Harry Ruby

Born in New York, Ruby failed in his early ambition to become a professional baseball player. Touring the vaudeville circuit as a pianist with the Bootblack Trio and the Messenger Boys Trio he met his long-time partner Bert Kalmar. Together, Ruby and Kalmar formed a successful songwriting team until the latter's death in 1947, and this partnership is portrayed in the 1950 MGM musical Three Little Words starring Fred Astaire as Kalmar and Red Skelton as Ruby.

Harry Ruby died in Woodland Hills, California.

Music by Ruby can be heard in the films:

• Animal Crackers (1930)
• Horse Feathers (1932)
• Duck Soup (1933)
• Bright Lights (1935)
• Walking on Air (1936)

Ruby also screenwrote such works as:

• The Kid from Spain (1932)
• Horse Feathers (1932)
• Duck Soup (1933)
• Bright Lights (1935)
• Walking on Air (1936)
• The Life of the Party (1937)
• Lovely to Look at (1952)

Ruby's works on Broadway include the following:

• ''Ziegfeld Follies of 1918 (1918)- revue - featured songwriter
• Helen of Troy, New York (1923) - musical - co-composer and co-lyricist
• No Other Girl (1924) - musical - co-composer and co-lyricist
• Holka Polka (1925) - musical - co-book-editor
• The Ramblers (1926) - musical - co-composer, co-lyricist and co-bookwriter
• Lucky (1927) - musical - co-bookwriter
• The Five O'Clock Girl (1927) - musical - composer
• She's My Baby (1928) - musical - co-bookwriter
• Good Boy (1928) - musical - co-composer and co-lyricist
• Animal Crackers (1928) - musical - co-composer and co-lyricist
• Top Speed (1929) - musical - co-producer and co-bookwriter
• High Kickers (1941) - musical - co-composer, co-lyricist and co-bookwriter
• Fosse (1998) - revue - featured songwriter for "Who's Sorry Now" from "All That Jazz" 1979

In his 1972 concert at Carnegie Hall, Groucho Marx presented this intro and a song of Ruby's that he liked:

I have a friend in Hollywood... I think I do, but I'm not sure. [laughter] His name is Harry Ruby [applause] and he wrote a lot of songs that I've sung over the years...

Today, Father, is Father's Day

And we're giving you a tie

It's not much we know

It is just our way of showing you

We think you're a regular guy

You say that it was nice of us to bother

But it really was a pleasure to fuss

For according to our mother

You're our father

And that's good enough for us

Yes, that's good enough for us

Hit songs by Kalmar and Ruby

• "Who's Sorry Now?" (1923): Kalmar and Ruby's first big hit.
• "Rebecca Came Back From Mecca" (1921)
• "I Wanna Be Loved by You" (1928): a hit for Helen Kane, known as the "Boop-boop-a-doop girl."
• "Everyone Says I Love You"
• "I Love You So Much" (1928)
• "Three Little Words" (1930): Their biggest hit.
• "Nevertheless" (1931): A hit for both Bing Crosby and Rudy Vallee, later done by The Mills Brothers and Frank Sinatra.
• "What A Perfect Combination" (1932): lyrics by Kalmar and Irving Caesar, music by Ruby and Harry Akst, written for the Broadway show The Kid, which starred Eddie Cantor.
• "A Kiss to Build a Dream On" (1935): His last hit.
• "Thinking of You" (1927): Had hit recordings in 1950 by Eddie Fisher and Don Cherry.

References

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