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| Bert Kalmar | |
|---|---|
| Name | Bert Kalmar |
| Birth date | January 24, 1884 |
| Birth place | New York City, United States |
| Death date | September 18, 1947 |
| Death place | New York City, United States |
| Occupation | Lyricist, songwriter, vaudeville performer |
| Years active | 1900s–1947 |
Bert Kalmar was an American lyricist and vaudeville performer who formed one of the most successful songwriting partnerships in early 20th‑century American popular music. Known for his long collaboration with composer Harry Ruby, Kalmar contributed lyrics to Broadway musicals, Hollywood films, and Tin Pan Alley hit songs during the Jazz Age, the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, and the World War II era.
Kalmar was born in Manhattan to immigrant parents during the Gilded Age and grew up amid the cultural milieu of New York City, where he absorbed influences from Tin Pan Alley, Vaudeville, and the Yiddish theater circuits that intersected with neighborhoods like the Lower East Side and Harlem. He left formal schooling early to join the entertainment world, performing in variety shows and working in publishing firms connected to Sheet music houses and the nascent songwriting industry centered on Tin Pan Alley and publishers on West 28th Street (Manhattan). His early professional associations brought him into contact with figures from the Ziegfeld Follies, touring circuits that included the Keith-Albee-Orpheum Corporation, and songwriters who would later populate Broadway stages such as those at the New Amsterdam Theatre.
Kalmar's career began as a performer and lyricist in the era dominated by impresarios like Florenz Ziegfeld and producers tied to the Shubert Brothers and the Follies. He formed an enduring partnership with composer Harry Ruby after earlier collaborations and intermittent co-writing with songwriters associated with Tin Pan Alley publishers and vaudeville producers. Kalmar and Ruby worked with publishing houses that handled work by contemporaries such as Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, and Richard Rodgers. They contributed material for performers like Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, Fanny Brice, Bing Crosby, and Fred Astaire, and their career intersected with film studios including Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount Pictures, and United Artists. Kalmar also collaborated with lyricists and composers who frequented venues like the Palace Theatre (New York) and institutions such as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for film contributions.
Kalmar's catalog includes widely recorded and performed songs that became standards in the American popular repertoire. With Ruby he penned numbers that entered the repertoires of orchestras led by Paul Whiteman, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Glenn Miller. Their songs were sung by stars including Ethel Merman, Peggy Lee, Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Shore, and Louis Armstrong. Notable credits include songs featured in revues and musicals presented at venues like the Ludwig Theater and published by firms such as M. Witmark & Sons and T.B. Harms Company. Their tunes were also recorded for labels including Victor Records, Columbia Records, Decca Records, and RCA Victor, and featured in radio programs hosted by networks like NBC and CBS.
Kalmar's work shaped Broadway musical comedy and the Hollywood musical, with songs appearing in Broadway shows staged at the Majestic Theatre (New York), Belasco Theatre, and productions produced by entities like the Shubert Organization. Hollywood musicals and musical comedies integrated Kalmar–Ruby songs in films produced by Warner Bros., RKO Radio Pictures, and Paramount Pictures, often performed by screen artists such as Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Chester Conklin, and The Marx Brothers. The duo's influence extended into Tin Pan Alley practices of melodic publishing and sheet‑music distribution that also characterized the careers of Harry Warren, Buddy DeSylva, Al Dubin, and Sammy Cahn, and informed arrangements used by orchestrators who worked with bands for the Palace Theatre (London) and touring revues.
Kalmar lived much of his life in New York City and was active in social and professional circles that included members of the Songwriters Hall of Fame community and the broader entertainment industry. He maintained associations with contemporaries from the Yiddish Theatre and the vaudeville stage, including friendships and business ties with performers and producers in the New York and Hollywood scenes. Kalmar’s lifestyle reflected the interconnected world of Broadway composers and Hollywood lyricists who frequented social venues in neighborhoods such as Greenwich Village and institutions like the Algonquin Round Table milieu.
Kalmar died in New York in 1947. His songs and partnership with Harry Ruby left a lasting legacy on American popular music, influencing later Broadway composers and Hollywood songwriters and being revived by revivalists and historians of American song. Kalmar’s work is commemorated alongside peers in halls of fame and retrospectives that examine the Great American Songbook, the history of Tin Pan Alley, and the development of the American musical. Performers and historians continue to study his catalog in archives associated with institutions such as the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, and university collections documenting 20th Century Fox and Broadway history.
Category:American lyricists Category:People from New York City