Buddy De Sylva
b. George G. De Sylva, 27 January 1895, New York City, New York, USA, d. 11 July 1950. Growing up in Los Angeles, De Sylva worked briefly in vaudeville while still a small child. In school and college he was active in theatrical pursuits, played in bands and wrote song lyrics. In his early '20s, De Sylva began a mutually profitable association with Al Jolson, who sang and recorded songs for which De Sylva wrote the lyrics. He collaborated with several composers including Jolson, George Gershwin, Rudolf Friml and Jerome Kern. His first hit was with Kern, Look For The Silver Lining, published in 1920. The following year Jolson introduced De Sylva's April Showers (music by Louis Silvers) and in 1924, in his show, BOMBO, Jolson sang California, Here I Come (Jolson as co-lyricist, music by Joseph Meyer). Again with Jolson and Meyer, De Sylva wrote If You Knew Susie, and another popular success of the mid-20s was Keep Smiling At Trouble (Jolson and Lewis E. Gensler). This same period saw De Sylva writing lyrics, often with other lyricists, to many of George Gershwin's compositions. These included I'll Build A Stairway To Paradise (co-lyricist Ira Gershwin), Somebody Loves Me (Ballard MacDonald), Why Do I Love You? (Ira Gershwin) and Do It Again. He also wrote lyrics to music by Victor Herbert, (A Kiss In The Dark) and James F. Hanley, (Just A Cottage Small By A Waterfall). In 1925 De Sylva began his most fruitful association when he teamed up with composer Ray Henderson and lyricist Lew Brown. Their first success, again introduced by Jolson, was It All Depends On You. Following this, and mostly written for the popular Broadway shows such as Good News, Hold Everything, Follow Through, Flying High, and some of the annual editions of George White's Scandals, came The Birth Of The Blues, Black Bottom, Life Is Just A Bowl Of Cherries, Good News, The Best Things In Life Are Free, The Varsity Drag, Luck In Love, Broadway, You're The Cream In My Coffee, Button Up Your Overcoat, My Lucky Star, Sonny Boy (written for Jolson's 1928 early talkie, THE SINGING FOOL), Aren't We All, An Old-fashioned Girl, My Sin and If I Had A Talking Picture Of You. The trio's involvement with talking pictures grew, and from 1929-31 they wrote songs for SUNNY SIDE UP, SAY IT WITH SONGS, IN OLD ARIZONA, JUST IMAGINE, SHOW GIRL IN HOLLYWOOD, and INDISCREET. They also formed a music publishing house to market their own compositions and those of other songwriters. In 1931 De Sylva split from Brown and Henderson, opting to continue working in films while they wanted to concentrate on writing for the New York stage. The careers of the three songwriters was the subject of THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE FREE, a Hollywood biopic released in 1956. After the split, De Sylva became involved in motion picture production, being successful with a string of musicals featuring child-star Shirley Temple.. During the years he was involved in production he still wrote lyrics, but inevitably with much less frequency. At the end of the '30s, De Sylva, too, was in New York, where he engaged in theatrical production, enjoying considerable success with several hit musicals. In addition to producing, De Sylva also co-wrote the books for some of the shows, including Cole Porter's DU BARRY WAS A LADY (1939) and PANAMA HATTIE (1940). In the early '40s De Sylva returned to film production in Hollywood. In 1942 he teamed up with Glen Wallichs and Johnny Mercer to found Capitol Records. He died, eight years later, in July 1950.