Trivia

BO: * Kurt Ganzl. _The Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre._ TR: New York: Shirmer Books, 2001. Pp. 237-38. ISBN 0-02-864970-2

He wrote together with Alfred Grünwald a German libretto for Gräfin Mariza (Countess Maritza), an operetta in three acts composed by Hungarian composer Emmerich Kálmán.

He trained as an actor and first appeared in the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich. He later transferred to Vienna, where he became involved in operetta productions at the Theater an der Wien.

One of his most enduring numbers, still popular in several translations, is "Schöner Gigolo, armer Gigolo", in English "Just a Gigolo" (lyrics by Julius Brammer, music by Leonello Casucci). It was recorded by many musicians of the time, including Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong, Dajos Béla and Richard Tauber, later by Louis Prima, and is still being recorded in different languages.

He was an Austrian librettist and lyricist.

His composition "Just a Gigolo" appeared in a 1931 film, a 1932 Betty Boop cartoon, a 1978 movie (last movie of Marlene Dietrich) and a 1993 TV series, all titled after the song.

From 1908 he concentrated on writing libretti, often with Alfred Grünwald, and became one of the leading creative artists of the Vienna "Silver Operetta Period" (about 1900 to 1920).

He was among the leading librettists and was honored by the Austrian Republic.

Some of his better-known works were written in conjunction with the composers Emmerich Kálmán, Oscar Straus, Leo Ascher, Edmund Eysler and Robert Stolz.

After the Anschluss, as a Jew, he was forced to emigrate and went to Paris, and after the fall of that city during World War II, to the unoccupied south of France, where he died in Juan-les-Pins.