Gus Kahn
Encyclopedia
Gustav Gerson Kahn was a musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

, songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...

 and lyricist
Lyricist
A lyricist is a songwriter who specializes in lyrics. A singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a singer-lyricist. This differentiates from a singer-composer, who composes the song's melody.-Collaboration:...

.

Biography

Kahn was born in Koblenz
Koblenz
Koblenz is a German city situated on both banks of the Rhine at its confluence with the Moselle, where the Deutsches Eck and its monument are situated.As Koblenz was one of the military posts established by Drusus about 8 BC, the...

, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 in 1886. The family emigrated from there to the United States and moved to Chicago, Illinois 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
Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley is the name given to the collection of New York City music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century...

. Kahn married Grace LeBoy in 1916 and they had two children, Donald and Irene.

In his early days, Kahn wrote special material for vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...

. In 1913 he began a productive partnership with the well-established composer Egbert van Alstyne
Egbert Van Alstyne
Egbert Anson Van Alstyne was a United States songwriter and pianist. Van Alstyne was the composer of a number of popular and ragtime tunes from the early 20th century.He was born in Marengo, Illinois...

, with whom he created several notable hits of the era, including "Memories" and, along with Tony Jackson, "Pretty Baby." Later, he began writing lyrics for composer and bandleader Isham Jones
Isham Jones
Isham Jones was a United States bandleader, saxophonist, bassist and songwriter.-Career:Jones was born in Coalton, Ohio, to a musical and mining family, and grew up in Saginaw, Michigan, where he started his first band...

. This partnership led to one of Kahn's best-known works, "I'll See You in My Dreams
I'll See You in My Dreams (song)
"I'll See You in My Dreams" is a popular song.One of the most beloved and popular songs of its day, "I'll See You in My Dreams" was written by Isham Jones, with lyrics by Gus Kahn. The song was published in 1924...

," which became the title of a movie based on his life, starring Danny Thomas
Danny Thomas
Danny Thomas was an American nightclub comedian and television and film actor, best known for starring in the television sitcom Make Room for Daddy . He was also the founder of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital...

 as 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!
Whoopee!
Whoopee! is a musical comedy with the book, based on Owen Davis's play The Nervous Wreck, written by William Anthony McGuire, music by Walter Donaldson and lyrics by Gus Kahn...

(1928), and Show Girl
Show Girl
Show Girl is a musical that ran from Jul 2, 1929 to Oct 5, 1929 with a book by William Anthony McGuire, lyrics by Ira Gershwin and Gus Kahn, and music by George Gershwin. Its heroine, aspiring Broadway showgirl Dixie Dugan, was a character created by J. P...

(1929). He went on to write several movies, mainly for MGM.

By 1933, Kahn had become a full time motion picture songwriter, contributing to movies such as Flying Down to Rio
Flying Down to Rio
Flying Down to Rio is a 1933 RKO musical film noted for being the first screen pairing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Astaire and Rogers were not the stars of the film, however, Dolores del Río and Gene Raymond were top-billed. Among the featured players Franklin Pangborn and Eric Blore are...

, Thanks a Million
Thanks A Million
Thanks a Million is a 1935 musical film produced and released by 20th Century Fox and directed by Roy Del Ruth. It stars Dick Powell, Ann Dvorak and Fred Allen, and features Patsy Kelly, David Rubinoff and Paul Whiteman and his band with singer/pianist Ramona. The script by Nunnally Johnson was...

, Kid Millions
Kid Millions
Kid Millions is an American film directed by Roy Del Ruth, produced by Samuel Goldwyn, and starring Eddie Cantor.-Plot:The story features Eddie, a kid from Brooklyn, New York,...

, A Day at the Races
A Day at the Races (film)
Further reading* Elisabeth Buxbaum: Veronika, der Lenz ist da. Walter Jurmann – Ein Musiker zwischen den Welten und Zeiten. Mit einem Werkverzeichnis von Alexander Sieghardt. Edition Steinbauer, Wien 2006, ISBN 3-902494-18-2-External links:*...

, Everybody Sing
Everybody Sing (film)
Everybody Sing is a 1938 musical comedy film starring Judy Garland, Allan Jones, Fanny Brice, Reginald Owen and Billie Burke.-Plot:Young Judy Bellaire has trouble fitting in at school, causing trouble by introducing her jazzy style into music class and being expelled as a result...

