Harry Ruby

Harry Ruby, born Harry Rubenstein on January 27, 1895, in New York City, was an American pianist, composer, songwriter, and screenwriter whose Broadway credits included The Five O'Clock Girl, Animal Crackers, High Kickers, Good Boy, and She's My Baby, among other productions. He died on February 23, 1974, in Woodland Hills, California, and was interred at the Chapel of the Pines in Los Angeles.

Ruby's earliest professional ambitions centered on baseball, and after those pursuits did not materialize, he entered the entertainment world as a pianist, touring the vaudeville circuit with the Bootblack Trio and the Messenger Boys Trio. He subsequently worked as a pianist and song plugger for the publishing firms of Gus Edwards and Harry Von Tilzer, where one of his colleagues at the Edwards firm was the young Walter Winchell, also employed as a song plugger at the time. Ruby additionally performed in vaudeville acts, nickelodeons, and cafes throughout New York during this period.

Between 1917 and 1920, Ruby collaborated with songwriters Edgar Leslie, Sam Lewis, Joe Young, and George Jessel, producing such songs as "What'll We Do Saturday Night When the Town Goes Dry," "When Those Sweet Hawaiian Babies Roll Their Eyes," "Come on Papa," "Daddy Long Legs," and "And He'd Say Oo-La-La Wee Wee." The most consequential professional relationship of his career began when he met lyricist Bert Kalmar, with whom he formed a songwriting partnership that lasted nearly three decades until Kalmar's death in 1947. That collaboration was depicted in the 1950 MGM musical Three Little Words, in which Fred Astaire portrayed Kalmar and Red Skelton portrayed Ruby.

Ruby's Broadway career spanned several decades and encompassed a range of roles. He contributed as a featured songwriter to the Ziegfeld Follies of 1918, then served as co-composer and co-lyricist on Helen of Troy, New York in 1923 and No Other Girl in 1924. In 1925 he worked as co-book-editor on Holka Polka, and in 1926 contributed as co-composer, co-lyricist, and co-bookwriter on The Ramblers. He served as co-bookwriter on Lucky in 1927, the same year he composed the score for The Five O'Clock Girl. In 1928 alone, Ruby contributed as co-bookwriter on She's My Baby, co-composer and co-lyricist on Good Boy, and co-composer and co-lyricist on Animal Crackers. He served as co-producer and co-bookwriter on Top Speed in 1929, and returned to Broadway in 1941 as co-composer, co-lyricist, and co-bookwriter on High Kickers. His work was also represented posthumously in the 1998 revue Fosse, which featured his song "Who's Sorry Now?" as heard in the 1979 film All That Jazz.

Among the notable songs Ruby composed, "Who's Sorry Now?" in 1923 marked the first major hit for the Kalmar and Ruby partnership. "I Wanna Be Loved by You," written in 1928 and introduced by Helen Kane, was later sung by Marilyn Monroe in the film Some Like It Hot. "Hooray for Captain Spaulding," from the 1928 Broadway production of Animal Crackers, became Groucho Marx's signature tune. "Three Little Words," written in 1930, stood as the team's biggest hit, while "Nevertheless" from 1931 was recorded by Jack Denny, The Mills Brothers, and Frank Sinatra. "A Kiss to Build a Dream On," written in 1935, was their final major hit. Ruby also composed the theme for the television series The Real McCoys, which ran from 1957 to 1963.

Ruby's film work included scores and screenplays for several Marx Brothers productions. He contributed to the film scores of Animal Crackers in 1930, Horse Feathers in 1932, and Duck Soup in 1933, and co-wrote the screenplays for Horse Feathers and Duck Soup as well. Additional screenplay credits included The Kid from Spain in 1932, Bright Lights in 1935, Walking on Air in 1936, The Life of the Party in 1937, and Lovely to Look At in 1952.

A personal friend of Groucho Marx, Ruby appeared multiple times on Marx's television program You Bet Your Life. Marx performed Ruby's songs at his 1972 Carnegie Hall concert and on The Dick Cavett Show, recorded June 13, 1969. Ruby was married to silent film actress Eileen Percy. In 1970 he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. His published works included The Kalmar-Ruby Song Book, released by Random House in 1936 with an introduction by Ben Hecht and contributions from Groucho Marx, Robert Benchley, Moss Hart, Irving Berlin, Marc Connelly, James Kevin McGuinness, Franklin P. Adams, and Nunnally Johnson; Songs My Mother Never Sang, published by Random House in 1943; and The Four Marx Brothers in Monkey Business and Duck Soup, co-authored with S.J. Perelman, Will B. Johnstone, and Bert Kalmar, published by Simon & Schuster in 1973.