Arthur Swanstrom

Arthur M. Swanstrom (August 4, 1888 – October 4, 1940) was an American lyricist, playwright, book writer, producer, and dancer active on Broadway and in Tin Pan Alley during the first half of the twentieth century. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he was the son of J. Edward Swanstrom, a lawyer and local politician who served as Borough President of Brooklyn, and Francis N. Swanstrom, née Harris. His paternal grandparents had immigrated to the United States from Sweden, and his grandfather John P. Swanstrom was a clergyman in New York. In 1898, while Arthur was attending Public School 3 in Bedford-Stuyvesant, his father was serving as Brooklyn's elected representative on the New York City Public Schools board.

Swanstrom demonstrated an early interest in theatrical creation. In 1907 he composed the music and wrote the libretto for a three-act opera, The Island Empire, which received its premiere in an amateur production at Westminster Park on Wellesley Island, with Swanstrom himself performing the lead male role. A musical comedy of his own authorship followed at the Westminster Hotel on Wellesley Island in 1908. The Swanstrom family also sponsored a regatta on the St. Lawrence River, and Arthur represented the family at the 1912 competition, presenting the Swanstrom Cup to the winner. His father had died of pneumonia the previous year, with Arthur, his mother, and his sister present at the time of death. On June 30, 1914, his mother was struck by a train and killed in Bronxville, New York; newspaper accounts from that period identified Swanstrom as then working as an actor in New York.

Before establishing himself as a lyricist, Swanstrom built his early professional career as a ballroom dancer, performing in nightclubs and in vaudeville during the 1910s. His first significant work as a lyricist came through a partnership with John Murray Anderson, with whom he co-wrote the lyrics for The Greenwich Village Follies of 1919. That revue premiered at the Greenwich Village Theatre on July 15, 1919, and subsequently transferred to Broadway, where it ran at the Nora Bayes Theatre in 1919–1920. Theatre scholar Thomas S. Hischak described it as the first Off-Broadway musical to gain wide recognition in New York. Swanstrom continued contributing lyrics to the 1920 and 1921 editions of the revue, and The Greenwich Village Follies of 1923 is among his verified Broadway credits.

Swanstrom became a prolific Tin Pan Alley songwriter, frequently collaborating with composer Carey Morgan, though he worked with numerous other composers throughout his career. Together with Morgan and Charles McCarron, he co-wrote "Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives to Me," first recorded in 1919 by Irving Kaufman and popularized in 1920 through Ted Lewis's recording. More than fifty years later, the song was interpolated into the 1975 Broadway musical Doctor Jazz. Jimmie Noone's recording appeared on the soundtrack to Woody Allen's 2013 film Blue Jasmine, and a new recording by Cherise Adams-Burnett was used in the 2022 film Downton Abbey: A New Era. Swanstrom contributed both music and lyrics for the song "Alibi Blues" to the 1920 Broadway musical Silks and Satins. That same year, he and Morgan produced "The Argentines, The Portuguese, and the Greeks," first recorded by Nora Bayes and also recorded by Eddie Cantor; in 1940, Variety cited it as containing the best lyrics of Swanstrom's career. Morgan and Swanstrom also collaborated on "Broadway Blues" in 1920, which yielded hit recordings by Nora Bayes and by Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake.

Elsie Janis used Swanstrom and Morgan's "The Bonus Blues" in the 1922 Broadway musical Elsie and Her Gang. The two also worked together on the musical Maiden Voyage, for which Paul Gerard Smith wrote the book, Morgan composed the music, and Swanstrom supplied the lyrics; it premiered in 1926 but did not reach Broadway. In 1927, Morgan and Swanstrom co-authored the popular song "Rain" with Eugene Ford. Rudy Vallée introduced the song and it became one of his early hits. Early recordings were made by Donald Voorhees for Columbia Records, Sam Lanin and his orchestra for Banner Records, and Arnold Frank and His Roger's Cafe Orchestra for Okeh Records. In 1928, singer Marion Harris performed the song in one of the first short sound films, produced by Metro Movietone, a division of MGM. Ella Fitzgerald later recorded the song, and it became a hit record again in 1950 when the Frank Petty Trio released their version.

At the time of Swanstrom's death, Variety described the 1929 Broadway musical Sons O' Guns as the highlight of his career. Swanstrom wrote the lyrics and also served as one of the show's producers. Warner Bros. Pictures adapted it into a film released in 1936. When Albert Szirmai's operetta Princess Charming was brought to the Broadway stage, Swanstrom provided new lyrics for the production, which opened at the Imperial Theatre in October 1930; he also produced that production. Princess Charming is among his verified Broadway credits.

In 1933, Swanstrom contributed to both the words and music of the Broadway musical Hold Your Horses, working in collaboration with several other authors — a departure from his usual role as lyricist rather than composer. That same year, he co-wrote the song "Come Up and See Me Sometime" with Louis Alter for the Paramount Pictures film Take a Chance, in which Lillian Roth introduced the number. Swanstrom subsequently collaborated with composer Karl Hajos on a musical about the life of Stephen Foster, incorporating Foster's existing music alongside new music by Hajos and lyrics by Swanstrom. The work, titled America Sings, premiered at the Shubert Theatre in Boston on October 9, 1934, but never reached Broadway. He also wrote lyrics for the 1934 Off-Broadway revue Casino Varieties, which used music by John Frederick Coots and Louis Alter.

Swanstrom co-wrote "Twenty-Four Hours A Day" with James F. Hanley in 1935. The song was briefly interpolated into the Broadway revue Earl Carroll's Sketchbook before being cut, and it appeared in the 1935 Universal Pictures film Sweet Surrender, performed by Frank Parker. Billie Holiday recorded the song in 1935, and it is included in the Grammy Award-winning box set Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia 1933–1944, released by Sony Music in 2001. Other artists who recorded the song include jazz pianist Teddy Wilson, singer Chick Bullock, Jan Garber and his jazz band. In 1937, Swanstrom authored both the book and lyrics for the Broadway musical Sea Legs, another of his verified Broadway credits. He also wrote the play Guns, which appears among his confirmed Broadway works.

In addition to his Broadway output, Swanstrom wrote straight plays and composed dramatic sketches and lyrics for vaudeville. Ill health and financial difficulties marked the final years of his life. He died of a stroke on October 4, 1940, at the age of 52.