Biography

Songwriter ("Swinging on a Star" [Academy Award, 1944], "What's New?", "Oh, You Crazy Moon"), producer, director and author, educated at the University of Wisconsin and Crane College. He joined the staff of music publishing companies in New York and Chicago, then went to Hollywood under contract to Paramount Studios. Joining ASCAP in 1932, he formed a publishing company with Jimmy Van Heusen, with whom he collaborated musically. His other musical collaborators included James V. Monaco, Arthur Johnston, Victor Schertzinger, Harold Spina, Bob Haggart and Erroll Garner. He wrote the Broadway stage scores for "Nelly Bly", "Donnybrook" and "Carnival in Flanders" (which he also co-produced). His song compositions include "Annie Doesn't Live Here Anymore", "The Beat of My Heart", "Pennies from Heaven", "One, Two, Button Your Shoe", "Let's Call a Heart a Heart", "So Do I", "It's the Natural Thing to Do", "All You Want to Do is Dance", "The Moon Got in My Eyes", "My Heart is Taking Lessons", "This is My Night to Dream", "On the Sentimental Side", "I've Got a Pocketful of Dreams", "Laugh and Call It Love", "Don't Let the Moon Get Away", "Go Fly a Kite", "An Apple for the Teacher", "A Man and His Dream", "East Side of Heaven", "That Sly Old Gentleman", "Sing a Song of Sunbeams", "Hang Your Heart on a Hickory Limb", "Scatterbrain", "Sweet Potato Piper", "Too Romantic", "April Played the Fiddle", "Meet the Sun Half Way", "Only Forever", "Ain't It a Shame About Mame?", "I Don't Want to Cry Any More", "Imagination", "Dearest, Darest I?", "Isn't That Just Like Love?", "It's Always You", "Birds of a Feather", "Constantly", "Road to Morocco", "Ain't Got a Dime to My Name", "Moonlight Becomes You", "Sunday, Monday or Always", "If You Please", "Suddenly It's Spring", "A Friend of Yours", "Polka Dots and Moonbeams", "Going My Way", "The Day After Forever", "It Could Happen to You", "And His Rocking Horse Ran Away", "Like Someone in Love", "Sleigh Ride in July", "Yah-Ta-Ta Yah-Ta-Ta", "Put It There, Pal", "Welcome to My Dream", "It's Anybody's Spring", "Personality", "Just My Luck", "Aren't You Glad You're You?", "My Heart Is a Hobo", "Country Style", "Smile Right Back at the Sun", "Apalachicola, Fla.", "But Beautiful", "You Don't Have to Know the Language", "If You Stub Your Toe on the Moon", "Once and for Always", "You're in Love With Someone", "Someplace on Anywhere Road", "Sunshine Cake" High on the List", "And You'll Be Home", "Life Is So Peculiar", "Early American", "Here's that Rainy Day", "Ring the Bell", "The Magic Window", "Moonflowers", "To See You", "Misty", "If Love Ain't There", "He Makes Me Feel I'm Lovely", and "What's New?".
- IMDb mini biography by: Hup234!

Grandfather of Quinn Kaufman (daughter of Lee Stanley and half-sister of Shane Stanley).

Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.