David Stamper (November 10, 1883September 18, 1963) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

songwriter of the

Tin Pan Alley Tin Pan Alley was a collection of History of music publishing, music publishers and songwriters in New York City that dominated the American popular music, popular music of the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Originally ...

and

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...

eras, a contributor to twenty-one editions of the

Ziegfeld Follies The ''Ziegfeld Follies'' were a series of elaborate theatrical revue productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 to 1931, with renewals in 1934, 1936, 1943, and 1957. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as '' The Ziegfeld Foll ...

, writer for the Fox Film Corporation, and composer of more than one thousand songs, in spite of never learning to read or write traditional music notation. He may have written " Shine On Harvest Moon", a claim supported by vaudeville performer and writer

Eddie Cantor Eddie Cantor (born Isidore Itzkowitz; January 31, 1892 – October 10, 1964) was an American comedian, actor, dancer, singer, songwriter, film producer, screenwriter and author. Cantor was one of the prominent entertainers of his era. Some of h ...

. He was also a charter member of the

American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadc ...

or ASCAP.

Biography

Stamper was born in New York City on November 10, 1883, and took up piano at age ten. At seventeen, he left school and became a pianist at a

Coney Island Coney Island is a neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach to its east, Lower New York Bay to the south and west, and Gravesend to ...

dance hall for two years before becoming a "

song-plugger A song plugger or song demonstrator is an individual who promotes music to musicians, record labels, and customers. Song pluggers work for a music publishing company or operate independently. The function of the role has evolved as advances in mu ...

" for publisher F. A. Mills. Stamper was twenty when he met singer

Nora Bayes Nora Bayes (born Rachel Eleonora "Dora" Goldberg; October 3, 1880March 19, 1928) was an American singer and vaudeville performer who was popular internationally between the 1900s and 1920s. She is credited with co-writing the song " Shine On, Har ...

and her husband

Jack Norworth John Godfrey Knauff (January 5, 1879 – September 1, 1959), known professionally as Jack Norworth, was an American songwriter, singer and vaudeville performer. Biography Norworth is credited as writer of a number of Tin Pan Alley hits. He wr ...

becoming her accompanist and touring widely for the next four years. After Stamper left Bayes' employment, he resumed working as a song-plugger and vaudeville pianist. In 1910 he met Gene Buck, an artist who painted cover images for sheet music. The two started collaborating, with Buck providing lyrics for Stamper's melodies. Their first published songs were ''In the Cool of the Evening,'' ''Daddy Has a Sweetheart (and Mother Is Her Name)'' and ''Some Boy''. Stamper's first marriage to Gertrude Springer ended in divorce after the birth of two children, Maurice and Regina Stamper. On July 16, 1926 he married vaudeville and revue comedienne Edna Leedom who had performed in the ''Follies'' of 1923, 1924 and 1925. The marriage ended within two years. On August 16, 1928 he married Agnes White, a ''Follies'' performer who was in Stamper and Buck's musical ''Take The Air'' (1927). The couple were married for 40 years and produced one daughter, Susan Stamper, a dancer. One of their grandchildren is singer/songwriter

Happy Rhodes Happy Rhodes (born Kimberley Tyler Rhodes, August 9, 1965) is an American singer, musician, and songwriter with a four-octave vocal range, releasing 11 albums between 1986 and 2007. Family Rhodes' maternal grandfather Dave Stamper wrote son ...

. Stamper did not learn to read or write traditional musical notation, creating his own numerical notation. He died in

Poughkeepsie, New York Poughkeepsie ( ) is a city within the Poughkeepsie (town), New York, Town of Poughkeepsie, New York (state), New York. It is the county seat of Dutchess County, New York, Dutchess County, with a 2020 census population of 31,577. Poughkeepsie i ...

, on September 18, 1963.

