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Bert Kalmar




He was born in New York, New York . He ran away from home at the age of 10 to become a Magician at a tent show, and retained an interest in magic all his life. He never got much of an education, but decided to make a career in show business. He earned enough money as a Vaudeville performer to start a music publishing company, Kalmar and Puck. He hired Harry Ruby as a song plugger, and as a result of a knee injury that stopped him from dancing professionally, turned to writing songs full-time. Ruby, who had gotten a job at the firm of '''Waterson, Berlin and Snyder,''' got Kalmar a job at the same firm writing song Lyrics . Before World War I he had begun to write lyrics for a number of different composers. One of them, Ruby, who had also had a number of collaborators, saw a strong compatibility between the two, and by 1920 , Kalmar and Ruby recognized that they should form a permanent songwriting team.

His partnership with Henry Ruby is portrayed in the 1950 MGM musical '' Three Little Words '' starring Fred Astaire and Red Skelton . He sometimes worked with other songwriters as well, including Oscar Hammerstein II and Ted Snyder .

Kalmar is also credited with writing some melodies, and wrote or co-wrote some Broadway Theater Play scripts, especially Musical Comedy .

Bert Kalmar worked in Tin Pan Alley , and wrote for Movies and some early Television .

He died in Los Angeles, California and was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California . On his death, Ruby almost totally ceased writing songs, though he lived 25 more years.

Bert Kalmar is an inductee of the Songwriters Hall Of Fame .


HIT SONGS BY KALMAR AND RUBY




WORK FOR BROADWAY


Note: All works are Musicals unless otherwise noted.


Posthumously:
  • '' Fosse '' (1999) - Revue - featured lyricist for "Who's Sorry Now?"



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