Leo Edwards

Leo Edwards, born Leo Schmelowsky on 21 February 1886 in Posen, Germany, was a Broadway composer, book writer, and Tin Pan Alley pianist who died on 12 July 1978 at the age of 92. In 1891, he traveled to the United States with his family aboard the steamship Spaarndam, arriving at the Port of New York on 29 July of that year. The family settled in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn.

Edwards came from a musically and professionally connected family. His brother Gus Edwards was a composer and vaudeville musician, his brother Ben Edwards worked as a music publisher and talent agent, and his sister Dorothea Edwards was a vaudeville songstress. Ben Edwards had a daughter, the singer and songwriter Joan Edwards.

Over the course of his career, Edwards served as a staff composer for several New York music publishing firms, including T. B. Harms, M. Witmark & Sons, the Gus Edwards Music Company, Leo Feist Inc., and the DeSylva Publishing Company. In 1914, he became a charter member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.

His Broadway credits as composer and book writer span multiple decades and productions. These include The Wizard of Oz (1902), The Blue Paradise, The Merry Whirl (1911), The Passing Show of 1912, and You'll See Stars. He also contributed music to the Ziegfeld Follies of 1912, 1913, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1921, and 1923, maintaining a working relationship with producer Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. for over a decade.

Beyond the stage, Edwards collaborated with bandleader Paul Whiteman and lyricist Jack Meskill on the song "My Fantasy," an adaptation of the Polovtsian Dances theme from Alexander Borodin's opera Prince Igor. He wrote "I'm an Indian" for performer Fanny Brice, and his catalog of songs included "Isle d' Amour," "Sweetheart, Let's Grow Old Together," "That's What the Rose Said to Me," "Little Seeds of Kindness," "So Long, Good Bye," "If They Don't Stop Making Them So Beautiful," "Waiting for the Dawn and You," and "Let's Grow Old Together." His songwriting collaborators included Earl Carroll, Blanche Merrill, and Herbert Reynolds.

Edwards was married twice. His first wife, Olga Edwards, was a singer with Paul Whiteman; she died in 1940 at the age of 46. His second wife, Gertrude Edwards, died in 1965. Edwards resided at the Olcott Hotel in New York City, where he died in 1978.