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Biography

Gus Edwards

Overview

  • Born
    August 18, 1878 · Inowrazlaw, West Prussia, Germany
  • Died
    November 7, 1945 · Los Angeles, California, USA (cancer)
  • Birth name
    Gustav Schmelowsky
  • Nickname
    • The Star Maker
  • Height
    5′ 7″ (1.70 m)

Mini bio

  • Composer, songwriter ("School Days", "Tammany", "In My Merry Oldsmobile") and producer, a charter member of ASCAP (1914) and brother of Leo Edwards, and the uncle of Joan and Jack Edwards. He was a vaudeville singer, and later had his own vaudeville company. He discovered Walter Winchell, Elsie Janis, Eddie Cantor, Georgie Price, Lila Lee, Eleanor Powell, Ray Bolger, the Duncan Sisters, Sally Rand, Jack Pearl, the Lane Sisters, Paul Haakon, and Ina Ray Hutton. He wrote the Broadway stage scores for "When We Were Forty-One", "Hip Hip Hooray", "The Merry-Go-Round", "School Days", "Ziegfeld Follies of 1910", "Sunbonnet Sue", and "Show Window". He founded the Gus Edwards Music Hall in New York, and also his own publishing company, then produced special subjects for films, and returned to vaudeville between 1930 and 1937, finally retiring in 1939. His film biography was "The Star Maker". His chief musical collaborators included Edward Madden, Will Cobb, and Robert B. Smith. His other popular-song compositions include "Meet Me Under the Wisteria", "By the Light of the Silvery Moon", "I Can't Tell You Why I Love You but I Do", "Goodbye, Little Girl, Goodbye", "I Just Can't Make My Eyes Behave", "I'll Be With You When the Roses Bloom Again", "He's My Pal", "Way Down Yonder in the Cornfield", "In Zanzibar", "If a Girl Like You Loved a Boy Like Me", "Jimmy Valentine", "If I Were a Millionaire", and "Laddie Boy".
    - IMDb mini biography by: Hup234!

Family

  • Spouse
      Lillian Arrah Bleiman(November 28, 1905 - November 7, 1945) (his death)

Trivia

  • Composer of popular songs such as "By the Light of the Silvery Moon, " "School Days, " and "In My Merry Oldsmobile."
  • During the Golden Age of Vaudeville, Gus Edwards' "School Days" sketches were always popular, with Edwards playing a constantly frustrated teacher up against a group of wisecracking students. Among those "students" who went on to fame were Walter Winchell, Groucho Marx, Hildegarde, and Georgie Price.
  • Brother of actor/songwriter Leo Edwards.
  • Actor Tommy Bond who was also "Butch" in the "Little Rascals" and "Jimmy Olsen" in the original Atom Man vs. Superman (1950) serials, was the Master of Ceremonies on Gus Edwards' "School Days of the Air" radio show in the 1930's.
  • Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.

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