, One Night of Love
One Night of Love
One Night of Love is a 1934 romantic musical film set in the opera world, starring Grace Moore and Tullio Carminati. It was written by James Gow, S.K. Lauren and Edmund H. North, from the story, Don't Fall in Love, by Charles Beahan and Dorothy Speare...

, Three Smart Girls
Three Smart Girls
Three Smart Girls is a 1936 musical comedy film. The Craig sisters, played by Barbara Read, Nan Grey and Deanna Durbin in her first feature film role, travel to New York City to prevent their father from remarrying....

, Let's Sing Again
Let's Sing Again
Let's Sing Again is a 1936 American film directed by Kurt Neumann.- Cast :*Bobby Breen as Billy Gordon*Henry Armetta as Joe Pasquale*George Houston as Leon Alba*Vivienne Osborne as Rosa Donelli*Grant Withers as Jim 'Diablo' Wilkins...

, San Francisco
San Francisco (film)
San Francisco is a 1936 musical-drama directed by Woody Van Dyke, based on the April 18, 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The film, which was the top grossing movie of that year, stars Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald, and Spencer Tracy. The then very popular singing of MacDonald helped make this film...

, Naughty Marietta, and Ziegfeld Girl
Ziegfeld Girl (film)
Ziegfeld Girl is a 1941 American film starring James Stewart, Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr, and Lana Turner, and co-starring Tony Martin, Jackie Cooper, Eve Arden, and Philip Dorn. Released by MGM, it was directed by Robert Z...

.

He also collaborated with some of the finest composers including, Grace LeBoy Kahn (his wife), Richard A. Whiting
Richard A. Whiting
Richard Armstrong Whiting was a composer of popular songs including the standards, "Hooray for Hollywood", "Ain't We Got Fun?" & "On the Good Ship Lollipop"....

, Buddy DeSylva, Al Jolson
Al Jolson
Al Jolson was an American singer, comedian and actor. In his heyday, he was dubbed "The World's Greatest Entertainer"....

, Raymond Egan, Ted Fio Rito, Ernie Erdman, Neil Moret
Neil Moret
Charles N. Daniels , was a composer, occasional lyricist, and music publishing executive. He employed many pseudonyms, including Neil Moret, Jules Lemare, L'Albert, Paul Bertrand, Julian Strauss, and Sidney Carter...

, Vincent Youmans
Vincent Youmans
Vincent Youmans was an American popular composer and Broadway producer.- Life :Vincent Millie Youmans was born in New York City on September 27, 1898 and grew-up on Central Park West on the site where the Mayflower Hotel once stood. His father, a prosperous hat manufacturer, moved the family to...

, George Gershwin
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...

, Ira Gershwin
Ira Gershwin
Ira Gershwin was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs of the 20th century....

, Harry Akst
Harry Akst
Harry Akst was an American songwriter, who started out his career as a pianist in vaudeville accompanying singers such as Nora Bayes, Frank Fay and Al Jolson.-Life and career:Akst was born in New York, United States....

, Harry M. Woods
Harry M. Woods
Henry MacGregor Woods was a Tin Pan Alley songwriter and pianist. Woods is sometimes credited as Harry Woods.-Early life:...

, Edward Eliscu
Edward Eliscu
Edward Eliscu was a lyricist, playwright, producer and actor. He attended the City College of New York where he attained a Bachelor of Science degree. He then began acting in Broadway plays...

, Victor Schertzinger
Victor Schertzinger
Victor L. Schertzinger was an American composer, film director, film producer, and screenwriter. His films include Paramount on Parade , Something to Sing About with James Cagney, and the first two "Road" pictures Road to Singapore and Road to Zanzibar...

, Arthur Johnston
Arthur Johnston (composer)
Arthur Johnston was a composer known for such works as “Mandy, Make Up Your Mind,” "Pennies From Heaven," and many others...

, Bronislaw Kaper
Bronislaw Kaper
Bronisław Kaper was a Polish film composer who scored films and musical theater in Germany, France, and the USA. The American immigration authorities misspelled his name as Bronislau Kaper...

, Jerome Kern
Jerome Kern
Jerome David Kern was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A...

