Biography

Otto Harbach was a songwriter ("I Won't Dance", "Yesterdays", "The Touch of Your Hand") and author, educated at Knox College (BA, MA, DHL, and an honorary member of the Board of Trustees) and Columbia University. At Whitman College he was a professor of English between 1895 and 1901, then a newspaper writer in New York between 1902 and 1903 and an advertising-agency employee into 1910. His Broadway stage scores include "Three Twins" and "Madame Sherry" (for which he was also librettist), "The Firefly", "High Jinks", "Katinka", "Going Up", "Tumble In", "The Little Whopper", "The Cat and the Fiddle" and "Roberta". He was also the co-librettist for "You're In Love", "Tickle Me!", "Mary", "The O'Brien Girl", "The Blue Kitten", "Molly Darling", "Wildflower", "Rose-Marie", "No, No, Nanete", "Sunny", "Song of he Flame", "Criss-Cross", "The Desert Song" and "Golden Dawn". He was librettist for "The Crinoline Girl" and "Nina Rosa", and co-librettist for "Kid Boots", "Kitty's Kisses", "Oh, Please!" and "Good Boy". He co-authored the play "Up in Mabel's Room". He was a charter member (and director, 1920-1963) of ASCAP in 1914, and his chief musical collaborators included Herbert Stothart, Rudolf Friml, Vincent Youmans, Karl Hoschna, Jerome Kern, Louis Hirsch, George Gershwin, Sigmund Romberg and Oscar Hammerstein II (co-lyricist). His other popular songs include "Cuddle Up a Little Closer, Lovey Mine", "Every Little Movement Has a Meaning All Its Own", "Giannina Mia", "When a Maid Comes Knocking at Your Heart", "Love Is Like a Firefly", "Sympathy", "Something Seems Tingle-ing-eling", "Katinka", "Not Now But Later", "Allah's Holiday", "Rackety Koo", "The Tickle Toe", "Going Up", "The Love Nest", "Mary", "Cutie", "Wildflower", "Bambalina", "Rose-Marie", "The Mounties", "Indian Love Call", "Totem Tom-Tom", "No, No, Nanette", "I've Confessed to the Breeze", "Sunny", "Who?", "Two Little Bluebirds", "D'Ye Love Me?", "Cossack Love Song", "Song of the Flame", "Riff Song", "Romance", "The Desert Song", "One Alone", "One Flower Grows Alone in Your Garden", "The Night Was Made for Love", "She Didn't Say 'Yes'", "One Moment Alone", "Try to Forget", "A New Love Is Old", "I Watch the Love Parade", "You're Devastating", "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" and "Your Dream".
- IMDb mini biography by: Hup234! (qv's & corrections by A. Nonymous)

Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.

Father of William O. Harbach.