Career

The Ziegfeld years

In 1912 Stamper began writing songs for the Ziegfeld ''Follies of 1913'', contributing ''Just You and I and The Moon'', ''Without You'' and ''Everybody Sometime Must Love Somebody''. He is credited as "additional music" for the ''Follies of 1914'' and 1915, but he wrote the majority of the music for the ''Follies of 1916''. and was on an equal billing with

Louis A. Hirsch Louis Achille Hirsch, also known as Louis A. Hirsch and Lou Hirsch (November 28, 1887 – May 13, 1924), was an American composer of songs and musicals in the early 20th century. Life and career Hirsch was born in New York City. In his senior ...

Jerome Kern Jerome David Kern (January 27, 1885 – November 11, 1945) was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over ...

, and

Irving Berlin Irving Berlin (born Israel Isidore Beilin; May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989) was a Russian-born American composer and songwriter. His music forms a large part of the Great American Songbook. Berlin received numerous honors including an Acade ...

. The music of the ''Follies of 1917'' was written by Stamper and

Raymond Hubbell John Raymond Hubbell (June 1, 1879 – December 13, 1954) was an American writer, composer and lyricist. He is best known for the popular song, " Poor Butterfly". Life and career Hubbell was born in Urbana, Ohio. He attended schools in Ur ...

and he was described as "an old hand" for his work with Louis A. Hirsch by the Follies of 1918. In addition to his 1918 ''Follies'' work, he wrote all the music for ''Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic'' with Gene Buck, a series that also had editions in 1919, 1920 and 1921. The ''Follies of 1919'' found Stamper branching out into writing lyrics as well as writing comic sketches. 1919 was a very busy year, with Stamper writing songs for the ''Follies'' as well as the ''Midnight Frolic'' and the ''Ziegfeld Nine O'Clock Review'' both of which appeared in a theater on the roof of the New Amsterdam theater. Stamper continued as principal songwriter for the Follies of 1920 through 1925, with an additional summer edition in 1923. He returned for the Follies of 1931, the last edition produced by

Florenz Ziegfeld Florenz Edward Ziegfeld Jr. (; March 21, 1867 – July 22, 1932) was an American Broadway impresario, notable for his series of theatrical revues, the ''Ziegfeld Follies'' (1907–1931), inspired by the '' Folies Bergère'' of Paris. He al ...

himself.

Other musicals

While his work with Ziegfeld encompassed the majority of his working life, Stamper and Gene Buck worked for other producers as well. He had songs in two plays - ''When Claudia Smiles'' (1914) and ''Broadway and Buttermilk'' (1916) prior to traveling to London with Buck to write songs for ''Zig Zag!'' which ran for 648 performances at the London Hippodrome. Stamper returned to London in 1918 to write songs for another review ''Box O' Tricks'' with Frederick Chapelle, which ran for 625 performances. During his first trip to London, Buck befriended a man who turned out to be a German spy. Two results of this event were fellow passenger

Eddie Rickenbacker Edward Vernon Rickenbacker (born Edward Rickenbacher, October 8, 1890 – July 23, 1973) was an American fighter pilot in World War I and a Medal of Honor recipient. He also worked for the Schubert organization on ''Lovely Lady'' (1927) before returning to Ziegfeld for the 1931 Follies. He finished out his work on Broadway with ''Provincetown Follies'' (1935) which only ran for 63 performances and ''Orchids Preferred'' (1937) which closed in a week.

Hollywood

In 1928, Stamper was signed by Fox Film Corporation as a staff composer, remaining there until 1930. He contributed ''Dance Away the Night'' and ''Peasant Love Song'' to the film ''

Married in Hollywood ''Married in Hollywood'' is a 1929 American All-Talking pre-Code musical film directed by Marcel Silver. This lavishly produced film featured color sequences in the Multicolor process. The film is based on two Oscar Straus operettas. Plot A ...

'' (1929) often called the first filmed operetta. The film '' Words and Music'' (1929) featured ''The Hunting Song'', ''Take a Little Tip'' and ''Too Wonderful for Words'' all written with lyricist Harlan Thompson. In 1930, he contributed ''Only One'' and ''The Gay Heart'' written with Clare Kummer and ''Once In A While'' written with Clare Kummer and Cecil Arnold to the "singing cowboy" movie ''

One Mad Kiss ''One Mad Kiss'' is a 1930 American musical film directed by Marcel Silver and James Tinling and starring José Mojica, Mona Maris and Antonio Moreno. The film was not a commercial success and lost $263,000 on its release. A separate Spanish-lan ...

