Jean Schwartz

Jean Schwartz (November 4, 1878 – November 30, 1956) was a Hungarian-born Jewish American composer, lyricist, and pianist who wrote scores for more than thirty Broadway musicals and composed more than 1,000 popular songs. Born in Budapest, Hungary, he immigrated to the United States with his family at the age of thirteen and settled in New York City's East Side, where he studied piano under his older sister Rosa, who had herself trained under Franz Liszt.

Before establishing himself in music, Schwartz worked as an office boy at a cigar factory and as an attendant at a Turkish bath house. He eventually found employment in the sheet music department of the Siegel-Cooper Company, where he played songs on the piano for customers to promote sheet music sales. It was during this period that he published his first composition, the ragtime piece "Dusky Dudes' Cakewalk," in 1899. He also worked as a pianist with an orchestra at Coney Island and as a song-plugger for the Shapiro-Bernstein Publishing House of Tin Pan Alley. Schwartz became a United States citizen in 1902.

In 1901, Schwartz left the Siegel-Cooper Company to serve as the on-stage pianist in John Stromberg's Broadway musical Hoity Toity at Weber & Fields Music Hall. There he met the show's librettist, William Jerome, and the two formed a songwriting partnership that would define much of his early career. During the run of Hoity Toity, the pair wrote their first song together, "Mr. Shakespeare Comes to Town," which was added to the production under the pseudonym John Black and became a popular success with audiences. The majority of their collaborative output was produced between 1901 and 1910, during which time they contributed songs to musicals written by others as well as creating eight Broadway musicals as primary authors. Among their early contributions, "Mr. Dooley" was first performed in A Chinese Honeymoon in 1902 and was subsequently included in the first musical version of The Wizard of Oz that same year. Their ballad "Bedalia," written for Blanche Ring in The Jersey Lily in 1903, sold more than three million copies of sheet music.

Schwartz and Jerome's first musical as primary authors was Mrs. Delaney of Newport in 1903. Their biggest joint success as musical theatre writers came the following year with Piff! Paff!! Pouf!!! (1904), a hit for its stars Eddie Foy and Alice Fischer that featured the song "Radium Dance," inspired by scientist Marie Curie. The Broadway musical The Ham Tree (1905), created for vaudeville stars James McIntyre and Thomas Heath, was another popular success; the production toured for seven years and was periodically revived by McIntyre and Heath. Also in 1905, Schwartz and Jerome produced Lifting the Lid, their first collaboration with playwright John J. McNally, who went on to write the books for several additional Schwartz and Jerome musicals, including Fritz in Tammany Hall (1905), Lola from Berlin (1907), and In Hayti (1909). Their final musical together, Up and Down Broadway (1910), contained their most enduring song, "Chinatown, My Chinatown," originally written in 1906 and interpolated into that production. The song did not achieve widespread popularity until it was recorded by the American Quartet and Billy Murray in late 1914, after which it became a jazz standard recorded by numerous artists including Louis Armstrong and Fletcher Henderson.

Beyond their work in musical theatre, Schwartz and Jerome wrote numerous popular songs independent of any production. Their 1901 comedic song "Rip Van Winkle Was a Lucky Man" was a hit for both African-American singer Sherman H. Dudley and Jerome's wife, Maude Nugent. "Dear Sing Sing" (1903) was recorded multiple times by Billy Murray, and "I'm a Member of the Midnight Crew" (1909) became a hit for performers including Carter DeHaven and Eddie Morton. Schwartz and Jerome also performed together on the vaudeville stage, sometimes in collaboration with Maude Nugent and the Dolly Sisters. Schwartz was married to Jenny Dolly, one of the Dolly Sisters, from 1913 to 1921. After 1910, the pair's collaborative output declined significantly as each pursued independent projects, and their partnership came to an end during World War I.

Following the conclusion of his work with Jerome, Schwartz formed a prolific new partnership with lyricist and playwright Harold Atteridge, with whom he created more than a dozen Broadway musicals. Many of these productions also involved composer Sigmund Romberg, and the trio of Schwartz, Atteridge, and Romberg collaborated on five of The Passing Show musical revues as well as the musicals Monte Cristo, Jr. (1919) and Innocent Eyes (1924). Schwartz also worked with lyricist Alfred Bryan on several Broadway musicals, at times with Atteridge contributing as book writer. His Broadway credits from this period include the revue A Night in Spain, the musical Innocent, and the revue The Century Revue, among other productions. In 1918, Schwartz wrote the popular standard "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody" in collaboration with Sam M. Lewis and Joe Young.

In 1914, Schwartz was one of the twelve founding members of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. In 1930, he deliberately concluded his career as a New York City-based songwriter with "Au Revoir Pleasant Dreams," a work that became the theme song for Ben Bernie and his orchestra. He subsequently retired to Los Angeles. His final song of significance, "Trust in Me" (1937), was written with Milton Ager and Ned Wever and has been recorded by numerous artists, most recently by Beyoncé for the 2008 film Cadillac Records. Schwartz was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970. He died on November 30, 1956.