Kalmar and Ruby refers to the famous songwriting team of the first half of the 20th century of
Bert Kalmar and
Harry Ruby.
Bert Kalmar
Bert Kalmar was born on February 10, 1884 and died on September 18, 1947. He was an American
lyricist. Born in
New York, New York
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Uni ...
, Kalmar ran away from home at the age of 10 to become a
magician
Magician or The Magician may refer to:
Performers
* A practitioner of magic (supernatural)
* A practitioner of magic (illusion)
* Magician (fantasy), a character in a fictional fantasy context
Entertainment
Books
* ''The Magician'', an 18th-ce ...
at a tent show, and retained an interest in magic all his life. He never got much of an education, but decided to make a career in show business. He earned enough money as a
vaudeville performer to start a music publishing company called Kalmar and Puck.
Harry Ruby
Harry Ruby was born on October 29, 1895 and died on February 23, 1974. Like Kalmar, Ruby was also born in
New York City. Ruby failed in his early ambition of becoming a professional
baseball player. Touring the
vaudeville circuit as a
pianist with the ''Bootblack Trio'' and the ''Messenger Boys Trio'' he met his long-time partner
Bert Kalmar.
Partnership
Kalmar hired Ruby as a "song plugger", and as a result of a knee injury that stopped him from dancing professionally, turned to writing songs full-time. Ruby, who had gotten a job at the firm of Waterson, Berlin and Snyder, got Kalmar a job at the same firm writing song
lyrics. Before
World War I, he had begun to write lyrics for a number of different composers. One of them, Ruby, who had also had a number of collaborators, saw a strong compatibility between the two, and by
1920
Events January
* January 1
** Polish–Soviet War in 1920: The Russian Red Army increases its troops along the Polish border from 4 divisions to 20.
** Kauniainen, completely surrounded by the city of Espoo, secedes from Espoo as its own ma ...
, Kalmar and Ruby recognized that they should form a permanent songwriting team. They also wrote comedy for stage and screen for
Wheeler & Woolsey,
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. Familiar to Broadway, radio, movie, and early television audiences, ...
and the
Marx Brothers.
Together, Kalmar and Ruby formed a successful team until Kalmar's death in 1947. This partnership is portrayed in the 1950
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical ''
Three Little Words'' starring
Fred Astaire and
Red Skelton.
Film credits
*''
Animal Crackers
An animal cracker is a particular type of cracker, baked in the shape of an animal, usually an animal either at a zoo or a circus, such as a lion, a tiger, a bear, or an elephant. The most common variety is light-colored and slightly sweet, but ...
'' (1930)
*''
Check and Double Check'' (1930)
*''
Horse Feathers'' (1932)
*''
The Kid from Spain'' (1932)
*''
Duck Soup
Duck soup may refer to:
* ''Duck Soup'' (1933 film), starring the Marx Brothers
* ''Duck Soup'' (1927 film), featuring Laurel and Hardy
* Oritang, Korean duck soup
* "Duck Soup", an episode of '' Even Stevens''
* "Duck Soup", a song by Baba Broo ...
'' (1933)
*''
Hips Hips Hooray'' (1934)
*''
Kentucky Kernels'' (1935)
*''Bright Lights'' (1935)
*''Walking on Air'' (1936)
External links
Harry Ruby song listBert Kalmar song list
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kalmar And Ruby
American musical theatre composers
Jewish American songwriters
American songwriting teams