Who Am I? December2020

I was born in Monmouth County, New Jersey but grew up in Manhattan. My dad, Lew, was of Polish Jewish extraction and we lived comfortably not too far away from where Zabar’s is now located on the upper west side. We had a summer home in Far Rockaway. Dad worked an act with a partner in vaudeville in the late 1800’s and later became an impresario who produced several successful Broadway shows.  

I graduated from the Benjamin School for Girls in the early ‘20’s and worked initially as a drama teacher. Despite dad’s discouragement I too decided to embark on a career in show business. I aspired to be a lyricist. I caught a lucky break when an early collaborator
asked me if I’d like to pen some songs for the famous Cotton Club in Harlem. Would I??!!! I answered him,  “I would write for the Westchester Kennel Club, I don’t care what it is!” The two of us wrote several revues for that club in the 1920’s including numbers for the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Don’t let anyone tell you writing lyrics are simple. When I got established I wrote and co-wrote with some of the best known lyricists of the American songbook to include Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern and Cy Coleman. Sometimes I’d spend 8 weeks just doing background research for a single song. I’d sit myself down at a bridge table with a pencil and a yellow legal pad on the upper west side and write from 0830 to 1600 hours. I’m quoted as saying, “A song doesn’t just come on. I’ve always had to tease it out, squeeze it out. Ask anyone who writes – it’s slave labor and I love it.” In truth I had a knack for slang, rhyme schemes and colloquialisms.  

I enjoyed great success in my career which spanned almost 50 years. I’ve written or co- written hundreds of songs for 15 stage musicals and around 26 movie scores for the likes of Ethel Merman, Jimmy Durante, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. I’ve been awarded an Academy Award for Best Original Song and was honored with induction to the “Songwriter’s Hall of Fame” which was unusual because that had largely been an all male fraternity. I’m quoted as saying, “There aren’t more lady songwriters for the same reason that there aren’t more lady doctors or lady accountants; not enough women have the time for careers.” Somehow, despite being a career woman, I found time for a husband and two kids. 

In 2015 five separate programs were planned revolving around the theme of “Jazz, Jews and African-Americans: Cultural Intersections in Newark and beyond’. NJPAC was one as of the venues as was Newark’s Ahavas Sholom’s century old conservative synagogue and its Jewish Museum of New Jersey.  I think some of you might recognize me by the photo below. I was tall and thin and usually well dressed. I wore lip rouge and usually was seen with colorless nail polish.

(1a)Who Am I? (1b)What was my dad’s birth name? (1c)What was the name of my dad’s
vaudeville act? (2a) A 1928 song I wrote for an all black revue is still being recorded today! Here’s a hint – in the lyrics it mentions a famous pioneering five-and-dime store that largely disappeared in 1997. Name that song and the name of the five and-dime. (2b) That very same song was used to calm down a wild leopard in a screwball comedy film starring Kate and Cary Grant. What was the name of that film? (3a)On January 20th , 2009 my lyrics were channeled by a newly elected president. How so? (3b)For what song did I receive an Academy Award for Best Original Song? Here’s a hint for you baby boomers. The Lettermen recorded a 1961 version of this song. (4)Where was I laid to rest? (5)I was honored with my image appearing on a U.S. postage stamp. What denomination was that stamp and who else was honored along with me in that same commemorative series?