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Vaudevillian, song-and-dance man, tent show magician and juggler Bert Kalmar turned to writing parodies for the stage after a knee injury put an end to his performing career. However, at the urging of composer Ted Snyder, he soon put his talents to better use as a writer of popular songs. A chance encounter with pianist cum 'song plugger' Harry Ruby at Snyder & Waterson, a Tin Pan Alley publishing firm, led to what was to become a famous partnership. From 1918, Kalmar & Ruby turned out numerous hit songs, including "Three Little Words", "I Want to Be Loved By You" (famously warbled by Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot (1959)), "Who's Sorry Now" (from A Night in Casablanca (1946), also a huge 1958 hit for Connie Francis), "A Kiss to Build a Dream On" (featured in Sleepless in Seattle (1993), and many, many more.

Before moving to Hollywood in 1930, the team turned out prodigious sketches for Broadway shows, such as Earl Carroll's Vanities, as well as providing scores for musical comedies. They formed a particularly gainful association with The Marx Brothers, beginning with Animal Crackers (1930) (both stage and screen versions). The song "Hooray for Captain Spalding" was to become Groucho Marx's personal anthem over the next four decades and a valuable source of royalties for Kalmar & Ruby. In addition to their songs, the duo also concocted the madcap plots for Horse Feathers (1932), Duck Soup (1933) and the Eddie Cantor farce The Kid from Spain (1932).

Though the partnership endured well into the 1940's, it had undoubtedly suffered its ups and downs. These were in part detailed in the musical biopic Three Little Words (1950), in which Kalmar (who had died three years earlier) was played by Fred Astaire and Ruby by Red Skelton. Production values were tops, the musical numbers were superbly staged. As to the story - well, that was pure Hollywood fiction. From the supposed split-up over a triviality, to the reconciliation affected by Kalmar's and Ruby's wives, it was all strictly formula material. Not to mention the dancing (brilliantly, as always) by Astaire (which the real Kalmar with his bum knee would have been hard pressed to do).

In the end, all that really matters is the enduring popularity of the songs and the fortuitous combination of talent which created them.

Awards

Bert Kalmar

Academy Awards, USA

Online Film & Television Association

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