Harry Ruby

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Harry Ruby
Harry Ruby & Bert Kalmar00.jpg
L to R: Harry Ruby and Bert Kalmar
Born (1895-01-27)January 27, 1895
New York City
Died Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist.
Woodland Hills, California
Occupation composer, screenwriter

Harry Ruby (January 27, 1895 – February 23, 1974) was a Jewish American composer and screenwriter, who was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.[1]

Biography

Ruby was born in New York City. After failing at his early ambition to become a professional baseball player, he toured the vaudeville circuit as a pianist with the Bootblack Trio and the Messenger Boys Trio until meeting the man who would become his longtime partner, lyricist Bert Kalmar. Kalmar and Ruby were a successful songwriting team for nearly three decades until Kalmar's death in 1947, a partnership portrayed in the 1950 MGM musical Three Little Words, starring Fred Astaire as Kalmar and Red Skelton as Ruby.[2]

Ruby died in Woodland Hills, California and was interred at the Chapel of the Pines in Los Angeles.[3]

A good friend of Groucho Marx, Ruby appeared several times on his television program, You Bet Your Life. In his 1972 concert at Carnegie Hall, Marx gave the following introduction before performing a song of Ruby's: "I have a friend in Hollywood . . . I think I do, I'm not so sure. [laughter] His name is Harry Ruby [applause] and he wrote a lot of songs that I've sung over the years . . ." [4]

Today, Father, is Father's Day
And we're giving you a tie
It's not much we know
It is just our way of showing you
We think you're a regular guy
You say that it was nice of us to bother
But it really was a pleasure to fuss
For according to our mother
You're our father
And that's good enough for us
Yes, that's good enough for us

Selected film scores [5]

Selected screenplays [5]

  • The Kid from Spain (1932)
  • Horse Feathers (1932)
  • Duck Soup (1933)
  • Bright Lights (1935)
  • Walking on Air (1936)
  • The Life of the Party (1937)
  • Lovely to Look at (1952)

Selected Broadway scores [6]

  • Ziegfeld Follies of 1918 (1918) - revue - featured songwriter
  • Helen of Troy, New York (1923) - musical - co-composer and co-lyricist
  • No Other Girl (1924) - musical - co-composer and co-lyricist
  • Holka Polka (1925) - musical - co-book-editor
  • The Ramblers (1926) - musical - co-composer, co-lyricist and co-bookwriter
  • Lucky (1927) - musical - co-bookwriter
  • The Five O'Clock Girl (1927) - musical - composer
  • She's My Baby (1928) - musical - co-bookwriter
  • Good Boy (1928) - musical - co-composer and co-lyricist
  • Animal Crackers (1928) - musical - co-composer and co-lyricist
  • Top Speed (1929) - musical - co-producer and co-bookwriter
  • High Kickers (1941) - musical - co-composer, co-lyricist and co-bookwriter
  • Fosse (1998) - revue - featured songwriter for "Who's Sorry Now" from All That Jazz 1979

Notable songs

Selected bibliography

See also

References

  1. Harry Ruby biography, songwritershalloffame.org. Retrieved April 29, 2013.
  2. Harry Ruby song catalog, songwritershalloffame.org. Retrieved April 29, 2013.
  3. Harry Ruby, findagrave.com. Retrieved April 29, 2013.
  4. An Evening With Groucho (Beverly Hills: A & M Records, 1972), archive.org. Retrieved August 20, 2013.
  5. 5.0 5.1 Harry Ruby filmography imdb.com. Retrieved: April 29, 2013.
  6. Harry Ruby stage scores ibdb.com. Retrieved: April 29, 2013.

External links

Streaming audio

Video