, Walter Jurmann
Walter Jurmann
Walter Jurmann was an Austrian-born composer of popular music renowned for his versatility who, after emigrating to the United States, specialized in film scores and soundtracks....

, Sigmund Romberg
Sigmund Romberg
Sigmund Romberg was a Hungarian-born American composer, best known for his operettas.-Biography:Romberg was born as Siegmund Rosenberg to a Jewish family in Gross-Kanizsa during the Austro-Hungarian kaiserlich und königlich monarchy period...

 and Harry Warren
Harry Warren
Harry Warren was an American composer and lyricist. Warren was the first major American songwriter to write primarily for film. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song eleven times and won three Oscars for composing "Lullaby of Broadway", "You'll Never Know" and "On the Atchison,...

, though his primary collaborator was Walter Donaldson
Walter Donaldson
Walter Donaldson was a prolific United States popular songwriter, composing many hit songs of the 1910s and 1920s.-History:...

.

Kahn died in Beverly Hills, California on October 8, 1941 where he was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California
Glendale, California
Glendale is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the city population is 191,719, down from 194,973 at the 2000 census. making it the third largest city in Los Angeles County and the 22nd largest city in the state of California...

.

His catalog contained some of the greatest collections of songs from the first half of the 20th century and it is for this reason that he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970, nearly 30 years after his death. He was survived by his son, songwriter and musician Donald Kahn, who died at the age of 89 on April 11, 2008 in Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is an affluent city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census, it is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together...

.

The elder Kahn's most famous songs include "It Had To Be You
It Had to Be You (song)
"It Had to Be You" is a popular song written by Isham Jones, with lyrics by Gus Kahn, and was first published in 1924.The song was performed by Priscilla Lane in the 1939 film The Roaring Twenties and by Danny Thomas in the 1951 film I'll See You in My Dreams. The latter film was based loosely upon...

" (1924) with music by Isham Jones
Isham Jones
Isham Jones was a United States bandleader, saxophonist, bassist and songwriter.-Career:Jones was born in Coalton, Ohio, to a musical and mining family, and grew up in Saginaw, Michigan, where he started his first band...

, "Side by Side" (1927) with music by Harry M. Woods
Harry M. Woods
Henry MacGregor Woods was a Tin Pan Alley songwriter and pianist. Woods is sometimes credited as Harry Woods.-Early life:...

, and "Makin' Whoopee!
Makin' Whoopee!
"Makin' Whoopee!" is a jazz/blues song, first popularized by Eddie Cantor in the 1928 musical Whoopee!. Walter Donaldson wrote the music and Gus Kahn the lyrics for the song as well as for the entire musical.The title is a euphemism for sexual intimacy,...

" (1928) with music by Walter Donaldson
Walter Donaldson
Walter Donaldson was a prolific United States popular songwriter, composing many hit songs of the 1910s and 1920s.-History:...

. Kahn was also the lyricist for the Ted Healy
Ted Healy
Ted Healy was an American vaudeville performer, comedian, and actor. He is chiefly remembered today as the original creator of the Three Stooges, but had a successful stage and film career of his own.- Early life :...

/Three Stooges
Three Stooges
The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy act of the early to mid–20th century best known for their numerous short subject films. Their hallmark was physical farce and extreme slapstick. In films, the Stooges were commonly known by their first names: "Moe, Larry, and Curly" and "Moe,...

 short film Beer and Pretzels
Beer and Pretzels
Beer and Pretzels is the second of five short subjects starring Ted Healy and His Stooges released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. A musical-comedy film, the short also featured Bonnie Bonnell, Healy's girlfriend at the time.-Plot:...

(1933), with music by Al Goodhart.

Selected Songs

  • "Everybody Rag With Me" (1914)
  • "Memories" (1915)
  • "Pretty Baby
    Pretty Baby (song)
    Pretty Baby is a song written by Tony Jackson during the Ragtime era. The song was remembered as being prominent in Jackson's repertory before he left New Orleans in 1912, but was not published until 1916....

    " (1916)
  • "So Long, Mother" (1917)
  • "Your Eyes Have Told Me So" (1919)
  • "Ain't We Got Fun?
    Ain't We Got Fun?
    "Ain't We Got Fun?" is a popular foxtrot published in 1921 with music by Richard A. Whiting, lyrics by Raymond B. Egan and Gus Kahn.It was first performed in 1920 in the revue Satires of 1920, then moved into vaudeville and recordings...

