Biography

Songwriter ("Green Eyes", "Waiting for the Robert E. Lee", "Ramona", "The Peanut Vendor"), author and publisher who came to the US in 1887 and was educated in local public schools, and then became a singer in amateur-night contests, and later a vaudeville and cafe entertainer. He toured with John L. Sullivan. Coming to Hollywood in 1929, he wrote for films, and the Eddie Cantor radio show, then made many apppearances on radio and television, and formed his own publishing firm in California. He joined ASCAP in 1924, and was an ASCAP director between 1941-1944 and again in 1953. His musical collaborators included Lewis Muir, Mabel Wayne, Abel Baer, Ben Oakland, Jay Gorney, Nat Shilkret, Richard Fall, and Anatole Friedland. His other popular-song compositions include "Mama Don't Want No Peas and Rice and Coconut Oil", "Shades of Night", "La Golondrina", "Lucky Lindy", "Don't Wake Me Up, Let Me Dream", "My Little Dream Girl", "Hitchy Koo", "Mammy Jinny's Jubilee", "My Sweet Adair", "Take Me to That Swanee Shore", "My Own Iona", "Jeannine, I Dream of Lilac Time", "Mama Inez", "Oh Katharina", "I Miss My Swiss", "Marta", "By Heck", "Hopalong Cassidy March", "Chimes of Spring", "My Mother's Eyes", "Down Yonder", "Maria My Own (Maria La O)", "Lily of the Valley", "The Right Kind of Man", "If You Believed in Me", "Forever and a Day", "African Lament (Lamento Africano)", "Here Comes My Daddy Now", "Are You From Heaven?", "I Love You - That's One Thing I Know", "In the Land of Make Believe", "No One Can Take Your Place", "Astronaut of Space", I Laughed at Love", "A-Weepin' and a-Wailin' Song" and "Chiquita".
- IMDb mini biography by: Hup234!

Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.