Biography

Composer, lyricist, songwriter and teacher, educated at City College of New York (BA), and Harvard University (MA). He was an instructor in English literature, and a writer for theater, radio, television and film. He joined ASCAP in 1945, and his chief musical collaborators were Robert Kurka and Elie Siegmeister. He co-wrote the classic song "The House I Live In", sung by Frank Sinatra in the 1945 Academy Award-winning short film of the same title. His other songs include "Strange Fruit" and "Apples, Peaches & Cherries". His classical compositions include the operas "The Good Soldier Schweik"; "Darling Corie"; "Malady of Love"; and "The Soldier", plus the cantata "The Town Crier" (which garnered the Natl. 5 Arts award).
- IMDb mini biography by: Hup234!

Meeropol wrote the song "Strange Fruit," a powerful anti-lynching song made famous by Billie Holiday, in 1939 after he saw a photograph of a black man who had been lynched by a white mob in Georgia. The song became a big, and controversial, hit. Shortly after WWII, MGM hired Meeropol to write a song for a short film they were making about tolerance, The House I Live In (1945). After the film came out, Meeropol was incensed to discover that the studio had cut out one line in the song, "My neighbors who are black and white," as they thought it would cut into the film's ticket sales in the South.

Meeropol and his wife adopted the sons of convicted and executed spies Julius Rosenberg and Ethel Rosenberg.