Raymond Hubbell

John Raymond Hubbell was born on June 1, 1879, in Urbana, Ohio, and went on to become one of Broadway's most prolific composers of the early twentieth century. He died on December 13, 1954, survived by his wife Estelle, whom he had married around 1914.

Hubbell received his early education in Urbana before relocating to Chicago to pursue formal music studies, where he also organized a dance band. His professional career began at Charles K. Harris Publishers, where he worked as a staff arranger and pianist. His first foray into stage composition came with Chow Chow in 1902, a Chicago production with lyrics and book by Addison Burkhardt that ran for 127 performances. The show was subsequently revised and retitled The Runaways, opening in New York in 1903 for a run of 167 days before embarking on a multi-year tour.

His Broadway credits span more than two decades and include Fantana, A Knight for a Day, The Bachelor Belles, A Winsome Widow, and Better Times, among numerous other productions. Starting in 1911, Hubbell composed music for the Ziegfeld Follies, ultimately scoring seven editions of that celebrated revue series. In 1915, following the abrupt departure of musical director Manuel Klein after a dispute with Lee Shubert and Jacob J. Shubert, Hubbell was appointed musical director of the New York Hippodrome. Among the scores he wrote for that venue, Good Times achieved a run of 456 performances. His most enduring song, "Poor Butterfly," was composed for The Big Show in 1916, one of his earliest Hippodrome productions. Hubbell himself considered "The Ladder of Roses," written for the 1915 Hippodrome production Hip-Hip-Hooray, to be his finest work, according to his obituary.

Hubbell was among the nine founding members of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers when it was established in 1914. Over the following decades he served the organization in significant administrative roles, heading its membership committee for 23 years and acting as its treasurer for 7 years. His final Broadway contribution was the score for Three Cheers in 1928, a musical starring Will Rogers. Shortly after that production, Hubbell retired to Miami, Florida, at the age of 50. He suffered a mild stroke on March 7, 1947, and a serious stroke on November 28, 1954, which led to his death two weeks later.