Mack Gordon
b. Morris Gittler, 21 June 1904, Warsaw, Poland, d. 1 March 1959, New York, USA. This prolific lyricist composed mainly for movie songs during the '30s and '40s. Gordon was taken to the USA at an early age,and grew up in the Brooklyn area of New York. He toured with minstrel shows as a boy soprano, and later became a singer-comedian in vaudeville, before starting to write songs in the late '20s. His Aintcha, with music by Max Rich, was featured in the 1929 movie, PAINTED HEELS, and he also contributed to THE SONG OF LOVE and SWING HIGH (1930). In the same year he teamed with Harold Adamson and Vincent Youmans for Time On My Hands, which was performed by Marilyn Miller and Paul Gregory in the Broadway revue, SMILES. In 1931, Gordon began a collaboration with composer Harry Revel which lasted until 1939. Initially they contributed songs to stage shows such as the Ziegfeld FolliesOF 1931 (Help Yourself To Happiness and Cigarettes, Cigars) and EVERYBODY'S WELCOME (All Wrapped Up In You) but, from 1933 onwards, they wrote mainly for the movies—over 30 of them. These included BROADWAY THRU A KEYHOLE, starring Russ Columbo and Constance Cummings, and featuring Doin The Uptown Lowdown’; SHOOT THE WORKS (With My Eyes Wide Open I'm Dreaming); SITTING PRETTY (Did You Ever See A Dream Walking?); WE'RE NOT DRESSING, with Bing Crosbyand Carole Lombard (May I?, Love Thy Neighbour and She Reminds Me Of You); The Gay Divorcée, (Don't Let It Bother You, sung by Fred Astaire); COLLEGE RHYTHM (Stay As Sweet As You Are); LOVE IN BLOOM (Here Comes Cookie and My Heart Is An Open Book); TWO FOR TONIGHT, with Crosby and Joan Bennett (Without A Word Of Warning and From The Top Of Your Head); COLLEGIATE (I Feel Like A Feather In The Breeze and You Hit The Spot); STOWAWAY starring Shirley Temple, Alice Faye and Robert Young (Goodnight My Love and One Never Knows, Does One?); WAKE UP AND LIVE (Never In A Million Years and There's A Lull In My Life); YOU CAN'T HAVE EVERYTHING (title song); LOVE FINDS ANDY HARDY, with Judy Garlandand Mickey Rooney (What Do You Know About Love? and Meet The Beat Of My Heart); THANKS FOR EVERYTHING (title song) and MY LUCKY STAR (I've Got A Date With A Dream). In 1940, Gordon teamed up with Harry Warren, fresh from his Warner Brothers triumphs with Al Dubin. During the next 10 years, they wrote some of America's most memorable popular songs, for films such as Down Argentine Way (title song and When Two Dreams Met); Tin Pan Alley (You Say The Sweetest Things, Baby); That Night In Rio (Chica Chica Boom Chic, Boa Noite and I, Yi, Yi, Yi, Yi, I Like You Very Much); The Great American Broadcast (Where You Are and Long Ago Last Night); and Weekend In Havana (When I Love I Love and Tropical Magic). They featured some of the biggest stars of the day, including Alice Faye, John Payne, Carmen Miranda, Betty Grable, Don Ameche, the Nicholas Brothers, and many more. In 1941/2, Gordon and Warren contributed perhaps their best known songs to Sun Valley Serenade and Orchestra Wives, starring the enormously popular Glenn Miller And His Orchestra. They included I Know Why, Chattanooga Choo Choo, It Happened In Sun Valley, The Kiss Polka, At Last, I've Got A Girl In Kalamazoo and People Like You And Me. Miller's million-selling record of Chattanooga Choo Choo was the first to be awarded a gold disc. Gordon and Warren continued throughout the '40s, with films such as ICELAND (There Will Never Be Another You); SWEET ROSIE O'GRADY(My Heart Tells Me and The Wishing Waltz); Hello, Frisco, Hello (You'll Never Know, the Academy Award-winning song of 1943); Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe, with Dick Haymes(I Wish I Knew and The More I See You); and SUMMER STOCK (1950), with Judy Garland (If You Feel Like Singing, Sing). Even during the period of almost 20 years with Revel and Warren, Gordon found the time to collaborate with several other composers on songs such as Mamselle, Time Alone Will Tell, I Can't Begin To Tell You, Somewhere In The Night, This Is Always, You Make Me Feel So Young (with Joseph Myrow), You Do, Baby, Won't You Say You Love Me? and A Lady Loves To Love. His last film score, with Myrow, was for BUNDLE OF JOY, starring Eddie Fisherand Debbie Reynolds, in 1956. He died, three years later, in March 1959. His other collaborators included Ray Henderson, Jimmy Van Heusen, James V. Monaco, Max Rich, Maurice Abrahams, Ted Snyder, Abner Silver and George Weist.