Biography

Composer, songwriter ("Yes, Sir, That's My Baby", "My Buddy", "My Mammy", "My Blue Heaven", "Makin' Whoopie"), author, pianist and publisher, educated in public schools and then a worker in a Wall Street brokerage firm, becoming a pianist for a music publishing firm. During World War I, he entertained at Camp Upton in New York, and then joined the staff of Irving Berlin Music Company, later co-founding Donaldson, Douglas & Gumble in 1928. He wrote the Broadway stage scores for "Sweetheart Time" and "Whoopee", then came to Hollywood in 1929. Joining ASCAP in 1921, his chief musical collaborators included Sam Lewis, Edgar Leslie, Joe Young, Gus Kahn, Harold Adamson and Johnny Mercer. His other popular-song compositions include "The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady", "Back Home in Tennessee", "Don't Cry, Frenchy, Don't Cry", "On the Gin Gin Ginny Shore", "How Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm?", "You're a Million Miles from Nowhere", "Carolina in the Morning", "Beside a Babbling Brook", "Down by the Winegar Woiks", "That Certain Party", "I Wonder Where My Baby Is Tonight", "Let's Talk About My Sweetie", "At Sundown", "Sam, the Old Accodion Man", "Just Like a Melody Out of the Sky", "I'm Bringing a Red, Red Rose", "Makin' Whoopie", "My Blackbirds Are Bluebirds Now", "Love Me or Leave Me", "Kansas City Kitty", "Changes", "My Baby Just Cares for Me", "'Taint No Sin", "Little White Lies", "You're Driving Me Crazy", "Lazy Lou'siana Moon", "Hello, Beautiful", "My Mom", "An Earful of Music", "Did I Remember?", "Could Be", "It's Been So Long", "You", "You Never Looked So Beautiful Before", "Cuckoo in the Clock" and "Mister Meadowlark".
- IMDb mini biography by: Hup234!

Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.

Daughters with Walda Mansfield, Ellen and Sheila.

Walda Mansfield, a dancer, was also known as Dorothy Sheppard.

Surviving were two sisters, Mrs.Florence Heisler and Mrs. Mary Ford and a brother, George Donaldson, all of New York.