''. and the

Bela Lugosi Blaskó Béla Ferenc Dezső (; October 20, 1882 – August 16, 1956), better known by the stage name Bela Lugosi ( ; ), was a Hungarian–American actor. He was best remembered for portraying Count Dracula in the horror film classic Dracula (19 ...

film ''Such Men Are Dangerous''.

Shine On, Harvest Moon

Stamper claimed to have written "

Shine On, Harvest Moon "Shine On, Harvest Moon" is a popular early-1900s song credited to the married vaudeville team Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth. It was one of a series of moon-related Tin Pan Alley songs of the era. The song was debuted by Bayes and Norworth in the ...

", while the writers of record were his former employers

and

. Stamper's claim was supported by vaudeville comic

in his 1934 book ''Ziegfeld, The Great Glorifier'' and David Ewen's ''All the Years of American Popular Music''. Stamper was working as a pianist rather than as a songwriter at the time the song appeared but never learned how to read or write using traditional music notation thus he would have not been able submit the song for copyright, or produce sheet music to prove his claim. Bayes and Norworth compelled Stamper at one point to wear stage make-up to appear Japanese, apparently to keep him from being interviewed by reporters.

In popular culture

Stamper's caricature was on the wall at Sardi's restaurant. Stamper and Buck's song ''The Shakespearian Rag'' appears in T. S. Eliot's ''

The Waste Land ''The Waste Land'' is a poem by T. S. Eliot, widely regarded as one of the most important English-language poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry. Published in 1922, the 434-line poem first appeared in the United ...

'':

Ring Lardner Ringgold Wilmer Lardner (March 6, 1885 – September 25, 1933) was an American sports columnist and short story writer best known for his satirical writings on sports, marriage, and the theatre. His contemporaries—Ernest Hemingway, Virginia W ...

and George S. Kaufman mentioned Stamper in their play ''

June Moon ''June Moon'' is a play by George S. Kaufman and Ring Lardner. Based on the Lardner short story "Some Like Them Cold," about a love affair that loses steam before it ever gets started, it includes songs with words and music by Lardner but is n ...

'': John Hyams played Stamper in the 1936 film ''

The Great Ziegfeld ''The Great Ziegfeld'' is a 1936 American musical film, musical drama film directed by Robert Z. Leonard and produced by Hunt Stromberg. It stars William Powell as the theatrical impresario Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., Florenz "Flo" Ziegfeld Jr., Lui ...

'' starring

William Powell William Horatio Powell (July 29, 1892 – March 5, 1984) was an American actor, known primarily for his film career. Under contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the ''The Thin Man (film), Thin M ...

, which won the Academy Award for Best Motion Picture. His songwriting partner Gene Buck was played by

William Demarest Carl William Demarest (February 27, 1892 – December 28, 1983) was an American actor, known especially for his supporting roles in screwball comedies by Preston Sturges and as Uncle Charley in the sitcom ''My Three Sons'' from 1965-72. Demares ...

, best known as "Uncle Charley" on the TV show ''

My Three Sons ''My Three Sons'' is an American television sitcom that aired from September 29, 1960, to April 13, 1972. The series was filmed in black-and-white and broadcast on ABC during its first five seasons, before moving to CBS for the remaining seve ...

''.

References

External links

* * * *
Dave Stamper recordings
at the

Discography of American Historical Recordings The Discography of American Historical Recordings (DAHR) is a database catalog of master recordings made by American record companies during the 78rpm era. The 78rpm era was the time period in which any flat disc records were being played at ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Stamper, Dave 1883 births 1963 deaths American musical theatre composers American male musical theatre composers Songwriters from New York (state) Jewish American songwriters Vaudeville 20th-century American songwriters