    " (1921)
  • "Carolina in the Morning
    Carolina in the Morning
    "Carolina in the Morning" is a popular song with words by Gus Kahn and music by Walter Donaldson, first published in 1922 by Jerome H. Remick & Co....

    " (1922)
  • "Toot, Toot, Tootsie (Goo' Bye!)" (1922)
  • "My Buddy
    My Buddy (song)
    "My Buddy" is a popular song.The music was written by Walter Donaldson, the lyrics by Gus Kahn. The song was published in 1922.-Recorded versions:*Gene Autry*Chet Baker *Teresa Brewer *Benny Carter*Rosemary Clooney...

    " (1922)
  • "On the Alamo" (1922)
  • "Swingin' Down The Lane
    Swingin' Down the Lane
    "Swingin' Down the Lane" is a 1923 song composed by Isham Jones with lyrics by Gus Kahn....

    " (1923)
  • "Charley, My Boy
    Charley, My Boy
    "Charley, My Boy" is a song written by Gus Kahn and Ted Fiorito in 1924. The sheet music was published for voice and piano. The refrain is four lines, of which the first two are:...

    " (1924)
  • "I'll See You In My Dreams
    I'll See You in My Dreams (song)
    "I'll See You in My Dreams" is a popular song.One of the most beloved and popular songs of its day, "I'll See You in My Dreams" was written by Isham Jones, with lyrics by Gus Kahn. The song was published in 1924...

    " (1924)
  • "It Had to Be You
    It Had to Be You (song)
    "It Had to Be You" is a popular song written by Isham Jones, with lyrics by Gus Kahn, and was first published in 1924.The song was performed by Priscilla Lane in the 1939 film The Roaring Twenties and by Danny Thomas in the 1951 film I'll See You in My Dreams. The latter film was based loosely upon...

    " (1924)
  • "When You and I Were Seventeen" (1924)
  • "Sometime" (1925)
  • "Yes Sir, That's My Baby
    Yes Sir, That's My Baby
    "Yes Sir, That's My Baby" is a U.S. popular song from 1925.The music was written by Walter Donaldson and the lyrics by Gus Kahn. It was a hit for Ace Brigode in 1925 and for Eddie Cantor in 1930. It was later a hit for Rick Nelson in the 1950s and Frank Sinatra in the 1960s...

    " (1925)*"Ukulele Lady
    Ukulele Lady
    Ukulele Lady is a popular standard, an old evergreen song by Gus Kahn and Richard A. Whiting. Published in 1925, the song was first made famous by Vaughn De Leath....

    " (1925)
  • "Chloe
    Chloe (song)
    "Chloe " is a popular song and jazz standard with music by Neil Moret and lyrics by Gus Kahn.-External links:*...

    " (1927)
  • "Side by Side
    Side by Side (1927 song)
    "Side by Side" is a popular song with lyrics by Gus Kahn and music by Harry M. Woods written in 1927, now considered a standard.It has been recorded by many artists, but is probably best known in a 1953 recording by Kay Starr.-Recorded versions:...

    " (1927)
  • "Love Me or Leave Me
    Love Me or Leave Me (song)
    "Love Me or Leave Me" is a U.S. popular song from the 1920s.The music was written by Walter Donaldson and the lyrics by Gus Kahn. The song was introduced in the Broadway play, Whoopee!, which opened in December 1928...

    " (1928)
  • "Makin' Whoopee" (1928)
  • "Goofus" (1930)
  • "My Baby Just Cares for Me
    My Baby Just Cares for Me
    "My Baby Just Cares for Me" is a jazz standard written by Walter Donaldson with lyrics by Gus Kahn. It was written for the 1930 film version of the 1928 Ziegfeld musical comedy Whoopee!, starring Eddie Cantor. It is known as the signature tune of singer and pianist Nina Simone.-Nina Simone...

    " (1930)
  • "Dream a Little Dream of Me" (1931)
  • "Guilty
    Guilty (1931 song)
    "Guilty" is a popular song published in 1931. The music was written by Richard A. Whiting and Harry Akst. The lyrics were written by Gus Kahn....

    " (1931)

External links

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