| Arthur Schwartz:
born 25 November 1900, New York City, New York, USA, d. 3 September
1984. Prohibited by his family from learning music, Schwartz began
composing while still a teenager at high school. He studied law and
continued to write as a hobby but in 1924 he met Lorenz Hart, with
whom he immediately began to collaborate on songs. They enjoyed some
modest success but not enough to turn Schwartz from his path as a
lawyer. In the late '20s he practised law in New York City,
continuing to write songs in his spare time with a string of
lyricists as collaborators until Hart convinced him that he could
make a career in music. He took time off from his practice and was
advised to seek a permanent collaborator. He was introduced to
Howard Dietz, with whom he established immediate rapport. Among
their first joint efforts were some contributions to the music for
THE LITTLE SHOW (1929). For this revue, one of the songs Schwartz
had written with Hart, I Love To Lie Awake In Bed, was given a new
lyric by Dietz. This now became I Guess I'll Have To Change My Plan.
Later songs for revues included Something To Remember You By and The
Moment I Saw You. In 1931, Schwartz and Dietz had a major success
with The Band Wagon, which starred Fred Astaire and his sister
Adele. The partners’ score included their most important song
success, Dancing In The Dark. Other shows of the '30s were less
successful but there were always excellent songs: Louisiana Hayride,
Alone Together, A Shine On Your Shoes, What A Wonderful World, Love
Is A Dancing Thing and You And The Night And The Music. The pair
also wrote for radio and interspersed their collaborations with
songs written with other partners. Schwartz wrote songs for shows
such as VIRGINIA (1937) and STARS IN YOUR EYES (1939). During the
'40s and '50s he wrote songs with various collaborators for several
film musicals, including NAVY BLUES, THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS (They're
Either Too Young Or Too Old with Frank Loesser), THE TIME, THE PLACE
AND THE GIRL (Gal In Calico, A Rainy Night In Rio with Leo Robin),
and EXCUSE MY DUST (1951). He also served as producer on pictures
such as Cover Girl, Night And Day, and THE BAND WAGON. Schwartz was
reunited with Dietz in 1948 on a revue, INSIDE USA, and in 1953 they
wrote a new song, That's Entertainment, for the screen version of
The Band Wagon. In 1951, Schwartz collaborated with Dorothy Fields
on A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN, from which came Love Is The Reason and
I'll Buy You A Star. Schwartz and Fields also wrote BY THE BEAUTIFUL
SEA (1954), which included Alone Too Long. Later Broadway shows by
Schwartz and Dietz proved unsuccessful and although their songs,
such as Something You Never Had Before and Before I Kiss The World
Goodbye, were pleasant and lyrically deft, they were not of the high
standard they had previously set themselves. In the late '60s
Schwartz settled in London, England, for a while where he wrote
NICHOLAS NICKLEBY and LOOK WHO'S DANCING (a revised version of A
TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN with several new songs). He also recorded an
album of his own songs, FROM THE PEN OF ARTHUR SCHWARTZ, before
returning to live in the USA. |
