Biography
Founder of the Stage Door Canteen and the Stage Relief Fund, songwriter ("Poor Butterfly"), composer, author, stage actor and producer, educated at New York University. He was an ASCAP charter member and director (1914-1915) and its first treasurer. He worked as a reporter before becoming a playwright, and produced the Broadway plays "Susan and God", "Turn to the Right", "Three Wise Fools", "Lightnin'", "The First Year", "Seventh Heaven", "Counselor-at-Law", "When Ladies Meet", "As Husbands Go", "Let Us Be Gay", "Claudia" and "Skylark", and he composed the Broadway stage scores for "The Candy Shop", "Over the River", "Hip, Hip, Hooray!", "The Big Show", "Cheer Up", and "Everything". His chief musical collaborator was Raymond Hubbell, and his other popular-song compositions include "Goodbye Girls, I'm Through", "Willie Off the Yacht", "I'm Growing Fond of You", "Your Heart Looked Into Mine", "I Can Dance With Everybody but My Wife", and "You Can't Play Every Instrument in the Band".
