Harry Ruby

Harry Ruby
L to R: Harry Ruby and Bert Kalmar
Born	(1895-01-27)January 27, 1895 New York City
Died	February 23, 1974(1974-02-23) (aged 79) Woodland Hills, California
Occupation	composer, screenwriter

Harry Ruby (1895 – 1974) was a Jewish American composer and screenwriter, who was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.

Ruby was born in New York City. After failing at his early ambition to become a professional baseball player, he toured the vaudeville circuit as a pianist with the Bootblack Trio and the Messenger Boys Trio until meeting the man who would become his longtime partner, lyricist Bert Kalmar. Ruby and Kalmar were a successful songwriting team for nearly three decades until the latter's death in 1947, a partnership 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 and was interred at the Chapel of the Pines in Los Angeles.

A good friend of Groucho Marx, Ruby appeared several times on his television program, You Bet Your Life. In his 1972 concert at Carnegie Hall, Marx gave the following introduction before performing a song of Ruby's: "I have a friend in Hollywood . . . I think I do, I'm not so 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

Selected film scores

• Animal Crackers (1930)
• Horse Feathers (1932)
• Duck Soup (1933)
• Bright Lights (1935)
• Walking on Air (1936)
• Three Little Words (1950)

Selected screenplays

• 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)

Selected Broadway scores

• 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

Notable songs

• Who's Sorry Now? 1923: Kalmar and Ruby's first big hit.
• I Wanna Be Loved by You 1928: a hit for Helen Kane, known as the "Boop-boop-a-doop girl", and sung by Marilyn Monroe in the film "Some Like It Hot".
• 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.
• I'm Against It, I Always Get My Man and Everyone Says I Love You from "Horsefeathers" 1932.
• Hail, Hail Fredonia from "Duck Soup" 1933.
• What A Perfect Combination 1932: lyrics by Kalmar and Irving Caesar, music by Ruby and Harry Akst, written for the Broadway show "The Kid" starring Eddie Cantor.
• A Kiss to Build a Dream On 1935: their last hit.

External links

• Photo of Harry Ruby
• Harry Ruby at Allmusic
• Harry Ruby at Wikifonia
• Harry Ruby at the Sheet Music Consortium

Streaming audio

• Harry Ruby on Victor Records
• Harry Ruby on Edison Records
• Harry Ruby at the Internet Archive

Video

• Father's Day by Harry Ruby