Difference between revisions of "Bert Kalmar"

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Bert Kalmar (February 10, 1884 - September 18, 1947) was a Jewish American lyricist.

He was born in New York, New York and ran away from home at the age of 10 to become a magician at a tent show.

Kalmar retained an interest in magic all his life and was a member of Los Magicos, a magic organization out of Los Angeles, California.

Kalmar never received much of an education, but decided to make a career in show business. He earned enough money as a vaudeville performer to start a music publishing company, Kalmar and Puck. He hired Harry Ruby as a song plugger, and as a result of a knee injury that stopped him from dancing professionally, turned to writing songs full-time. Ruby, who had got a job at the firm of Waterson, Berlin and Snyder, got Kalmar a job at the same firm writing song lyrics. Before World War I he had begun to write lyrics for a number of different composers. One of them, Ruby, who had also had a number of collaborators, saw a strong compatibility between the two, and by 1920, Kalmar and Ruby recognized that they should form a permanent songwriting team.

References

• Cover Genii 1939 June

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