Eddie DeLange before teaming up with the lyricist Johnny Burke in 1939. Together Burke and Van Heusen wrote the songs for 16 of Bing Crosby’s best-known films, including Road to Morocco (1942) and others of the ‘Road to …’ series, and ...

(b Taunton, MA, March 20, 1829; d Boston, Jan 13, 1892). American composer and publisher. In 1868 he, W. Frank Smith and John F. Perry formed the publishing house of White, Smith & Perry; the next year they began to issue The Folio, an important monthly music periodical. After Perry withdrew in 1872 the firm became White-Smith & Co.; Smith died in 1891 and White became sole owner. White’s son and grandson managed the company until 1942, when its holdings were transferred to Edward H. Morris & Co. (which was absorbed in turn by MPL Communications in 1976).

The firm’s success was largely attributable to White’s over 1000 compositions. His greatest success, Marguerite (1883), sold over one million copies in eight years and was reissued as late as 1945. Though he dabbled in minstrelsy and comedy, White was best in serious genres: simple ‘home songs’ promoting motherhood, temperance, and other virtues (...

(b Philadelphia, May 11, 1827; d Philadelphia, Nov 22, 1902). American composer, teacher and publisher . His parents were Joseph Eastburn Winner, a violin maker, and Mary Ann Winner (née Hawthorne), a relative of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Largely self-educated in music, he played and taught several instruments. Around 1845 Winner became a music publisher and opened a music store with his brother Joseph. He was active in Philadelphia’s music circle and was a member of the Musical Fund Society, in whose orchestra he played for five years, the Cecillian Musical Society, and the Philadelphia Brass Band.

Winner wrote many simple and highly popular pieces, arrangements and instruction methods for different instruments. He is best known for his songs issued under the pseudonym Alice Hawthorne, which spawned the genre known as ‘Hawthorne Ballads’. Other pseudonyms were Percy Guyer, Mark Mason and Paul Stenton. Recognition came with How sweet are the roses...