Edward Eliscu (April 2, 1902 – June 18, 1998) was an American lyricist, playwright, producer and actor, and a successful writer of songs for films.

Life

Eliscu was born in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

, New York City. His parents, Frank and Sofia Eliscu, were born in Romania and emigrated to the United States. He attended

DeWitt Clinton High School DeWitt Clinton High School is a public high school located since 1929 in the Bronx borough of New York City. Opened in 1897 in Lower Manhattan as an all-boys school, it maintained that status for 86 years before becoming co-ed in 1983. From i ...

in Manhattan as a classmate of director

George Cukor George Dewey Cukor ( ; July 7, 1899 – January 24, 1983) was an American film director and film producer, producer. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO Pictures, RKO when David O. Selzn ...

. He then attended

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a Public university, public research university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York ...

and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree. His older brother Millton D'Eliscu was a military officer, multi-sport coach, and

athletic director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches a ...

. He then began acting in Broadway plays. Eliscu's first film score was with Vincent Youmans and Billy Rose for the film '' Great Day''. Two well-known songs from that show include "More Than You Know," and "Without a Song." He married the dancer and journalist Stella Bloch in 1931. They both worked in the film industry until the House Committee on Un-American Activities named her husband in the 1950s. This ended his career in the film and later in the television industry.Stella Bloch papers
New York Public Library. Retrieved October 19, 2015 Eliscu together with his wife's cousin Mortimer Offner moved away from Hollywood and returned to New York. Eliscu was inducted into the

Songwriters Hall of Fame The Songwriters Hall of Fame (SHOF) is an American institution founded in 1969 by songwriter Johnny Mercer, music publisher/songwriter Abe Olman, and publisher/executive Howie Richmond to honor those whose work represent and maintain the heri ...

in 1975.Songwriters Hall of Fame
. Retrieved October 19, 2015 He died on June 18, 1998, aged 96, in Newtown, Connecticut. Eliscu is the grandfather of music journalist and broadcaster Jenny Eliscu.

Works

Selected film and theatre scores

* ''Lady Fingers'' * '' The Street Singer'' * ''A Little Racketeer'' * ''Frederica'' (also librettist) * '' Meet the People'' (also producer) * '' The Banker's Daughter'' * ''9:15 Revue'' * '' The Garrick Gaieties'' (1930) * '' The Little Show'' * '' Flying Down to Rio'' (1933) * '' The Gay Senorita'' (1945)

Selected hits

*"Happy Because I'm in Love" *"Ankle Up the Altar" *"Music Makes Me" *"Orchids in the Moonlight" *"Meet the People" *"A Fellow and a Girl" *"You Forgot Your Gloves" *"Without a Song" *" More Than You Know" *"I'll Still Belong To You (Eliscu and Brown song)"

Selected collaborators

* Vincent Youmans * Billy Rose * Jay Gorney *Henry Myers (composer) *

John Green John Michael Green (born August 24, 1977) is an American author and YouTuber. His books have more than 50 million copies in print worldwide, including ''The Fault in Our Stars'' (2012), which is one of the List of best-selling books#Bet ...

* Gus Kahn *

Vernon Duke Vernon Duke ( 16 January 1969) was a Russian-born American composer and songwriter who also wrote under his birth name, Vladimir Dukelsky. He is best known for " Taking a Chance on Love," with lyrics by Ted Fetter and John Latouche (1940), "I ...

* Manning Sherwin * Richard Myers *Ned Lehac * Billy Hill * Nacio Herb Brown (songwriter)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Eliscu, Edward 1902 births 1998 deaths Songwriters from New York (state) American male stage actors 20th-century American male actors 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights American male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American singers DeWitt Clinton High School alumni City College of New York alumni 20th-century American male writers American people of Romanian descent 20th-century American songwriters