Bert Kalmar


Bert Kalmar born in New York City to Kopel Kalvarinsky and Julia Kalvarinsky, was an American Jewish songwriter. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970. He was also a screenwriter.

Biography

Kalmar, a native of New York City, left school at an early age and began working in vaudeville. He appeared as a magician in tent shows, and as a comedian and dancer on stage in vaudeville before switching to songwriting, after a knee injury ended his performing career. By this time, he had earned enough to start a music publishing company, Kalmar and Puck, where he collaborated with a number of songwriters, including Harry Puck and Harry Ruby. The publishing firm also operated under the name Kalmar, Puck, Abrahams, Consolidated, Inc., the other named partner being Maurice Abrahams, husband of Belle Baker.
By 1918, Kalmar and Ruby had formed a permanent songwriting team. Their first success was a tune co-written with Irving Berlin and sung by Fanny Brice in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1920. Together, they wrote the musical score for the Marx Brothers' stage production of Animal Crackers and subsequent film version. Their songs were also featured in five Marx Brothers' films including Horse Feathers, Duck Soup and A Night in Casablanca. In between writing music after they moved to Hollywood in 1930, Kalmar also worked as a writer on screenplays for the films Look for the Silver Lining, Bright Lights as well as Duck Soup.
Their collaboration would produce some of the most enduring standard hits. Included in this group of songs were “Three Little Words”, “So Long, OO-Long”, “She’s Mine, All Mine”, “Who’s Sorry Now?”, “Thinking of You”, “Up in the Clouds”, “I Wanna Be Loved by You”, “Watching Clouds Roll By”, “My Sunny Tennessee”, “I Love You So Much”, “Everyone Say’s I Love You”, “The Egg and Eye” and “A Kiss to Build a Dream On”.
In 1923 they scored their first Broadway show, Helen of Troy, and enjoyed a hit with “Who’s Sorry Now?” written with Ted Snyder. The 1927 song “Thinking of You” in the show The 5 O’Clock Girl was considered a standout. After singer Sarah Vaughan recorded it in 1950 it became one of her most requested songs.
According to the New York Times obituary on February 25, 1974 about Ruby's death, Kalmar's partnership with Ruby enjoyed a career as an outstanding song team for more than 30 years, having entertained Broadway with long runs of musical comedies and revues.
In 1928 Helen Kane, the “Boop-Boop-a-Doop” girl, popularized “I Wanna Be Loved by You”, which was later sung by Marilyn Monroe in the 1959 film, Some Like It Hot. August 9th, 1930, animated character Betty Boop made her big screen debut in the Fleischer Studios’ cartoon Dizzy Dishes, appearing briefly as a jazz singer, with style, sass and scandalously rolled down garters. Soon after Betty's appearance, Kane filed a lawsuit against Max Fleischer and Paramount Studios, the distributor of Fleischer’s cartoons. On May 5th, 1934, the court ruled that Max Fleischer and his studio had not taken Kane's identity for the character of Betty Boop, as there were at least 10 different singers all performing in a similar manner, called scat singing.
The song for Groucho’s character in 1928’s Animal Crackers, “Hooray for Captain Spaulding,” became so well known as Groucho's personal theme that it was later provided as the theme for his later TV show “You Bet Your Life.”
Kalmar's partnership with Ruby was portrayed in the 1950 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical Three Little Words, starring Fred Astaire and Red Skelton. The title of the film was based on the song they wrote for the 1930 film the Amos and Andy film Check and Double Check performed by Bing Crosby with the Duke Ellington Orchestra. In addition to partnering with Ruby, Kalmar did occasionally work with Oscar Hammerstein II, Ted Snyder and other songwriters.
Kalmar and Ruby also collaborated on several other screen plays: The Kid from Spain, starring Eddie Cantor; Bright Lights, starring Joe E. Brown; and Look for the Silver Lining, a biopic of Marilyn Miller. In testimony to the enduring nature of their work, “A Kiss to Build a Dream On,” written in 1935 with lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, was featured in the 1951 movie The Strip. The song as sung by Louis Armstrong was nominated for a Best Song Oscar; Armstrong was forever after connected with this song.

Family and death

Bert Kalmar married Jessie Brown on September 20, 1910, in San Francisco, California. Jessie, born Jessica, debuted as a specialty dancer in 1907 and went on to toe dancing. She danced with husband Bert Kalmar in Nurseryland and other acts before retiring in the late 1910s. She was portrayed by Vera-Ellen in the film, Three Little Words. She died in January 1985 in Sherman Oaks, California.
Bert and Jessie had two children. Bert Kalmar Jr., born Irving Albert Kalmar in 1913 and died in 1997. Margaret "Peggy" Kalmar was born in 1928. She married in 1950 to Robert Allison in 1950 and died in 1964.
Bert died in Los Angeles, California on September 18, 1947. He is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.
Broadway
  • Ziegfeld Follies of 1920 - revue - featured co-songwriter for "I'm a Vamp from East Broadway"
  • Helen of Troy, New York - co-composer and co-lyricist with Harry Ruby
  • Ziegfeld Follies of 1923 - revue - featured lyricist for "Society Bud"
  • No Other Girl - co-composer and co-lyricist with Harry Ruby
  • Holka Polka - book-editor
  • The Ramblers - co-composer, co-lyricist, and co-bookwriter with Harry Ruby
  • Lucky - co-writer with Otto Harbach, Harry Ruby and Jerome Kern
  • The Five O'Clock Girl and - lyricist with composer Harry Ruby
  • She's My Baby - co-bookwriter with Harry Ruby
  • Top Speed - co-writer and co-producer with Harry Ruby and Guy Bolton
  • High Kickers - co-composer, co-lyricist with Harry Ruby and co-bookwriter with Ruby and George Jessel
  • The Corn is Green - actor in the role of "Will Hughes"
  • Fosse - revue - featured lyricist for "Who's Sorry Now?"
Notable songs